Ahira's Hangar

I finished up Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow this morning - I really enjoyed it. Cool characters, well told story.

Shock at the end though - the author's note said that Mr. Gemmell had passed away last year in 2006.

So Av - this book and sounds like possibly one or two others which will be published in the upcoming months that he had completed about Troy will be his last work.


edited for spelling

I've been reading some Catherine Asaro lately. She is primarily a science fiction writer, but does have a recent fantasy trilogy out, which I have been reading my way through:
The Charmed Sphere
The Misty Cliffs
The Dawn Star

They are a mixture of fantasy and romance and family drama set in a time of warfare and at the birth of an empire.

I got my hands on a couple of old used beaten up copies of a couple of YA fantasy books by Madeleine L'Engle recently, and have been reading them on my breaks at work.

They are about a teen aged girl and poet named Vicky Austin. They are absolutely lovely. In one she is temporarily living on an island off the coast of New England, staying with her family at her beloved grandfather's house for the summer, as he is termianly ill. I know that sounds like it would be very depressing, but was filled with love and wisdom and was actually very life affirming - especially the dolphins!!! The other was set on a trip to Antarctica, which sounds lovely as a dream.

Feist's Krondor: The Assassins, book 2 of his RiftWar Legacy.

--A

Just started the Faith of the Fallen

Terry Goodkind.

The fifth book in Garth Nix's older children's fantasy series called Keys to the Kingdom - the book itself is called Lady Friday. This is the fifth book of a projected seven.

The earlier books are somewhere in my son's room. I think I would have benefitted from a reread of at least the fourth book before starting this one (if not all four earlier books) if I could just find them.

I'm remembering enough to figure it out as I go, fortunately, though I had some bad moments right in the beginning - and then I realized that this was new material in a new setting and I had not totally forgotten anything.

I would definately recommend a reread of at least the fourth book before reading reading Nix's Lady Friday. Enough of it came back to me that it worked, but a refresher would have been good. When the sixth book comes out, I will make sure to give myself time to dig the other books out of my son's room and give them a good reread before embarking on the new one. They are short enough that it can work (it will probably take more time to dig them out than to read them ).

Upon Av's recommendation, David Gemmel's Lion of Macedon. So far I am loving it. This guy writes very well researched historical fantasy. Fisty should read ths one.

That one (and the sequel, although less so) are the only really historical ones he wrote. The sequel is Dark Prince, but it's considerably more "fantasy" than Lion is. Yeah, my favourite Gemmel I think, and that's saying something.

Glad you're enjoying it.

--A

Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow is also historical fantasy. While I have read many novels in the Trojan War setting, his is the only one that has used the latest historical and archaeological research showing Troy as the regional capital of the Hittite Empire and as a part of the larger Mediterranean world (ie. Egypt and the Hitties as regional long term rivals and powers, with the newly arrived Greek pirate kings as a rising power in the area). It was very cool.

Heck, a run away Egyptian prince who has a strong resemblence to a well known Biblical figure even shows up in the book.

But the best thing about his writing is that he creates really interesting characters and lets them have all sorts of adventures.

Lion of Macedon is set in Greece in the years before the birth of Alexander the Grest. Sparta is still in control after the Pelopenesian War, but Sparta has made a whole lot of enemies. Gemmell first has us spend time in Sparta, and we get to see the rot from within. Then we go on to Thebes, for an inside view from a city smarting and chaffing under Spartan dominance. I have the feeling we will be moving on to Macedonia soon.

Yeah, I haven't read that Troy yet. Or most of the Rigante books either, which might be semi-historical.

But I do enjoy his writing. Nothing too demanding usually, but great fun. And his characters are excellent.

--A

Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya ~ a little boy is growing up in New Mexico in the 1940's. His father's family are Hispanic cowboys from the Plains (the llano) - his mother's family are traditional farmers of the valleys. This little boy straddles so many worlds - the plains versus the river valleys, the two families (represented by the sea and the moon), Catholicism versus traditional Native/pagan beliefs, Hispanic versus Anglo versus Native cultures. His loadstone and guide through all of this is the traditional healer who comes to live with his family, who becomes his teacher and mentor, an old woman named Ultima.

Many of the passages describing New Mexico are so beautiful they make me cry.

Just started Phantom - Terry Goodkind.

No idea what's next in line, probably Warday.