dragonjournal: (NaNo 2004)
Dragon Journal ([personal profile] dragonjournal) wrote2012-02-11 03:46 pm
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Book Recc post.

Alright, so let me lay this out:

I will read just about anything. I like a lot of different things. I tend to read more fantasy than anything else, but will read just about any fiction. I've gotten into a lot of YA lately and seem to be churning my way through that. Nonfiction I'm very particular on and will read what I want there.

What I want is a list of books/series that you my dear readers think that I should look into. Give me a To Be Read pile. I don't really have one.

Currently I have the following out from the library:

The Warrior Heir Cinda Williams*
The Wizard Heir Cinda Wiliams
Graceling Kristin Cashore
Beyond the Valley of Thorns Patrick Carman
Wolverine: Weapon X Marc Cerasini
The Dark Griffin K.J. Taylor
I am Scrooge: A Zombie Story for Christmas Adam Roberts
Shadowfall James Clemens
The Priest of Blood Douglas Clegg

So, that's what I have out right now.

I have read Mercedes Lackey - pretty much everything, really and don't really care for Anne McCaffrey. But, give me books. Again, I'll read just about anything and have plans to be buying the books of a few people I know that are now published. (Katey, looking at you, dude!)

*Just finished this one like... ten minutes ago. It's a good, solid, book and I think a lot of people would enjoy it. There's a wizard society that lives amongst us and they hold tournaments using those born with 'warrior stones' to fight their battles. I found it interesting and will be getting the third book The Dragon Heir when I can.
etcetera_cat: (Default)

[personal profile] etcetera_cat 2012-02-11 11:08 pm (UTC)(link)
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 [personal profile] 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 [personal profile] 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?
etcetera_cat: (Default)

[personal profile] etcetera_cat 2012-02-11 11:40 pm (UTC)(link)
*perks up ears and adds titles to the looooong list of "shit I should read"*

I should possibly be upset that many people seem to pimp me into things specifically because they want to witness the inevitable avalanche of wild-mass-guessing and ridiculousd ideas for fusions, but I'd totally be lying because in addition to being freaking hilarious, it also means that I can get away with being almost the laziest fan out there in terms of finding new things :D

*finds her niche and occupies it*
etcetera_cat: (Default)

[personal profile] etcetera_cat 2012-02-11 11:46 pm (UTC)(link)
You know how the TN books are ridiculously meta fanfiction? One of Our Thursdays actually goes further. Like. The start of the book is ridiculously meta about the whole of the rest of the TN canon and then we actually go to the fanfiction achipelago of the new BookWorld. Like, there's meta and then there's the latter part of this book, which is like some kind of freaking metafiction singularity trapped between ink and paper (also, JF manages to not completely suck, despite having had previous form being a douche about fandom)
etcetera_cat: (Default)

[personal profile] etcetera_cat 2012-02-12 12:00 am (UTC)(link)
Oooooo *adds*

If I were you, I'd go for a full reread of the TN books because man, but there's some funky over-reaching plot arcs going on through the whole series. I've maybe made it my policy to reread the series prior to starting each new book, which was kinda ridiculous with the last book what with it being book 6, but it was undeniably awesome (although I did have to break up the absurbist metafiction with my beloved non-fiction in order that my brains didn't leak out of my ears).
jehanne1431: (Default)

[personal profile] jehanne1431 2012-02-12 04:23 am (UTC)(link)
>>>>hopefully being backed up in this recommendation by [personal profile] jehanne1431, because I totally dragged her around Powell's City of Books in search of Cecelia books.


I ABSOLUTELY back this up. The Cecelia books are amazing!