Recommended reading:
Daron’s Guitar Chronicles, by Cecilia Tan [mm, rock and roll]
Updates weekly on Tuesdays and Thursdays at http://daron.ceciliatan.com/. It’s hundreds of thousands of words into the series, so you might want to pick up the ebooks to catch up.
Volume 1 is free, if you want to get started with reading, otherwise the ebooks are $4.99 each.
Blurb borrowed from Smashwords: Sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Coming out and coming of age in the days of AIDS, MTV, Reaganomics, and Just Say No. Daron Marks is a young guitar player with a dream: make it big like the guys he grew up idolizing in New Jersey–or at least escape his dysfunctional family. He makes it as far as music school in Rhode Island, and the stages of Boston beckon. But it’s hard to succeed from the closet.
Daron’s Guitar Chronicles: Volume 1 [Amazon] [Smashwords] [Scribd].
Daron’s Guitar Chronicles: Volume 2 [Amazon] [Smashwords] [Scribd].
Daron’s Guitar Chronicles: Volume 3 [Amazon] [Smashwords] [Scribd].
Daron’s Guitar Chronicles: Volume 4 [Amazon] [Smashwords] [Scribd].
Daron’s Guitar Chronicles: Volume 5 [Amazon] [Smashwords] [Scribd].
Daron’s Guitar Chronicles: Omnibus Edition Volume 1 (print).
You can also find all five volumes on Scribd if you’ve got a subscription.
Tomorrow is Cecilia Tan’s birthday. So everyone wish her a happy day 🙂 She’s also running a Kickstarter that begins on her birthday.
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C.J. Cherryh [science fiction, fantasy]
Science fiction and fantasy author. She’s written a ton of books, and having read most of them, I would rate her as my favorite overall author. The ones listed here are the ones that I consider some of her best.
The Fortress Series: [Wikipedia] My favorite!
Blurb borrowed from Scribd: Deep in an abandoned, shattered castle, an old man of the Old Magic muttered almost forgotten words. His purpose — to create out of the insubstance of the air, from a shimmering of light and a fluttering of shadows. That most wondrous of spells, a Shaping. A Shaping in the form of a, young man who will be sent east on the road the old was to old to travel. To right the wrongs of a long-forgotten wizard war, and call new wars into being.
Fortress In the Eye of Time [Amazon] [Scribd].
Fortress of Eagles [Amazon] [Scribd].
Fortress of Owls [Amazon] [Scribd].
Fortress of Dragons [Amazon] [Scribd].
Fortress of Ice [Amazon] [Scribd].
Downbelow Station [Wikipedia] [Amazon].
Merchanter’s Luck [Wikipedia] — The single version is no longer available, but Alliance Space [Amazon] contains Merchanter’s Luck and Forty Thousand In Gehenna.
Cyteen [Wikipedia] [Amazon].
Regenesis [Wikipedia] [Amazon].
The Chanur novels: [Wikipedia].
The Chanur Saga (The Pride of Chanur, Chanur’s Venture, The Kif Strike Back) [Amazon].
Chanur’s Endgame (Chanur’s Homecoming, Chanur’s Legacy) [Amazon].
Faded Sun Trilogy [Wikipedia] [Amazon].
The Deep Beyond [Amazon] comprises Serpent’s Reach and Cuckoo’s Egg. Both stories are particular favorites of mine, so this is a great deal.
Serpent’s Reach [Wikipedia].
Cuckoo’s Egg [Wikipedia].
The Morgaine Saga (Gate of Ivrel, Well of Shiuan, Fires of Azeroth) [Wikipedia] [Amazon].
Foreigner universe: [Wikipedia].
Arc 1 (Foreigner, Invader, Inheritor): focuses on an assassination attempt against Bren Cameron, an act illegal by the peace treaty made following the War of the Landing. The attempt proves to be a conspiracy by factions of humans and atevi to depose Bren as the paidhi, or official translator between the two cultures. The Starship Phoenix returns, causing the entire system to come out of balance, causing political unrest on both Mospheira and the mainland, and while the atevi change from simple rocketry to advanced single-stage-to-orbit shuttles, radically altering their economic and industrial base in the process.
