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bottle_of_shine's cat herding challenge, which, misleadingly, involves no cats. It actually involves books. And you can read more about it here. The basic idea starts with listing ten books you love. I've decided to list trilogies and the like as a single book, otherwise my list would get swallowed up by about two authors! But I'd say that reading and reviewing any book from the trilogy/series would count as one.
1. The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper. A sequence of five books: Over Sea Under Stone, The Dark Is Rising, Greenwitch, The Grey King, Silver On The Tree.
I don't think anyone who knows me is surprised to see this one here automatically. I love this to death. It's supposedly written for children, but I don't think it's confined to that. Adventures and amazing minor characters and many, many references to various myths, legends, and King Arthur. I posted something once in my TDIR community (in which no one but me posts! -- yes, I have an ulterior motive, I want more members of this fandom) where people were supposed to share their fangirling. There's mine there at least, so I refer you to it, here.
2. The Fionavar Tapestry, by Guy Gavriel Kay. A trilogy: The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, The Darkest Road.
There are so many reasons not to like this trilogy. My entry here touches on those, so I'll leave here for pure fangirling. I love the relationships, particularly between the two friends, Paul and Kevin. The books broke my heart a million times and made me cry and made me squeal with fangirl glee at the same time. And again, there's King Arthur and loads of mythical references.
3. I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith.
Pulling out of the world of fantasy for a while, we have the "diaries" of a young girl living in a decaying castle, growing up and falling in love and struggling with being terribly poor in the meantime. It grabs me from "I write this sitting in the kitchen sink" and doesn't let go until "Only the margin left to write on now. I love you, I love you, I love you".
4. Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte.
This is possibly one of the only novels from that period that I really get on with. It's part a bildungsroman, part a love story -- between a plain young woman and a stormy, mysterious older guy. I think I have a thing for love affairs like that one, because it really gets me. Parts of the book make me hurt in sympathy for Jane, and the ending always makes me a very, very happy bunny.
5. The Warlord Chronicles, by Bernard Cornwell. A trilogy: The Winter King, Enemy of God, Excalibur.
This one is back to more fantasy-like stuff, although it's reasonably historically accurate. It's a King Arthur story, set once the Romans left Britain and as the Saxons are sweeping in. It's told from the point of view of a Saxon-raised-as-British, a warrior. It's very, very interesting, the way that Merlin and Nimue are woven into the story -- it stops short of saying whether magic is real or whether it's just a series of coincidences (or predictable happenings) that Merlin and Nimue exploit. I fell in love with Galahad as portrayed in this story, and it's amazing how Guinevere and Arthur both have their flaws and yet you still love them and are happy when they're together. I didn't like the portrayal of Lancelot so much, but it made sense within the story.
6. Earthsea, by Ursula Le Guin. A series: A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, Tehanu, Dragonfly (in Tales From Earthsea), The Other Wind.
Beautiful fantasy. Epic quests, magic, dragons, cults, kings, commentary on the differences between men and women, changing the nature of death... There are so many awesome things about this series. My paperback copy of the first four books is battered to bits because I used to read the first two books over and over and over again.
7. Realm of the Elderlings, by Robin Hobb. A trilogy of trilogies: Assassin's Apprentice, The Royal Assassin, Assassin's Quest. Ship of Magic, The Mad Ship, Ship of Destiny. Fool's Errand, The Golden Fool, Fool's Fate.
I especially recommend the first trilogy, really. The second trilogy is pretty flawed, as I discussed here. The final trilogy makes little sense without the other two, but goes back to the standard of the first. This is definitely fantasy. There's a lot of things going on in it -- there are two kinds of magic, one which involves communicating with beasts, and the other involving manipulating people, communicating with other people, seeing things that are happening far away. There's a war. There are dragons. There's a dying king, and a fight over the succession. There's prophecies. There's love stories and there's heartbreaking stories, there's beautiful friendship. There's sacrifice. There's a story of unrequited love between two men (that'll get the slash fangirls jumping on it). There's beautiful writing and layers on layers of detail. There are torture scenes that I almost can't read because they're so well written that they feel real. The characters aren't perfect people, but they feel real. And that's just the first trilogy I'm describing there.
8. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman.
I love this in all its forms -- the novel, the series, the graphic novel. The idea of two Londons, the one we know and one below, where the people who slip through the cracks go and all kinds of things can happen, is awesome. There are amazing characters that you can't help but fangirl (I'm looking at the Marquis de Carabas here). There's magic, like Door's ability to open... well, anything. It's an adventure story, and also a growing up story -- the main character is an adult in London Above, but takes a long time to adapt to London Below and look after himself.
9. Isavalta, by Sarah Zettel. A series: A Sorcerer's Treason, The Usurper's Crown, The Firebird's Vengeance, Sword of the Deceiver.
One of the things that interests me with this series is that the reading order is strange. In chronological order, the books go four, two, one, three. But reading them in the order above works. It's interesting fantasy, set in a world that isn't just medieval Europe conveniently tweaked. There are spirits, and dealing with them has a price, and then there's magic, which is done by weaving things -- anything, if you have enough power. It's one of those stories where someone goes from "our" world to another world, and the lack of information on the part of the main character is handled well -- you learn about the other world at the same rate as she does, really. There are some really awesome characters and some really interesting writing -- your conceptions of some characters gets turned completely on its head.
10. Otherland, by Tad Williams. A quartet: City of Golden Shadow, River of Blue Fire, Mountain of Black Glass, Sea of Silver Light.
This one is more sci-fi than the others, though it's more about computers and AI and virtual reality than about space travel and the like. This one isn't a quick read: it took me about two weeks. It's much less predictable than his fantasy series, and it covers a lot of ground. There are a lot of interesting scenarios/worlds in the virtual reality, including a "War of the Worlds" world where the aliens didn't die, and an Alice in Wonderland world. The characters and relationships are interesting and believable, and you really get to love some of them. I posted more thoughts on it here.
bottle_of_shine's cat herding challenge, which, misleadingly, involves no cats. It actually involves books. And you can read more about it here. The basic idea starts with listing ten books you love. I've decided to list trilogies and the like as a single book, otherwise my list would get swallowed up by about two authors! But I'd say that reading and reviewing any book from the trilogy/series would count as one.1. The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper. A sequence of five books: Over Sea Under Stone, The Dark Is Rising, Greenwitch, The Grey King, Silver On The Tree.
I don't think anyone who knows me is surprised to see this one here automatically. I love this to death. It's supposedly written for children, but I don't think it's confined to that. Adventures and amazing minor characters and many, many references to various myths, legends, and King Arthur. I posted something once in my TDIR community (in which no one but me posts! -- yes, I have an ulterior motive, I want more members of this fandom) where people were supposed to share their fangirling. There's mine there at least, so I refer you to it, here.
2. The Fionavar Tapestry, by Guy Gavriel Kay. A trilogy: The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, The Darkest Road.
There are so many reasons not to like this trilogy. My entry here touches on those, so I'll leave here for pure fangirling. I love the relationships, particularly between the two friends, Paul and Kevin. The books broke my heart a million times and made me cry and made me squeal with fangirl glee at the same time. And again, there's King Arthur and loads of mythical references.
3. I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith.
Pulling out of the world of fantasy for a while, we have the "diaries" of a young girl living in a decaying castle, growing up and falling in love and struggling with being terribly poor in the meantime. It grabs me from "I write this sitting in the kitchen sink" and doesn't let go until "Only the margin left to write on now. I love you, I love you, I love you".
4. Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte.
This is possibly one of the only novels from that period that I really get on with. It's part a bildungsroman, part a love story -- between a plain young woman and a stormy, mysterious older guy. I think I have a thing for love affairs like that one, because it really gets me. Parts of the book make me hurt in sympathy for Jane, and the ending always makes me a very, very happy bunny.
