Bibliotropic

The Broken Kingdoms, by N K Jemisin

2012-02-23T10:00:00.011-04:00

Buy from Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or IndieBound

Author's website
Publication date - November 3, 2010

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) In the city of Shadow, beneath the World Tree, alleyways shimmer with magic and godlings live hidden among mortalkind. Oree Shoth, a blind artist, takes in a strange homeless man on an impulse. This act of kindness engulfs Oree in a nightmarish conspiracy. Someone, somehow, is murdering godlings, leaving their desecrated bodies all over the city. And Oree's guest is at the heart of it...

Thoughts: Picking up where Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms left off, The Broken Kingdoms continues the story of the gods and the world they inhabit, but through the eyes of a new character, Oree Shoth. Oree is blind and yet no less competent and capable for her lack of sight, with a sharp sense of wit and a good dose of compassion to go with it.

It took a bit of getting used to Oree as the first-person narrator, since in many places her tone was quite similar to Yeine's in the first book of the trilogy. It was a little bit frustrating at times, but as the book progressed, it was easy to see how Oree and Yeine stood on their own as unique characters in their own rights. They weren't without their similarities and parallels, however, the least of which being the style in which they narrate. Though Yeine did have more of a habit of getting sidetracked than Oree did. It's interesting that they both have a real purpose in narrating the way they do, though, unlike many books that are written from the first-person viewpoint. Where Yeine had more of a stream-of-consciousness thing going on in places, trying to piece everything together while half conveying the story to the essence of Enefa inside her, Oree is narrating the story for her unborn child. And yes, I did just spoiler you with that comment. Still, it's worth pointing out as a comparison to the sheer amount of first-person POV novels around these days, because while most of them stick to that perspective as a way to get the reader to relate more to the protagonist, the method of narration itself is a part of the story here, adding another little bit of depth to the story as a whole.

I also found it interesting that where the gods are major players in the first book, here they appear mostly as cameos. There are a few exceptions, of course, but most of them are characters that weren't mentioned in the first book, or who only made brief appearances themselves.

Though I confess to a thrill of glee when Nahadoth was around. I've got a real soft spot for him. And Sieh. They're quite possibly my favourite characters in the series thus far, and I'm glad they got a little bit of screentime here, so to speak.

Jemisin weaves a wonderfully complimentary story in this book, expanding on what she established in The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and once again doing an amazing job of making the gods real and accessible, understandable and yet still apart from humanity. I enjoyed the chance to get to know Itempas as something other than a distant and controlling mythological figure. Here, he's as real and touchable as any other character, equally as flawed, and in some ways just as much a sympathetic character as any of the gods were while they were bound and chained. The issue and history of the demons was also quite fascinating, and something I hadn't expected to see dealt with. But weaving around all these issues was the equally intriguing and terrifyingly simple concept of nobody being as dangerous as a madman with a vision and the power to carry it out. It all combined into a smoothly-paced adventure that kept me turning pages at a fierce rate, seeing how it would all play out.

The hardest part about writing this review is that if I took the time to talk about everything I enjoyed about it, every scene and section that I loved, then I'd essentially have to rewrite the entire book. Aside from some intial trepidation about the narrative tone before I settled into Oree as a character, this book was simply fantastic, and pinning down the best parts of it is exceedingly difficult.

Many people told me that if I enjoyed the first book of the trilogy, then I would love this one even more. I'm not sure if I enjoy it more, but it certainly ranks just as high as the previous book did, and makes me hungry for the last one, to see how it all ties together. Jemisin is a masterful storyteller who isn't to be missed, and if you haven't read any of her works thus far, then I heartily recommend this trilogy. You won't be disappointed.

Hark! A Vagrant, by Kate Beaton

2012-02-20T10:00:00.001-04:00

Remember a while ago, I said I'd start doing the occasional review for graphic novels and such? Well, here's my perfect chance to start, with Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant! collection.

Buy from Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or IndieBound
Hark! A Vagrant webcomic
Publication date - September 27, 2011

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) Hark! A Vagrant takes readers on a romp through history and literature—with dignity for few and cookies for all—with comic strips about famous authors, their characters, and political and historical figures, all drawn in Kate Beaton’s pared-down, excitable style. This collection features favorite stories as well as new, previously unpublished content. Whether she’s writing about Nikola Tesla, Napoleon, or Nancy Drew, Beaton brings a refined sense of the absurd to every situation.

In just four years, Beaton has taken the comics world by storm with her non sequiturs, cheeky comebacks, and irreverent punch lines. With 1.2 million monthly hits on her site—500,000 of them unique—and comics appearing in Harper’s Magazine, the National Post, and The New Yorker, her caricatures of historical and fictional figures filtered through a contemporary lens display a sharp, quick wit that knows no bounds.

Thoughts: Kate Beaton's comic started years ago as a little webcomic, poking fun at historical figures and events. Then it grew. And grew. And eventually grew enough to have a book containing some of the best of her comics.

The question many people I'm sure will be asking is, "Why go out and buy a book when you can read the comics for free on the website?" And really, that's a good question. Ultimately, it comes down to support for a Canadian artist doing what she loves to do. Also, you're not just getting cheap prints of the comics. You're also getting additional (and often hilarious) commentary, which, in my mind, is well worth the price of the book.

I can say with certainty that not every comic in this book will appeal to everyone. Most of them are historical in nature, and unless you're a history buff, there are going to be jokes you don't fully appreciate. However, Beaten draws and writes them in such a way that you don't always need to know the actual history in order to get some humour out of the situations and the dialogue. She makes history not only approachable, but funny, and considering most people think of history as a bunch of boring dates and events in far-off and unrelatable places, this can do wonders to get people interested in history in the first place.

But not everything is based on history. She also pokes fun at old book covers, and comic book characters. Those, at the very least, can be appreciated by a wider audience than the history jokes.

If you're a fan of the webcomic, or just interested in a humourous approach to the history that you learned and forgot in high school, then I definitely recommend checking out Beaton's work. Her use of clean lines and shading suit the style of humour well, and there's no denying that this woman has talent!

In My Mailbox

2012-02-18T10:00:00.001-04:00

This week's In My Mailbox features... nothing. I actually didn't get any books this past week. I thought I'd gotten one from NetGalley, but evidently the publisher archived the title a bare 30 seconds after approving me for a copy, so I'm guessing that was some sort of glitch. A touch disappointing, but I shall persevere.

So, because I didn't get anything, you now all have to entertain me with what you received this past week. Come on, I want to know what I'm missing!

You just said the magic words

2012-02-17T10:00:00.001-04:00

Does that say what I think it does?

Ninja Versus Pirate Featuring Zombies, by James Marshall. I mean, let's face it. If someone walked up to you and offered you a book with that title, wouldn't just be intrigued simply from the sheer amount of geek-culture buzzwords in the title alone?

While this isn't the book for me (zombies... still never going to stop being terrified of them), that doesn't mean I won't give it a little publicity. It sounds hilarious, and this is one case where I really wish I could handle zombies better, because I want to give this book a try.

It's due out on May 15, 2012. Don't forget to preorder yourself a copy.

Ninja Versus Pirate Featuring Zombies is part Napoleon Dynamite, part The Matrix, and ALL AWESOME. It's the first book in the How To End Human Suffering series.

Erebos, by Ursula Poznanski

2012-02-16T10:00:00.001-04:00

Buy from Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or IndieBound

Author's website
Publication date - January 19, 2012

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) An intelligent computer game with a disturbing agenda.

