Reyhnard is living in a small village, doing some menial work to pay his rent, sharing a cottage with a girl his neighbours view as “simple”. He’s also writing his memoirs: an account of the time when he was a prince, the third son of King Basal of Brychmachrie. He’s also recounting the events that … Continue reading A Book Ian Likes: A Mirror For Princes by Tom de Haan
Tag: Fantasy
A Book Ian Likes: The Song Of Phaid The Gambler by Mick Farren
Phaid is a gambler, currently down on his luck. He usually sidles into town, finds a game worth playing, then sidles out with either a pocket full of winnings or with just the shirt on his back. Trouble is, though, things don’t always pan out that well for Phaid… Mick Farren (1943 – 2013) was … Continue reading A Book Ian Likes: The Song Of Phaid The Gambler by Mick Farren
A Series Ian Likes: The Fey, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Blue Isle is placed several days sailing from the nearest port. An independent island, it has kept its nose out of international affairs for several hundred years. The Fey, a warlike race of magical beings, have just conquered the last country on the nearest landmass and are looking for a staging post to launch their … Continue reading A Series Ian Likes: The Fey, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
A Series Ian Likes: The Book Of Years by Peter Morwood (Part 4)
And now we come to the (allegedly) final volume in this terrific series by Peter Morwood. Aldric Talvalin, reunited with his lost love Kyrin, is now roaming the Drusalan Empire looking for a way to fulfil his oath to his foster father Gemmel: he must restore to him a “jewel” that he needs for science-fictional … Continue reading A Series Ian Likes: The Book Of Years by Peter Morwood (Part 4)
A Series Ian Likes: The Book Of Years by Peter Morwood (Part 3)
Peter Morwood’s third novel is another adventure featuring Aldric Talvalin, the last lord of an ancient line, currently wandering the lands of his king’s enemies acting as part spy, part knight errant. And where the first two books hinted at the machinations going on behind the scenes, this novel actively ramps them up, making the … Continue reading A Series Ian Likes: The Book Of Years by Peter Morwood (Part 3)
A Series Ian Likes: The Book Of Years by Peter Morwood (Part 2)
Aldric Talvalin has vanquished the sorcerer who killed his family and forced him into hiding for several years and has taken a journey into foreign lands on a secret mission for his king to prove his loyalty. Unfortunately, not terribly far into his trip he is ambushed by foreign agents and must take refuge in … Continue reading A Series Ian Likes: The Book Of Years by Peter Morwood (Part 2)
A Series Ian Likes: The Book Of Years by Peter Morwood (part 1)
It’s pretty easy to pigeonhole a genre because of the similarity of a lot of the stories that you find in it. It’s even easier to sneer at if it’s from a section of the bookshop that you don’t frequent very often. For instance, the plot of The Horse Lord, Peter Morwood’s debut novel, runs thusly: … Continue reading A Series Ian Likes: The Book Of Years by Peter Morwood (part 1)
A Book Ian Likes: Tea With The Black Dragon by R. A. MacAvoy
Martha Macnamara has come to California to find her daughter Elizabeth, who appears to have disappeared. While searching for her she meets the enigmatic Mayland Long, an oriental gentleman of indeterminate age with lovely long fingers that can reach all the way around a teacup and – importantly for Martha’s day job as a musician … Continue reading A Book Ian Likes: Tea With The Black Dragon by R. A. MacAvoy
An Author Ian Likes: in memorium, Sir Terry Pratchett
(This post was originally written on the original stuffianlikes blog the day after Sir Terry passed. I've tidied up some grammatical errors and added a couple of pictures but this is otherwise the way it appeared 4 years-minus-a-day-ago) I usually dwell on these posts for bloody ages but this one needs to be gotten down … Continue reading An Author Ian Likes: in memorium, Sir Terry Pratchett
A Book Ian Likes: The Silver Sun by Nancy Springer
The mid-1970s was a great time to be a fantasy fan. Maybe not an especially discerning fantasy fan, but there seems to have been an awful lot going on in the field, a field that was growing and becoming more commercially viable. Following the meteoric success of The Lord Of The Rings, loads of publishers liked … Continue reading A Book Ian Likes: The Silver Sun by Nancy Springer
A Book Ian Likes: Nifft The Lean by Michael Shea
Michael Shea came to prominence in the 1970s with his novel The Quest For Simbilis, a sequel of sorts to Jack Vance’s Dying Earth novel, The Eyes Of The Overworld. But despite much of his work – his brilliant short stories aside – displaying their roots very heavily on their sleeve he has a fantastic originality to his … Continue reading A Book Ian Likes: Nifft The Lean by Michael Shea
A Series Ian Likes: The Dragonriders Of Pern by Anne McCaffrey
They’re the most beloved megafauna in all of fantasy. Feared for their deadly flame, famed for their miserliness, they have somehow come to be a symbol for the magical and wondrous places inside our heads. Anne McCaffrey managed to combine the more fearsome aspects with the noblest when she created the series that she is most famous … Continue reading A Series Ian Likes: The Dragonriders Of Pern by Anne McCaffrey
A Trilogy Ian Likes: Memory, Sorrow And Thorn by Tad Williams
Memory, Sorrow And Thorn, comprising The Dragonbone Chair, Stone Of Farewell, To Green Angel Tower (1988 – 1993) by Tad Williams. In case you haven’t noticed, fantasy is a pretty hefty part of our literary lives now. But it has really only been the last ten years or so that fantasy authors have begun to shed their … Continue reading A Trilogy Ian Likes: Memory, Sorrow And Thorn by Tad Williams
A Film Adaptation Of A Book That Ian Likes: The Princess Bride
A young boy (Fred Savage) lays sick in bed. His grandfather (Peter Falk) arrives to read him a story to make him feel better. The boy is less than impressed with this but acquiesces. He is horrified to discover that this book - despite his grandfather’s claims to the contrary - is a ”kissing book.” … Continue reading A Film Adaptation Of A Book That Ian Likes: The Princess Bride
A Book Ian Likes: Nation by Terry Pratchett
John Donne wrote that no man is an island. Following that line of thought, just how many people does it take to make a nation? What makes a culture? Terry Pratchett’s novel Nation asks these questions and even tries to answer them. It takes place in a parallel world, with some significant differences to our own (but … Continue reading A Book Ian Likes: Nation by Terry Pratchett