The age-old fantasy formula – unlikely hero-child kicks out to change the world, meets a few of the same suspiciously gifted types along the way, and of course evil is starkly contrasted against the good. Tired of this kind of story? I understand. Me too. That’s why I’m going to tell you to read a book that does exactly that.

The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett redeems this overused, undercooked story line, in great fashion. The writing does the job, but it is the story is just spectacularly done: great world building and characters that you care so much about that putting down the book becomes so difficult that you should just go to the doc before starting it to get a catheter installed. Brett never gets bogged down in trivialities, yet you are given a thoroughly detailed imagining of everything. Think Robert Jordan at his very best, without any of the boring meandering, and more realistic toward the darker parts of life. A lot more gritty. Sort of like Jordan and Joe Abercrombie mixed.

The world: When the sun falls demons rise from the center of the earth as mists that coalesce into various elemental forms of species – fire demons, rock, wind, tree, etc. These creatures rip people, animals, structures etc. apart without any lack savagery. When the dawn comes these “corelings” mist back down into the core, if not they burn up in the sun. As sword and spear do little or no harm to the creatures, the only things the people have to resist the demon spawn are wards the ancients left them. These wards are drawn and arranged to set a parameter around cities and houses, though since they are done so on wood, rock, and earth, they must be checked and tended to endlessly to make sure they have not been obscured or damaged, which would mean a bloody death when night comes. This means the humans prepare all day to not be killed during the night, every day. So, our unlikely hero wants to find a way to kill the demons, of course.

The characters: Arlen (the main POV), Leesha, and Rojer. Arlen is the farm boy that runs away, Leesha is the girl with an overbearing abusive mother, and Rojer is the orphaned at 3yrsold character. There are messangers, warders, herb gatherers, jongleurs, and Krasians. Krasians aren’t those dried out cranberry raisin things. They are the desert people that you hate because of their backward culture but love because of their badassery.

The Warded Man is the first book in the Demon Cycle series. Book two, The Desert Spear, and book three, The Daylight War, are also available now, which are just as great as the first.

If you’ve been in Lemuria and like fantasy books, it’s likely I’ve put you on to the Gentleman Bastard series by Scott Lynch. If not, it’s high time you jump into this rollicking tale of thievery and witty dialogue. Think Ocean’s 11 heist, the grit of Game of Thrones, set in a world where there are cities created by an ancient people that had some powerful magic.

Why should you read this? If not for the plot (it’s very good), if not for the characters (they are great), then for the dialogue (it’s so funny) (it’s so clever). This series would be worth the read just for the insults that are thrown between Locke and Jean. The banter is gold.

Plot (x) + Character Development (y) + Dialogue (z) = ?

given each item is rated on a ten point scale and:

x = 7, y = 9, z = 9

the greatest possible rating under this scrutiny would be assigned the numerical value of 30 (somethings)

we have with the Bastards a solid 7 + 9 + 9 = 25

Under the plot/character development/dialogue criterion, I’m loathe to give any other fantasy series I’ve read an equal to or greater than sign in comparison.

***If you didn’t pay attention to any of that complicated math above and just skipped to this line (probable), let me just say: This series is great.

Why should you read this series now? The first two books were published very close to each other. The third book was published ~7 years after the second. That was a hard period for us all. The third book was published, thank the Crooked Warden, in 2013, and I loved it. Now is a good time to get into this series because it seems Scott is trying to make up for that excruciating gap between books two and three and will be releasing the fourth book this year. He will also be putting out two novellas in 2014 to accompany the series: The Mad Baron’s Mechanical Attic and The Choir of Knives.

This is a great time to start this series, especially if you are waiting for the next Game of Thrones book. In my opinion, this series is better than ASoIaF, though that may have to do with my distaste for historical fiction. Scott Lynch, thanks for such a great series, and don’t feel that bad about the 7 year drought; God did that sort of thing all the time.

