2014: New Year’s (Reading) Resolutions…

Last year, I resolved to read at least the first book in four fantasy series. I managed to read the first of only two of them… Thankfully, these sorts of thing are not binding, but nevertheless, I’ve decided to (belatedly) come up with another four fantasy series I would like to at least try, if not finish, in 2014. I will include the two I failed to read in 2013, and hopefully keep them high on the TBR list. So, here are the 2014 Fantasy Reading Resolutions…

Margaret Atwood – MaddAddam Trilogy

Celia Friedman – The Coldfire Trilogy

Tom Lloyd – Twilight Reign (from 2013)

Brandon Sanderson – Mistborn (from 2013)

As before, and always, there are no doubt going to be tens of new fantasy, sci-fi, urban fantasy and horror novels series that I will want to read. Even need to read, in my weirdly-wired mind. They will probably get in the way of my fulfilling these reading resolutions (which makes you wonder if these types of posts have any value whatsoever, but there we go). It’s impossible to read all the novels I want to read. But I will do my best to read at least the first in the above series. It certainly helps that I have already bought them. I’ll use the weekend Upcoming posts to highlight stand-alone novels, and also hitherto unmentioned or unrevealed SFF series that catch my attention. In the meantime, though, here is some information about the above-mentioned series…

2013: New Year’s (Reading) Resolutions – Fantasy

Last year, I promised myself that I would read at least one of Joe Abercrombie’s novels. Thankfully, I just managed it. For 2013, I’ve decided to come up with a similar resolution, to address a few more gaps in my SFF reading. In this post, I give you the four fantasy series I hope to read at least one novel from in 2013:

Robin Hobb – Farseer Trilogy

James Barclay – Chronicles of the Raven

Brandon Sanderson – Mistborn

Tom Lloyd – Twilight Reign

There are, of course, many other established and completed series I wish I had tried by now. These are just four of the fantasy series I’ve decided to single out for this year. Allow me to share some details about these series, in case you haven’t managed to get around to them yourself. If you have already read any of these series, please do share your own thoughts and impressions, in the comments. (Or, alternatively, share suggestions for other fantasy series you think I and other readers need to try out.)

Guest Review: “The Final Empire” by Brandon Sanderson (Tor/Gollancz)

Reviewed by Shevaun

The first novel in Sanderson’s popular Mistborn series

What if the Dark Lord won?

A thousand years ago, evil came to the land and has ruled with an iron hand ever since. The sun shines fitfully under clouds of ash that float down endlessly from the constant eruption of volcanoes. A dark lord rules through the aristocratic families and ordinary folk are condemned to lives of servitude, sold as goods, labouring in the ash fields. But now a troublemaker has arrived and there is rumour of revolt. A revolt that depends on a criminal that no-one can trust and a young girl who must master Allomancy – the magic that lies in all metals.

A well imagined story-verse, with well-realised and rounded characters. I like my heroes to be a little bit more human, and Sanderson’s protagonists are nicely ambiguous, their motives and desires pleasantly (for the reader) unclear. Sanderson has created a new mythology that is rich in detail without being overly confusing, a common problem in fantasy.

Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn Trilogy eBooks

Just a very quick news piece:

While perusing Amazon’s eBook recommendations, as I do quite frequently, I noticed that Tor Books have made the collected Mistborn Trilogy eBook available in the UK!

(Apparently, it’s been available since February, but I’ve not seen it up there before today.)

Priced at £12.82, I thought this was a pretty good deal for three pretty hefty novels I’ve been meaning to try out for quite a while, now. So I bought it. Hopefully I’ll get around to reading it soon. That, or I might save it for my month-long trip to LA and NYC. When I’m also supposed to be getting stuck into writing my own stuff and job-hunting. Hm. This is another example of so much to read and write, not enough hours in the day to do both. Nuts.

Sanderson Returns to Mistborn, UK Edition: “The Alloy of Law” by Brandon Sanderson (Gollancz)

Just a very quick post about the newly-revealed UK artwork for Brandon Sanderson’s fourth Mistborn novel, The Alloy of Law. I’ll refer you back to my previous post for my thoughts on the plot, etc., so I’ll get straight to the new art (which I really, really like):

Sanderson returns to World of Mistborn

Right, first off, let me just say I’ve not read a single novel by Brandon Sanderson. It’s something I fully intend to rectify next month (I’ve bought The Final Empire and also The Way of Kings), but I saw some of the new posts on other sites that showcased the synopsis and artwork (which is disappointingly familiar – dare I say cliché – and similar to a number of other recent fantasy covers):

Now, the reason I’m posting all this information is not just to say “Lookit! Something new!” (which is always nice, it’s true), but because I think Sanderson’s done something pretty interesting with this novel, which I’ve not seen done with many other fantasy series.

[Warning: There are some minor spoilers in the Synopsis.]