Where are you in Fantasyland, January 2016?

It's the start of a new year, and while I'm currently not in Fantasyland at the moment I hope to be by the end of the month.

For those of you who are in Fantasyland, let us know where you're at...

Also not currently in fantasyland, so I'm just marking a spot so I can get back here when I am.

I'm reading one of my Santa Thing picks, The Devil You Know by Mike Carey and really enjoying it! I'm also continuing to listen to The Liar's Key by Mark Lawrence and my favorite narrator, Tim Gerard Reynolds .

Just finished The Children of Odin, which is not bad for a children's book. It's interesting to see where Fantasy standards like elves, dwarves, giants, etc.. originally came from. Next is a short trip back to Elantris with The Hope of Elantris.

Just finished Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. Overall it's a good story, but the opening is horribly violent for something that's marketed to kids. (For example, the website featured on the back of the book is harpercollinschildrens.com, and check out the tags here on LT - "children's" and "YA" are prominent tags.) While we don't see any murders, they have just happened. The killer is wiping the blood off his knife as we first see him, and he's going for the toddler! The toddler escapes, but still!

Doing a reread of Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly.

Traveling in and out of the Mirrorworld in The Golden Yarn, the third in the Reckless series by Cornelia Funke. Only wish I could remember what happened in the first two books.

Spending some time with Norse gods in The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris.

I'm not quite in FantasyLand, but in a slightly alternate Earth with the stories in The Gods of H.P. Lovecraft.

Currently travelling through a rather twisted version of fairy-tale-land in The Book of Lost Things.

I'm hoping to start The Desert Spear tonight.

Just finished Veiled by Benedict Jacka. The weakest in the Alex Verus series so far, but OK. It suffers from something I've noticed in other supernatural suspense series as they progress: a proliferation of talking and of endless "political" complications. Many series have weaker volumes, so I'm not too discouraged.

I'm in Radiant, with a living girl without magic (who can see ghosts, but not color) and the ghost of a girl who isn't dead that she's been commissioned to take care of in a world where magic is currency.

I don't read a lot of YA, but I saved a sample of this one a while back after seeing the recently released third book in the trilogy referred to as "basically an asexual romance between the heroines" (in a blog post that I maddeningly can't find back), and when I finally got around to reading it I immediately went and bought the full book.

The writing really drew me in, and the world and magic system are fascinating- I think that if you like Sabriel and sequels or (possibly, having sampled but not read it) Archivist Wasp, you'd probably like this too. Whether or not it's an asexual romance or a female friendship story, I can't say for sure yet, but the relationship between our heroines seems to be pinging "romance" rather than friendship for me at this point.

Finished Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly. Still a favorite.

Started NOS4A2 by Joe Hill.

I am at long last in Cainsville in Deceptions.

My practice is not to start epic fantasy series until they're finished. This is after being stuck with a couple of authors who delayed for long periods (one example is P.C. Hodgell's Kencyrath books, which I love, but which had a loooonng gap at one point.)
But I've finally given in and started reading Game of Thrones, realizing that if I wait for him to finish, I'll be too old to remember to read them -- and besides which, one of us is likely to die first. Anyway, it's good so far.

>15 Unreachableshelf: Love that series!

>16 rshart3: Interesting, I've never heard of the Kencyrath books, but it seems to be getting good reviews. I think I might check it out.

>15 Unreachableshelf:, >17 zjakkelien: I didn't like the second book at all, but I thought Deceptions was almost as good as Omens.

>16 rshart3:, lol, I think the fanfare when he publishes the last book will be loud enough that everyone will notice. The greater concern is how long that'll be after the television show wraps up, because we're talking potentially years worth of heavy spoiler avoidance.

"Game of Thrones show to outpace books owing to new novel's delay"
http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/new-got-book-delayed-1.3387388

>19 Cecrow: It's already outpaced the books. The real question will be how close the stories end up.

Finished The Gospel of Loki. Didn't care for it.

Started Shaman's Crossing by Robin Hobb.

Just finished a wonderful re-imagining of Rumpelstiltskin set in a pre-Industrial Revolution woolen mill, in A Curse as Dark as Gold. It's a real shame that Elizabeth Bunce doesn't have more work to her name, because I really love her take on sensible, competent YA heroines who have enough flaws that they will sometimes make troubles worse for themselves, but are still quite capable of digging themselves out on the other end.

Currently working on the "self-published" square of my fantasy bingo with a trip to a fantasy-variant of the Old West in Bloodrush.

I'm reading Gracekeepers because I really shouldn't ignore ER books forever once I'm caught up on things with actual deadlines.

I'm visiting the Fortress of owls in Galasien.

Finished NOS4A2 by Joe Hill and started The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg.

