Sacramento Public Library discussion

With autumn well underway, the weather is finally turning cold, encouraging readers to snuggle up on a windy afternoon or a chilly evening with a favorite book. We all turn to our favorite genres on those indulgent days, and my comfort genre of choice is fantasy.

So, this month's challenge is to read a book that falls somewhere in the realm of fantasy. My choice is Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson, the author who was chosen to finish Robert Jordan's epic Wheel of Time series. However, feel free to read and discuss any other fantasy book of your choice.

Thankfully, there's a lot of fantasy to choose from, if you're new to the genre. High fantasy (almost all of which is descended from Tolkien's Hobbit and Lord of the Rings) deals in epic struggles, monstrous creatures, and deep magical systems. The current trend in fantasy is violent, gritty, human-centered fantasy of the type authored by George R. R. Martin and Joe Abercrombie. Another popular subgenre is urban fantasy, where magic-wielding heroes battle evil in real-life contemporary settings (see Jim Butcher or Kim Harrison). When all else fails, you can't go wrong with dragons.

If the thought of jumping into a 600+ page fantastical world seems daunting, don't forget that there are plenty of children's and young adult classics and neoclassics that not only exemplify the genre but are absolute joys to read. The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, the Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper, the Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, and the Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis should be read by anyone who enjoys a good story, irrespective of genre.

Whatever you choose to read, make sure to talk about it below for a chance at a free advance reader's copy. Enjoy!

Best Series I have read and adored is Shadow and Bone & harry Potter series & The lunar Chronicles ( cinder , scarlett, Cress & soon winter )

I am adding Sanderson to my reading pile :)

I think I might start reading the Narnia series this month to my kids. I've been meaning to read them for a long time.

This is indeed my first time reading Mistborn, or Sanderson at all, for that matter. I've heard nothing but good things about him. I first heard of him when he picked up the Wheel of Time books, but a long-simmering frustration with that series stopped me from reading them.

I'm a few hundred pages in, and while I'm finding Mistborn to be a little light on story so far, I'm enthralled by the magic system, the scenarios being used to introduce the setting, and the battle sequences (which is rare, because usually I find them tiring). It's almost cliched at this point to call Sanderson a good world-builder, but it's true; he's phenomenal at creating an immersive fantasy world.

Tabitha the Pabkins wrote: "YES YES YES! Finally my favorite genre! I would have to say pretty much 80% of what I read is fantasy. I recently finished Masks by E.C. Blake. - in this world magic is harvested and only a small p..."

Tabitha, is this a trilogy? I'd be really interested if I didn't have to commit. Or can the book you read stand alone, even if there is a trilogy in the works?

I'm thinking of reading Death's Apprentice: A Grimm City Novel. While I'm not into dark fantasy, I am interested to see where the author goes with the Grimm Brothers canon. The blurb states that this book/series is the first to draw on the full canon, so maybe Grimm is much darker that my limited exposure (Hansel and Gretel, etc) would have me believe.

I love fantasy, and I am constantly reading it. This month, I am going to read American Gods by Neil Gaiman and A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin. I just finished Feast of Crows yesterday, and picked up American Gods from the library, so I am ready to go.

I have also read Seraphina and loved it :)

I loved Harry Potter and I have Martin's series but that needs a commitment that will have to wait until school is over. I heard of the Iron Druid series so I might try that over the holidays. I just picked up the next book in the Boleyn series and I want to read that before I start anything else. I was trying to remember the title of the new witch series--witch meets vampire, falls in love, and goes back in time. Has anyone read it? Thank you

Annemarie - Could it be the Deborah Harkness series? I haven't read it, but know lots of people love this series.

I love the All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness! I highly recommend it.

I recently finished The Real Boy, by Anne Ursu. It was a very engaging fantasy story about Oscar, an orphan who serves the last magician in his magical village. Until recently, the magic of the island has always kept everyone safe and healthy. However, things start to go wrong, the magician and the healer leave town, and the children of the city develop an odd sickness that cannot be cured. Oscar teams up with the healer's apprentice, and together they work to solve the mystery of what ails the island and its people. The intended audience is children, but it could easily be enjoyed by all ages.

Julie wrote: "I have also read Seraphina and loved it :)"

Yes, I cannot recommend Seraphina highly enough.

Tabitha the Pabkins said: "THREE PARTS DEAD by Max Gladstone. It felt like urban fantasy with a high fantasy flair. Not that it is urban fantasy but it just felt like it. I highly recommend it!"


I really enjoyed Three Parts Dead. It felt like a fantasy novel I hadn't read before, much like the N.K. Jemisin books I also recently read (The Killing Moon and The Shadowed Sun). I Am looking forward to reading the sequel to Three Parts, Two Serpents Rise, later this month.

@Tabitha -- I read the lair too :)

I started reading The Dream Thieves by Maggie

I also had read NOS4A2 and yes its fantasy with Horror. I loved all the comic book references.

So, for those that are reading or have already read the challenge book: how do you feel about the story? I feel like the plot is actually pretty thin; most of it seems like developing Vin's character, and by the time we get to the end, everything feels like a prologue for the next book. Thankfully, the world is so fun to read that it didn't bother me too much.

Tabitha the Pabkins wrote: "Justin wrote: "So, for those that are reading or have already read the challenge book: how do you feel about the story? I feel like the plot is actually pretty thin; most of it seems like developin..."

Oh, they are. The challenge book is just a suggestion, along with the others we put on the bookshelf. =)

I started Death Sworn and loved the opening. :)

I hope everyone had a good time with this challenge. For me, it wasn't a challenge at all, but an excuse to indulge in the type of reading I do anyway.

I posted my review of Mistborn. While I think the book had some problems from a literary critique standpoint, it's the first fantasy book I've read in a long while that did exactly what it was supposed to: transport me to a world where I'm too distracted by magic and intrigue to care much about literary problems.

As always, we pick a participant of the challenge at random to receive an advance reader's copy of a forthcoming book, and November's lucky winner is:

April!

Let us know which library branch is your preferred branch, and we'll send your ARC over to you for pickup. Congratulations!

Justin wrote: "I posted my review of Mistborn. While I thin..."

Justin, is it possible to post a link to your review of Mistborn? I can't find it. Or did you post it as a comment?

Sure, I posted an extended version of my thoughts here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...