onceup8200It’s that time of year again. The daffodils are out, the sun is (occasionally) shining and Carl’s Once Upon a Time challenge is with us again for the eighth (blimey) time, running from 21st March t0 21st June.

This year I’m going to attempt Quest the First, described thusly:

Read at least 5 books that fit somewhere within the Once Upon a Time categories. They might all be fantasy, or folklore, or fairy tales, or mythology…or your five books might be a combination from the four genres.

I looked back at my previous attempts at this challenge and am mildly appalled at the number of books on previous lists that I have come nowhere near to starting (let alone finishing) and have come up with a mixed list of new titles and old selections and one re-read:

  • The Boy with the Cuckoo Clock Heart by Mathias Malzieu – “a dark and tender fairytale spliced with devilish humour”
  • On Becoming a Fairy Godmother by Sara Maitland – “breathes new life into old legends and brings the magic of myth back into modern women’s lives”
  • Voice of our Shadow by Jonathan Carroll – “blending fairy tale, drama, magic realism and occult horror”
  • Fairest of All by Serena Valentino – a tale of the wicked queen
  • The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson – “Thor has broken the sword Tyrfing so that it cannot strike at the toots of Yggdrasil etc. – elves, trolls, ice-giants, changelings and so on

I also plan to re-read The Songs of Earth and Power by Greg Bear which I remember as hugely impressive and have always wanted to revisit.

Will be great fun.

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