Foreigner [Amazon].
Invader [Amazon].
Inheritor [Amazon].
Arc 2 (Precursor, Defender, Explorer): focuses on Bren as he is elevated by Tabini to be the Lord of the Heavens, making him a lord of the aishidi’tat with authority to negotiate. Bren is then charged with taking Tabini’s heir, Cajeiri, and Ilisidi, Cajeri’s great grandmother, to see to a threat of aliens encountered by Phoenix, but Bren and the aiji-dowager must first solve a mutiny aboard Phoenix.
Precursor [Amazon].
Defender [Amazon].
Explorer [Amazon].
Arc 3 (Destroyer, Pretender, Deliverer): focuses on the return of Bren Cameron, Ilisidi and Cajeiri from deep space and their encounter with the alien Kyo. They find the aishidi’tat in tatters, Tabini-aiji rumored to be dead, and Murini, the pretender-aiji, on the throne in Shejidan. The kyo will expect to meet a unified planet under the rule of Tabini-aiji. Bren, the dowager, and the aiji must restore order before the kyo arrive for negotiations.
Destroyer [Amazon].
Pretender [Amazon].
Deliverer [Amazon].
Arc 4 (Conspirator, Deceiver, Betrayer): set in the immediate aftermath of the third arc, and is set against the shifting political relations between the different Atevi ethnic factions. With Tabini restored in Shejidan, Cameron must find a way to stabilise the Eastern and coastal regions where he has his own Lordly estate. The peace gained with the restoration of Tabini’s rule is threatened by long standing ethnic and cultural differences between the ruling Ragi Atevi and the more conservative Edi and Eastern clans.
Conspirator [Amazon].
Deceiver [Amazon].
Betrayer [Amazon].
Arc 5 (Intruder, Protector, Peacemaker)
Intruder [Amazon].
Protector [Amazon].
Peacemaker [Amazon].
The Gene Wars universe: [Wikipedia].
Hammerfall [Scribd] [Amazon].
Forge of Heaven [Scribd] [Amazon].
Ealdwood Stories: [Wikipedia].
The Dreaming Tree (single volume containing The Dreamstone, and The Tree of Swords and Jewels) [Amazon].
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The Borderlands series, by Lorna Freeman [fantasy]
For some reason, the first two books are unavailable except in used editions, which some people have taken advantage of to sell their copies for obscene amounts. The series is good, but not $22-54 good.
Hopefully if there’s enough interest, the two books will be reissued at a reasonable, non-exploitative price. Remember when Kirith Kirin [$4.99 for kindle] went out of print, then enough people wanted it that there was a rush to sell the used copies and some sellers wanted $375+ and then when another edition was published the cover price was over $20?
For used books, always check Abebooks.com before paying a ton of money. And while you’re there, don’t forget to look up Elizabeth Willey and The Merro-Tree by Katie Waitman.
Book One: Covenants (out of print, used copies).
Book Two: The King’s Own (out of print, used copies).
Book Three: Shadows Past.
Book Four: The Reckoning Flames (forthcoming?).
Blurb borrowed from Amazon: When Rabbit joined the Royal Army of Iversterre, he was just trying to get off the family farm. Instead, he got mixed up with a magical from the Border, learned he couldn’t escape his noble lineage, and developed some surprising talents that he can’t always control. But with Iversterre sliding toward the abyss, Rabbit needs to master his powers quickly-before someone else does it for him.
Strangely, though she made mention of a fourth book, Lorna Freeman seems to have disappeared sometime in 2011. She made a post to her blog January 1, and that was it. No more sightings of her on the Internet, no mentions of her popping in anywhere IRL, nothing. It’s kind of mysterious and spooky.
She wrote this excellent series, and her fans would love to hear more from her. I hope that she is well.