When 16-year-old Nick receives a package containing the mysterious computer game Erebos, he wonders if it will explain the behavior of his classmates, who have been secretive lately. Players of the game must obey strict rules: always play alone, never talk about the game, and never tell anyone your nickname.

Curious, Nick joins the game and quickly becomes addicted. But Erebos knows a lot about the players and begins to manipulate their lives. When it sends Nick on a deadly assignment, he refuses and is banished from the game.

Now unable to play, Nick turns to a friend for help in finding out who controls the game. The two set off on a dangerous mission in which the border between reality and the virtual world begins to blur. This utterly convincing and suspenseful thriller originated in Germany, where it has become a runaway bestseller.

Thoughts: I'm a sucker for books involving video games that are more than they first seem, I've discovered. Not sure why. But regardless, when I first read the description of Poznanski's novel, I couldn't resist giving it a read. It seemed made for someone like me.

The story follows Nick, a London teen who starts to notice his friends acting secretively, discussing issues they won't let him hear. Or rather, not discussing, but hinting at them, making it clear that there's something going on that Nick can't be a part of. Eventually he's let in on the secret - a video game. A video game with fantastic graphics, an amazing ability to react to player input, and a strange set of rules. Don't mention your real name in the game. Don't mention your game name in the real world. Don't let anybody see you play. And by the way, want to go up levels and become stronger? Then do this favour for me, a favour which involves you doing something in the real world. Or checking that somebody else followed their orders. Or poison your teacher who has been making his disdain of the game known quite publically.

At first, Nick sees no problems with his orders. Little things here and there, they aren't a big problem. But when the orders go to far, he backs out, and is expelled from the game, and starts instead dedicating his efforts to finding out why the game is asking for all of these things, and what it's all leading up to. The answer is more sinister than he could have guessed.

At first, I wasn't sure I'd actually end up enjoying this novel as much as I did. The storytelling was nothing special, except for the places where it seemed almost clumsy in its execution. I didn't really care what buttons Nick was pushing to get his on-screen character to perform certain actions. But reading on, that clumsiness actually served a purpose, which was demonstrating the depths to which Nick gets invested in the game of Erebos. At first, he's a guy sitting and pushing buttons at his computer, trying to figure things out. Then the game-time events start being described more from the point of view of his character, the descriptions get more detailed. In reflection, what first seemed like poor writing or translation actually ended up serving as a good contrast to what was to come. So my best advice if you're interested in this book is to wait a little while before deciding it's not worth it. It definitely does pick up.

Also interesting was the sheer level of addictive behaviour that the players experienced. Agressive reactions at having their secret uncovered, loss of sleep in order to play the game, social withdrawal, and begging to be let back in once they were no longer allowed to participate. The drug and addiction metaphor wasn't exactly subtle, but it was effective, and it was interesting to see Nick change from a curious and fairly normal teenager to an agressive person who pushed away his friends in favour of the game. In spite of the transformation, he was still able to recognize when enough was enough, and felt remorse for his actions once he was no longer under the game's influence.

Happily, this book wasn't a diatribe against games and social gaming. Had it been, I probably would have been this down before reaching the end.

Ultimately, this was a well-told tale, one that was entertaining and fast-paced, able to bring out a sense of curiousity in the reader to keep them turning pages to see just what will happen next. It wasn't without its flaws, as sometimes the writing seemed a little flat and distant from the characters and events (especially toward the beginning of the book, where it felt a lot like the author was struggling a little to get the feel of the characters she was writing), but as it went on, it improved tremendously, and was very enjoyable. Another fine piece of gamer fiction, one that I'm glad was translated for the English-speaking world to enjoy.

(received for review from the publisher via NetGalley.)

The White Gryphon, by Mercedes Lackey

2012-02-14T10:00:00.007-04:00

Buy from Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or IndieBound

Author's website
Publication date - March 1, 1996

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) The Wite Gryphon is Skandranon,the Black Gryphon, who has returned to his natural plumage now that the time of war is at an end. He has taken his people, gryphons and human allies alike, to the coast where they have built an eyrie city in the cliffside. But though the troubles from without have pretty much ceased, wherever there are communities of people, there will be mavericks and rogues with agendas of their own. In exiling one such, a doctor using his patients for his own ends, Skandranon and White Gryphon's ruling council begin a sequence of events that threatens the future of their entire city.

Thoughts: It's been a while since I've done any work on the Great Valdemar Reread, but now I'm back at it. Can't let these books languish, after all!

The White Gryphon is the second book of the Mage Wars trilogy, set back in Velgarth's prehistory. The war itself has ended. Urtho and Ma'ar have been destroyed, and the Kaled'a'in have wandered far to find a new home. Finally they've found it, and built into cliff the city they would go on to call White Gryphon, in honour of Skandranon's new magic-bleached colouring. That's where this book begins.

It doesn't stay there long. Most of the book takes place in the lands of the Haighlei, a race of very dark-skinned people from the south, who have a very rigid and intriguing culture. Change can only come when the gods will it, and the opportunity is always at the height of a solar eclipse. Which, coincidentally, is shortly after the White Gryphon envoys make their first appearance at the court of King Shalaman. But diplomatic relations aren't the only thing they have to worry about. Soon after their arrival, a madman starts visiously murdering members of Shalaman's court, casting suspicion on the newcomers.

A very typical point of politic intrigue in fantasy novels, but Lackey makes it interesting nevertheless, especially in the setting of a new and -- to those from White Gryphon -- bafflingly rigid culture.

The tale is told as Lackey tells many of her stories from the Valdemar series - with shifting viewpoints so that we get to see into the mind of nearly every major player in the story. While that does allow us access to information and insight into the characters, it does make it so that very little comes as a surprise, and unfortunately worked against the attempt to build tension. At first the reader isn't sure who's committing the murders. Then we're told. Then the only issue becomes how and when is the murderer going to be caught. But even then, if you've read any of Lackey's novels in the past, you can pretty much predict the 'when' of that, because of Lackey's love of happy endings. I love a happy ending as much as the next person, and it can be nice to read things where you know everything will turn out all right in the end, but when you're trying to build tension and mystery, that style doesn't work quite so well.

My main beef with this story is the sheer amount of suspension of disbelief you have to use in order to make all the pieces fit. First, a madman is cast out of White Gryphon, left in the wilds with only a couple of weapons, and common sense dictates that he's probably going to die, since the lands are warped and wild and he's just barely equipped to try to handle them. But somehow he travels south in safety, ending in the very same city that Amberdrake and Skan and the rest eventually go. He has no reason to go there. Nobody knows that the Haighlei kingdoms even exist in that area until after he's removed from the city. And he also has vowed revenge against Amberdrake and the other citizens of White Gryphon, which would have been better served by staying in the area. It's an awful stretch of the imagination to think that they all ended up in the same place at the same time like that, and that thought nagged at me from the moment that he is revealed as the killer.

But while that is an awfully big pill to swallow, some of it was made up for by the interesting culture that Lackey set up when she created the Haighlei. I've always said that one of Lackey's strongest suits is world- and culture-building, and it shows quite well here. She's written numerous stories with a fish-out-of-water element to them, but rarely is it on such a grand scale, and it was fun to read about everybody getting baffled by everybody else.

So while this book did have one major fault that I just can't overlook, on the whole it was still written well, with the same smooth and engaging tone that I've come to expect whenever I read any of Lackey's works. This isn't particularly an essential book to the Velgarth/Valdemar books as a whole, since I believe the Haighlei get mentioned in maybe one or two other places besides this, and the Kaled'a'in disappear from history for centuries anyway, but essential or not, it was still a good read, and not one that I would voluntarily skip over.

