The Warded Man - Peter V. Brett (Demon Cycle Series, Bk 1)

19 August 2015
Great, great, great book! This one came off an online list, but was also concurrently recommended to me from a fellow grad student.
Good fight scenes. Good angst. Good character design. Good visuals. This would also make a superb movie, just so long as they stick to the book.
All the components of a good, solid, entertaining book, but the one aspect of it that really got to me was even when human lives directly depended on it, people were exceptionally poor at retaining the hard-won knowledge over the ages. There are holes all over the colosseum in Rome because people lost the knowledge of how to create the metals that they still used and needed but couldn't even make themselves anymore. I honestly do fear that this will happen again in history. Some of our current politicians make me particularly nervous with their blind clinging to ideas and ideologies that simply don't work in real life.
But enough of that: Read this book!

Fire - Kristin Cashore (Seven Kingdoms Trilogy, Bk. 2)

11 August 2015
I do really like this author. In both books I have read of hers, she strikes a good balance between sweet and lively.
This book takes place in a different kingdom than the previous with people of a different type of talent. The title character, Fire, is the last of her kind, a sort of super-predator variant of humans. Everywhere she goes, the mere sight of her drives people mad, either with lust or envy or horror. Consequently, she often hides herself and her most outlandish characteristic, her vibrantly, flame-colored hair.  Not to sound pompous, but I can kinda relate given the attention I draw down here in south Texas.
Regardless, again, simply a good and interesting book. Certainly one I would recommend to people.