I tried very hard to resist T J Klune’s best-selling feel-good Fantasy The House in the Cerulean Sea (2020) but I failed so here it is as this month’s recommendation. The novel is easy to find in paperback, with charming cover-art, or as an ebook. I think that this is a story particularly suited to… Continue reading
My recommended read this month is Dragonsbane (1985) by the versatile American author Barbara Hambly. In some ways this is a very traditional Fantasy novel populated by heroes, dragons, witches and gnomes; in others it is still ahead of its time. Dragonsbane can be enjoyed as a stand-alone story but there have been three sequels… Continue reading
The Omicron Variant sounds like a trashy SF film but since it happens to be real, 2022 is getting off to a rather dismal start. Cheering people up is still the priority so I’ve decided to recommend something light and funny. My current top pick for entertainment value is Australian author Tansy Rayner Roberts’ Teacup… Continue reading
Every December I like to recommend a Children’s Classic. With a new kitten in the house, the obvious choice seems to be Paul Gallico’s Jennie. This is the story of a boy who is transformed into a cat and adopted by a streetwise older cat called Jennie. First published in 1950 I don’t think Jennie… Continue reading
After last month’s ghost stories I’m continuing the afterlife theme by recommending The Library of the Unwritten by American author A.J. Hackwith. This novel opens in an area of Hell known as the Unwritten Wing and takes its characters on a journey through the afterlife worlds of several ancient religions. The Library of the Unwritten… Continue reading
Every October, in the run up to Hallowe’en, I like to recommend ghost stories. This year I’m featuring the work of British author E.F.Benson (1867-1940). He is best known for his humorous `Mapp and Lucia’ novels but he was also a prolific and versatile writer of short stories with supernatural elements. Benson himself called these… Continue reading
When I say that this month’s Fantasy Reads recommendation is the first in a fifteen-book series of mystery novels about an elderly coroner working in Communist Laos in the 1970s you will probably think, `What has that got to do with Fantasy fiction?’ Bear with me because The Coroner’s Lunch (2004) by Colin Cotterill is… Continue reading
This month’s recommended read is Faerie Fruit by Charlotte E. English. Published in 2016 you can get this as an ebook or as a paperback with a charming fruit-adorned cover. English is a prolific writer who has brought out a wide range of linked Fantasy novels including the Malykant Mysteries, the Tales of Aylfenhame and… Continue reading
This month, in a first for Fantasy Reads, I’m recommending a work by a French Fantasy writer. A Winter’s Promise by Christelle Dabos is the first book in her series called The Mirror Visitor (2018). It has been elegantly translated into English by Hildegarde Serle and has a captivating cover illustration by Laurent Gapaillard. Books… Continue reading
This month I’m recommending a pair of books by British author Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965) which I would classify as Pastoral Fantasy. They are set in the English county of Sussex and share a central character – wandering minstrel, Martin Pippin. The first book, Martin Pippin in the Apple-Orchard was published in 1921 and has rarely… Continue reading