Bona Fide: Living in a Fantasy World?

Beside the work on this blog we get requests for interviews, guest post, and other fun stuff. John over at Grasping for the Wind has an interesting feature called Inside the blogosphere. For the latest edition he asked other bloggers the following question: "If you could live in an SF/Fantasy/Horror world, in which one would you live? Why?" - Alec was asked too, so read his and other great answers: Inside the Blogosphere: Living in a Fantasy World Part 1.

When I started to write this post I asked myself what my answer would be. Upon significant reflection, there are several worlds in which I would live. But there is only one which came up first in my mind, and this world is described in The Last Rune series by Mark Anthony. This six volume series is set in... two worlds: The Earth and the magic otherworld of Eldh. It is the story of two earthlings - saloonkeeper Travis Wilder and ER doctor Grace Beckett - and their allies in both worlds. The Earth is like our earth in the nineties. Eldh is a medieval-style world full of myths and runecraft and has secretly coexisted beside Earth for millennia. I must admit I have a foible for connected worlds. I would like to live there, where you get magic abilities when you move from Earth to Eldh, and you become involved in a fight between good and evil. I still have a relationship to Travis Wilder and Grace Beckett, and I really want to meet them and their allies.

The books are still available. I own the German edition which has been split into 12 books!!

1. Beyond The Pale (1998) [US] [UK]
Travis Wilder and Grace Beckett live in Colorado. They are separately transported to Eld where they little by little discover their talents for magic. It does not take long and they are in th middle of a confrontation between good and evil.

2. The Keep of Fire (1999) [US] [UK]
Travis Wilder returns to Eldh in order to locate the source of a plague which has emerged on earth. Gace Beckett tries to combat the plague by combining medicine from earth with magic from Eldh and discovers an ancient conspiracy.

3. The Dark Remains (2001) [US] [UK]
Grace and Travis return to earth in order to seek medical aid for a good Eldish friend who has been seriously wounded by a Necromancer. It does not take long and they stumble across a new enemy.

4. Blood of Mystery (2002) [US] [UK]
Travis and Grace have been separated. On Eldh the ancient evil arouse in shape of the Pale King. Grace returns to Eldh and tries to find the key weapon against the Pale King. Meanwhile Travis must face life in the Old Wild West because he has been catapulted back in time by a demon.

5. The Gates of Winter (2003) [US][UK]
On Earth Travis fights against another strong enemy who somehow connected to Eldh, where Grace levies an army for the final fight against the Pale King.

6. The First Stone (2004) [US][UK]
The greatest challenge for Grace and Travis.

Bona Fide: Weekly Roundup #28

Hello and welcome to a new issue of my weekly roundup. This is the last one week before my holiday, and every year, the same thing happens. Since I work as a programmer, as soon as people get wind of my holiday, I receive a lot of urgent requests that all need to be done before I leave on Friday afternoon. So I spent more time at work this week than I would have liked--that is the reason for this shorter roundup. Enough talking. Enjoy reading.....

Weird

If you read fantasy and/or science fiction you meet a lot of weird life forms. Most of the time we forget that our planet is also home to some of those weird life forms...



Books

I'm nearly finished with the German edition of Acacia by David Anthony Durham. If I follow my list, the next book should be The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V.S. Redick. For more information just read John Ottinger's review of The Red Wolf Conspiracy or Robert Thompson's review of the The Red Wolf Conspiracy. But yesterday I received my copy of Twelve by Jasper Kent. For more information checkout Robert Thompson's review of Twelve or Dave Brendon's review of Twelve. And to be honest I am favoring Twelve. Vampires in old Russia are hard to beat... I will let you know me decision in my next roundup.

Blogosphere

Would you like to have a visual overview about new and forthcoming fantasy books combined with additional information? Then I recommend to visit Fantasy Literature - New and forthcoming fantasy novels. Click the link and you will understand why I spoke about a visual overview...

In case you want a brief monthly overview of what's new on the scene, then have a look at Fantasy Book Critic - Spotlight on July 2009 Books. Older spotlights are still available and worth digging through.

Movies

In the past roundups I presented you a lot of dark and/or action orientated movies. I think now the time has come to show you something more on the funny side--even if we have to wait until November for the release of Planet 51. Hmm, that title reminds me of Area 51... I don't want to keep you waiting any longer. Here's the trailer...




Quote

This week I chose a quote in memory of all people who need way too much time to explain something...

"The shortest distance between two points is always under construction."

Noelie Alito