post Oscars

It's amazing to see the cognitive dissonance between our commentary and the "official" commentary on various professional entertainment websites.   See, e.g., www.ew.com, and the NY Times' take on Oscar fashions.

For those who missed last night's show, here are some of the dresses we talked about:

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52 in 2011

21.  The Spirit Lens by Carol Berg
22.  The Soul Mirror by Carol Berg

Some observers of the market insist that the secondary world fantasy is dead.  I am happy to report that it seems fairly alive and well in Carol Berg's Collegia Magica series.  Berg has developed a detailed secondary world that has the look and feel of Renaissance Europe without being a direct rip off (I'm looking at *you* C.E. Murphy . . . and yeah, to be honest, Jacqueline Carey too).   She has also built two distinct theories of how magic works.

Both of these stories are essentially mysteries.  They are fantasies of ideas, not fantasies of swords and supernatural monsters. Although the same characters are involved in both books, the point of view character shifts between volumes.  The narrator in The Spirit Lens is Portier de Duplais, a failed sorcerer, successful librarian and distant royal cousin.  The narrator in the second volume is the shy and troubled Anne de Vernase.  Both heroes are flawed in interesting ways and surprisingly smart.   They face necromancy, conspiracies and politics, as well as their own flaws.

The third volume, The Demon Prism, is due out next year and I'm quite looking forward to it.  I'm pleased to have discovered a smart, intricate, mature fantasy that reminds me of the best of Barbara Hambly's work.