Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

Share your three favourite reads from November!

Out of five books I read in November, only one was a five star read.

1. The Final Empire. After finishing Warbreaker, I was intrigued to read more from Brandon Sanderson. As Warbreaker's brilliant second half made up for the slow pace of the first half, I considered it an enjoyable read. The Final Empire was a fantastic book which dwarfed my experience of Warbreaker. The book's pace was perfect with the set of interesting characters and was added to my favourite shelf. I am bubbling with excitement to read The Way of Kings in future as it is considered the greatest book by the author. I just can't imagine how it can surpass The Final Empire.

I also enjoyed Shadow and Bone. It was a typical YA book with ‘strong’ female protagonist. Overall a decent read.

And finally I read The Winter of the Witch and thus finishing the The Winternight Trilogy. It was a good ending to a strange and beautiful story.

Most of November was spent catching up on shows. lol

I'm not counting re-reads. The books that I had the most fun reading are a part of a series and a few of the books stood out from the rest.

- Eddie LaCrosse series by Alex Bledsoe: Great, fantasy with a gritty warrior MC. He's like a mercenary, detective and tarnished knight rolled into one. Bledsoe has been a great "new" find for me & it'll be fun to see what else he has written.

- Barbara Holloway series by Kate Wilhelm: A different take on crime/lawyer style books. Great characters, interesting cases in a wide range of topics/situations, well defined setting in Oregon & great narrators for the audiobooks. Bonus, the last book was a good stopping point for the series.

- Tie of Short Stories:
Nights of the Living Dead Anthology (edited by Jonathan Maberry & George A. Romero) - Fun mix of zombie stories in a wide range of perspectives & scenarios.

Forward Collection (edited by Blake Crouch) - Cool mix of stories dealing with what may happen with technical advancement. I truly enjoyed half of the collection and felt the other half needed work to be complete.

My Top 3 for November:

1. Veil of the Deserters by Jeff Salyards - I am really enjoying this (military fantasy) trilogy!
2. Taran matharu summoner novice, inquisition, battlemage 3 books collection set - Listened to these with my son; although the storyline does not break any new ground and is full of all the typical YA fantasy tropes, we still quite enjoyed the listening experience :-)
3. Damned Souls and a Sangria by Annette Marie - This urban fantasy series is just super fun!

It was a slow month for me so I didn't read many fantasy novels. Yet, The Burning God is the highlight. Stories I've read so far in Dominion: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora were great too, especially "A Maji Maji Chronicle" by Eugen Bacon.