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Laura's Fantasy Reviews 2014


Signor Finzione

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Welcome to my reading log. :) Anyone is welcome to comment, even if it's just to chat. The general aim this year is to read for fun – no self-imposed deadlines, no strict mini-plans, and ONLY books I think I’ll enjoy!

 

My entire TBR consists of 142 books, and I’ll post it below. First, though, here are the books I really want to read this year (yes, they’re all fantasy . . . of course :rolleyes: ).

 

2014 Reading Plan (sort-of):

 

Daniel Abraham – The Dragon’s Path

Daniel Abraham - The King's Blood

James Barclay – Cry of the Newborn

James Barclay – Dawnthief

Peter V Brett – The Desert Spear

Peter V Brett – The Daylight War

Terry Brooks – First King of Shannara

Miles Cameron – The Red Knight

Bernard Cornwell – The Winter King

Stephen Deas – The Adamantine Palace

Stephen Donaldson – Lord Foul’s Bane

David Eddings – Pawn of Prophecy

Jennifer Fallon – Lion of Senet

Richard Ford - Herald of the Storm

Teresa Frohock - Miserere

Guy Gavriel Kay – The Lions of Al-Rassan

David Gemmell – Sword in the Storm

John Gwynne - Valour

Douglas Hulick – Among Thieves

Ian Irvine – A Shadow on the Glass

Paul Kearney – Hawkwood and the Kings

Mark Lawrence – Prince of Fools

Anne Lyle – The Merchant of Dreams

Anne Lyle - The Prince of Lies

Elizabeth Moon – The Deed of Paksenarrion

Mark Charan Newton – Drakenfeld

Terry Pratchett – Guards! Guards!

Terry Pratchett; Neil Gaiman – Good Omens

Anthony Ryan – Blood Song

Brandon Sanderson – The Final Empire

Michael J Sullivan – Theft of Swords

Adrian Tchaikovsky – Empire in Black and Gold

Brent Weeks – The Broken Eye

Chris Wooding – Retribution Falls

 

It’s organised alphabetically rather than in reading order, as I don’t want to limit or over-prescribe my reading too much. It’s quite a short list: this is because many of the books on there are part of different series, and if I enjoy them then I’ll probably branch out from the plan and read others by those authors.

 

Book on 2014 plan: 34

 

(Total TBR: 142)

Edited by Signor Finzione
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My Entire TBR (including pre-orders)


 


