Where are you in Fantasyland, December 2017

Still reading Fortress in the Eye of Time and Winter of the Gods.

I started The Subtle Knife.

Finally found the courage to start my farewell to Temeraire and Laurence in League of Dragons.

Still reading Dragonflight, but ripping through Revelation space

I'm still around the Shattered Plains on Roshar in Brandon Sanderson's Words of Radiance.

>5 mattries37315: And I'm behind you on The way of kings!

>5 mattries37315: I started the Stormlight series last year, but have been procrastinating on the second one. It's a big time commitment! How do you like it so far? Is it worth the time?

Finished The Eye of the World. Good start to what is obviously a LONG series. I liked the way it ended - lots of closure with the current plotline, but just enough loose ends and uncertainty to want me to move on to the the next book in the series. The overall worldbuilding, plot and characters are a bit derivative (some of the names are remarkably close to LotR), but there is enough differentiation to keep it interesting. Looking forward to The Great Hunt.

>7 Darth-Heather: Honestly I began slow because I had to remember all cultural details, but after I got back into the world my reading really took off. I'm 85% through the book after having started on Nov. 19 (but I didn't read it 4 days between then and now primarily because I was off work and attempting to write my own book) and I'm getting really interested in how the book is going to wrap up.

Just started Brothers in Arms by Margaret Weis and Don Perrin.

Finishing up The Chronicles of the the Unhewn Throne series by Brian Staveley. On the final book of the trilogy, The Last mortal Bond.
Has to be one of my favorite fantasy series I've ever read.

I'm in Esdragon with The Wind-Witch, belatedly making progress on a series I started ages ago.

The back cover blurb of this had me more excited to dive in than I realized I'd be... adult female protagonist working to save her farm and earn the right to keep the land herself when her husband dies. I love the sound of that narrow focus. I'm sure there'll be bigger fish to fry as it goes on, but I hope not too soon.

>12 Niko: Really? That sounds good.

I see this is nr 2 in a series. Did you read nr 1?

I was in a forest somewhere in Central Europe in Incarnadine, a re-imagining of the history of Dracula pre-Jonathan Harker that didn't go with making him the historical Vlad the Impaler, fairly interesting.

>13 zjakkelien: Yeah, it's been a while, though. I liked it enough that I picked up the other two books in the series, anyway. :) This second one is turning out to be fairly standalone. There's a prologue that explains that the main character of the second book is the granddaughter of the hero from the first one, but the main common thread is the magical horse that the series is named for (the "Warhorse of Esdragon"). The first book had a dual-pov with male/female protags, and this one's going that route, too, but it feels a little more like the female POV is the "main" one this time, whereas the male pov was the main one in the previous book.

>15 Niko: I understand from the reviews that the female lead of the first book was rather reprehensible. I'll be curious to hear your opinion on nr. 2.

Just finished The man who bridged the mist by Kij Johnson.

Moving on to The Amber Spyglass.

I'm back in Ankh-Morpork witnessing the fallout of a Thud! in the night between dwarfs and trolls.

I've completed The way of kings at last and am now At Amberleaf Fair.

>16 zjakkelien: I'm nearing the end of The Wind-Witch, and I've read up on the goodreads reviews of The Prince of Ill-Luck, out of curiosity for how the heroine in that came across. My thoughts:

1. I can see how the reviewers reacted that way to Kess in the first book, since she's the secondary protagonist and her goals are counter to the primary protagonist's, and she definitely suffers from seeming "self-centered" in her laser focus on her own goals... but I think there's room to grant her some leeway when you look at the situation from her POV, too.

2. But no, I don't think Druyan in Wind-Witch is in the same mold. There's some rough similarity in the dynamic, of a male character sort of stuck in helping the female character pursue her goals, and there *is* some eventual push/pull between their two POV's as to the right approach to the situation, but there's no sense of the "spoiled princess" side of things with Druyan, imo.

I've quite liked the book and Druyan's character, overall. It's a really nice take on this sort of fantasy-with-romance with dual male/female protagonists who start at cross-purposes but eventually fall in love.

>21 Niko: Thanks! That sounds quite good!

>19 mattries37315: love discworld!

Spent the day with The Girl in the Tower, and as good as The Bear in the Nightingale was, this was even better! Can't wait for the third book to come out! Its called "The winter of the witch" (no touchstone yet) comes out Aug 2018

I'm still on the Disc following Tiffany Aching as she deals with the Wintersmith.

