Discord's Apple

My kids go back to school, Monday. I cannot claim to be sad about this. In fact, I'm kind of counting down the hours right now. It's not that I'm sick of having them around; we've had a lot of fun this summer. I'm just looking forward to a little solitude again. Time to write without having to stop to answer questions every five minutes. Time to sort through broken toys without having to fight off desperate little hands and frantic promises that, "We'll play with it! Honest! Don't throw it away! It's special!"

Time to browse those parts of the library that don't have child-sized chairs.

In celebration, I plan to get my hands on a copy of Carrie Vaughn's latest, Discord's Apple. I like the character Kitty Norville from her werewolf series, so I'm looking forward to getting to know Evie Walker, the main character of this new book.

Evie's father has cancer, and it has metastasized. From the first chapter:

"He hadn't asked her to come home. He'd called to tell her he was sick, and she'd just come. That was what you did. He didn't argue or try to tell her she didn't have to. Which, when she thought about it, was another sign that he really was sick. He hadn't yet said, I'm fine, don't worry about me. Nothing to worry about.

What neither of them hadn't explicitly said, what she hadn't understood until she was lying there in the dark, nested in the bed that made her feel like a child, in the room next to the room where her father lay dying by increments, was that she was here to help him die."

Eventually Evie finds out that she has inherited a family responsibility, a room where powerful magical items from legend are stored until they are needed. The room's magic only lets in those who are meant to carry one of these items - but every security system has its weakness.

I can see myself kicking back with that for a couple of hours next week.

Book: Discord's Apple, Carrie Vaughn
          Kitty Norville, Carrie Vaughn