Where are you in Fantasyland? August, 2019

Finished The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner. Enjoyed it.

Next up is The Emperor's Blades by Brian Staveley.

I'm in Liglimon with a Wolf captured. There is far, far too much detail in this series but I like the characters.

I have started An Autumn War.

I've started The Silmarillion.

Just finished a re-read of Greenmantle by Charles De Lint. Not his best (the stereotyped gangsters thing got a bit annoying at times), but De Lint not-at-his-best is still good. I've never read one I didn't enjoy.

>5 rshart3: Wow, I haven't read anything by De Lint for probably over ten years. Maybe it's time to reread something by him.

Just finished Storm of Locusts, which suffered a little from sophomore slump but was still a fun, quick read that enticed me enough to look forward to the third book. In the middle of Midnight Robber (quite well written, but a little darker than what I'm often in the mood for) and A Confusion of Princes (probably sci-fi but is quite fun regardless of categorization).

Finished The Emperor's Blades by Brian Staveley. Enjoyed it.

Next up is The Purloined Poodle by Kevin Hearne.

Finished The Silmarillion, it was...um, alright.

I'm currently reading Between Worlds: Folktales of Britain and Ireland by Kevin Crossley-Holland. While not strictly fantasy, it retells various folk tales that have the ingredients that would be the basis of future fantasy stories so I think it counts.

Finished The Purloined Poodle. Nice bit of fluff.

Making a quick stop in Atlanta for Magic Gifts.

Just coming back from a beach vacation, during which I visited "The Forsaken Lands", Attolia, a bit of a "ye olde village" sort of fairy tale setting, and the depths of a big magical ship in: The Dagger's Path, The Queen of Attolia, The Cold is in Her Bones, and Ship of Smoke and Steel.

Currently closing out the vacation reading with a quick trip to the World of Five Gods in The Orphans of Raspay... always a pleasure.

It's off to the English countryside with Tamsin.

I'm mostly at sea so far in Mad Ship.

Finished Gardens of the Moon, the first Malazan book. It wasn't as dense or overwhelming as I feared, and I liked it overall. However, I didn't "love" it. I think my expectations were a little elevated after hearing all the glowing reviews from the Malazan fans (who rival ASOIAF and Wheel of Time fans for their dedication!)

It's only the first book, however, and hopefully I will warm up to it as I get more comfortable with all of the moving parts of this world. I'm 15% into Deadhouse Gates and it is off to a pretty good start.

I rushed through Sharon Shinn's new Uncommon Echoes series, which begins with Echo in Onyx. I was intrigued by the premise: a politically troubled fantasy kingdom where nobility are followed around by "echoes", identical in form and motion to the originals but without any minds of their own. The first book follows a servant woman who is forced to impersonate one of these echos after an accident. They're more romance than I was expecting, but the premise was fun and Shinn bends it in interesting ways. The best is probably the second book, Echo in Emerald. Overall they were probably not her best work -- like most of her more romance-heavy books, the emphasis is on internal character emotion rather than plot. When political intrigue is part of the premise, this tendency is disappointing. I did, however, find her depiction of the antagonists in the story interesting -- highly motivated but in no way sympathetic.

Oh, I also read Snow White and Rose Red, one of the few LT recommendations I've followed. The experiment of using Elizabethan era dialogue was interesting, and the plotting was well done, but turning a fairy tale into something more mundane rather misses the point, I think.

>15 Kanarthi: Ooh, I didn't know Sharon Shinn had a new series out! Mind you, these look like they are from a much smaller publisher, so maybe not getting into brick-and-mortar bookshops. I will check out the kindle editions.

Checking out what it's like being a powder mage in Promise of Blood.

>14 drmamm:, GotM is said to be worst in the series. I might agree, except for how interesting it is on re-read. My actual pick for worst would be Reaper's Gale, with its side plot I can't find the relevance of.

Similarly, I didn't find the third book to be the best, as most people seem to think. Most traditional, perhaps. I'd vote for either 5 or 6.

Alternating between a couple different titles right now, waiting for one of them to reach critical mass and demand my full attention: The Tiger at Midnight, The Priory of the Orange Tree, and Ash and Silver.

I gave up on my travels in Liglim with the Wolf captured. After 500 pages with 200 more to go I just didn't care enough. The first three books in the series stand together as a nice trilogy so I shall just pretend these next 3 don't exist.

Instead I went to France with the Stepsister of Cinderella which imagines what happened to the family after Ella departed to become Queen. This was a really great read, looking at what makes someone behave in an ugly way to others and whether they can ever overcome it. Highly recommended.

NEW THREAD: https://www.librarything.com/topic/310795