Please note that as we talked about in the Discussion/Suggestion Thread, the discussion is going back to starting on the 20th of the month.
All nominations:
*** Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber [John F, Dazrin, CRussel]
Goodreads
Print Length: 254 pages
Spoiler:
The award-winning sword and sorcery classic that introduced Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, from a Grand Master of Science Fiction and Fantasy.
First in the influential fan-favorite series, Swords and Deviltry collects four fantastical adventure stories from Fritz Leiber, the author who coined the phrase "sword and sorcery" and helped birth an entire genre.
[I]From Goodreadsj[bI]
For the first time-the story of how the greatest heroes in fantastic literature first met.
'The two thieves had themselves been robbed by two youths, who eyed each other suspiciously over the sprawled, senseless bodies.
Fafhrd said: 'Our motives for being here seem identical.' 'Surely, they must be!' the Mouser answered curtly, fiercely eyeing his huge, potential foe.
Fafhrd glanced down at the belts and money-pouches of the fallen thieves. Then he looked up at the Mouser with an honest, open, ingenuous smile.
'Sixty-sixty?' he suggested.
Thus was born the most improbable relationship in the whole history of swords and sorceries.
*** Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll [issybird, astrangerhere, Luffy]
Goodreads |
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub |
USF/Lit2Go Audiobooks: S&B /
S&B Concluded
Print Length: 309 pages
Spoiler:
From jellby:
This is a hard work to classify. It has fantasy, it has humor, it has philosophy, some parts are nice for children, some parts contain more "grown-up" thoughts. Nevertheless, the style and imagination of Carroll is evident throughout the book. It is also surprising how he manages to touch so many subjects of interest today, quotes and situations can be found to illustrate relativity, evolution, topology, emergent intelligence, self-referencing... It's, in my opinion, a very pleasant work to read and a nice discovery.
The book is fully illustrated with the 92 original illustrations by Harry Furniss, which account for the large size of the file (I preferred to keep the images rather high-quality).
* The Book of Dust, Volume One, La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman [John F]
Goodreads
Print Length: 464 pages
Spoiler:
From Goodreads:
The much-anticipated new work from the author of The Golden Compass is coming at last!
Renowned storyteller Philip Pullman returns to the parallel world of Lyra Belacqua and His Dark Materials for a thrilling and epic adventure in which daemons, alethiometers, and the Magisterium all play a part.
The Book of Dust will be a work in three parts, like His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass).
The title and cover of this first story will remain under wraps until a later date, but it can be revealed that the book is set ten years before The Golden Compass and centers on the much-loved character Lyra and her daemon Pantalaimon.
Philip Pullman offers these tantalizing details: “I’ve always wanted to tell the story of how Lyra came to be living at Jordan College, and in thinking about it, I discovered a long story that began when she was a baby and will end when she’s grown up. This volume and the next will cover two parts of Lyra’s life: starting at the beginning of her story and returning to her twenty years later. As for the third and final part, my lips are sealed.
“So, second: is it a prequel? Is it a sequel? It’s neither. In fact, The Book of Dust is . . . an ‘equel’. It doesn’t stand before or after His Dark Materials, but beside it. It’s a different story, but there are settings that readers of His Dark Materials will recognize, and characters they’ve met before. Also, of course, there are some characters who are new to us, including an ordinary boy (a boy we have glimpsed in an earlier part of Lyra’s story, if we were paying attention) who, with Lyra, is caught up in a terrifying adventure that takes him into a new world.
“Third: why return to Lyra’s world? Dust. Questions about that mysterious and troubling substance were already causing strife ten years before His Dark Materials, and at the center of The Book of Dust is the struggle between a despotic and totalitarian organization, which wants to stifle speculation and inquiry, and those who believe thought and speech should be free. The idea of Dust suffused His Dark Materials. Little by little through that story the idea of what Dust was became clearer and clearer, but I always wanted to return to it and discover more.”
The books of the His Dark Materials trilogy were showered with praise, and the Cincinnati Enquirer proclaimed, “Pullman has created the last great fantasy masterpiece of the twentieth century.” With The Book of Dust, Philip Pullman embarks on an equally grand adventure, sure to be hailed as the first great fantasy masterpiece of the twenty-first century.
*** Green Rider by Kristen Britan [JSWolf, CRussel, Dazrin]
Goodreads |
Amazon US /
Kobo US /
Overdrive
Print Length: 483 pages
Spoiler:
From Goodreads:
On her long journey home from school after a fight which will surely lead to her expulsion, Karigan G'ladheon ponders her future as she trudges through the immense forest called Green Cloak. But her thoughts are interrupted by the clattering of hooves as a galloping horse bursts from the woods, the rider slumped over his mount's neck, impaled by two black-shafted arrows. As the young man lies dying on the road, he tells Karigan that he is a Green Rider, one of the legendary messengers of the king, and that he bears a "life and death" message for King Zachary. He begs Karigan to carry his message, warning her not to read it, and when she reluctantly agrees, he makes her swear on his sword to complete his mission "for love of country." As he bestows upon her the golden winged-horse brooch which is the symbol of his office, he whispers on his dying breath, "Beware the shadow man..."
Karigan's promise changes her life forever. Pursued by unknown assassins, following a path only her horse seems to know, and accompanied by the silent specter of the original messenger, she herself becomes a legendary Green Rider. Caught up in a world of deadly danger and complex magic, compelled by forces she cannot understand, Karigan is hounded by dark beings bent on seeing that the message, and its reluctant carrier, never reach their destination.
* Carousel Tides by Sharon Lee [CRussel]
Goodreads |
Amazon US /
Baen /
Kobo US
Print Length: 432 pages
Spoiler:
From Goodreads:
Carousel Tides pulls you into the chill foggy reality of peeling-paint sand-grit coastal Maine outside of tourist season and then hands you something else -- the hidden world lurking in shadows or under the land's surface or just offshore, where black dogs hunt the night and selkies toss unpleasant truths over their shoulders before diving into the next wave. In the center of this, Kate Archer tends and guards one of the spookiest carousels this side of Ray Bradbury and wonders what has happened to her grandmother. The old woman sent her a letter, left papers deeding over the carousel and old house and the Land (meaning much more than property), and vanished, telling the spirits of the land and sea that she expected to be back before the turning of the year.
Now March has come and gone and Kate must return from self-exile to take up powers and responsibilities she has renounced, or dying will be the least of her problems . . .
Sharon Lee weaves fantasy into reality so deftly that you scarcely notice when you slip across the edge. And once you're there, the story's own magic won't let you turn back from the strong characters, deep mysteries, and even deeper danger.
--James A. Hetley, author of Dragon's Eye, Dragon's Teeth, and Dragon's Bones.
*** The Magic City by Edith Nesbit [issybird, Dazrin, JSWolf]
Goodreads |
Patricia Clark Memorial Library: ePub /
Kindle
Print Length: 212 pages
** The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany [drofgnal, issybird]
Goodreads
Print Length: 203 pages
• Nominations are now closed. •