Joelendil tagged me with this and since it was his first time doing a tag on his blog, I wanted to make sure to actually do this instead of letting it languish in my “saved drafts” like the 3 other tags I currently have sitting in there. I guess the point of this tag is to just react quickly to the questions with fantasy titles and not think, like a flame of fire racing along dried wood, devouring everything in its path.
Hope you have your s’mores ready!
5 STAR BOOK
The Last Dragon by Jane Yolen. One of the few times that the art overpowered me & one of the few graphic novels that impressed the ever-living daylights out of me.
ALWAYS GOING TO RECOMMEND
Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher. This is the first book in the Codex Alera series and the whole series is just fantastic. Never could get into Dresden and almost gave up on Butcher, until I tried this. Now I am a fan of the author, just not Dresden.
OWN IT BUT HAVEN’T READ
The Warlock Holmes books (to date). I’m saving them to read until the series finishes. That is how I roll, yo, power to the people! #englishlivesmatter
WOULD READ IT AGAIN
Eye of the World by Robert Jordan. Not only WOULD I read this book again, but I WILL be reading this book, and series, again. Hopefully by the end of year if not a little sooner.
IN ANOTHER WORLD
While MOST fantasy does take place on another world already, the book that sprang to mind was Magic Kingdom for Sale – Sold! by Terry Brooks. Ben buys a magic kingdom in a cataloge, thinking it’s a joke. Only to have it turn out to be a Real Magic Kingdom in another world and he is king indeed.
BACK ON EARTH
The Thirteenth Child by Patricia Wrede. The Frontier Magic trilogy by Wrede takes place in an Alternate American West. Wrede is one those female writers who doesn’t write warrior women grrrl power books and hence seems to not have caught the wave of social pukeitude sweeping the world. This is middle grade, so while it isn’t deeply complex, neither is it simplistic. Wrede is too good a writer for that!
I don’t tag people, just in case you didn’t know. But if you want something quick and easy, this definitely fits the category. I will leave you now with the words from a song that are very apropos, even if I have nothing good whatsoever to say about the band.
Come on baby, light my fire
Come on baby, light my fire
Try to set the night on fire
Nice! Especially that Doors quote, now I have it looped in my mind 😉 I’m a bit surprised, though – no Cook, no McKillip… Not even one Dickens! 😀
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Cook is not an author that springs to mind for the most part. He is a solid workman but he also introduces things, usually right at the end of a a series, that turns me off.
As for McKillip, I recommend her stuff all the time, so figured I’d try to think of somebody else for once 🙂
As for Dickens, I wouldn’t think of him and fantasy together. Even a Christmas Carol is more “supernatural” than Fantasy. If that makes sense.
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I as a bit disappointed by Warlock Holmes so I really hope you like it better!
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Yeah, I’ve heard very conflicting reports and it seems to hinge on whether you like the type of humor. So I’m hoping I’ll like the first book and then the series 🙂
Humor is SO subjective, sigh…
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I dont even know the song but i hear the music in my head now😂, how weird is that… great post mate, again, I have never heard of any of these books before🙈
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It is an old 60’s song, so depending on what you listen to, you could very easily never have heard it. I like the music even while not particularly liking the message of the song.
One of the few “things” about having read so many books is that as long as I’m keeping a record, I can pull some little known ones out of a hat. It is fun! 🙂
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Ooh, I read The Thirteenth Child, but hadn’t remembered that it was a trilogy. I should look into that. Also, I’ve been unsure about the Codex Alera, so it’s good to hear that it’s more enjoyable than Dresden!
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Oh, you definitely should read the rest of the trilogy by Wrede. Mrs B AND I read and enjoyed the whole thing. Not perfect mind you, but it was not time or money wasted in our opinion.
And I love Alera, a lot. If I didn’t know, and I wasn’t looking for it, I’m not really sure I could have told you that they and Dresden were by the same author. Alera is probably due a re-read in a couple of years by now 🙂
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Awesome, thanks! I’ll look into both. I do like Wrede’s work, I had just forgotten about this book. And I think I’ll look into Alera instead of trying to re-start Dresden.
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For me, a fairly rabid Butcher fanboy, it took me a while to get into the first Alera book. But once I did…I really got into it. It feels very different from Dresden to me, too (ditto for The Cinder Spires).
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Good to know, thanks!
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I enjoyed the Cinder Spires too. But at this point I’ve given up hope that he’ll ever continue the series.
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I was disappointed with the sequels, but Magic Kingdom for Sale: Sold is just great. Read it more times than I can remember
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The rest of the series indeed were disappointments. Didn’t stop him from writing more and more of them though 🙂
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Say one thing about Terry Brooks, he knows how to squeeze every last drop from an idea.
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A Wheel of Time re-read… That takes patience, and strength and a LOT of willpower… 😀
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Eh, I really enjoyed it, so beyond the frustration of reading repeated smoothing, pulling, tugging, etc, I should be good to go 🙂
Plus, I’m pretty sure I already did a re-read of everything Jordan in preparation for the sanderson trilogy conclusion. So back in ’11 and ’12.
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It’s nice to hear from you about a graphic novel on this blog. Hmmm maybe it’s the beginning of a… rebirth? 😀 😀 😀
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hahahahahaha! Sorry, not really getting my second (graphic novel) wind.
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Curious about the last dragon!
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Mrs B and I bought it at one of our few mall expeditions we took near the beginning of our marriage. It was a worthwhile buy…
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