The Gentleman Bastards series by Scott Lynch:

1. Lies of Locke Lamora

2. Red Seas Under Red Skies

3. The Republic of Thieves

If you’re not familiar with Elizabeth Spencer’s work, now is a wonderful time to get to know one of Mississippi’s most highly regarded writers. I have the opportunity at Lemuria to work with many fine first editions. If I am unfamiliar with an author this is a great way to put my mind to the time when the books came out. Each first edition carries the artwork, marketing and language of that era. And so I pulled out some of the first editions of Elizabeth Spencer we have at Lemuria. Maybe you have some in your library at home?

I decided to investigate The Voice at the Back Door: A Novel. Elizabeth Spencer is well known for her short stories, but The Voice was intriguing to me since it had been recommended for the Pulitzer Prize in 1957, though the prize was never awarded to anyone at all. Additionally, the book addresses the racial tensions of the South. It was a brave book to write in 1956. Eudora Welty and Robert Penn Warren were champions for this novel on the emerging change in racial values in the South. Warren commented, “You aren’t going to stop reading [The Voice] very willingly.” After the publication of The Voice, respect and acclaim for Spencer’s writing only grew as she expanded her life experience from her hometown in Carollton, Mississippi, to Italy, Canada and North Carolina.

This year one of my special projects at Lemuria is to help revitalize our first editions rooms. I’m also honored to have been included in The Clarion Ledger’s new Mississippi Book Page in the Sunday edition. Not only can you read about the featured first edition (last week’s feature was The Voice), but you can also keep up with literary events and get the scoop on what Mississippians are reading.

Elizabeth Spencer will be signing her new book Starting Over on Tuesday, February 4th at 5:00, with a reading at 5:30.

Joe shares his thoughts Elizabeth Spencer’s new collection of stories here.

Mary Miller’s debut novel spills over with good, solid writing. The Last Days of California is about a family road trip starting in Montgomery, Alabama, with its destination California, and possibly even beyond. The Christian rapture is what draws them to California, hoping to save some people along the way, though by page two we suspect the father is not so holy in spite of his grand scheme. Jess, the 15-year-old narrator, says of her father, “He didn’t really want all 7 billion people on the planet to be saved. We wouldn’t be special then. We wouldn’t be the chosen ones.”

Early on, the reader suspects the family may be up to more than holy pursuits. Though the father is in the driver’s seat, there’s much more going on in the back seat between the two sisters, two years between them, armed with smart phones and convenience store candy. Their mother is the one who collects and receives the trash from all the wrappers and leftovers, staying at least minimally connected to her offspring and her husband, whose appeal seems to have deteriorated over many years of marriage. In the meantime, the two girls share lots of secrets, one being a probable pregnancy proven by several ominous pink strips.

Our narrator, consumed by teenage self-loathing, feelings of inadequacy, and the fact that her sister is beautiful and she is not, fantasizes about how to experience what she has only heard about from her wilder sister. The story moves through spare and perfectly pitched dialogue as the car moves through shoddy towns indecipherable from one another, each with the same big box stores — the equivalent of purgatory, American-style. Days Inns, Waffle Houses, and sundry convenience stores are the landscape that mark the journey. Jess reveals her adolescent longings, fears, hopes, dreams, and envies through a constant inner and outer dialogue that make this book so readable and hard to put down.

As the family continues the journey, they often stop to gorge or pick at meals only the most nutritionally challenged would order. French fries, sundaes, and diet cokes are a great part of the feast. The reader wonders how a man and woman who aren’t working can afford such expenses, especially when they stop at a casino. The questions mount as the journey progresses. Or does not paying the credit card bill make any difference to a family who will be whisked away as the rapture plucks the worthy from all the rest?

This is much more than a story about teenage angst. I see this short novel as a family love story, a sort of “Modern Family” of four. Though the cast is a scripture-deluded father, a rather worn out mother and two daughters who may have lost their tickets to Paradise, Jess will often hold her mother’s hand or ache with a daughter’s sad love for her father and remain forever loyal to her sister. Bravo to you, Mary Miller, our own homegrown Jacksonian.

