These two books were published 2004 & 2005 but I've only just read them. They are clearly reacting to Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion (which is why Pp recommended them to me).

He suggested them as 'Lord of the Rings from the other side' but I don't think that's quite correct, because the narrative doesn't really support the Dark Lord whose ( Read more... )

Well yes, but what *sort* of book?  Genre?  Author? Colour even, I'd settle for colour?!  Is there no hint ( Read more... )

I haven't finished reading this yet, but I already know it's going to be the kind of book where I just want to read out random passages to strangers, so here is a bit I liked ( Read more... )

I was just reading this interesting blog about possible origins of the place name Teversham, and came across this quote from Eilert Ekwall:

Old English tīefran ['to paint'] corresponds to German zauburn, Dutch tooveren 'to practice sorcery', and Old English tēafor 'red pigment' to Old High German zoubar, Old Frisian tāver, Old Norse taufr, ' ( Read more... )

I can only assume that all the people voting for Brienne and Jaime to win in a battle against Sabriel and Mogget, have only read A Song of Ice and Fire, but not the Abhorsen series, and don't really understand what they are up against.

http://grrm.livejournal.com/476984.htmlSabriel is way more ( Read more... )

It stopped raining!  Well, not entirely, but at least enough to remind us what sun and blue skies look like.
The river Lynher was very full and cold and clear and fierce, but it was inside its banks, which it was not last time we came this way.  I wished I'd brought the real camera, but I didn't, so I just took a few phonephotos.
( Read more... )

This book came with a recommendation by Ursula Le Guin on the cover  "If Le Carré scares you, read Jo Walton"  it said.    So, here is a quote from one of my very favouritist authors, referencing one of my other very favouritist authors?  Ooo!

( Not that simple, alas. )

I went to a school with a house system.  The houses were given attributes that now seem very familiar from Harry Potter.

We had a brainy Ravenclaw-equivalent, and a rather foolish bumbling Hufflepuff-equivalent (nobody wanted to be in the Hufflepuff-equivalent!) and two other houses.  With the benefit of hindsight, I can now see that both of the ( Read more... )

I found this, with a little irony, in one of my email inboxes this morning : Why can't we read any more?It doesn't say anything new, of course, but it encapsulates a problem I've had, and so have you probably.  Email. Usenet. Web based forums. Lj.  Twitter. Facebook.   I have got  a great deal out of all of it, of course, and have learned a great ( Read more... )

I've been reading Mary Renault's Alexander series - Fire From Heaven, The Persian Boy and Funeral Games.

( Read more... )