I started reading Jane Lindskold quite by accident. I’d seen–and even picked up–her Wolf series, but was just never in the mood to start a multi-book series, so the books languished and I soon forgot about her.

However, at a trip to the bookstore I ran across Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls and was intrigued by the title. Then I read the paragraph:

“Morning falls on the just and the unjust,” I observe, and the nurse smiles politely and continues brushing my hair. Betwixt laughs from where I clutch him in my hands, Between, snores. He is not a morning dragon. “Turn us over Sarah,” Betwixt coaxes, and I do this carefully, balancing the four stubby legs in my pant leg just above the knee. Betwixt growls approvingly, “That’s a good girl. Now, be a love and scratch in front of my left horn, right above the eye ridge.” I do this, studying my friend as I do. Betwixt and Between are a two-headed dragon. They are small as dragons go, standing only ten inches long from barrel chest to tail tip. They also have blue scales, red eyes, and faintly smell of strawberries.

Sarah–and those with whom she has lived for years–are being released from the asylum after budget cutbacks have lead them all to be deemed capable of functioning on society. Her past is unknown, and she can communicate only by repeating verses (the bible, Shakespeare) that seem a suitable response to the situation.

I ended up reading the book in a single sitting.

I then looked for more books by Jane Lindskold, and came across Child of a Rainless Year.

Mira is the only daughter of Colette Bogaty, the town eccentric: She dresses in a style more fitting to a previous century. Mira also has an unusual childhood, growing up with such a mother, but when her mother disappears her life changes completely and absolutely. But for the most of the book, Mira is a frumpy middle aged woman who after the death of her adopted parents, decides she wants to discover her past and what happened to her mother.

Again, I didn’t want to put the book down, and was completely engrossed in the story.

Now both of these stories, as well The Buried Pyramid, despite their descriptions, are fantasy. The world of these books is almost–but not quite–our world. These are not multi-book epic fantasies, but instead are stories told over the course of a single book.

I love books like this.

I still haven’t read her wolves series, again, because I’m not in the mood for “epic” fantasy. And I’m one book into a series her Thirteen Orphans series, but I’m moving slowly, because I had getting into an unfinished series.

But the two books I’ve mentioned above? Both are absolutely fabulous, and you should check them out if you are looking for something different to read.

Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls (1994), The Buried Pyramid (2004), Child of a Rainless Year (2005), Thirteen Orphans: Breaking the Wall (2008)