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I'm still hibernating after a giant snowfall, enjoying some good books. What about you?

I have started reading Rise of the Morrigan: The Queen of Samhuinn

This week I started Saga of the Swamp Thing: Book Three and Heretics of Dune

Finished Station Eternity and started Stolen Earth.

Just finished Dungeons & Dragons: Forgotten Realms Classics, Volume 1. It was a free borrow on Hoopla (well all are free but you only get 6, this didn't count towards the 6). It was quite silly but it brought back memories of when I used to watch Dungeons and Dragons TV series, and also it was obvious it was more or less the same world as Dragonlance (at least a few things like what colour dragons were good and which were evil), which was what really got me into fantasy again, before that I was mainly reading about horses like Black Stallion and Saddle Club.

I remember borrowing the Dragonlance book from the school library and feeling sneaky since it was clearly a book meant for boys :) I still really love that trilogy...

Georgina by Alida Leacroft

Finished Heir of Caladan...unfortunately while the first book in the trilogy was good, the next two just came up with completely absurd plotlines and this last book didn't save it, just tangled the mess even more. A long winded explanation for why the Emperor gave Arrakis to the Atreides, but not very plausible. But I get the satisfaction of finishing what I spent all last year reading :)

Back to Shannara - The Elf Queen of Shannara by Terry Brooks, book 3 of 4 in the Heritage omnibus.


I'm also reading The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid which is free to read this month.

My review of The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler

/review/show...

At this period, I'm reading "The Return" by Victoria Hislop. I read the trilogy of "Hunger Games" 2 moths ago. It is best for me.

I finished The Towers of the Sunset. I am leaving the world of Recluce, since that second book in the saga failed to please me. I am ready for a dose of Abercombie and will now start Red Country.

I have read the final book in Juliet Marillier's Warrior Bards trilogy, A Song of Flight. You can read my review here: /review/show...

OK, so, another Magazine of F&SF finished. Particularly enjoyed Phyllis Eisenstein's latest and sadly last tale of Alaric the Bard. I say last , because I was sorry to hear that she passed in 2020 following a stroke and complications with Covid. :-(

On we go anyway to The Magazine of F&SF for March/April 2019.

I will be officially (rather than unilaterally) retired in May, hopefully then my pension will mean I can buy a new book now and then. :-)

Finished The Elf Queen of Shannara. This one got pretty dark at times, well, I guess they all have their moments of disturbing darkness. Though nothing can match the sequels to Dragonsbane...those were the scariest reads I've ever read.

Starting on A Caress of Twilight by Laurell K. Hamilton. I thought I'd dislike the first book, that there would be more sex than plot, and there was that...but I ended up weirdly liking the worldbuilding and the characters. Will see how this one goes.

I also read the first two books in the Real Account, Vol. 1 manga...lots of gratuitous bloody deaths but...interesting commentary about social media and a little from both sides too, mostly condemning it but now and then defending at least the people behind the accounts. I'll have to see if the library has the rest since the neighbourhood book exchange only had these two :)

I finished Rise of the Morrigan: The Queen of Samhuinn, which I struggled to get into, although I see how it provides a lot of background for some of the author's other series.

I also read a few graphic novels - Who Framed Roger Rabbit: The Official Comic Adaptation (an adaptation of the movie), The Dreamwalker, and Ax.

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

The book is structured as a series of connected stories that explore people's response to a deadly virus released from the Arctic tundra because of global warming. ŷ������ lists it as one of the best sci-fi novels of 2022.

It's pretty good, but I'd call it sci-fi lite. 3.5 stars

My review: /review/show...

I have started The Doomfarers of Coramonde

Tony wrote: "I have started The Doomfarers of Coramonde"

An oldie, but goodie. I liked the sequel, too.

Jim wrote: "An oldie, but goodie. I liked the sequel, too."

It has been sitting in my bookshelves for a very long time 😁

Finished A Caress of Twilight, I'm liking things books more than I expected too. Pretty complex worldbuilding (perhaps a tad almost too complex) which for a book that's primarily driven by the main character having a lot of sex, manages to squeeze in a surprising amount of plot. And of course you happen to visualize the male elves with the long hair and pretty faces as anime characters...

Anyway, next up I get to finish the monster omnibus with book 4 of the Heritage of Shannara - The Talismans of Shannara by Terry Brooks

I finished reading The Princess Companion, and enjoyed it. You can see my review here: /review/show...

I’m currently reading The queen of nothing. But i feel it’s a bit overhyped.. also want to start crescent city 2 !!!

I'm reading Dan Simmons' . Only his second book and already very ambitious and with great writing. It's bleak and I feel that many scenes will be hard to read. Somewhat curiously, one brought back memories—I'm going to show my age here—of Battle chess on the C64.
Since it's going to take me a while to finish, I'm also reading less, uh, gigantic works along.
The first was ; I was excited to start a new sci-fi series, well-reviewed and Hugo winner, and boy did I ever set myself up for disappointment... the plot is okay but simple, the writing is full of what I call "zoomer netspeak" which belongs in whatever social media du jour people are currently using, and the team members are so paper-thin I could barely name one along with their occupation. The main character's whole schtick of "I don't care about anything, and I watch so much TV LOL" gets old before the 10th mention (wich probably happens before halfway through the novella). I probably won't continue this series if the rest is more of the same.

