The Pat's Fantasy Hotlist World Tour hits the road again!!!


That's right, folks!

Next Sunday, I'll be flying away overseas to spend a month in Turkey, Georgia, and Armenia! Can't wait!!! =)

This time, my traveling reading list will look like this:


- The Coldest War by Ian Tregillis (Canada, USA, Europe)

Here's the blurb:

In Ian Tregillis' The Coldest War, a precarious balance of power maintains the peace between Britain and the USSR. For decades, Britain's warlocks have been all that stands between the British Empire and the Soviet Union—a vast domain stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the shores of the English Channel. Now each wizard's death is another blow to Britain's national security.

Meanwhile, a brother and sister escape from a top-secret facility deep behind the Iron Curtain. Once subjects of a twisted Nazi experiment to imbue ordinary people with superhuman abilities, then prisoners of war in the immense Soviet research effort to reverse-engineer the Nazi technology, they head for England.

Because that's where former spy Raybould Marsh lives. And Gretel, the mad seer, has plans for him.

As Marsh is once again drawn into the world of Milkweed, he discovers that Britain's darkest acts didn't end with the war. And while he strives to protect queen and country, he is forced to confront his own willingness to accept victory at any cost.


- Shogun by James Clavell (Canada, USA, Europe)

Here's the blurb:

A bold English adventurer. An invincible Japanese warlord. A beautiful woman torn between two ways of life, two ways of love. All brought together in an extraordinary saga of a time and a place aflame with conflict, passion, ambition, lust, and the struggle for power...


- Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin (Canada, USA, Europe)

Here's the blurb:

Abner Marsh, a struggling riverboat captain, suspects that something’s amiss when he is approached by a wealthy aristocrat with a lucrative offer. The hauntingly pale, steely-eyed Joshua York doesn’t care that the icy winter of 1857 has wiped out all but one of Marsh’s dilapidated fleet; nor does he care that he won’t earn back his investment in a decade. York’s reasons for traversing the powerful Mississippi are to be none of Marsh’s concern—no matter how bizarre, arbitrary, or capricious York’s actions may prove. Not until the maiden voyage of Fevre Dream does Marsh realize that he has joined a mission both more sinister, and perhaps more noble, than his most fantastic nightmare—and humankind’s most impossible dream.


- Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (Canada, USA, Europe)

Here's the blurb:

One of Time magazine's 100 all-time best English-language novels.

Only once in a great while does a writer come along who defies comparison—a writer so original he redefines the way we look at the world. Neal Stephenson is such a writer and Snow Crash is such a novel, weaving virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything in between with a cool, hip cybersensibility to bring us the gigathriller of the information age.

In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo’s CosoNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he’s a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that’s striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about infocalypse. Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous…you’ll recognize it immediately.


- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (Canada, USA, Europe)

Here's the blurb:

One of the 20th century's enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world, and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize–winning career.

The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. It is a rich and brilliant chronicle of life and death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the noble, ridiculous, beautiful, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.

Love and lust, war and revolution, riches and poverty, youth and senility -- the variety of life, the endlessness of death, the search for peace and truth -- these universal themes dominate the novel. Whether he is describing an affair of passion or the voracity of capitalism and the corruption of government, Gabriel García Márquez always writes with the simplicity, ease, and purity that are the mark of a master.

Alternately reverential and comical, One Hundred Years of Solitude weaves the political, personal, and spiritual to bring a new consciousness to storytelling. Translated into dozens of languages, this stunning work is no less than an accounting of the history of the human race.

10 commentaires:

Akjec's Folly said...

One Hundred Years of Solitude is a great book. Big fan of Marquez.

Anonymous said...

Shogun is a great pick! So many of those old Clavell books hit on all cylinders.

Morrigan said...

I approve of Shogun and Fevre Dream.

Enjoy Turkey! I was there for a few days last fall. I hope you like cats (who doesn't?) because they are EVERYWHERE. <3

Anonymous said...

Shogun is a great book to get lost in!

James Buckley said...

Wo, wo, wo, hold it.

Is 'Pat's Fantasy Hotlist' making you millions, or something?

How is it that you have the means to swan all over the globe like this?

Not that I'm jealous … enough to hunt you down and make a necklace from your intestines.

Mike said...

Enjoy!! I'm eyeing Shogun of lates to read as I have travelled to Japan twice now.

I was also in Turkey a year or so back, I was there for about a month. Istanbul and other locations. Any questions, fire away. :)

Mike said...

Looking forward to hearing about Shogun. Been looking at it for years, since I love Japan and have been there in twice in the last few years.

And, enjoy Turkey. I was just htere recently, and loved it. I stayed for about 3 weeks. Any questions, ask away. :)

Mark Lawrence said...

Some great picks there. Shogun is very good. Stephenson & Marquez are on my list. And Turkey etc too - I envy you!

Anonymous said...

I'm amazed (and puzzled) that you haven't read Snowcrash!

Julien said...

J'espère que tu lis Cent ans de solitude en français ou en espagnol, pas en traduction anglaise!

Spanish books usually have a much better French than English translation... translators start with closer grammar and syntax, for example.