Dragons Everywhere

In case you haven't noticed from my recent posts, I am pretty into dragons.  I love how they can be portrayed in so many different ways, feral and animalistic, old and wise, beautiful and clever, magical and mysterious.  Some morph into other shapes, some ally with humans, some are fierce warriors and others are civilized professors, and of course there are always the comical, cute and cuddly dragons.  Here are some of my favorite books/series about dragons. Obviously there are many many many more that I love that either feature dragons, or have dragons in them, but these are the ones that the dragons tend to be the main focus.

The Dragonriders of Pern

This is my ultimate, favorite, totally in love with series about dragons by my ultimate favorite totally in love with author Anne McCaffery.  This series spans a ton of books, and combines genre's in a way I have never seen before.  The intense bond between the animal and rider, the politics, the world building, the history, the characters, the story, just so much to read in these amazing books.  In fact I think I'm gonna go reread one now.

The Inheritance Cycle

This series is about as EPIC as they come.  I have to say I really love the story arc of the main character Eragon and his dragon Saphira.  There is everything you could want out of an epic fantasy story, dragons, knights, evil, love, elves, dwarves, magic, sword fighting, epic battles, epic journey's, epic everything!  A must read for fans of  J.R.R. Tolkien

Liveship Traders Series

This series combines my love of the open ocean and dragons and good writing all into one neat little trilogy.  Dragons in this series are dealt with in a completely new way, which the author took her time to reveal.  This made an an amazing series even better, because you not only got a solid story and great characters, but a bit of a puzzle to keep you turning each and every page.

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles

Hahaha I love these books, they turn every conception of the Princess/Dragon/Knight in Shiny armor trope upside down and inside out. This thoroughly entertaining series is perfect for all readers young and old.  I find it especially great to show the younger generation that you can be a kick-ass girl and still know and even enjoy the domestic arts.  I also love how the main dragons are girls and that they have the title of KING!

A Tale of Two Castles

This book from Gail Carson Levine made me remember why I loved her so much in the first place.  This fun little novel stars Elodie a wanna-be actress and a dragon detective who takes her in when she needs help.  This take on a fussy yet smart dragon is both humorous and touching, especially the friendship that grows between the dragon and the girl.  If you liked this authors other books, especially her earlier ones, you will find much to enjoy in this one as well.

Seraphina

Besides the fact that this is supposed to be a series/trilogy/duology or something like that, it is a pretty good book.  Again with a different take on dragons making this book very interesting (I know my grammer is atrocious today).  I liked the politics, religion, and history of this book, so much so that I wanted to know even more about this little world.  The mind garden aspect of our main character was probably worth reading about on its own.  What is a mind garden you ask, and what does it have to do with dragons?  Well go read the book and find out.

Tooth and Claw

I just finished this one, and it reminded me of just how much you can do with a dragon.  I loved this one because it was very Austenesque with it's high society, class structure, strict morals, but it still retained a sense of non-humanness to it that I loved.  The dragons while civilized still devoured each other as part of society, death is normal, and having there scales sponged of blood is just a part of an upper class meal.  The contrast between a form of gentility and the fact that these are still dragons was just wonderful to read.

What is your favorite Dragon book/story/series?  How do you prefer your dragons to behave?  How badly do you want a dragon of your very own?  What would you feed a dragon now days?

I Heart Tolkien

If I ever had chance to wonder what my ultimate favorite highly specific genre is, this collection of short stories cinched it for me. The collection is called After the King edited by Martin H. Greenberg, and is a collection of stories written in honor of J.R.R. Tolkien.

This collection of stories is mostly written in the style of high fantasy and the vast majority of these stories manage to convey a huge sense of a world in just a few pages.  As short as they were almost every story in this book instantly took me to far off places and looking up from the pages was almost heartbreaking in the realization that the mundane world was still here.  It's this type of story telling that made me fall in love with reading in the first place.  The ability to take a reader somewhere, anywhere else and let them inhabit these other places and people for a short while is a true gift.  High fantasy is my most favorite of all the genre's, as much as I love to read and explore other types of books, when I am in need of a for sure fix, high fantasy it is, it rarely disappoints and always gives me the escape I look for when I am reading.  This collection stands out for several reasons.  The first reason is that most of the stories are written in the style of Tolkien.  I always found him to be less of a linear beginning to end person and more of a telling a story that's a piece of a larger story that takes place in a bigger universe.  I always felt that this style gave one many options, to be able to tell small personal stories and still have a sweeping epic over all tale.  Many of the stories in this collection give you that same feel.  The second reason is that every story in this book is good, true I enjoyed some more then others, but that's like saying I like dark chocolate sea salt carmals better than coconut truffles, I still love them both, I just have a slight preference for one over the other. Anyways all of the stories are very well written and I would pick up a book by any of these authors (many of which I already have).  I will tell you about of a few of my favorites, just to give you an idea.

