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Winterkeep, Kristin Cashore. This was fun -- got to spend time with our old friends Bitterblue, Giddon, and Hava, while exploring a new continent with its politics and telepathic animals, and a new point of view character, Lovisa Cavenda, who, like all the heroines in this series, is dealing with a traumatic family upbringing, and family members who are doing awful things, and doing so in a way where she's often prickly and manipulative and awful but also sympathetic. Also there's telepathic fox point of view, which feels underutilized in the end of the book, but I hope is setting up for more telepathic fox POV in future books!
The politics drive the plot, but are really there to be in the background to the character arcs -- I didn't find the international politics that convincing, but it wasn't that important. The local politics is of the "there are valuable elements in both political parties" type, which is not something you feel so much in the US these days (I say from a state where the GOP party leader apparently thinks he lives in the world of The Once and Future Witches, sigh.)
Also Bitterblue gets to be high on anti-nausea drugs for most of the climax, which is highly entertainig.
Unconquerable Sun, Kate Elliott. I'm told this is female Alexander the Great in space, though I don't know the history well enough to spot most of the parallels. Right now there's lots of politics and avoiding being assassinated.
The politics drive the plot, but are really there to be in the background to the character arcs -- I didn't find the international politics that convincing, but it wasn't that important. The local politics is of the "there are valuable elements in both political parties" type, which is not something you feel so much in the US these days (I say from a state where the GOP party leader apparently thinks he lives in the world of The Once and Future Witches, sigh.)
Also Bitterblue gets to be high on anti-nausea drugs for most of the climax, which is highly entertainig.
Unconquerable Sun, Kate Elliott. I'm told this is female Alexander the Great in space, though I don't know the history well enough to spot most of the parallels. Right now there's lots of politics and avoiding being assassinated.