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So since the last time I checked in on these threads, Tiste had finished the Sun Sword and was glad to be done and it swore him off the rest of the books, and Abyss had bailed out around book 4 I think for similar reasons (west’s verbosity, her Japanese penchant for repeating notions over and over to hammer them home, lack of action, dragging narrative etc.).

I have since finished Sun Sword and I found it as lacking as the rest of you. Mostly because when I first encountered The Dominion in the first 3 House War books, I found them insufferable and the culture there annoying. I cared SO much more for what happened in the North and the Empire VS the demons…but the fist two books in Sun Sword gave me people to root for and some interesting events…but what it devolves into is a whole ass book about the Voyani (yawn), a whole ass book about the lead up to the war from the Dominion/Voyani perspective, and then a whole ass book that continues to lead up to the war within out from Northern characters…if I’m honest, it’s 6 books with barely 3 books of progression…and the best stuff is the initial betrayal of Tor Leone (book 1), and the contest where the Heir (Valadan) survives (book 2), and after that its just a lead up to a war where the demons split their forces anyways, some internal strife and then the war where things don’t really happen as you expect…it was a deeply unsatisfying ending to that story…but again I was never as invested in Sun Sword as I was in House War 1-3….i don’t care about the south, the Annagarians in Averalaan are treated as backwards anti-woman weirdos and I’m glad they are as that’s the culture they offer and I don’t like it.

I want to read about the North, the empire, breodalan, jewel and her Den (all of whom I watched her slowly assemble with their individual personalities), the other Seers, the mages, flying cats (yes)…the last 3 SunSword books felt like slog worthy WOT books…and after all that I feel like I never should have stopped House War to read them….theres some pertinent overall info, but for the most part I feel like the summaries West released to catch ppl up to House War 4 (SKIRMISH) do a fine job.


In that vein, I leapt back into House War years after I left it, and I’m about 200pgs into SKIRMISH, and man what a joy to be back in the series that sold me on West…it’s worth remembering that Sun Sword began in the 90’s and finished in the early 2000’s…House War wasn’t written till 2007, Wests writing, while still verbose is not nearly as scatterbrained as it was in Sun Sword, the cast is tighter, there is a lot less nonsense with 47 similar titles and cultural actions for every character like in the south. Much more straightforward quasi medieval fantasy…flying cats…I dunno…Jewels Den feels earned in a way that the Sun sword books aren’t. I know some of those southern characters will appear going forward, but if I’m really honest I’m glad to be done with the Sun sword as a side trip from the world House War introduced me to.

Anyways, I’ll update this thread as I go. Not sure if anyone else will ever read the House War books who read and tired of the Sun Sword series…but if you don’t want to catch those up, West posted a 4 part summary of the events in Sun sword one her website for people who didn’t want to read it and only wanted House War.

I dunno if anyone is into baseball (I could not find a thread) but watching the Blue Jays come back from a 7th inning 3-1 score deficit against the Mariners with a 3-run homer was like the most magic you can get in a Game 7!

Blue Jays heading to the World Series for the first time since 1993 baby!

I have been working my way through D&D/Faerûn content either that I've already read and am re-reading, or reading for the first time. No point in clogging up the Reading thread with this nonsense, so here we are.

Oh, and most of the Forgotten Realms stuff is rebranded as just Dungeons and Dragons as "Forgotten Realms" technically stopped being a thing in the mid-2010's when WOTC stopped their publishing wing and farmed out the content to Penguin Random House and Harper Collins Voyager instead.

Stuff I'm reading for the thread:

The LEGEND OF DRIZZT books - I own about half of them in the old MMPB form; and have read up to about Book 13 I think? but that was a while ago so I needed a refresh to go forward so I jumped back to LEGACY (book 7)...Please note that also Penguin are currently re-releasing them as softcover trades with new cover art that matches (solving my biggest issue with them, the MMPB font is TINY and they were excruciating to read that way...the new trade paperbacks are glorious with almost hardcover size font for an old bastard like me) and have released 10 so far. They will be doing all 33 of those in the new covers (3-4 in each release window which seem to come every 2-3 months or so?) and are up to book 10 so far, and then after the Penguin 33, then Harper Voyager (who have the rights to the last 6) will be re-releasing those ones too in the same cover style. Salvatore is jazzed that all 39 Drizzt books will be in one cover style and format finally (as a well known cover snob, I agree). I realize that these are not high fantasy or particularly complex, but they are like warm fantasy/ D&D hugs to me.

BRIMSTONE ANGELS (Erin M. Evans) - I have all of these. Most of them are in and around Waterdeep and Neverwinter. And the 9 hells of course. They are about Tieflings and Cambions after all.

THE FALLBACKS (Jayleigh Johnson) - These are recent D&D books with a new team of adventurers, I own the first one (BOUND FOR RUIN), and there is a second on the way (DEALING WITH DRAGONS). I don't expect them to be groundbreaking, but they should be fun little romps. They seem to be sort of Critical-Role-ish in tone. Not sure where they take place yet.

D&D Movie tie-in for DRUID'S CALL....love the character in the movie and want to know more about her.

RAVENLOFT has also been revived. Deliah S. Dawson has penned a new novel in the setting called HEIR OF STRAHD, so that's on my list too.


Forthcoming also: R.A. Salvatore has penned a new novel coming out later in the year that seems to focus on Drizzt's and new companions of the Hall, so I'm very curious to see where that goes and I really can't wait for it. It's called THE FINEST EDGE OF TWILIGHT.


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I never know where to put news about authors that doesn't really fit anywhere else, so I figured we may as well have thread for news about anyone who might be of interest to us.

This was prompted by a moderately sad post by Terry Brooks coming out of ECCM (Emerald City Comic Con). In short he's stepping back from his writing as at the age of 81 he's come to realize that his stamina, endurance, and faculties are starting to fail him and he's realized that he would not be able to keep up his pace (and I would hope that he'd just want to spend his time with his wife, kids, and grandkids at such an age). So he's stepping back, and has handed the reins of Shannara to another author who will handle the writing, and he will step back to an advisory capacity. That writer is Delilah S. Dawson (I've only read her Star Wars work, but I enjoyed it).

It's sad because I don't want to see an author I've enjoyed since my teen years age out of his job, but at the same time him realizing that he can't produce the same quality and speed of output anymore, and handing his series over to another author he trusts is incredibly thoughtful and forward thinking....this isn't a Robert Jordan "I'm dying, Brando please finish my series", it's just more of a realization that he wants his world to go on and he's happy to guide someone else doing it.

So tomorrow's release of GALAPHILE (a Shannara prequel, first in a new trilogy) will be the final Terry Brooks novel and everything going forward including the 2nd and 3rd GALAPHILE novels will be penned by Delilah.

So I'm sad he's stopping, but I'm happy he's chosen someone take over...and since the last few Shannar novels even Terry acknowledged weren't his best work, perhaps the fresh voice will reinvigorate the series.

Anyways, I had GALAPHILE on pre-order, so I'll be starting it tomorrow.

Hey Abyss, I split this off into the discussion forum as I felt it might be annoying people that it was in the happy thread. Let me know if that's offsides.