(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

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

I read Golden a while back. It's a pleasant read but not one that really sticks with you, if you know what I mean.

I have the second book in Lisa Shearin's series. I'll send that to you once I can sort out my packaging issues for the Package of Doom^TM.

The one I'm really looking forward to is Forest of Hands and Teeth, which has a great title and a great cover. :)

[the_rck]

I read most of Magic Lost, Trouble Found. I haven't logged it because I keep thinking I'll finish the last little bit. It's not bad. It's also not great. Fun but not memorable.

I really love parts of the Abhorsen Trilogy. Other parts irritated me or bored me. I think I was more interested in the world shown in the first book than I was in the characters. I found myself trying to fill in all the bits that weren't shown. I liked the female lead in the second book but found the male lead really annoying. Books two and three were really one book chopped in half, so the wait between them irritated me.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

I really love the first Nix book in that series, Sabriel, enjoyed the next one but not as much, and haven't read the rest. But the first one is def. worth the reading, even if you don't go any further.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I have heard nothing but good about MIss Pettigrew Lives for A Day, and have to see it myself, plus get the book which I hear is also great.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

The only one out of that list that I've read is the Old Kingdom stuff by Garth Nix. However, I'd recommend it wholeheartedly, and coming from someone who tends to bounce hard on a lot of high fantasy written in the last thirty years, that really says something. chomiji and redbrunja are both big fans of the books, if you want more perspectives on it.

Sabriel is more self-contained; you could read it and put it down and feel the ending was nice and complete. Lirael and Abhorsen, OTOH, you'll be glad you have the box set because the first one leaves you with a lot of plot threads open that will send you scrambling to the next for resolution. (Across the Wall, if you're wondering, only has one self-contained story set in the Old Kingdom, and the rest of the pieces therein are not set in that universe. It's a cute story, but unessential reading, for completists only I'd say.)

I enjoyed all three of them very much; I deeply appreciated that the world-building was not the sort of third-generation blurry Xerox of Tolkien filtered through D&D that turned me off the genre years ago, and that the language did not put me right out of it by feeling too contemporary to strike a faintly mythic tone, nor too faux-antiquated in the way that often seems to happen when modern writers try and fail to give a feel of Ye Olden Days without having the linguistic chops to make it feel seamless. The magical system, monsters, and races of this world are original and interesting, and the world-building is nicely understated; there's enough to give you a sense that this world has a long history of it's own, but it's never unnecessarily info-dumped in that sort of "Tolkien had appendices so I'm gonna throw in a whole lot of stuff, too" way.

I get the impression that the first book is generally the more popular of the two -- I liked it a great deal, and it is much more of a classic heroic-fantasy sort of narrative, but personally I found Lirael (both the book and the character) to be much more deeply emotionally resonant.

[anime-babble.livejournal.com]

I watched Miss Pettigrew and I own the novel. Both are good, but I prefer the book overall.

Which reminds me, I have to get the DVD!

[wistfulmemory.livejournal.com]

I love the Abhorsen Trilogy, and since other people have already explained why it's so great, I'll just say this. Out of all of my books, this trilogy was part of the small selection of books I brought with me when I moved to Japan.

[artillie.livejournal.com]

Gosh, I read Sabriel back in the seventh grade, so I'll third (fourth? fifth?) the recommendation on the Abhorsen trilogy. It's actually original. I mean, original-original, not "Look at me, look at me, I'm so clever, twisting the myths of this world to make something new but still recognizable as being from this world" original.

In Lirael, though, you'll want to give Sameth a good hard kick in the face, just to shake him out of it--whenever I'm re-reading it, I just skip his parts and go straight back to Lirael. He comes round, though.

[sora-blue.livejournal.com]

(Heeeey, it's a new layout!)

I enjoy Garth Nix's books quite a bit. Haven't gotten around to reading um... Friday or Saturday of the Keys to the Kingdom books, but I believe that series has one volume left to go (Sunday.)