Ahira's Hangar

Rereading The Rose of the Prophet Vol 1: The Will of the Wanderer. An old favourite.

--A

About to start the first book in the Weather Warden series by Rachel Caine...

Onto book 2: The Paladin of the Night.

--A

I finished up Ill Wind, first book in Rachel Caine's Weather Warden series. It was not ground breaking or high literaure or anything, but it was fast paced, fluffy, and fun, and I will certainly read more books in that series. I have read short stories from this author before, and liked them, and was glad to see that her novels are fun, too. She has two series out - Weather Wardens intended for adults, and a vampire series for YA.

The Weather Wardens are high mages who can control the weather (which is sometimes sentient on that Earth - monster storms like hurricane Andrew can actually think and target humans for maximum damage). There are also Earth Wardens and Fire Wardens, who deal with earthquakes and forest fires and the like. The Wardens have the aid of djinn. All of the Wardens do their best to protect the world from the most damaging natural disasters.

But next up will be the latest novel from one of the most talented new young voices in fantasy - Daniel Abraham, a writer from New Mexico. It is called An Autumn War and it is the third book in his exquisite Long Price Quartet. His world is unique (with a bit of Asian flavor) with a magic system that is very special and rare but with world destroying power, and the plots and characters are as deep and well developed as anyone could ever ask for.

Reaper's Gale.

Short stories: "The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror", copyright 1991. I'm only a *little* behind. No, I picked it up at the library's book sale several months ago. It keeps getting pushed to the bottom of my reading pile, but the pile finally hit bottom earlier this week. Some pretty good stuff so far.

Finished Reaper's Gale last night. I thought it was a lot better than Bonehunters. It gives a lot of closure on several story arcs. Basically, MT, BH and RG read like a trilogy. There's still loose ends out there from the ending of BH, but a lot of stuff is done. If you're going to bail on the series, I would do it after RG instead of BH. It sounds like the reviews of TtH are pretty mixed.

A lot of the people over at the Martin board hated TTH. Even some hardcore fanbois and fangurrrrls are bailing out on the series now.

Others, on the other hand, are saying it is the best thing he has ever written.

There do not seem to be many in between the two extremes - a very polarizing book.

I'm not sure what to think of all of the divergence of opinion.

I just finished an historical fantasy for tweens called The Cabinet of Wonders by Marie Rutkoski. It was inspired by a Bohemian legend about a craftsman who made a beautiful clock, and then was blinded by a prince so he can never again match his work. In this case, the 12 year old daughter of the blinded man travels to Prague to steal her father's enchanted eyes back, aided by two of the Rom who she befriends.

It was charming and delightful, and if anyone is looking for a good fantasy for tweens, this might fit the bill.

<ali perks up> Prague?

Reading Toll the Hounds now. I think the reason many folks don't like it is because there's not a battle around every corner, like many of the other books. That stuff wears on me after awhile (I tend to skip over big chunks of battle scenes on a re-read); in fact, I tend to prefer the more character-driven stuff. So I am enjoying this book a fair amount. Dunno if I'd go so far as to say it's the best thing he's ever done...but I've got another 300 or so pages to go.

I'm not sure if everyone here on the Hangar knows Xar on the Watch.
(otherwise known as the Pantheon AllFather)
He wrote an Eppie award winning novel last year. .

I finally got to read it.
...wow...
*off to have a good solid cry*

Tehanu

(Since I was reading ToA I decided to just carry on right through. It's only the first one that I don't like that much anyway. )

--A