Where are you in Fantasyland? October 2012

Currently reading Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock....

I'm reading Ship of magic by Robin Hobb. She is really an excellent author! I've never come across such realistic characters anywhere in Fantasyland. Unfortunately, that means her characters sometimes do stupid things, but somehow she manages to describe it in such a way that it doesn't really annoy me.

Reading onward, now in #2 of the Instrumentalities of the Night, Lord of the Silent Kingdom.

Mixed bag. I like the general tone and the main POV character Else Tage but don't care so much for the other two.
The setting is OK (alternative Europe with added sources of power and a host of supernatural creatures, including and up to gods, that emerged from them, and with the threat of an encroaching, fast moving ice age).
But it could probably be quite confusing to someone who hasn't at least a vague idea of the equivalent historical characters, events and geography.

Reading At the Mouth of the River of Bees by Kij Johnson and just loving it. Very high-quality short stories.

Jim Butcher's Turn Coat. Only two books to go until I can start discussing it online w/o fear of spoilers :)

I just started The Curse of the Mistwraith by Janny Wurts.

Finished King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. The Broken Empire seem like the kind of books that should appeal to me except they don't. I managed to finish it, but I just couldn't bother to care about anything that happened. I doubt I'll finish the series.

Just finished rereading The Truth - it's good to be back in Discworld!

Just starting The Mark of Athena.

>>7 beniowa: I read Prince of thorns a few weeks ago and had the same problem. It would have helped if Jorg had any idea what he was doing. Instead, he seems to stumble in every direction, meanwhile pretending that his actions are well thought out. Is that any better in King of thorns?

I'm going to Athera in Initiate's Trial.

Having been away from Pellinor for a while, I'm back in Turbansk with The Crow. I'd delayed this trip because I would rather have traveled with Maerad than with her younger brother, but I decided it was high time I finished the series.

I'm about a hundred pages in, and so far, things aren't going too well. I miss the strong feminine presence at the center of the story. Also, since Hem is younger than Maerad, his narrative voice must of necessity be younger as well. Worst, I've met whom I suspect is the only important female character in the story, and I do not like her at all. She's almost as obnoxious as Shona in Dark Lord of Derkholm or Thorgil in The Sea of Trolls. The fact that Hem's bird familiar obviously loathes her is not a good sign. Never, never open your heart to a character whom the main animal doesn't like.

Yet despite my disappointment, I can't put the book back on the shelf because I want badly to read the series' fourth and final book (welcome back, Maerad!), and I'm afraid I won't be able to make sense of it unless I've read this one. (If you actually CAN get all the good out of The Singing without having read The Crow, please let me know.) Still, once I've read the whole series and know how everything turns out, in future days when I decide to revisit the series, I will skip this one.

But there is better news: my copy of Dark Moon Defender has come in the mail! If Allison Croggon has let me down a little with her third book, I doubt that Sharon Shinn will.

I'm in Chicago in "B is for Bigfoot" by Jim Butcher in Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron.

>12 kceccato: I'm guessing from the rest of your post that you mean The Crow by Allison Croggon and not the dark gothic graphic novel by James O'Barr. Touchstones!

Work has me beat lately. I've been spending time in a seaside village, the Netherworld, and other places with Magdalene, the Most Powerful Wizard in the World, in Tanya Huff's collection Stealing Magic. (Stealing Magic also collects the stories of Terizan, a thief in the typical slightly-corrupt fantasy city.)

It's occurred to me that a series of linked short stories following a character at different points in their life is quite a different storytelling structure than a novel. I've been thinking about story structure and heroes since recently reading Ursula K. LeGuin's essay "The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction" (available in Women of Vision or Le Guin's Dancing at the Edge of the World, probably around online as well). As soon as I have time to get my thoughts together, I'll try to write them up in the short fiction thread...

I'm still working my way through Ilona Andrews' Magic Bites, only a hundred pages from the end and things are picking up. I like the glimpses we see of shapeshifter culture, and the Beast Lord Curran to the extent he's allowed to have a personality beyond "alpha male". Overall, the setting is interesting and I want to like the book, but (subjective, I hasten to point out) things keep annoying me enough to put the book down about every twenty pages, so my progress has been slow.

