Traveling by the Book (Series)

Eirlandia, the most recent

In the Land of the Everliving by Stephen Lawhead came out last Tuesday.  Because the local Barnes and Noble didn't get it in stock, I ordered it and it came in yesterday.  My new-to-me car put me on side the road yesterday, so I didn't go to work.  When it came in, I hurried and finished Trickster's Queen, and read all but something like 70 pages last night.  I finished it a few hours ago.

Lawhead is probably the single biggest butterly effect in my life.  Or at least the one I can track the easiest.  Mom brought home In the Hall of the Dragon King back in August of 2005.  I loved it.  I got all of his other books, most of which are Celtic based.

I would've never gotten into Celtic mythology.  I would've never gotten into Robin Hood or enjoyed a King Arthur epic.  I would've never tried other Celtic-based fantasy.  Or I might have, in another way, but this is the way of it.

I want to visit all of the former Celtic nations.  I've made it to Scotland.  Half the reason I chose Inverness was because of the Groame House Museum in Rosemarkie, which is nearby.  It's a collection of carved Pictish stones.  It's a two room, small place, but it's Special.  They have a harp replica, with sheet music and how to play it.  The other reason was Leakey's Book Shop.

At the back of the King Raven books, there's mention of music based from the story.  They have a soundtrack.  Unfortunately, I was a broke kid who couldn't order stuff online myself and

I looked up Jeff Johnson and Brian Dunning on Pandora, then.  I loved everything Pandora played for me of theirs.  I have all of their Lawhead based work now, plus some other stuff they've done.

Because I looked them up on Pandora though, I was also introduced to the Olllam, Michael McGoldrick, David Arkenstone, etc.  My music library is amazing because of this.

Anyway, but to Eirlandia specifically, In the Region of the Summer Stars was his first book in four years.  The series before that, Bright Empires, wasn't Celtic-based.  Every time I read one of his books, I'm reminded why he's my favorite author.

In the Region of the Summer Stars basically ends with everything getting blown to east hell, which is different from west hell, apparently.  But it still ends right. 

Lawhead is not for everyone, and I pity those he doesn't fit, but he's poetic and his books end, if not always happily, well.  They end the way they have to, you know?

I don't think I'd read anything that took place in Iron Age Ireland before this point, or if I have, it's been a while.  Or it was a romance book.  O.o

You never know what a book will be until you read it yourself, but reading a Celtic fantasy from Lawhead is still familiar.  It's still poetic prose.  It's still likable characters you want to see succeed.  It's not a world I've been to, but I trust that particular world-maker.

And I really really really want to go to Ireland next.  Unlike the next two, this is somewhere I can actually go, even if it's not the Iron Age.


Tortall, the most books

A couple of months ago, I was in Barnes and Noble where I saw a display for a new Tamora Pierce book.  It was about Numair Salmalin.  I'd never read the Wildmage books, but I knew who Numair Salmalin was from his cameos in the following series.

"Well, I guess I'm going back to Tortall then!" is just about an exact thought I had.

I'd never read Mastiff, and it was time.  I started with Terrier and after I finished Mastiff, I wanted to read or re-read all of the Tortall books.  I had to find copies of the Song of the Lioness (Alanna) books, which wasn't difficult.  I had bought the Immortals (Daine) series some years ago and they'd been sitting on my shelf since.  I'd never read them, and they took me a little while, but I loved them.  Protector of the Small (Keladry) was my first Tortall series.  Reading it in order with the rest of the series made me squee throughout, because then I understood the importance of some of the characters.  I knew King Jonathan when he was Prince Jonathan, and Alanna the Lioness when she was Page Alan masquerading as a boy, and Daine the Wildmage before she knew she was a demigoddess in her own right, how Tkaa and Bonedancer came to live in the palace.  It was all part of a larger picture.  And then I don't remember if I read the Trickster books (Alianne) before or after Lioness the first times around.  This time, I was able to appreciate all of Aly's legendary family, both blood and adoptive.

The Tortall books are the sort of thing a young girl should read when finding her place in the world.  When she's told she can't do something because she's a girl.  When she's growing up and seeing all of the ugliness in the world and wants to fix it.  When she worries she might compromise who she is if she falls in love.  When she's afraid.

Or for a woman in her mid-to-late twenties who's forgotten the Important Things.  O.o

Tortall is a place for a person to shine, if they have the guts to do it.

I haven't read Tempests and Slaughter (Numair) yet.  The second book is supposed to be out soon, and I'm waiting for it to come out so I can read them back to back.  Har har.



Sitia and Ixia, what started me down this path

The latest 3 books of the Study series had been sitting on my shelf.  I'd forgotten how much I loved the characters.  I am also very glad that I waited until they were all out because waiting a year in between those books would've done nothing but piss me off.

I made a mistake in not reading the Glass books in between the first Study series and the second series.  I should've, because it takes place after, and there was some I'd forgotten and could've used the recap.  I could never get rid of them, but I never saw myself re-reading them either.  Now I think I could.  I will, eventually.  I've re-read way more than I've read this year, already, and I don't like that. I have something like 800-odd books I need to read.  Although, my excuse is, I needed to re-read what I had read, years ago, to fully enjoy the new ones to read.  O.o


And the Rest...

Last year, I re-read Spindle Cove by Tessa Dare.  Spindle Cove is a place for young ladies to be themselves.  How I wished for a place like that then.  I still do.  I'd probably never leave.  This year, I re-visited some of my favorite fictional places, and it was a nice vacation.  We need places like this.

I also re-read Dragon Kin.  I needed crazy heroines and the men who can love them anyway.  I needed a good laugh.  I needed to be reminded that it's okay if I don't do what everyone thinks I should, and do what makes me shine.

I'm trying not to read so much romance books.  It's not as depressing to be forever alone when you're not constantly trying to shove that kind of stuff down your own throat.  I say, as I have bookmarks in like 3 of them, and since I have no idea what I'm going to do next, will probably go for those next.  O.o