One of the first posts I created on this blog was about the fantasy authors who inspired me the most. Australian author, Ian Irvine made that list along with the likes of Tolkien and Jordan. The fact that he made that list with those two shows you how much he inspired my own dabbling in fantasy fiction and how much I enjoyed his story and world-building. What follows is my review and general musings on The Worlds Cycle, an epic story which finally came to an end (or so we are led to believe) this month, with the publishing of The Sapphire Portal. This is the culmination of four main, linked series (The View From the Mirror, The Well of Echoes, The Song of the Tears, and The Gates of Good & Evil) which began in 1997.
Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams is widely considered to be one of the greatest Epic Fantasy series ever, which makes the fact that I haven’t bothered reading it until now all the worse. What follows are my thoughts and spoiler free review of the first book in that series: The Dragonbone Chair.
The vast majority of the time I sit down to write my work in progress (WIP) I end up getting distracted and doing very little. In fact, this blog was the result of the Angel Dark Lord of Procrastination resting her wing gently on my shoulder bludgeoning me with her Hammer of Dithering. Though to be fair, at least the blog leads me to actually write something every now and again. Like today, for example. I’m going to discuss all the things I end up doing, rather than actually writing my WIP.
Today’s review is The Girl and the Stars (Book one of the Book of the Ice series). Lawrence’s previous series include The Broken Empire, The Red Queen’s War, and the The Book of the Ancestor.
Today I’m going to provide a brief review of The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb. This series is generally considered to be one of the all time greats of modern fantasy fiction. Spoilers are not included.
Today I am going to provide a review of The Winnowing Flame Trilogy by Jen Williams. The trilogy consists of The Ninth Rain, The Bitter Twins and The Poison Song. I will be talking about my thoughts on the ending, but I won’t be giving away any specific information that could be considered as spoilers.
Today is World Book Day. So, here is one my favourite passages from a book. A message of hope in the face of overwhelming darkness. No prize for guessing which series this is from.
A very dramatic title for a short blog post, which is basically to say I’ve changed the photo on my blog and social media banners. The title of this post is actually the title of the prologue to A Memory of Light, the final book in the Wheel of Time. I chose it because it’s my favourite book in the series, but mostly because it’s the only thing I could think of that mentions banners.
I reorganised the book shelf so the photo includes books and authors of significance to me.
I’ve been taking a break in my quest to reread The Wheel of Time as of late. I had to, otherwise I would have burned myself out, just like an inexperienced Aes Sedai may have done channelling too much of the One Power. I’ve finished book 5, and reading some non-Robert Jordan books in the meantime.
While The Wheel of Time remains my favourite fantasy series, it can become overwhelming if you try to read the fourteen massive tomes too quickly. There are just so many characters and plots that it is easy to get a bit lost. I am enjoying it, but now I’ve had a bit of a break, I’ve realised there is something that has been bugging me throughout the reread.
And so, we come to Part 2 of my list of Fantasy fiction that I think everyone should read. Before I start I’ll do a quick recap of the books that appeared in Part 1;
The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson
The Raven’s Mark series by Ed McDonald
The Godblind Trilogy by Anna Stephens
Shall we go on? Here’s a photo of someone in a shop looking at books. You should do that too…and buy them, obviously, it’s not a damn library.
The Philmarillion 
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