>I'm really impressed by Jo Walton (I already mentioned she's >one of the three names I buy in hardcover). Check your local >libraries for her King's Peace/King's Name duology (Arthurian >fantasy with a few twists). Her most recent _Prize in the >Game_ isn't a bad starting point either (gives the backstory >of a few characters before they show up in the other books; >well, half the backstory: she's still writing _Breaking the >Ward_). I will second the recommendation for all of these, and I would do so even if my name *weren't* in _Name_ and _Prize_ on the Acknowledgements page. :-) According to Jo's LiveJournal, however, she isn't currently writing _Breaking the Ward_. (Quoth she: "If they want me to write a sequel to Prize they can tell me so and give me some money. Meanwhile, I want to fiddle about with the edges of fantasy and perception.) The thing she's currently doing doesn't have a title yet so far as I know. It does have an opening paragraph: "If you go far to the west, they say, you come to places where people grow more and more rigid in their ways until at last you come to lands where they are like stone statues. Conversely, if you go far enough east, you come to places were people grow stranger and feyer, more powerful maybe, but with less ability to hold themselves apart, until at last they run together and separate as fast as rainbows on stirred oil. In between lie the Marches, where folk have both will and wit enough to keep themselves to themselves." I don't know about you, but *I* find that paragraph really makes me want to read more. I'm excited. >[That reminds me: I still haven't written my >discussion of the similarities between _Prize in the Game_ >and _Paths of the Dead_.] That sounds quite interesting. You might consider sending a copy to Jo herself when you're done. -- David Goldfarb <*>| goldfarb at ocf.berkeley.edu | Private .sig -- please do not read. goldfarb at csua.berkeley.edu |