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Chronicles of the Black Company (Glen Cook) - This is one of only three series I've read that had this many volumes. The others being Mission Earth by Ron Hubbard, The Deverry Novels by Katharine Kerr and The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. There are some others that are as long but although set in the same world, they usually cover different periods of time and different characters. I enjoyed being able to follow the adventures of this group of characters for the last 5 months. Though considered fantasy, the story and plot were a bit different from my usual fare but I liked it enough to read all ten books. Though the story was nicely tied up at the end, I would definitely be interested in reading any new adventures that may come along.
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 Crossroads of Twilight (Robert Jordan) - Well, here we are at book 10 and we're still seemingly still far from the end of the story. Guess I'll still be reading this series when I'm in a nursing home. As usual of late, the book was immense but the story didn't really progress very far. It did end with a good cliff hanger though.
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 The Isle of Battle (Sean Russell) - Continuing the saga begun in "The One Kingdom", the story now deepens and several interesting new characters are introduced. There are a lot of unique new ideas here that I've never seen used elsewhere...at least not in the same form anyway. Can't wait for the next volume.
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 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (J.K. Rowling) - Another good one, aren't they all?. This one portrays Harry as a very volatile, rebellious and angst ridden teen.
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 The Gates of Dawn (Robert Newcomb) - So far, this new series by Newcomb is turning out very nicely. Good story, new ideas, new magic, what more could one ask for?
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 The Sword of Shannara Trilogy (Terry Brooks) - Always a pleasure to re-read anything in the Shannara series. The first book, Sword, had a less climactic ending than I remembered. The second, Elfstones was much better than I remembered and finally Wishsong was just as good though not as long. Some of what I thought I remembered must actually be in the Heritage of Shannara series instead. I read his last trilogy, Voyage of the Jerle Shannara in 2001-2002 and though good, they just weren't as good as his previous work.
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 High Druid of Shannara: Jarka Ruus (Terry Brooks) - Having just read the original Shannara trilogy before starting this one, it was interesting to see how it keeps building on everything that has gone before. This time around the story continues 20 years in the future from where the Voyage series left off but so far appears to be more in line with the stories of old. The Druid order has been restored and evil is knocking at the door once again.
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Riddle of Stars Trilogy (Patricia A. McKillip) - This was the second (or third?) time I've read this series. I first read it while in college circa 1983. I'd really love to see a sequel some day. The story is quite unique. I've said that before but I don't know how else to describe it. The people, the places, the history are so fascinating. If you like fantasy and haven't read these books, do so.
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Naked Empire (Terry Goodkind) - I'm beginning to wonder where he's going with this series. The story thus far is that there are three "lands" in the new world. There is also an old world. All these lands and worlds were separated for generations by magic barriers. Only in two of the lands did people use magic. Along comes Richard who heir to a vast empire in one of the lands. He's been raised in secret in the land with no magic. After many trials, he claims his empire from his evil father and peace reigns. Later more things happen and the barriers come down. The evil empire from the old world decides they want all the new world too and invade. Battle ensues. Lots of other things happen along the way but up till now the story is interesting. Then he departs from the main story by having Richard captured and taken to the old world. An entire book is dedicated to telling of his trials and abuses there. The old world reminds me of the Soviet Union. Eventually, he manages to set off a revolt against the regime in the hopes that it will interrupt or at least slow down the invasion of his land. He's freed and starts home. Then there is another book that I can't even remember anything about except that we are introduced to the idea of people that have no magic ability and are unaffected by magic. We also learn that Richard has a sister and that she is one of these people. Ok, fine. Now it's time to get back to the war right? No. Now we have another book (and these are huge books) where they discover that yet another barrier fell that had sealed off an entire land full of these magicless people. Why were they put there? Because when they have children, even if one of the pair has magic, the child will always be magicless. Hence, eventually, magic would be bred out of the human race. Well, we can't have that can we? Well yes, apparently we can. Richard finds that their lands have been invaded by the old world army also. These people are complete pacifists, so first he has to teach them the error of their ways before he can get them to fight back and force the bad guys out of their land. Well that was nice of him but rather boring and now the door is open for these people to spread their "disease" of being without magic. I'm sure, or at least I hope that all these digressions have an important purpose with the bigger picture of the story. I wish though that they'd all been edited down and included in just one of the books. Finally, Richard gets to head back home to work on the war problem. His sister decides to stay with the dull folk for a while. Good for her. Personally I think they ought to figure out how to put up another barrier. What's interesting about a world without magic? If I wanted to read about that, I'd read mainstream fiction.
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