Where are you in Fantasyland? November, 2013

Right now I'm in and around the Hayholt in Osten Ard as I'm almost at the climax in To Green Angel Tower, Part 2 by Tad Williams.

Next I'll be traveling to 1920s Hyde Park, New York to see The Man He Became: How FDR Defied Polio to Win the Presidency by James Tobin.

Then I'm headed to Westeros and Essos in A Dance with Dragons, unless one of the giveaway books I was lucky enough to win arrives first.

Always glad to see someone reading Memory, Sorrow and Thorn.

2> I read the last quarter of the book today. Intense and well-done, as well as an interesting twist about the "quest objects".

Just finished rereading Barbara Hambly's The Ladies of Mandrigyn, The Witches of Wenshar, and The Dark Hand of Magic. It's been a while since I read them, and I'd forgotten how good they are.

4: I love the first two! I haven't read the third yet; I've been saving it. I'm reluctant to bid farewell to Sun Wolf and (especially) Starhawk for good.

I've just finished Cold Magic; I've just begun Darkborn.

Finishing up Skinner by Neal Asher, really SF but the "high seas" feel of the novel places it more in the fantasy light for me...

Has anyone read Battle Magic yet? I've got a copy, but not that much time. Is it worth reading? I read the first few pages, and I got the feeling that it might be one of those "white person saves nation of darker skinned people plots."

I usually don't read much fantasy, but just read The Girl of Fire and Thorns and really enjoyed it. Coincidentally, my copy had an endorsement from Tamora Pierce (author of Battle Magic) on the front cover.

ETA: end paren

I'm going between Westros and Essos in Dance with Dragons now.

Finished Cobweb Bride by Vera Nazarian and still working on Happy Hour in Hell by Tad Williams.

I left Samaria after a pleasant stay with Jovah's Angel, and am currently just arriving in Heliodor City with starship surgeon Alana Quick in Ascension, my read for this year's A More Diverse Universe...

I'm also spending time in Tarlannat Keep and Bralle with Indigo Time, which I received from Early Reviewers a couple of months ago, and Regency England but with shapeshifters and Merlin's magical relics (which are pure evil of course) in Double Enchantment, which I've checked out from the library. I'm hoping this volume doesn't have some of the relationship iffiness I disliked in Enchanting the Lady.

I'm also back on Burning Bright after an absence of over ten years, and it feels just like home. This is the first book I read with a mostly bisexual, lesbian, or gay cast, and also the first book I ever read with a setting where diversity in sexual orientation was treated as normal instead of being associated with persecution or oppression or bullying or marginalization. It holds a special place in my heart for this and many other reasons.

>11 sandstone78:: I must dig my copy of Burning bright out of Mount Tbr. I adore the Points books and really need to try Scott's SF works.

>12 Sakerfalcon: I'm the opposite- I adore her SF and really need to get around to the Points books! I saw on her blog recently that the new one, Fairs' Point, has been turned in to the publisher- there's an excerpt as well, and it looks like another excerpt and deleted scenes from the earlier books under the tag "points". No release date yet, though, just sometime the first half of next year. Should be plenty of time for me to catch up!

I am actually in Tamriel, setting for Oblivian and Skyrim. Reading The Infernal City. Set a few decades after the Oblivian crisis.

I'm in the Sanctuary of the Holy Redeemers, making the acquaintance of Thomas Cale, The Left Hand of God. I'm not convinced we're going to get on, but I'll give him the space of more than a single chapter before I make up my mind.

With Otter in the pinch of Westmost in Sorrow's Knot.

I recently picked Grave Surprise up at a BookCrossing meeting, but as it's the second book in the series, I decided to download the audiobook of the first book from the library. I'm getting on for 3/4 of the way through Grave Sight at the moment, and I'm fairly sure that I've guessed the identity of the killer and the reason for the murders. I'm not liking the unhealthily co-dependent relationship between the protagonist and her step-brother though. It's quite creepy.

I recently read that one (Grave sight, it was a recommendation in my books about ghosts thread). I agree on the relationship, it was definitely not healthy. I liked that she was not a typical urban heroine (the snarky guns-blazing type), but she was rather fragile. I imagine she'll get over it in the sequels...

I finished Indigo Time, but unfortunately it was not to my taste.

Double Enchantment, however, is, providing the fast-paced story with a focus on character interaction that I hope for from a romance novel (as well as a relationship built on mutual respect and admiration as much or more so than physical attraction, which is always nice)- the worldbuilding (which is a quasi-alternate Victorian England, not Regency) really does not stand up to any logical scrutiny, though.

