Saturday, August 26, 2006

Winter Moon by Lackey, Lee and Murphy

Winter Moon contains three stories by three fantasy authors. The stories all have the moon as a major plot device and all have romantic interludes between the characters.
As expected, I liked Mercedes Lackey's story the best, probably because Moira, her protagonist, was such an interesting, strong, brilliant woman who falls for the court fool. And the story takes place at a sea-swept keep, which sounds glorious.
Tanith Lee's entry, "The Heart of the Moon" was rather fable-like, and Clirando was one tough cookie, dealing with the pain of betrayal and a curse, all at once. Much darker than Lackey's tale, I still enjoyed its mix of Homer and feminist uber-heroine.
Murphy's "Banshee Cries" was the weakest of the three, mainly because the writing was very amaterish and the characters a bit too cliched. That's not to say that her main character, Joanne (and why anyone would prefer to be called dull old Joanne instead of Celtic Siobhan, I can't imagine) wasn't interesting, because she was, as a reluctant shaman and a cop. Still, all these old men sniffing around her and her bizarre love of cars just made her seem less like a heroine and more like a head case.
Yet I'd recommend this book for any fantasy fans who like women heros, action, adventure and romance.

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