I, Claudius ... I didn't get through (although I watched the ENTIRE PBS series ... and tried to do a family chart for a friend showing the relationships). And I have some qualms about Robert Graves - there's a section of Suetonius that no one else would translate (with good reason). Spoiler Alert is charming - that's a good description.

Thank you, Consuela!

So despite all of your great recs, I thought I would see what was on the shelf at the library in the sci fi section, and came away with Nalo Hopkinson's Sister Mine, which seems great, but is it sci fi?? (I will still count it as such for the library contest, since the library says it is.)

My pleasure, hippocampus!

Here's another random rec: Violette Malan has a series of classic sword-and-sorcery novels, with a M/F pair of bonded mercenary fighters. It's all very old school, but I enjoyed the characters and their relationship, and the world-building was pretty good given the genre. The first one is called The Sleeping God. Sadly, I guess they didn't sell that well, and the 4th ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. But they're still enjoyable.

IIRC, I got both of those recs from Liz Burke, whom I have followed for yonks on LJ and Twitter. She's Sleeps With Monsters over at Tor.com.

Liz has great taste!

The only upside to a 6 hour flight delay is actually finishing a book in one day. Read The Midnight Library, which was a light, no real focus required choice for an extremely noisy environment.

That's one thing I love about e-books - I carry one small-ish device with me and have bunches of books to choose from. I can re-read something if there are a lot of distractions or, given time and quiet, settle in with something new that will require attention. (edited to add: I saw a brief article about Haley Atwell who was traveling with a bag full of books - heavy and bulky - but she needed the reading material)

And, in what may be good news, it seems that Jack Vance's son is authorizing writers to write in his father's worlds. Not sequels to Vance's books, but new books in those universes. It sounds like it might turn out well. Hope springs eternal and all that.

Oh, I think I read one of the authors who is part of that - Matthew Hughes? I never read Jack Vance so it didn't mean much to me, but I recognize the name from some About the Authors or similar.

I needed to come in and say that The Hands of the Emperor is magnificent. Thanks again for reccing, juliana! I was reading with tears streaming down my face for the perfection of one particular scene, that hasn't happened in a while (or not for that reason, I do cry pretty easily for a lot of reasons)

I have been reading other Goddard books in the same, um, I don't think universe is quite right but it is a shared setting of sorts...for context and those are enjoyable, too. In trying to figure out the order in which to read (I started The Hands of the Emperor and got a little overwhelmed just by the sheer length of it and thought starting with something related but shorter might be a good idea so jumped to The Tower At the Edge of the World and the meandered around mostly through the Greenwing & Dart books before trying again and settling in more comfortably - I doubt all that is necessary for everyone's enjoyment but it was better for me personally (and enjoyed recognizing breadcrumbs from those other stories although now I am more worried about Basil in the Woods although maybe I don't need to be what with time moving differently in different places )) I came across a blog post, I think, that said there's to be a sequel maybe coming out next year, I'm very excited about that! I'm in the midst of The Return of Fitzroy Angursell and enjoying it more than I thought I would (I expected it to be coy about the Fitzroy Angursell thing and it is not at all, and I didn't enjoy the Ysther stories near as much so maybe had lower expectations) - I'm only most of the way through the first section but it is so good to see Kip's policies in action, particularly the difference the allotment makes to people's lives and how easy it is from someone else's perspective and wanted to come say that now rather than waiting until I finish and maybe forgetting to do so.

I'm so glad you liked them, -t! The Ysthar books are probably my least favorite, but I just went back and re-read 'Til Human Voices Wake Us, and it did improve upon the re-read. And Kip. Oh, my heart I love Kip. (In my head he looks like Temuera Morrison [link]

Kip is the best. I read a review that said something about Kip being too perfect and I was all "take that back I will fight you" in my head. Still kinda riled up about it. He is just exactly perfect enough

:: looks at pictures of Temuera Morrison::

Works for me! I only had a very vague image in my head, as is my wont, but he fits it pretty well

I actually like 'Til Human Voices Wake Us better now that I have read it and can think back on it than I did while I was reading it, if that makes sense.