You're doing terrific

Od Magic - Patricia A. McKillip
I got maybe two chapters into this book before being overcome with a peculiar and familiar emotion that I felt more frequently as a child immediately before something wondrous was going to happen. A physical, tingly tug at my breastbone keel as my tiny kid body wondered what was in the christmas presents, or how awesome this new videogame was about to be. I kept getting brought out of reading this book by how excited I was to have found it, to be reading it.
This book is about magic, and concerns a variety of people in a fantasy world. Princesses, wizard teachers, schools of magic, roving entertainers, captains of the guard. Young individuals drawn by destiny and fate, in motion due to the past or the future. If this sounds vague and bland, consider the previous paragraphs emotion and wonder then what artistry a book must have to do so much with such tropes. Some books have deep, defined characters, some have relatively flat characters. This book's characters were like lit windows into mansions at night - a conveyance of vastness through economically smaller descriptions. This book made me want to write a book about magic. This book made me reconsider my hierarchy of magic systems.
Patricia McKillip somehow eluded my childhood but I am honored to add her to it now, joining her cohorts of Wynne Jones and Le Guin in the Hall of Unassuming Little Grandmothers who Know Magic. Pratchett is there too, because he learned to ask.

The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories - Susanna Clarke
Similarly to The Chimes, this collection of short stories set in the authors Jonathan Strange universe gives the distinct impression of being written by someone who is not only an author but also exceedingly knowledgeable about some other area as well - in this case replacing classical music with Romanticism. The original book, another disgustingly accomplished first novel, is absolutely fabulous if chewy as fuck due to its faithful reproduction of the writing styles of the era. Read it, that you may enjoy these additional peeks into the world. Clarke handles the 'fae' part of magic as a trope real fuckin' well but honestly you'd probably like this just as much if you spurned most fantasy and only loved Jane Austen. The seelie folk are terrifying, capricious, very alien and mercurial. Having scenarios be described in prim Regency era prose is jarring, but makes for good reading. Every time I read collections of short stories I desire to read more short stories. It is a good cycle.

The House of the Stag - Kage Baker
This book was an unexpected ridiculous adventure. Told like a fuckin....Robert E. Howard novel, like a folk tale bildungsroman of these crazy overpowered characters just being awesome. Sad, sometimes. Hardship, slavery, castigation.  But also rad as hell with lots of demons and swords and fucking. Willing acceptance is required but once you go with it it's quite enjoyable - it reads like a folk tale, like an old fable. Like the Kalevala. Like a play? Shit just happens. It reads like Hercules. The world is very nicely wide, very interesting. This book is technically a prequel, but written after, the next book I'm reading, and I'm glad I read this one first. I hope these huge mythic characters show up in it. It reads like a dungeons and dragons characters backstory? It reads like there should be elves, but there aren't any elves. The demons are the best part by far by FAR. Buckwild and a little jarringly abrupt at some parts as we transition from life chapter to life chapter, but all around a good read. This is what that asshole drow idiot character all the DnD books are about SHOULD have been. Drizzztitt or whatever. Some fucker with two named swords and a brooding backstory. Dark elf jerkoff. The guy in this book is way better. That is the perfect comparison.

The Anvil of the World - Kage Baker
I am very glad I read the prequel, written a few years afterwards, first. This book gave me very strong early Terry Pratchett vibes - the parts where he hadn't really settled in to finding that groove. It read like a book from the 80s. Almost tongue in cheek fantasy at times. Sort of winking at the audience but also taking itself seriously? I'm glad I was familiar with many of the characters backstories which didn't exist yet. Confusing. VERY Ankh-Morporkian, the more I think about it. Similar to the last-first book in its abrupt scene changes and having shit just happen, but also similar in its vast and unexplained mythos. Demons and their ilk once again steal the show. I guess this is a book about growing up and destinies? It is hard to say what this book is about, much less what it was TRYING to be about. Apparently there's a third one, which now I must read.