I just bought.....

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Picked up Kage Baker's 'Sky Coyote' and Glen Cook's 'Soldiers Live' just this evening at Dymock's bookstore near where I work.

Baker's book, which I picked up on reference from another forums, is actually 2nd but couldn't find the 1st, 'Garden of Iden'.

OTOH, Cook's is the last of his 'Black Company' series so I can't wait to finally finish that one.

Others I've picked up before that were David Gemmell's 'Legend of Deathwalker', Stephen King's 'Black House' in ppb and Haruki Murakami's 'The Wild Sheep Chase' (or something like that). Can't remember my other purchases at the moment.

I buy most of my books, whether new or 2nd hand, because our libraries here either are non-existent or have really old stuff.
 
Re: Aussie bookstores online

Mith--

I'm not Alle, but I can provide you with a link to several Australia bookstores.http://ausbookweb.com.au/html/booksellers.html

I know I am going to be ordering Wolfskin in August from Down Under. The price does seem staggering at first, with the shipping being about as much as the book itself, but when you consider how poorly the Australian dollar is doing at the moment, it is actually not at all bad.

Caleyna
 
I read anything by Charles de Lint and Orson Scott Card. I used to buy their books in hardcover when they first came out, but now I have no room on my shelfs and have to wait until they come out in paperback. I have read fantasy books all my life, but I really got hooked when I bought a book by David Pringle called the 100 Best Fantasy Books, and started buying them. I am interested in Shef's post about the book he bought, "The Best of Fantasy 2001." Shef, could you supply me with the publisher and ISBN for that book? I'm shaking with anticipation at the thought of this book!!!
 
Originally posted by Mithfânion
Alle:
Do you mean Child of Prophecy or the really new book of hers, the first book in a series that will come out in August? I was really interested in that one and was thinking of ways to get it here because it doesn't come to the UK and Europe till early 2003. How did you order?

I think it's called Wolfskin, first book in the Saga of the Light Isles.
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I meant Wolfskin. *s* And Caly has already provided a link. I think I ordered Fool's Errand from collinsbooks when it first came out down under, and the shipping was a flat rate, so it was the same ordering 2 or 3 books as it was for ordering one. I also ordered some other stuff while I was there to minimize shipping costs. I need to check the exchange, but $50 aussie is about $25 or so US dollars, so the rate is very favorable. Also, orders from outside Australia do not get chanrged with there VAT or whatever that tax is called.
 
Originally posted by JohnH
Sorcery Rising by Jude Fisher

Though Wolf's Eyes by Jane Lindskold
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JohnH, I'd be really interested to see your thoughts on the above two, been hemming and hawing about picking them both up myself.
 
Alle,
It's a GST and it's the worst thing that has happened to books in Australia in recent history!

Soon to be purchased:
The latest Marco (Eyes of God or whatever it's called)
The Scar (Even though I didn't give PSS anything over a 7 out of 10, I think Mieville has a lot of talent)

And I was also thing about Sherri Tepper's Grass which looks intersting, and also giving Dave Duncan a try.

All those books are in stock at the bookstore.

Outside of the bookstore I'd like to try Stover, and wait for Golden Fool and Memories of Ice in normal paperback.
 
I just joined the SFBC and got:

THE FIRST CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT THE UNBELIEVER
by Stephen R. Donaldson

THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN
by Gene Wolfe

THE DARK ELF TRILOGY
by R.A. Salvatore

The others were science fiction, I don't want to be scorned in the Fantasy forum so I won't list them.
 
These were from a few weeks ago because I'm trying to stop buying more books until I've significantly reduced my 'to-read' pile.Working so far :)

Gates of Fire, Steven Pressfield
I like historical fiction and this one looked promising.

The Iliad, Homer
Loved the Greek myths.

The Chronicles of Amber, Roger Zelazny
The Fantasy Masterworks edition.I've read that it's on the fantasy classics.Looks good too.
 
I think that's debatable. Certainly it's plausible to include it in a list of "fantasy" books.

It isn't until quite a ways into the book that any important "sci-fi" elements come into play (Jonas, the analeptic alzabo). On the other hand, the "fantastic" elements (swords, the Claw, weird resurrections, the undines) loom large early in the book, and in fact never really go away.
 
