I adored Barbara Mertz' work. I stumbled onto Elizabeth Peters in the library in the form of The Last Camel Died At Noon. Not knowing I was jumping into a series in the middle, I found myself very much unable to simply leave a book with that glorious title on the shelf. It was a brilliant introduction. The fact that I was also in the process of becoming friends with a woman in a nearby town who owned a mystery book shop, who knew the Amelia Peabody books and loved them too (she was an archaeologist before she settled down to sell books) cast a charm over this part of my life that would have otherwise been mostly heartbreak, hard work, and loneliness.

Thank you for many wonderful hours' holiday from workaday life, Doctor Mertz. Good night, dear Lady. A flight of angels wing thee to thy rest.

I also liked her Egyptology book Red Land, Black Land, written under her own name. I should find a copy of that.

Oh, so sad! I really enjoyed all of her work, although the Peters novels were far more fun.

I remember one of them, written in the early 70s, had a line about the character meeting a man who was the most attractive man she'd seen since she watch Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

She was always very entertaining, although I burned out on the Amelia Peabody books after five or so.

Ray Bradbury on sale for Kindle today:

[link]

Ray Bradbury on sale for Kindle today:

Whoo! Time to go grab October Country, Death is a Lonely Business, and Lets' All Kill Constance! But dammit, From Dust Returned isn't in the sale.

Consuela, thanks for the Cold Magic mention--I'm currently on the second one, so unless she does something weird and unforgivable, I'm in for the trilogy.

I do find Bee somewhat unbelievable. I have no idea how a person achieves the expressions or voices she's reputed to have. And good lord, did she rush to infodump at the end of the first one. All the better to get you close to the cliff she'll be hanging you off of!

Yay, ita. I really enjoyed them, although I was less interested in the Spirit World than many people. I do really enjoy Elliott's world-building, and her interest in how societies change.

If you like these, I really encourage you to pick up the Crossroads trilogy--they start with The Spirit Gate, and are fantastic epic fantasy with gods, magic, multiple cultures, war, death, and giant eagles that carry our heroes around. They're really good and excellently plotted. [deleted rant about why Jordan & Martin get all the attention while women epic fantasists like Elliott, Wells, & Sherwood Smith are ignored]

I was enjoying Elliott until my favorite character got kicked in the teeth one too many times. I know this stuff happens in epics, but I reserve the right to be petty and shallow about my pleasure reading.

Looks like Kate Elliott is embroiled in a Twitter conversation about worldbuilding and privilege, and it's really interesting. I'm going to have to add her to my to-read list. The Crossroads trilogy seems more up my alley than Cold Magic.

well me too. Loved that and plan to read her books now.

Thanks for discussing the books here. I'm going to go buy some.