(Spoilers of varying degrees, nothing that you couldn't pick up from back cover copy on books further into the series: A serial killer is targeting young women to get at powerful men, have some graphic descriptions of photos of their bodies? Put book down. Said young women are of different racial backgrounds, protagonist concludes based on this that of course they would have had absolutely nothing in common, despite being members of the same magical organizations, narrative backs her up? Of course not. Put book down. The line "I needed human company. Male human company." Of course, who needs female characters? Put book down. Metamorph is trying to create the "perfect male body" to make himself sexually irresistible to women, protagonist argues that it can't be done because women are attracted to different types of men... in other words the usual erasure of women who aren't attracted to men, not to mention women who aren't attracted to anyone? Not in the mood- sigh, and put book down. Protagonist and powerful male shapeshifter keep crossing paths, and she reflects every time on how he could kill her without caring, supported by his threatening attitude toward her... and notice from future back cover copy that future books pair them up as a couple? Do not want, more than tired of women falling in love with men who want to kill them and either fixing them with love or discovering they're actually great guys. Put. book. down.)

I did pick up the second book from the used bookstore, so based on my interest in the setting and recommendations that the series gets better (even according to the authors) I'll give it a chance, but I'll probably take a breather in between.

14: Yes, I mean Croggon's book. That kind of thing has happened to me several times -- I'll try to touchstone a book, but another book has the same title and THAT's what comes up.

Started Dark Moon Defender yesterday, and already I like it soooo much better.

Finished N. K. Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and started The Broken Kingdoms.

14> It does get better. Many of the issues you have a problem with are improved upon in the second book - for instance, the main character gains a female best friend. The first is the worse of the series, it picks up from there.

I've just finished Fforde's Song of the Quarkbeast and The Woman Who Died A Lot and been to a talk by him. He says most of his books are "narrative dares," where he writes himself a situation and then has to explain it.

18 - That's brilliant! I loved the talk I went to with Fforde a few years ago; he's just a wonderful man. Now I've got to get my hands on The Woman Who Died A Lot, not to mention The Last Dragonslayer!

20> I enjoyed his talk as well, but I do wish that he'd write a sequel for Shades of Grey instead of writing more Thursday books. They're a good series, but my least favorite of his. Besides, Shades of Grey needs a sequel!

20 - Ooh, the Thursday books are definitely my favorite of his series, so I'm okay with more of them :) Although I do think they're getting rather drawn out now. Shades of Grey definitely needs a sequel! The talk I went to with him was right after or before its release, can't remember which, but the important thing was that I hadn't read it yet, and I wish I'd been able to retain more of the things he said about it.

>#10, zjakkelien

Yes, the book is better in that regard. There's still an undercurrent of manipulation and behind-the-scenes stuff going on to some extent, but Jorg is more an agent of his own design this time around. My particular problem is that I couldn't get into the characters or the story at all. Just didn't grab me.

I've just left Athera after falling under the Curse of the mistwraith.

Since we're in October: I've started my travels in Gillengaria, with Reader and Raelynx

>15 kceccato:: (*Hi, Kelley; I see you're just behind me. PS - I assume you know that if you click on others in the touchstone box as you're writing a message, before you post it, it brings up a list of the others with that touchstone? Just that, like me, you never actually notice that it's brought up the wrong one?)

24: Actually, I didn't know that! Thanks!

With regard to my rotation, I have decided to forego The Crow and leap ahead to The Singing. There is something quite satisfying about laying aside a book that isn't working out for me, and I suspect that with a little more effort I will be able to understand and enjoy the fourth book just fine without having read the third. The sad truth is, when it comes to YA, I enjoy female protagonists more than male, although I do like the male characters to be strong and intriguing as well. I probably could have enjoyed the third book, however, if I'd liked the nominal heroine a little better, and if the triangle of girl and male bird competing for boy's attention hadn't gotten on my nerves.

Dark Moon Defender: Ellynor is growing on me, although I doubt she'll capture my heart quite as securely as Senneth did. However, of all the heroines in this series so far, Ellynor has the most growing, the most learning, to do -- and that's interesting in and of itself. I look forward to seeing where she ends up.

