What are you reading in 2024?

[Nellisir]

Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart, a novel set in a fantastic ancient China, probably its understanding of China is a little dated though it's still at least mostly respectful, a narrative voice that is a pure joy to read;

Bridge of Birds is one of my three "list-test" books. If a Fantasy "Best of" list doesn't include at least one of the three, it's not a good list. (Yes, this is very subjective; yes I'm a 50+ white guy who grew up reading fantasy in the 80s; no this isn't a perfect system; no obviously it doesn't apply to every "best of" list. But between the three of them, more lists than you might think have at least one, and it's not always the same one.)

Barry Hughart wrote two sequels to Bridge of Birds (they're...fine. They were collected together once. I've never seen the latter two individually. Should probably reread them.), got into a spat with his publishers (he thought they were incompetent jerks), and never wrote another book.

Review I just found:

 

[overgeeked]

Bridge of Birds is one of my three "list-test" books. If a Fantasy "Best of" list doesn't include at least one of the three, it's not a good list. (Yes, this is very subjective; yes I'm a 50+ white guy who grew up reading fantasy in the 80s; no this isn't a perfect system; no obviously it doesn't apply to every "best of" list. But between the three of them, more lists than you might think have at least one, and it's not always the same one.)

Barry Hughart wrote two sequels to Bridge of Birds (they're...fine. They were collected together once. I've never seen the latter two individually. Should probably reread them.), got into a spat with his publishers (he thought they were incompetent jerks), and never wrote another book.

Review I just found:

"The novel has a sense of whimsy that rivals (and perhaps surpasses) that of William Goldman’s The Princess Bride, and an absurdist comic sensibility straight out of Christopher Moore’s Lamb. Bridge of Birds is the closest thing to a literary form of the Looney Tunes I know."

That's the best review. Now I have to read that one.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Would recommend, just read it last year. It's a bit rough from a 2023 sensibility standpoint, but not terrible

 

[Mannahnin]

It's an all-time favorite of mine too, and has a place of honor by The Princess Bride on my bookshelf (one of the ones in the living room rather than the library).

 

[prabe]

Bridge of Birds is one of my three "list-test" books. If a Fantasy "Best of" list doesn't include at least one of the three, it's not a good list. (Yes, this is very subjective; yes I'm a 50+ white guy who grew up reading fantasy in the 80s; no this isn't a perfect system; no obviously it doesn't apply to every "best of" list. But between the three of them, more lists than you might think have at least one, and it's not always the same one.)

Barry Hughart wrote two sequels to Bridge of Birds (they're...fine. They were collected together once. I've never seen the latter two individually. Should probably reread them.), got into a spat with his publishers (he thought they were incompetent jerks), and never wrote another book.

Review I just found:

That review's pretty spot-on.

This is a copy of the book my wife's had for ages. Whether it came off it or not, it went back onto the "favorites" bookshelf. We might have a copy of the first sequel around, I might read it at some point--I thought Bridge of Birds stood just fine on its own.

 

[Nellisir]

"The novel has a sense of whimsy that rivals (and perhaps surpasses) that of William Goldman’s The Princess Bride, and an absurdist comic sensibility straight out of Christopher Moore’s Lamb. Bridge of Birds is the closest thing to a literary form of the Looney Tunes I know."

That's the best review. Now I have to read that one.

Lamb is also amazingly fantastic, both for its humor and its...perspective? On Christianity? If a church picked up that as its gospel, I'd join.

 

[prabe]

Lamb is also amazingly fantastic, both for its humor and its...perspective? On Christianity? If a church picked up that as its gospel, I'd join.

Moore, when he's on, is on. One of these days I'll see a copy of Lamb and grab it, either in a library or a book store.

 

[overgeeked]

Lamb is also amazingly fantastic, both for its humor and its...perspective? On Christianity? If a church picked up that as its gospel, I'd join.

I really love a lot of comic fantasy. Christopher Moore is one of my favorites.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I adore Imajica (to the point that the second tattoo I got was an armband based on the symbols of the first edition cover). But its many pages are packed, absolutely.

If I was going to get a tattoo, it'd probably be for Imajica. I'm not sure it's always my favourite book but if I was only allowed one novel I'd probably pick it. I am also very thankful I have a physical copy because the Kindle edition is absolutely riddled with typos which were obviously from poor-quality OCR/scanning - which I systematically sent to be resolved when I read through it last, but I dunno if anyone actually looks at those reports. My username on most websites has been based on it since the 1990s, it's kind of fluke it isn't here.

 

[Irlo]

I'm two-thirds through Ivanhoe, an old favorite of mine. I'm sure I haven't read it in more than 20 years, but for me it holds up. The antisemitism is appalling, but I do love the story and the telling of it. The style I'm sure is not to everyone's taste. I think Sir Walter Scott was paid by the word.