Thinking About Books: Lady Pain

I have a confession to make: When reading books I like, I skip ahead to read the ending.

I know, I know! I'm a terrible person. Everyone I've ever admitted this to has practically disowned me, and who can blame them? But I promise you that when I started Lady Pain I did not know it was the third in a trilogy. When the author made cryptic statements I thought she was just really good at foreshadowing. How was I to know that when it said on the cover "Rebecca Bradley, Author of Lady in Gil" they meant, "Go read that one first"!

I found out it was a sequel about halfway through, and by then it was too late to stop and go back. I'd been hooked since the first page, and that's pretty much how I determine whether a book is worth reading (that, or I read the end and determine if I want to find out how they got there, or if I can just figure it out on my own. cringe).

After that stunning revelation, for the rest of the book I was trying to see if the author was genuinely clever, or if I had mistaken vagueness for tasty plot bits dangled tantalizingly out of reach. I concluded that while a few of the things I'd thought were clever foreshadowing were really just a way of re-introducing people to the characters, there were still plenty of really good moments that showcased the author's ability to make a situation interesting, exciting, a bit nail-biting, and funny all at the same time. Moments that could have gotten heavy-handed were toned down with a bit of humor, without lessening the breathless page-turning-ness of the action. It was in first-person, too, which I am generally suspicious of, but this author made it sound genuine, without erring either on the side of being too much like dialog, or too eloquent and author-y, which are both faults I've seen in first person before. (If I didn't love Robin McKinley's style so much, I'd've thrown Dragonhaven across the room in frustration. That cat can ramble.)

When I reached the end, though (which, when I'd read it, had given nothing of the awesome climax away; hooray for epilogues!), I was faced with the question of whether I would go back and read the first two. On the one hand, it was really well written, and there were a few characters that I'm sure we got to know before, because they were too good to have such small parts. On the other hand, now I know how it all ends, and if I'm not mistaken, it seems the action starts twenty years or more before the conclusion. That's twenty years of knowledge about the future that I will have to pretend to myself I don't know while I read about How It All Began. And that's a little mentally exhausting (as anyone who's watched the new Star Wars can attest). So while I definitely plan to return, it may have to be a while before I do. Because while I may be totally scatterbrained and unable to find my glasses when they're on my head (true story), I can remember details I read in books for years.