Tag: fantasy

Red Seas Under Red Skies (2007): Scott Lynch

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★★★★½

The Gentleman Bastards: Book II

A debut novel like The Lies of Locke Lamora sets an uncomfortably high standard for its sequel to follow. It was witty, complex and gritty, while still managing to be warm and engaging, and it was one of the most unexpectedly enjoyable books I’ve read this year. I half-dreaded picking up Red Seas Under Red Skies; but I needn’t have worried. Lynch has done it again. To be precise, he’s managed to come up with something even more fun and extravagant than the first book.

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The Lions of Al-Rassan (1995): Guy Gavriel Kay

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★★★★★

There are some books which leave you sitting in silence after you’ve finished them, staring into space. This is one of them. You may remember that I’ve mentioned it before: it’s one of my favourites; and so, when I heard that Helen was planning to read it for the first time, I asked if she would mind me re-reading it along with her. It hasn’t lost any of its impact. Poignant and powerful, it’s a sweeping medieval epic, tempered with nostalgia for two lost worlds: a glorious civilisation already on its deathbed; and a utopia of religious tolerance, which perhaps only ever existed in the imagination.

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Temeraire (2006): Naomi Novik

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★★★★

Temeraire: Book I

You know, it’s amazing how many different ways you can say, ‘Hornblower with dragons’. You can say it rather dismissively, as I did before actually reading the book, or you can say it with great excitement and added exclamation marks, as I did on finishing it. This was one of those cases where I’d made assumptions about a book beforehand – only to enjoy it much, much more than I’d expected to.

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The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006): Scott Lynch

10 Comments

★★★★

The Gentleman Bastards: Book I

I must begin by saying that the rather fabulous cover you see here is not the cover of the edition I’ve borrowed from the library, which is instead one of the standardised bright yellow books in the Gollancz 50 series. Although the title had caught my attention on previous visits – alluringly alliterative, it tumbles off the tongue very nicely – the blank yellow cover had never quite drawn me in. This time, however, I caved in. And thank God I did. Needless to say, if the library copy had had the cover you see here, I’d have got round to reading this several months ago. I’m just not the kind of girl who can resist shadowy figures with tricorn hats and swords, against semi-fantastical Venetian backdrops.

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The Privilege of the Sword (2006): Ellen Kushner

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★★★★

I have a list of what I call ‘comfort books’: novels which, in times of stress or sadness, I can curl up with and be reminded that the world is a wonderful place (Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is one; These Old Shades is another). The Privilege of the Sword, a sequel to Swordspoint, has just joined this very select company. A quote on the back cover of my edition calls it ‘A magical mixture of Dumas and Georgette Heyer‘, which is precisely the right way to describe this gloriously bubbly swashbuckling adventure. Stuffed with duels, romance and intrigue, it also has the kind of feisty, independent heroine I would have adored as a sixteen-year-old. And I adore her even more now: in the intervening twelve years I’ve read enough books to know what a rare kind of heroine she is.

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Good Omens (1990): Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

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★★★★½

The imminent Apocalypse has been a bit of a theme recently: first I, Lucifer and now this. It wasn’t my first time reading Good Omens, but it’s been long enough that I’d forgotten most of the jokes and ended up giggling uncontrollably on the bus; which is a bit of a faux pas on London public transport, where it’s customary simply to pretend that you’re somewhere else. In fact, if you combine this book with doses of Blackadder, Monty Python and Caitlin Moran, you basically have a primer to my sense of humour. And the humour here is very, very English, with jokes about Milton Keynes, Manchester and traffic wardens, although that hasn’t prevented the book from becoming a cult classic across the world.

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The Wise Man’s Fear (2011): Patrick Rothfuss

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★★★½

The Kingkiller Chronicles: Book II

I have a confession. I began reading this in January on my Kindle and simply couldn’t get through it. When I felt it was time for a second bash at it, I borrowed a hard copy from the library, so that I could keep track of exactly where I was in the book. This time I sailed through much more easily. In general, The Wise Man’s Fear has the same strengths and appeal as The Name of the Wind, the first book in the series. If you enjoyed that then you should certainly carry on and read this, even though there are weaknesses in the narrative’s pace and structure in this instalment. I still can’t help but admire Rothfuss’s achievement in creating such a rich and lovingly-detailed world, with storytelling and music at its heart.

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Fool’s Fate (2003): Robin Hobb

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Robin Hobb © Ulf Andersen/Getty Images

★★★★½

The Tawny Man Trilogy: Book III

I was in no position to even think about writing a post immediately after finishing this (the tears would have been in the way) and, even after a night’s sleep, I feel emotionally crushed and somehow hollow. Yes, I’ve read it before, but that was ten years ago and I scarcely remembered any of it: the essence, rather than the detail, of the end. No doubt I’m going to lose my equanimity at some point during this post and start talking about fictional characters as if they’re real… I apologise in advance for that, but it can’t be helped.

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The Golden Fool (2002): Robin Hobb

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Robin Hobb © Ulf Andersen/Getty Images

★★★★½

The Tawny Man Trilogy: Book II

I take back what I said at the beginning of my post on Fool’s Errand: actually, you should read The Liveship Traders before embarking on The Tawny Man, otherwise there are going to be vast swathes of this book that don’t make any sense to you. Until I reread these books, I’d always thought of them as a continuation of The Farseer, but now I’m beginning to realise that actually they blend and merge and continue threads from both of the earlier trilogies, weaving them together into a rich story with a flavour all of its own.

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Fool’s Errand (2001): Robin Hobb

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Robin Hobb © Ulf Andersen/Getty Images

★★★★★

The Tawny Man Trilogy: Book I

Following on from my rereads of the previous two Robin Hobb trilogies, I’m now on to the third: The Tawny Man. After the wider scope of The Liveship Traders trilogy, with its large cast of characters, Fool’s Errand feels tighter, more focused and more intimate. Even on a second reading, I was gripped: this easily measures up to the best of The Farseer trilogy.

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