The Woman in Black movie review

2012-02-12T10:00:00.010-04:00

Yesterday, I went to go see The Woman in Black in theatres. Now, please keep in mind during this review that I have not read the book, and thus comments such as, "That was explained in the book," or "The book did it better," may well be true, but I did not know them at the time of watching, nor will I base my opinion of the movie on them. That being said, let me get into the meat of things.

The set-up is an interesting one. Old-timey setting, interesting little introduction scene of three children leaping to their deaths, revelation of family tragedy of the main character, Arthur Kipps, and then he's whisked away to a backwater village in order to sort out a legal matter. The matter isn't, to the best of my memory, fully explained - he's there to double-check some information in a mountain of paperwork inside an old manor-house, so the assumption is that whoever lived there recently died and there's a dispute of ownership. However, he gets there and finds that everything is covered in dust and cobwebs, and people in the village mention that no one has lived there in years. Perhaps some connecting piece of imformation was mentioned and I just didn't catch it, I'm not sure.

Anyway, as the story goes on, Kipps finds himself seeing unpleasant things in the house. A spectral figure of a woman in black, of course. Things moving. Shadows and figures darting about. Typical horror movie fare. And in the village, people are hostile to him, urging him to leave, and then blaming him for the children who seem to start dying shortly after his arrival. And let's not forget the woman who believes she's channeling the spirit of her deceased son and scratches the image of a hanged woman into the table in front of him. There's a mystery to be solved!

Rather than have the main character get goaded into solving the mystery and vanquishing the ghost in a determined fashion, I was actually happy to see him demonstrate some very real fear. I'm always happy to see characters act fearful, because, well, those events are creepy, and evoke fear! Having them get determined and with a set jaw is all well and good, but let's be honest; it's a minority of people who face threats like that with nothing but anger at the violation of their personal space.

The movie was tremendously atmospheric, building a great deal of tension as the scenes went on. Unfortunately, a good deal of the tension was ruined by bog-standard jump-scares and overdone creepy imagery. The woman in black has a distorted face beyond her blach veil, skin mottled and dead, which, frankly, didn't need to be done to make her scary to the audience. The effect of her standing shadow-like and quiet in a corner did far more to get my heart racing than the times she leapt screaming at the camera when her face was clear. The creepy images of old toys moving of their own accord (especially that doll with the pointed teeth - who in hell makes something like that!?) lingers in my mind more than the sound of that scream. It was overdone in some places, and while yes, I did jump at all the right times, I was hoping for more subtle scares.

It reminded me a bit of The Ring, the North American version of the Japanese movie Ringu (if you haven't seen either, I recommend you do). Dead people were found with their faces warped in fear, pale and greenish and partially rotting. Someone had asked the producers of the movie if they did that as a representation of what a person would look like after spending 7 days underwater, as Samara had in the well. The reply was, "No, we just thought it looked creepy." Creepy, but pointless, and ultimately not what people will remember.

The only other thing that bothered me about the movie were the appearances of all the dead children that the woman in black had taken. Kipps sees them at night, in the house, surrounding it silently and being very creepy about it. Effective as a scare, but why were they there? The only thing that makes sense to me is that they were there, at the house, because that's where the woman was, and just as she had taken their lives now she wouldn't let them go even in death. But that doesn't tally with the ending of the movie, when the woman in black lures the Kipps's son onto the railroad tracks, and both the son and Kipps die. They presence of the Kipps's dead wife, glowing and dressed in white as a contrast to the darkness, signify that nope, when you die you can move on even if the woman is the one who lures you to your death. So why were the children there? Coming up with an explanation requires some mind-twisting that goes beyond the context of the movie, and ultimately I can only conclude that the children were there mostly to creep the audience out again.

But in spite of its flaws, the story and the atmosphere of this movie were commendable, and it was highly effective at scaring the living crap out of me. It's definitely intrigued me enough to want to read the book (the review of which will likely be coming later this month, as there's now a copy of it that I have access to). I rate this movie 4 out of 5 teacups, since that's how many I'll need to drink to calm down before going to sleep.

In My Mailbox

2012-02-11T10:00:00.021-04:00

Well, after the Great Kindle Disaster I managed to recover about a third of the unread e-ARCs I'd previously had, which isn't as good as I'd hoped but still better than I thought. I'm not complaining too loudly. As much as it was awful to lose all those great books that I didn't get the chance to read, it does cut down on my TBR pile somewhat, making it look much more manageable and much less daunting.

But that isn't going to stop me from getting new books, oh no! I got a few nice ones in my mailbox this past week. Let's take a look at them.

A M Dellamonica's Blue Magic, the sequel to Indigo Springs. Which, I admit, I haven't read yet, but both books sound interesting enough that I'm going to make a point of tracking down Indigo Springs so I can give it a whirl before reading Blue Magic. Doubly looking forward to this one since it's a Tor book, and they've long been one of my favourite publishers of fantasy novels. I've got high hopes for this one!

Following on the heels of one Tor book is another, this time James Swain's Dark Magic. This one is a little outside what I normally read, being more mystery/thriller than fantasy or speculative, but it still sounds very interesting, definitely enough to grab my attention. I've heard a couple of initial impressions by others, and I think I made the right choice in requesting a copy. Fingers crossed that I'm not disappointed (though I doubt I will be, since long-time readers of this blog know that even if a book is outside my usual genres, so long as it's good, I usually enjoy it just fine).

Alienation, by Jon Lewis. This is a follow-up to a previous novel I got from the author, one that I admit I haven't read yet, but seeing this one rekindled my interest in the previous one. It's from a Christian publisher, so I am a little hesitant about it, since many of the books I've read by religious publishers, even when they're doing books of a genre I like, tend to be rather heavy-handed with the conversion attempts. Still, I won't judge a book by its publisher, and I'll wait until I've read the book before saying whether or not it was worth it.

Ghost Crown, by J Gabriel Gates and Charlene Keel. This is tagged as a dark fantasy/adventure tale, and I've heard good things about Gates's work in the past, so I couldn't resist this one when the chance came to get my grubby little mitts on it. Keel is apparently best known for her work on soap operas, so a combination of the two styles and focuses could indeed be interesting. Time will tell, but in the end, I'm quite excited to read this one. (Update - I'd be more excited about it if this wasn't yet another case of whoever uploaded it to NetGalley not bothering to say that this is book 2 in a series. Dammit!)

And that's what I got this week. Definitely some good ones to add to my collections, books I'm happy to have the chance to read, and I'm still boggled by the fact that Tor now seems to have a relationship with NetGalley so I can have a chance to read more of their books. (Any attempts I've made in the past to approach Tor for review copies have gone unanswered and/or ignored, so this makes me extremely happy!)

What did you get in your mailboxes this week? I can't wait to see!

To a time when people are people

2012-02-09T17:04:00.000-04:00

If you read anything today, take the time to read N K Jemisin's Dreaming Awake. It'll be worth every second you spend on it.

Pure, by Julianna Baggott

2012-02-09T16:38:00.000-04:00

Buy from Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or IndieBound

Author's website
Publication date - February 7, 2012

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) We know you are here, our brothers and sisters . . .

Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.

Burn a Pure and Breathe the Ash . . .

There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked. Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss-maybe just because his family is broken; his father is emotionally distant; his brother killed himself; and his mother never made it inside their shelter. Or maybe it's his claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive, Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her.

When Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again.

