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Fantasy Books

LRK

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Joined
Nov 13, 2012
Robert Lynn Asprin: "Myth Directions & Hit or Myth" - An omnibus containing books 3 & 4 of The Myth Adventures of Aahz and Skeeve (which began with "Another Fine Myth")

"This place stinks!" my scaly mentor snarled, glaring out the window at the rain.
"Yes, Aahz," I agreed meekly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he snapped, turning his demon's speckled gold eyes on me.
"It means," I gulped, "that I agree with you. The Kingdom of Possiltum, and the palace specifically, stink to high heaven - both figuratively and literally."
"Ingratitude!" Aahz made his appeal to the ceiling. "I lose my powers to a stupid practical joker, and instead of concentrating on getting them back, I take on some twit of an apprentice who doesn't have any aspirations higher than being a thief; train him, groom him, and get him a job paying more than he could spend in two lifetimes, and what happens? He complains! I suppose you think you could have done better on your own?"
It occurred to me that Aahz's guidance had also gotten me hung, embroiled in a magik duel with a master magician, and recently, placed in the unenviable position of trying to stop the world's largest army with a handful of down-at-heels demons. It also occurred to me that this was not the most tactful time to point out these minor nerve-jangling incidents.
"I'm sorry, Aahz," I grovelled. "Possiltum is a pretty nice kingdom to work for."
"It stinks!" he declared, turning to the window again.
I stifled a sigh. A magician's lot is not a happy one. I stole that from a tune Aahz sings off and on... key. More and more, I was realizing the truth of the jingle. As the court magician to my king I had already endured a great deal more than I had ever bargained for.
 

LRK

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 13, 2012
Terry Pratchett: "Raising Steam" - The railway comes to Discworld.
 

Ducky

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 14, 2018
Terry Pratchett: "Raising Steam" - The railway comes to Discworld.

What are your thoughts on that one? I started it but haven't gotten around to finishing it yet. Have you read SHEPHERD'S CROWN?
 

LRK

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 13, 2012
What are your thoughts on that one? I started it but haven't gotten around to finishing it yet. Have you read SHEPHERD'S CROWN?

I liked it - it wasn't his very best, but I enjoy Pratchett, so I had fun reading it, though it wasn't as laugh-out-loud-funny as some as his other books can be. It felt a bit... heavier, more serious? I don't know if that was intentional or not. It carried over some storylines - or continued them - from "Snuff"; the goblins, especially, so it was nice to see that development.

I haven't read "Shepherd's Crown" yet, but I adored "Wee Free Men", and I love Tiffany Aching, so I'd be surprised if I didn't care for it. Have you read it, and if so, how did you like it? Was it a worthy & satisfying conclusion? ("Wee Free Men" is among my favourites - my favourite being "The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents".:) Also, "Night Watch" is great.)
 

LRK

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 13, 2012
Mercedes Lackey & Roberta Gellis: "This Scepter'd Isle" - Tudor fantasy. The first in the Doubled Edge.
 

beachmouse

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 23, 2017
Ben Aaronovich's 'Rivers of London' series is even parts snarky urban fantasy and love letter to London in all its modern multicultural glory. Our Hero is PC Peter Grant, who through a series of events finds himself apprenticed to the last wizard left in the Metropolitan Police Service

“What's the biggest thing you've zapped with a fireball?' I asked.
'That would be a tiger,'said Nightingale.
'Well don't tell Greenpeace,' I said. 'They're an endagered species.'
'Not that sort of tiger,' said Nightingale. 'A Panzer-kampfwagen sechs Ausf E.'
I stared at him. 'You knocked out a Tiger tank with a fireball?'
'Actually I knocked out two,' said Nightingale. 'I have to admit that the first one took three shots, one to disable the tracks, one through the driver's eye slot and one down the commander's hatch - brewed up rather nicely.”
- Moon Over Soho

