Books!

[qos]

Thanks to queenofhalves, rocket_jockey and godlyperspectiv I now have Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword and The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov on order from Amazon zShops. One fantasy, one piece of classic literature.

Both sound great!

I'm still interested in more recommendations, so please keep making them!

Comments

[justbeast.livejournal.com]

Have you read 'Good Omens' by Gaiman and Pratchett?
It's all about the (book of Revelation-style) Apocalypse, written by the two masters of myth and humor.
Very sweet, intelligent and funny.

Also, how are you on science fiction? Most of my strengths lie there, but I don't know if you like it.

Oh! You know what's absolutely amazing (and disturbing)?

Satyrday (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0425079643/). It's a fairly short book, done in a (sober) fairy tale style, about how all these scary and bad ravens get together and steal the moon out of the sky. Meanwhile, there's this boy (the only human left), raised by a satyr, who sets out to find out what happened to the rest of his people.
It's like nothing I've ever read.

And! While I'm on the obscure (but really good) stuff, you also really need to check out Dry Water (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0380796147/). It's by turns smile-worthy cute, and audatious, and in generally gorgeous. The book is about a writer, trying to find inspiration in a New Mexico ghost town/tourist trap, who realizes that the place is slowly becoming a center for an upcoming struggle between a bunch of voodoo forces -- Judzias the Necromancer, the Green Witch, shamans, and so on. All of them are after the Dry Water, which allows whoever drinks it to essentially go back in time and change history. And all of them have various agendas for why they want to change history, and it all makes for an amazing novel that combines two of my favorite things -- urban fantasy and alternate history.

Sci Fi

[qos.livejournal.com]

I enjoy science fiction, although I don't read as much as I used to. (I'm not finding anything that interests me.) Dune is one of my all-time favorites. Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series is another big favorite, although that's more "Space Opera" than science fiction, perhaps. C.S. Friedman's In Conquest Born is a favorite.

I've read some of the Honor Harrington books, but ran out of steam on about book four. She's a great heroine, but the details of the military technology got a bit much for me (even though I admired the author's apparent understanding of the theories).

The books you mention above sound good, although I don't have a particular interest in alternate history. Modern fairy tales are interests of mine, and I want to read more of DeLint's urban fairy tales.

Feel free to make more suggestions!

[toesontheground.livejournal.com]

Middlemarch?

[qos.livejournal.com]

Would you refresh my memory on this one, and why you recommend it?