Fantasy Reader: titled with admirable honesty this is a blog run by somebody who reads fantasy books and then writes about them. It’s a neglected genre (justly in some ways?) so it’s interesting to see the enthusiast’s own perspective. I read a fantasy novel over New Years – Lord Valentine’s Castle by Robert Silverberg. I’d read it before, at 14 or thenabouts, and had pleasant memories of it which the re-read rather spoiled. It’s a questing-companions novel of sorts and follows the usual pattern of these – the day-to-day bits at the start before the hero discovers his True Destiny are much more enjoyable and interesting than the actual quest. The specific problems with this book are that the hero’s birthright means everyone he meets obeys him without question even the villains, and that Silverberg keeps on introducing new travelling companions who then do absolutely nothing. This leads to a jolly read becoming repetitive and boggy: I didn’t finish it.
Special bonus question: are all fantasy heroines possessed of “firm high breasts”?