Back to finishing To Green Angel Tower. I think I started these after a cecrow(?) recommendation, then stopped from fantasy fatigue amongst other stuff. Very very rich. Glad to be back on board. Entering The Taig, with Eolair

Finished Shaman's Crossing and started Forest Mage.

>26 cremorn:, yup, probably me! Apparently the first new sequel in that series is written, The Witchwood Crown, according to Tad Williams' web site, and we can expect its publication sometime this year.

Edit: Whoops, correction - March 2017. With a new "bridging novel" in front of it, January 2017, called "The Heart of What Was Lost" (no touchstone yet).
http://www.tadwilliams.com/2016/01/re-reading-memory-sorrow-and-thorn/

I'm taking a quick trip to George R.R. Martin's Planetos to see The Ice Dragon.

I'm heading back to Chicago for Fool Moon.

I'm reading .Sisters of the Raven by Barbara Hambly. I like her world and her characters but she's really stretching out the story, and the treatment of one group of characters isn't sitting well with me, so I don't think I'll be reading all of it. I will try more of her books and see what they're like.

>31 nhlsecord: This is on my tbr pile, but it may be staying there for a bit longer based on your comments! I really liked Hambly's Stranger at the wedding.

>31 nhlsecord: Sisters of the Raven is probably my least favorite of Hambly's books. My personal favorite is The Darwath Trilogy followed by The Silicon Mage books.

Anyhoo...Finished The Paper Magician and started The Glass Magician. Easy reading with an interesting take on magic.

I'm in London in Heart's Magic.

13> I think I found that post on Radient you were talking about?

This brings us, at last, to Karina Sumner-Smith's glorious Towers trilogy, of which I've read the first two (in my defense, the third book has yet to be released!). At its core is the mighty bond of love (possibly Sapphic but seemingly asexual and, even if romantic in nature, obviously impractical!) between two young women and their very different types of magic.

A library Overdrive hold came in, so I've been in some strange places with Thora Lassiter and Saraswati Callicot in a planet with a Dark Orbit, which is equal parts fascinating and frustrating; eg there's a subculture of people out of step with the rest of the world due to relativistic space travel, along the lines of Cherryh's Merchanters, but intriguingly different since the travel is instantaneous from their perspective- but there are also digs at present-day corporate and management culture straight out of something like Office Space. The parts just don't all fit together for me.

>35 pwaites: Thanks! I kept coming across that one when I was looking, but I remembered it being somewhat more positive about the idea of an asexual relationship (and asexuality in general- I can't help but read the whole "possibly Sapphic but seemingly asexual" phrase as somewhat disparaging).

However, your post spurred me to switch up my search terms, and I found it! I was pretty sure it was a review of the third book, Towers Fall, that put it back on my radar, but it turned out to be an interview with the author. She doesn't explicitly use the term asexual (which is why it wasn't coming up in my search results!), but what she was describing sounded very much like an asexual romance (or possibly an aromantic/queerplatonic relationship): "only in writing Towers Fall was it clear that, though there is no traditional romantic plotline, no sex or even kissing, these two women love each other." I'm going to be very put out if one of them dies.

> 32 & > 33 Thanks, I'll look for more of her books :)

36> Thanks for the interview link. I've bumped it up the TBR. It's always nice to find a book (especially YA) without the usual romance subplot, even if the main character isn't asexual.

Not quite in Fantasyland at the moment, but currently preparing myself for future adventures with The Tough Guide to Fantasyland.

I'm back to the Demon Cycle with The Daylight War.

Finished Forest Mage and started Renegade's Magic.

Currently starting Memory Man by David Balacci so far it's quite intriguing.

Finished The Glass Magician and started The Master Magician.

I've arrived in Ankh-Morpork to find evidence of a species with Feet of Clay.

Finished The Master Magician and thereby the whole trilogy. Overall, it was pretty meh. The magic system was intersting.

Started The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley.

That's too bad, I don't have time for meh. But I've heard good stuff about The Mirror Empire so hopefully you'll have better luck there.

>28 Cecrow: Cecrow: Still January? (just) Well, better get moving on Green Angel Tower #2, then. Currently I am with Elspeth back in Obernewtyn with Isobelle Carmody's Ashling. Wha...? 2017? It's GRRM all over again!

Heading back to Krynn again with Darkness and Light.

I'm in L.A. (sort of) in Killing Pretty.

>48 JP000:, oh... ouch... I'm sorry to hear that, LOL. Somewhere between that one and Kendermore, even teenage, non-critical, likes-everything me knew the series had come off the rails.

>50 Cecrow: I sort of look at these books as a bit of mindless fun, but I have to admit I'm really struggling with this one already. Unfortunately the next book in my Dragonlance pile is Kendermore.

>50 Cecrow: I sort of liked the Flint prelude, but the Tanis one was my last Dragonlance book ever. Well, as far novels went, still used the RPG material on occasions.