Mystic and Rider

[joshwriting]

Yesterday, I finished a new paperback by Sharon Shinn, of whom I have written before. She is the author of Archangel among other books. Mystic and Rider is a more common tale than her Archangel tales. A band of folks, with some magic users and some fighters, are off on a mission for the king and deal with assorted obstacles including themselves on the mission.

Sounds pretty boring when put like that.

It was not. Interesting treatments and reactions, relationships, etc. I won't claim it is brilliant or unique. But I did find it was a good read.

Comments

Thirteenth House

[(Anonymous)]

That's the first one of her books that I've ever read and I enjoyed it enough to find Mystic and Rider in the library, and then start working my way through the archangel ones.

For me to finish a novel I have to get involved with the characters and want to know what happens to them. This explains why I practically always read the conclusion first. And my addiction to romance novels because they have happy endings.

/J

Re: Thirteenth House

[dragongstone.livejournal.com]

I found it disappointing. I would not be as disgusted as I am with Mystic and Rider had I not read her previous work. However, I knew she could do work so much better than that. Some of my friends could write so much better than that (Tammy not included in that group).

I also read for the characters. These were flat, cliche characters which leads me to believe that Mystic and Rider is an older work that needed to be published before she could publish the sequel. That is just a theory though.

Tell me, is Thirteenth House better than Mystic and Rider?