The Pokemon Go Book Tag!

This tag is just too amusing of an idea to pass by. Just pretend I'm not weeping in the corner over here because my phone is incapable of running Pokemon Go.

This took me embarrassingly wrong to complete because I'm easily distracted. Well, it's done now. BEHOLD.

Tag created by Aentee @ Read At Midnight.

The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks. Yes really. I know it's a horrible LotR ripoff BUT I WAS IN MIDDLE SCHOOL OKAY.

 

A Wizard of Earthsea. Ursula Le Guin is my favorite classic SFF author and the Earthsea series is just so incredible in so many ways. My personal favorite is The Tombs of Atuan, because I was a weird morbid kid and the idea of the silent, dark labyrinth that had to be navigated solely by touch ... so, so good.

China Mieville's Kraken. I remember when New Weird was a big thing in the fantasy genre and LITERALLY EVERYONE was reading The City & The City, Perdido Street Station, and Kraken. I finally did start Kraken, and it is extremely weird, but so far it hasn't really drawn me in.

This is too easy in the fantasy genre, where every second book is a LotR remake. I choose Dragonlance by Weis & Hickman, which is so trope-y it probably wraps all the way around to original somehow. We all have guilty pleasures, ok? Mine happens to be campy, terrible D&D-based fantasy. I also read Drizzt. Shut up.

Kate Elliot's Crown of Stars. I've been eyeing this series for probably like 8 years or something. But after Wheel of Time, A Song of Ice and Fire, and Malazan, I don't know if I'm ready to get involved in another fantasy epic of the same size right now.

Art © 2015 by Plunderpuss

Given the fact that I intentionally avoid suspense & horror, this is hard. I'll link not a book, but a short story: Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers by Alyssa Wong. Brilliant, amazing *shivers*

ACTUALLY I HAVE A BOOK TOO. Bonus round: NK Jemisin's The Killing Moon. Such a creepy magic system. And NK Jemisin EXCELS at grabbing your feels and not letting them go until she's extracted every drop of remaining emotional stability. READ IT.

Phèdre & Joscelin from the Kushiel series by Jacqueline Carey. Normally I don't enjoy romance in books--*ducks thrown tomatoes*--but Phèdre and Joscelin have such a deliciously complicated relationship, with tragedy and consequences and crossroads and ... I LIKE POIGNANT BOOKS, OKAY? Happy isn't intense enough for me. Usually.

Kushiel's Dart is a wonderfully lush book, probably one of the first SFF books I picked up with significant LGBT+ inclusion. It has brilliant politics, complex human relationships, beautiful writing, and READ IT OKAY. READ. IT.

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson. Holy shit. This book grabbed and didn't let go and was AMAZING. If you like brutal political intrigue, read this book. READ IT.

I tried and tried to think of one, but it turns out my gut reaction was right. I don't like spin-offs. NO SPIN-OFFS. Like, maybe Drizzt shit? But not sure if D&D-based fiction really counts ... since essentially every series is a spin-off. Pass?

The Sundering series by Carey. I was expecting it to be a clever commentary on standard fantasy tropes, but not particularly emotion-destroying. BOY WAS I WRONG. This series is like LotR except from the PoV of Sauron's side. And Carey really, REALLY makes you sympathize with them. So much that I was legit sad when the Good Side had victories. EVIL IS JUST MISUNDERSTOOD /weeps

Malazan by Erikson. Everyone who reads epic fantasy knows this name, knows of its legendary worldbuilding & notoriously difficult reading experience. I still love it. Even if I have to take a break between each Malazan book I read. One day I will finish it!

OK so Barnes and Noble has this amazing collector's edition leather-bound fiction and I basically want ALL OF IT. What I would really want, though? Octavia Butler (one of her best books: Kindred) in that kind of beautiful binding. One of the greats of SFF writing, she deserves equal treatment as Tolkien.

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee. I'm actually not sure if this is a debut? I think it is. In any case, I NEED TO READ THIS. Mathematical space opera! I ADORE hard science fiction, so this sounds like exactly the sort of book I will love. Reading Glaiza's review made me so much more eager to get my hands on this book. Cannot wait.

Scott Lynch. The Gentleman Bastards series (Book 1: The Lies of Locke Lamora) is one of the only ones that I will go out and buy the hardcover within a week of the release. Like thieves, snark, and brilliant heists? You need these books.

I won't say GRRM, I won't say GRRM ...

*struggles*

... Winds of Winter. Sorry.


Do you have OPINIONS on any of these books? Sabers at dawn! (or write a comment below)