“In the 1960s the planning department of the London County Council, whose unofficial motto was Finishing What the Luftwaffe Started, decided that what London really needed was a series of orbital motorways driven through its heart.”
- Moon Over Soho

“From then on, it was even twistier B-roads through a country so photgenically rural that I half expected to meet Bilbo Baggins around the next corner - providing he'd taken to driving a Nissan Micra.”
-Foxglove Summer
 

karne

in Emergency Backup Mode
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 1, 2013
Country
Australia
There's a new Tolkien. WHY DID I NOT KNOW THIS? Fortunately I found out in the best way - unwrapping it on Christmas Day. It's The Fall of Gondolin and in the foreword Christopher Tolkien acknowledges that he did lead us all astray a little by saying in the foreword of Beren and Luthien that it would be his last book.

I think it's safe to assume that this is his last book.
 

cathlen

Team Gorgeous Cacti!
Record Breaker
Joined
May 2, 2015
Country
Poland
There's a new Tolkien. WHY DID I NOT KNOW THIS? Fortunately I found out in the best way - unwrapping it on Christmas Day. It's The Fall of Gondolin and in the foreword Christopher Tolkien acknowledges that he did lead us all astray a little by saying in the foreword of Beren and Luthien that it would be his last book.

I think it's safe to assume that this is his last book.

If they will release it in Polish, I have present for my mum :)
 

moonvine

All Hail Queen Gracie
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Joined
Mar 14, 2007
Country
United-States
I just got done with "The Magicians" series by Lev Grossman. Love it and the TV show based on it. Now reading The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. It was on my library's list of "best books" for 2017 (ok, my library is a little slow). Had it on hold for quite a while. Good so far.
 

Edwin

СделаноВХрустальном!
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Joined
Jan 5, 2019
Does Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" fall into this category?

I greatly enjoyed the books, but the full cast audio books even more. Reading from the pages while listening to the expert cast telling the story of Lyra, Will and the other characters really immersed me in the alternate universe Mr Pullman created.
 

ramurphy2005

Unabashed Mainer
On the Ice
Joined
Feb 12, 2014
Country
United-States
Does Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" fall into this category?

I greatly enjoyed the books, but the full cast audio books even more. Reading from the pages while listening to the expert cast telling the story of Lyra, Will and the other characters really immersed me in the alternate universe Mr Pullman created.

Have you picked up the prequel, The Book of Dust, yet?
 

LRK

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 13, 2012
Robert Lynn Asprin: "Myth-ing Persons & Little Myth Marker" - An omnibus containing books 5 and 6 of The Myth Adventures of Aahz and Skeeve (which began with "Another Fine Myth").

"Myth-ing Persons" - When three fugitives escape through the back door in their reception room, Aahz and Skeeve are made responsible for bringing them back - which means venturing into a completely unknown and potentially hostile dimension. Of course, things aren't that simple... (Are they ever?)

"Little Myth Marker" - When Skeeve sneaks out to play a game of dragon poker (a highly complicated game about which Skeeve knows virtually nothing), things obviously go awry - but not in the obvious ways one might think...
 

elbkup

Power without conscience is a savage weapon
Medalist
Joined
Mar 3, 2015
Country
United-States
I just finished A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness, in her All Souls trilogy and am working my way through.book 2. If you like both fantasy and historical fiction, this series is a great combination of the two.

Harkness is a professor of European History and History of Science at USC, and the books draw on both her specialities. The only books I have read that are vaguely like these are Dorothy Sayers' Gaudy Night (book 1)and the Lymond Chronicles of Dorothy Dunnett (book 2) but with witches and vampires added to the mix.

I never read the books but just learned BBC has a filmed series of ADOW the first episode of which airs in my area on BBC AMERICA at 9 pm Sunday, April 7, and I cannot wait.. Matthew Goode stars as Vampire Clairemont...
I frequent consignment old bookstores on occasion and must have picked up a copy of ADOW years ago.. lo and behold I found it in my dining room bookcase and began reading it in honor of the impending TV series. Enjoying it very much tho read is slow-going mainly because reading fiction is low on my list of "to do" priorties (like visiting GS.. ahem) but it is also the kind of story I like to savor like a fine wine... will definitely work my way thru both the books and the series and enjoy each to the max .. thanks for the recommendation!!
 

