What are your thoughts on period fantasy, specifically Regency-era England? If that could be your thing, I gesture wildly in the direction of Patricia Wrede and both her Sorcery and Cecelia series (comprising of: "Sorcery and Cecelia, or, the Enchanted Chocolate Pot", "The Grand tour, or, the Purloined Coronation Regalia", and "The Mislaid Magician, or, Ten Years After"), and her Matter of Magic series (comprised of "Mairelon the Magician" and "The Magician's Ward"). The Cecelia books are episiltory and coauthored with Caroline Stevermer, whereas the Mairelon books are more traditional narrative. Both contain fantastic period detailing, a believable system of magic, and prime examples of female characters being Freaking Awesome. Think Pride and Prejudice and magic, with a side-order of me flailing my arms around, and hopefully being backed up in this recommendation by jehanne1431, because I totally dragged her around Powell's City of Books in search of Cecelia books.
I also cannot flail enough about the books of Walter Moers (he's German, but his books are widely available in translation), specifically "The Thirteen and a Half Lives of Captain Bluebear" and "The City of Dreaming Books" (which my darling eledhwenlin reminded me is actually part of a series of books set in the same delightfully absurbist-but-not world, and the newest one "The Alchemister's Apprentice" has just had it's EU publication. The stories themselves kind of defy description, but they are just so well-written and delightful I pretty much lose the ability to speak about them.
Uh...are you up to date with your Jasper Fforde? If not, the most recent Thursday Next book was published last year and is "One of Our Thursdays is Missing", the Sequel to "Shades of Grey" is out later this year, and the second of the Dragonslayer Chronicles (JF's YA series. Not that that makes it any less weird. If anything there's more weird?), "The Song of the Quarkbeast", was published last month.
Tanya Huff's Gale witches books-- "The Enchantment Emporium" and just-published "The Wild Ways", which I have just started reading are worth a look if you like Huff's writing and fancy some urban fantasy and a novel take on magic and its use. Also, she does a good line in knowing meta-text winks to the reader, something which is usually a trait I conflate with fanfiction.
I...also have my usual raft of non-fiction in various states of on the go, so y'know, if you want a list of a ridiculous mix of pop-science, social science, hard biology, genetics or hard quantum physics, then poke me and I'll totes hit you up :D?
no subject
I also cannot flail enough about the books of Walter Moers (he's German, but his books are widely available in translation), specifically "The Thirteen and a Half Lives of Captain Bluebear" and "The City of Dreaming Books" (which my darling
Uh...are you up to date with your Jasper Fforde? If not, the most recent Thursday Next book was published last year and is "One of Our Thursdays is Missing", the Sequel to "Shades of Grey" is out later this year, and the second of the Dragonslayer Chronicles (JF's YA series. Not that that makes it any less weird. If anything there's more weird?), "The Song of the Quarkbeast", was published last month.
Tanya Huff's Gale witches books-- "The Enchantment Emporium" and just-published "The Wild Ways", which I have just started reading are worth a look if you like Huff's writing and fancy some urban fantasy and a novel take on magic and its use. Also, she does a good line in knowing meta-text winks to the reader, something which is usually a trait I conflate with fanfiction.
I...also have my usual raft of non-fiction in various states of on the go, so y'know, if you want a list of a ridiculous mix of pop-science, social science, hard biology, genetics or hard quantum physics, then poke me and I'll totes hit you up :D?