First one, Glass Dragons by Sean McMullen. I liked this more than any of his others, including the one recommended earlier. This one is a sequel to The Voyage of the Shadowmoon and they're fantasy novels. Several of the most fun characters from the first book return, and a few new ones are introduced as the world is threatened by an entirely new magical weapon of mass destruction. A lot of laugh-out-loud funny passages, which is pretty rare for me. Read the first one, then read this.
The other is Across The Face Of The World by Russell Kirkpatrick. Basically a good first novel in a fantasy trilogy. Recommended, but be warned that the bad guys are really very bad indeed. Also notable in that he (as a geographer and mapmaker) makes the huge amount of geography in The Lord of the Rings pale by comparison. As our heroes and villains quest across the world, we get a hell of a lot of natural history and so on. This could be bad, but Kirkpatrick keeps everything interesting. Worth a look. He also wrote all three novels before they were published so I should be able to read the second very soon indeed and the third in February. Huzzah! I wish more authors did this, and also that publishers didn't hold onto subsequent volumes. If there's a series, I want them all now.
14 December 2004
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