Stuff I enjoyed reading...cheap or free

A blog post about reading, yippee!

I've been a long-standing Amazon Prime subscriber, and really enjoy the free monthly Kindle book I get. I generally don't pay for brands, unless it's secondhand or damn cheap! Amazon works just fine for me, as I think the Kindle is a fantastic, low-cost well-built device. I regret not plunking down an extra $40 for the backlit Paperwhite, but I digress. I want to write a really short blip about some of the books I've read over the last few years. These books were free checkouts from the Prime Lender's Library.

Reader's disclaimer that I tend to remember the characters rather than the over-arching plots.

The Rho Agenda trilogy by Richard Phillips is about 3 high schoolers who find a crashed alien ship. They gain powers and become heroes. The books are awesome and very exciting to read, though I don't remember who or what exactly the antagonist is. Two of the characters are brother and sister, and I liked the coming to terms with how strong they were and learning when not to help. I'd recommend these books, though.

Looks...hot!

Whispers from Mirrowen trilogy by Jeff Wheeler. I read a lot of fantasy, and really appreciate when magic has a cost. In video games, this is mana; for vampires, blood; in Mirrowen, it's sanity. Some characters in this series can control fire, as they lose control of both their minds and the fire. Another big part of this are the dryads - tree spirits who enter the human realm through trees which they are bound to. The characters' dangerous journey to save a dryad and then the world are pretty cool, but I mostly liked how the characters dealt with their challenges. Also, the Legends of Muirwood trilogy by the same author, and a pretty good read.

Yeah...something like that, but more modern.

Witching Savannah by JD Horn is about modern witches in the South. The main character is the forgotten, no-magic-having shadow to her sister, who's been groomed to be the next great witch in the large family. The third book gets a bit weird with a plot twist, but the magic definitely evolves as you go through the books. My favorite character started off as an avatar created by a conglomerate of powerful witches. This human-like golem starts off as a way for its creators to participate in important meetings from afar, but this character ends up evolving into a more complex being with its own feelings.

I want to read The Chronos Files series by Rysa Walker again. It had time travel and an awesome sense of adventure, but I think I got lost in the plot because I took too long reading the books. I really liked the story here, but honestly can't recall what it was about. But time travel is awesome, so read these books!

I thought of Warhammer while reading Frontlines.

Marko Kloos' Frontlines trilogy was an easy read about a planetary soldier who fights aliens who are clearly winning against humanity. The world has been divided up to Western forces versus Sino-Russians. As the two sides of humanity are duking it out over Mars and other colonies, they are periodically attacked and decimated by giant aliens who are able to undo humanity's progress very quickly, with superior technology and firepower. I really liked the battles, the military talk, and the author's imagination on what will happen to earth in a couple hundred years.

My absolute favorite read in the last few years has been the Traveler's Gate series by Will Wight. These books have my favorite things about the fantasy/magic genre. Will Wight's universe is awesome: there are 8 territories with different magic, properties, and creatures. One of them is a snowy desert with vicious, hairy, hellions that look like moving piles of snow. Another territory is on a lightning-stormy wasteland with flying lizards and other scary things. The main character Simon ends up in a strange territory that's a very large house with trapped rooms, insanely powerful weapons, and creatures trying to kill him behind every door. Another character from this "House of Blades" talks to these magic dolls, which help him fight and provide both quips and counsel. This trilogy had funny, engaging characters, a creative setting, and an awesome sense of progression. I would have no problem paying for future books from this author.

These are Warcraft characters, but remind me of some characters in Traveler's Gate.