This is a largish post… of Haul. I sold four boxes of books, got an enormous amount of store credit, and came home with… 27 new books. I am so very happy; my shelves are so very not. (Where will I put all of you, my darlings?)

I can’t in good conscience post this without a cut, so please do read on for much sci-fi and fantasy goodness, with annotations!

• The Ruby Key, Holly Lisle — By far the purchase I’m looking forward to reading the most, The Ruby Key is out a full month early and, well, Lenneth and I decided we’d believe it when we were holding it in our hot little hands. Suffice it to say, we believe it. We also both own it.
• Talyn, Holly Lisle — Another book of Holly Lisle’s I’ve been dying to read. With the sequel Hawkspar coming out in a month and change, I’d better get on it!
• Queen of Attolia, Megan Whalen Turner — With this, my Attolia collection is complete. The middle book of the series, I found it poignant and highly enjoyable. Definitely itching for a reread, but with the 40-odd books I now have in my TBR pile/shelf/area… maybe next year. Heh.
• The Hero and the Crown, Robin McKinley — I have The Blue Sword but not the aforelinked prequel.
• Heart of Light, Sarah A. Hoyt — Lenneth pointed this out to me. An alternate-history Victorian fantasy set in a magical British Empire.
• The New Space Opera, Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan (Editors) — An anthology worth having, if you like space opera. Great story by Robert Silverberg in there.
• The Serpent and the Rose, Kathleen Bryan — Another book I learned about via Lenneth, and one I’ve obsessed about previously here. Magic is worked in the form of jeweled glass. What more needs to be said?
• Alphabet of Thorn, Patricia A. McKillip — Here we get into my massive purchasing of all quality paperbacks McKillip…. Alphabet of Thorn deals with the translator of a magical language.
• Od Magic, Patricia A. McKillip — Magic gardening in a school of wizardry.
• Harrowing the Dragon, Patricia A. McKillip — A short story collection with a beautiful cover. (Of course, all the covers are beautiful.)
• Solstice Wood, Patricia A. McKillip — Her most recent work; one I needed for the Mythopoeic Challenge.
• Winter Rose, Patricia A. McKillip — I’ve read this one but it was fantastic and I wanted to own it.
• In the Forests of Serre, Patricia A. McKillip — Bought this one used, know nothing about it.
• His Majesty’s Dragon, Naomi Novik — First book in the Temeraire series.
• Throne of Jade, Naomi Novik — Second installment of the Temeraire series.
• Beguilement (The Sharing Knife #1), Lois McMaster Bujold — My first Bujold purchase; a fantasy with nomads and magic. The cover hooked me, I admit.
• The Golden Age, John C. Wright — Wright’s first published sci-fi series. Very interested to read him, very delighted to find the whole trilogy in great used condition.
• The Phoenix Exultant, John C. Wright — Second in the trilogy.
• The Golden Transcendance, John C. Wright — Final book of the trilogy.
• Roma Eterna, Robert Silverberg — I’ve picked this up probably ten times at Barnes & Noble. An alternate history in which the Roman Empire doesn’t fall, and becomes space-faring.
• Seventh Son, Orson Scott Card — First in the Alvin Maker series, this is another I needed for the Mythopoeic Challenge.
• Stardust, Neil Gaiman — Itching to read this; also for the Mythopoeic Challenge.
• Tamsin, Peter S. Beagle — A girl and a cat meet a ghost girl and a ghost cat in the countryside; also also for the Mythopoeic Challenge.
• The Minority Report, Philip K. Dick — A classic I want to read. Bought it in for-the-movie-release flip-top hardback form.
• The Pit Dragon Trilogy, Jane Yolen — Dragon’s Blood is one of the first fantasy books I read outside of the Inklings (Lewis, Tolkien, etc.) I didn’t realize at the time that there were two sequels, so I’m eager to reread the first and read the second two!
• The Book of Tea, Okakura Kakuzo — A Tuttle reprinting of a 1906 Japanese classic on tea and the tea cermony. Came in a charming slip-case.
• Bulfinch’s Mythology, Thomas Bulfinch — Realized after the fact that this is an abridged version. Trying to get more classic mythology and folk/fairytale resources in my library.

So there you have it. $231 in store credit, completely blown (also picked up a beautiful notebook on sale; every page is printed with a different color ink, and is labeled with the color. I love it.)