C. M. Waggoner

oops i am reading too many books again.

i'm out of the habit of reading fantasy so it took me a while to get into this, but the plot was strong enough to carry me through. doing that thing that's all the rage in sf&f right now where you propose alternate arbitrary kyriarchies (about immigration history, species, race/national origin, gender, class, religion) and play around with them, which i rarely object to. it's done pretty well here.

tsira and jeckran being implausibly bad at communication is more of the romantic tension than i would prefer. cut more of that and spend more time on the mystery, thank you. also, what happened to the gay half-troll poet who almost got murdered?? i was very invested in him and i don't think we even know whether he survived.… (mere)

This was very good, particularly for a debut. I liked the humour, the characters and the world building. I particularly enjoyed how the author plays with gender roles, with one of the main characters a very capable and smart young woman from a society where brains in a woman are not appreciated. One of the other main characters is a female half- troll, half human. Because of that, she is small for a troll, but large and strong for a human. She's also a reig, a troll who is a natural leader. In her relationship with a human man, the gender roles are mostly reversed from traditional human ones, and neither one of them is unhappy about it.

This was easy to read, no trouble at all engaging with the world or characters, and I liked the story. I recommend trying it!… (mere)

Trolls are being murdered seemingly for the magic in their blood. Onna (a human magician) and Tsira (a troll headwoman) must come together to solve the murders. Along the way, the student magician fails her entrance exam to an exclusive university and falls in with a fast crowd and the troll maiden falls in love with a delicate younger son, a human, who has deserted his paid for military command. The troll culture world-building in the novel results in a textured matriarchal society which flips the romance on its head like an odd couple romcom. Think "What's Up Doc" meets "The Birdcage." On the other hand, Onna's story is more like "Sex and the City" with her mentor magician flirting outrageously with all genders and lifeforms. All that and a genuine whodunnit, too.… (mere)