Epic Fantasy Series

As a youngster, whenever the school holidays rolled around my brother and I would spend them with my grandparents along with the rest of my cousins.
It was a standing rule that I was not allowed to take along ANY books or my library card! That was torture for me.

One summer holiday- in desperation - I went digging in my uncle's old book case. After reading several manuals on engineering and a few spiritual books, I came across, a tatty paperback with the front cover missing and half the back cover burnt, yes I said burnt, off!

I snuck away to the balcony and there, at age 13, was the best reading experience of my life. I had found a copy of The Lord of the Rings! It is safe to say that my life was forever changed by that literary GENIUS, Tolkien!

I have re-read it twice over the years and it still is the most amazing book.

I am always searching for the next epic series and by George, I've found not one but two!
Julia Gray's The Guardian Cycle and James Clemen's The Banned and the Banished.

After reading The Guardian Cycle, I couldn't find anything interesting enough as I was suffering a major book hangover! It is a well written, story where good eventually triumphs over evil (which I always like).
It unfolds over five glorious books:

1. The Dark Moon
2. The Jasper Forest
3. The Crystal Desert
4. The Red Glacier
5. Alyssa's Ring

A couple of months a ago, a local school was getting rid of old stock and kindly asked if we could find an underprivileged high school to donate them to.

After some searching, my colleagues and I found a school which desperately needed some books. We realised that some of these books were above their reading age and decided that we'd pick a few for ourselves and pass on the rest to whomever wanted them.

I found a complete set of The Banned and the Banished and put it aside without giving them a thought until last weekend when I didn't have a thing to read! I picked up Witch Fire (book one), devoured it and I'm now on Witch War (book three). I'm LOVING it!
I will post more as soon as I'm done with this fab series...

I then did some digging and too my utter delight James Clemens is the Nom de Plume of James Rollins, who happens to be one of my favourite mainstream authors! His books move along the speed of a great action flick and one can almost pick out a Hollywood cast for his characters. My only problem is that he doesn't quite right fast enough for me ... which is a bittersweet experience when I do get any of his latest releases. Lol.

I do hope that you will pick up these great fantasy series!

That's my bit for today...

KD