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Quatrain (2009)

by Sharon Shinn(Favorite Author)

3.75 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0441017584 (ISBN13: 9780441017584)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Ace Hardcover

review 1: *4.5 stars*I love good novellas - they're such a fun length, just enough to really enjoy a long, discrete story without all the complications of a novel. Quatrain is a collection of four novellas, each set in a different world that Shinn's novels have been set in. I had read novels set in all those worlds before, but some of them I'd read SO long ago that I couldn't remember them in any detail. It didn't matter - these four stories stand alone perfectly, and the first three of them star heroines and heroes who don't (as far as I can recall!) appear in any of those linked novels.I absolutely loved the first three novellas, especially "Blood". They're all the perfect blend of romantic fantasy that I most enjoy about Shinn's work, with wonderful world-building, great characte... morers, smart issues (including some real darkness) and really well-earned, deeply-felt romance. The fourth novella was my least favorite - it was a prequel to her MYSTIC AND RIDER series, starring the heroine of MYSTIC AND RIDER, and not only was it missing the romance element which I'd enjoyed in the other novellas (since Senneth's romance doesn't start until her own book begins!), but it felt slightly less complete and less perfectly structured than the other three novellas, mostly because of its prequel nature. Still, the characters were all very good, the issues in it were well-done, and I enjoyed reading it.Despite my slight disappointment in the last novella, this is an absolutely wonderful collection. I'm so glad I bought it, and I'll definitely be re-reading the first three novellas again and again and again.(And now I'm REALLY tempted to try writing a novella-length story! This is the kind of book that makes me want to write, because it inspires me so much. I love Shinn's writing!)
review 2: I picked up this book because of the 4th novella, Flame. I'd been reading The Twelve Houses series and was curious about the prequel. I was disappointed because it's an immediate prequel to Mystic and Rider, not a story of Senneth's 17 years of wandering. I'm not sure the tale of the moonstone bracelet makes sense in the context of the rest of the series -- it seems in the other books that Senneth's been wearing it much longer. Also, I thought the appearances of Kirra, Donnal, and Tayse were superfluous -- they were there just so you could say the characters appeared.The third story in the book is more of a romance than anything else. There really seems to be nothing else going on in the story. It's fairly weak.The first two stories are also romances but there's more depth to the story. It really feels like there's more going on. Everything's not solely focused on the romance. less

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