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

[Albertosaurus Rex]

Some thoughts on what I've been reading recently. I have put aside the Howard Waldrop short story collection halfway through. The stories felt like jokes without punch lines to me: pointless and boring.

I have about a hundred pages to go of High Deryni, the final book of the Deryni Chronicles trilogy. I can see where the comparisons to GRRM and Robin Hobb are coming from. Like Westeros or the Six Duchies, the worldbuilding is very closely modeled on medieval Europe, the magic is relatively low-key (The only standout is a highly powered magical battle at the end of the first book, but other uses of magic are more subtle) and there are no elves or dwarves or non-humans running around. (Well, there are Deryni, but they are physically indistinguishable from humans. The only difference lies in innate magical abilities.) There is a high focus on political and religious intrigue.

And yet the books miss the spark that would turn them into something truly special, like A Song of Ice and Fire or the Fitz books. Maybe it's the slightly flat and simplistic characters. Or maybe it's the strange worldbuilding: in an apparently imaginary world, we have a Christian church. A look at the map reveals that we are not on Earth - the geography doesn't correspond to any place on Earth, although it vaguely resembles Europe with Great Brittain connected to the continent instead of being seperated by the canal.

That said, I have also been told that the series only really finds its feet with the second Deryni trilogy. Maybe I'll check it out some day.