The 'find the frog a pile of new books' thread

[Hosakawa Tito]

Here's another link for your perusal. The Camulod series by Jack Whyte. An alternate tale of the King Arthur legend, set in the time of the last Roman settlers in Britain. I like how these characters are developed with out the sappy, goody-two-shoes persona of the classical tale. http://www.camulod.com/

Part two of this thread:"Find the Frog a pile of money for these new books"

[frogbeastegg]

I got some money for Christmas and my birthday is fast approaching, so as long as I don't get expensive books I should be able to get a nice big stack. Happy froggy

Krusader, those sound good enough to risk. I have ordered the only second hand copy of the first book, since no new copies are available.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel .... is edging its way onto my list of potentials. I shall see if I can find an extract first. It sounds odd, but probably in a good way.

Any particular recommendations for Jasper Fforde? Which is the best book to start with?

Batavia's Graveyard is actually available! I shall look into it, thanks. But first, I had another idea of where to look for Regine Pernaud: abebooks. A network of small bookshops selling through an intermediary.

I only recently finished a historical version king Arthur, the trilogy by Helen Hollick (the kingmaking, pendragon's banner, shadow of the king. Would recommend; not the best books ever but a nice, new take on things) so I'm not entirely keen to do another quite so soon. I shall put this on my list for future reference. Thanks.

[Somebody Else]

Jasper Fforde - start with The Eyre Affair, then Lost in a Good Book if you like the first one. The thrid is The Well of Lost Plots and the fourth is Something Rotten. I think there's a website run by the author somewhere, but I can't remember/be bothered to find the address.

[jimmyM]

here's some links:
www.jonathanstrange.com
http://www.jasperfforde.com/

including extracts from the books and all kinds of goodies...

[Efrem]

Children of the Earth - Jean M. Auel (a five book series, supposed to be really good but the individual books are expensive at £6.39)

Read em, Loved em, Highly Reccomend them.

But they are huge, and will take you a massive amount of time to read.

[Don Corleone]

I have a series of books by Pauline Gedge (Lords of the Two Lands). The first one is "The Hippopotamus Marsh". It's historical fiction set in Ancient Egypt, Middle Kingdom timeframe. It deals with the dealings of the now subject royal family (living as local nobles in Waset (Thebes)) during the reign of the Hyksos and the BLOODY civil war it took to regain their kingdom. I have to warn you three things about these books:

1) Long periods of inter-scene boredom (marches, intrigue that leads nowhere, training of armies that gets too much detail)

2) They are very, very bloody. Ms. Gedge describes events in graphic detail.

3) If you're of Semitic descent, you may be a bit offended with the way the Hyksos are portrayed. The books are very pro-Egyptian.

Other than that, they are really, really good. Very engrossing and offer insight into every day details you might not think of. If you're interested, PM me your snail mail address and I'll send you the first one (slow mail, if you don't mind, very cheap). If you like, I'll be your library for the other two.