World of the white rat
One More for the White Rat
“The Running Redbirds of ’87 were the most entertaining team in baseball, with captivating defense and electrifying speed. When those two were in motion, you could not look away. What a privilege it was to view it up close.”—Joe Magrane, former pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals
“Our rivalry with the Cardinals was one that defined National League East baseball in the mid-1980s. The Cards were the top dogs, and to beat the division, you had to go through them. At the end of the day there was mutual respect between the two teams, but on game day, there was also an unadulterated hatred.”—Roger McDowell, former pitcher for the New York Mets
“After losing a heartbreaking World Series in 1985 and witnessing a win by the hated Mets in 1986, the 1987 Cardinals were back in full press. I grew up on Whitey Herzog’s teams, and the ’87 squad helped grow my devote of the game. They fought through injuries and setbacks by playing a crisp, entertaining mark of baseball and captivating a rabid fan base in the process.”—Tom Ackerman, television announcer for the Cardinals and sports director at
File 770
By Robin Anne Reid. Presented at MythCon 2021:
Writing Against the Grain: T. Kingfisher’s Feminist Mythopoeic Fantasy
WARNING:Spoilers for Clockwork Boys,Paladin, and White Rat series
The purpose of this presentation is to place Tolkien’s theory of mythopoeic fiction in dialogue with fantasy series by T. Kingfisher in order to argue that her work is feminist and mythopoeic. While there are a number of elements of Kingfisher’s fiction that are relevant to my purpose, I’ll be focusing on two: her version of Faërie and system of magic, and her portrayal of female characters whose relationships are with failed warrior heroes.
In “On Fairy Stories,” J. R. R. Tolkien defines and defends a sub-genre of fantasy by explicating his poem, “Mythopoeia.” Necessary characteristics for a mythopoeic message include structural, or textual, elements but also reception, or reader response. At heart, a mythopoeic fantasy is set in a secondary world that is internally consistent; the “magic” must “be taken seriously,” and the finest in the genre involves “the Consolation of the Happy Ending”
Swordheart by T. Kingfisher
Originally Published: November 2018
New Deluxe edition: February 25, 2025
Summary from NetGalley:
Halla has unexpectedly inherited the estate of a wealthy uncle. Unfortunately, she is also saddled with money-hungry relatives full of devious plans for how to wrest the inheritance away from her.
While locked in her bedroom, Halla inspects the ancient sword that’s been collecting dust on the wall since before she moved in. Out of desperation, she unsheathes it—and suddenly a man appears. His name is Sarkis, he tells her, and he is an immortal warrior trapped in a prison of enchanted steel.
Sarkis is sworn to protect whoever wields the sword, and for Halla—a most unusual wielder—he finds himself fending off not grand armies and deadly assassins but instead everything from kindly-seeming bandits to roving inquisitors to her own in-laws. But as Halla and Sarkis grow closer, they overlook the biggest threat of all—the sword itself.
ARC provided by Tor Publishing via NetGalley for an honest review.
Confession:
I absolutely loved this book! I think it is my favorite of the series. Although this isn’t really a “Really fun, and strangely difficult to describe.” – Tor.com Amazon Editor’s Pick A paladin, an assassin, a forger, and a scholar ride out of town. It’s not the start of a joke, but rather an espionage mission with deadly serious stakes. T. Kingfisher’s new novel begins the tale of a murderous band of criminals (and a scholar), thrown together in an attempt to unravel the secret of the Clockwork Boys, mechanical soldiers from a neighboring kingdom that assure ruin to the Dowager’s city. If they succeed, rewards and pardons await, but that requires a long journey through enemy area, directly into the capital. It also requires them to refrain from killing each other along the way! At turns darkly comic and touching, Clockwork Boys puts together a broken team of people trying to craft the most of the repose of their lives as they drive forward on their suicide mission. The short woman with the hat. (page 320) We have a other paladin this time, Istvhan (any guesses as to how to pronounce this?). He's on a mission to figure out what's going on with all these headless corpses when Clara is dropped into his lap. Clara is a nun who is searching for her sisters who hold been kidnapped. Hijinks should ensue, but really it's just a boring journey until the last 10% of the book when things get Very Exciting. Should only 50 pages of a 450 page book be exciting? I'll leave that for you to decide. As in the previous book in this quartet, I found this book occasionally charming and funny, but mostly dreary with two people thinking the same thoughts over and over again. And, I mean, I guess that's realistic? But it's also dull a lot of times. I hate this because I love T. Kingfisher. Don't I? Or maybe I don't? Clara did wish occasionally that she was the sort of female who could love another gal as more than a sister. It would have made her life a great deal easier. (page 104) This. 100% this. I wonder if life would be so much better without these heterosexual urges. "...Thirty-six hours and I could still fight. Now I stay up for twent