(no subject)

[meganbmoore]

 Some "possibly to check out later" results of a brief random fit of restlessness and access to amazon.com, pretty much to remind myself to check them out at some point, though any opinions are always welcome(why do you think I always post book lists?)  Mostly upcoming YA fantasy.

Fate - Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Golden - Jennifer Lynn Barnes
The Abhorsen Trilogy Box Set - Garth Nix
The Forest of Hands and Teeth - Carrie Ryan
Magic Lost, Trouble Found (Raine Benares, Book 1) - Lisa Shearin
Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception - Maggie Stiefvater
Book of Shadows: Book One (Sweep) - Cate Tiernan
In the Serpent's Coils (Hallowmere) - Tiffany Trent

*also notes that the MMPBs of the second and third of Michelle Sagara's Elentra books just came out*

Also, has anyone seen Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day?  it's one of those I meant to catch in theaters but never did, and I don't remember anyone ever commenting on it.

Comments

[luckychan.livejournal.com]

I think what people forget about Tolkein is that the appendices were actually...interesting. And largely had important info.

That's true! I normally space out when the needlessly intensive worldbuilding in fantasy epics gets in the way of the real plot, but I actually liked reading the appendices to LOTR. Maybe it's because there were a lot of characters in the trilogy that were hardly explored or were only mentioned in passing, that I only realized after reading the appendices also had very interesting and distinct personalities and stories. ^^

I agree with what they said about the Old Kingdom Trilogy too, and that's what I like about Garth Nix in general, actually. I think he admitted in one of his interviews that he focuses on the plot and characters first, before he really works on the world/universe he set the story in. ^^

I really liked Sabriel very much; I liked Lirael and Abhorsen too, but not as much as the first book, probably because Lirael and Sameth had more...issues than Sabriel, which I sometimes found hard to sympathize with. ^^; But I like the trilogy in general...I liked it so much I even bought Across the Wall And Other Stories, Garth Nix's collection of short stories, just for the novelette Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case, which is a follow-up to Abhorsen. ^^;

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I really liked Sabriel very much; I liked Lirael and Abhorsen too, but not as much as the first book, probably because Lirael and Sameth had more...issues than Sabriel, which I sometimes found hard to sympathize with.

*nod* That sounds an awful lot like conversations I had with redbrunja after I'd finished the series. She preferred the first one, because Sabriel is in more the self-confident, ass-kicking heroine mode she loves, whereas so much of Lirael's life was filled with unrelieved emotional misery that while she sympathized, she found it rather painful going at times -- whereas I preferred the second book over the first for pretty much exactly the same reasons! I liked and admired Sabriel very much, but I couldn't really identify with her on a deep personal level. Lirael, on the other hand, hit so many of my own issues that it was really almost scary, so there was a much deeper emotional investment for me. (Although as noted below, Sameth bugged me because, at least until things started seriously falling apart, he didn't HAVE any issues worth whining about, and yet whine he did.)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think my general tendency is to like the less complicated character best, but be more emotionally invested in the one with issues, or who are "less cool."