Also in my rotation: The Morgaine Saga (I'm on The Well of Shiuan now) and Winds of Change, the second in Lackey's Mage Winds trilogy. These two make an interesting contrast in terms of style/speed. Cherryh has a stronger prose style, and so far, with this and the first book in the series and The Pride of Chanur, I have found reading her very rewarding. But I can't read one of her books as FAST as I can a book by Lackey (or a book by Shinn). Her prose demands that I slow down and take my time. Lackey's book is not great literature, but it is pure fun and it reads lightning-quick. And it has gryphons in it! How can I not love that?

I've just finished Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews and left Kate's Atlanta for now. The book hit its stride in the last hundred or so pages, and shook off many of the annoying issues I mentioned previously upthread. I am glad to have read it, and I have the second book in the series in my TBR pile, but I do think I need a break from the high violence level of these books first. (Reading urban fantasy wears me out.)

So, I'm venturing to Liad with Anne Davis and Er Thom yos'Galan in Local Custom as part of the omnibus Pilot's Choice; as I mentioned in the Liaden discussion in last month's thread this is a big misunderstanding plot, but Sharon Lee and Steve Miller's style is fast-paced enough that the plot at least keeps moving.

>17 pwaites: I'm glad to hear that Kate gets a female friend! More female characters finally started showing up after my last post, incidentally, but unfortunately they were evil or minor. (Two of the minor characters were shapeshifters in the Pack that were referred to as "female alphas"; I couldn't figure out if they were just women that were alphas or if "female alpha" was a rank in the hierarchy. I first thought the former, but then the term "female alpha" kept being reiterated, making me wonder if it was the latter...)

>25 kceccato: I agree that Cherryh is definitely a slow but rewarding read. I have had a harder time getting into her fantasy than her science fiction, though. I read the Morgaine Saga omnibus ages ago, but haven't read the fourth book Exile's Gate yet. If you like Lackey and gryphons, I remember quite enjoying the distant Valdemar prequel The Black Gryphon when I read it (there are also two more in that subseries I have not read).

26> I think it is a rank in the hierarchy - as far as I can remember, each clan has a male and female alpha. The two mentioned in Magic Bites become more prominent characters later into the series.

Finished The Broken Kingdoms and started The Kingdom of Gods, both by N. K. Jemisin.

I loved Bridge of Birds, and now I'm on the sequel, The Story of the Stone.

At the same time, I'm reading The Blind Owl.

Both of them have that elusive and wonderful mythical quality that I prize, but only one of them could be called delightful. The other feels like a trip deep into the dangerous unconscious.

I've just finished The Dream Life of Sukhanov, which is a five-star fantasy of another sort entirely.

In unique book, Indigo Springs, which follows an apocalypse unintentionally released by 3 friends when they move in to an inherited house sitting on a spring of blue magic. It's told in real time and in flash backs. I don't usually lean toward books on magic, but this book handles it in a thoroughly original way with clever dialog.

Updating here after a very very busy few weeks filled with research work, job searches and work work. :(

I finally finished the non-prequel Liaden books with Dragon Ship last week. For my reaction, see the September aka the unofficial Liaden discussion thread. :)

I just started Karen Chance's Touch the Dark because I enjoyed her novella in On the Prowl and the world seemed really cool. I was underwhelmed. This review (not my own) explains why ( http://www.amazon.com/review/R249P91JPXE5DQ/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=... ).

I need some good books! And my best friend has suggested Tammy Blackwell so I might start those next.

Moved out of Gillengaria of Reader and Raelynx, and also out of Orontae (in Jody Lynn Nye's An Unexpected Apprentice). Planning a sojourn in Sci-Fi Universe, with On Basilisk Station.

I'm in a NYC infested with vampires and vampire hunting families in Pulling Up Stakes by Peter David.

I'm up too late for one who has to work in the morning, for one thing, but I've just finished an after dinner conversation in the yos'Galan mansion Trealla Fantrol in the Liaden novel Local Custom. The first 150 pages could have used some tightening up or condensing to get the the point, in my humble opinion, but I've finally gotten to that point where I'm engaged and I do care what happens to these people. What makes the Liaden books work for me is the sense of intimacy they have with their characters when the books are at their best, where you see personalities clash and the personal drama and conflict unfold among a group of people who genuinely like each other.

