December Fantasy Suggestions

[dwndrgn]

Please make your suggestions for the December discussion. Remember one suggestion per member and to give us a synopsis and your reason for suggesting it.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I've been meaning to ask: does it have to be a novel, or could it be an anthology or a collection?

 

[polymorphikos]

We did The Three Heads of Cerberus, and that was a collection.

I'd like to nominate Looking For Jake by China Mieville. It's a collection of short stories, so I can't really give a synopsis, but appears to continue in his vein of twisted urban dark-fantasy with horror elements, and the added advatage of the tales not running for 600 pages each.

 

[rune]

I'll also nominate Looking for Jake by China Mieville - this was the only description I could find for the book -


“Jack”–Following the events of his acclaimed novel Perdido Street Station, this tale of twisted attachment and horrific revenge traces the rise and fall of the Remade Robin Hood known as Jack Half-a-Prayer.

“Familiar”–Spurned by its creator, a sorceress’s familiar embarks on a strange and unsettling odyssey of self-discovery in a coming-of-age story like no other.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

After the Swainston book, I'm proposing a break from the New Weird. Patricia McKillip has her first short story collection coming out at the beginning of November.

Harrowing the Dragon

This is what I got from Amazon:

As shown in this excellent story collection, World Fantasy Award–winner McKillip can take the most common fantasy elements—dragons and bards, sorcerers and shape-shifters—and reshape them in surprising and resonant ways. Each of these tales is a gem of storytelling, a rich treasure for both fans and those yet to discover McKillip's deceptively simple magic.

Now, for the first time, Patricia A. McKillip presents a book of previously uncollected short stories written in the gorgeous, and often surprisingly funny, prose she is known for. This is her world, wrapped up in the finery of fairy tales.

 

[dwndrgn]

As you've surmised, short story collections are acceptable.

 

[dwndrgn]

Only two nominations? I suppose I'll have to nominate one as well. Hmm...let me think...

 

[dwndrgn]

I'll nominate Jim Butcher's Furies of Calderon as I've had the chance to peek into the beginning of the book and am intrigued by the story and also see some possible discussions on the type of magic he uses in the story. Here's the blurb from Amazon:

From Publishers Weekly
At the start of Butcher's absorbing fantasy, the first in a new series, the barbarians are at the gates of the land of Alera, which has a distinct flavor of the Roman Empire (its ruler is named Quintus Sextus and its soldiers are organized in legions). Fortunately, Alera has magical defenses, involving the furies or elementals of water, earth, air, fire and metal, that protect against foes both internal and external. Amara, a young female spy, and her companion, Odiana, go into some of the land's remoter territories to discover if military commander Atticus Quentin is a traitor—another classic trope from ancient Rome. She encounters a troubled young man, Tavi, who has hitherto been concerned mostly with the vividly depicted predatory "herdbanes" that threaten his sheep as well as with his adolescent sexual urges (handled tastefully). Thinking that Amara is an escaping slave, Tavi decides to help her and is immediately sucked in over his head into a morass of intrigues, military, magical and otherwise. Butcher (Storm Front, etc.) does a thorough job of world building, to say nothing of developing his action scenes with an abundance of convincing detail. This page-turner bodes well for future volumes.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition

 

[dwndrgn]

More nominations?

 

[Rane Longfox]

I think its about time the Book Club tried something a little different and read our very own Mark Robson. Specifically, The Forging of the Sword. Not sure if this falls within your time-bracket, but you know what? I'm gonna nominate it anyway

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0953819000/qid=1129161760/sr=8-3/ref=pd_ka_3/026-5812918-5182033

Short Amazon blurb:
Synopsis
The art of the magician has been banned in Thrandor for 200 years, and has become a byword for myth and legend, or so a young teenager called Calvyn thinks. Unbeknown to him, a magical talisman has been recovered, and the whole of Thrandor stands blissfully unaware that disaster is poised to strike.

There are also review in that link...

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

That book came out in 2000, Cal, so it's far out of the one-year time frame. Why not make a note to nominate his new book Imperial Spy for the March discussion (unless one of us beats you to it first)?

 

[Rane Longfox]

It has been recently re-printed though, spiffy new cover and all...

 

[rune]

That book came out in 2000, Cal, so it's far out of the one-year time frame. Why not make a note to nominate his new book Imperial Spy for the March discussion (unless one of us beats you to it first)?

That would be a good idea, I'll be hoping to get this book when it comes out

 

[finvarre]

I'd like to nominate John Wright's The Last Guardian of Everness. I liked very much his SF trilogy that started with The Golden Age, and am very curious how he does a fantasy story.

Book Description

The rave reviews for John Wright's science fiction trilogy, The Golden Age, hail his debut as the most important of the new century. Now, in The Last Guardian of Everness, this exciting and innovative writer proves that his talents extend beyond SF, as he offers us a powerful novel of high fantasy set in the modern age.

Young Galen Waylock is the last watchman of the dream-gate beyond which ancient evils wait, hungry for the human world. For a thousand years, Galen's family stood guard, scorned by a world which dismissed the danger as myth. Now, the minions of Darkness stir in the deep, and the long, long watch is over. Galen's patient loyalty seems vindicated.

That loyalty is misplaced. The so-called Power of Light is hostile to modern ideas of human dignity and liberty. No matter who wins the final war between darkness and light, mankind is doomed either to a benevolent dictatorship or a malevolent one. And so Galen makes a third choice: the sleeping Champions of Light are left to sleep. Galen and his companions take the forbidden fairy-weapons themselves. Treason, murder, and disaster follow. The mortals must face the rising Darkness alone.

An ambitious and beautifully written story, The Last Guardian of Everness is an heroic adventure that establishes John Wright as a significant new fantasist. It is just the start of a story that will conclude in the companion volume, Mists of Everness.

 

[dwndrgn]

Okay, with five nominations, I'll end the suggestions here. Watch for the poll coming soon.