The Encounter Log

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The Magic Casement and Faery Lands Forlorn by Dave Duncan: Duncan takes on the Tolkienesque world of elves, dwarves, et al., but as usual it's not quite what you expect. A magic system that ultimately depends on killing pygmies, that I definitely hadn't seen before.

Dread Companion by Andre Norton: Speaking of elves, here they are in space, along with fauns and dryads too.

The Languages of Pao by Jack Vance: An entire novel about the Whorf-Sapir hypothesis, though the author eventually comes down slightly against it.

The Native Star by M. K. Hobson: As long as you're not a conservative male, a Native American, or involved in any way in the oil industry, you will find this to be a well-paced and entertaining story of magic in the late 1800s.

Thresholds by Nina Kiriki Hoffman: Great YA book about alien neighbors and death.

Stuff of Legends by Ian Gibson: Not nearly as hilarious as advertised, but the author is great at serious prose and I hope he keeps writing.

Through Stone and Sea by Barb and J. C. Hendee: In which the intrepid scholar sets forth into dwarven territory and has to deal with all sorts of problems that most fantasy writers gloss over, like not everyone in the world speaking "common" or accepting standard coins. There's more story to come, but it doesn't feel like the middle book of a trilogy.

Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs: The McGuffin of the title provokes some fighting and abducting, but it's really about intra-pack drama among werewolves.

The Tears of Ishtar by Michael Ehart: Something with cover quotes comparing it to Conan and Red Sonja does not sound promising to me, but this was great, absorbing, tragic adventure. And allegedly based on little-known actual Sumerian legends-- the author helpfully provides a pointer to some reference works, which I may have to check out.

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