Diane > Recent Status Updates

Already the first "Darn, I wish this author were on Goodreads" : Sealie's Black Herald trilogy is a wonderful Valdemar~Velgarth-set McDanno (of Hawaii Five-0) AU, full of sensitive feels, humor, kids and Companions, magecraft and mind-gifts, and gripping plot/action, with a couple surprise Stargate: Atlantis characters among the cast. I read #1-2 in 6/'23, before III was complete, and just happily binged them all.

Not-on-GR reread: Once more with feeling, by Mei=Ima1, AO3 31879927, 155K Veil=multiverse HPxMCU AU. 33y.o. Harry/Tony slow-burn, grief to found-family +humor +heat +meta: "Harry Potter, like the books?!" No Statute of Secrecy here; "mutants", yes! MCU main events mostly offscreen, heart-breaking later bits averted or lessened (JARVIS lives; Scarlet *itch gets no free pass, no CW). Climax = IW~Thanos, w/happy ending.

A LONG story, but truly excellent! I wasn't sure at first I'd warm up to this Mycroft enough — a self-loathing, isolated life (w/o even a troublesome younger brother in this 'verse!) = a lethally bitter tongue when protecting himself, and I felt for Greg! — but it didn't take long. The case, world & secondary characters are just as well-written. The tags promise a happy ending, and I'm glad I decided to dive into it.

I got diverted from this book for a couple days, onto some fanfiction and ebooks, mainly just because I don't like wearing reading glasses for fine physical printing. I think I'll have to re-read a scene or two to get back into where I left off.

Oh, dear, I've allowed myself to get sucked into another author's online fics when I should be finishing this. Maybe it's because I just want to be done with Lijuan, however much I enjoy Elena, Raphael, and company. Anyway, to be fair to the book, I'll have to back up a bit and re-read to get back into it, when I do pick it up again.

39% "The Frozen Water Trade": interesting, w/ethical ambiguity in its resolution, but satisfying.
63% "By Fire Distilled": mainly 1 long action scene, but w/Books remembering his dead son, & empathizing w/an orphaned boy.
93% "Ice Cracker II" ends here. It's a typical Amaranthe-&-Sicarius, action+humor crazy-scheme story, heading straight onto a military vessel.

39% "The Frozen Water Trade" is an interesting tale, with ethical ambiguity in its resolution, but I found it satisfying.
63% "By Fire Distilled" is mainly one long action scene, but with Books remembering his dead son, and empathizing with an orphaned boy.

"The Frozen Water Trade" is an interesting tale, with ethical ambiguity in its resolution, but I found it satisfying.

Chronology question: Didn't he say before that his father died shortly BEFORE his mother was sent to the asylum? I wish now I were reading digitally, so I could search.

(Again the word "pines" to mean simply "conifers" or "evergreens". I'm not accustomed to that semantic broadening.)

Volly's Cow: VERY short; Temeraire's draconic notions of political practicality, dealing w/a distracted little courier dragon & a tetchy, prideful middle-weight cross-breed.
Planting Season — American dragon John Wampanoag trades directly w/Boston & NYC merchants, seeking profit & what's best for the Native tribes, influenced by the wise Great Sachem he holds dear.
I already like the variety of fan art.