Too tired (and too sick) for content; have some links.

My deepest sympathies on the illness. 3 days after ConSonance I came down with an Upper Respiratory Infection (URI) of my own, and though the worst has passed there is this lingering cough.... From your description, though, it sounds like a different URI. I didn't notice anyone at ConSonance who obviously had these symptoms, though, so I rather suspect the Sunday Dinner Run to Sweet Tomatoes (which was very crowded) may have been where I caught it.

I did read and enjoy DISCOUNT ARMEGEDDON while I was sick. The Aeslin mice were a lot of fun, and I've watched enough competition shows on dancing (both the professional/amateur ones like DANCING WITH THE STARS and the professional/professional competitions shown on PBS) to appreciate Verity's dance background. But while I enjoyed the book, I think I have to give the edge to the October Daye series. Of course, that has developed over 5 books (so far). It may well be that once the world of Verity Price has had more space to be developed, a re-assessment would be in order. And it could simply be that if I was feeling better when reading DA I might have enjoyed it more. But there really seemed to be too much of a rush to introduce the various races - that no sooner had one race been introduced than another was pushing it aside. For my taste (which may not be typical of your other readers), introducing half as many races and giving each one twice as much time would have been a better pace. But of course, you had specific plot reasons to introduce all those races. The plot would have had to be revised to accomodate that choice if things went the other way. As an author you have to make many such choices. The Dominic/Verity stuff likewise progressed much faster than I would have expected (given the relationship of the two families). The trust given and the shifting of his viewpoint seemed unexpectedly quick. So just letting you know that to this reader much of the book felt rushed.