Daniel Abraham – The Dragon’s Path


Dante Alighieri – Inferno


Dante Alighieri – Purgatorio


Dante Alighieri – Paradiso


Margaret Atwood – The Year of the Flood


Margaret Atwood – MaddAddam


Jane Austen – Emma


Jane Austen – Pride and Prejudice


R. Scott Bakker – The Darkness that Comes Before


James Barclay – Cry of the Newborn


James Barclay – Shout for the Dead


James Barclay – Dawnthief


James Barclay – Noonshade


James Barclay – Nightchild


James Barclay – Elfsorrow


James Barclay – Shadowheart


James Barclay – Demonstorm


Peter V Brett – The Desert Spear


Peter V Brett – The Daylight War


Max Brooks – The Zombie Survival Guide


Terry Brooks – First King of Shannara


Terry Brooks – The Sword of Shannara


Terry Brooks – The Elfstones of Shannara


Terry Brooks – The Wishsong of Shannara


Terry Brooks – Armageddon’s Children


Terry Brooks – A Princess of Landover


John Buchan – The Thirty-Nine Steps


Miles Cameron – The Red Knight


Trudi Canavan – The Magician’s Guild


Trudi Canavan – The Magician’s Apprentice


Trudi Canavan – Rogue


Cassandra Clare – City of Fallen Angels


Arthur Conan Doyle – The Hound of the Baskervilles


Joseph Conrad – Nostromo


Glen Cook – Dreams of Steel


Glen Cook – The Silver Spike


Elspeth Cooper – Songs of the Earth


Bernard Cornwell – The Winter King


Stephen Deas – The Adamantine Palace


Charles Dickens – A Tale of Two Cities


Charles Dickens – Great Expectations


Charles Dickens – Oliver Twist


Stephen Donaldson – Lord Foul’s Bane


Stephen Donaldson – The Illearth War


Stephen Donaldson – The Power that Preserves


Stephen Donaldson – The Wounded Land


Stephen Donaldson – The One Tree


Stephen Donaldson – White Gold Wielder


Alexander Dumas – The Count of Monte Cristo


David Anthony Durham – The Other Lands


David Eddings – The Diamond Throne


David & Leigh Eddings – The Elder Gods


David Eddings – Pawn of Prophecy


George Eliot – The Mill on the Floss


George Eliot – Middlemarch


Steven Erikson – Forge of Darkness


Steven Erikson – The Devil Delivered


Ian C Esslemont – Return of the Crimson Guard


Ian C Esslemont – Stonewielder


Ian C Esslemont – Orb Sceptre Throne


Ian C Esslemont – Blood and Bone


Jennifer Fallon – Lion of Senet


Raymond E Feist – The King’s Buccaneer


Raymond E Feist – Talon of the Silver Hawk


Raymond E Feist – King of Foxes


Raymond E Feist – Flight of the Night Hawks


Raymond E Feist – Into A Dark Realm


Raymond E Feist – Wrath of a Mad God


Raymond E Feist – A Kingdom Beseiged


Raymond E Feist – Magician’s End


Guy Gavriel Kay – The Lions of Al-Rassan


David Gemmell – Waylander


David Gemmell – Sword in the Storm


William Goldman – The Princess Bride


John Gwynne - Valour


Thomas Hardy – Tess of the d’Urbervilles


Deborah Harkness – A Discovery of Witches


Deborah Harkness – Shadow of Night


Victor Hugo – The Hunchback of Notre Dame


Douglas Hulick – Among Thieves


Conn Iggulden – Emperor: The Gates of Rome


Conn Iggulden – Emperor: The Gods of War


Conn Iggulden – Bones of the Hills


Ian Irvine – A Shadow on the Glass


Paul Kearney – Hawkwood and the Kings


Stephen R Lawhead – Tuck


Mark Lawrence – Prince of Fools


Anne Lyle – The Merchant of Dreams


Niccolo Machiavelli – The Prince


Gail Z Martin – Ice Forged


Fiona McIntosh – Betrayal


Fiona McIntosh – Revenge


Fiona McIntosh – Destiny


Fiona McIntosh – Royal Exile


Herman Melville – Moby Dick


Karen Miller – Blight of Mages


Karen Miller – The Innocent Mage


Karen Miller – The Awakened Mage


Elizabeth Moon – The Deed of Paksenarrion


Mark Charan Newton – Nights of Villjamur


Mark Charan Newton - Drakenfeld


Christopher Paolini – Brisingr


Edgar Allen Poe – Tales of Mystery and Imagination


Terry Pratchett – Guards! Guards!


Terry Pratchett – Lords and Ladies


Terry Pratchett – Witches Abroad


Terry Pratchett; Neil Gaiman – Good Omens


Justin Richards – The Death Collector


Anthony Riches – Empire: The Leopard Sword


Anthony Riches – Empire: Arrows of Fury


George A Romero – Dawn of the Dead


Brian Ruckley – Bloodheir


Brian Ruckley – Fall of Thanes


Anthony Ryan – Blood Song


R A Salvatore – Exile


R A Salvatore - Sojourn


Brandon Sanderson – The Rithmatist


Brandon Sanderson – The Final Empire


Simon Scarrow – Praetorian


Simon Scarrow – The Gladiator


Luke Scull – The Grim Company


Maria V Snyder – Poison Study


Maria V Snyder – Magic Study


Maria V Snyder – Fire Study


Mary Stewart – The Prince and the Pilgrim


Dacre Stoker – Dracula: The Un-Dead


Michael J Sullivan – Theft of Swords


Michael J Sullivan – Rise of Empire


Laini Taylor – Days of Blood and Starlight


Adrian Tchaikovsky – Empire in Black and Gold


Adrian Tchaikovsky – Dragonfly Falling


William Thackeray – Vanity Fair


J R R Tolkien – The Silmarillion


Jules Verne – 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea


Virgil – The Aeneid


Kurt Vonnegut – Slaughterhouse 5


Brent Weeks – The Broken Eye


Mazarkis Williams – The Emperor’s Knife


Chris Wooding – Retribution Falls


Janny Wurts – The Curse of the Mistwraith


Janny Wurts – The Ships of Merior


David Zindell – Black Jade


 


Total: 142


Edited by Signor Finzione
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Nice modest goals for 2014 :)! You have quite a few nice books on your TBR!

