Aurora
Sage
Seraphina was recommended by a friend's mom so I'm about to start it.
I just started Throne of Glass.
There are lots of mature, nuanced YA novels with complex themes and writing. This, to be honest, does not look as if it's going to be one of them. I don't know yet, though, only about 40 pages in. Just read the first few chapters paired with chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. I've got to read the series, anyway; I got the first four books in the series for Christmas from my Mamaw (who already read and loved the first book, and keeps bugging me semi-subtly about starting it...She loves books and will read anything, so i've been giving her everything I read, and more recently, using her as a test reader to see if a book is worth it. Lol). They're hardcover and gorgeous and look amazing on my shelf, and oh well. Too much of my shelf is unread. Gotta start tackling that.
It looks a bit fluffy, but, whatever. Could be fun; I'm entertained so far. And i've heard the books get better as they go along.
Which takes me to a tangent... do the books get better or do we just get "into" the writer's voice? I've found this one of the issues when trying to critique single chapters.
What a coincidence! Right now I'm rereading Castle in the Air...
Have you read The Tough Guide to Fantasyland? It's absolutely hilarious, and one of my favorite Diana Wynne Jones books.
Finished my umpteenth reread of Dune. It's such a magnificent book.
Began reading through all the Zothique stories by Clark Ashton Smith. I have a volume of all of his stories, but I've never read through all of it. I mostly skipped around and came across some good stories and some rather mediocre ones. This time I looked up which stories are part of one of the consistent settings he created and decided to read that way. Right now I'm going through all of the Zothique stories. To be honest it's some dark, rather disturbing stuff. I think I can safely say Zothique is one of the fantasy settings I would least like to visit.
I also read Smith's story City of the Singing Flame and I really liked it. It had more "wonder", less "horror".
Oh, yeah. CAS is now one of my all-time favs. The Zothique stories are indeed dark and disturbing--and wonderful! After reading The Dark Eidolon for a second time recently, I deem it the greatest fantasy short story of all time. There's absolutely nothing like it anywhere. Singing Flame is excellent, of course. The stuff to avoid are the run-of-the-mill sci-fi adventure stories--they don't hold up all that well.