Reading what I think is the last full Deryni novel I need to get through. For various reasons it has taken a long time to reach this point: I started after buying the Deryni Adventure Game from Grey Ghost Press, which impossibly appears to have been about twenty years ago. Anyway, there are a lot of books, they're not always easy to find, and this is not a series that rewards binge reading.

After all this time, the only way I can distinguish between characters is by name. Same with locations. Some of the least memorable descriptive prose ever committed to paper, in service of a series where, despite following families through generations, battles, assassinations and scheming, nothing ever really happens. One set of names is replaced with another, younger set of names and we trot off again for another spin on the merry-go-round.

Now, you might be thinking, "Jon, why didn't you simply give up on the series a couple of decades ago?"

I know I am.

#Books #Deryni

Back to reading—trying to read—Katherine Kurtz's Childe Morgan, one of the lengthy series of Deryni books. This one has really been a slog. In part there's the effect of long Covid on my concentration and reading comprehension to consider, but I'm increasingly of the opinion that these books, in the end, are middling at best.

The fantasy Wales setting could do with being a good deal more Welsh, which might help the intrusive Christian elements to fit a little better, but the core problem is the endless parade of kings, heirs and pretenders, living (often fairly briefly), dying and being shepherded in secret by the Deryni, who will one day awaken their hidden powers but must keep them safe from various wicked sorts until then. Rinse and repeat.

I started reading the series because of the Deryni Adventure Game RPG, but perhaps I've picked up enough of the gist of things to let the books lie and go back to something more gripping.

#Books #Deryni #RPG #FudgeRPG #Fiction

Dipping back into the Deryni books, progress having been slowed and then derailed entirely by long Covid. I left this one about a quarter of the way through, and I have no recollection of who any of these characters are…

#Books #Fantasy #Deryni

Time to put my feet up and do some reading, I think.

#Deryni

En ce #vendredilecture, je suis en pleine trilogie des rois de Katherine Kurtz. Je rencontre enfin Camber de son vivant !
#livre #lecture #SFFF #imaginaire #deryni #KatherineKurtz

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