Unlike the stock market, my fantasy reading isn't in a slump

TOPICAL HUMOR.

Anyways, here's a list of recent fantasy reads since the last time I posted about it:

The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny: This has to be the oddest, quirkiest series I've ever read. It's like modern fantasy mixed with portal fantasy and like high/epic fantasy.

Prince of Fools by Mark Lawrence: I owned this book for many, many years, but didn't read it because I had mixed feelings about The Broken Empire trilogy, of which I had read Prince and King of Thorns years ago. I didn't dislike the two books, but I wasn't exactly fawning over them either.  I decided to finally give it a chance once I had slain the slump and boy, am I glad I did. I enjoyed this book a lot and I'm planning on reading book 2, The Liar's Key next year.

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree: Yes, I hopped on the bandwagon and followed the hype train for this book and you know what? WORTH IT. The book lived up to expectations and I eagerly await the sequel.

Now, do I think that everybody is going to enjoy this novella? No. I don't see every fantasy reader sitting down to read a novella about a female orc warrior who quits the life of an adventurer to open a coffee shop. And that's fine because not everybody is going to enjoy reading the same things.

Storm Front and Fool Moon by Jim Butcher: I decided rather spontaneously to give the Dresden Files another shot and re-read (and in the case of Storm Front, re-re-re-read) the first two books. My plan is to try and read at least two books a month until I'm caught up. I'd prefer three, but I don't see that happening every month.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the year. I've got a couple of books in my reading pile and more that I haven't started yet. The slump is gone and good riddance!

Hopefully Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves will be as good as the trailer makes it look

I like that it's set in the Forgotten Realms. I'm sure there'll be folks who wish it had been Blackmoor, Greyhawk, or Dragonlance. Who knows, maybe one day they'll each get their time to shine.

Also, Sophia Lillis's tiefling druid character Doric? Adorable.

So how do y'all feel about the upcoming D&D movie?

Did you know reading fantasy books is cool? 👀

 I sure as hell hope it is, because I read five of them last month! Yes, that's right, your erstwhile blogger launched a bold attack on his fantasy reading slump in May and read five novels!

But in all seriousness, it was fantastic and I'm so glad that I did. I'm not quite prepared to declare the slump defeated, but I'm definitely getting there.

So, what did I read? I plan on trying to write individual reviews for each one, but here's a rundown:

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks: I started reading this last year, got about 50% through it before the slump struck me down, so I didn't pick it back up until towards the end of April, at which point I blew through it in a matter of days. Will be buying the second book in the series this year, hopefully.

The Sword-Edged Blonde by Alex Bledsoe: Same situation as above. I wanted something shorter to read about TBP, so I grabbed my tablet and restarted this from the beginning. I'm a solid fan for the Eddie LaCrosse series.

The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne: Found a copy in my favorite used bookstore and seeing how other fantasy readers (especially on booktube) were raving about it, cracked this bad boy open. I'm glad I did and needless to say, I'll be reading The Hunger of the Gods this year.

Green Rider by Kristen Britain: A fun read. Definitely meant to be an establishing book for the series.

A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham: Another booktube influence. Those folks generally don't miss, so their opinions carry some weight with me when I'm deciding what to read. It was an odd book with an interesting culture, so I plan on reading at least the second book in The Long Price Quartet.

So, there you have it. Five books in one month. I've always added to the total for the year by finishing the second book in Roger Zelazny's Amber series, The Guns of Avalon.

Looks like I've got a lot of series on my plate, but I'm not complaining.