Tag: fantasy-fiction

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Best of List Books Watchlist

Mid-Year Check In: Best of 2024 So Far

I am ready to write bad angsty poetry on my never-ending reading/ blogging slump! Still, somehow, pushing myself to do this mid-year 2024 blogpost on stuff I have liked till now.

Let’s all pledge to move out of Slump Valley! And just in case these recs reach you, hope you’ll like some of these.

1 / The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

    I have not been a great fan or follower of the Grishaverse, so was hesitant in picking this up. But what a marvelous story this turned out to be. We peer into the ages of 16th century when anti-semitism was rife. Luzia is desperately trying to escape her confined pitiful life with her displays of magical craft… but soon ends up getting embroiled in a larger political net. Everything in this book was so impressive – the Spanish Golden Age/ Renaissance feel, the worldbuilding, the writing, the prose, the characterizations. Aaaaand, it is a standalone. If you’ve liked Mistress of the Art of Death, you’ll love this one too.

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    Books Watchlist

    Mini Reviews / Last Quarter(s) Wrap-Up

    Mini Reviews

    What’s been cooking for the past few months? Er, past few quarters (since my last mini reviews date back to pre-July)? At least for me, the last 2 months fared way better for my reading than the rest of the year, so I am thankful for that. All in the name of conquering Mount TBR!

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    Best of List Books Memes Starred Recommendations

    Top 10 Underrated Books

    This week’s Top 10 Tuesday has us looking at top 10 books that we recommend often to fellow bloggers and friends. Since May is also the month for Wyrd & Wonder, I’m going to stick to some underrated books from fantasy fiction that I do like to clobber people with.

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    Miscellany Recommendations Watchlist

    First Quarter Wrap-Up +Movie Recs

    Well, it’s been more than a quarter, but it’s just easier to sum up that way! I’m still not getting much reading done, but at least I managed to find some really good movies. Here’s a wrap-up for the first quarter.

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    Best of List Books Memes Starred Recommendations

    Wyrd & Wonder: Favorite Magical Systems

    The wonderful Wyrd & Wonder has started off again, hosted by Annemieke (A Dance With Books), Ariane (The Book Nook), Jorie (Jorie Loves A Story), Lisa (Dear Geek Place) and Imyril (There’s Always Room For One More). Thanks so much to them for all the effort that goes into this!

    (Credits: Portal by Tithi Luadthong)

    This Sunday, the prompt is top 5 magical systems (or spells) that we have come across in books. Obviously, world-building plays a huge role, but my picks are based on certain really striking book scenes.

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    Best of List Books Memes Recommendations

    If you like… Mythological Fantasy

    This week we have a genre freebie for Top 10 Tuesday, and I am going with Top 10 Mythological Fantasy Books. I really do like a plot where the gods get interested in mortal affairs, leading to much chaos — and great world-building.

    1 / The Chalion Series / World of the Five Gods series by Lois McMaster Bujold

    2 / Inheritance Trilogy by N. K. Jemisin

    3 / Paternus Trilogy by Dyrk Ashton

    4 / Malazan Book of the Fallen Series by Steven Erikson

    5 / Edda of Burdens trilogy by Elizabeth Bear

    6 / The Queen’s Thief Series by Megan Whalen Turner

    7 / Tales of the Magatama Series by Noriko Ogiwara

    8 / Indulgence Series by Erin Kellison

    9 / The Wicked + The Divine saga by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie

    10 / The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

    Have you read or are you interested any of these mythological fantasy books? Please feel free to leave as many recs as possible too!

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    Books Miscellany Recommendations Watchlist

    Last Quarter 2022 Wrap-Up

    Here’s a quick wrap-up of what I read and watched in the last quarter 2022. I found a few great shows even though I read very little. And now we are already gearing up for 2023. How time flies!

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    Books Starred Recommendations

    The Throme of the Erril of Sherill

    Book: The Throme of the Erril of Sherill by Patricia A. McKillip
    Published: 1973
    Tropes: Short Story/ Novella, Knight quests, Riddles, Puns, Folktales
    Readalikes: Alice in Wonderland, The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, Edward Lear

    The mad King Magnus sends his knight Caerles on a quest, to look for the Throme of the Erril of Sherill. (A tongue twister, if ever there was one — and it’s not a throne, by the way). If Caerles succeeds, he gets to marry the king’s daughter, who has been locked up in the castle and has never ever laughed. The problem is: the Throme doesn’t exist. Or does it?

    “You are cruel and loveless, you and your wanting.”
    “I know,” Magnus Thrall whispered. “I know. The Throme is my hope. Find it for me, Caerles.”

    It seems like a wild goose chase from the beginning. And poor Caerles seems to be the only sane person in the book. I was chuckling at all his dry witticisms throughout.

    “… I do not know what use it is to hurry when I do not know where I am going, and when there will be nothing to find when I get there.”

    The whole novella is actually poetry in the form of prose. Does that make sense? Seriously, I’m in awe of McKillip. To pack such a riddle in such lovely words, and to then blend it with humor and pun and brilliant character sketches? This was beautiful. Mesmerizing.

    “The house of the King was a tall thing of great, thick stones and high towers and tiny slits of windows that gleamed at night when the King paced his hearth stones longing for the Throme. He had a daughter who sat with him and wept and embroidered pictures of the green world beyond the walls, and listened to her father think aloud to the pale sunlight or the wisps of candle-flame.”

    Rating: 10 of 10. Highly recommended.

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    Books Recommendations Watchlist

    January 2022 Wrap-Up / Mini-Reviews

    January saw work at the office pile up, but I still managed to get in a lot more escape reading and watching. Here are some of the books and shows that I like particularly and I hope you’ll give these a shot as well.

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    Books

    Review: Winter of Ice and Iron by Rachel Neumeier

    Winter of Ice and Iron by Rachel Neumeier
    Standalone Epic Fantasy
    Published: 2017
    Tropes: Land Magic/ Wild Magic, Mythological Fantasy, Bi-Protagonist, Court Intrigue, Dark Fantasy.

    Winter of Ice and Iron was my pick for the “winter” theme for January, in Bookish Valhalla’s TBR SFF 2022 challenge. I’ve read and liked Neumeier’s work before and I think she deserves more press — so I picked this one up with interest.

    Each kingdom’s land has a wild force which must be mastered by its ruler (else it will destroy the ruler and the people). Trouble starts when one particular mad king plans to usurp the wildforces of all neighboring kingdoms.

    “Wolf Month was the starving month, the bitter month, the month when winter stores grew lean and the new growth had not yet come, the month when the long haunting cries of the wolves drifted almost nightly from the high mountains. It was a hard month. The cold lingered.”

    This book reminded me of Game of Thrones but with land magic involved. (There are a lot of kings and queens asking each other to “bend the knee” which is a GOT reference if ever I saw one.) Ahem:

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