Lacking Natural Simplicity

Essential Russian Mythology, by Pyotr Simonov; Thorsons/HarperCollins, 1997. Interesting, if brief, overview of surviving elements of ancient Russian mythology and legendry.

Here Be Dragons, by Sharon Kay Penman, copyright 1985; Ballantine, 1993. Very good historical fiction. I really should find the other books in this series, Falls the Shadow and The Reckoning, and her other book The Sunne in Splendour.

Sacred Flesh, by Robin D. Laws; copyright Games Workshop Limited, 2004; Black Library, 2004. This is the second of Laws' Angelika Fleischer novels set in the Warhammer world; like a lot of them it's a bit over the top in places. I'm not sure whether I'll look for Honour of the Grave or not.

The Death of Chaos, by L.E. Modesitt, Jr, copyright 1995; Tor, 1996. Modesitt's Recluce continue to entertain and intrigue, in this, the 5th of the series.

The Coming of Conan The Cimmerian, by Robert E. Howard; Del Rey, December 2003. It's surprising how much difference it makes, reading these Conan stories as Howard originally wrote them, in the order he wrote them, without the surrounding dross of the later posthumous “collaborations” that obscure them in the, till now, only easily obtainable editions. It's been years since I've read the 12 books in the Carter/De Camp version of the Conan saga, but I can already tell the this book is one that I'll return to reread much more often.

Lens of the World, by R.A. MacAvoy; Avon, June 1991. This book and its two sequels, below, are some of the books that I return to time and time again.

King of the Dead, by R.A. MacAvoy; AvaNova/Avon, December 1992.

The Belly of the Wolf, by R.A. MacAvoy; AvaNova/Avon, Februrary 1995.