Edenet by Kit Sun Cheah

Finished Esrahaddon.

Audrey wrote: "Finished Esrahaddon."

Ohhh! Lucky you, Audrey!!!!! I participated in the kickstarter but I still need to wait.

Without giving anything away, is it up to his usual good entertaining standards?

So good. I should've re-read Legends first, and Revelations would've helped even though I just read it a year ago.

Audrey wrote: "So good. I should've re-read Legends first, and Revelations would've helped even though I just read it a year ago."

Yay!!

After horsing around with some lackluster historical fiction, I went back to the master, Bernard Cornwell. I'm reading #12, Sword of Kings. It's good to be back with Uhtred of Bebbanburg!

Michelle wrote: "After horsing around with some lackluster historical fiction, I went back to the master, Bernard Cornwell. I'm reading #12, Sword of Kings. It's good to be back with Uhtred of Bebba..."

Wow I didn't realize Last Kingdom was a novel series. If they had so many books to work with I wonder why they didn't have more of the tv seasons.

Jevon wrote: "Michelle wrote: "After horsing around with some lackluster historical fiction, I went back to the master, Bernard Cornwell. I'm reading #12, Sword of Kings. It's good to be back wit..."

I haven't seen the series, but I know the author made an appearance in it. I could be wrong Jevon, but I thought Bernard Cornwell posted a link for a preview of a new season. I'll see if I can find the link for you...

Here it is! He has on his website that it will be on netflix April 14th:

Jevon wrote: "Michelle wrote: "After horsing around with some lackluster historical fiction, I went back to the master, Bernard Cornwell. I'm reading #12, Sword of Kings. It's good to be back wit..."

They actually linked the TV series pretty close to the novels. They did a little better than most TV shows as far as following the basic events, anyway. Each book is pretty short (often under 400 pages), despite the length of the series, so they were able to fit in multiple books per season. So that's why they can usually fit 2 or 3 books in per season. Personally, I choose to see the TV show as a different beast than the books. I wasn't originally a big fan of the actors they chose for Uhtred and Finan and a few others, but I learned to divorce the show from the books to be able to enjoy it better. That said, it's still a better adaptation than most, tbh.

Must feel cool as rain to appear in live-action for your own novel - seeing all the characters come to life, playing out a favourite scene. I'd be very nervous though.

I wasn't a fan of the Uhtred actor at first but he grew on me. And that intro visual and music with drums beating was mesmerizing stuff ha

Finished The Talismans of Shannara...I may reconsider getting massive omnibuses in the future since they are so hard to read. As for the quartet...I enjoyed it but its never going to get into my favorites.

Ok...these were available in the neighbourhood book exchange...I'm sure they are going to be totally silly but I couldn't resist....I got the first three books in the Vampirates series and I'm starting Demons of the Ocean by Justin Somper to find out if vampires and pirates make a good mix or not. Argh!

Andrea!!! Sounds great! I really enjoyed the series, which I thought would be total camp, but turned out to be quite decent books! I'm also looking forward to reading ! So if your vampire pirates (vampirates!) is any good, let me know!!

I finished A Brief History of Living Forever by Jaroslav Kalfar


A very good mix of (political) history, dystopia and some SF. My 5 star review can be read here: /review/show...

Georgann wrote: "Andrea!!! Sounds great! I really enjoyed the series, which I thought would be total camp, but turned out to be quite decent books! I'm also looking forw..."

Space vampires...no wait, Amish Vampires in Space...wow, quite the concept. I'll have to keep an eye out! I'm 80 pages in, one orphan is on the vampirate boat wondering why she's not allowed out of her cabin after dark ;)

Who is the pirate Captain? Batbeard the pirate? If they meet werewolves, do they shoot them with Long John Silver bullets? If they use vampire shapeshifting to assume the form of a black dog, is the dog called "Black Spot." Did the crew throw the cook overboard because he served steak? Did they take the Captains tobacco away because of the coffin. I need to know these things...

OK, OK, I'll get my coat...

One of the pirates wasn't a pirate, he was a werewolf. It was the corsair that have him away...

Or even 'gave him away,' damn you autocorrect!

One of them cut off an ear from his victims as a souvenir. He kept it to himself. A privateer.

If he had to many he would sometimes sell them... A buccaneer.

I realise I may have to go into hiding indefinitely now...��

Robin, I particularly liked the buccaneer :)

☺☺

*groan* :o) Have to admit some of them were pretty good...

Down in the galley, a rodent was eating all the pastry covered goodies... A pie rat.

Robin wrote: "Down in the galley, a rodent was eating all the pastry covered goodies... A pie rat."

@Andrea you have no one to blame but yourself if Robin keeps this up 😉

Those were great, Robin!! I love a good pun!

These Spindrift Pages by Theodore Dalrymple