What are we all reading?

[Zaukrie]

I'm reading Sailing to Sarantium by Guy Gavriel Kaye (sp?). Great book so far. I'd recommend all of his books.

Also, for those who want "free" books while traveling, and this is a shameless plug for the company I work for, Country Inns and Suites has 3-5 (or more, depending on the hotel) books that you can take with you. They'd like you to return it on your next trip, but that's optional. Of course, I don't know if any of them are fantasy books.

 

[madriel]

Let's see ... I just finished reading The Snow Queen, by Joan D. Vinge, which I REALLY liked.

Now, I have two piles of books - one bought new and one used, and I alternate back and forth between them. Right now, it's time for a new book, so I am reading Robert Jordan's 'Eye of the World', which I bought when I bought the RPG. Next after that, it's an Anne Perry mystery, The Cater Street Hangman.
/QUOTE]

I like your taste in books, Ashtal!

I haven't read Snow Queen in ages, but that's a cool book. I liked it better than the sequel Summer Queen, but they're both very good. I must dig out my copies of Vinge's books.

Have you tried Michelle West's Sun Sword trilogy?

 

[Nightbird]

I just finished "Transcendence", book 6 in R.A.Salvatore's Demon Wars series. The last one comes out next year (yeah, a series that has an ending!)

I love this series. It's got everything - spectacular battles and characters that I've come to love and hate. Even the minor ones.

 

[Ashtal]

ACK! There's a sequel?!?!?!?!?

...must...hunt...down...sequel!

The only reason I'd been wanting to read it forever was because I had read her cyberpunk novel, Catseye, which I loved (and was my first intro into the sub-genre). Somehow I got it into my head that The Snow Queen was the book that came before Catseye, which obviously isn't the case. Not the I regret reading it, though. It will be in my 'keep' shelf of novels I read and loved and won't part with. Everything else goes to the used bookstore (no point hanging on to something I didn't really care for, right?).

The name "Michelle West" doesn't sound familiar, but the title "Sun Sword" rings a bell. I must have seen it on the shelves. I'll look for it next time.

Since we're trading fantasy faves, I'd recommend the original Sunrunner triliogy by Melanie Rawn. I read them in high school (even let my teacher use it for one of my assignments!). In retrospect, I think it may run a wee bit into melodrama, but it was a desert based fantasy that really did some neat things. Never got into her next series, though they are on my shelf ... I should put them into my used pile!

You know, I used to read fantasy and sci-fi voraciously as a young adult, and then when University hit, it sort of went to the wayside because of all the school-based reading I had to do (and enjoyed, though). Then I hit this dry period during and afterwards, where I wasn't reading at all, not fiction, and not even RPGs! Now I seem to be getting back into the swing again, and I'm reading everything. I can't believe how much I missed something I had pushed aside but I'm glad I'm back into the habit again!

Edit: HEE! Seems like there are THREE sequels! World's End, The Summer Queen, and a brand new one, "Tangled up in Blue." Yippie! Off to the bookstore for me!

 

[Ealli]

I just finished Between the Rivers and Into the Darkness, both by Harry Turtledove.

Between the Rivers inspired me to go back and play Civ3 because it is set at the beginning of civilization and focuses on a merchant who goes out to trade for metal ore but has trouble because of gods of cities.

Does anyone know if there is a sequel to Into the Darkness? It feels like it needs a sequel but I don't remember seeing one when I was last at the library.

 

[madriel]

Thanks, Ashtal. Now I have to head off to the bookstores too.

Broken Crown is the first in West's series. I hope you like it. She's a Canadian author (lives in Toronto IIRC), so I like to put in a good word for her.

 

[GhostTiger]

Reads

I always recommend Glen Cook's The Black Company Series. Do NOT read them randomly as they are all tied together.

The Black Company
Shadows Linger
The White Rose

The Silver Spike

These are the first four. Spike is kind of seperate and can be read third or fourth. Armies, armies and lots of thoughts on the nature of evil.

 

[King_Stannis]

i am finishing up "stormbringer" by michael moorcock - the last in the original elric saga (i believe).

 

[GhostTiger]

Also on Reads

Has anyone read Steven Brust's Jhereg series? I'm surprised no one has mentioned it yet. The latest novel, Issola, came out last year. The world of Dragaera got its start in a roleplaying game Brust ran long ago. The books are great, the stories self-contained (unlike, say, The Black Company books) and it is really interesting to watch the main character grow and Brust grow as a writer too. I recommend reading in the order published as opposed to chronologically.

Published:
Jhereg
Yendi
Taltos
Teckla
Phoenix
Athyra
Orca
Dragon
Issola

Chronologically:
Taltos
Dragon
Yendi
Jhereg
Teckla
Phoenix
Athyra
Orca
Issola

Brust has also put out two trade paperbacks, The Book of Jhereg and The Book of Taltos, which collect the first few books. Outstanding.

Oh, and I just finished Dashiell Hammet's The Maltese Falcon (source of the Bogart movie). Outstanding as well.

 

[BadMojo]

Re: Also on Reads

Has anyone read Steven Brust's Jhereg series? I'm surprised no one has mentioned it yet. The latest novel, Issola, came out last year. The world of Dragaera got its start in a roleplaying game Brust ran long ago. The books are great, the stories self-contained (unlike, say, The Black Company books) and it is really interesting to watch the main character grow and Brust grow as a writer too. I recommend reading in the order published as opposed to chronologically.

I love Steven Brust's work. I just bought "Athyra" off of Ebay a day ago. It was the last Vlad Taltos book I needed to get, but I paid a pretty sickening sum of money to get it.

I just started reading Cook's "The Black Company", and although it's a fun book, it just lacks the wit and flair of a Brust book.

I will probably start in on "The Phoenix Guards" and "500 Years After" by Brust. I think the last book (or two) of that series has finally been written, but not published. For those who haven't seen these books, they're homages to Dumas' "Three Muskateers" books and are set in the same universe as the Vlad Taltos books. I *believe* the stories are set in the Dragaeran Empire about 1000 years before the Vlad Taltos stories, and the titles of the books are adapted from Dumas' titles.