What I'm Reading

I was a little busier with other things last week, so I didn't get as much reading in as I would have liked, but I still managed to get some in.

Electronic Books

Hurray! I finally got back into The Cobweb Bride by Vera Nazarian. Death has decided no one will die until he receives his "Cobweb" bride. You'd think everyone living forever would be a good thing, but it's actually kind of gruesome. Old people on their death beds linger, soldiers on the battlefield get chopped up but don't die, and even animals do not die when they're slaughtered. There's a migration of women to the north, where Death's keep is, some going willingly, some reluctantly, to see if they're the one Death seeks.

This is actually getting quite interesting. There's several story lines woven together. First of all, we're following several women on their way to the north, and then there's a lord who was killed during a battle who's decided he'd rather not be truly dead, so he sets his son the task of hunting down the prospective brides and imprisoning them. Meanwhile, it's discovered that only the food harvested before Death's decree is edible. Not only is the flesh of animals still alive, so are the vegetables. Creepy!

Tree Books

I still haven't gotten back to Hunting the Corrigan's Blood by Holly Lisle. One of these days . . .

I did, however, stumble across The Wild Hunt of Hagworthy, by Penelope Lively. I'd have to classify it as a middle-grade book - the heroine is only 13, so she's not even young adult. I'm not even sure where I picked it up - it was just on one of the shelves I was rearranging.

I love stories about the Wild Hunt, and this was an interesting little tale indeed. It centered around a young girl named Lucy who was spending the summer with her aunt in Hagworthy. The village needed to raise money for repairs to the church and decided on a end-of-summer fete. The Vicar suggests they revive the custom of the Horn Dance, which makes many of the older villagers very uncomfortable. I won't give too much more away, but suffice it to say, there was a reason they stopped doing that dance all those years ago. All in all, this was a good read. It would have been even better had I read it on a dark and stormy night. ;-)

Re-Reads

I'm so close to being done Sword and Sorceress V! So close. I should be able to finish it this week.

I'm cataloguing the sf/f anthologies (paperback) in my collection next, however, and they're going to be harder to resist than the regular novels. Guess I'll just have to start reading faster. ;-)