The Red Pyramid
The Throne of Fire
The Serpents Shadow
Young Adult Fantasy – what can I say I have a weakness for it.
At first I thought these would just be fun, fast reads – and they were. But I feel I should also mention that I’ve understood at least two references to ancient Egypt I would have missed since reading them. Fun, fast, informative…
Would I recommend them? You betcha! I also have read about Percy Jackson and the Olympians – and I liked them… but I loved theses!
Start with Outlander and then keep going.
I’ve been re-reading them in between other books since Jane has been born and I’m on my 6th book of hers in a month.
I haven’t yet had the words “dinna fash” or “you’ll ken” come out of my mouth yet but it’s a good thing I’ve only got one book left or I’d be yelling “Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ” next time I burn dinner.
Would I recommend them? Having just stared blankly at the computer screen for a many minitues I have no tidy way to sum up the books nor why exactly I’d recommend them.
I think I’m in a Jamie and Claire induced stuper… and now I have to go read what happens next – even though I’ve read this one twice before.
It appears I read the first book in this series before I started writing about the books I was reading, which is annoying to me, and possibly to you to. Or maybe it’s just a bit of my need-to-have-some-part-of-my-life-in-order-so-I-choose-odd-small-things issue coming though and no one is annoyed other than me.
Regardless of who is or is not annoyed by this out of order book review I’ll attempt to put my own issues aside and carry on.
The Magicians by Lev Grossman was a recommendation from Pat Rothfuss’s blog. And since we should all have read at least The Name of The Wind by now we know he is a super author, and we should probably at least check out his recommendations right?
Right.
If you would like to do so yourself here is his link http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2009/08/things-i-like-magicians-and-faeries-of/
Personally I’d call The Magicians something of a Harry Potter meets Narnia in an adult sort of way.
(And by that oh best beloved I mean we’ve added, sarcasm, sex, drugs, alcohol, death and other assorted nasties)
I recall it being a fairly wonderful, if slightly startling book, so therefore I found the second in the series (see large title above) and brought it home. I then proceeded to read this book in a much shorter time frame than I should have which resulted in a much shorter night sleep than was really prudent.
And it was worth it.
Would I recommend it? Why yes, yes I would, thanks for asking.
And on a slightly different but still sort of related subject I feel compelled to share this flow chart of NPR’s top 100 science fiction and fantasy books (also recommended by Pat Rothfuss) because it’s funny if you’ve read enough of them to be dorky enough to get the jokes and possibly helpful in finding a new book to read if you haven’t.
I listened to this on CD starting when we headed out to Kansas.
Then I discovered that it is very difficult to find time to listen to a book that involves a lot of shooting, fighting and killing when you have little girls in the house.
So I just finished this week.
Good one liners, and humor mixed in with a lot of descriptions of crazy weapons, attack strategies and a modern day treasure hunt – I’d call it a boy book fortunately I enjoy a good boy book every now and then!
Would I recommend it? Not good enough writing that I’d straight up recommend it. Good enough plot that I do recommend it if you are looking for a good dry humor blow stuff up book.
If you love, religious history in particular Jewish history, old artifacts, particularly books, or book restoration. Then you should defiantly read this book and you will love it. If these topics are only of passing interest to you, then I’m not so sure. The author is a wonderful writer, tons of research must have gone into it, following the life of an ancient book is a really neat story, truly there is nothing wrong with this book, I just didn’t love it.
Would I recommend it? If you have one of those interests listed above, yes. Otherwise I’d recommend her book Year of Wonders (about the plague) to anyone that was a great book!
