If you haven’t picked up all the Christmas gifts (for yourself or others) yet, perhaps some ideas of interest can be found on our little list of books that we wouldn’t have minded getting (except for the fact that we already have them all).

Summer vacation usually means a chance to catch up on some reading, and this year was no different, though it took some effort rounding up enough books to keep us happy for two weeks. Clearly, we’ve been slacking when it comes to finding new things to try out. In the end, however, we ended up finding some new favourites, both among recent and older books. 

It took some effort this year, but we finally managed to put together a decent-sized order of books to bring along for our vacation. In case we’re not alone in suffering a shortage of ideas for what to read, we figured we’d share a few of the titles we’re picking up as well as some of the books we’ve either read recently or will be picking up as soon as they’re released.

After a bit of a reading dry spell, the Easter weekend ended up being dedicated to a bit of unplanned but very enjoyable binge reading as the copy I won of Anne Bishop’s Belladonna arrived, shortly followed by the long-awaited Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner.

Even if we haven’t managed to read as many books as usual of late, we’ve still found quite a few new(ish) things to recommend and as before we have also dug up some old favourites that deserve some more recognition. We’ve also snuck in a couple of non-book things.

With just a day left of our vacation, the large pile of books I brought along to read has been significantly reduced. That is, the books are still there, of course, but the amount of reading material remaining is barely enough to last me through the trip tomorrow. Clearly, there is no such thing as too many books to have along for a vacation, regardless of what the weather is like. Both the beach and the comfy couch are great places for hours upon hours of reading.

Four days into our vacation I have already gone through the same number of books. If the stack I brought is to last until our trip back, I may have to slow my pace somewhat. It might slow down of itself, though, as the ones I’ve read so far were some of the more anticipated books that I brought.

Just the other week, we picked up a nice stack of books for our summer holiday from, among other places, SF Bokhandeln in Gothenburg. We hope to make up for not having had time to read as much as we’ve wanted to over the last months by indulging in a few reading marathons over summer. No doubt, others have similar plans, and so we thought we’d share some of our ideas for good summer reads.

Dabel Brothers Productions have provided us with some advanced reading copies of their current series for review, and we gave them a try. All in all, the three series we read look pretty good, with the licensed properties in particular earning some special distinction. DB Pro says they’re going to provide science fiction and fantasy comics “done right”, and we think with these comics (and, of course The Hedge Knight) they’re on their way to doing this. Commentary on the three series we’ve read (Marshal, Magician: Apprentice, and Red Prophet) below the fold.

Like Linda, I picked up a book or two at SF Bokhandeln‘s sale. Among them was Jo Walton’s The Prize in the Game, a book (and, indeed, a setting) that I had long written-off, despite the subject matter being interesting; the only reason I picked it up now was that it was a hardcover and it was selling for 10 crowns (that’s a little over a dollar), and I supposed that if I didn’t like it I could chuck it or perhaps get a good price for it as a used bookstore. I can’t quite recall the reasons for why I wrote it off, now, but I can only say after reading it that I was being an idiot.

Yesterday, we went to SF Bokhandeln in Gothenburg to check out what they had on offer for the annual book sale. We picked up a few things from the sale, and then I couldn’t resist also picking up Anne Bishop’s latest offering, Sebastian, even though I knew it would mean getting no work done once we got home. A prediction that turned out to be quite accurate.

It has been sitting on our bookshelf for quite some time now, but a few days ago I felt the need for a break from my current assignments for my classes, and so I picked up Mary Gentle’s 1610: A Sundial in a Grave. I figured I could stretch out the rather hefty-looking volume for a while, reading a bit now and then. From reading her earlier novel Ash: A Secret History, I thought this might be another fairly tough read that I would need to take my time with.

Boy was I wrong.

This year, Elio and I gave each other the Babylon 5: The Complete Universe box for Christmas, and we’ve spent the last week watching entirely too many episodes a day. We’re almost through the first season already, and I expect we’ll keep going at a brisk pace throughout January. Its really very good television, and this box is pretty darn good value for money.

On 41 disks it contains all five seasons of B5, all of Crusade, and the movies In the Beginning, The Gathering, Thirdspace, River of Souls, A Call to Arms and Legends of the Rangers. This particular box is the Region 2 release, and there isn’t actually a matching set for Region 1, just two separate collections of the five B5 seasons and of the movies (minus Legends of the Rangers) . 

Among our Christmas presents this year was a copy of Shaman’s Crossing, the first book in Robin Hobb’s new trilogy, Soldier Son.  This book marks a departure from the world made familiar by the Farseer and Liveship Trader books, and introduces a brand-new setting which by fantasy standards is relatively "modern", with guns, canons and a strictly traditionalist nation on a path to development and expansion.

The main character (who, like Fitz from the Farseer books, tells the story from a first-person point of view) is Nevare Burvelle, second son of one of the king’s "battle lords"; men raised to nobility for their deeds. As a second son, he is destined to become a soldier, and initially he rarely questions the rigid Gernian belief that one should never question the place in life allotted to oneself by the good god. But slowly doubts start to creep up on him, and he finds himself forced to accept that the simple, straight-forward rules that governed his life as a young boy cannot—and perhaps should not—always be followed.

Shaman’s Crossing starts out a little slow, but I soon found it quite impossible to put down the book (I started it on the eve of the 24th, and finished just a little while ago). Nevare may not be as interesting a character as Fitz as he is, at least initially, a far less troubled young man, but the story he tells soon had me firmly hooked. I wanted to know more about Gernian society, the cavalla Academy and, not the least, the strange, dappled Specks who seem to be seeking a way to repel the Gernian expansion that has already claimed the lifestyle of the once fierce and free plainspeoples. And now that I have finished, I am hoping the next one will be out soon.

Its that time of the year again, and we thought we’d compile a little (or not so little, actually) list of reading (and watching) recommendations for the holidays. We’ve included both some recent releases and some older favourites, and we think that most of them are great additions both to your own wish list and to your shopping list.