Fantasy Book Club discussion

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great start for the year :)

What are you book-dragons reading/planning to read this month?

I'm doing scifi this month. Robots, Star Wars and Steam Punk oh my.

well, I am going back to the roots of Brandon Sanderson, mixing in the second book of Gareth Hanrahan and adding a spice of Cosmic Ghost Rider.

Along the Razor's Edge by Rob J Hayes, after that i might try A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie, or go back to Royal Assassin

The Ball and the Cross by G.K. Chesterton

Not quite at the end of the series, but starting The Gates of Tagmeth by P.C. Hodgell.

So for my Februay scifi, my first book is For Steam And Country.

The Last Human by Lee Bacon

I've gone back to Sci fi for the moment. Re reading Nightfall. I actually love the short story more than the novel but couldn't find the original at home. Something reminded me of the story earlier this week so I hunted it out.
Back to normal fantasy reading very soon.

I've been reading The Sword of Kaigen in ebook and Ghosts of Tomorrow in audio.

Back to fantasy after a detour into Sci Fi and Crime. I'm currently reading Eye of Truth which is the first part of the Agents of the Crown series. It's quite lightweight but the characters are fun and the dialogue is well written. Plus it was only £0.99 on kindle for the whole box set.

I’m nearly finished with my Princess Leia book.

Just finished Malice and will continue with Valor as soon as I finish The Whisper Man which came available from the library.

Finished For Steam And Country which was ok. Also finished The Paradise Snare, The Han Solo Trilogy which is the back story of Han. It's pretty good. I'm on the second one, The Hutt Gambit.

I'm onto The Hod King, really enjoying this series.

Finished By Demons Possessed, the most recent P.C. Hodgell Kencyrath book, and started a reread of Kingdoms of Sorcery, an anthology edited by Lin Carter that I remember very fondly from my younger days. It's mostly older fantasy -- everything from Voltaire to Clark Ashton Smith, a mixture of short stories and novel excerpts, and was my first introduction to a number of great classic authors.

Ghost in the Council by Jonathan Moeller

I finished The Underground Railroad last night. Been really sick, so haven’t exactly been able to give it my full attention, but even setting that aside I couldn’t really connect with the writing style.

Now I’m starting Age of Death.

Company of Strangers by Melissa McShane

I've listened to Sorcery of Thorns in 2 sittings - very predictable, cheesy romance but one interesting character - definitely a guilty pleasure.

Also finished Ghosts of Tomorrow, a cyberpunk standalone with plenty of action and musings about what it means to be "alive" in a world where uploaded consciousness is everywhere. Very interesting.

Finished Kingdoms of Sorcery and continued straight into the companion volume, Realms Of Wizardry.

Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Just finished Shadow of the Exile which I really enjoyed. A different take on the demon summoning which is a familiar part of many epic fantasy stories.

well, I ended up completely off piste and started with Elantris and then went on to Mark Lawrence's impossible times trilogy. was going to read shadow Saint at some point.

Finished The Hod King, now to wait for the fourth book. Moving on to some books that have been on my shelf for a while, moving on to some historical fiction with The Siege Winter

Finished The Hutt Gambit, Rebel Dawn, Junkyard Cats and Interview with the Robot. Started The Dragons of Dorcastle. It's a really great book.

Finished Realms Of Wizardry and started The Last Hieroglyph, a collection of Clark Ashton Smith's short stories.

Tnkw01 wrote: " Started The Dragons of Dorcastle. It's ..."

Oh yes. Though it does build in the series.

Mary wrote: "Tnkw01 wrote: " Started The Dragons of Dorcastle. It's ..."

Oh yes. Though it does build in the series."

It's offcially made my series to continue list. I'm listening to the audio and it is so well done that it is quickly approaching one of my top ten favorites.

I’ve started listening to Magician by Feist. I was concerned it wouldn’t live up to my memory but so far so good.

I really liked the series & have read it several times. I like to read the Empire trilogy he wrote with Janny Wurts after Magician: Apprentice & before "A Darkness at Sethanon". The two of them together are fantastic.

