Sunsets, Stars, West, Wind
While I still frequent BookMooch, I’ve resigned myself to never being able to use the nearly two hundred points I’ve accumulated by giving away nearly four hundred books. So my inventory, such as it is, will stagnate at BookMooch, as I start using GoodReads Bookswap. I’ve posted a dozen books available for swap.
I inventoried some of the some of the three hundred books I have unread at home today. It’s time to winnow out the chaff and reduce the flood of books to a trickle.
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
Read in January 2011
I flew through this book, faster than I thought I would. Perhaps it was the font size and white spacing; perhaps it was the compelling story. Told in the first person by a backwoods ‘barbaric’ young woman called to the very center of the world, unbelievably as the heir, who just happens to be her grandfather. Completely out of her element, but not without heart, courage and brains, Yeine proves equal to the challenges of brutal court politics.
I can’t say I enjoyed this story, but I can appreciate the ingenuity of the writing. I did not need the reminder that humans, weak, broken, fallen humans, can stoop to such depths of depravity and but one young woman opens her eyes and sees the truth and has the courage to do what should have been done centuries ago.
I may change my rating from three to four stars, because as a debut novel it excelled. I will continue to ponder it’s impact on my reading soul and update this review after a few days.
I read this for the Beyond Reality book group at GoodReads in February 2011. This month (February 2014) the Fantasy Book Club Series group began reading the Inheritance Trilogy (the entire series).
Polls open until midnight Saturday night (15 January 2011).
190 membersView this group on Goodreads »
Share book reviews and ratings with Fantasy Book Club Series, and even join a book club on Goodreads.
A dozen fantasy series were nominated, including Black Jewell by Anne Bishop; Corean Chronicles by L.E. Modesitt Jr.; Deverry by Katharine Kerr; Tales of the Flat Earth by Tanith Lee; Fortress by C.J. Cherryh; Inda by Sherwood Smith; Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist; Malazon Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson; Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock; Riyria Revelations by Michael J. Sullivan; Saga of Recluce by L.E. Modesitt Jr.; and Windrose Chronicles by Barbara Hambly
Results of the poll will automatically be visible after midnight on Saturday 15 January 2011.
| FBCS Nominations Average Ratings (from GoodReads) | ||||
| Series | Author | Number Published | All Avg Ratings | Total Avg Rating for Series |
| Black Jewels | Bishop, Anne | 9 | 36.89 | 4.10 |
| Corean Chronic les |
Modesitt, L.E., Jr. | 7 | 26.69 | 3.81 |
| Deverry | Kerr, Katherine | 15 | 55.92 | 3.73 |
| Flat Earth | Lee, Tanith | 5 | 21.01 | 4.20 |
| Fortress | Cherryh, C.J. | 5 | 18.69 | 3.74 |
| Inda | Smith, Sherwood | 4 | 16.28 | 4.07 |
| Riftwar Saga | Fesit, Raymond E. | 4 | 16.27 | 4.07 |
| Malazan Book of the Fallen |
Erikson, Steven | 9 | 38.48 | 4.28 |
| Mythago Wood | Holdstock, Robert | 5 | 19.27 | 3.85 |
| Riyria Revelations | Sullivan, Michael J. | 5 | 20.35 | 4.07 |
| Saga of Recluce | Modesitt, L.E., Jr. | 16 | 61.81 | 3.86 |
| Windrose Chronicles | Hambly, Barbara | 4 | 15.45 | 3.86 |
Yes, that’s Roxy, my favorite Rottweiler, eyeballing you from my blog header photo, sporting her new pink collar.
If you squint just a bit to the right of her head, you can see an unfocused Apollo guarding her back. He’s my other favorite Rottweiler. But you can’t see his new red nearly identical collar.
Aren’t they cute?
Here’s a similar closeup of Apollo:
And because I just can’t leave well enough alone, and will change my header photograph the next time I take a nifty photograph, here’s the photo I used to crop the shot above from:
Scalzi on Phelps
via Whatever
The Lions of al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Of the six novels by Guy Gavriel Kay that’s I’ve read, this and Tigana vie for my favorite of his work. How does he manage to make me care so much about his characters? And he creates a reflection of our world on the cusp of a rigid religious fervor scything inexorable destruction before it. A glimpse of the beauty crushed and the horrors perpetrated in the grip of zealous belief and political expediency. A lament for the loss of the previous generation’s glories and grandeur. A glimpse of the perseverance and grace of the survivors who rebuild from the ruins of wrath. An affirmation and triumph of love flourishing regardless of race or creed, persecution or circumstances.
Last Sunday I started my first crochet project of 2011 and this morning I finished the Brimmed Cap. Not without some stress and do-overs, especially on the brim. In fact, I may re-do this entire project again later in the month. The first time I do a pattern, I learn it and by the second or third time) I work all the kinks out of it.
Grand Conspiracy by Janny Wurts
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Each novel peels back layer upon layer, revealing more of the motivations between several key players and philosophies, making it nigh impossible to summarize any plot points, including the myriad conspiracies plaguing Paravia, without spoiling what was, what is and what is yet to come. The last three chapters’ pace proved unrelenting, even unto the final triplet.
I’ll be picking up the next novel (Peril’s Gate) within the week to continue this outstanding series.
Under Heaven
by Guy Gavriel Kay
5 out of 5 stars
Read in December 2010
Shen Tai mourns his father for over two years by burying the bones of the dead in a vast battlefield on the western edge of the Kitan empire. A backbreaking labor of grace daily and the company of the restless shades of soldiers nightly. He gains the respect of friend and foe and the attention of women in high places with influence, intrigue and power. The unfathomable gift of two hundred and fifty horses from a rival empire courtesy of a Kitan princes sent as tribute sets Shen’s life adrift on the high tide of potentially lethal imperial politics. He receives unlooked for and unlikely assistance from several women as he travels from the far western reaches to the very center of the Kitan empire in Xinan: a well trained assassin, Wei Song, sent by a former courtesan of the northwestern district previously known as Spring Rain and a former dancer now the favored courtesan of the emperor himself.
Even though we only ever see one of the famous Sardian horses for much of the novel, Shen repeatedly attempts to exchange them for knowledge of his sister and her rescue from the Bogu barbarians of the north, since his own older brother, now adviser to the prime minister, allowed her to be elevated to an imperial princes and sent as a tribute bride to the Bogu leader. But not even the most powerful players on this corrupted game board can assist Shen with his quest.
Kay delivers sweeping epic vistas of the open grass steppe and the heart-stopping gut-wrenching frenzy of court intrigue and rebellion. No other prose flows so seamlessly as Kays, completely engulfing me in the world he unfolds before me.
My only quibble with this novel, and which almost made me drop my rather to four or four and a half stars, was with the ending. Shifting to third person and a more remote historical sagacious point of view distanced me from the characters just as the story culminated and resolved. I still enjoyed the novel immensely, though, and highly recommend it.
Not only is my daughter, Rachelle, an aspiring and talented mezzo soprano studying at UNT, she can:
It only took two years and my daughter’s elbow grease to get the grout between these tiles. Thank you Rachelle!
