I haven't written one of these in a while, but this is an important book so I'll share my opinions of it here as well ( Read more... )

I had a big creative plan for this year, but most of my plans for the year have in fact not worked out because I am a horrendously lazy man.

However a conversation on Twitter with Juliet E McKenna ( jemck ) about representation of female authors on the genre shelves of bookshops got me looking at the ratio of male to female authors in that section of ( Read more... )

Inspired by wldhrsjen3's reading challenges over the last few years, I'd like to try something similar. But I'm going to need you all to help for this one ( Read more... )

I've just finished reading The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe. What a truly extraordinary book. It's a proper, deeply old-school high fantasy. It has knights with pennants on their lances when they joust and giants and dragons and magic swords and castles. It takes cues from the high arthurian stories and from norse mythology and all the roots of most ( Read more... )

For those of you who enjoy the reading of books I shall append my recommendation to that of the very reliable shiva_matimbres and strongly suggest that if you have not already done so you obtain a copy of The Raw Shark Texts. It is very good indeed.

I don't even really have a reference point for it- maybe a bit House Of Leaves ( but less reliant on textual ( Read more... )

I'm always happy to pick up an arthurian retelling and among a box of books from my mum ( a mixture of returns to the library at our house and loans from the library at theirs ) I found Here Lies Arthur by Phillip Reeve. It's a very clever low Arthurian story, set in post-roman britain and centred around a young girl who is rescued by Myrddin and ( Read more... )

I just finished reading King Hereafter, Dorothy Dunnett's novel telling the story of the historical MacBeth ( there is no definitive evidence for his exact identity in any direction and her research was exceptional, so her candidate for the role of the king is as good as any ) and it was absolutely fascinating. I don't know whether it matches up to ( Read more... )

Lucy Rees is a familiar name to some people thanks to The Horse's Mind, which is still one of the best books on Equine Psychology more than 20 years after it was first published.

The Maze isn't about horsemanship, although horsemanship happens in it, instead it's a very traditional travel book. Lucy and her partner buy a couple of horses headed ( Read more... )

I just finished reading Juliet McKenna's Aldebreshin Compass quartet of books. Really good - some of the best alternate-world fantasy I've read, interesting setting, strong and well written characters and a storming narrative that rarely stopped for breath ( Read more... )

The other day my mum mentioned that Lloyd Alexander had died. His Chronicles Of Prydein ( which some of you may know only in it's watered down disnified form as The Black Cauldron ) are some of the most warm-hearted and funny books I have ever read. I go back to my increasingly worn down copies of them every few years, especially if I need cheering ( Read more... )