I just started The Sapphire Heart by the Three Scribes, Book One of their The Erynvor Cycle

At the authors' request, I just started The Sapphire Heart by the Three Scribes – Sandra Mead Miller, Abigail Bender, & Victoria Hungria – Book One of their The Erynvor Cycle.

Amazing as the The Draconis Memoria was, it is nice to get back to some classic Epic Fantasy... though calling The Sapphire Heart such implies it uses the Tolkienesque approach, an assumption the first few pages instantly banishing to the deepest parts of the Oru Fen. Thus I find myself swept into the gloriously intricate and imaginative realm of Eolemar. A dying land that only the prophesied Erynvor, the Uniter, can restore. The problem? Ten Erynvors have tried, ten have failed. Felled by a thousand and more dangers in both the waking realm and the dreaming where wraithwolves prey.

Since I can see all bets, and predictions in this clearly unique tale, are off, the questions are, for the moment, simple: How long can Essiant keep the Wycche and Venge at bay? Why does the Wycche seek to end the Founding Dragons' influence? And will Elorah, the eleventh Erynvor, find these answers before they find her? 

(Naturally the Official Book Review will come after I finish the book.)

Jólabókaflóð

My kind of Holiday (and no, sadly, I am not Icelandic).

 

I have finished The Empire of Ashes, book three of Anthony Ryan's The Draconis Memoria trilogy

I have finished The Empire of Ashes, book three of Anthony Ryan's The Draconis Memoria trilogy.

Tis an irony that saving the world from destruction required the building of so many destructive weapons, yet it is a world free not only from the White's malice but the respectively greedy and tyrannical ideologies of the Corporatists and Imperials. A world ripe for exploration, with the understanding that some secrets – and all Drakes – should be left alone. A world saved and now rebuilt by those who embraced their shared humanity and risked everything on impossible chances.

When I started book one, The Waking Fire, I had Grimdark suspicions regarding The Draconis Memoria and in finishing as anything compared to GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire is, for me, not exactly a ringing endorsement. Yet also people compared it Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time which, for me, is. While others named it "part Indiana Jones, part Pirates of the Caribbean, and part Mistborn" with an added chunk of steampunk naval fiction. I could not fathom such a series then. Now, on finishing, I say it this breathtakingly unique maskerwork is all that and more, including slices of Shelly's Frankenstein and Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth. All infused with the rich Spirit of Tolkien, not in plot but in attitude: tis an old espionage adage never to let sentiment get in the way of one's work, but Lizanne let it guide and strengthen hers.

I salute you all, Lizanne Lethridge, Claydon Torcreek & Krizelle, Captains Corrick Hilemore & Zenida Okanas, Tekela, Loriabeth Torcreek & Lieutenant Sigoral, Captain Braddon & Fredabel Torcreek, Steelfine, Aberus, Professor Graysen Lethridge, Jermayah Tollermine, Lieutenant Talmant, Chief Bozware, the Tinkerer, Skaggerhill, Foxbine, and all the rest who put (and in some cases gave) their lives to end the White and rebuild a new world from the bloody ashes of the old.

Quote of the month (an a perfect one for December)

"Night is not something to endure until dawn. It is an element, like wind or fire. Darkness is its own kingdom; it moves to its own laws, and many living things dwell in it." - Patricia A. McKillip

Fire Emblem Heroes: Book X Movie

When we met Fjorm way back in Book II it was to keep Nifl from getting melted down, so I suppose tis fitting that now we are trying to keep it from freezing solid. Fittingly cataclysmic, leaving the real question being: how closely will FEH's Ragnarök match Norse Myth's Ragnarok? Regardless, Fjorm has always been my favorite FEH character, so it will be great to have her back and freshly empowered. (Nice seeing that Askr is not completely dead either.)

Repost: Letters From Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien

Every December an envelope bearing a stamp from the North Pole would arrive for J.R.R.Tolkien’s children. Inside would be letters from Father Christmas to the Tolkien household, all written in spidery handwriting with beautifully colored drawings.

Of course, Tolkien himself wrote the letters... because leave it to him to think of Santa writing to children instead of the reverse. Thus we have the book Letters From Father Christmas by J.R.R.Tolkien, filled with "wonderful tales of life at the North Pole: how all the reindeer got loose and scattered presents all over the place; how the accident-prone Polar Bear climbed the North Pole and fell through the roof of Father Christmas’s house into the dining-room; how he broke the Moon into four pieces and made the Man in it fall into the back garden; how there were wars with the troublesome horde of goblins who lived in the caves beneath the house!"

Why I never seen it in book stores I have not a clue, but in my mind this books makes the Lord and Founder of Modern Fantasy even more incredible.

My father and I just finished rereading Conrad's Fate by Diana Wynne Jones

My father and I just finished rereading Conrad's Fate by Diana Wynne Jones.

Easily my favorite of the Chrestomanci novels, and one of two where Christopher Chant is young and Gabriel de Witt is the Chrestomanci, it is standard Jones: a seemingly 'simple' plot that is bristling with invisible tripwires as she builds up to a climax bursting with surprise after surprise. Simple being in quotes because no one but Jones could ever come up with such a brilliantly unique story. Brilliant and filled with lessons, namely how fraud and neglecting those you care for will come to haunt you no matter the probability.

Until next time Conrad, Christopher, Anthea, Millie, Robert, Hugo, Felice, and Gabriel de Witt. For this is one of those books I shall always reread again.