Where are you in Fantastyland: June 2012

After taking a break in the real world (read some non-fiction), I'm back in the Malazan Empire with Memories of Ice.

Re-reading Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint, and going to be starting Seven for a Secret by Elizabeth Bear soon!

Just finished The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by Jemisin. Really liked it. Interesting world premise and characters; a couple of the gods are fascinatingly dark/light ambiguous. I drove all the way to the next town to buy the second volume so I could start it right away, only to find the bookstore had just vol.s 1 & 3. :-(

In the Kyralia of Trudi Canavan's The Magician's Apprentice: the journey is a little slow going at the moment, but the cast of characters is starting to grow and the scenery is starting to change...

I'm in the five Dominions ... reading Clive Barker's Imajica.

Reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman...

I'm in Swindon with Thursday Next in the Eyre Affair

Still working on My Favorite Fantasy Story. Not been in much of a reading mode.

I just got hold of My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me a couple nights ago, so I'll be getting started on some short readings off-and-on from the anthology.

ETA: And I've also got Emma Donoghue's Kissing the Witch for another anthology to flip through.

Re-reading Lev Grossman's The Magicians for the third time, becuase one of my in-person book groups is discussing it in a few days.

Of course, I don't consider this a hardship. :-)

I'm in England in The Guardian of the Freedom.

Re-reading Kushiel's Dart and I remember why I loved it before.

Also getting into a re-read of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms so I can get through the trilogy now that I have all three :)

I'm in Shkoder reading Tanya Huff's Sing the Four Quarters

I am in Midkemia with Talon of the Silver Hawk by Raymond Feist.

I'm in Villjamur reading The book of transformations.

I'm reading Blackout by Mira Grant

Finished Railsea a few days ago. A bit weird, even for Mieville. I like the imagination it took, but maybe it's a little too much.

In Westeros with A Storm of Swords. I'm starting to get a little fatigued, I'm over halfway through and it just doesn't seem like anything interesting is happening. I was pretty riveted all through the first two books, so I don't think it's just my attention span :-|

Hang on a bit longer. If you're half way through hell's about to start poppin'.

Yeah . . . I think I got to the excitement on my evening commute!

Finished My Favorite Fantasy Story edited by Martin H. Greenberg. The only story I really liked and knew was "Unicorn Variations" by Roger Zelazny. Also read The Butter Spirit's Tithe by Charles de Lint.

Reading the classic Weirdstone of Brisingamen and not feeling very impressed.

I've left Villjamur amid destruction of catastrophic proportions in The book of transformations, and am really excited for the final book in the series.

Mow I'm at the Conservatory in Verdia, where I sense that the peaceful routine is about to be shaken up by the Fires of the faithful.

First, I was in Rhiminee with Alec and Seregil (Casket of souls), and I loved it. After that, I went back in time to the founding of Rhiminee in The oracle's queen. That was fun, too. I like her world and her characters.

Then, very, very reluctantly, I travelled to Legacy of kings, which had been waiting faaaar too long. I didn't really like it there. Too dark and no nice people at all. Glad it's over!

Now I don't know where to go. So many wonderful destinations are available. O_O

I'm exploring the prehistoric world of the Children of the Earth series. I count it as pseudo fantasy.

>24 I just got Casket of Souls in the mail & am looking forward to an Alec & Seregil re-read soon

I've just finished Old Nathan by David Drake. A very different book from David. It was written as a homage to Manly Wade Wellman and his character Silver John/ John the Balladeer. David Drake was friends with Wellman and it shows in the care he took with the book. I've read a great deal of David Drake, and I would almost say it is his finest work.

Folklore and Magic in the post revolutionary war American South. Astonishing. Not something that would normally grab me. I immediately ordered a copy of the collection John the Balladeer and Old Gods Waken the first of the Silver John novels by Wellman, since if the Homage is this good the original books must be fantastic.

Jim Baen published 'Old Nathan' for David with no hope of it ever making great commercial money. A lovely book.

#27
I'll keep an eye out for Old Nathan; thanks for the tip. The Silver John books are very good! I can't quite put my finger on what it is, but the overall tone, the somewhat dark magical features, and the character of Silver John, join into something unique & engaging. Oddly, for me, I like the short stories best.