 

These ones I loved or really liked:

Peter V. Brett – The Desert Spear

Adrian Tchaikovsky – Empire in Black and Gold

Karen Miller – Blight of Mages

Karen Miller – The Innocent Mage

Karen Miller – The Awakened Mage

Maria V. Snyder – Poison Study

Maria V. Snyder – Magic Study

Maria V. Snyder – Fire Study

 

They are all great reads, in my opinion!

 

These are on my TBR too:

 

James Barclay – Cry of the Newborn

James Barclay – Dawnthief

Peter V. Brett – The Daylight War

Terry Brooks – First King of Shannara

Stephen Donaldson – Lord Foul’s Bane (omnibus edition)

David Eddings – Pawn of Prophecy

Guy Gavriel Kay (other books)

David Gemmell (other books)

Ian Irvine – A Shadow on the Glass (I think I read this when I was a teenager but I don't remember much of it)

Elizabeth Moon – The Deed of Paksenarrion (omnibus edition)

Terry Pratchett – Guards! Guards!

Terry Pratchett; Neil Gaiman – Good Omens

Brandon Sanderson – The Final Empire

Jane Austen – Emma (omnibus edition)

Jane Austen – Pride and Prejudice (omnibus edition)

James Barclay – Noonshade

James Barclay – Nightchild

James Barclay – Elfsorrow

James Barclay – Shadowheart

James Barclay – Demonstorm

Terry Brooks – The Sword of Shannara (omnibus edition)

Terry Brooks – The Elfstones of Shannara (omnibus edition)

Terry Brooks – The Wishsong of Shannara (omnibus edition)

Terry Brooks – Armageddon’s Children

Terry Brooks – A Princess of Landover

Trudi Canavan – The Magician’s Guild

Trudi Canavan – The Magician’s Apprentice

Trudi Canavan – Rogue

Cassandra Clare – City of Fallen Angels

Arthur Conan Doyle – The Hound of the Baskervilles

Charles Dickens – A Tale of Two Cities

Charles Dickens – Great Expectations

Charles Dickens – Oliver Twist

Stephen Donaldson – The Illearth War (omnibus edition)

Stephen Donaldson – The Power that Preserves (omnibus edition)

Stephen Donaldson – The Wounded Land (omnibus edition)

Stephen Donaldson – The One Tree (omnibus edition)

Stephen Donaldson – White Gold Wielder (omnibus edition)

Alexander Dumas – The Count of Monte Cristo

David Eddings – The Diamond Throne

David & Leigh Eddings – The Elder Gods

George Eliot – The Mill on the Floss

Raymond E. Feist – The King’s Buccaneer

Raymond E. Feist – Talon of the Silver Hawk

Raymond E. Feist – King of Foxes

Raymond E. Feist – Flight of the Night Hawks

Raymond E. Feist – Into A Dark Realm

Raymond E. Feist – Wrath of a Mad God

Raymond E. Feist – A Kingdom Beseiged

Raymond E. Feist – Magician’s End

Thomas Hardy – Tess of the d’Urbervilles

Deborah Harkness – A Discovery of Witches

Deborah Harkness – Shadow of Night

Victor Hugo – The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Gail Z Martin – (other books)

Fiona McIntosh – Betrayal

Fiona McIntosh – Revenge

Fiona McIntosh – Destiny

Fiona McIntosh – Royal Exile

Herman Melville – Moby Dick

Christopher Paolini – Brisingr

Terry Pratchett – Lords and Ladies

Terry Pratchett – Witches Abroad

R. A. Salvatore – Exile (omnibus edition)

R. A. Salvatore - Sojourn (omnibus edition)

Laini Taylor – (one other book)

Adrian Tchaikovsky – Dragonfly Falling

William Thackeray – Vanity Fair

J R R Tolkien – The Silmarillion

Jules Verne – 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Virgil – The Aeneid

Kurt Vonnegut – Slaughterhouse 5

Brent Weeks – (other books)

Janny Wurts – The Curse of the Mistwraith

Janny Wurts – The Ships of Merior

 

I wish you happy reading in 2014 Laura, I hope you'll have a lot of great (fantasy) reads :D!

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Whoops . . . I just bought a new book with the remainder of my Amazon credit. The book is Herald of the Storm (Steelhaven #1) by Richard Ford. (here).