From Amazon:
  • In a Dark Wood - Michael Cadnum (this is Robin Hood told from the POV of the Sheriff of Nottingham)
  • Sea of Silver Light - Tad Williams
  • Captain Britain tpb - Alan Moore and Alan Davis
  • The Scorpion (LO5R, Book 1)
  • The Phoenix (LO5R, Book 4)

From Half.com
  • Dark Descent - edited by David G. Hartwell
  • Snow Queen - Joan D. Vinge
 
Book of the New Sun has a guy with a sword on the front of it so I labelled it as fantasy :D
 
Also, doesn't Fantasy Masterworks have Wolfe's "Books of a New Sun 1 & 2" listed under them?
 
Re Book of the New Sun, the book obviously has fantastic elements but is best classified as science fiction. Classification is not trivial in this case because a key aspect of the book is the fact that on this far future "dying earth" those elements that when described by Severian appear fantastical in nature can be explained scientifically. (Critic and Interzone editor David Pringle has a short essay on NEW SUN in his book on the top 100 science fiction novels where he argues that this is true of ALL fantastic elements in the book -- this is probably true, although despite the fact that I've read the entire tetralogy through twice some still remain a bit opaque to me.)

So my point is -- you can read NEW SUN "as fantasy", but if you do so you will miss a major element of the book.
 
Originally posted by Eventine
Alle,
It's a GST and it's the worst thing that has happened to books in Australia in recent history!
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That's it! I can well imagine that its awful and am sorry you all have to put up with it. I am glad those of us from outside Australia don't have to pay it. :-)

Continuing my book buying madness, I preordered The Witch Queen by Jan Seigel, Transformation by Carol Berg (which was selected by my fantasy book club) and Glimmers. :-)
 
Llama: I won't disagree with you that many of the "fantastic" elements of The Book of the New Sun turn out to have "scientific" explanations. I doubt, however, that that's true of all of them. I'm thinking, in particular, about the presence of some of the "mythical" monsters, such as the undines, and about some of the theological aspects of the coming of the New Sun.

Can you make a case that The Book of the New Sun reads more like fantasy, despite the sci-fi content? Of course Wolfe's style is pretty darn unique, but the narrative structure and other stylistic elements bear more resemblance to other fantasy "quest" epics than to science fiction stories. Maybe I haven't read enough sci-fi to detect its influence in Wolfe's writing.
 
>>Llama: I won't disagree with you that many of the "fantastic" elements of The Book of the New Sun turn out to have "scientific" explanations. I doubt, however, that that's true of all of them. I'm thinking, in particular, about the presence of some of the "mythical" monsters, such as the undines, and about some of the theological aspects of the coming of the New Sun.

Well, the belief in the coming of the New Sun is just a belief, I don't think it impacts the argument much one way or another. The undines are a bit harder to fit, I agree, but it's not impossible, and I'm curious whether more explanation is given in URTH OF THE NEW SUN, which I am now reading, or in the LONG SUN or SHORT SUN books. I'll also note that NEW SUN is a complicated, often oblique book with an unreliable narrator. More things become clear upon a first rereading and I'm sure that will continue to be the case with later rereadings. But I'm fairly confident that Wolfe intended for there to be a scientific explanation for all of the events, not only because Pringle says so, but also because this is in part what the book is about -- about clothing science fiction in the style of quest fantasy. As reviewer Peter Wright notes, NEW SUN involves "the presentation of [a] rational sf novel as a non-rational fantasy". Note also that Wolfe makes an attempt to link the story to "our" time (or to a time that is at least recognizable as "our" future) through the character of Jonas.

>>Can you make a case that The Book of the New Sun reads more like fantasy, despite the sci-fi content? Of course Wolfe's style is pretty darn unique, but the narrative structure and other stylistic elements bear more resemblance to other fantasy "quest" epics than to science fiction stories.

I agree, see my point above.
 
When summertime arrives I tend to go a little crazy in terms of book buying. Just recently I bought John Marco's The Saints of the Sword , C.S. Freidman's Coldfire Trilogy, Steven Erikson's Memories of Ice.

Next on my wish list is China Mieville's The Scar . If it anywhere near as good as Perdido Street Station then I will be a happy man.

By the way, I'm about halfway through Marco's book and I am enjoying it immensely.
 
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