Ascension is thoroughly exceeding my expectations, and I was looking forward to it already. I hoped for a good "interesting characters on a ship" story, and it is that with an engaging main character and first-person narrative in starship surgeon Alana, but there's also a good amount of emotional depth here that's done quite well- the story doesn't shy away from the difficulties of poverty, living with a chronic pain illness kept in check with medicine, Alana's relationship with her semi-famous and financially-well-off sister, and dealing with sudden, traumatic loss in the middle of Alana's attaining her dream. It's very good so far, and I hope it keeps up at this level.

Being in a restless mood, I've also started Michelle Sagara West's Into the Dark Lands, which has been sitting in my to-be-read pile for about three years now, and a Member Giveaway book, Heidi C. Vlach's Render. Into the Dark Lands' first-novel status shows, I think, in the tendency of the point of view to wander around and the relative sparseness of the description, but it's got the bleak atmosphere down, and an interesting society based on constant war between light and dark where the forces of light are losing. Render, by contrast, is a much warmer and more welcoming story, a setting where three races of non-humans live in harmony and a young Aemet (insectoid person) girl is trying to find a place in a newly-founded village.

I'm somewhere in folktales Russia at the beginning of the Early Reviewers book Mistress of the Solstice.

I enjoyed the atmosphere so far, but now after MMC and FMC get all troubled after barely a glance and a few words I'm not sure I will like where this might be headed.

Started Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson.

19: I have a copy of Into the dark lands as well, but have never read it. Curious to here how you like it.

I am currently reading Dun Lady's Jess, a book I got through Early Reviewers. It's interesting, a story about a horse that becomes a woman when she and her rider are brought to earth through a spell. I like it so far.

22: I really liked Dun Lady's Jess, though of course it ties into my interest in the female Other. I was never able to find the first volume of the trilogy in print -- had to get it through Kindle -- but thankfully I found both the sequels at used bookstores so I'll be able to follow Jess and the gang to their conclusion.

I'm in Ireland in Flame of Sevenwaters.

23: Ah, I did seem to remember someone here talking about Dun Lady's Jess, it must have been you. I like this book as well, but I must admit, only because of Jess. Without her, the book would be rather dull. Unfortunately I just reached a spot where she seems to be lost (I imagine she isn't, or there wouldn't be 2 more books), and the conversations of the other characters and the explanations about the magic are not enough to cut it. I hope she becomes more central again soon...

25: Indeed, some of the other characters, especially Dayna, got on my nerves considerably, so I know where you're coming from.

Mistress of the Solstice thankfully didn't devolve into mushy romance and was good.

Gone on to various places in Europe and now in England in one of the early vampires tales I've been aiming to read, The Vampyre (Polidori's).

Not very suspenseful for the modern reader, to say the least. Possibly some formatting problems with my version that don't help either, as the narrative seems to jump places and times with not a blank line or even a carriage return.

I finished Double Enchantment, which was quite enjoyable and definitely a step up from Enchanting the Lady; I've now moved on to my other library checkout, a long-overdue re-read of Howl's Moving Castle as well as continuing my other reads.

>22 zjakkelien: Into the Dark Lands is interesting- the society seems different from the standard generic Medieval, with general gender egalitarianism, but definite divisions between the semi-divine Lines descended partially from the gods of light and darkness and normal mortal human beings. It's very sparsely drawn, though, and there's been a lot of skipping forward time-wise to show different points in the heroine's life; I understand the latter part of this book settles down somewhat in one time period and then the three after are set another timeskip later.

>22 zjakkelien:-23,25-26 I had that one requested from ER too, but I received Ardent Forest and The Complete Lythande instead (which I'm not in the least disappointed with). I'm interested in checking it out sometime, though, I read and liked Seer's Blood a few years ago.

There's a prequel to the Changespell trilogy too, Barrenlands, which I have in paperback but didn't realize was related until I was looking into Dun Lady's Jess again after I requested it- they don't sound terribly related at first glance, but I suspect maybe Barrenlands takes place entirely in the fantasy world of the Changespell trilogy? The ebook of Barrenlands is free at the author's Smashwords page.

I've escaped Memphis and the Materazzi and never need to read anything by Paul Hoffman again.

Now meandering around archaeological and mythological Britain in subpar (but better than Hoffman) Finding Camlann.

Must pick up something meatier and better written soon or will devolve into frothing rantbot.

28: From the reviews I just read, I believe you are right about Barrenlands. Not for me, I don't even think I'm going to read the sequels to Dun Lady's Jess. Jess/Lady was intriguing, but I thought the rest was mediocre. You're right, there are the annoying characters. Dayna is one, and I didn't particularly like Carey either. The best one besides Jess was Jaime for me. But all the others, including the annoying ones were rather uninteresting. I didn't really like the magic world either. It had nothing going for it, really. Plus the evil ones are rather shallow. All in all, I thought the book would have been really boring without Jess. She makes up for a lot, though...

