Fantasy Book Club discussion

This is going to be a lot of fun.

21/26 completed.

A- Daniel Abraham The Dragon's Path completed 6th September
B- Jim Butcher Storm Front completed 26th May
C- Cinda Williams Chima The Demon King completed 11th March 2017
D- Sebastian de Castell Traitor's Blade completed 16th January
E- Steven Erikson Gardens of the Moon Completed 31st October
F- Diana Pharaoh Francis Bitter Night Completed 5th Nov 2017
G- Neil Gaiman - Stardust Completed 8th November
H- Nancy Holzner Deadtown Completed 6th March
I- Kim Izzo The Jane Austen Marriage Manual 27/01/2019
J- Alison Jones - Words Between Us: He Korero: First Maori-Pakeha Conversations on Paper April 2018
K- Guy Gavriel Kay The Lions of Al-Rassan Completed 5th March 2017
L- Stephen R. Lawhead The Iron Lance Completed 6th April
M- Brian McClellan Promise of Blood Completed May 2017
N- Barbara Nickless Blood on the Tracks Completed July 2018
O-
P- Kalayna Price Grave Dance Completed 21st January
Q-
R- Anthony Ryan - The Waking Fire Completed 18th April 2017
S- Brian Staveley The Emperor's Blades Completed March 5th
T- Victoria Thompson Murder on Lenox Hill 15th January 2019
U-
V- Rachel Vincent Menagerie Completed
Jan 2018
W- Andy Weir The Martian Completed 12th Jan
X-
Y- Jane Yolen - Queen's Own Fool
Z- Mariana Zapata The Wall of Winnipeg and Me Completed 9th May

Oh I want to read Traitor's Blade. How was it?

I've just started it Jenna. I've just added books here I know I intend to read. Easier for me to keep track if I have something specific in mind to match an author's last name.

I'm going to add completed beside them once I've read them.

I'll let you know what I think once I've finished :).

Ah, makes sense. I didn't add my currently-reading books here, but I did put them on a bookshelf so I can keep it all straight. I will look forward to your comments then! :)

First book down. The Martian by Andy Weir. I may change this later if I get to Brent Week's The Broken Eye.

Love The Martian. I thought it was just as good as the movie if not better.

I finished Traitor's Blade and have to say I enjoyed it for a first book in a series. It had a real swashbuckler, Three Musketeers vibe going on for the early stages of the book. Our hero needed to escape impossible clashes numerous times.

That being said there were a couple of reveals towards the end of the novel which have intrigued me enough to carry on with the series.

I don't have an author in mind for "D" yet, so I think I'm going to read Traitor's Blade. I was hoping it would win the poll for March, but it looks like Gardens of the Moon is in the lead.

I hope you enjoy it Jenna :).

Okay finished my third book for the challenge. I picked Kalayna Price for the letter P. An urban fantasy novel. I rated it 3 stars. I enjoyed it overall as it had plenty of action and a great plot. However it had a couple of points with the heroine that annoyed me a little hence the 3 stars. I did enjoy that it has fae elements to it and the reveals of the main character Alex Craft are keeping me interested in where the story is heading.

1. Never listening to advice from others.
2. Keeping in the thick of the action with hardly eating.

I've started my S book by Brian Staveley The Emperor's Blades and I'm liking it so far.

I liked Valyn's POV, but found the others pretty uninteresting - hope you like them all :)

4/5 for The Emperor's Blades. An enjoyable first in series book for me. I felt invested in Valyn's POV and found his storyline interesting. Kadan not so much. The reveals at the end of the book are enough to keep me interested in reading the next book. I'm hopeful that Adare will get more page time.

3/5 for Deadtown. It was an enjoyable first in series urban fantasy book. My first book with any zombies in it and while some aspects were annoying, sadly the zombies were one of those aspects, I was intrigued enough to want to carry on with the series at a later date.

4/5 for The Iron Lance. Great book. It is twenty years since I've read anything by Lawhead and I still found his writing was wonderful to me. I look forward to completing the series.

Yay for me 6/20 now complete. Not too bad I reckon.

Well done!

Thanks Helen. :)

Getting completely distracted by needing to read the next book in series after reading the first. Just finished The Providence of Fire which I enjoyed. 4/5

7 done now. Just completed Storm Front by Jim Butcher. I enjoyed it and gave it 4/5. I found it refreshing to read an urban fantasy book from a male POV.

