I buy very few things sight-unseen. Two notable exceptions are Harry Dresden novels by Jim Butcher and fantasy novels by Raymond E. Feist. Both guilty pleasures, I anxiously await the latest installment in these sagas (well, saga may be too strong for these books, but the novels do create one long continuity in each case).
Harry Dresden is the only professional wizard practicing openly (complete with an ad in the Yellow Pages) in the Chicago area. Unfortunately for him, he’s one of those people that fate continues to kick in the privates. If anything weird or evil is going to happen, it’ll happen to or near Harry Dresden.
Raymond Feist’s novels of Midkemia span several hundred years, and I’ve followed them all from year one. Feist has a rare ability to create a sweeping fantasy saga that can immediately draw you in and make you feel invested in the lives of the characters, and later their children and their children’s children. Short on undecipherable dialects and pretentious characters, I find them easy to enter and quick to ensnare my imagine.
In the past two weeks, the latest works from both gentlemen arrived in my mail box. These two novels will be how I spend my leisure reading over the next week or two:
Like I said – guilty pleasures both.
-kingfish
These are paper books, right? Not eBooks?
Yep. I buy ’em hot off the presses, sight unseen. Although yes, the ebooks are usually available the same day the hardcover is released.