Cheysuli

Well I just finished Jennifer Roberson's Chronicles of the Cheysuli last night and I'm still thinking about it. A few months ago I was in a bookstore looking for new fantasy when I saw her books--they were in omnibus format, four paperback volumes instead of the original eight. I'm so glad the publisher made this decision because the original books are unfortunately out of print. They sat here on my yet-to-read bookshelf for quite some time. I thought they definitely looked interesting, but I wasn't quite ready to read them for whatever reason.

Well whatever that reason was I wish I'd not had it! ;-) I thoroughly enjoyed each of the books and had only two regrets, that they were over and that I'd not read them earlier. But I have found out that the author has published other books (which I'll definitely be investigating) and that in the next five to eight years she'll be publishing more Cheysuli novels. Sure, it is a while to wait, but at least they're coming--unlike some authors that have finished their sagas for good.

The stories are definitely different--the Cheysuli (the central race of the novels) are shapechangers. Roberson explained that she had wanted for some time to write a book about good shapechangers, and so she did--but it turned into an eight book series! The Cheysuli (well now only the men, the warriors) each have an animal that they bond to, called their lir. They can speak to this lir and take on the shape of the lir--not the lir itself, but whatever animal it is--say a wolf, hawk, mountain lion, etc...

The library only has Roberson's historical fiction (which I nonetheless have on hold) and no other fantasy. So I'm going to have to wait until the books come out in omnibus format later this year and I'll be able to afford them. Now I'm reading Ursula K Le Guin's Earthsea and enjoying it. I watched the Sci-Fi miniseries a while back, but apparently it bears little resemblance to the books. That is certainly true so far--there are similarities in the plot and characters certainly, but beyond how they shortened the plot for the small screen the script writers did more. Apparently Le Guin didn't have any creative control and didn't like the miniseries. *shrugs* It was enjoyable, but I envision the books being even better.

~Matt

PS Yes, please pray for one of my nephews. He goes in for surgery in the morning--it isn't terribly serious or an emergency. It is a scheduled procedure to remove a device that was implanted to help to straighten some bones.