Any Day Now, I Will Definitely Re-Read …

Honestly, I know perfectly well that I say, remarkably often, “I must re-read that!” or “I really want to re-read that!” This is always true and yet it so seldom happens. Far too seldom! I suppose I might say that I experience a velleity regarding re-reading books: I want to, but seldom so strongly that I actually get a book off the shelf (or virtual shelf). The tension between books I would love to re-read and the huge number of new-to-me books on my various TBR piles and the various works in progress I ought to be working on myself, well, it’s tough to pick one thing over another, that’s all.

What I’m actually reading right now:

FINE, you all MADE me read Phoenix Feather by Sherwood Smith. Enough of you pointed to it and said READ THIS that I finally had no choice but to put it on my phone where I’m most likely to read it. Then it sifted up toward the top and now here I am, reading this book. Which I like a lot, so I’m sure you were all correct to keep bringing it up. I’m enjoying the world and the characters and even the backstory handed to the reader in the long prologue. Sherwood Smith makes that work by turning it into a story within a story.

And yes, Elaine T, I get what you mean about Smith being coy about Mouse’s gender in the prologue, but I can’t tell whether that might have annoyed me because I already knew she was a girl.

Anyway, I’m about 30% into this book and definitely enjoying it. I’m looking forward to strong, supportive sibling relationships and other features you all have mentioned in your comments about this series. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t continual tension about what to read after this — the next book in the series, or the next book in McShane’s Tremontane series, or something else, something familiar?

What I want to be re-reading right now:

The Inda series, also by Sherwood Smith, but it’s so long! But really good! So I’m torn. I bet I don’t get to it this year. Yet another year without re-reading this series! It’s terrible, it really is.

Chalice by Robin McKinley. This is a lot more likely to actually wind up on my coffee table this year. It’s so short, it’s practically a novella. Let me see. 280 pp, says Amazon. That’s right in between a novella and a novel. This is really a novella, though, I think, as the line spacing is quite generous. Anyway, my point is, this is a warm, soft, cuddly sort of story. I think that’s true even though some moments are of course high tension. The story itself isn’t. No one can possibly wonder about whether there’s a happy ending. Of course there is.

Illuminae by Kaufman and Kristoff. It’s laughable to call this one warm and fuzzy! It’s exciting and fast-paced and completely over-the-top in several different ways. It’s so much fun, though! And I’ve only read it once. I really want to read it again! One of these days, one of these days …

Freedom’s Gate by Naomi Kritzer. After bringing that up recently, here I am, with this trilogy on my mind. It’s another one I’ve only ever read once, and I loved it so much. But I don’t know that I’ll take time to read it this year.

Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie. I will absolutely for sure read this trilogy again this year, because I’m scheduled to participate in a workshop in July with Ann Leckie. And Sharon Shinn, but I’ve got many of her books practically memorized, whereas I’ve only read the full Ancillary trilogy once.

Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn, because this is one that I do not have memorized at all, and various commenters here keep mentioning it in various contexts, and I feel bad that I don’t remember a single thing about it. I expect there’s a castle. And a summer. Anyway, I very definitely want and need to re-read this story.

The Riddlemaster trilogy by McKillip, and, I guess, a lot of her other books. That link goes to the post where I tried to list all her books in order, which was a challenge. Regardless, it’s been a long time since I read The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, for example. Honestly, I’m astonished to think how long it’s been. Ages and ages. In the linked post, I said I wanted to re-read that one, and look, it’s been three years or so since I wrote that post and I still haven’t. It’s just terrible how few hours there are in a day.

Island of Ghosts by Gillian Bradshaw, which in fact may be not be only one of my most re-read of Bradshaw’s books, but actually one of my most re-read books of all time. Not sure why that is, but this particular title apparently hit a sweet spot for me. You know, I believe I can see echoes of this book in Tuyo, now that I think of it. I’m not sure I realized that before.

The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett, largely because I recently received a copy of Ultimate Guide to Dorothy Dunnett’s The Game of Kings, which is an extraordinarily thorough reference to every quote, every reference, every historical figure, and every location in the novel. I’m dying to re-read the novel with this companion reference volume on the coffee table so that I can continually refer to it. In particular, it’ll be so cool to know what all those quotes mean!

But! Despite plenty of competition from all the above, the one novel I actually decided that I MUST re-read, and I don’t mean someday, I mean very soon, is Walk on Earth a Stranger. And, I mean, the whole series, of course. The intention to re-read these became urgent enough that I actually tried to find them on my physical library shelves, only to discover, to my delight, that I didn’t buy them in hardcover as I thought, but in ebook form. That’s way better! I immediately loaded Walk on Earth onto my phone.

Now the only question is whether I’ll go for the rest of the Phoenix Feather series first or stop after book one and pick up Walk on Earth instead. I won’t be able to decide till after I finish the first book of the Phoenix Feather, Fledglings.

Meanwhile:

Yes, I am making progress on Invictus as well. It’s slow, but it’s moving forward. Lately I have just barely been making my 1000-word-per-day minimum, but still, it IS moving forward, and right now that’s fine. I still believe my initial intention to finish a draft by the end of May is totally achievable. I would say there’s about three chapters left, but my guess about that always (always!) turns out to be an underestimation, so let’s say probably from six to eight chapters left. Same thing for wordcount: right now it’s at 124,000 words, and I estimate that it should certainly not go over 140,000 words, which means, sigh, probably at least 160,000. Overwriting is just part of the process.

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