Emerald Eyes

I have read Daniel Keys Moran’s EMERALD EYES only once before, and that was…more than fifteen years ago. Long enough ago that I didn’t recognize, or do not recall recognizing, the Jim Steinman lyrics quoted in the book, and that would put me in my early twenties. Very early twenties. Anyway, I’ve re-read THE LONG RUN and THE LAST DANCER repeatedly, but EE never quite struck me as re-read material. But since the newest book in The Continuing Time has just been released, I thought I’d start at the beginning.

Re-eading EE was very peculiar. I remembered virtually nothing of the story. I remembered any number of the characters–but from the other two books, not from EE itself. I was surprised every time one of them showed up, because I knew them, but totally failed to recall them in that context. And having finished it, I now know why it never struck me as re-read material: it’s not exactly a book of its own. It’s more like a 250 page prologue to TLR and TLD, setting everything up for those two books. That’s not entirely inappropriate, as they are early books in what DKM has said is a 33 book sequence.

Back when I originally read the Continuing Time books, I read EE last of the three (it was hardest to find). Having now re-read it (albeit without re-reading TLR and TLD yet) I feel quite certain that it really *should* be read first, and that TLR and TLD should probably be read immediately afterward (which is what I’m about to do).

Also, still and even now, this long after having read the books in the first place–I so desperately want the story of Ola, also known as Lady Blue. She’s mentioned what, three, maybe four times in EE, and possibly once or twice in TLR and TLD, and with only that and no more, my God I want her story! Now that is a job well done by the author.