Thoughts: Julianna Baggott's post-apocalyptic tale is one that has been hyped in many places around the blogosphere lately, and let me tell you, it certainly does live up to that hype. It met all of my expectations and exceded them, as it didn't fall prey to so many of the tropes that I find so annoying about this genre. The story was focused on survival and revolution rather than romance, about discovering the self and shedding the past rather than finding one's way to one's soulmate. I'm not saying that there were no romantic set-ups within the story, but they weren't the ones I expected, and they were a minor thing, a couple of side-plots that were far overshadowed by the main plot. Which is, as I've mentioned in the past, just how I like it.

The story is written in the third person, which is a switch from the increasingle-popular first-person narrative, but keeps you in the moment by doing something I've only seen in a real minority of books -- it's also written in the present tense rather than the more common past-tense. This takes a bit of getting used to, but it also allows the reader to really sink into the story, to relate to characters on a level that sometimes even first-person viewpoints don't allow. Given that the viewpoint switched from chapter to chapter, this was a wonderful way to accomplish that. It's something that isn't often done, but when it is, it's done well!

The setting itself is an interesting one. There's the Dome, where the privileged few live, safe from the ravages of a nuclear apocalypse. Those outside the Dome are deformed, fused to animals or stone or pieces of whatever happened to be touching their bodies at the time the bombs detonated. And they're the lucky ones. Some have become beasts in nature as well as shape. Animals have mutated. Plants have mutated. Food and water is scarce. And to make matters worse, a military group rules society by fear. The people may not be present, but the fear of them is. But things are not as simple as they seem at first glance, and there are layers upon layers of intrigue, conspiracy, and plots on all sides. The whole thing is a proto-dystopia, that time in history after the destruction of the old way but before the dystopian attitude and structure really kicks in.

Baggott also needs to be praised for her adept handling of foreshadowing and revelation. There were very few moments where I said to myself, "I saw that coming three chapters ago." I found myself trying to put together pieces of the puzzle along with the characters, and often came to the right answer only paragraphs before they did. All the pieces fit, but they weren't glaringly obvious, and weren't set up in such a way that the only thing needed to put them together was the arrival of a new character with a new piece of information. Honestly, I think this book and its handling of mysteries could serve as an example to many authors who want to set up complex plots but who may not have the best idea on how to string everything together.

This rich and well-developped world pulled me in and didn't let me go easily. I devoured this book, page after page, and related to characters in ways I didn't expect myself to. Baggott's sharp turns of phrase and flowing observations made this book a delight to read, and I'm very happy that it's the first part of a series. I'm very much looking forward to the next book already.

I can safely say that this book is highly recommended, not just to those who enjoy YA fiction but also those who are looking for any novel with a complex and interesting world. As I said previously, the proto-dystopian setting of this book isn't one that's seen very often, and it can appeal to both fans of dystopian and post-apocalyptic tales. If you get the chance, read this book, and let it serve as an example of just how dark and mature a young adult story can be.

(Received for review from the publisher via NetGalley.)

Free Reading!

2012-02-07T12:29:00.000-04:00

A couple of good books are currently free from Amazon is you get the Kindle edition. Take advantage of these great deals while you can; it isn't every day that you can get such great books for free!

Enjoy!

The Cloud Roads, by Martha Wells

2012-02-07T12:10:00.001-04:00

Buy from Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or IndieBound

Author's website
Publication date - February 22, 2011

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) Moon has spent his life hiding what he is - a shape-shifter able to transform himself into a winged creature of flight. An orphan with only vague memories of his own kind, Moon tries to fit in among the tribes of his river valley, with mixed success. Just as Moon is once again cast out by his adopted tribe, he discovers a shape-shifter like himself... someone who seems to know exactly what he is, who promises that Moon will be welcomed into his community. What this stranger doesn't tell Moon is that his presence will tip the balance of power... that his extraordinary lineage is crucial to the colony's survival... and that his people face extinction at the hands of the dreaded Fell Now Moon must overcome a lifetime of conditioning in order to save and himself... and his newfound kin.

Thoughts: In a time where it seems the majority of fantasy is dark fantasy, it was a real blessing to come across The Cloud Roads. Far from being dark, it carries with a tone I find very similar to Mercedes Lackey's works: bright, but without being all sunshine-and-roses, if that makes any sense. The tone is light and not bogged down in making everything seem dark and gritty, but that doesn't mean it shies away from violence, from mature subjects and presentation, from rich complex characters whom you want to follow the adventures of. Reading it made me feel very much as I had when I first started reading fantasy novels, full of expectation and curiosity. It was the kind of book that made me lose track of time, a real page-turner!

Wells did a fantastic job with the world-building in this book. Where most fantasy consists of humans as the dominant race of the world, the world contained within these pages has no humans. It has ground-dwelling races with a humanoid forms, but none of them are what we would call human. Each race is new, different, each with its own distinct culture and features. There are a good many races that aren't even close to being humanoid and yet bear just as much intelligence and creativity. I want to give serious kudos to Wells for not falling into the trap of making, for example, the race of giant insectoid people as a barbaric and primative culture. Neither were the Raksura presented as the pinacle of society. They were one race among many, as were all races, and it was a treat to see this set-up done so well.

Moon was a good choice for a blank-slate protagonist, the kind who is unaware of his past and people. This gave the author a good way to explain Raksuran culture and physiology to the reader without having to make most of it part of the narrative. More than that, the information was presented naturally, subtly in places but more straightforward in others, and it worked very well. I'm a bit leery of blank-slate protagonists, as very often they're little but an excuse for the author to wax eloquent about their newest cultural creation. But in the context of the novels, info-dropping was done well. It wasn't only that the Raksura had to explain themselves to Moon, but Moon conveyed information to them about the groundling races they were ignorant of. The info-dropping went both ways, and never was it disruptive to the flow of the story.

So Wells clearly excels at world-building, culture-building, and has a fantastic ability to convey and alien world in such a way that the reader will not only find it entertaining but will also be hard-pressed not to relate in some way. But no book is perfect, and the biggest flaw I found in this one was the foreshadowing. The reveal that the Fell and the Raksura have a common ancestor came toward the very end of the book and yet was the opposite of surprising. I spent over half the book wondering alternately when somebody was finally going to mention it, and trying to figure out if I'd just blinked and missed the part where somebody already had. The fact that the poison that was supposed to work against the Fell also affected the Raksura was the big tip-off, as I'm sure it was meant to be, but the fact that no character questioned the connection frustrated me. I can understand not wanting to admit a connection to such a foul race of beings, but it wasn't even a case of denial or willfull ignorance. It simply wasn't mentioned. To me, that seemed poorly done, and out of character with the rest of the subtleties and careful construction that had been done through the rest of the novel.

Though it may seem like a relatively minor flaw, the poison was a major plot element in the novel. The fact that the Fell were trying to join with the Raksura was a big thing, as were theories that they might be able to cross-breed. Moon is presented as a sharp-minded individual who is inclined to thinkand say things that others wouldn't; for him to not have even mentioned a possible connection seemed like a poor set-up for that revelation. It bothered me, and that frustration is what made this book sink from a 5-star review to a 4.

But in spite of that, I can still say with utter certainty that this is one of the best books I've read in a very long time, and Martha Wells has found herself a new fan. I'm eyeing my copy of the sequel as we speak, wondering if I can manage to fit it into my reading schedule, because I don't want to leave that world behind that the moment. If you're looking for a richly-developped fantasy novel that's still also a nice light read, then absolutely get yourself a copy of this book. You won't be disappointed.

Literary pruning

2012-02-04T17:45:00.000-04:00

Thanks in no small part to The Great Kindle Disaster, I lost, well, a great number of my eARCs. Most of them I got from NetGalley, and the publishers archive the titles after a time, so I can't just go and redownload them.

