Reading as a Writer: Bone Shard Daughter

About a year and a half ago I went to to World Fantasy Con with a friend, and had the opportunity to meet Andrea Stewart. I left the con with a signed copy of her second book (along with a huge pile of other books). Then, my local library didn't have the first book on their shelves.

After we moved, Bone Shard Daughter was the first book that I checked out of the new library. This was a fast-moving book with a large cast of characters. It took me a bit of time to wrap my head around each of the new perspectives as I moved through the opening, but once I pieced together who was who, I really enjoyed this book. It seemed like the type of book that I would have loved in college, back when I read mostly fantasy books.

One aspect of fantasy that's been challenging to me over the last couple years is that often I can't handle the amount of tension conveyed by the plot. That didn't happen with this book. I read at a normal pace, wanting to know what would happen, but without having to put the book down to slow my heart rate. Some people might enjoy that aspect of modern fantasy, but personally I preferred the pace of this book.

I've got the second book (my signed copy) queued up on my TBR; I just need to stop walking out of the library with stacks of new releases long enough to get started on the ones that I own.

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