Here are 4 books that Outremer fans have personally recommended once you finish the Outremer series.
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I love food and drink! I am an avid cook and kitchen creator. Since moving to an island five years ago, far from mainland stores, I’ve learned to craft much more myself. I make limoncello, fresh ice creams, shrub (sipping vinegar); I roast and saute and barbecue and preserve; and I belong to a “bean club” which sends me a box of interesting dried beans every quarter. (No, really.) Combine this with my love of imaginative literature, and you end up with Arouf’s “spicy sweetprawn stew” in Our Lady of the Islands…a recipe I’ll have to actually invent someday.
This book is actually an illustrated online serial, currently 64 episodes in (and on pause at the moment, but I have it on good authority that it will resume). One of my favorite episodes deals with a mysterious young woman preparing a mysterious—magical?—breakfast of zucchini and eggs…but it’s full of spoilers, so you should probably just start the story from the beginning.
I love Twice: The Serial because it's an amazing contemporary fantasy story, well told and beautifully illustrated—a great example of the kind of fantasy I love, which is the "slow build" type...we're in the real world and then mysterious things happen around the edges...and then right in the middle.
I love food and drink! I am an avid cook and kitchen creator. Since moving to an island five years ago, far from mainland stores, I’ve learned to craft much more myself. I make limoncello, fresh ice creams, shrub (sipping vinegar); I roast and saute and barbecue and preserve; and I belong to a “bean club” which sends me a box of interesting dried beans every quarter. (No, really.) Combine this with my love of imaginative literature, and you end up with Arouf’s “spicy sweetprawn stew” in Our Lady of the Islands…a recipe I’ll have to actually invent someday.
Wine and magic. Need I say more? No, but I shall anyway: I love wine, complex and delicious and delightful; and I love magic, mysterious and powerful. Laura Anne combines these elements to great effect in her Vineart War series, where spells are crafted from wines—the only source of magic in the world. It was hard to read this without wanting a glass of pinot noir by my side!
Hailed as "something wholly new" and "extraordinary" in starred reviews from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly, Laura Anne Gilman’s Flesh and Fire is as intoxicating as the finest of wines—and as powerful as magic itself.
Once, all power in the Vin Lands was held by the prince-mages, who alone could craft spellwines, and who selfishly used them to their own gain. Now, fourteen centuries after a demigod shattered the Vine, it is the humble Vinearts who know the secret of crafting spells from wines, the source of magic, and they are prohibited from holding power.
I am an aficionado of the fresh start. I make it a point to celebrate all the New Years—that way, I can re-up my resolutions every few weeks! Paradoxically, I’m not great at sudden change. I like stability and working systematically. I reconcile these two sides of myself by observing other people’s transformations and caterpillar-to-butterfly stories on a regular basis. Whether it’s Beyonce going country or a Nigerian god turning to crime, I’m on the ride, picking up pointers. If you are looking to make a change, I hope this list is a fun place to start gathering ideas!
Is it weird that a space opera is one of my all-time comfort reads? Because it is. The first book of the Ancillary series, it’s got aliens, intergalactic war, an all-powerful ruler whose clones reach into every corner of the system, and one lonely remnant of a ship who reinvents herself to survive and ultimately fulfill her last order.
When everything is turbulent, I like to re-read Ancillary Justice and imagine I have one-tenth of protagonist Breq’s competence in a pinch.
Once, she was the Justice of Toren -- a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy. Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.
An avid reader since the age of 7, I have long loved history and fantasy. As a writer, I have a passion to share those things with young readers. I try to create stories that engage imaginations and share some historical facts along the way. As a member of a book reviewing team for new kids’ publications for an online kid lit blog, I also get to read and enjoy what other authors are putting out there as well.
This is another one I have re-read because I love the fantasy aspect. I didn’t come across C.S. Lewis’ books until I was a young adult, and then it was his adult writings. Now, I’m loving catching up on his Narnia series.
Written in 1950, this classic tale lives on, never becoming out of date, and I love that it is currently a stage production.
As a Christian, I also love a classic tale of good versus evil, with the drama between the white witch and the lion hero, Aslan, who overcomes death to save Narnia from the witch’s evil spell. For me, it’s a truly inspirational allegorical tale that stands the test of time.
Lucy steps into the Professor's wardrobe - but steps out again into a snowy forest. She's stumbled upon the magical world of Narnia, land of unicorns, centaurs, fauns... and the wicked White Witch, who terrorises all. Lucy soon realises that Narnia, and in particular Aslan, the great Lion, needs her help if the country's creatures are ever going to be free again...
