I recently reread all three of the Pysnergy, Inc. books by Jayne Castle and was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed them just as much as originally. I was actually more surprised that I reread all three straight in a row but that’s another matter entirely.
I’m honestly not sure which one of the three, Amaryllis, Zinnia or Orchid, I like the best. I think I like all of them fairly equally and if the truth be told I probably prefer their completely unconnected predesessor Shield’s Lady to both them and her subsequent Harmony books.
Unconnected in terms of sequel but definitely connected in terms of where Krentz was heading with the images and metaphors. I mean, it’s difficult to ignore the similarities between the male-talent/female-focus pairings in these books to the relationship between the hero and heroine in Shield’s Lady. And although the working relationships in the Harmony books aren’t exactly the same, there’s still enough of an echo there to make things familiar.
Of course, part of the reason I like Krentz’s writing is the way she likes to play with the male/female partnership in relationships and that’s never more apparent than in her futuristic lost colony works. Yes, her books sometimes fall into the category of being almost the same and yet they’re not. Not really. When rereading all three one right after another this time the differences in both plot and characters from book to book were striking.
And yet so familiar and comfortable it’s amazing. How does she do that? 😀
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Rosario: I liked Ghost Hunter but couldn’t really get into the other two books about the same characters. The related short story wasn’t all that bad, but I’m just not sure I’m all that crazy about the “new” world she’s created for that group. Where there problems with the Psynergy world? Well, sure, but not nearly as many as I have with the Ghost one. What is the actually “name” of that group anyway?
Oh, and that old cover is interesting. I’m still trying to decide what it actually has to do with Shield’s Lady but it’s at least intriguing to study. ;p
I love, love, love these books. Her more recent Jayne Castle books have been nice, but I agree with Kristie that the earlier ones were much better. The only one I didn’t like at all was Crystal Flame.
BTW, here‘s the original cover of Shield’s Lady. Not *that* bad!
Kristie: Really? I won’t say I could barely finish Sweet Starfire, but it definitely seemed a lot slower to me than either Shield’s Lady or Crystal Flame for some strange reason. Which reminds me, Orchid, the heroine in the last Psynergy book, reminded me strongly of the heroine in Sweet Starfire this time around. Or maybe it was the philosophy she was raised in.
While I liked her recent futuristics well enough – I still much prefer her earlier ones – Shield’s Lady, Sweet Starfire & Crystal Flame. There is more of a sameness to her latter ones. I think Sweet Starfire is my all time Krentz futuristic.
Mailyn: Yeah, Krentz/Quick/Castle seems to have a lot of luck with her single title covers. I’m not sure she’s ever had a really bad one. Maybe with her categories but I’m not even sure about those.
Don’t know anything about this lady except that those are some pretty covers!