I recovered what I could, but in the end, I managed to get back less than half of what I used to have.

Anything I couldn't get back is pretty much gone for good at this point, barring a minor miracle (or a couple of free book deals on Amazon).

So consider this my public apology to a number of authors and publishers whose books I didn't get around to reviewing. Even though I did have quite a lot of books on my backlog, and though it may have taken a while to get to them, I did have every intention of reading them and reviewing them when time permitted. So to many I owed a review to, I do apologize.

The "Received for Review" page will be updated shortly, to show what I've got left. Still plenty to keep me busy, of course, but I still do feel bad about losing all the others and not being able to give some authors the chance I had planned.

In My Mailbox

2012-02-04T10:38:00.000-04:00

Well, in spite of things breaking down, that didn't stop me from getting a couple of new books this past week. not as many as in previous weeks, but honestly, I'm kind of thankful for that at the moment.

But still, what I did get was good, and I'm happy I got it, so let's take a look.

Jill Hathaway's Slide. Due out at the end of March, Slide is the story of a narcoleptic who, upon having attacks, finds herself in the minds of others. So when she finds herself in the mind of a murderer who has just killed, well, that's when things start to get really interesting. As a YA novel, I feel this this is one of those stories that could go either way. It could either be really good, or it could be another of those books that doesn't live up to its potential. Obviously I'm hoping for the former, but I'll see which it is when I read it.

Partials, by Dan Wells, has really been generating some major hype around the blogosphere these past few weeks, and I'm thrilled to no have been given a review copy. You know me and my fondness for post-apocalyptics worlds. Given that Partials is due for release at the end of February, you can expect me to make the time to read this one soon! If this book even half lives up to the hype, it'll be a good read!

Esther Friesner's Spirit's Princess. Okay, I admit it. This one's pure indulgence on my part, pandering to my love of Japan and its culture. It's an unfair bias, I know. Give me a book with Japanese characters and I'm probably going to have my interest piqued based on that alone. So I couldn't pass this one up, even though in all honesty I half expect it to be filled with historical inaccuracies and modern Western sensitibilities in third-century Japan. However, the author does seem to get praise for doing her research in other historically-based books, so I may be wrong on that assumption. Either way, I'm going to give it a fair chance, and hope that things turn out for the best.

So that's pretty much it for this time. Anything good in your mailboxes this past week?

Nostalgia Friday: The Watch House, by Robert Westall

2012-02-03T16:38:00.000-04:00

Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com

Author's website
Publication date - 1977

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) The dust flew in clouds, making her cough. Anne looked inside the last glass case. More writing. It was moving Balls of fluff being pushed around like tiny mice. More letters appeared as she watched.

"AnHelpAnHelpAnHelp "

"Anne Help"

Who is writing the messages in the dust? What is the story behind the huge skull in the old Watch House?

Alone and unhappy in Garmouth, Anne knows the shadows are following her. Spirits of long-dead sailors who won't rest. And from behind its empty windows, the Watch House is watching her...

Thoughts: I probably read this book for the first time when I was 12, and thought then that it was a good novel. I had a weak spot for Westall at the time. After all, he used to live not far from my nana, and the place of my grandfather's garden allottment was mentioned in another of his novels. It seemed almost a family legacy that I read and enjoy his books.

The Watch House takes place in ~~Tynemouth~~ Garmouth, a place which is like Tynemouth in just about every way but the name. It centres around Anne, a girl of unspecified age but probably in her mid early to mid teens. Caught in a bad family situation, she is sent to Garmouth for the summer, where she stays with Prudie and Arthur, caretakers of the Watch House. But admit the legitimate teenage angst and coming of age is a well-done ghost story, one that doesn't pull any punches and gives credit to the age group the book is intended for by bringing up some truly deep thought and contemplation.

This is the kind of book I look at and think to myself, "This wouldn't make it today." Not because it's bad, but let's be honest. There are too many novels with the intended age range of "11+" that mention sex, adultery, swearing, violent death, and heated snarky religious bickering between two priests, all all done with a sense of maturity and realism. If you can find books like this, they're few and far between. But that's one thing I've always found about Westall. He can write with a tone for younger audiences will still treating them as though they're capable of understanding some of the darker aspects of reality.

Westall should also be praised for managing to cram complex issues into a small number of words. In only a few short paragraphs, you can get a real sense for Anne's relationship with her mother and father, her own sense of self, and her feelings about spending the summer in Garmouth. You get a real sense of who the characters are without spending pages on introductions, on narrating the backstory, without Anne staring in the mirror and contemplating the colour of her hair. Westall has always been good at saying volumes without saying much at all, and this book is no exception.

As a nostalgic reread, I'd say the Watch House holds up incredibly well. It isn't a timeless novel, since there are some very dated references in it, but that was also true of it when I first read it, so I can't fault the book on that. It may throw some new readers off a little bit, but if they can bypass a few odd cultural quirks and focus on the meat of the story and the characters, then there's no problem at all.

I do have to admit that much of my high opinion, at least when it comes to nostalgia value, may be riding on the fact that I can close my eyes and picture everything in this book so clearly because I've been there. Repeatedly. On family vacations. So I'm more than a little biased here, and for someone who didn't grow in around Tynemouth might not get the same enjoyment and sense of familiarity when reading this book. That being said, though, it is still a good book for its own sake, and there's no denying that, even if I rip away the gloss of nostalgia. This just happens to raise my own personal opinion of it.

This isn't the book I would first recommend to anyone looking to experience the full force of Westall's talent. I'm pretty sure that the majority of people who have read this author will recommend The Machine Gunners, and I'm no exception. But if you are looking for a quick and mature ghost story, then by all means, give this one a look.

First you're up, then...

2012-02-02T10:00:00.010-04:00

So I spent a good long while last week organizing my ARCs and other review copies into a list, sorted by publication date. This is so I can keep a better eye on what's coming out when and I can time my reading and reviews more accordingly. Yay me, I think. I'm being productive.

Then my Kindle died.

Completely died. First my computer couldn't recognize it as a device. Then the drivers wouldn't reinstall. Then after I restarted it, it froze completely, won't take a charge, and won't do anything else.

It's just out of warranty. Replacing it will cost more money than I have, considering I don't know how long I'll be off work.

And the icing on the failcake is that the vast majority of my ARCs are e-books. Now my only option for e-book reading is on my laptop, and sitting in front of my computer to read like that isn't nearly as convenient or as comfortable as using my Kindle was.

So just when I think I'm going to get better with ARC reading and getting on top of things, my ARC reading is going to end up slowing down dramatically until I can find a way to replace my e-reader.

I know, I know. First world problems, right? But it just kind of gets me down because I was thinking that with having to take time off work, I can catch up on books and reviews, get ahead of the game again. And then this happens.

But the real kicker? I can't rescue my files from the Kindle. All the ARCs I got via NetGalley that have been archived because they're a few months old? Gone. Can't recover them, can't redownload them from NetGalley, and I'd feel like a real tool approaching the publishers and saying, "Hey, can you give me free books? I swear I had them before, honest." So unless I can recover those files, there's a good half of my review copies that I am going to be unable to actually read.

I know I wanted to try to cut down on the pile, but not like this. If anyone has any advice on how I might be able to recover things, even to just stick the files on my hard drive until I can get a replacement device, I'd be appreciative.

At least I'm not completely reliant on e-books. I do have shelves and shelves on physical books that are waiting for my attention, and this will just spur me to reading them. There's a silver lining to this, and I won't wallow in my loss, but instead I'll focus on what I do have and what I can do.

