I just finished
The Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas, the first in a fantasy series I can't remember the name of - ah, Memory of Flames, thanks, google. I enjoyed it a lot. It's not your usual quest fantasy, it's all politics and backstabbing and affairs and poisoning and fun stuff like that. And dragons with an interesting twist that looks like it will run through the series. All of the characters are flawed but somehow still not wholly unsympathetic.
Perhaps the best recommendation is that I really want to see what happens in the next book. Which fortunately I already own, but I'm going to make myself wait before starting it.
I'll probably have a go at
A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute next, since it has come up for the book club. It breaks my intended pattern of one book for me and one for each of my three sub-challenges, but that was just meant to be a loose guideline. My copy of the Shute looks to be a first edition. I can only hope it holds together, and doesn't make me sneeze too much.
