Kathleen Sky

A bit of a murder mystery but not a great one.
The main investigator was not overly well written. Built up as being a complete hard-ass from the particular agency with augmented skills that can't be talked about. But then proceeds to be perfectly ordinary and friendly and vulnerable and falls into a tantrum when the stress of the answer just falling into her lap doesn't seem to occur. Does not appear to have any special investigative skills at all.
James Kirk portrayed as a very shallow womaniser but somehow this investigator falls completely for him and seriously considers a marriage proposal. This romantic development was a bit cringeworthy how it developed.
I also found it reasonably predictable how it would mostly go.… (altro)

If I were the type of person to yell "Mary Sue," this book would have me yelling it. We learn of a wing of Starfleet that does investigations and is really rather gestapo-like; the lead character, Elizabeth, is investigating a series of deaths as the crew and a cargo of Federation ambassadors goes to try and, perhaps, negotiate a detente with the Romulans. Not great, but not great largely in that it reads very much like an actual original series episode that's been perspective-shifted onto the female love interest, so I can't hate it.… (altro)

I first read “Witchdame” by Kathleen Sky when it was new in 1985, and I was about 15 years old. I remembered I enjoyed it, so when I saw it available used now for cheap I picked up another copy to reread.

It’s still a pretty good fantasy novel. While taking place in a fantasy version of medieval England and Wales, Sky doesn’t give a huge amount of background about who the Witchlords and Woodwitches are, though eventually it comes out that the Witchlords and Witchdames are the nobility of this version of England, capable of magic, while the Woodwitches are more nature-oriented magic users who were mostly defeated by the Witchlords of prior generations. It’s not hard to pick up that the Witchlords aren’t, in general, friendly with the Woodwitches, however, the Witchlord king of England had married a Woodwitch woman, Dianne and their heir, the main character, Elizabeth, is both.

The novel begins shortly before Princess Elizabeth’s 18th birthday, with her mother dying and her father already having selected his new wife, who intends to give Richard a son to follow him on the throne. It’s clear that Dianne’s existence has been restricted for some time due to her being a Woodwitch in a Witchlord royal court, but she’s passed on a little bit of Woodwitch culture to Elizabeth.

Early in the book there’s tremendous amount of narration about the various women’s clothing. Considering how confusing it was to me now, I can’t remember what I thought of that when I read this the first time when I was only 15.

Sky isn’t very consistent on Richard supporting or hating Woodwitch culture, so that gets a bit confusing.

The main adventure involves the now 18 year old Elizabeth making a journey to the four compass directions of England, the land that she’ll eventually rule over as queen, and resolving a major issue at each of those points.

Sky was more clear on the timeframe of the travel at the beginning of the journey, but after they finished their “west” task, it was confusing how long it took the party to travel to their “north” task. The distance on the map was several times further, but there was nothing about it in the story.

The conclusion was a little disappointing, too much of a deus ex machina sort of thing, especially after Elizabeth went through a lot to become more powerful in her own right. I’d been hoping her victory would be much more her own.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, with the down points not detracting too much. If Kathleen Sky ever wrote a sequel to it, I’d read it.… (altro)