Once upon a time, which is to say back in May, I sent an email out to a few friends who wanted recommendations for something new to buy and read. I reproduce that email, largely unedited, here. For a few reasons: It hints at stuff I’ve liked to read over the past year or two, it gives me something to start with that isn’t very, very lame (you think I’m joking, but just wait until you see #2), and it gives me something to put in without much thought at this moment, since I’m also still neck-deep in getting the layout and functionality for the site that I want. At any rate, expect these not really to be actual reviews so much as tiny encapsulations of enjoyment.

Not that any of this matters to you people from a strange and mysterious future who will be reading it in the archives.

Sci-Fi:

A Fire upon the Deep, and then its prequel, A Deepness in the Sky, by Vernor Vinge. The first one is decent, but the second is brilliant.

Lucifer’s Hammer, by Larry Niven. I haven’t read this recently, unlike the others I’ll be mentioning, but if you like the end of the world, this one definitely goes the distance.

Horror:

It, by Stephen King. Here because it’s my favorite book, period, and people who haven’t read it should. People who have should again, as I will be for the dozenth or so time later this year.

Fantasy:

The Belgariad, by David Eddings. Included because it was in the email due to a long-standing debate among some of my friends, and because they really are quite good, if childlike. I do not recommend his other series, though the Malloreon is tolerable, if you really like the characters. I’ll probably get around to owning and rereading these sometime in the next year or two.

Sandman, by Neil Gaiman. It starts slowly, but it’s very much worth the effort, especially from the 2nd book on. (Yes, this is what inspired the domain being registered by me some 6 years ago, and what inspired the tLog’s name now. (See what I did there, bringing up the tLog thing again? Any minute now.))

The Vlad Taltos series, by Steven Brust. First book is Jhereg (or, the first three are omnibussed in The Book of Jhereg). There’s magic, but despite that, it has the feel of a low magic world rather than high. You’ll never like an assassin so much, nor feel quite so guilty about doing it. Best of all, it’s 1st person from Vlad’s point of view, and he’s not the most reliable narrator. So there are layers.

The Phoenix Guards, by Steven Brust. This is the first of several books set in the same world as the above, but a thousand or so years earlier and focussing on the other race of people besides the humans. In addition, the series is a hilarious rip-off of Alexandre Dumas’s Three Musketeers series. It will change the way you express yourself in writing, while you’re reading it.

To Reign in Hell, by Steven Brust. (Why yes, I like this guy.) The best treatment of the war in Heaven since Milton wrote Paradise Lost, but this one is quite a bit more accessible. (Also, sufficiently different in focus to be worthwhile even if you already did Paradise Lost.)

The Miles Vorkosigan series, by Lois McMaster Bujold. Described on the cover as James Bond in space. This is only tangentially true, which is a good thing. Bond makes a good movie character, but only a mediocre book character, whereas Miles is among my top five protagonists ever. Warning: the first book does not have Miles in it, though I still liked it. (Cordelia’s Honor is the easy way to find it, though that’s technically two books included, Shards of Honor and Barrayar. Like Brust/Taltos above, this is a good series for omnibussing it.)

The Malazan Book of the Fallen, by Steven Erikson. These are really hard to read, because he drops you into the world without a safety net, and only worries about the plot, so there are things that don’t make sense right away. I’m in the middle of the second one [except, I’m in the middle of the third one, now], and there are meant to be 10, of which the 5th was just published, a year after the one before it and so on like clockwork. I specify all this because I feel bad recommending series after Jordan. Bright side: each book has a distinct beginning and end and can be read without needing the others to feel complete. (I’d recommend in order, of course.) (Note: these are also true of Taltos/Vorkosigan above, the able to read individually but needing to be in order, but neither of them are planned series; the author just writes another book when the mood strikes.) Anyway, the Malazan books are hard, but it’s really easy to get invested in the characters, and I’ve found it to be rewarding. They are not published in the US [Note: no longer true. Tor has published the first book earlier this summer.], but can be found for a premium at amazon, or probably considerably cheaper through amazon.ca, but my sense of money has not overcome my sense of the difficulty of making amazon.ca work for me. First book: Gardens of the Moon.

A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R. R. Martin. The anti-Jordan. Very low fantasy, despite some magic. Lots of political intrigue, and you can never be sure which characters to dislike, or which characters to expect to survive. But you can expect that the frozen zombies will show up and kill most everybody, sooner or later. (Yes, this is where the frozen zombies came from.) First book: A Game of Thrones.

Kushiel’s Dart, by Jacqueline Carey. First of a completed trilogy, Kushiel’s Legacy. The jacket blurb (and, okay, the cover art) will make you think it’s about sex, but it’s not. Sex is implied regularly, described very rarely. It’s really about politics, in an alternate earth that had a Jesus and has the same map, but I can’t really tell when it’s supposed to be set, could be 2000 AD as easily as 500 (which is my best guess). (Note: not about Jesus.) Excellent female protagonist. Downside: much of the map makes the setting appear to be France, but the people are not French enough to get up in arms about.

Cool, but not recommended:

The Dark Tower series, by Stephen King. Enjoyable even if you haven’t read the rest of his books, which he seems to be attempting to tie in to his self-described masterwork. The series is good despite all the tie-ins, which in many ways is a testament to how good it is. (Because even the really good authors look silly when they’re being hip and self-referential.) There is not a genre of fiction writing, so far as I can tell, that has not been included in this series. (Except maybe hard-boiled detective, but then again, there’s a book left.) Downside: The protagonist doesn’t even like himself, so he can be hard to get attached to if you don’t find him inherently cool from the opening sentence of the series.

The Fionavar Tapestry, by Guy Gavriel Kay. Cool trilogy that I don’t remember much of, from several years ago. Shades of Arthuriana, but doesn’t get bogged down. Fond memories is all I have to go on. Other people say that most Kay is better than this, and that all of it is good. I haven’t read any to judge on myself. There are several on the reading shelf, though.