I finished Elizabeth Bear's Eternal Sky trilogy last night, with Steles of the Sky. You know, it was really well-done. I don't know why I didn't find it more moving. But I did like it a lot: it's quite creative, and there's a ton of interesting women with their own agendas in it, in addition to various types of gender and sexuality expressed.

Plus, it's a massive epic fantasy that culminates in an enormous battle with mastodons, rocs, ghouls, demons, Shaolin monks, and thousands of Mongol warriors mounted on multi-colored horses.

So I guess I did like it. Definitely recommended.

All my Elizabeth Enright's are here. I am happily hunkered down in post-war New York City. And the stories hold up; this is one childhood pleasure that's held up.

I meant to say earlier that I reread the Melendys (except for Spiderweb for Two, which was some sort of dreadful anomaly) and the Gone-Away Lake books every few years and they hold up beautifully. The girls have agency. There's very little in the way of set gender roles. They face real problems and solve them.

Do today's children read them? I think they do fine as historical fiction.

I got hardcovers of Four-Story Mistake and Gone-Away Lake. The cover of Gone-Away is the one I remember reading. Glee!! And the paperback re-issues have the same illustrations.

I love the Joe and Beth Krush illustrations.

The illustrations I have are by Enright.

I have the Joe and Beth Krush illustrations in the Gone-Away Lake books.

You're right, I think they are different, I'll have to check my copies.

I read the sample chapters of The Chocolatier's Wife and I do like it very much so far, so I bought it (still at $.99 today). Thanks for the rec, Connie.

So, anyone read Scalzi's "Old Man's War?" I'm having a really bad kidney pain day, and am thinking of indulging and buying a new book to read. Thoughts?