Recently I've been really into Jane Lindskold.  I started with and really really liked the first few Firekeeper novels.  Particularly I like Through Wolf's Eyes, which really set up the characters well. 

I love good characters and the Firekeeper novels have that in abundance.  The issue came with the latter novels (there are 6 total) when I feel the plot get a bit scattered and I didn't necessarily care what was going on any more.  That being said, characters were still great.  As I got into these books I decided to try some of her other books. 

Next, I tried Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls.  This is an urban sci-fi futuristic fantasy, which is not usually my thing.  Unsurprisingly, I didn't love it.  It was well written just not really perfect for me.  But, I decided to try another of her novels as I did enjoy the novels of firekeeper so much.  This got me to The Buried Pyramid, which I loved. 

Great characters and a great plot with lots of mystery.  The mystery doesn't seem to pushed either, which is always nice.  Its a kind of historical fiction fantasy hybrid.  I personally like that about the book, others might find it strange.  (If you do like it you may also want to try Socery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia Wrede, which is hysterically funny).  Then the breaking the wall series came out and I must say I love them more than the Firekeeper series.  The first book is called the Thirteen Orphans.

The characters are fantastic and the plot is rich and interesting.  Its a fantasy set in contemporary times, but done perfectly in my opinion.  The magical world of the character is based a lot on Chinese myth and moh-jong, which if interesting to read about in its own right.  The book actually takes place in the US.  I'm really enjoying the series and highly recommend them.   just finished the second book so I feel confidant in my recommendation of the series. 

If you like to read my actual reviews of these books you can over at LibraryThing.

A book is man's best friend

So, I recently had a large quantity of money to spend on books. I had been using gift certificates to Chapters to encourage participation in a pilot study I'm running for my dissertation work. Usually I try not to buy too many books in Canada as they are ridiculously priced here! Seriously look at the back of a book once! It drives me crazy as the currency is about the same right now . . .

Anyway I've recently purchased a bunch of books. Squee! I focused on beloved series I had been holding off on due to the high cost of reading.

I have not been disappointed. I was particularly pleased with The Conspiracy of King by Megan Whalen Turner. This entire series starting with The Thief is exceptional. The series has some of the best written an arguably some of my favorite characters ever. The plots are also very complex, particularly for books marketed as teen fiction. (If you want to read my review you can at my favorite book site LibraryThing)

I've often found this an annoying designation though I often love books in this category. I never read what were considered Teen books when I was a teen as my school library and bookstore only stocked insipid love stories and angsty prose. It seems to me that more and more Teen books are talking up to teens rather than down to them. To my mind a Teen book should not be tremendously different from and Adult book. I appreciate intelligent literature for all ages. Which is what you'll get if you read Megan Whalen Turner's work. The Percy Jackson series is also quite good for this. It does have a bit of angst in in, but I for give the books for it as they have battles fought with bronze swords and Greek armor.

I find I have a lot to say about teen books . . . more later I suppose