Join us Thursday, January 30th as Mary Miller presents
The Last Days of California, signing at 5:00, reading at 5:30.

For my contribution to the 2014 preview, I’m gonna talk about some titles that I haven’t necessarily been able to read, but that I think you will be excited about because of who the authors are.

Frog Music, Emma Donoghue (Little, Brown, April 1st)

A few years ago, Emma Donoghue wrote a book called Room that was shortlisted by the Man Booker in 2010. I wrote about it here. It kept me up almost all night after I made the mistake of cracking it open at ten p.m. to “read a few pages.” Her new novel, Frog Music, while it doesn’t seem maybe quite as harrowing, is already getting great buzz and showing up on several other “must read in 2014” lists. It is based on an unsolved murder in San Francisco in 1876, and features a cast of characters as varied as a burlesque dancer and an ex-tightrope walker. Sounds different, no? I thought so. Can’t wait.

A Well-Tempered Heart, Jan-Philipp Sendker (Other Press, January 21st)

To say we’re “sneaking a peek” at this book is sort of a misnomer because it came out yesterday, but I’m gonna do it anyway. The first novel by German author Jan-Philipp Sendker, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, was a book club favorite of 2013. A young woman named Julia travels from New York to Burma trying to track down her missing father. Her journey leads her to the small village in which he grew up, where a mysterious stranger who may know something about her father — he certainly seems to know an impossible amount about her — begins to tell her the life story of a boy named Tin Win, a story of her father’s past. This sequel finds Julia ten years later, where again Burma is calling to her, this time to help her out of the funk her life has fallen into. The Art of Hearing Heartbeats was a delightful read — heartwarming and true — and A Well-Tempered Heart promises to be also.

Saga 3, Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (Image Comics, March 19th)

Lemuria is in the process of beefing up our graphic novel section (we want to be cool, after all), so look out for it those of you who are saying “it’s about time.” The first two volumes of Saga by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Fiona Staples, are amazing. I will be the first to admit I don’t regularly devour graphic novels, but I loved these. The story is awesome, the characters are awesome, and the art is awesome. The third volume comes out April 1st, and I can’t wait! Even if you don’t normally read graphic novels yourself, come by and see what we have and think about picking up volume one today.

The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell (Random House, September 4th)

David Mitchell has a new book this year! I don’t know anything about it — I don’t think many do (I found a teeny description in a BookPage article) — but I am so looking forward to it. Fans of his know what a versatile writer he is: he’s mastered everything from the nested narrative, speculative novel, Cloud Atlas, to the bildungsroman darling Black Swan Green. What can’t he do? The new one is called The Bone Clocks and it can tentatively be expected on September 4th. What more do we need to know?

Bark, Lorrie Moore (Knopf, February 25th)

And finally, some short story love. Lorrie Moore’s writing is amazing. I loved her last novel, A Gate at the Stairs, but her short stories are even better. Come out to see her present her new collection, Bark, here on Thursday, March 27th, at a double event with Susan Minot! More to come about this exciting event later.

More, please!
in list form:

Can’t and Won’t
by Lydia Davis
stories (FSG)
April 8th

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
by Haruki Murakami
(author of 1Q84)
novel (Knopf)
August 12th

Lost for Words
by Edward St. Aubyn
(author of the Patrick Melrose novels)
novel (FSG)
May 20th

Lila
by Marilynne Robinson
(author of Gilead)
novel (FSG)
fall 2014

Summer House with Swimming Pool
by Herman Koch
(author of The Dinner)
novel (Hogarth)
June 3rd

The Magician’s Land
by Lev Grossman
(author of The Magicians)
novel (Viking)
August 5th

New Life, No Instructions
by Gail Caldwell
(author of Let’s Take the Long Way Home)
memoir (Random House)
April 1st