Sagara, Michelle -- Cast in Shadow

Sagara, Michelle -- Cast in Courtlight

Someone commented that this series (by established fantasy author Michelle Sagara-and/or-West) was the least romance-ish of the Luna fantastic-romance publication line. I haven't read enough Luna stuff to agree with that (I mean, I'd have to read all of them, right?) but these are straight-up fantasy to my eye. Girl is a rookie cop in a multi-species city -- elves, cat-people, hawk-people, others -- with plenty of mysterious wizard lords and such to spice up the mix. Plus she's a healer. Many a fantasy series has collapsed into sappy woo-woo with such a premise, but this one is pleasantly hard-headed: magical healing powers mean nobody ever lets you get a decent night's sleep.

Anyway, there's politics and ancient magic and an angry teenager banging the boundaries of her life into an acceptable shape, and it's all solidly written. It doesn't dig deeply into the meaning of law enforcement in fantasyland -- that's pretty much as written in our world, gruff sargeants and all. (Re-read Point of Hopes and Point of Dreams if you want deconstruction of the cliches.) But I'll keep reading these as long as the politics and ancient magic are interesting.


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