Where are you in Fantasyland? October, 2020

Still reading Dead Man in a Ditch, Or What You Will, and The Devil You Know.

I'm visiting the city of Merovingen during the Festival moon.

Added Peace Talks by Jim Butcher to my already crowded rotation.

I'm back in Valdemar in Spy, Spy Again.

Finished Peace Talks by Jim Butcher. Comfort read. Added Battle Ground to my rotation (which isn't really rotating at the moment.)

Just left Chicago after finishing Battle Ground last night. Now somewhere is England (I think) reading a YA historical novel called The Hummingbird Dagger.

I'm in Brackenford at The Hangman's Pond.

I've been in the United Kingdom and in Italy with romantic poets in The Stress of Her Regard by Tim Powers.

I'm in the UK in The Constant Rabbit.

In Astreiant, solving what looks to be a murder mystery, in Point of Dreams.

In an infinite museum of statues whose basement is an ocean, with Piranesi.

This is quite good, but not so good that I understand why it took Susanna Clarke 15 years to write it.

I'm just starting The Once and Future Witches.

In Chicago with Harry Dresden & Co. in Peace Talks. Of course the plot is thickening already...

Finished Dead Man in a Ditch by Luke Arnold. Liked it but not quite as much as the first book.

Finished Battle Ground by Jim Butcher. Brutal.

>11 Carnophile:
I read that she was battling severe health problems during much of that time. I'm looking forward to this one.

Recently I've been in Fantastica with Bastian Balthasar Bux.

>17 Crypto-Willobie:, Fantastica is worth a return trip for me, someday. If a series of "fantasy classics" was pulled together, The Neverending Story had better be on it.

>16 seitherin: When you say 'brutal,' do you mean 'bad' or do you mean 'emotionally brutal'? I've gotten way behind on The Dresden Files, and I keep meaning to catch back up, but I don't know if I'm going to be up for 'emotionally brutal' anytime soon. : )

>19 Julie_in_the_Library: Emotionally brutal.

>20 seitherin: ooh, boy. I kind of thought so. I'll be putting that one off for the foreseeable future then. Thanks.

>17 Crypto-Willobie: I read that she was battling severe health problems

I hope she's OK. Anyway, good novel.

Just finished Salvation Lost, #2 in the latest Peter F Hamilton series. It's...good. A decent read. Not his best but definitely not a waste of my time. He explores a lot of interesting areas with regard to non-binary humans and as usual (in between page-long descriptions of clothing) brings out more cool gadgets and apocalyptic weapons than James Bond's Q. The 3rd and final installment gets released next month, so I will switch to non-fiction for a palate cleanser until then.

I've mostly been reading other genres, but I did read Flame of Sevenwaters after skipping the two books in the series prior to it. If that book is any indication, I didn't miss much. The farther Juliet Marillier goes from folk tale inspirations, the more I dislike her plots.

In sci-fi land, I'm about to check out The Sparrow.

As Halloween reading, I knocked off "The Great God Pan" (short story by Arthur Machen ), and just re-read Burn Witch Burn by Abraham Merritt. I've read it several times over the years, and still think it's one of the best witch stories ever written, despite the sometimes creaky pulp-era writing. The concept, the imagery, and the character of Madame Mandilip, are all fantastic.

Oddly, the movie "Burn Witch Burn" was made not from this, but from the novel Conjure Wife by Fritz Lieber. Both the movie and that book are good too, but not as original or haunting as the Merritt tale. I doubt that a film made from the Merritt book would be able to translate it well. Like Ayesha in She, Madame Mandilip is too vivid, powerful, and larger-than-life to be done properly in a film (not to mention Ursula Andress as She -- a travesty). I'm trying to get hold of a "Burn Witch Burn" film made in the '30s, but I'm not expecting much if I do get it.

I'm in Sabor with The merciful crow.

Currently visiting the Underworld reading The Phoenix Charm.

>25 rshart3:, I'm pleased someone else feels that way about Ayesha. The novel She stands as a strong example of literature's advantage over film (not that the advantages are all one way, as Laurence Sterne was early to prove).

In 1920s Mexico with Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia not sure if I'll stick around to the end yet.

November thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/325938