Where are you in fantasyland? May 2026

Happy May Day!

I'm in Yscalin Among the Burning Flowers with Marosa Vetalda.

Happy workers day!
I just finished The inheritance, which is primarily taking place in a dimensional gate filled with monsters poised to overrun Earth, specifically Chicago.

I am about halfway through a fantasy tale that features Urban Planning as its central theme: Last First Snow is all about gentrifying the slums of Dresediel Lex. Riveting stuff, (no really, Gladstone is pulling this off pretty well so far).

Just finished Keeper of the Lost Cities -- and literally just finished; I almost didn't make it. A disappointing mass of cliches: characters, plot, setting, magic elements -- all cliches repeated over and over. The protagonist's cliched insecurities repeated. No more Keeper/Lost Cities for me, please.

Now I've transitioned to a village where someone (Human?) is being trained in assassination techniques, in The Saint of Bright Doors . Seems promising in a dark-fantasy sort of way; and apparently a figure-it-out-as-you-go-along tale, a mode I like.

>3 ScoLgo: I love that series! Are you reading in publication order or chronological?

I'm in a corporate office experiencing Crosstalk. I guess this is more SF but the science involved is closer to fantasy.

>6 Sakerfalcon: I am (sort of) reading the internal chronology... I started with Three Parts Dead, because my library had the e-book. I then ordered a used copy of First Last Snow, and have just placed a hold on a physical copy of Two Serpents Rise. My library doesn't have physical or e-copies of Four Roads Cross so I'm watching for used copies at a good price. I prefer hardcover print books but The Craft Sequence is expensive in hardback!

How are you liking the Willis? I like her writing style but often have a tough time with her maddeningly obtuse antagonistic(ish) characters... LOL.

I'm on my way back to Faerieland in The Queen of Nothing.

I'm wandering around future England with Kay and Lancelot, immortal warriors who have been called back to help, because those are Perilous times.

>7 ScoLgo: I got the Craft books on kindle as they were published, so read them in that order. I then decided I wanted them in print, but they haven't been published in the UK. You can find US imports at Forbidden Planet, but I managed to get them used in a mix of paper and hardback. It's one of my favourite series, unlike anything else I've read.

I agree with you about Willis' characters. Briddey has the most annoying family ever and I want to throttle them all. And she herself doesn't have a whole lot more sense. It's good fun overall so far though.

I am in Louisiana where They bloom at night.

>10 Sakerfalcon: I find the characters in Crosstalk particularly annoying, even for a Connie Willis novel (and to be clear, I like nearly everything she's written). Maeve, however, is awesome.

>12 merrystar: Yes she is!

I finished The Saint of Bright Doors. An odd book (also a very South Asian book), which I found a bit too episodic at times, but still strangely compelling. Certainly he draws from many traditions, from Kafka to multiple religions to dark fantasy. I'll be interested to read more by him.

I'm on Dragon Mountain with Halla in the brand new Virago Modern Classics edition of Travel Light.

>14 rshart3: I would not recommend his other novel Rakesfall. Too disconnected and badly written. Someone said that it seemed like a reject that had been dug out from a drawer due to the success of The saint of bright doors.

>16 amberwitch: Thanks. I think that your "disconnected" might be what I was calling "episodic". I may still read it at some point, but your message has moved it well down my TBR list. So many books, so little time...

I'm in the lands of the fallen empire of Jhandpara, overthrown by magic-generated poisonous brambles, in The Tangled Lands, a collaboration by Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias S. Buckell. Commoners becoming heroes, evil magicians, good worldbuilding, characters to identify with. Good reading.

Going with some light reads.
1. Just finished the latest in a LitRPG series that I started through bingo a few years ago and decided to keep on with it - Citadel of Smoke

2. Just starting Heart of Flames - fairly straightforward YA fare

>15 vwinsloe: I *love* Travel Light! I love seeing it coming up more and more lately. It deserves to be better known.

I'm also on something light, walking around Fairie with the last in the trilogy, Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales.
Not as good as the others, or maybe I'm in a different mood...

>20 Niko: I hope that this newly published Virago edition will do the trick. It is hard to believe that it was originally published in 1952. Naomi Mitchison was really something else.

I am back in Dresediel Lex as my library hold came through for Two Serpents Rise. I also picked up Trail of Lightning while I was there so that will be up next.

I'm heading to Ankh-Morpork for a reread of Feet of Clay

>16 amberwitch: OTOH, Rakesfall won a few awards, so at least some people like it.

Last time, forgot to say that I'd also read A court of thorns and roses, because Cecilia Tan is doing a chapter-by-chapter reading on YouTube.

I'm on level 3 of the dungeon on Earth with Carl and Princess Donut in Carl's Doomsday Scenario

My last read, Heart of Flames wasn't scratching the right itch, and I shifted to something a bit meatier with a visit to the City of Last Chances. This is my first dip into Adrian Tchaikovsky waters, which had been feeling like a gap in my reading catalog, given how prolific he has been recently.

Level 4 of the Earth dungeon with Carl and Princess Donut... exploring trains

I finished Crosstalk and enjoyed it quite a lot, despite the annoying characters. It was a fun read.

Now I'm in the city of Vaiwyn learning What wakes the bells.

Currently traveling the world courtesy of Theodora Goss's Letters from an imaginary country. It started in London, moved to Budapest, Hungary and parts of the US, then spent a story in Cimmeria (as documented in the Journal of Imaginary Anthropology). All good so far.

In the Library again, re-reading The book that wouldn't burn (and the rest of the trilogy).