The Night World - a series review

2012-02-01T10:00:00.050-04:00

The Night World books were originally written in the mid-to-late 1990s, which was when I first read them. Introduced to them by a friend, I was thrilled to find books about the supernatural teenagers, and I tried to read every one I could find. I didn't manage to read them all at the time; there were a couple that I couldn't seem to track down for love nor money.

When the books were released as three anthologies a few years ago, I couldn't resist buying them again. I remembered them being good, creative, fun, and definitely should have been worth repurchasing, even if I still had many of my older copies lying around.

Collection 1 - contains Secret Vampire, Daughters of Darkness, and Spellbinder
Collection 2 - contains Dark Angel, The Chosen, and Soulmate
Collection 3 - contains Huntress, Black Dawn, and Witchlight

The problem is that now that I'm older and have more experience looking at books in a more objective way, these books do not stand up to the test of time, and I admit that yes, I sort of regret spending $30 on the new editions.

Doubly so because the series still isn't finished. The whole series was leading up to a giant event at the end of 1999. Then the last book didn't get published. Over a decade later, and any book that could be released now had better be really damn good to explain the gap. It's a let down to have a series lead up to a real-world event and then to not even finish.

I remember looking desperately for signs it was published. Rumours of friends of friends who saw somebody on eBay who was selling a copy. News that a release date might be forthcoming next month, maybe a few months later, soon, we promise.

I got jaded.

But even outside of personal experience, I can't think too highly of these books. In being rereleased versions, they retain all their dated references to movies and music and fashion that just aren't as relatable to modern teens. Most people these days, when they hear someone mention Buffy the Vampire Slayer, aren't likely to think of the movie but of the 7-season TV show that followed the movie. And most modern teens who watch that movie will likely be laughing more at the 15-year-old fashion than the jokes.

They were written during a time when books for teens were short, swift little things that could be read in an evening. These days, books for teens can end up almost as thick as books for adults and nobody bats an eye. So what might have been decent writing and pacing then comes across now as being rushed and under-developped.

There were many issues with this series that can't be explained away by the time period, though. I mentioned some of them in my reviews. A translated prophecy that has no variant translations, anywhere, ever. Hypocritical commentary on past-life regression stories. Unrealistic dialogue. The insistance the falling in love will change a person and heal all emotional and mental wounds. I didn't notice these things when I was younger, but I see them now. Especially all the times that a strong self-reliant female character finds her soulmate and softens, becomes more understanding of others, gets all gooshy and emotional about it. It's a bit of a slap in the face to females who have fought long and hard to not be judged by who they partner with.

The premise of the series, though, is one I still like. It's like a watered-down version of the White Wolf universe. Supernatural stuff is out there, hidden secret communities that don't want humans to know about them. It's interesting, it taps into the part of our brains that love conspiracies and secrets and thinking that there's more out there than see at first glance. The fact that the world's dominant race changes in cycles, that there are two sides in a secret war, all this stuff is the making of a fine tale.

It's just a shame the tale wasn't conveyed very strongly. Well-developped novels were interspered with ones that seemed to have little purpose. Good scenes alongside scenes that may as well have no existed, since not only did they do nothing to advance the plot but didn't even serve as character development. It was uneven, and at times difficult to swallow.

Ultimately, I would have to say that this series is best skipped by most people. It can generate some interest, but for the most part, there are so many other novels out there that this series just can't hold a candle to that I wouldn't really recommend it to many. It's just hard for me to read them now without seeing all the flaws, and because I didn't see then when I was younger they seem all the more glaring to me. The gloss has been ripped from the memories.

I don't know whether that's a shame or not, though. On one hand, I suffered seeing something I used to think was good turn out to be not nearly as good as I thought. It was hard to see that, and in some ways I wish I'd left these books to the shine of my memories. On the other hand, rereading them has allowed me to see the flaws and explore why they were flaws in the first place. Some are subjective, others not so much. So I suppose I can say these books were a good, if frustrating, mental exercise for me.

But since that's not what they were supposed to be, I can't say they were worth reading just because I had to do some mental gymnastics.

I will end up reading the final book, if it ever comes out, just to say that I completed the series, and to find out what happens. But that will very probably be the last time I read the books. Sometimes memories are best left on their shelves.

January wrap-up

2012-01-31T10:00:00.028-04:00

I've decided to go back to doing monthly wrap-up posts, to take a look back at what I did and to sort out what I've got planned for the future.

Didn't do too badly for books and reviews, really. I read 7 books in January, and reviewed 6 of them (1 was a reread and I'd already reviewed it previously - didn't see a need to review it again).

- Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor
- The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N K Jemisin (this was my reread)
- Black Dawn, by L J Smith
- Hitchers, by Will McIntosh
- Revealing Eden, by Victoria Foyt
- The Way We Fall, by Megan Crewe
- Witchlight, by L J Smith

4 of these books were ones that I've received as review copies, so it was good to be able to clear those off the backlog.

In addition to that, I spent the first part of the month writing up reviews for the 5 books that I had read at the end of 2011 that I hadn't been able to review before the calendar turned.

- The Thirteen Hallows, by Michael Scott and Colette Freedman
- Tankborn, by Karen Sandler
- The Bookman, by Lavie Tidhar
- Huntress, by L J Smith
- The Shadowing: Hunted, by Adam Slater

3 of these were review copies, too. So even if I didn't read them in January, I still ended up writing 7 reviews for books that were on the ARC/review copy backlog, so I definitely feel somewhat accomplished there.

I made a listing of all the books I got as review copies and organized them by publication date, so I can better plan what to read and review at what time. Previously I would pretty much read what I want when I wanted, which occasionally resulted in me not paying attention and posting reviews for books months before their scheduled release date. I'm going to try to not do that so much anymore, and this list that I spent an evening making will really help with that.

I finally finished rereading all of L J Smith's Night World books, and I plan to write a review of the series as a whole in a day or so. Honestly, it's nice to no longer have those books on my list of ones to review...

And I made a point of doing more networking this past month, too, and saw visitors to my blog increase as a consequence. Can't say that was a bad thing.

So what's coming in February? Well, in particular I want to read and review Robert Westall's The Watch House for Nostalgia Friday. I have plans to read and review Ursula Poznanski's Erebos, Martha Wells's The Cloud Roads, Julianna Baggott's Pure, and that's just the 3 that I'm sure of. I don't doubt that I'll be able to fit a couple more in there. I might make a point of reading Mercedes Lackey's The White Gryphon, to get back into the groove of the Great Valdemar Reread.

So those are my plans for February. I'm setting the bar a little low right now since I don't know how things will go with my health, but I'm pretty sure I should be able to manage that much.

Hope everyone's January went well, and I hope your Februaries will be even better!

A personal update

2012-01-30T10:00:00.026-04:00

I usually try to keep personal stuff out of this blog unless it actually affects the blog. Breaking my finger affected my ability to type reviews, being sick means I have less energy to get stuff done. You get the idea.

But there's stuff going on in my life now, and I don't know how it's going to affect things. I'm sick. How sick, I honestly don't know. My doctor is referring me to a neurologist for testing, and I've been, at least for the time being, declared incapable of returning to work. I have no idea what's wrong with me, only that the doctor noted that it may be progressive. Progressive but treatable, but only once I actually get a diagnosis and thus can get treatment.

I don't know how long I'm going to be out of work. I can apply for unemployment benefits, and I can hope that they come through before the rent's due, and that they give me enough to actually pay the rent and bills. And that it lasts as long as I'll be out of work. It beats getting no benefits at all, don't get me wrong. And there may be stuff I can do in the meantime, selling things and whatnot to pull in a little extra cash to see me through. I don't want to resort to begging for donations here, because that's not what this blog is about.