Having finished The King's Peace, and wanting to follow it up with another book with a warrior woman as protagonist, I've picked up Bronwyn's Bane. It's not exactly what the gorgeous cover led me to expect -- Bronwyn is not yet a woman -- and so far it's light and frothy and it couldn't be more different from The King's Peace if it tried. I'm okay with that. Light and frothy is just what I'm in the mood for. I already have plans, after I've finished with this one, to go a little more serious and pick up The Cygnet and the Firebird, to renew my acquaintance with the splendid sword-wielding Meguet.

I spent yesterday in the Pax Aracana series, in Alaska in Charmed, I'm Sure and I'm not sure exactly where in Pushing Luck, maybe Virginia before Charming takes place.

I'm with the Good fairies of New York at the moment.

Setting out on some sort of ocean voyage in Red Wolf Conspiracy. It's a bit slow starting for me so far. There seem to be a lot of balls in the air in terms of world-building, and the pacing on how the information is being doled out isn't capturing my attention as well as it could.

Just exited "Elsewhere" leaving a short 4½**** review for Jacqueline West's The Strangers.

I'm currently in non-fiction land, dissecting The Matter of Britain. I suspect a reread of The King's Peace is in my future now that kceccato has mentioned it - it's been a long time, and I very much enjoyed it all those years ago.

Started another new one: Sorcery and Cecelia. This is actually an "extra" in my rotation, and I started it for a very practical reason. I'm considering adopting an epistolary style for my new writing project, and the only epistolary speculative fiction novels I know about are Dracula, Freedom and Necessity, and this one. Having already read the previous two, I thought I could find some inspiration in this one.

It's delightful. Right now I am very pleased with the books in my rotation.

37: I don't remember the details, but I liked Sorcery and Cecelia.

I'm reading Finders Seekers at the moment, and I'm loving it. It reminds me of Valdemar, except with cats instead of horses... The setting is really a lot alike, except that the cats are not mythical beings, but just the inhabitants of a different world that the humans have traveled to. The characters are more adult than the ones in most Valdemar books, so there's less angsty stuff.
What I don't understand is how the book differentiates between humans and animals, calling the cats (ghats) animals. They are intelligent and rational. They are quite simply the dominant intelligent race on a planet different from our own. Then why call them animals unless you also call humans animals? There is no fundamental difference between them.

I found the book to be a bit confusing at times in the beginning, because it holds some information back and is switching viewpoints a few times where I was wondering how this new person was related to the ones I already new. I read it in bits and pieces, and that didn't help... I got through that, though, and after could fully enjoy the book without being distracted by lack of understanding...

>37 kceccato:: Sorcery and Cecelia is lovely. There were just one or two places where the English wasn't quite British, but it didn't spoil the book for me.

>38 zjakkelien:: I thought I was the only person who'd read Finders Seekers! It is good, though I agree that it is confusing while you're still getting into it. It took me a couple of attempts before I stuck with it to the end, but I really enjoyed it once I did. A friend who knows I love cats gave me the whole series, but I haven't started the sequels yet.

The Three Worlds is the setting for The Cloud Roads. It has a good story in a really unique setting. This is a new author for me and so far I am really into this novel. I also have The Death of a Necromancer off to the side in my very large to read stack.

I'm currently in Cornwall waiting for Advent.

Nice to see your post - Martha Wells is fabulous and dreadfully under rated. I've loved her work for many many years. The Raksura series is a complete delight, and her Death of the Necromancer IMO deserves to be up there with any other major work in the field.

# 42: I agree, what little I have read so far is great and want to pick up the rest of the series

43: I recently read the Raksura series and really liked it. Glad to hear you do too!

39: I pick up a lot of reading tips in LT discussions, @Sakerfalcon, so I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up on my wishlist through something you said about it... If so, I'm glad you mentioned them, because the book is really good. The confusing bit is long past, and I'm really enjoying it...

In 'Newford'

In Le Cirque des Rêves, finally getting around to The Night Circus.

46: I hope you will like it, @CurrerBell! It took me over 100 pages to get into it, but then I loved it.

I loved that book from the beginning, it is one of those books that just enthralls you, at least to me anyways.

47,48> I'm about a third of the way through it so far and loving it. Somehow, maybe it's the historical fantasy aspect, it's reminding me of The Diviners, and I love nearly everything by Libba Bray (except Going Bovine, which I just couldn't get the sense of).

Currently in New York during the 1980s watching A Giant Cow-Tipping by Savages by John Weir Close during the M&A boom, this is a Early Reviewers book.

Still reading River of Stars, so I'm effectively in between books at the moment. I'll probably be picking up a fair amount of science fiction titles next, so I can join in with the Sci-Fi Experience.

