I’ve picked up on my reading and buying of new books recently. (Hooray!) Here’s a few of the highlights:
Chris Evans, A Darkness Forged in Fire, book 1 of the Iron Elves
A new US fantasy writer, and he’s written an enjoyable debut book. It’s a military fantasy in a world where a dark force is rising and corrupting certain groups. Interestingly, you have the normal elves who can’t stand metal, and the Iron Elves, who can’t stand trees. Good fun. Unfortunately, it’ll probably be a while before the next book in the series comes out.
It has this wonderful recruiting ad in it:
K.C.Nikakis, The Whisper of Leaves, book 1 of the Kira Chronicles
Another new Australian fantasy writer (we have a lot of them). Book 2 is also out, but I was able to pick this one up yesterday in mass market paperback size rather than the bigger trade paperback. Read the first part of the book before I returned to reading the Evans book, and it seems amusing if not exceptional.
Laurell K. Hamilton, Blood Noir, book 16 of Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter
I’m still enjoying the Anita Blake books. Is this really book 16? Did I only start reading them a couple of years ago? I’m currently in the middle of re-reading the series (up to Incubus Dreams), and one of the things I really, really like about the series is how the world and the characters develop. Blood Noir is almost a novella like Micah, but deals with more stuff. And it’s fun, if not quite as significant as the Harlequin.
Stephanie Meyer, Twilight (and the others)
I hate there being major fantasy series out there that I don’t know anything about, so with our local K-Mart selling this series cheaply and the movie about due, it was time to read them. I read all four over the weekend, and I quite enjoyed them. You could hardly call them deep, but they’re fun.
Steven Erikson, Reaper’s Gale, book 7 of The Malazan Book of the Fallen
Probably the best big fantasy author currently writing, I really want to get book 8 (Toll the Hounds), but I’m waiting for the mass-market edition so it’ll match the others. Reaper’s Gale was somewhat confusing as it’s been a while since I read Midnight Tides which introduced most of the characters here. Boy, this is a big, big series… but the payoff in each book is astonishing. I still think my favourite moments in the series happened in book 2 Deadhouse Gates – the Chain of Dogs is astonishing writing – but this is still a great book.
Jennifer Fallon, The Chaos Crystal, book 4 of The Tide Lords
The best Australian fantasy writer at present, although this has been a weaker series, although not without its moments. I do like books about immortals, though – have ever since Zelazny. The epilogue is surprising, and I’d like to see what happens to the characters next. Argh!
Steven Brust, Jhegaala, book 11 of the Vlad Taltos series
I really, really wish Brust wrote books quicker. There was a long period (about a decade) when I couldn’t get his books easily, so that gave me about 5-6 when I got down to Melbourne. Now, I’m waiting again with easier access to buying books. Apparently he’s finished book 12 now. Good. Publish it, please! Jhegaala is one of the weaker of the series, and it’s at a part of Vlad’s timeline that is somewhat depressing. Brust jumps around in the timeline, so chronologically, the books would actually go something like: 4, 2, 8, 1, 3, 5, 11, 6, 7, 9, 10. Confused yet?
Hi, Merric:
Many thanks for the mention in your post (especially lumping me in with some truly stellar authors). I want to give credit where it’s due – that recruiting poster is my version of an actual poster that was done up for the Old Saucy Seventh, the 7th Light Dragoons, in 1809. I found it while reading Richard Holmes’ excellent book on the British soldier, Redcoat. If you’re at all a Richard Sharpe fan I’d highly recommend it.
As for my next book, The Light of Burning Shadows, it will be out the end of June 2009 in the US and UK. Not sure about Australia, but hopefully around the same time.
Cheers,
Chris
G’day, Chris!
Yeah, book release dates are bizarre in Australia at times, but I’ll definitely keep an eye out for it; I’ve been thinking about how much I enjoyed ADFIF, and I keep on thinking of new things that were great about it. Yeah, I liked it. 🙂
Interesting about the source of the poster. Did the original have the note about providing for up to three wives on it? I found that extremely amusing. Thanks also for letting me know about Redcoat.
Cheers,
Merric
That’s really nice to hear. Being a Canadian lad myself I hoped my writing would resonate in the Commonwealth.
The original doesn’t reference wives at all, but I suspect I may have seen something to that effect on a different poster, although I’m positive it would only have mentioned one wife. I read any number of historical works during the research phase and then take the most interesting bits and try to re-imagine them in a fantasy context to make it my own.
Brust
I really like Brust, but I have not read anything of his in a long time. As you mention, he jumps all over the place with this timeline.