Where are you in Fantasyland? September, 2023

New thread for September.

I'm still moving slowly through Binti: Home. Any good fall fantasy reads?

I've started The surviving sky and it's already super interesting, very different!

Started Only a monster by Vanessa Len. Will probably finish it today, and move on to this months SFF challenge, something non-English, with Academia by line wenzel who is, as far as I can tell, a danish author although the book takes place in New York.

I'm a few pages into Legendborn. Re: fall fantasy reads, I'm planning on finally reading Legends and Lattes this month!

My next bedtime reading (which is always essays, letters, stories -- i.e. short) is Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm, by none other than Philip Pullman. It came out in 2012 but I hadn't known about it. I actually found it at my local independent bookstore, not at the used book stores I frequent just as often. I love fairy tales, and I love Pullman (and I can be sure he won't sugarcoat them).

Spending time in the Discworld with Equal Rites.

I'm about 75% through Into the West, which is... not her best. Mostly it's Travel Logistics: The Novel!

I'm in Nadezra seeking the Labyrinth's heart and in Staffordshire, England, having some Grave suspicions.

I'm in the Range of Ghosts in an alternate central Asia in the first volume of an Elizabeth Bear trilogy. Very good world- and character-building so far; a rather dark scenario. There's something odd going on with time, and different skies in different areas, that I don't understand yet -- probably it will come clear. Another figure-out-the-real-picture-as-you-read series, which I love.

About 70% into my re-read of The Great Hunt. I am enjoying it the second time through, and I didn't realize how much of the timeline/plot structure that I had forgotten or mixed up.

>9 rshart3: It is funny, I think Elizabeth Bear is an amazing author, loved the Jacobs Ladder and Jenny Casey series, but I never really warmed to her straight fantasy writing.

>11 amberwitch: I have authors like that too, where I like them in one genre and not another. But in this case I like both.

I’m very late to the party but have finally gotten around to Good Omens.

Back to the Dragaeran Empire in Tsalmoth. I just read a section where they were talking about other worlds, and Vlad asked what Dragaeran Empire meant and was told that it basically means 'Imperial Empire' and was told that before that, the world was called various terms for dirt.

>10 drmamm: Glad you are enjoying The Great Hunt. I'm trying to decide if I should re-read the 4th book now or after this season of the TV series. Still thinking.

>13 varielle: did you like it?

I'm back in the world of the Imager Portfolio reading Imager's Battalion

>16 elorin: I’m only one chapter in so far but love the show.

>15 Karlstar: I'm only re-reading what's in the current season, so I'm debating whether or not to re-read The Dragon Reborn. I may have to if I'm sticking to my rules! I could possibly see some of Book 4 being pulled into this season, since Rand wants to go "east."

>18 varielle: I just watched Good Omens 2 and I am thinking a reread of the book is in order.

>13 varielle: I'm jealous that you're reading it for the first time. I think I've read it at least 10 times, probably more. My go to comfort read.

I finished my re-read of The Great Hunt, which was just as good the second time around. I had forgotten how good the climax was (and how little time was actually spent in Falme). I am probably going to move onto The Dragon Reborn, since at least part of the book will be in the current season of the WoT TV series.

>22 drmamm: I enjoyed my re-read of that one too, and The Dragon Reborn.

I'm not sure where exactly it's taking place in a larger context, but I'm hanging out in Edgmont (and venturing into the Badlands) with Tara and co. in Dead country.

Still in Lydar/Bovaria with Quaeryt in Antiagon Fire

I'm in Australia with Temeraire and Laurence in Tongues of Serpents.

Now in the city of Luriat with The saint of bright doors by Vajra Chandrasekera.

I'm in the Grishaverse for Rule of Wolves.

Now learning about brujeria in Cemetery Boys.

I'm in an historic Bath, England plus fairies, sprites, and goddesses for Mortal follies.

I've started following The Deeds of Paksennarion.

>31 Niko:, I've been tempted to try it again, after trying many years ago. Reviews have made me hesitate.

>32 Cecrow: I'm enjoying it. I'm only partially through book 1 (not sure how far because the version I'm reading has the omnibus of all three and I'm too lazy to figure it out on the kindle). It's a very different sort of fantasy, in that it is very "play-by-play" in following the life of our heroine through fairly "mundane" soldiering. Paks has impressed people above her, but it doesn't buy her a seat at the table with the decision-makers the way it might in a traditional fantasy. She follows orders that come down through the chain of command, and only sees the bigger picture when she ends up in the thick of the fray.

It also does a thing that I tend to enjoy where the narration is fairly surface-level, with seeming to not have much introspection... but the author is good enough that I still totally 'get' what Paks is feeling and how she's responding to the world around her. Sometimes that kind of "read between the lines" writing can fall flat, but when it hits for me, it's grand.

(I know we moved on to new month, but seemed like the reply should go here.)

In the "bottle dimension" of Seanan McGuire's "Incryptid" series, book 11 "Spelunking through Hell". (One of these days, I will learn how to insert those nifty links). Second read-through of the series.

>34 stuartperegrine: To link to a title, put a single bracket on either side, : Spelunking through Hell -- for an author, double brackets: gives Seanan McGuire. Double check what you get in the touchstone list that pops up on the right, to make sure it didn't pull up the wrong thing (often the list has the one you want, too -- then click on that one) (hmm -- edit; I can't get the brackets to show in my email. They're the square things used like parentheses)

>34 stuartperegrine: >35 rshart3: Supposedly, triple square brackets gives a series. Never tried it though.

To get actual square brackets showing in a message: for a left bracket, type ampersand-hash-91-semicolon (without the hyphens); for a right, ampersand-hash-93 (not 92)-semicolon. [ ]