McKinley: epic fantasies

Now that I have the time, I think I'll respond to some of the recent messages. Let's see, where to start. I really liked "Freedom and Necessity" by Brust and Bull, and would recommend it. "Magician's Ward" is probably my favorite of Wrede's books (but maybe saying that because it's the last one I read). Didn't like Melanie Rawn, mainly because she has a nasty habit of getting you to like a character and then abruptly killing them off in nasty ways. Read one of Tamora Pierce's and wasn't interested enough to finish the series.
Ok, now that that's out of my system, I'll make some recommendations of my own. Has anyone read anything by Garth Nix? (please say yes!) He is probably my favorite author next to McKinley, and the first one I've ever come across to even come close to her. His books are young adult for the most part, although he has done some cute picture books that were only released in his native Australia. The one to read is called "Sabriel". It particularly reminded me of Blue Sword, as the circumstances are somewhat similar. Sabriel has spent most of her life in a girl's boarding school (think mid 20th century British), but returns to the land of her birth to discover what has happened to her necromancer father. It just seemed to me that Sabriel's and Harry's backgrounds are very similar, and they both find themselves struggling to fit in in a foreign land. The book is really quite extraordinary, so go read it if you haven't. I know it is available in paperback,and there's even a sequel due out soon. Garth has his own web page (I mean own as in he maintains it) and it has lots of reviews of his books and other goodies. Check out "Down to the Scum Quarter", which is a humorous sort of a choose-your-own-adventure-book online. Garth has even been known to respond to e-mails.

http://www.ozemail.com.au/~garthnix/

Just two other authors to suggest. I really liked "Little Sister" by Kara Dalkey. It is a young adult book set in Imperial Japan, with lots of supernatural elements mixed in. Haven't read any adult books by her though. And Sherwood Smith wrote a pair of books called "Crown Duel" and "Court Duel" which I also liked. Actually, I was sort of luke-warm on these books while reading them, but they really lingered in my mind, and I decided that I liked them. Has anyone else read them, and what'd you think?
Well, two postings in one day is plenty I think.

 -Sarah (who knows she shouldn't be up this late at night).

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Received on Thu Aug 5 23:29:58 1999