Fantasy books, stories, ＆c

I've just finished "The Sparrow" by Mary Doria Russell. A sci-fi story where it's the Jesuits who are sending the first mission to contact an alien species. It was a really great book, some of the best sci-fi I've read in recent years. The author really knows how to write great characters you care about, despite the fact that you know it'll all end in disaster from the very beginning.

I've now started "Gardens of the Moon", the first book of the "Malazan Book of the Fallen" series. The series is somewhat infamous for being very complicated and difficult to read, so we'll see how it goes. The author definitely likes to use some very obscure vocabulary, good thing I have an ebook reader with a built-in dictionary.

Rereading Mort by Terry Pratchett. Also And Another Thing by Eoin Colfer.

I'm reading "So You Want to Be a Game Master" by Justin Alexander and "The Way of Kings" by Brandon Sanderson.

I also have "Needful Things" by Stephen King and "The Great Hunt" (The Wheel of Time book 2) by Robert Jordan sitting at roughly 50%, but they currently are in pause; unfortunately reading more than 2 books simultaneously is difficult if you also have to work.

Swastika Night (1984 but with Nazis and written before WWII)

The Gnostic Gospels (not quite as interesting as The Origin of Satan, but by the same author)

Sh!t Went Down (one page per day of historical events)

Acquired this month: Gaza Writes Back, A Rome of One's Own, The Ugly American, If We Burn

Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

Over December I read Scott Hawkins’ Library at Mount Char, T. Kingfisher’s Paladin’s Faith, Ben Aaronovich’s Moon over Soho, and I just finished Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology last night.

Mount Char was a wild ride. I’m still processing it a bit. I enjoyed it a bunch though.

Kingfisher is amongst my favorite authors right now, and while I’m not typically a Romantacy person, the World of the White Rat books all have a lot of great Fantasy and the romance portions are integrated well.

I started Rivers of London a while ago, but dropped off so I’m trying to pick it back up. It’s good, especially if you’re a Dresden Fan. There’s quite a few similarities in style.

Norse Mythology has always been interesting to me, and Gaiman’s integrates a bunch of disparate sources to make a pretty good set of stories.

I finished the Farseer Trilogy recently, which I fell in love with. Rarely have I read such compelling characters with such emotional depth. So I've done a 180 and started Malazan: Book of the Fallen!

Light novel named To Be the Eminence in Shadow. Compared to other JP novels out there, this translated version truly has distinction of people in dialogues (that means you can clearly notice who is speaking), which is very pleasing to say the least

Just started Rise of Empire, Volume 2 of The Riyeria Revelations. I'm normally a pretty picky reader (Sanderson has spoiled me...) but this series is just plain solid so far. It's not great in any area, but it does well in most. Vol 1 felt a bit like a mix of LOTR and Wizard of Oz. Just a quest to find a thing and picking up folks with necessary skills along the way. The character development could use some fleshing-out, but that seems to be happening a bit more in vol 2. Overall, I recommend this series (so far), good fun.