Took an extra day off today. I’ll have to pay for it tomorrow because I have a lot of stuff due. Just spent the day reading. Finished up the ‘The Battle of Evernight’ by Cecilia Dart-Thornton, and ‘Hidden Warrior’ by Lynn Flewelling.

‘The Battle of Evernight’ is the finale in a truly unique trilogy. The series directly incorporates more old English faerie tales than anything I’ve ever read. The author has really done her research and it shows. Her faeries can be malicious and cruel, but they are also delightfully beautiful. I remember reading a bit many years about the fae world was reflective of the attitudes of medieval peoples towards nature and the unknown. They viewed it as frightening, dangerous, fickle, and at the same beautiful. I’ve also read that many primitive societies from Africa to the Eskimos believe in spirits like the English fae that play malicious tricks on people.

The whole series a bit of a tough read because of the language. For example here is an urisk, a satyr like creature, speaking about how to cure a magical arrow wound:
“Och, the cure is simple,” murmured the urisk confidentially. “Ye mun find the piece o’aelf-shot that struck the lassie and gie her, and she’ll jump as sonse as ever. They dinnae lodge in the flesh, those bits o’ shot. It’ll be lying about here somewher. Dinnae let Findoree find it first – that is my rede. He cured Dan Broome’s cow all rete but carried it off afterwards. But yon linkin’ birkie’s mightier in thew than in brain, ye ken? He will do your biding gin he able, and a mollymawk the likes of he might be easily gulled.”

It’s worth the effort though because of the wonderful otherworldly quality. The lands her protagonist treks through are beautiful and alien, but because of the excellent research, also have a ring of authenticity about them. One of my clients is a high school drop out and a shift worker at Arby’s. She bought book 3 in hardcover because she couldn’t wait for it to get to her library. There are flaws in the book, but I think the innovation will spawn a number of imitators.

‘Hidden Warrior’ by Lynn Flewelling is a much more traditional fantasy with good character development and an interesting plot twist to keep one’s interest. I’ve tried reading some of Flewelling’s earlier work and I must say that this latest series is a lot better written.

In other news I stopped at Mom’s yesterday. I tried to have an intelligent conversation but when she couldn’t remember something she told me to ask her uncle who had been dead for thirty years. When I tried to explain this to her she became very upset and we started yelling at each other. Then she spit on me. That was enough and I left. I spoke with her former doctor and he suggested getting her to the hospital, but I did not feel up to dealing with her today. My two sisters and brother who live closer can take the lead this time. Getting spit on was enough for me, thank you. Frankly, even when she is sane now she is not taking her medication and since this is her decision she can deal with the consequences. I’m just going to stay away for a while.