Again, I have no ratings for older books that I read at the time, and no list of books from the might have sold or given away after I read them, and I read and traded in a lot of fantasy at the Bookshelf (I still have a slip for more than $100 credit for the Bookshelf).

~ Sea Without a Shore by Sean Russell (Moontide & Magic Rise) 8/10
Avg Rating: 8.0 | read 2X | Historical Fantasy

Botany. Sea Voyages. Political Intrigue.

I need to reread this–and the Initiate Brother series.

~ Orca by Steven Brust (Vlad Taltos #7) 8/10 ^[1]
Avg Rating: 8.0 | read 2X

This is a series I picked up the early books used as I managed to find them. For the earlier books, it didn’t matter as much if you read them in order, as they jumped around in time quite a bit.

~ Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett (Discworld #19) 7/10 ^[1]
Avg Rating: 8.0 | read 2X

Yet another series I picked up the earlier books in bits and pieces as I found them in used bookstores, though there were weren’t that many Discworld books to be found (obviously). This is part of the Watch subseries.

~ The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (The Queen’s Thief #1) 9/10
Avg Rating: 9.5 | read 2X | Adventure, Young Adult

This is such a good book. I’ve given it to many of the small people in my life.

~ The Dragonstone by Dennis McKiernan (Mithgar) 7/10
Epic Fantasy

Honestly, this is one of my least favorite books in the Mithgar series. The Eye of the Hunter and Voyage of the Fox Rider I liked far more, as they were well past when he was finding his own voice and not writing his own Lord of the Rings, and more about the hero’s journey and less about the horrors of war.

~ The Golden Key by Melanie Rawn, Jennifer Roberson, Kate Elliot  7/10 ^[1]
Historical Fantasy

I remember little about this book except the Renaissance and a painting.

~ The Wood Wife by Terri Windling  8/10
Urban Fantasy

I picked this up because I love Datlow and Windling anthologies. I remember it having the feel of a Charles de Lint, except in the desert. I feel like I’ve also conflated it with another book set in the desert… unfortunately, a search for that book led to nothing. Either it was a book I no longer have or it is this book that had the desert washes, which I hadn’t known anything about previously.

~ Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb (The Farseer Trilogy #2)
Epic Fantasy

I have a surprisingly larger number of books with assassins as their main characters. I loved this series when I read it, then didn’t like the Trader Ships series at all, then I stopped reading epic fantasy all together.

~ Book of Words by J.V. Jones: A Man Betrayed (#2), Master and Fool (#3)
Epic Fantasy

I have the first book in the series as mass market paperback, the second as large format paperback, and the third as hardback. So I obviously enjoyed it, but remember nothing about it.

~ The Outspoken Princess and the Gentle Knight: A Treasury of Modern Fairy Tales by Jack D. Zipes
Fairy Tales, Anthology

~ The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars by Steven Brust
Urban Fantasy, Folklore

~ Return to Avalon edited by by Jennifer Roberson
Fantasy, Anthology

^[1] I likely read this at least once before 2004.

30 years ago is way before I started blogging what I read, so I have no ratings for older books that I read at the time. Also, no list of books from the late 90s I might have sold or given away after I read them, so I’ve got a handful of books I still have in paper and a vague notion of whether I read them or not.

Obviously, books I picked up backlist–or picked up a second copy as an ebook or audio book and read later are easier to quantify.

~ Shadows of the Heart by Tracy Grant (The Lescaut Quartet #3) 9/10
Avg Rating: 8.8 | read 3X | Historical, Romance

The first book I read in the series was the second, then this one, then the fourth, then finally the first. What stands out about this story is the woman is pregnant and has amnesia.

~ Chance by Robert B. Parker (Spenser #23) 8.5
Avg Rating: 8.5 | read 2X | Private Eye ^[1]

This is the book prior to where I began reading the Spenser series. I remember regularly scanning the shelves of used book stories for more of this series.

This is also the first book where Spenser essentially stops aging–there are no references to him having fought in Korea or fighting Joe Wolcott in this book or any book after.

~ The King’s Bishop by Candace Robb (Owen Archer #4) 8/10
Avg Rating: 7.8 | read 2X | Historical

~ Acqua Alta by Donna Leon (Commissario Guido Brunetti #5) 8/10
Avg Rating: 7.3 | read 3X | Police

This is quite early on in the series, which is why I read it multiple times. At some point I gave up on rereading the entire series and just read new stories as they came out.

~ Captiva by Randy Wayne White (Doc Ford #4) 8/10

This series and the Elvis Cole series I read after I broke my ankle and needed distractions from the post-surgery misery. I remember very little about it except science and ex spy. I think.

~ Sunset Express by Robert Crais (Elvis Cole #6)
Avg Rating: 8.5 | read 2X | Private Eye

This started off wanting to be like Spenser, but soon Elvis Cole became his own thing. And like the Spenser series, Elvis and Joe Pike stopped aging several books in.

~ A Test of Wills by Charles Todd (Inspector Ian Rutledge #1) 7/10
Avg Rating: 7.0 | read 2X | Historical, Police

This is one of the first mystery series I read set in the aftermath of the Great War, and it kicked of a kind of horrid fascination with the war and the years around it.

~ Let it Bleed by Ian Rankin (Inspector Rebus #7) 8/10 (1995)

~ Watery Grave by Bruce Alexander (Sir John Fielding #3) 7/10 ^[2]
Historical | Police

Bow Street runners with one of the main characters being one of the magistrates who founded the runners.

~ Killer Pancake Diane Mott Davidson (Goldy Bear Culinary Mystery #5) 7/10 ^[1]

~ The Kindness of Strangers Julie Smith (Skip Langdon #6)
Police

~ Lying in Wait J.A. Jance (J.P. Beaumont #12)

~ Dead to Rights J.A. Jance (Joanna Brady #4)

I know I searched for used copies of all the J.A. Jance books I could find, so I likely read this series out of order as I picked up what books I could get my hands on. I’m guessing I read both of these but am honestly not sure one way or the other.

^[1] I probably read this at least once before 2004.

^[2] I want to reread this, but the first books are not available except in paper, at least as far as I can find.