JZ, I'm glad you liked it! Or appreciated it! Because I continue to be entirely realistic about my painting skills, but I did like the idea of leaving a tangible memory. (Am I right about your name, by the way? Greek is a... challenging language.)
I remembered liking the Temeraire novels but hadn't thought about Novik until Cory Doctorow (maybe?) recommended the Scholomance books. A magical school where most of the students are killed before graduation was an attention-grabbing idea.
Banks is on my mental list but intimidating. (It only took Bujold about twenty years to make it to the top of my list.)
I think I read a Banks novel and it didn't grab me and now I'm wondering if I read the right Banks. Possibly not! And this was probably 20 years ago. Or more.
I really like Bujold's Penric and Desdemona novellas, which are in the 5 gods world but earlier. Wait, maybe later than some of them. At a specific time that is not the same as the main run of the 5 gods.
I love pretty much everything by Bujold, but particularly "The Curse of Chalion" and the rest of the world of the five gods books. They're more fantasy than space opera.
Timelies all!
Currently reading A Murder in Carlton House by Ashley Gardner. Regency mystery series. Also meandering through Leverage fics, and fics bookmarked by a MCU fic writer.
Banks is on my mental list but intimidating.
FWIW, I find him very readable even though I do need to slow down and pay attention to what he's saying. But the action is fast paced and the characters are all well drawn and intriguing.
I just finished a Murderbot re-reading, and I've been going through Elisabeth Ogilvie's Jennie Glenroy trilogy--I mentioned these on JZ's FB recently. They're historical novels set in early 19th century Scotland and Maine that I've never met anyone else who's even heard of. I own them in paperback, but now they're on Kindle too, which makes them so much handier to read.
In new-to-me books this year, so far my favorites have been Louise Erdrich's middle grade Birchbark House series of historical fiction, plus When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb.
On the Bujold front, I adore the Penric and Desdemona series and the Vorkosigan books, especially pretty much everything from Memory forward, but for some reason the Sharing Knife series books have been my go-to comfort reads since 2016. I can't even really explain why--it's just the world I most want to plunge into no matter how much I feel like I should be appalled by Fawn and Dag's age gap.
Age gaps do seem pretty common in her books. I'm enjoying the five gods books more, which is a good thing since my library has lots of them.
I read a number of Elisabeth Ogilvie books a good while ago and enjoyed them. I love Bujold; I think my favorite of her world of five gods series was Paladin of Souls, although the Penric and Desdemona stories are excellent (actually, just about everything of hers is excellent).
I'm reading Excession by Iain M. Banks (do not forget the "M" or he turns into a dreaded literary author).
It’s the same person. I’ve only read the Wasp Factory but thought it was fantastic.
