Wednesday 19 March 2008

The Once Upon a Time challenge

Well, here's the challenge I've been waiting for - Carl's latest Once Upon a Time challenge. I've been wondering if I ought to do it as I have other challenges on the go but it seems I can resist everything except temptation, so here we go.



The Once Upon a Time II Challenge is being hosted by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings. There are several different 'quests' based on four genres, Fantasy, Folklore, Fairy Tales and Mythology. I'm going to be doing Quest the First which is:

Read at least 5 books that fit somewhere within the Once Upon a Time II criteria. They might all be fantasy, or folklore, or fairy tales, or mythology…or your five books might be a combination from the four genres.

I've gathered together a pool of ten books that I'll choose my five from. I must admit I had a lot of fun choosing, I sometimes think that part of it is half the fun! Anyway, my books are as follows:

Across the Face of the World – Russell Kirkpatrick (fant.)
The Ivory and the Horn – Charles De Lint (urban fant.)
Tailchaser’s Song – Tad Williams (fant.)
Dragons of Autumn Twilight - M. Weis and T. Hickman (fant.)
Beauty – Robin McKinley (fairy tales)
Temeraire – Naomi Novik (hist. fant.)
Assassin's Quest - Robin Hobb (fant.)
The Wee Free Men – Terry Pratchett (YA fantasy/humour)
A Hat Full of Sky – Terry Pratchett (YA fantasy/humour)
Wintersmith - Terry Pratchett (YA fantasy/humour

Extra Books read:

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents - Terry Pratchett
Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman

To the tell the truth I'd like to read all of them but am not sure how realistic that hope is. We'll see, I can only do my best and I'm sure whatever I manage it'll be a lot of fun trying.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm attempting Kirkpatrick's book for another challenge - can't wait to read your thoughts on it!

Carl V. Anderson said...

Having fun trying is what it is all about. And since temptation is meant to be embraced I am thrilled that you are joining in. :)

chrisa511 said...

Great great list Cath! Love seeing some de Lint on there ;) Looking forward to your reviews!

Robin said...

That's a great list, Cath. I read Beauty a long time ago, but I haven't read any of the others. It will be fun to read your reviews.

Cath said...

Chelle: I'm really excited about Across the Face of the World. It was recced by a favourite Aussie author of mine, Trudi Canavan, on the Fantastic Fiction site (http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/) and for some odd reason I just had to read it. I'll keep an eye out for your review too.

Thank you, Carl. It's all Deslily's fault. She's such a bad influence! LOL. Seriously though, I'm thrilled to be joining in too and thank you for hosting this again because I missed it last year.

Chris, I'm officially in love with De Lint's Newford series so I had to find an excuse to put my new anthology on the list! Can't wait to read it.

I've been meaning to read Beauty for ages, Robin, so this is a good opportunity. The only book of McKinley's I've read so far is Sunshine (I loved it) so it'll be interesting to see what this one is like. Many people seem to love it.

Anonymous said...

That looks like a great list. I love the little I have read of Charles de Lint and I hope to read more later this year. I have also heard great things about Beauty and hope my copy arrives soon. I will be reading both Pratchett books on your list, but probably not until after this challenge ends sadly.

DesLily said...

You did it! Hooray ! lol.. I know you will enjoy this challenge!! Once the reviews begin it's a must for me to read all the reviews each morning before anything else LOL ! Just don't forget each time to leave a link on the "link page" (I've done that myself heh)

You always come up with something for me to check out even before you review it! Never heard of the Kirkpatrick book.. so I am off to Amazon to see what it's about !!

Ana S. said...

The Wee Free Men is one of my very favourite books. I hope you enjoy it too :)

Cath said...

Rhinoa: Can I recommend De Lint's 'Newford' series to you? I've just read Dreams Underfoot ( a good place to start) and was blown away by it. Assume you're reading Beauty for the challenge too... will go and check your list in a moment... but it's one book I'm really looking forward to.

Hi Pat! Yes, I did it. How could I possibly bear to miss out on all the fun? :-D I'll try to remember the linky thing. I have a horrible feeling that the Kirkpatrick book might be your kind of thing. Shall I run and hide *now*? ;-))))

Nymeth: I've read loads of Pratchett but there are a couple of series that I haven't got around to and Tiffany Aching is one of them (I've also not read The Truckers books). It's nice to put that right - it was Darla at Books and Other Thoughts who actually inspired to read the series.

Corinne said...

Great books! I loved Beauty. Can't wait to read your reviews so I can add to my TBR list :)

darkorpheus said...

The Pratchett books are great. The Wee Free Men have to be one of Pratchett's funniest invention since the Librarian. And Tiffany Aching has fast become my favourite Discworld character since Granny Weatherwax.

Hope you enjoy the books.

DesLily said...

cath: well that kirkpatrick book is only out in masspaperback which is really hard for me to read with the "floaters" in my eye. I only get harback books or tpb.. or anything double spaced for easier reading.. but have no fear, my list will grow in leaps and bounds once all the reviews start coming in!! (shaking head: how can I afford them and where the heck will I put more books?????!!)

Anonymous said...

What a nice selection! I am particularly interested to see your reviews on Kirkpatrick and Williams' novels. :] I hope you enjoy Pratchett's books. Very exciting stuff. Happy reading and thanks for the blog visit!

Cath said...

Corinne: I'm really looking forward to reading Beauty - It's one of my all time favourite fairy tales. One of the reasons I like challenges too is picking up recs. *Not* that I need a bigger tbr pile. LOL!

Dark Orpheus: I'm pleased to hear that the Wee Free Men/Tiffany Aching series is so good. I've read lots of Pratchett but for some odd reason resisted these. Stupid of me and it's nice to get an opportunity to put that right.

Hi Pat. Shame about that Kirkpatrick book but I'm sure you'll find plenty of other stuff to stick on your wishlist. How are you feeling today? Much better I hope?

Orchidus: The Kirkpatrick and the Williams are two of the books I most want to read. It took me ages to get hold of a copy of Tailchaser's Song - I first heard about it a couple of years ago. Now I've got it I'm thrilled and this challenge is a good way to read it. Thanks for dropping by!