The Elemental Logic books strike me as diametrically opposite to The Fall of the Kings; for one thing, I'd never describe them as "dark." Where TFoK is all about an attempt to restore a (tradional male) monarchy as an insanity and horror, the Elemental Logic books are about the restoration and recreation of a modified omsbudsman/monarchical goverment after an invasion. They're both pretty critical about traditional fantasy tropes involving goverment and patriarchy, but they come at it from completely opposite directions.

And while both involve sex, I didn't think there was a lot of it, and again the approaches were pretty different; TFoK treats sex as the inspiration for monomaniacal folly and in the Elemental Logic books, as Oyce says, "lesbian sex saves the world!" It's kind of sweet.

That said, Kate, I don't know if they're great vacation reading -- I always find the opening of FL hard-going, although once I'm into it, I love the immersion into the world.