Best of the best...

**Sammie** · December 13th, 2004, 12:48 PM

In keeping with the end-of-the-year polls running at the moment, I thought it would be fun to vote for our favourites out of the year's Fantasy Book Club Books of the Month...

Because this one is tallied up in the poll, feel free to post discussing your choices...

It was a toss-up for me between Rhapsody and Daughter of the Forest, but in the end Rhapsody had to have it.

Sammie.

**Rob B** · December 13th, 2004, 01:50 PM

This is a tough one. I haven't read all 12 books and some I read well before they were in the poll. I've got some thinking to do.

Sammie - Rhapsody? Must say I'm a bit surprised.

**Sammie** · December 13th, 2004, 03:55 PM

Well again, in fairness I haven't read all of them. And I think my opinion of Rhapsody is a little coloured by having read the whole trilogy (hard to remember where each one ended/began now) but yeah......I really enjoyed it!! I think there's a lot of original ideas there, playing off a very tried and tested plot/core of characters.

**Eldanuumea** · December 13th, 2004, 04:02 PM

Had to go with Marillier.
I have the Haydn trilogy on my to-read shelf. Your high opinion of it will make me want to move it forwards a bit.

magze · December 13th, 2004, 04:17 PM

Went for Daughter of the Forest

**Rob B** · December 13th, 2004, 04:25 PM

Since this less anal option not being run by the dictator fairy, I'll post the books I'm narrowing down:

Golden Compass
The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque
Daughter of the Forest
Stardust

I loathed Little, Big when I tried to read it a couple of years ago, I was so bored reading it.

Eventine · December 13th, 2004, 04:36 PM

There's some interesting choices there.
Pullman, Fforde, Ford, Tepper, Gaiman and Macleod all stand out for me. However, I did read Pullman and Fforde well before the book club so I'm going to strike them off the list.
Gaiman's Stardust, while charming, isn't his best work. If it had been Neverwhere I would have been hard pressed not to give it my vote.

Which brings me Ford, Tepper and Macleod. I haven't finished The Light Ages yet, which may colour my vote slightly, but I think I'm going to have to award it to Ford. While Beauty was an innovative tale with an alarming message, I felt that The Portrait of Mrs Charbuque was original and well written and just worked better for me.

So now that long winded rationale is over off I go...

**Rob B** · December 17th, 2004, 11:14 AM

When does the poll close?

**Nimea** · December 22nd, 2004, 10:06 AM

Let's see:

Little, Big did not finish that one.
Then Eyre Affaire and Portrait of Mrs Charbuque - both books I read some time before, so I won't vote for them even though I loved them.

So, from the books I read solely for this book club it has to be: Daughter of the Forest

**Sammie** · December 29th, 2004, 05:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fitz

When does the poll close?

End of the month?

**fluffy bunny** · January 2nd, 2005, 05:07 AM

Well for me it was a toss up between the 2 I'm not sure I'd consider overt members of the fantasy genre:

The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque
The Eyre Affair

In the end, had to go with the pleasant refernce filled read that was 'The Eyre Affair.'