#28 rshart3

I'd heard that the Silver John short stories are better than the novels. 'Old Nathan' is still in print as part of the Mountain Magic anthology of stories from Baen, which also has a number of other stories set in the same region by Henry Kuttner and Eric Flint. Oddly the e-book version of Mountain Magic actually replaces the Kuttner with all the Silver John stories because the Kuttner estate didn't want to do any e-books.

'Old Nathan' is comprised of 5 interlinked short stories so it should work pretty well for you.

I'm in a magic school on the border of a kingdom and the nearby desert, with the very bullied single female student, in Sisters of the Raven.

Was thoroughly wowed by The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson. I hadn't read book one in a while, but I'm diving right into the third.

Just visited Discworld in Men at Arms.

Now reading Changling by Roger Zelazny

I'm just about to start my uncorrected proof of The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams.

I'm wandering through The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern...and wow! I'm quite enjoying it, but at the same time it is an incredibly difficult book to describe.

Also getting into the third book of N.K. Jemisin's Inheritance trilogy: The Kingdom of Gods. Can't wait to see how it ends :)

Just finished spending some time with Silver John in After Dark by Manly Wade Wellman, followed by some time in Joiry and other weird dimensions in Black God's Kiss by C. L. Moore.

Annoyingly I have two more Silver John books trapped in some postal sorting mishap which delayed their arrival.

The Book of the Long Sun series by Gene Wolfe. So far on book 2 of 4. An outstanding series so far. Not once have I become bored with it. Really great stuff.

At Brakebills in The Magicians. A magic school quite a bit removed from Hogwarts.

In Whitby with Ben, Jennet, and Aunt Alice in A Warlock in Whitby.

Back with Silver John in John the Balladeer

I'm in Skelleth - reading Lure of the Basilisk by Lawrence Watt-Evans

#29
Thanks again, Cosmic. I don't know when I'll get hold of it, but I'll be quite happy having the printed book (I don't read e-books), since I like Henry Kuttner also.

I am just starting The High Crusade by Poul Anderson. The paperback 50th anniversary edition caught my eye at my LBS.

I am under The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin right now. Very good! I like non-European-inspired settings like this. I am enjoying this more than The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by the same author, so far.

In Tokyo, some other not-quite-real Tokyo, with Aomame and Tengo. It's 1Q84.

Now reading The Golden by Lucius Shephard...

Just left Verdia after Turning the storm. This was a nice fantasy duology set in a land based on Renaissance Italy, with plenty of strong characters including an engaging heroine.

Now I'm visiting October Country in From the dust returned.

Still in Westeros with Storm of Swords. i'd like it better if the characters didn't keep making stupid decisions just so Martin could add another volume to the series.

Departed October Country in From the dust returned; it's linked short stories rather than a novel, but I really liked the spooky yet wistful atmosphere and the weird and wonderful characters. Uncle Einar was my favourite story/chapter.

Now I'm Among others at a boarding school in England.

Back at the Ren Faire with Keelie in the latest installment, The Goblin's Curse.

Spent today in Oklahoma with Harry Dresden in "Bigfoot on Campus" from Hex Appeal.

Back in London with Sir Richard Burton in the Curious Case of the Clockwork Man by Mark Hodder. I love the adventures in this series, the nutty characters and even nuttier dialog, and the filthy parakeets!

Just starting to visit some mice in Deptford in The Dark Portal.

Escaping to Vralia in Naamah's Curse.

^ I do love that series and I envy you if you're reading it for the first time.

I am in the kingdom of Delain in The Eyes of the Dragon.

Leaving London, now in Portland, Oregon in the ARC Portlandtown, a supernatural western by Rob DeBorde. Off to a great start.

I'm currently in Xanth with Currant Events. It's on the "well, if you don't have anything better..." level. It reminds me a bit of the early Pratchett work like, The Color of Magic, in that it seems more joke centered than character or plot centered.

* Edited to fix touchstone.

Finished The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams. Very earthy read. Enjoyed it muchly. Next up is Hounded by Kevin Hearne.

I'm visiting a lot of places in Spell Bound, but at the moment I'm in Arizona.

I was just in London in Whispers Under Ground, another great Peter Grant book.