I've been in Alabama and the coast of Georgia with Monster Hunter International.

Finished The Great Hunt (book 2 of Wheel of Time, for the 2% of people on this board who don't know that lol). Better than book 1, IMHO, as I spent less time trying to remember why such and such a place is important, or where it is on the map, or why that name should mean something. On to The Dragon Reborn...

I am not a great fantasy reader but When I saw Watership Down by Richard Adams in my used bookstore I could not resist. I have wanted to read this book for decades now.

I'm in Agdel Lex watching the Ruin of angels. This is probably my favourite fantasy series at the moment.

This week, I'm digging into my first EVER Brandon Sanderson read, with Warbreaker. I'm... finding it more engaging than I expected to.

Finished Revelation Space, really great, so much invention. Kind of addicted to the Volyova character. In spare moments dipping into Uncanny magazine #18 which has Valente, Jemisin, Fran Wilde. Going to travel soon, so I'm reading for that now. When I return it'll be back to Pern for me. Christmas, so new books pressure, but somebody is feeding my local secondhand shop vintage paperbacks. The reading pile currently includes a Solomon Kane fix-up from the 70s which is calling to me.

>29 Niko: I got Warbreaker in October (along with several other Sanderson books that I didn't already have), don't know when I'll read it but I'll be interested in your thoughts on it when you're finished.

Just started Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames. So far it's pretty damn good!

Finished Winter of the Gods by Jordanna Max Brodsky. It was an OK read.

I decided to do a reread of the Malloreon, starting with Guardians of the West. Here's hoping the suck fairy won't ruin one of my teenhood favorites.

>31 mattries37315: Finished up Warbreaker... I had a period in the early/mid-sections where I was liking it a TON, with several twists that were genuinely clever/game-changing. Toward the end, my enjoyment petered out a bit, but I'm not sure I can pinpoint any particular complaint. I think it boils down to the solutions to the problems just being less interesting than the problems themselves?

As someone who was going in with a bit of a chip on my shoulder that "I don't like magic system books", I WAS pleasantly surprised that the magic system didn't get as technobabble-y or twee as I expected. It's not making me rush out to add the entire Sanderson back catalogue to my TBR list, but it was an enjoyable read.

(And moving on... I'm next taking a brief detour into Sci-Fi territory with Martha Wells' first Murderbot novella, All Systems Red. That'll probably be the last thing I fully finish in 2017.)

>35 Niko: Thanks for your thoughts. I know what you mean by solutions being less interesting, though I've found it depended on the book. I've read five of Sanderson's sole works as well as the last three Wheel of Time books, so I'm use to his style but it's always nice to know other's thoughts on an author or book that I'm going to read in the future.

Finished Dragonflight, got asked about how it stacks up lately regarding M/F relations. I'm male. I was thinking about it a lot as I read. I was reading the Reynolds book Revelation Space at the same time - the last third of it largely involves the activities of three women, very often passing the Bechdel test (roughly, are there women? do they talk to each other? not about the man?), so I had a simultaneous modern measure as I read Dragonflight. Also I am aware that McCaffrey complained that publishers would not print her work that was not super-conventional in a gender role sense. But she does not need me to apologise for her! Anyway, I think these 4 novellas fixed up into a novel are great. The invention is so staggering, to put these elements together in a convincing way, which still leaves plausible mysteriousness for reveals, is well worth the read just to experience the masterly storymaking. Add to that the spare style of a novella giving you a break from the 1000p.+ door-stop nature of modern writing, and I enjoyed it.

(trying not to spoil) So, the main character, a female is subjected to violent treatment by the other main character, her male partner, many times. And this is given really no judgement by the author or the surrounding characters, either in reaction or in subsequent resolution. Therefore the reader is shown it, but is not guided in any way as to how to react. All we know is, she hates it. Though the main female character is of very high social standing and importance with great autonomy, the society is fully patriarchal. I can see how someone would find these portrayals problematic as I did. It is interesting stuff to consider. The work is great, by a woman, publicly vocal about women protagonists in fiction, known for writing the Ship stories and Crystal Singer (which nobody could (?) argue are problematic regarding M/F relations). I think, read her work, you might find it challenging, and it might prompt you to consider deeply.

Well I am almost finished Watership Down. Who knew that rabbits could be so violent!!?? I am enjoying the book very much. I wonder what the other books of Richard Adams are like.

>38 Lynxear: Who knew that rabbits could be so violent!!??

Have you never seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail?

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