I love the Magician trilogy and the Empire books. Still some of my favourite books.

I've finally finished the 7k pages monster that is Worm! :p

I thought the Empire trilogy was one of the best ever and you don't have to read the Magician trilogy to enjoy it.

Transhuman and Subhuman: Essays on Science Fiction and Awful Truth by John C. Wright

Jim wrote: "I really liked the series & have read it several times. I like to read the Empire trilogy he wrote with Janny Wurts after Magician: Apprentice & before "A Darkness at Sethanon". The t..."

I read it back when it came out and subsequent ones. I'm doing audio, it's good although some names are different. I have magician and the other two from the library. Need the Wurts three.

One of my libraries has the first of the Empire trilogy in audio, but not the other 2, unfortunately.

The Monsters Know What They're Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters by Keith Ammann

Finished Lost Continents and started Scott Oden's Men of Bronze, which isn't technically SFF but which is historical fiction set in ancient Egypt very much in the vein of Robert E. Howard's historical fiction.

Our library consistently gets books 2 and 3 but not 1. Not sure why.

People who bought book 1 ask in advance for them to get 2 and 3.

Helen wrote: "Our library consistently gets books 2 and 3 but not 1. Not sure why."

I hate that even more. Reading series through the library has always been a rough proposition, even more so years ago before inter-library loans were common.

I think publishers are partially to blame. I vividly remember seeing the second book of 2 trilogies dozens of times in new & used book stores, but it took a decade to find the first & third books.

A Middle-earth Traveller: Sketches from Bag End to Mordor by John Howe

So, I finished my February sci-fi tour with Ticker, which I thought was pretty good despite it's really low ratings from others, Nefertiti's Heart and am finishing off with Oryx and Crake.

The month is over, it's round-up time! How many books did you read? Any favorites?

Here are some symbols to copy-paste if you want them :)

[★☆☆☆☆]
[★★☆☆☆]
[★★★☆☆]
[★★★★☆]
[★★★★★]
📖 = print books
🎧 = audiobooks

My February round-up:
11 books + 7 manga volumes + 29 short stories (one a day!)
6 223 pages

📖 Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse [★★★★☆]
🎧 Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson [★★★☆☆]
🎧 Ghosts of Tomorrow by Michael R. Fletcher [★★★★☆]
🎧 Big Trouble by Andrew Seiple [★★★★☆]
🎧 At Large by Andrew Seiple [★★★★☆]
🎧 The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith [★★★☆☆]
🎧 Well Done by Andrew Seiple [★★★★☆]
🎧 Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman [★★★★☆]
🎧 Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey [★★☆☆☆]
🎧 Semiosis by Sue Burke [★★★★★]
🎧 Interference by Sue Burke [★★★★☆]

February was audiobook-binging like crazy for me :p

The Sea of Time [★★★★☆]
The Gates of Tagmeth [★★★★☆]
By Demons Possessed [★★★★☆]
Kingdoms of Sorcery [★★★★☆]
Realms Of Wizardry [★★★★☆]
The Last Hieroglyph [★★★★★]
Lost Continents [★★★★☆]

All 📖. I don't have anything against audiobooks as such, but any listening I do is to podcasts. (Most of which are people talking about books or videogames, but I do get some narrative stuff in there as well -- Welcome to Night Vale, e.g., and the BBC series that started with an adaptation of Lovecraft's Case of Charles Dexter Ward, and has moved on to an adaptation of his Whisperer in Darkness.)

📖The Secret Cove in Croatia★★★★☆
🎧One Blood★★☆☆☆
🎧Summer Under the Stars★★★☆☆



1100 pages - Can you tell I started working again? So tired I fall asleep before reading a page.

So close to finish two others!

Mary wrote: "People who bought book 1 ask in advance for them to get 2 and 3."

That makes so much sense.

Aesop's Fables★★★☆☆
The Sword of Kaigen★★★★★
The Dragon Society★★★☆☆
I also do all of my reading as print/ebooks and prefer podcasts when I want something to listen to. It's too bad not a lot of people read this month's group read; I really enjoyed it.