LRK

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 13, 2012
Robin McKinley: "The Door in the Hedge" - Two fairy tales retold, two original tales. Enchanting & magical.
 

LRK

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 13, 2012
Neil Gaiman: "Norse Mythology" - Neil Gaiman retells the myths, making them his own, yet, at the same time, keeping them true to their origins.
 

LRK

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 13, 2012
Susan Cooper: "The Dark Is Rising" (Re-read) - The second book in the Dark Is Rising Sequence (the first being "Over Sea, Under Stone"). One of my childhood favourites. Blending the normality of ordinary life with the timelessness of legend.
 

LRK

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 13, 2012
Robin McKinley: "Spindle's End" - A Sleeping Beauty reimagining.

The magic in that country was so thick and tenacious that it settled over the land like chalk-dust and over floors and shelves like slightly sticky plaster-dust. (Housecleaners in that country earned unusually good wages.) If you lived in that country, you had to de-scale your kettle of its encrustation of magic at least once a week, because if you didn't, you might find yourself pouring hissing snakes or pond slime into your teapot instead of water. (It didn't have to be anything scary or unpleasant, like snakes or slime, especially in a cheerful household - magic tended to reflect the atmosphere of the place in which it found itself - but if you want a cup of tea, a cup of lavender-and-gold pansies or ivory thimbles is unsatisfactory. And while the pansies - put dry in a vase - would probably last a day, looking like ordinary pansies, before they went greyish-dun and collapsed into magic dust, something like an ivory thimble would begin to smudge and crumble as soon as you picked it up.)
 

Ducky

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 14, 2018
Robin McKinley: "Spindle's End" - A Sleeping Beauty reimagining.

The magic in that country was so thick and tenacious that it settled over the land like chalk-dust and over floors and shelves like slightly sticky plaster-dust. (Housecleaners in that country earned unusually good wages.) If you lived in that country, you had to de-scale your kettle of its encrustation of magic at least once a week, because if you didn't, you might find yourself pouring hissing snakes or pond slime into your teapot instead of water. (It didn't have to be anything scary or unpleasant, like snakes or slime, especially in a cheerful household - magic tended to reflect the atmosphere of the place in which it found itself - but if you want a cup of tea, a cup of lavender-and-gold pansies or ivory thimbles is unsatisfactory. And while the pansies - put dry in a vase - would probably last a day, looking like ordinary pansies, before they went greyish-dun and collapsed into magic dust, something like an ivory thimble would begin to smudge and crumble as soon as you picked it up.)

Oh, I love Robin McKinley!
 

skylark

Gazing at a Glorious Great Lakes sunset
Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 12, 2014
Country
United-States
Naomi Novik - Spinning Silver.

Novik weaves traditional myths and fairy tales through the dark lens of Polish mythology. This one's my favorite.

Sixteen-year-old Miryem takes on her too-gentle father's duties as the village money-lender, learning to turn silver into gold the hard-earned way. But the Staryk, the magical winter elven people, are watching ....

Wanda barely keeps herself, her brothers, and their abusive alcoholic father alive on a hard-scrabble farm. Until one day her fortunes change: Miryem agrees to let Wanda work off her father's drinking debt.

Irina, the plain daughter of a duke, is undervalued and unnoticed her whole life. (No marriage-market value.) But she turns these handicaps into assets when some fairy silver makes its way into the duke's home.
 

mercybuckets

Rinkside
Joined
Aug 13, 2019
I love fantasy, one of my favorite genres.

I'd like to put in a recommendation for V.E. Schwab's A Darker Shade of Magic (trilogy), any of Max Gladstone's books (start with Three Parts Dead), the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire and the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews (both urban fantasy)
 
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