Where are you in Fantasyland? June, 2022

Still reading All the Seas of the World by Guy Gavriel Kay.

>1 seitherin:, I read them all up to Under Heaven and then I fell off the GGK wagon. He's still good?

I'm at a mysterious manor in Raybearer.

I'm at about the 25% mark on The Curse of the Mistwraith... and really struggling with it.

I think one of the main central elements could be compelling - a prince dropped into a situation where he is expected to defeat the titular curse and take up a throne when he's adamant he wants nothing to do with ruling anything - but I'm finding the writing style to be too verbose and it has a distancing effect where I'm not connecting with anything in that "sink into the story" way that I'm used to when reading.

I think I'm going to take a break and come back to it later. I do want to get through the first book, but if it doesn't improve, I probably won't continue with the rest of the series.

>2 Cecrow: I think so. I like how he writes his quasi-historicals of which this is one.

In a sort of pseudo-Roman or Byzantine empire in Heart of the Mirage. Liking it so far.

Just finished the Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series with To Green Angel Tower. Excellent ending to the series, which tied up the storylines in a very satisfying way. My only quibble was with the climax - I kind of scratched my head and thought "is that it?"

The upside of "slow burn" character and lore-driven series is that a properly written ending provides a great payoff - you have spent so much time with the characters and it is nice to see them grow and develop. I think this is why I enjoyed Wheel of Time so much - despite the often glacial pacing in the middle of the series.

>7 drmamm:, glad you liked Tad Williams; are you carrying on to The Witchwood Crown? If so I'd strongly recommend the bridging story first, The Heart of What Was Lost.

>8 Cecrow: I'm going to read a few other books before venturing back into Osten Ard. I just downloaded supernatural suspense/fantasy book by an author that I never heard of, but was highly recommended by Peter F. Hamilton in a recent interview. House of Lost Dreams by Graham Joyce. I also downloaded Recursion, by Blake Crouch, which takes me back into SF-land.

I'm still around Adua, now to find out what's the wisdom of crowds.
This latest Abercrombie trilogy is so good, and totally reflects the world around us now, despite everything...

I'm back in Astreiant in Point of Knives (thanks to Niko, who tipped me off that I should read that before the second full-length novel). The plot is thickening already....

Just finished reading about shadows in Holly Black's first adult novel, Book of night.

Onward to Point of Dreams with Nico, Philip, & a large supporting cast!

>4 Niko: I read this years ago and had a similar reaction. I did manage to finish it but was extremely disappointed by the ending and have never gone back to the series.

I just finished In the Shadow of Lightning by Brian McClellan and loved it! Great first book in a new series with inventive magic, and really interesting world and outstanding characters.

Just finished House of Lost Dreams by Graham Joyce. Pretty decent book. It's hard to classify - the closest I can get is "magical realism with a bit of horror." If you enjoy (modern) Greece or Greek culture you will probably enjoy the book. The prose and scene-setting is excellent, which mostly compensates for a meandering plot. The ending ties the story up nicely.

I have been enjoying the ongoing reunion of the Red Company in The Redoubtable Pali Avramapul.

In Cincy with Rachel Morgan in Trouble with the Cursed (The Hollows 16).

I've just left Karpentine with the Queen of Clouds by Neil Williamson after enjoying his previous The Moon King. A complicated, twisty plot with plenty of action and a plethora of ideas. I'm enjoying this new-to-me writer and shall look out for his next book.

I'm back on the Black Coast, finding out what happens to The splinter king!

Eire, after reading Master of the Sidhe by Kenneth C. Flint, an old novelization of Celtic myths.

Just visited Wisconsin to learn about When women were dragons.

Next up: visiting Victorian London with Zillah in Theatre of Marvels, the debut novel by Lianne Dillsworth.

Later: Oh wait, not genre but historical fiction. Good though.

I went back to Curse of the Mistwraith and read another 25% of it, so I'm 50% complete with that book now. I've kind of decided this works for me... reading it 25% chunks, with a break in between. When the story is doing action-y things, I am enjoying it, but the spaces in between when it's doing Tolkien-esque pastoral stuff or "council of wizards sitting around expounding on portentous decisions" stuff, it's just a bit too much.

For my 'break' this time, I've just started on a trip to the world of "Red London" (I'm guessing we'll be hopping to Gray London or other colors of London at some point, also) in A Gathering of Shadows.

Just downloaded The Blade Itself. Finally getting around to reading some Joe Abercrombie. I hope my expectations haven't crept ahead of reality.

>25 drmamm: Great! And if after that you think that you actually need more politics and "industrial age" instead of just 'medieval setting', try his latest trilogy The age of madness, which takes place about 20 years after that first one and can be read independently.

Just finished a fairy tale that was fractured in a 2020s feminist way (as opposed to a 1960s Rocky & Bullwinkle way) by Alix E. Harrow, A mirror mended. This one takes the Brier Rose character through a bunch of Snow White variations, as well as the whole traveling-through-worlds thing. Pretty good novella. I'll probably read the first one (A spindle splintered) eventually.

I also started reading Jane Lindskold's Library of the Sapphire Wind, which is a portal fantasy that groups three older (i.e., retired) human women with three young local people in another world. Lindskold addresses some of the problems with portal fantasies and has some fun playing with tropes. It's light but not necessarily fluffy.

>28 karenb: I have this on my TBR pile! Glad to see that someone else here has read it.

>29 Sakerfalcon: Lindskold's an author whose new releases I always have to check out if not actually read them. (This one will have to go back to the library today, though, unfinished for now.)

I am in whatever Guy Gavriel Kay calls his not-Earth, reading Children of Earth and Sky.

New thread for the new month: https://www.librarything.com/topic/342700

I read the two books in the Hurog Duology - Dragon Bones & Dragon Blood I really enjoyed both of them.

Well into the entertaining Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman. The problems of being a vampire, archives, queerness, fanfiction, AO3 -- what's not to like?