Hmmmmmm. The requester is one of the ladies in the bookclub (there are members! so exciting!) - she's never read in SFF and is looking for an introduction before tackling our reading list - I'm not sure how much prep one needs for Kushiel's Dart but I've been soaking in the stuff since I was wee, so. Hmm.

In the meantime, this is really excellent advice. I'll see if there are some short stories I can set her up with.