5. The Warlord Chronicles, by Bernard Cornwell. A trilogy: The Winter King, Enemy of God, Excalibur.
This one is back to more fantasy-like stuff, although it's reasonably historically accurate. It's a King Arthur story, set once the Romans left Britain and as the Saxons are sweeping in. It's told from the point of view of a Saxon-raised-as-British, a warrior. It's very, very interesting, the way that Merlin and Nimue are woven into the story -- it stops short of saying whether magic is real or whether it's just a series of coincidences (or predictable happenings) that Merlin and Nimue exploit. I fell in love with Galahad as portrayed in this story, and it's amazing how Guinevere and Arthur both have their flaws and yet you still love them and are happy when they're together. I didn't like the portrayal of Lancelot so much, but it made sense within the story.
6. Earthsea, by Ursula Le Guin. A series: A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, Tehanu, Dragonfly (in Tales From Earthsea), The Other Wind.
Beautiful fantasy. Epic quests, magic, dragons, cults, kings, commentary on the differences between men and women, changing the nature of death... There are so many awesome things about this series. My paperback copy of the first four books is battered to bits because I used to read the first two books over and over and over again.
7. Realm of the Elderlings, by Robin Hobb. A trilogy of trilogies: Assassin's Apprentice, The Royal Assassin, Assassin's Quest. Ship of Magic, The Mad Ship, Ship of Destiny. Fool's Errand, The Golden Fool, Fool's Fate.
I especially recommend the first trilogy, really. The second trilogy is pretty flawed, as I discussed here. The final trilogy makes little sense without the other two, but goes back to the standard of the first. This is definitely fantasy. There's a lot of things going on in it -- there are two kinds of magic, one which involves communicating with beasts, and the other involving manipulating people, communicating with other people, seeing things that are happening far away. There's a war. There are dragons. There's a dying king, and a fight over the succession. There's prophecies. There's love stories and there's heartbreaking stories, there's beautiful friendship. There's sacrifice. There's a story of unrequited love between two men (that'll get the slash fangirls jumping on it). There's beautiful writing and layers on layers of detail. There are torture scenes that I almost can't read because they're so well written that they feel real. The characters aren't perfect people, but they feel real. And that's just the first trilogy I'm describing there.
8. Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman.
I love this in all its forms -- the novel, the series, the graphic novel. The idea of two Londons, the one we know and one below, where the people who slip through the cracks go and all kinds of things can happen, is awesome. There are amazing characters that you can't help but fangirl (I'm looking at the Marquis de Carabas here). There's magic, like Door's ability to open... well, anything. It's an adventure story, and also a growing up story -- the main character is an adult in London Above, but takes a long time to adapt to London Below and look after himself.
9. Isavalta, by Sarah Zettel. A series: A Sorcerer's Treason, The Usurper's Crown, The Firebird's Vengeance, Sword of the Deceiver.
One of the things that interests me with this series is that the reading order is strange. In chronological order, the books go four, two, one, three. But reading them in the order above works. It's interesting fantasy, set in a world that isn't just medieval Europe conveniently tweaked. There are spirits, and dealing with them has a price, and then there's magic, which is done by weaving things -- anything, if you have enough power. It's one of those stories where someone goes from "our" world to another world, and the lack of information on the part of the main character is handled well -- you learn about the other world at the same rate as she does, really. There are some really awesome characters and some really interesting writing -- your conceptions of some characters gets turned completely on its head.
10. Otherland, by Tad Williams. A quartet: City of Golden Shadow, River of Blue Fire, Mountain of Black Glass, Sea of Silver Light.
This one is more sci-fi than the others, though it's more about computers and AI and virtual reality than about space travel and the like. This one isn't a quick read: it took me about two weeks. It's much less predictable than his fantasy series, and it covers a lot of ground. There are a lot of interesting scenarios/worlds in the virtual reality, including a "War of the Worlds" world where the aliens didn't die, and an Alice in Wonderland world. The characters and relationships are interesting and believable, and you really get to love some of them. I posted more thoughts on it here.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-16 11:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-16 11:37 pm (UTC)I Capture The Castle is glorious! It's one of my comfort reads, really. (That, Jane Eyre and The Dark Is Rising.)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-17 02:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-17 07:26 am (UTC)