 

My 2014 target of getting my TBR down is off to a flying start . . . it's not even the new year yet.  :giggle:

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Hi Laura I have only read two from your TBR pile:

Bernard Cornwell – The Winter King

Guy Gavriel Kay – The Lions of Al-Rassan

 

sadly neither of which impressed me 

And none of the rest are on my TBR. I guess we like different sorts of fantasy!

Good luck with it though. I share a few from your general TBR

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Wow, Gaia, we share quite a lot of the same books on our TBRs. :giggle2: It's good to know you enjoyed the Karen Miller and Adrian Tchaikovsky - I've never read anything by these authors, but I'm looking forward to doing so. :)

x

Yes we do! I hope you enjoy them too :)

Whoops . . . I just bought a new book with the remainder of my Amazon credit. The book is Herald of the Storm (Steelhaven #1) by Richard Ford. (here).

 

My 2014 target of getting my TBR down is off to a flying start . . . it's not even the new year yet.  :giggle:

x

Haha, nicely done :giggle:! I hope you enjoy the book :).

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 I guess we like different sorts of fantasy!

 

I think it's probably safe to say that this definitely the case. :lol:

 

xx

Haha, nicely done :giggle:! I hope you enjoy the book :).

 

Thanks! It definitely seems like my kind of fantasy. :)

 

Happy reading in 2014 Laura! :)

 

Thank you! :D

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Review: 'Good Omens' by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

 

Pratchett+-+Good+Omens.jpg

 

According to ‘The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter’ – the world’s only totally reliable guide to the future – the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just after tea . . .

 

 Having read several Terry Pratchett novels before I had a fairly reasonable idea of what I was getting myself into with Good Omens. I expected quirky humour, strange events, and unique and peculiar characters, along with the usual assortment of magic and bathos and hilariously terrible puns. I’m happy to say that Good Omens has all of these, as well as something that many other earlier Pratchett novels lack: coherence. I’m assuming this is the influence of Neil Gaiman, as is the inclusion of many of the more dark and gruesome elements of the story. All in all, a nicely successful combination of authors, styles and ideas.

 

The plot is fairly straightforward. The prophecies of the witch Agnes Nutter state when and where the world is going to end. The Antichrist will summon the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who will ride forth and wreak havoc on humankind; this will be followed by a celestial war between Heaven and Hell, of which there can only be one ultimate victor.
 

That’s what is supposed to happen; but the ineffable Plan suffers from a few alterations along the way. For a start, due to a mix-up in the local hospital eleven years previously, the Antichrist is not who people think he is; and due to the incompetence of the demon Crowley (who drives a Bentley, wears sunglasses even when it’s dark, and just happens to be the original Serpent, formerly known as Crawly) and the angel Aziraphale (who had a flaming sword but lost it, and now owns a used bookstore in London) this is not discovered by either side until Armageddon is almost upon them. What follows is the tale of various characters – Aziraphale, Crowley, the witch Anathema Device, the Witchfinders Shadwell and Newt, Adam the Antichrist, and Madame Tracy the Psychic/’shameless hoor’ – as they all try to prevent the end of the world.
 

It’s a good story, and one of the highlights is the casual bickering friendship between the demon Crowley and the angel Aziraphale. They both recognise that neither of them are entirely good or evil, and after thousands of years have struck up a truce. They like the way things are, and as such are keen to try and save the world and maintain the natural balance of things.
 

The authors, as well as writing a funny story, are also trying to get a message across about humanity, namely that they are capable of much worse things than any sort of evil demon, whether real or imagined, but also of moments of goodness that would make any angel jealous. For instance, Crowley receives a commendation for the creation of the Spanish Inquisition (he happened to be on the continent at the time, and so they just assumed it was his idea), when in fact he knew nothing about it: when he looked into it, it made him feel rather ill (he’s much more proud of creating the M25, door-to-door salesmen, and answering machines).
 

I personally love the sense of humour – it’s typical Pratchett, dry British humour, and there are so many jokes and references that only a Brit would really understand. It’s fun to feel like you’re sharing a private joke with the author, though I imagine this may alienate readers from other parts of the world.
 
I did enjoy the few aspects of the book that I recognised from Pratchett’s Discworld novels. An example of this is the character of Death and the other Horsemen of the Apocalypse, although they’re a bit different here: they ride motorbikes instead of horses (well, they are the original Hell’s Angels after all), and they have a new member, Pollution (Pestilence retired shortly after the discovery of penicillin in 1936).
 

