I picked up Sharon Shinn’s Mystic and Rider after liking the same-universe short story “When Winter Comes” in the anthology The Queen in Winter. I read it on the plane back from Japan last weekend, the last of my vacation reading.
I was mildly disappointed to find that this is told in third person, rather than the engaging first person of the short story—or, rather, an equally-engaging first person, as the point-of-view character of “When Winter Comes” makes a passing appearance. I also found the first chapter unpromising, as it is told from the point of view of a not-very-interesting lowlife and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, either. (I suspect it of being a prologue that the author renamed because readers generally don’t like prologues.)
The second chapter moves to the actual and more interesting focus of the book, a team of six people who are taking the pulse of the kingdom. Led by the two title characters, Senneth, a powerful mystic (magic user), and Tayse, one of the King’s Riders (elite warriors), they find problems and mysteries, but no definitive solutions. This is partly because this is the first book of at least four, and partly because the book is more concerned with establishing the characters and their relationships, which will be followed throughout the series. This includes a romance between Senneth and Tayse, which ends up feeling like the central plot—until the last obstacle to that romance, which seems to come out of nowhere just to fill out the last hundred pages or so. (I think it makes sense, but needed more establishing for Shinn’s audience.)
Though this sounds rather negative, on the whole the book was pretty decent airplane material. I do like the six central characters, and I’m interested in some of the mysteries, so I’ll keep reading when I’m in the mood for something pretty light. I wouldn’t say that anyone who liked “When Winter Comes” needs to rush out and read the novels, though.