Week after week, the adventurers sent word back of their travels: venturing into uncharted subgenres, updates to follow. Taking tea with dragons, see you next week. Beset by TBRs, send aid! That last was the most common, but the TBRs proved friendly as a rule – just given to multiplying at alarming rates.
Welcome to the third week of Wyrd and Wonder. We’re past the halfway mark now, in the thick of our adventures through the realms of fantasy. Buddy reads abound, discussions are sparking across all channels, reading lists and blog tags have cross-pollinated.
It’s a joy to follow, but if (like me) you haven’t been able to stay on top of it all, we have compiled your weekly Quest Log to gather this weeks’ conversations. This week, I’ve got reviews and random treasure for you; you can find discussions and interviews over at Dear Geek Place, and Jorie Loves A Story has a round-up of the first ten Wyrd and Wonder challenge tweets.
Flagon in hand? Right you are, let’s do this!
Reviews
- LLOYD ALEXANDER – Time Cat | Perfectly Tolerable
- FELICITY BANKS – The Monster Apprentice | Jorie Loves A Story
- RJ BARKER – The Bone Ships | Erin’s Library
- R S BELCHER – The Brotherhood of the Wheel | Space and Sorcery
- ROBERT JACKSON BENNETT – Shorefall | Jessticulates
- KENDARE BLAKE – Three Dark Crowns | Falling Letters
- ALINA BOYDEN – Stealing Thunder | Armed with a Book
- PATRICIA BRIGGS – Smoke Bitten | Realms of My Mind
- LOIS McMASTER BUJOLD – The Physicians of Vilnoc | Brainfluff
- JIM BUTCHER – Storm Front | Parsecs and Parchment
- RACHEL CAINE & ANN AGUIRRE – Honor Among Thieves | Mug Full Of Books
- ZEN CHO – The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected In Water | Acquadimore Books
- YANGSZE CHOO – The Ghost Bride | The Captain’s Quarters
- HENRY CLARK – What We Found In The Corn Maze And How It Saved A Dragon | The Bookwyrm’s Den
- NICOLE CONWAY – Harbinger | Word Wilderness
- SUSAN DENNARD – Truthwitch | Jessticulates
- SETH DICKINSON – The Monster Baru Cormorant | The Curious SFF Reader
- SARAH BETH DURST – Race the Sands | Books, Bones & Buffy
- NICHOLAS EAMES – Kings of the Wyld | Realms of My Mind
- LAUREL GALE – Story Magic | Maxine’s Obsessions
- FRANCES HARDINGE – Deeplight | The Bookwyrm’s Den | The Captain’s Quarters
- JORDAN L HAWK
- Widdershins | The Bibliophibian
- Infernal Affairs | The Bibliophibian
- TANYA HUFF – Bloodlines | Way Too Fantasy
- BRIGID KEMMERER – A Heart So Fierce and Broken | Erin’s Library
- T KINGFISHER – Bryony and Roses | Jessticulates
- MACKENZI LEE – The Gentleman’s Guide To Vice and Virtue | Natrosette
- MASSIMILIANO NIGRO – Fragments of the Past | The Thirteenth Shelf
- GARTH NIX – Abhorsen | Book Forager
- SALMAN RUSHDIE – Midnight’s Children | Beth’s Bookish Thoughts
- JEFF SALYARDS – Scourge of the Betrayer | The Fantasy Hive
- ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY – Made Things | Re-enchantment of the World
- JON TSUEI, ADRIAN F WASSEL, AUDREY MOK & RAUL ANGELO – Sera & The Royal Stars Vol. 1 | Every Book A Doorway
- MEGAN WHALEN TURNER – The Thief | Peat Long
- NGHI VO – The Empress of Salt and Fortune | Acquadimore Books
- DEBORAH A WOLF – The Dragon’s Legacy | Every Book A Doorway
Random treasure
Next up, a pot luck of bloggy delight! Liz spotlighted the Ever After High series at Redd Reads. Jessticulates lamented how long A Great and Terrible Beauty has been on her TBR in her Shelf Control segment. Rin at the Thirteeenth Shelf took time to celebrate the amazing maps of artist Francesca Baerald. Wandering Lynn took a look at a few of her favourite fantasy things.
Jessticulates proposed some pairings of SFF reads and Eurovision songs. Dee Zee hosted a round of the fantasy Hunger Games at Dragons and Zombies and I think I actually pulled a muscle laughing (as well as developing an unexpected hankering for a game of Nethack, weirdly). And over at the Fantasy Hive, the resident Agony Aunt responded to readers’ letters with the best possible advice a tower-bound wizard has to offer.
Want to get to know your fellow adventurers better? There’s a tag for that…
- The Get To Know the Fantasy Reader Tag | Sammie at The Bookwyrm’s Den | Jenna at Falling Letters | Maddalena at Space and Sorcery
- The Quick Fire Fantasy Tag | Tammy at Books, Bones & Buffy
Fancy a different sort of challenge? Come have a tilt at Six Degrees of (fantasy) Separation – where can you get from Tolkien in six thematic hops? Zezee with Books made a path to The Oddling Prince. Plus we have two rounds of 5 Star Review In 5 Words, one from Line of First Line Reader and the other by Annemieke of A Dance with Books
There’s been time for a few personal round-up posts too. Dee Zee took a look at her reading so far and introduced her reading companions (awww), while Natrosette has her reads to date and an updated TBR for the rest of the month.
Last but not least, check out Dianthaa’s epic Mistborn cosplay 😍
The Wyrd and Wonder Challenge
If I ever fail to publish prompts two weeks out again, kick me, okay? It would have been criminal to miss out on all the thought-provoking posts and glorious photos. As ever, I’ll be focusing mostly (mostly) on the long-form responses here in the Quest Log, but Jorie has a recap of the Twitter fun and you can see the Instagram pics in their full glory on the #WyrdAndWonder tag.
Day 11 | Take the world by storm – why are our heroes motivated to make a big impression? Peat Long created a taxonomy of fantasy motivations. Nils took an unexpected left turn and shared a fabulous storm-related inscription
Day 12 | Myths and legends – Peat Long explored some mythic archetypes. Gerry of the Book Nook UK has a gorgeous selection to share
Day 13 | A friend in need – Dianthaa picked some characters she’d love to make friends with; Peat Long focused on the other kind – unreliable friends (spoilers for The Traitor Baru Cormorant, Mythago Wood, Dominion of the Fallen, Midnight Falcon and The Wounded Kingdom). Bethan goes all-out for on-point accessorizing:
Day 14 | Out of this world – Peat Long accidentally ended up rereading The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay (this is not a terrible hardship)
Day 15 | Currently reading – in which Peat Long admits he may be overdoing it with a round-up of read-in-progress mini reviews. Erin has a rather more manageable stack of books on the go! Philippa Mary needed a hand decided what to start next (Ardor Benn won out)…
Day 16 | Wicked – Peat Long introduced some favourite fantasy villains, while Louise championed redemption arcs
Day 17 | #ShelfieSunday – always a delight to admire other people’s shelves – here’s a peek of the Fantasy Hive folks’ shelves (swipe/scroll right to go from Julia to Bethan to Nils), but visit instagram for vicarious enjoyment of other people’s book arrangements!
Last but not least
Once again, thanks to all of you who have added your links to the Master schedule – as ever, your team of bards are most grateful.
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