What are you reading right now? (possible RotE spoilers)

[Albertosaurus Rex]

Well, I just finished Deryni Rising. As I said before, I decided to check out Katherine Kurtz's Deryni novels after a recommendation by Pat of Pat's Fantasy Hotlist. He described them as a mix between Robin Hobb and George R. R. Martin, although he also noted that the books only really hit their stride with the second trilogy. That being said, these are my thoughts on the very first Deryni novel:

Not bad. Not bad at all. And certainly something fans of Robin Hobb might like. It's not terribly original, but given that it was originally published back in 1970, that can be forgiven. It's basically mediaeval Europe (more specifivally, the British Isles) with added magic, but no elves or dwarves. At just 280 pages, the story feels a bit slight though. Also, the worldbuilding so far is fairly limited, we basically get to see just one castle. (But of course, there're more books to come!)

One strange facet of the worldbuilding, though, is that the inhabitants of this imaginary world practise some kind of Christianty! God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are referred to and there are multiple mentions of crucifixes. Latin also pops up at times. Hopefully this will be explained later.

It may not have rocked my world, but it was a pleasant read. I'm now going to read the next book: Deryni Checkmate.