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!

If you're a fan of the Dresden Files, then boy, has your year been made

Because there's going to be not one, but two Dresden books released this year.

I should resume reading this series at some point soon. I kind of gave up after reading some spoilers, but I feel the urge to give them another try. I made it up to Death Masks before quitting and I enjoyed all the previous books.

2016 has been a pretty good year for fantasy reading

I decided today to do a tally of all the fantasy books I've read this year and I'm sitting at 11 right now. That's not bad, considering that I've read 24 books this year so far and that's a significant increase over what I read last year. Here's the list:

Stardust - Neil Gaiman
Storm Front - Jim Butcher
A Darker Shade of Magic - V.E. Schwab
Arrows of the Queen - Mercedes Lackey
He Drank, and Saw the Spider - Alex Bledsoe
Magician: Apprentice - Raymond E. Feist
Magician: Master - Raymond E. Feist
Silverthorn - Raymond E. Feist
A Darkness at Sethanon - Raymond E. Feist
Arrow's Flight - Mercedes Lackey
Arrow's Fall - Mercedes Lackey

I'm pretty happy with this list. I know that some of them aren't considered "top shelf" in quality and that there are other books and series out there that run circles around them, but I love every one of these books. Stardust is probably my favorite of the lot. I didn't think I would like the Arrows books because the main character starts out as a timid thirteen year old girl, but I was wrong.

I don't know if I'll be reading any more this year. I'm in a bit of a slump, which sucks because I wanted to read Emperor of Thorns. Well, there's always next year.

Finished: Storm Front (Dresden Files) by Jim Butcher and what to read next

When we last left our hero, he had just begun the task of reading The Magicians, but somehow he ended up re-reading Storm Front instead. What happened?!

Honestly, I just could not get into it. I could read the words and turn the page and read the words and so on and so forth, but I was seriously lacking any interest to. I didn't want to get stalled in my reading right at the beginning of the year, so I switched over to finishing my re-read of Storm Front. I'm going to try and come back around to The Magicians later this year and see if I want to read it then, otherwise I'm not going to worry about it.

Anyways, Storm Front was as good as I remembered it being when I first read it like seven or so years ago. I can't believe it's even been that long. I had started the re-read late last year, then got distracted by other books. I was already like a 139 pages into Storm Front, so I decided to finish it off, which took only about a day and a half. What can I say? I like The Dresden Files. I plan on reading the others again over the course of the year, except for maybe Summer Knight because it's still pretty fresh in my memories.

After finishing Storm Front, I decided to switch over to military science fiction and I'm in the homestretch to finish the second of the pair, Fortune's Pawn. After that, I'm sliding back over to fantasy. I'm not sure what to read, but I have some choices:

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
Mistborn also by Sanderson
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
The Magic of Recluce by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
Shadow Ops: Control Point by Myke Cole
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

I get the feeling that there will be people screaming for me to read the last one.

Still alive, just not in a fantasy reading mood

It's one of those situations where I have books to read, but I just don't feel like reading them at the moment. Pretty annoying too because I have a lot of fantasy books that I want to read, like LOTR, ASoIaF, Promise of Blood, Dresden, Avempartha^[1], Lord Foul's Bane, the rest of Belgariad, and Wheel of Time. Oh yeah, I've got my work cut out for me. Given the size of Martin and Jordan's works, I should be finished at some point after the 2020 presidential elections. Maybe then I'll be able to read Mistborn, The First Law, and every other fantasy novel and series that I want to read.

I think immortality may be required here.




^[1] The second book in the Theft of Swords omnibus and part of Michael J. Sullivan's excellent Riyria Revelations.

I am alive, despite the best efforts of others

Lo! For I faced many dangers and hazards. I was on my merry way to the old blog when suddenly, I was accosted by the Warduke! Not having a weapon or the courage/stupidity to tangle with that sucker, I skedaddled out of there and ended up taking refuge in a cave. Unfortunately, I forgot to pack a torch and wouldn't you know, the cave was a nesting ground for grue. Having narrowly escaped, I ran into a quartet of Hobbits, an elf-dwarf couple, a ranger, wizened wizard, and for reasons unexplained, Sean Bean. They were off to some place called Mount Doom and though the name sounded foreboding, I saw the Warduke poking around nearby and took my chances with the Hobbits.

I left after Sean Bean was killed by Orcs (man, that guy dies a lot) and the party split up, and made my way back towards the blog. I was accosted by the Warduke again and as I prepared for death the only noble and proper way possible - by losing all bladder control - I discovered that he wasn't there to cleave me in two. No, he had an extra ticket to The Hobbit and wanted to know if I wanted to see the movie. We went, it wasn't a date, and the dude smacks his mouth when he eats popcorn. Also, he beheaded a dude who was messing around with his cell phone during the movie. Warduke doesn't tolerate that kind of crap.

Actually, I was just completely and utterly burned out and couldn't bring myself to post anything. Same thing happened with my scifi blog. I think a big reason for the burn out was binging on so much fantasy lit over the summer. Fortunately, I'm recharging myself, thanks to Summer Knight, the fourth book in Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files series. Urban fantasy was just the shot in the arm I needed!

I haven't finished it yet, but it is so goddamn good. I've had to restrain myself a bit when reading it, because I don't want to overdo it and burn out again. I highly recommend this series, though. A wizard detective in Chicago? Hell yes.

Picture via Barnes & Noble.