That kind of representation of alternate daily life is my favorite kind of escapism, and why I turn to fantasy and science fiction more than other genres for most of my reading- that sense that life could be different, and here's how, watch it unfold. Escapism has a bad reputation these days, but I think that sense of possibility it affords is really a vital, important thing, and that in the hands of skillful authors, speculative fiction has the ability to promote acceptance of difference among those who are content with their lives and to give hope to those who are not.

What I enjoy most about the Liaden books is the fact that the characters often triumph on MERIT - and hard work. That's not a terribly popular theme, these days - and reading a story where a character's actions matter/along with what you said, #34 Sandstone 78 - the close intimacy - makes these books a great comfort read. I don't read them looking for flaws, but to escape.

As to escape - it is GOOD! If happiness shifts brain chemistry for the better and eases stress - that is HEALTHY! If a book gives us an experience that achieves this - lifts our mood - do some people really think turning to alcohol or medication for the same relief is a better choice?

If a good story is 'escape' then how is going to a concert, or seeking a good massage, or any OTHER pleasant activity done to unwind a better pursuit of happiness? Just wondering...

(people who spit on 'escape' in a book make my blood boil).

I like a deep and meaningful read as well as any - but they take WORK and sometimes relaxation and ESCAPE is the goal. I could list the books that saw me through tough times in my life. As a curative measure, they are golden.

Now reading The Twelve by Justin Cronin

#35 Janny -- three cheers! As a librarian I spent much of my career trying to convince people it was OK to read light, fun stuff -- even junk, if good junk. People always fear that librarians want them to read nothing but Great Classics.

Having tackled both Proust and Joyce's Ulysses earlier this year, I decided to read nothing but fun stuff for the rest of the year -- that includes some "good" literary novels & NF, but nothing like the abovementioned Great Books. And lots of SF and fantasy.

I still reread Tolkien and some other old favorites, often during pressured times.

Still moving through Dark Moon Defender. Shinn was trying my patience a little, with her frequent descriptions of how small Ellynor is compared to her he-man sweetheart, and with Kirra's and Senneth's discussions about how her delicate femininity and helplessness would make her irresistible to a man like Justin. But now, as I approach the end, I realize I should never have doubted Shinn. I have to give her major props for giving us a VARIETY of sympathetic heroines, and for showing us there are many different ways in which a heroine might be strong and interesting.

Last night I started something new: Dorothy Hearst's The Promise of the Wolves. Animal fantasy is a weakness of mine, Watership Down being a favorite. (I read the Redwall series for a while, but lost patience with the books, as Jacques, talented though he is, played the Cute Card once too often for my tastes.) And it's a treat to see an animal fantasy that focuses on a heroine. The Sight has a female protagonist, true, but though I enjoyed it while I was reading it, its gloomy conclusion makes it doubtful I'll revisit it. In this one, the wolf heroine actually tells her own story, something I don't think I've seen before in animal fantasy. I have a good feeling about this one; my fingers are crossed it doesn't let me down.

JannyWurts, heck yes!! Thank you for saying that! I do read some classics, but I read plenty of mind-candy fluff, too.

Just starting Green By Jay Lake.

Just read The Unnatural Inquirer, the next one I hadn't read in the Nightside series by Simon Green. This series manages to be tongue-in-cheek, humorous, and action-based at the same time. Some fun references to other fantasy, too.
Certainly falls into the potato-chip category -- but a tasty chip.

I've just left the kingdom of Sabria, after an exciting time with The spirit lens. Will definitely be returning when I can get hold of The soul mirror.

>39 GirlMisanthrope:: I hope you'll let us know what you think of Green. It's been on my tbr stack for a while, but needs a nudge to get it to the top.

I spent yesterday with A Werewolf in Denver.

I finished The Kingdom of Gods by N. K. Jemisin. Really enjoyed all her books. Next up is The Darwath Trilogy by Barbara Hambly.

I've just finished Jingo (am reading all the Discworld novels in the order they were published, according to Wiki) -- another great story with Sam Vimes and the Watch!

Traveling across Asia with Temeraire and company in Black Powder War.

Hi everyone, first post. I'm working my way through a re-read of my beloved Pern books. Currently up to All the Weyrs of Pern, welcome back AIVAS.

Never mind.

lol

Hi Nemorth, welcome to the group. Come join in on the december thread which seitherin so kindly made for us: http://www.librarything.com/topic/145378#