Coronets and Steel

Sherwood Smith is the author of two books on my top five favorite books list, right by Pride and Prejudice.

I got Coronets and Steel for Christmas and, though it's good, it's not in my top twenty by any means.  I'd probably rank it higher had we gotten to the action sooner.  In both Crown Duel and Trouble with Kings (which tie for first or second place in my top five, depending on how I'm feeling about Jane Austen that day), Smith starts in media res -- in the middle of the action.  The crisis is upon our heroines and they must react, so everything happens quickly and we get to the good stuff almost immediately.

In C&S, the first half of the book felt like setup and included a bevy of historical, musical, and literary references.  I like references, myself, but the sheer volume and diversity in C&S felt overwhelming.  Smith, with her masters degree in history, pulled out all the stops and clearly had fun thinking up references, but I personally could have used a few stops put back in.  In her usual fantasy worlds, for example, references are explained more thoroughly to readers so that everyone can follow along, but the references here (being real-world references) were often left on their own without elaboration.  Thus: overwhelming.

The second half of the book picked up in action and pace and carried both off to a rather inconclusive end.  Luckily, there's a sequel for those of us who want to continue the story -- and I'm fairly certain the historical references will stay toned down as in the last half of C&S and, with any luck, the pace will remain energetic.

My conclusion is that I probably won't pick up and reread C&S again for fun like I have my two favorites, but I'm going to find and read the sequel.  The story was getting pretty good and I'd like to see how it ends.