A Long Nights Vigil at the Temple by Robert Silverbert-This story kind of blew my mind.  The author actually figured out a way to make aliens high fantasy.  I know, I know it's crazy I tell you, but seriously the care that went into crafting this tale was apparent and the result a work of art that makes one stop and think of how people view religion, stories, myths, fables, prophecies, strangers, etc. So much in so short a story!

The Dragon of Tollin by Elizabeth Anne Scarborough-This tale of inevitability, combined with some amazing verbiage that paints spectacular descriptions of a world that has been destroyed is just lovely.  The ability to convey a whole history through something as simple as a conversation between two strangers is amazing, and of course there is a dragon, which makes this essential fantasy reading. This haunting tale stuck with me for days after I had read it.

The Halfling House by Dennis L. McKiernan-I loved this story right off the bat.  It has a great sense of humor about it and gives homage to every fantasy character you that owes it's existence to the stories of Tolkien.  There are halfings, hobbits, warrows, pixies, leprechauns, gnomes, elves, dwarfs and every other creature you could possibly imagine.  Even better the story itself gives nods to the classic stories.  You can tell that the author has a real love for the stories that proceeded him.

Faith by Poul and Karen Anderson-This is the kind of story nine year old me would have read over and over and over.  It loses no magic now that I am an adult, but growing up I loved stories where kids around my age were the hero's.  This story has the potential to get very dark, but the ending is uplifting and hopeful and just everything you want it to be.  The goblins were terrifying, the kids had courage and the adults were just there to ensure the perfect ending, loved it.

Nine Threads of Gold by Andre Norton-This tale from a master of story telling was probably the most Tolkien like to me.  It was an origin tale, the start of a strong and powerful fellowship that you knew would go on to have many adventures. This story really felt like it was pulled from a longer saga and as great a story as it was on its own, feels like it would fit right into a greater tale.  These kind of stories remind me of the old sagas like Beowulf where the whole was made up of smaller stories.  Incredible.

Ok I could probably write something awesome about every story, but I really want you all to go pick this up and read it.  If you like fantasy in any way, shape or form than you really need this on your shelf.  I can already tell I am going to go back and pick this up and read my favorites over and over again any time I need an escape from the big bad world. I give it 8 out of 10 One Rings.  Happy Reading Everyone!

Because I Just Can't Wait

No this is not a post about the new Hobbit movie (even though I really really can't wait for that to come out!)  This post is about my frustration in finding a great new series and then having to wait months, or even years for the next book to come out (I'm looking at you George R. R. Martin).  I guess if it took me longer then a couple days to read a book this wouldn't be such a problem, but it still gets frustrating.  To try to alleviate the suffering of my fellow series sufferers I have put together a list of some of my favorite series that are complete, as in if you want (and yes I have done this before) you can go get every book in the series and read them beginning to end, kind of what I do on Netflix when a good TV series gets put on (I'm working on Dr. Who and Star Trek: The Next Generation right now).  Here we go!

Waiting for the next book to come out

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

These books will forever be the beginning of my escape to other worlds.  To this day if I need a happy place this is where I go.  It also has the advantage of all 7 books being a quick read so you don't need to spend weeks on any one book.

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

I would also include the Hobbit in addition to the trilogy because I think they tie together so well, but I will leave that up to the individual reader.

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
I admit this is one of the first series I started before all the books were out, I held of until the first three were out, read them all in a week (didn't shower, eat, or go to work but by golly I got those books read!) and then spent agonizing month waiting with everyone else for the next one to come out only to read it all in one sitting and go through the process all over again. Happily for all you new readers out there you will not have to experience that, you can just go pick up the boxed set.

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull
Excellent series, one of the first that I have been this excited about in a while, great writer, great stories, great characters AND anybody can read them from your fourth grade boy to your 99 year old great-grandmother.