Before that I read The Wanderers by Cheryl Mahoney. Quite fun. I have an interview with her scheduled on my blog next week, so I wanted to get it read before the interview went live. Before that I read The Goddess Chronicle by Natsuo Kirino. It's not been a month for much reading.

Just finished The Night Circus (5*****) and now I'm heading to Victorian London for Splendors and Glooms.

Just finished A Scholar of Magic and wouldn't mind a 3rd. in the series. Although #38 & #39 pointed me to another series by Caroline Stevermer Pity they are not Victorian, but I'll give them a go :-)

52: Glad you liked it @CurrerBell!

Just finished The Silvered by Tanya Huff - enjoyed it very much. I hope there will be a sequel.

I'm rereading Fragile Things while I wait for my library requests to come in.

I'm in a number of places, mainly I'm well Into the Dark Lands with Erin, back in Randland about seventy percent of the way to The Eye of the World after TWoT came up in a discussion with a coworker, and trying to get out of Alexandria with help from the Hand of Isis.

My Member Giveaway book Render is proving to be good when I feel the need to take a break, and I'm picking away at Crystal Soldier chapter by chapter, but even about Jela and Cantra's story just isn't capturing me in like the previous Liaden books- the tone is quite different, which isn't a bad thing since it's a different type of story, but it's also much slower at this point, a couple of chapters in to Part Two, which makes up the majority of the book. I'm giving this one time.

I've also been reading a story here and there from Eleanor Arnason's collection Ordinary People- these are fantastic stories, told with Arnason's usual wit and compassion. The Warlord of Saturn's Moons is one of my new favorite short stories. I think people who like Le Guin's work would probably like Arnason's as well.

>37 kceccato:-39 I liked Sorcery and Cecelia too! I need to read the sequels.

>38 zjakkelien:,39 Huh, I picked up Finders Seekers at a book sale years ago and completely forgot about it until I saw the cover again just now. I could never find the sequels locally so I was wary of starting it, but I see they're all available as ebooks now... Hmm.

>40 xymon81:,42 I finally read Martha Wells this year and enjoyed City of Bones (which didn't end up where I expected, which is always good), her Princess Leia novel Razor's Edge, and the Raksura story in The Other Half of the Sky. I'm definitely looking forward to reading more of her work.

I'm on the Caemlyn Road just outside of Baerlon, with Rand, Mat, Perrin, Nynaeve, Egwene, Thom, Morraine & Lan :)

Its probably the 5th time I've read Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World, but I hadn't read the prequel & haven't read any of the books written by Brandon Sanderson yet, so I've been looking forward to a full read through of the series :) I'm already feeling like I've come home to a world & characters I know very well & I'm really looking forward to the new (to me) books, but I'm noticing how overly descriptive the writing is at times & I don't think I've noticed that on previous reads...

57: Finders seekers is certainly worth the trouble, @sandstone78. I very much like the cats (sorry, ghats), I haven't found any misogyny yet, and the story is good. The main character Doyce is not the most open and sociable person, but I think that's mostly because she has lived through a lot. I do like her, and I hope she will find some kind of redemption, to let go of her fear of losing people. She is quite courageous, and still human. I'm at around 80% now, so I cannot tell you if the story has a decent ending, but from what I've seen so far, I definitely recommend it.

Just finished Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson. Computers, hackers, jinn, political unrest.

I finished A Giant Cow-Tipping by Savages yesterday and unfortunately it was a mishmash of good and bad. I've posted a review so I would direct you to that and not repeat it here. This was a LibraryThing Early Reviewers book and so far has been the worst reviewed of the three giveaway books from either Goodreads or LibraryThing that I've read so far this year.

Today I'm starting The Heart of Everything That Is by Bob Drury, it is a biography of the Sioux leader Red Cloud. I got this book via Goodreads First Reads.

I finished Speaker for the dead yesterday evening (well, night, it was 3.00 am). I read Ender's game as a child, and loved it. Naturally I went looking for the sequel, but for some reason, it didn't appeal to me at all. I gave the book a second chance, and I'm very glad I did so, because it is really a very good book. I loved the story, the mysteries, and the people. And it has a surprising message of tolerance, given some of the views of the author. Seems like a strange dichotomy to me. Maybe the man changed over time? No idea, and frankly, I don't care too much. He wrote an excellent book, and I'm glad I read it.

I've just started on The Swan Kingdom.

I'm in Lower Tadfield in Good Omens.

>62 zjakkelien:, exactly same shoes, read the first years ago and thought maybe should read the second after a friend recommended it. Still on TBR for me, but you've helped give it a nudge.

New thread - http://www.librarything.com/topic/161647.

alternate London for Kraken. It is a good read but I am also so confused at time. I know it is from being American and trying to understand Britsh English. I like it so far though. This is my first book by this author.