If you can all be patient with me through this, I'd appreciate it. I'll try to keep up blogging, but there may be days when it's just not going to work out so well. Hopefully those days will be few and far between, but hell, when you're dealing with crazy health crap, it's unpredictable. I'm sure no few of you know from personal experience what that's like.

In my Mailbox

2012-01-28T10:00:00.046-04:00

Well, this past week was a bonanza of books that came my way! Not only the usual batch that I can't restrain myself from requesting from NetGalley, but also a couple of hard copies that came in nice packages to my doorstop. While I probably should have shown a little more restraint, well, I got some bad news this week, and these books did a lot to lift my mood in hard times.

So let's take a look at the wonderful things I got!

In keeping with my interest in domestic history, Lucy Worsely's If Walls Could Talk takes a look at the more private side of everyday living through various periods in Western history. While this isn't the sort of book that doesn't usually get a review here, especially now that I'm trying to make more of the focus on fiction here, but even outside my pet interest in this field, I think books like this are fantastic resources for writers, too. Good inspiration, good for helping to keep facts straight. it's for this reason that I list this here, and will probably end up reviewing it here. (Unless I decide to get a seperate blog for non-fiction reviews or something...)

Vicki Keire's Worlds Burn Through. Post-apocalyptic fiction is about as popular as dystopian fiction these days, and both hold great fascination to me. I'm hoping the romance in this won't be overpowering, because the plot on its own sounds like it would be more than enough to carry the book. But even so, it's a novella rather than a novel, and so even if it's not entirely to my taste, a shorter work is easier to read than a longer one in that case.

Michael Shean's Shadow of a Dead Star, a futuristic story that sounds like it might well border on dystopian. Definitely looking forward to giving this one a try.

Karen Thompson Walker's The Age of Miracles. The description of this book reminds me of Jo Walton's Among Others (review here), not in the premise but in the way it blends the fantastical with the mundane. This book seems to have been making a bit of a splash on bookblogs lately, and it really does sound like it'll be a really good read! I'm really looking forward to sitting down with this one.

B B Griffith's Blue Fall, which I received a copy of after the author approached me. Much like with dystopian novels, I seem to have a weakness for books involving wide-scale video games that have a darker secret buried beneath them. Which is exactly what this book offers. Reviews on Amazon suggest that it's a good one, too!

Hilari Bell's Traitor's Son, the final book of the Ravem Duet. The first book, Trckster's Girl (review here) was quite good, with a strong environmental message without being heavy-handed about it, and I was thrilled to be offered a copy of the sequel.

Nostalgia Friday: Witchlight, by L J Smith

2012-01-27T14:41:00.001-04:00

Purchase from Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or IndieBound

Author's website
Publication date - January 1, 1998

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) Keller, a shapeshifter, has been chosen to protect a new Wild Power. When she's not a panther, Keller is a tough, no-nonsense 17-year-old. But she meets her match in Iliana Harman--a clueless blonde who may really be the legendary Witch Child. Will Keller get annoyed and kill her before she can convince her to join Circle Daybreak? And what about the dashing and romantic Galen? Keller is falling in love with him--but he's destined to be the Witch Child's soulmate.

Thoughts: First off, I want to point out that the GoodReads descripion is a little misleading. Galen's more of a gallant and reserved gentleman than a "dashing and romantic" guy. Also, he's not destined to be the Witch Child's soulmate - he's just destined to marry her. Enter this book with that description in mind and you're going to end up expecting more conflict than there really is.

Second, it seems that upon rereading these books, I find that my impression now is very often the opposite of my impression upon first having read these books over a decade ago. The books I used to love have more flaws than I can shake a stick at, and the ones I was more ambivalent about tend to actually be the ones that are more interesting and well put together. Such is the case with Witchlight. This was probably one of the better books of the series, and I used to not think very much of it at all.

The story centres around Keller, a panther shapeshifter from Circle Daybreak who is on a mission to find and recruit the third Wild Power of the ancient prophecy. She and her team find this girl in the form of Iliana, a lost witch who has no notion than she's anything but a well-liked and somewhat airheaded normal teenage girl. Working against them is a revived dragon, the oldest known shapeshifter and being who is bent on the rule of humanity ending by any means necessary. Romantic conflict appears with Iliana and Galen being destined to marry and unite the withes and shapeshifters, but Galen and Keller find themselves growing more attracted to each other.

Definitely an interesting premise, and I only wish that the book had actually been longer to allow a better exploration of each of the plot elements. As with all of the previous Night World, the story moves very quickly, often comprised of only the bare essentials to make the reader aware of what's happening, all so that it can be crammed into around 200 short pages. In some books, this is a blessing, because it means the clumsy story ends sooner. But here, the shortness becomes a real detriment.

In particular, the characters needed expansion. Keller, Galen, Iliana, and the dragon Azhdeha were the only ones who got decently fleshed out. Winnie and Nissa were practically invisible unless needed. In Iliana's family, the most well-defined character was the baby who could barely speak properly yet. Iliana's friends? Nothing noteworthy about them, unless you count Jaime's hearing problems. They didn't feel like people so much as filler characters that only sometimes actually served a purpose.

But what really grated my cheese here was Keller's reaction to realizing that she and Galen are soulmates. She goes from being a closed-off, aloof, no-nonsense leader to someone who suddenly has gained more patience and understanding, and has an instant open-heart discussion with Galen. I can understand that the author was trying to convey the connection between soulmates, but I'm sorry, habits of a lifetime don't change that suddenly. It was awkward and unbelievable, and it came across as an attempt to show how falling in love can soften and "improve" a person. It didn't sit well with me.

Still, this book was one of the better ones. Though considering it still only gets a rather lackluster rating from me, that doesn't say much. It has potential, but a lot of that potential ended up unexplored and wasted, and while I wasn't aching to be done with it the way I was with some earlier books in the series, it still wasn't particularly special outside the context of the series.

I'll be doing a review of the series as a whole in a few days, putting all the pieces together and making a final determination as to whether these books really do stand the test of time.

I am a female bookblogger - a personal manifesto

2012-01-25T10:00:00.033-04:00

It strikes me that the majority of bookbloggers these days are female, with males being in a minority. It's a decently-sized minority, or at least that's been my experience with the blogs I read. Maybe it's different when the focus is on other genres. Still, I think overall the majority of bookbloggers are of the female variety.

I am one of them. A female bookblogger. But I find it very hard to put myself in the same category as most of them, because there are just so many difference between how I do things and how a lot of them do things. It creates a bit of a divide in which I feel like I should be able to relate and yet can't.

I may be female. I may blog about books. But there are many things I don't do that I see a surprising amount of other female bookbloggers doing.

- I don't base my enjoyment of a book on how hot the male lead was, or how intense the romance/sex was.

- I don't think about which literary males I would like to date, nor do I discuss how attractive they are.

- I don't particularly enjoy romance as a primary focus in what I'm reading. I believe that romance should be a side-dish, not the main course.

- I'm not prone to doing character interviews or memes. The biggest meme I participate in is Im My Mailbox, but there are a ton of others that, if I participated in, could yield more hits for my blog. But they mostly feel like filler or irrelevent information that I don't want cluttering up my blog.

- I don't give a fig about book trailers.

Don't get me wrong. I don't think that just because I don't do these things that thus others shouldn't do them either. And some of them (such as the book trailers thing) don't seem particularly gender-oriented in principle but nearly always seem to appear on blogs run by females. Damned if I know why.

