Time for another round up of books from my TBR to go through! Each week I’ll be going over a selection from my physical unread books and deciding what to keep and what to purge. There will be a third option–undecided–which I might ask for your input on why you think I should keep or purge that title from my list. You can also check out my full TBR pile here.

Borderland:  Where Magic Meets Rock & Roll by various authors including Ellen Kushner, Terri Windling, Charles de Lint, etc

The land of fairy returns, and it’s a messy reunification at best. The land between the normal human world and Fairy is called “The Border,” a place where one can easily become lost—or found. In the rements of evacuated cities from this rebirth the two worlds come together in Bordertown, where magic and technology don’t always work. The town is teeming with the outcasts, runaways and dreamers of both Fairy and
Earth children.

 

This book is something I specifically went out looking for after seeing Ellen Kushner mention it on twitter a while back now, maybe a year or more ago. The whole premise of the collection sounded really cool and I love these shared world type of anthologies. Unfortunately, I just haven’t made time to read it yet. But I still very much want to. KEEP

Cart and Cwidder by Diana Wynne Jones

For centuries, Dalemark has been a land divided by the warring earldoms of the North and South. Now, with the help of the Undying, the mysterious gods of Dalemark, four extraordinary young people — from the past, present, and future — must join forces to reunify their beloved land. When Moril inherits his father’s prized instrument — a Cwidder said to have belonged to one of the Undying — he must learn to harness its strange power in time to prevent a destructive civil war.

I have the entire Dalemark Quartet in my TBR and have not yet read any of them. Shame on me. I actually have a lot of unread Diana Wynn Jones in my TBR so don’t be surprised when her name comes up again somewhere down the line. I do have full intentions of getting to this one someday because I love DWJ’s writing. KEEP

The Sundered Realm by Robert Vardeman and Victor Milan

Fost Longstrider’s mission seemed ordinary. He’d been hired to deliver a jug to a wizard on the far side of the forest. Unfortunately the jug contained a sex-starved genie, the wizard was dead by foul means, and Fost was probably next to die.

Then the genie was stolen and spirited away to the City in the Sky. It was up to Fost to steal it back from two beautiful sisters. They were fighting to become Queen and, using dark powers, had called forth a demon. Now Fost’s foray was suddenly a terrible war.

I don’t know why I picked this up. Oh right, I remember, it was free. I got this and three sequels at The Book Thing in Baltimore. The lure of free books is too strong sometimes. I don’t think I’ll ever get around to these so I’ll let them go. PURGE

Trumps of Doom by Roger Zelazny

Merle Corey is a brilliant young computer designer in San Francisco, but, he is also Merlin, son of Corwin, vanished prince of Amber, and heir to his father’s wonderous powers. And, someone is determined to kill him. Now he will begin a desperate race through Shadow, not only to escape the mysterious force that threatens his life, but to protect the deadly secret that could destroy both his worlds.

 

The Chronicles of Amber is one of the series that got me seriously hooked on the fantasy genre back in the day, I loved that first initial series of five books. As far as the later five books, I have never gotten around to them. I think I picked this one up while out browsing used books. I also have two further sequels. I don’t know if I want to continue this series or not. My gut is saying no, but then the completionist in me is saying ‘maybe one day’. UNDECIDED

Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson

In the vast dominion of Seven Cities, in the Holy Desert Raraku, the seer Sha’ik and her followers prepare for the long-prophesied uprising known as the Whirlwind. Unprecedented in size and savagery, this maelstrom of fanaticism and bloodlust will embroil the Malazan Empire in one of the bloodiest conflicts it has ever known, shaping destinies and giving birth to legends.

 

Several years ago one of my best reading and writerly friends gave me his collection of Malazan paperbacks. I read Gardens of the Moon and liked it, and then started Deadhouse Gates and put it down and never picked it back up for some reason. It’s not that I wasn’t enjoying it, just that these books take me so long to read (Gardens of the Moon took me a month and that’s probably the shortest book in the series). There are so many details, things to keep track of, characters, time lines, etc. That being said, I really do want to read these. I’ll hold on to them for now and hope I can make time for Deadhouse Gates later this year. KEEP

That’s all for now. This brings my total count to:

Keep	Purge	Undecided
78	23	15

Well, my keep pile went up quite a bit, but at least my purge pile went up too! Gotta look on the bright side. Thoughts on the later Amber books? I’ve heard maybe they’re not as good as the first five… Leave your thoughts in the comments, I’d love to chat!