I’ve lost count of the amount of times i’ve read this book, and i’m sure i’ll read it countless times more. Earthsea is probably the greatest fantasy series ever written. I’ve yet to find better.
Here’s an article in The Guardian… “David Mitchell on Earthsea – a rival to Tolkien and George RR Martin”.
Available in the collection The Books of Earthsea
I do love a good faerie tale and this looks like it has a few inside.
One day i’ll dip into it and have a little read.
All in all i quite enjoyed the first Feyland trilogy and so i’ll definitely give the second trilogy a good read as soon as i collect them all.
I read this in 2014 thinking it wouldn’t be too long before the rest of the books were finished — oh, naivety becomes me. 
All i have to say is… ‘It better be worth the wait, George!’
Hopefully, now the TV series is in the can he’ll get on with finishing the books.
It’s been quite a few years since i read this — and, i might add, i immensely enjoyed it.
Since then Joseph has added quite a few novels and shorts to the series and you can find the whole series by clicking there.
This book follows on perfectly from Babylon Steel, with all the usual characters we were introduced to in that book. And it’s much the same kind of fantasy stuff that really isn’t for children as there’s a fair amount of sex and some quite graphic descriptions of interspecies relationships: Babylon is a whore house madam after all is said an done.
I have to say, Gaie has created a really interesting universe with The Planes and there’s obviously a much bigger story going on in the background concerning the rifts between The Planes, which i seriously hope Gaie is going to slowly uncover in further books in this series.
Please, please, please, Gaie, get writing more about Babylon and Co’.
So if you’re not offended by adult stuff mixed in with your fantasy stories the “Babylon Steel” series is definitely a place to visit on your reading list. Enjoy!
If you want a bit more of Babylon Steel, you can go to her personal website, Scalentine, where she has a blog.
Wow, what a great story. I really enjoyed this book. After reading some YA fantasy lately it was definitely time for some grown-up’s fantasy and this really fit the bill.
The only thing i’m unhappy about is that i’m utterly skint until i get paid on Tuesday so i can’t buy the second book until then, but rest assured, as soon as i wake up my computer on Tuesday morning i’ll be on Amazon buying it.
Great writing, great story, great book, what more can a reader ask for?
If you like fantasy that isn’t afraid of getting it’s hands dirty then i’m sure you’ll like this. If, on the other hand, you like the nice fluffy fantasy stuff then just don’t look.
Next in the series is Dangerous Gifts.
If you want a bit more of Babylon Steel, you can go to her personal website, Scalentine, where she has a blog.
I quite enjoyed that. As i said about the first book in this trilogy, if you can get over the YA thing and just focus on the Faerie mixed up with VR thing then these books are really good.
As i also said, the worse thing about this trilogy was Tam’s back story and family issues that really detracted from the story in book 1, were a much lesser distraction in book 2 and actually worked with the story in book 3. But the annoying thing was that in order for them to work with the story in book 3 there really was no need whatsoever to make it such an annoying part of book 1, or to be so depressing about it all.
I think that in these days of publishers cutting costs, editors are doing a worse job than ever. A good editor would have made sure that Tam’s family stuff was tidied up and tied in better with the overall story. But it is what it is, and the trilogy is still really worth a read if you’re into Faerie stuff and like the idea of the Faerie realm using a super advanced VR system to bridge to our realm.
There is a second trilogy in this series, which i may come back to in the future, but for now i’m having a break and reading some other things.
Now this looks like fun. 