(no subject)

[tim]

Here via redbird! I've been wondering about the title of a young adult novel I read sometime in the late '80s. It was about a girl who had scoliosis and had been in the hospital for a long time, and didn't want to leave, but was told "we need the hospital for kids who are really sick." A character in the book said "horse plops" as a swear. The author was a woman, but none of this was apparently enough to find the book on Google. Any ideas?

Looking for a fantasy book with a fight for the throne

[schneefink]

Edit: I found it! It's "Bloodrights" by N. Lee Wood ("Erbin des Lichts" in German.)

I read this book probably around 15 years ago. I read it in German, and I think the title had "Licht" (light) in it but that might be wrong. The cover was mostly in red, and I think there was a castle on it. I'm pretty sure it was translated from English, because almost all books in that corner of the library were.

It was a stand-alone (afaik) low-magic fantasy novel. The main character is a young woman who claims to be the rightful heir to the kingdom, either through blood ties or because of a prophecy or both. She hires on older man to accompany her and tries to convince him of her rightful claim. At some point an assassin named Morgan (?) comes after her but I think eventually switches over to her side? And he might have been seriously injured? The woman gathers followers and eventually iirc an army.
The official heir to the kingdom (I think the king/queen died or something) is a young man who is obsessed with being pure enough to fulfill a certain prophecy. When the woman arrives he tries to prove his claim by undergoing some kind of magical/divine test, but he fails and burns and the set-up for the test is damaged. The woman then re-interprets the prophecy and says it applies to her, I think it involved putting a golden circlet over her head.
In the epilogue the woman rules over the kingdom, which has prospered. The man she hired first comes to her and tells her that his research has shown that it's impossible that she's actually the proper heir to the kingdom. She says she knew all along but didn't care, and isn't the kingdom better off now?

I've been wondering which book that was for years now, I'd be very happy if someone could help :)

(no subject)

[fred_mouse]

*waves to the nice people in the new comm*

... I have a query I put on Facebook a week ago, apparently completely coincidentally with something that had screened in the last day (I'm not saying what, in case it actually is a spoiler).

My original 'Dear Lazyweb' question was "Can anyone think of a story where one of the (non-human) characters refers to either a pet or one of the other characters as 'Snack' rather than their proper name?"

Further on in the conversation that arose, I said " I feel like Snack was one of a) kitten, b) pony, c) obnoxious pre-teen child"

The vague ideas others came up with were that the individual speaking was a dragon, and that it sounds like something they read as kids (or to kids), but no-one was able to come up with any actual suggestions.

[also, mods, I have no idea how I'm supposed to tag this, or what a sensible subject line might be, so I'm going for the 'avoiding the question' approach]