Fortune and Fate

by Sharon Shinn

Grade: Good
Story: Wen hates herself. Due to unexpected circumstances, she ends up training the guard for a soon-to-be marlady and her guardian. Cammon, the king (sort of), wanders throughout his domain with the rest of the six companions of the previous three books.

I had heard that this book was to be about a minor female character, and I was quite disappointed. But that was before I met Wen in Reader and Raelynx. And really liked her. She's short. I like short people. And very blunt and depressed and not terribly intelligent. Every once in a while, you need people in books who are plump, or slightly stupid, or really plain, or otherwise non-attractive, in order to counteract the reams of beautiful, smart, feisty people. (It's not like she's stupid exactly, though. She's obviously intelligent when it comes to such things as soldierly strategy. But she really doesn't get subtlety of language, and she doesn't like to read at all, ever.)

But the romance! Why do they have to sleep together so much??? This matter sits in my head in the same way that most immodest clothing does. In other words, even if I didn't care a jot about the morality of wearing immodest clothing, I simply find that it doesn't look as good (for the most part). The strapless gowns girls wear always make them hunch their shoulders in most unattractive manner. And even if they aren't hunched over, the ratio of skin to dress isn't as attractive in my humble opinion. So it is with this. When they begin sleeping together every night with only the smallest bit of romance before hand (and before getting married, of course), all the tension dissipates. It simply isn't as interesting. Marriage brings the excitement back. You're stuck with this person forever now. It is a great inconvenience rightly considered. In other words, an adventure.

But it was lovely to see Justin and Senneth and Kirra and Donnal and Tayse and Cammon. The six. So it's "Good".

See the previous books: Mystic and Rider, The Thirteenth House, Dark Moon Defender, and Reader and Raelynx.