The Harper Hall Trilogy by Anne McCaffrey
This is what got me started into Anne McCaffery and Pern.  If you want to be a tad less confused you can start with the Dragonriders of Pern Trilogy.  She has several books set in this world, but you don't really have to read them in any particular order, you can go escape into this amazing world at any point.

The Song of the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce
These are some good books especially for when they were written, a lot of girl power with out drilling it into your head.  It is pretty much your typical knight/quest story, with some very cool twists.  The other ones set in this world: The Immortals Quartet, Protector of the Small Quartet, and the Trickster Duo are all amazing (and complete) as well.  I like these 'cause each heroine is very different from all the others, not always loud and in your face.

The Inkworld Trilogy by Cornelia Funke
This is a book...about a book :-)  This whole series is about people who love books, make books, write books, read books and eventually live in a book!  It gets pretty dark for supposed children's books, but they make for an excellent read...especially if you really love books.

The Myst Reader by David Wingrove
If you haven't figured out the extent of my geekyness by now, this should put the final nail in the coffin.  I used to play all of the Myst games with my Mamma late into the night, so when a book came out we got it on principle.  All three books turned out to be amazing, giving some great background to the game, but more importantly they truly created this peopled world, where the game left it empty and desolate.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
I was very pleasantly surprised by these young adult books.  They have it all, humor, gods, monsters, tears, adventure.  I really like how he modernized the Greek gods in this series, definitely a fresh take on the whole Greek hero on a vase thing. 

The Pendragon Cycle by Stephen Lawhead
These books are written from a perspective of how the legend of Arthur may have been true.  An almost historical account of survivors from Atlantis all the way through to a modern day rebirth of King Arthur, I found it extremely innovative.  He also has a set of books called the King Raven trilogy about the legend of Robin Hood which is also really good.

The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paloni
Here is another guy who took his own sweet time finishing his series, but now that it is finished I have to recommend that everybody read it.  This kid started these books when he was a mere lad of 19!  I also have a soft spot for good Dragon books, and cool sword...and people who live in Montana.

Little House on the Prarie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Huge nostalgia factor for me with these books.  They are pretty quick to read, and give me a familiar break from my epic stuff I'm usually into.  Plus now I know how to make my own cheese :-)

Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb
This is one of my more recent acquisitions. She utilizes a first person view in this set that I really love, and it cuts down on some of the gratuitous landscape description that seems to plague fantasy novels. I love her writing style and have started a second mostly unrelated trilogy of hers as well.

Ok ok I'll stop now.  Hopefully I have given you avid readers a few new options, and if you have any complete series you think I would like feel free to send them my way.

Do you hate it when you get really into a series and have to wait for the next one?  Do you ever go back and reread a series when a new book in it comes out to catch back up?  Have you ever bought a whole series at once?  Are showers really that important in the grand scheme of things? Have I given away the extent of my geeky dorkness?

I'm Turning 100 (Sort of)

YAY I've made it to my 100th post, syndication here I come...oh wait that's television :-)  Regardless I think this calls for a celebration break out the bubbly!

Mmm that was tasty.  For the rest of you I have posted some quotes from my favorite authors, hope you enjoy.

C.S. Lewis

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”
-- C.S. Lewis

 “You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.”
-- C.S. Lewis

“We read to know that we are not alone.”
--C.S. Lewis

“No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.”

--C.S. Lewis

J.R.R. Tolkien

“I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.”
--J.J.R. Tolkien "The Fellowship of the Ring"

“Never laugh at live dragons.”
--J.J.R. Tolkien

“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!”
--J.J.R. Tolkien

“A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.”
--J.J.R. Tolkien

J.K. Rowling

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default.”
--J.K. Rowling

“The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should be treated with caution.”
--J.K. Rowling

“It is my belief... that the truth is generally preferable to lies.”
--J.K. Rowling "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"

“Nitwit, blubber, oddment, tweak.”
 --J.K. Rowling "Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone"

Anne McCaffrey

“A good story is a good story no matter who wrote it.”
 --Anne McCaffery

“Make no judgments where you have no compassion.”
 --Anne McCaffery

“Oh, Tongue, give sound to joy and sing
Of hope and promise on dragonwing”
--Anne McCaffery "Dragonsong"

“Drummer, beat, and piper, blow
Harper, strike, and soldier, go
Free the flame and sear the grasses
Til the dawning Red Star passes”
--Anne McCaffery "Dragonsong"

What is your favorite author quote?  How cool is it that this is post 100?  Should I quit writing posts while drinking the bubbly...or does it help :-)?