Book Challenge Book 4 - Soprano Sorceress

I'm mildly cranky, in part because the maintenence folk are replacing lights in my office, which takes away from the fun of having my own private sanctum up here on the third floor where no one comes.

Also, in part, because I really wanted to like this book, because I really respect the recommender. Unfortunately, I didn't.

Book is The Soprano Sorceress, by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. Recommender is accioayla. Sorry, dear. Started out sort of on a bad foot with me, when the heroine gets whisked off from her singing engagement at the Dean's House to Jenny's cottage, in another world, another time. And basically the second thing she says is "Where is Jenny's cottage? And when?" No real sense of disbelief, no sense of "WTF just happened to me!?!?!?" The character just doesn't seem real to me, from the very beginning. Made it really hard to get into this one.

The second problem I have is that while the book does have interesting elements - the song/magick structure, the modern woman whisked into medieval world to save it - the elements kept reminding me of other books I've read that had similar elements, that I liked better. Spellsinger, by Alan Dean Foster, was funnier. The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay has much better character development and treatment of the modern characters and their sacrifices to save the medieval world they find themselves in. Gossamer Axe, by Gael Baudino, I liked better for the music/magick dynamic.

So, this one just didn't do it for me. Still, a good book - and it certainly reminded me of a bunch of books I want to reread and recommend myself.

That was fun!

OK, now that was fun! A law school classmate of mine and my co-clerk Denise's is in the local theatre group's production of Grease, so Denise decided we should, as a group social life thing, all go to see a performance.

It was just hilariously gorgeous. Mix of townies and high school students, and overall, they were really good. Salan - our law school classmate - was playing Cha Cha, Kanicki's date to the dance contest. She was great, but playing such a ditzy character that we couldn't stop laughing. She's an Assistant DA down here - I don't think I'll ever be able to set foot in traffic court the same way again.

Truly, the most silly fun I've had in this town since I got here. The 7 foot black gospel singer playing the Teen Angel character just about brought the house down.

*happy sigh* Whee!

Denise keeps telling me I should volunteer as tech crew - costumes, set or props, technically I've got experience in each - for the next show. I think she's right.