The book does have a few flaws. Like many other Pratchett novels I’ve read it can be a little self-indulgent in places, sacrificing plot and relevance for humorous anecdotes that occasionally take over the story. However, it made me laugh – sometimes out loud, to the astonishment of those around me (luckily just the cats) – and it also made me want to read more books by both Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, so I think it deserves a decent score.
 

My rating: 4/5
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Hope you have a good year of reading in 2014, Laura.  I have to admit, I don't read any of fantasy authors on your book list, but I do read your reviews - hopefully one day I might feel brave enough to dip my toes into something new!   :D

 

Thanks Claire! If I read anything spectacular this year I'll be sure to try and convert you to them. :D

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Great review of Good Omens :), I'm glad you enjoyed it. I haven't read it yet, it's on the TBR, but I love Terry Pratchett's books.

 

Thanks Gaia. :) I like Pratchett, but occasionally find his books and humour a little bit hit-and-miss. This one was great, though. :D

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Review: 'The Dragon's Path' by Daniel Abraham

 

post-11030-0-72331200-1388694300_thumb.jpg

 

Summer is the season of war in the Free Cities.

 
Marcus is getting out before the fighting starts. His hero days are behind him, and guarding the last caravan out of the city is better than being pressed into service by the local gentry.
 
Cithrin has a job to do – smuggle the wealth of a nation through a war zone. An orphan raised by the bank, she is the city’s last hope of keeping its treasure out of the hands of the invaders.
 
Geder, the only son of a noble house, is more interested in philosophy than swordplay. But in the fires of battle, a hero – or a villain – can be forged from even the most reluctant soldier.
 
All three have a part to play as a minor summer skirmish threatens to spiral out of control and sweep the entire region onto the Dragon’s Path – the path to war.
 
 

The Dragon’s Path is a fantasy novel written in a similar style to GRRM’s A Song of Ice and Fire, with a nice blend of violence, war, political intrigue, and a variety of point-of-view characters. Although slow to begin with, both the story and the characters steadily improve as the novel progresses.

 

The Dragon’s Path is the first in a four-book series titled The Dagger and the Coin, a phrase which in this book refers to the two alternative paths of civilisation: war (or 'the dragon's path') and trade. The ‘coin’ is represented by the main female character, Cithrin, and it’s interesting to see how her story is juxtaposed against others who take the path of violence, like Dawson.
 

While the initial sixty pages or so made me feel as though I was being bombarded with new characters and PoVs, this soon evened itself out into four central PoV characters, all of whom come to be interesting in different ways. The slightly Erikson-esque name-dropping of what seems like a hundred names of races and cities without any elaboration was also a bit confusing at first; it takes roughly the first half of the book for the characters to fully begin to form, and the various aspects of the world, such as its history, and details of the twelve different races, soon fall into place.
 

There are four main PoVs, each of which are very different: there’s Cithrin bel Sarcour, young orphan girl and ward of the Medean bank; Marcus Wester, war hero-turned mercenary; Geder Palliako, reluctant soldier and amateur philosopher; and Dawson, king’s advisor and steadfast loyalist. Two of these characters – Cithrin and Geder – develop significantly throughout the course of the novel, and it was their stories I found most enjoyable to read. Both characters have some pretty major ups and downs; both are forced to shed their innocent naïveté by events that shape their thoughts and personalities in very different ways, and it’s these two characters in particular that I’m keen to read more of.
 

The two main female characters in the novel are well-drawn, particularly since both have their own personal strengths, neither of which involves improbable skill with either sex or weapons: Cithrin, although very young, is well-versed in her knowledge of banking and finance, and skilfully uses this knowledge to turn many poor situations to her advantage; while Clara, the wife of Dawson and a comparably minor character, plays an important role by using her ability to read people and by exploiting the inferior position of women in society in order to get access to information and places inaccessible to men. I was pleasantly surprised by how interesting Cithrin’s chapters were, and how the details of her financial schemes actually became one of the most exciting plot points.
 

The intriguing hints towards the bigger picture – a mysterious and deadly cult threatening to corrupt and engulf civilisation – and the fact that most of the characters have developed in such interesting ways more than make up for the novel’s occasional slowness; and although The Dragon’s Path is a little sluggish to start, the second half of the story – particularly the developments of the final few chapters – promises much greater things.
 

My rating: 4/5
Edited by Signor Finzione
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