I'm making slow progress and so have decided to add other books from authors that fit the categories which I've read this year. I'll change them to fantasy books. I seem to be reading a lot of books where the author either starts with the letters S, P or H.

Funny I haven't completed H and only have one P but S is a huge letter for me as well along with B and E.

Mine have been B H M

Finally a new letter and it means I'm halfway through the challenge :-).

Letter A. The Dragon's Path 4/5. I enjoyed the multi POV and world Abraham has created. Looking forward to continuing with the series.

TDP was really enjoyable.

I was looking to find your review of Empire in Black and Gold but didn't see it. Have you read it yet?

No not yet. It's on the list as I put it there when thinking of authors that started with T.

Gotcha. Let me know when you're going to do it. I already have T done but I have a copy of it and will read it sometime in the next 3-4 months.

Will do Scott. At this rate it won't be until next year anyway.

14/26

Letter K Why Not Me? 2/5. It just wasn't funny and I guess I expected an autobiography book by a comedian to be funnier. It read more like a series of blog posts.

Yay, you've got another letter. I'm still 7 off. I just can't seem to get new letters! I might actually have to do a plan, gasp.

Haha I do too. It's these darn series I've discovered via the challenge. It keeps distracting me. I'm currently reading another B and then it's an A author.

I started a tally of my letters, it's ridiculous. Although my reading is excellent this year, I'll hit 100!!

Helen wrote: "I started a tally of my letters, it's ridiculous. Although my reading is excellent this year, I'll hit 100!!"

Congrats. I should also get there for the first time. At 85 now so not quite at your 98.

I grin every time I see my total, my highest ever is 86. I'll become more insufferable as we near January ;)

You guys are doing amazing. I'll be happy to get to 70. My number seems to decrease every year. Haha I blame it on the size of the books and I haven't done a romance reading binge this year which usually helps my books read.

Helen wrote: "I grin every time I see my total, my highest ever is 86. I'll become more insufferable as we near January ;)"

Tis' impressive.

Angela wrote: "You guys are doing amazing. I'll be happy to get to 70. My number seems to decrease every year. Haha I blame it on the size of the books and I haven't done a romance reading binge this year which u..."

That's the thing I'm more proud of. Yes some of my books have been short but I have 7 Malazan books, 3 Unhewn Throne and a bunch of other long ones. 5 of the Malazans are over a thousand pages in paperback.

You are a reading machine Scott. This is becoming a known fact.

You're trying to scare me with the length of those Malazan books aren't you. The reason I put off Penman's A King's Ransom was the length and that was near 1000+ pages.

But...........they are so flipping awesome!! Helen and Jenna will both back me up that they are worth it.

Totally!!!! You have to read them, it's staggering how much is in them, the depth to the story.

15/26 I finally have another letter. Yay.

E is done. Gardens of the Moon 5/5. Loved it and looking forward to continuing the series in December.

16/26

G Stardust 3/5. It was a bit of a struggle to get into. I liked it, but didn't find it intriguing or page turning.

Yay!

I reread Stardust when the film came out and didn't find it as good as my memory of it. I actually prefer the film which has some differences.

No increase in numbers but I've changed C and K to Fantasy books.

C The Demon King - Cinda Williams Chima 3/5. YA and I don't click so the last 20% really helped to bump this book up to a 3.

K The Lions of Al-Rassan - Guy Gavriel Kay 5/5. One of my favourite reads this year. Brilliant.

No change in number but I've changed my R to a Fantasy book.

R - The Waking Fire by Anthony Ryan 5/5. Another favourite read of this year so far.

Again no change in number but my M is now a Fantasy book.

M - Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan 3/5.

Angela wrote: "Again no change in number but my M is now a Fantasy book.

M - Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan 3/5."

I nominated it for August.

I thought the magic system was great in Promise of Blood Tnkw01. I just found it hard to connect with the characters.

Tnkw01 wrote: "Angela wrote: "Again no change in number but my M is now a Fantasy book.

M - Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan 3/5."

I nominated it for August."

I'm probably going to go ahead and read it soon. Don't think it's going to win.

I don't know why it isn't more popular.

Hopefully it will get picked up some point. Most people I know who have read on in the series have really enjoyed it.

I am loving it and plan on reading on with it.