Waiting On Wednesday: The Magician's Land

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine, a great place to geek out over upcoming books!

My pick for this week is The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman, to be published by Viking in August. I’ve really enjoyed this series so far (yes, despite Quentin’s whining!) so I can’t wait for the conclusion. And not just because I share the same somewhat-guilty love of Narnia that seems to permeate these books! The Magician King had an excellent ending, and I do want to know what happens to Quentin now he’s been flung back into the real world. Plus the blurb is promising epic things. Ah portal fantasies, how I love you.

Quentin Coldwater has been cast out of Fillory, the secret magical land of his childhood dreams. With nothing left to lose he returns to where his story began, the Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic. But he can’t hide from his past, and it’s not long before it comes looking for him.

Along with Plum, a brilliant young undergraduate with a dark secret of her own, Quentin sets out on a crooked path through a magical demi-monde of gray magic and desperate characters. But all roads lead back to Fillory, and his new life takes him to old haunts, like Antarctica, and to buried secrets and old friends he thought were lost forever. He uncovers the key to a sorcery masterwork, a spell that could create magical utopia, a new Fillory—but casting it will set in motion a chain of events that will bring Earth and Fillory crashing together. To save them he will have to risk sacrificing everything.

The Magician’s Land is an intricate thriller, a fantastical epic, and an epic of love and redemption that brings the Magicians trilogy to a magnificent conclusion, confirming it as one of the great achievements in modern fantasy. It’s the story of a boy becoming a man, an apprentice becoming a master, and a broken land finally becoming whole.

Top Ten Tuesday: Covers I'd Frame As Art

Cheers to the gals at The Broke and the Bookish for hosting this lovely meme.

This week TTT is a free choice, so I’ve decided to list the top ten book covers I’d frame as pieces of art. (I wanted to join in for this topic a couple of weeks ago, but I’ve been working 65-70 hour weeks recently and couldn’t find the time.) 

Anyways. Let the ogling commence!!

God's War by Kameron Hurley: I haven't read the book, but I like the cover. Nice sense of movement & interesting patterns. 

Earth Girl by Janet Edwards: Silhouetted birds against a dramatic sky and beautiful choice of title font? Yes please. 

L'Elue, aka the French edition of Kushiel’s Chosen, by Jacqueline Carey: I love this cover. It has great colours and an overall sense of sensual epicness that I think fits the book very well. I would put this in my bathroom and cackle at visitors' reactions to it.

  

Welcome to Bordertown edited by Holly Blak and Ellen Kushner: An otherworldly city featuring a decrepit motorcycle covered in ivy? Come on, who wouldn't want that on their wall? 

The Magicians by Lev Grossman: I like this cover. It manages to be simple yet somewhat magical all at once.

The Scar by China Mieville: It seems that I have a thing for dramatic skies. This one is in green and yellow, crowning the city of misty ships on the horizon. I approve. 

 

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson: I think a lot of minimalist fantasy covers are on the boring side, but this one really works. Beautiful colours & lovely shading.  

Lud in the Mist by Hope Mirreles: Another fantasy city paired with a striking title and yet more birds. I really like the colours and old-school magic vibe I get off this one. I would put it in my office to stare at and daydream.

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff: Creepy and a little bit fey. I haven't read this book, and this cover is making me regret that.

And finally, The Peter Grant books by Ben Aaronvitch: I love all these because I collect maps – my entire house is covered them. It’s not great cartography, but it is great design. I think Whispers Underground and Moon Under Soho are my favourites so far.

The Ten Most Unique Fantasy Books I've Ever Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a book meme hosted over at The Broke and the Bookish.

I actually haven’t done a Top Ten Tuesday in a couple of weeks, so I thought I’d jump on this one. The topic for this week was unique books we've read. Now I’m not sure if those on my list are the most unique books out there, but they’re all fantasy novels with a clever take on the genre.

1. In Great Waters by Kit Whitfield
Two words: Mermaids & royalty. This book takes place in an alternative 16th century Earth where European rulers marry deepsmen to ensure control of local waters. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything similar.

2. The Magicians by Lev Grossman
Billed as the adult version of Harry Potter, this book follows Quentin after he is accepted into a prestigious & secret magical academy. However Quentin is a spoiled brat, and the characters – all in their early 20s – spend a lot of their time angsting about what they want to do with their futures instead of being noble and heroic. It’s unexpected and rather enjoyable.

3.  The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams
A portal fantasy, where a musician named Theo gets sucked into the world of faerie. Only Faery has also undergone an industrial revolution, resulting in some twisted urban landscapes running off magic rather than electricity.

4. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
This book is bizarre, and I mean that in the most complimentary way. It's chaotic, urban, weird, unexpected... If you haven’t read it then you are missing out.

5. Feast of Souls by Celia Friedman
A very original take on vampires in a secondary-world fantasy. In this world, using magic consumes your own life-force - or the life-force of others, if you gain entry to the immortal order of Magisters. 

6. Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente
A book included on this list purely for the descriptions of communist domovye (house-elf) committees that run individual Russian households. And perhaps for Valente's lyrical writing.

7. The Secret Vampire by L. J. Smith
I read this book 15+ years ago, but I still remember it as one of the most original vampire novels I’ve ever read. The main character is Poppy, a teenager girl dying of cancer. Luckily, she also has a bloodsucking boyfriend. It’s a nice twist to your average vampire romance.

8. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
Sanderson’s magic systems are so damn clever he had to make it on this list eventually. I wasn’t too fond of the writing in this one, but the magic system is stunning.

9. Dreamhunter by Elizabeth Knox
This book made it on this list for two reasons. The first was the setting - colonial NZ society through a fantasy lens. How often do you see that? The second is the plot, concerning a magical realm called ‘the Place’ where dreams can be harvested and shared among the wider population. It’s an interesting novel all around, and I say that as somebody who doesn’t read much YA.


10. Mystery Faery Novel
My google fu failed me with this book, and I can’t remember the title or the author. It tells the story of a woman who moves to Australia after a tragedy back in the UK. Unfortunately, she’s also being pursued by the Fairy King, who promptly swaps his court with the local one in Sydney so he can continue stalking her. I remember it being a good book, and a very clever way of importing British myth to an Australasian setting. If only I could remember its name! If you recognise it, please tell me...