The Bookish Blog Tag

I saw this on K. B. Book Reviews, but I can’t seem to find who originally created this tag.

---

1-3 of your favourite books

I love THE CROWN OF EMBERS, by Rae Carson, This is the second book in the FIRE AND THORNS trilogy, and my favourite of the trilogy. It has politics and really delves into Elisa’s relationship with her faith.

I also love WINTER’S ORBIT, by Everina Maxwell, a sci-fi romance set on an icy planet where a prince has to marry a diplomat to keep a treaty alive after the diplomat’s previous partner is killed.

A third book is A DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAGICIANS, by H. G. Parry. This is a historical, political fantasy that retells the French Revolution but with magic and vampires, focusing on the friendship between William Pitt and William Wilberforce.

1-3 of your favourite authors

I’m interpreting this as auto-buy authors. For me, Melinda Salisbury has been an auto buy since THE SIN EATER’S DAUGHTER (her debut). I just love the worlds and stories she creates. Another author is Susan Dennard, since I read TRUTHWITCH, which is epic fantasy on a truly epic scale. I will also eagerly devour anything written by V. E. Schwab, after loving A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC.

Favourite female character

I love Mehr from EMPIRE OF SAND, by Tasha Suri. She is the perfect example of how a female character can be considered “strong” without being a big, butch fighter (the typical “strong female character”). She also has a lot of agency that drives the story forward, despite her action and choices being very firmly curtailed by those around her.

Pretty much every time I’m asked for recommendations of books with “strong female characters who don’t include a lot of toxic masculinity traits”, this is the book I tell people to read!

Favourite male characters

This took me longer to work out, and I’m not sure I’m going to say “favourite” but rather “one I really rather like right now” – mostly because I don’t think I’ve ever been asked to recommend male characters the way I have female before.

That aside, I really enjoyed Sir Konrad Vonvalt from THE JUSTICE OF KINGS, by Richard Swan. A big part of that is because the book is the start of (what I assume is) a three book “fall” arc, and I love fall arcs. Particularly if said arc starts with a noble, moralistic person and its those morals that lead to the fall.

Favourite mythical world

Again, I’m removing the word “favourite” and replacing it with “very much liked” (and also being very handwave-y with what “mythical” means – I’m just going with “anything speculative”!) (These prompts are surprisingly hard!)

However, I’ve really enjoyed seeing the world I know (and particularly the London bits as that’s my home) be changed into something very different in THE BONE SEASON, by Samantha Shannon. You can actually walk around London seeing places that are in the books but different.

Favourite cover

An easy one at last! I love the cover of HOLD BACK THE TIDE, by Melinda Salisbury. I mean, just look at it! It’s moody and atmospheric, is very, very pretty, and it draws you in wanting to know exactly why it looks like that. Which is exactly what a cover is meant to do.

Why is there blood under the water, and it can only be seen from underneath? (I love the meniscus idea!) There’s mist on the mountains, which immediately conjures up rolling, mist- (and thus secret-) cloaked hills.

Favourite book to movie adaptation

OK, this is not a movie, but I think in this day and age of adaptations often skewing towards TV (which I support because I think more time is usually better!), that we can count it.

But A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS absolutely captured the heart of the books for me. The quirkiness, the off-kilter feeling to it, with the bright colours and playing it completely straight (unlike the moody movie that was bad.) It’s not an adaptation that follows word-for-word, adding in layers of VFD subplot that help it feel much more cohesive and not that the organisation came in very late (which the books have a bit of.)

If you could turn any book into a movie, what would it be?

I think the Witchlands series by Susan Dennard would be great as a TV series (I am really altering all these prompts, aren’t I?) It’s a massive, expansive world with cool magic, politics, lots of plot, and characters to fall in love with.

I don’t think a movie would suit it at all, because of just how big it all it (there’s a lot packed in, and done really well given YA word count restrictions.) A TV show has that space, and could do a book a season (there will be 5!) and also I want to see this world brought to life. Think Game of Thrones without the unnecessary violence against women and bad final season.

Favourite childhood book

There are a few answers to this prompts.

H.I.V.E., by Mark Walden, which helped bring my best friend and I together, and to this day we often sign cards with names from that series. And also brought me and my secondary school friends together. THE FAMOUS FIVE and generally Enid Blyton, which Dad and I worked out aged 8 I’d read more books by her than total books he’d read in his adult life. The Healing Wars, by Janice Hardy, which I avidly watched Waterstones to find out the next release.

Sci-fi of Fantasy? (Or neither)

Fantasy all the way. I do read sci-fi but fantasy is the one I love. (At the time of writing this in mid-September, 67% of what I’ve read so far this year has been fantasy and 11% sci-fi.) I’m a physicist and I will DNF books if I end up yelling “BUT GRAVITY” too many times. Look, I’m just not here for inconsistent breaking of laws of physics to make something cool happen.

---

I tag Rebbie (Rebbie Reviews), Jo Lindsell, and Kerry (Like Herding Cats).