Stories new and old concerning characters who were encountered in passing in the main novels. ( )

A terrific tie-in to the world of Paksenarrion that Elizabeth Moon has created. While two of the short stories deal with Paks' torture that occured in the first trilogy, they both involve characters and groups that are familiar to the later books so as not to be completely isolating. Two of the stories relate directly to events in "Oath of Fealty" and "Kings of the North" as well. I was hesitant about reading it since I hadn't yet read the first trilogy, but am glad that I did. It shows the depth of character writing that is Moon's style and her world-building abilities. ( )

Enjoyable. I'd read many (most?) of these before, on Elizabeth Moon's blog; they've been tidied up a little, but events in the stories match what I recall. There's also a few I haven't read before - A Parrion for Cooking and the last story, plus a couple others. All of the stories offer interesting sidelights on characters - Parrion depicts Dorrin's arrival at Castle Verrakai from Farin Cook's point of view, for instance, including why she reacted the way she did to several of Dorrin's acts and questions. The last story jumps well ahead in the timeline - Mikeli's been king for quite a while. It's interesting in itself, and more so as it shows a little of the future of some of my favorite characters. Definitely worth reading. ( )