But it's these things, and others, that make me feel like I don't have a real connection to most of the female bookblogging community. I have no idea if people could mistake me for male if my name didn't appear at the bottom of posts. One of those weird gender-guesser things declares my writing to be alternately weakly female or weakly male (sometimes both in one analysis), so maybe it could be so.

I could probably get more hits to this blog if I joined up with BlogHer, for example, which is a fairly good collections of blogs that are run by girls and women, often with an emphasis on thigns related to women. And while I technically have the creds, I'd feel wrong taking advantage of that resource when I don't fit the mold. It feels like cheating, somehow, like I'm doing something unfair. Having boobs doesn't necessarily make me feminine, so it feels wrong to join a listing that would admit me not based on my content, not based on how well I express myself, but because I have boobs, just like them.

I am a female bookblogger. But that doesn't mean that I act particularly feminine when it comes to books or what I think of them.

The Way we Fall, by Megan Crewe

2012-01-24T12:28:00.001-04:00

Buy from Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or IndieBound

Author's website
Publication date - January 24, 2012

Summary: (taken from GoodReads) It starts with an itch you just can't shake. Then comes a fever and a tickle in your throat. A few days later, you'll be blabbing your secrets and chatting with strangers like they’re old friends. Three more, and the paranoid hallucinations kick in.

And then you're dead.

When a deadly virus begins to sweep through sixteen-year-old Kaelyn’s community, the government quarantines her island—no one can leave, and no one can come back.

Those still healthy must fight for dwindling supplies, or lose all chance of survival. As everything familiar comes crashing down, Kaelyn joins forces with a former rival and discovers a new love in the midst of heartbreak. When the virus starts to rob her of friends and family, she clings to the belief that there must be a way to save the people she holds dearest.

Because how will she go on if there isn't?

Thoughts: I went into this book expecting something bigger, something more overblown than what was actually contained within the pages. A pseudo-zombie virus, then entire world being struck down by the virus, virus that causes violent bloody death within 24 hours of infection, anything like that.

What I got was something much more low-key, and thus something far more believable and relatable. A mysterious virus starts infecting residents of an island community. It starts slowly, with cold and fly symptoms, and then progresses to nerve damage, loss of social inhibitions, hallucinations, and then death. Ingenius, really, the way that Crewe handled the virus causing a lack of social inhibitions. Not only does it increase the chances of the virus spreading itself to others when the infected get close to you and try to talk your ear off, but it also mimics some infections that have been noticed in mice (possibly other animals too; I haven't kept up with that as closely as I used to).

The book was written journal-style, as the protagonist Kaelyn is writing to a friend of hers who has moved away. This gives us a great opportunity to see things from her perspective while still giving a good reason for exposition and narration that can sometimes feel awkward in other first-person viewpoints. It also allows us a very interesting perspective when Kaelyn becomes infected and starts to become incoherent. The writing style was very personal and delightfully smooth and easy to read because of this.

There were many things in this book that impressed me, most of them subtle and best appreciated when compared to other books and what this could have so easily been. Kaelyn comes up with a reason why certain people survived, but rather than her being the only one to notice the breakthrough, she finds that the trained adults have already done it. Teenagers do their best to organize relief and assistance, but they're not the only ones who manage to keep their heads together. I've read so many books in which inexperienced teenagers manage everything where adults fail that not seeing things done that way was a real treat. The book also doesn't flinch away from death, occasionally gruesome death, and gives realistic reactions from the characters.

Also noteworthy was the romance, which didn't even begin to begin until the book was three-quarters done. Gav and Kaelyn grow closer as a way to cope with the crisis, and happily, the book doesn't switch to dealing solely with their budding romance. It keeps its focus on the epidemic. Very refreshing.

My biggest complaint with this book is the ending. It took me looking it up to discover that this was a series, and so the story will continue. Unless you go into the book with that knowledge, the end of the book seems like a hopeful ending but with many loose ends. It felt awkward when compared to the rest of the book, and weirdly, I would have preferred something that was more obviously a cliffhanger.

Still, awkward ending aside, the book was extremely well done, and definitely is one worth reading if you want an interesting -- and more importantly, realistic -- speculative YA novel. Crewe displays some real talent here, and I feel very confident in recommending this book. This is a good example of how to write a book that's both simple and complex, and well worth the read.

(Received for review from the publisher via NetGalley.)

Well said!

2012-01-23T10:24:00.000-04:00

Kirsty at The Overflowing Library posted a wonderful rant against bookbloggers who feel that free books when and where they want them is an entitlement rather than a privilege. She speaks out against the people who start review blogs just to get books, and then fill their blogs with memes and few -- if any -- actual reviews while still begging for more freebies.

I have to say that I completely agree with her. While some people consider the jury still out on whether free books are a blogger's due (I have, admittedly, seen some good arguments in favour of that, even though I don't always agree with said arguments), I can't condone the people who start up blogs and then reap the rewards while not doing a single thing to earn them. Yes, blogging is a hobby for 99.99% of us who do it, but that doesn't mean we don't put in the effort. And more effort than just in mailing authors and publishers as we beg for more books. Each post we write, each review we write, each day we spend reading is time that could have been used elsewhere and yet wasn't, because we care about what we're doing and want to do it well. To the best of our abilities. It boggles the mind that people actually start blogs with the intent of getting books.

Not only that, but who still manage to get books in spite of having little to no content other than memes. Memes can be all well and good, great things for generating a bit of interest and increasing your readership base, but ultimately, they're not the content that people are looking for when they come to a book review blog.

Many people have talked before about how blogging isn't some sort of easy path to success, how the perks that we earn are actually earned through real honest-to-goodness work, even if that work is fun. I myself have ranted about it before. But Kirsty's rant really encapsulates a lot of issues in few words, and I feel it's worth sharing. Please, take the time to give it a read.

The rise of NetGalley

2012-01-22T10:00:00.034-04:00

Take a look at a good number of the reviews that I've done over the past year. Look at the little line at the bottom of those reviews, the small print where I say, if applicable, that I got the book through NetGalley. That's where I get nearly all of my review copies these days, and though sometimes my giant list of books to be reviewed through them is a little daunting at times, I am beyond glad that I discovered them.

It was thanks to YA author Kersten Hamilton that I first learned about them, back in the first year of running this book blog. On a whim, I signed up, half expecting to be turned down because I hadn't been doing reviews for very long. But I was accepted, and could begin requesting books from the few publishers who had signed on for the ride at the time.

I admit it. I went a little nuts at first, requesting a copy of anything that looked even remotely interesting, even if it was something from a genre I might not normally read. I was high on the ability actually get free books from publishers, and it wasn't the best approach to this incredible resource. My bad.

From its fairly humble beginnings, NetGalley has grown like a weed. A really valuable weed. There was a 500% increase in reviews on NetGalley between 2010 and 2011, which just goes to show that more people are paying attention. Tens of thousands of reviews for NetGalley books were published.

It surprised me, at first, to see so few blogs and bloggers jump on the bangwagon for this site. I think a little part of that was elitism. Now wait, before you get on my case for calling you elitist if you're not a member of the site, let me clarify a little. I think with some of the bigger review blogs especially, they were already getting plenty of review copies from publishers, so why should they bother signing up for a resource that they didn't need to take advantage of? And along the same vein, it was a site in which anyone and everyone could sign up for. Not all requests get approved, of course, but the vast majority are. Suddenly those who had previously been the privileged few to get review copies weren't as alone, and I think some people were a little put out by that.

Not all. But some. I mean, if someone as piddly as me can get books from big name publishers, suddenly Awesome Blog Over There doesn't seem quite so special anymore. I actually saw a couple of bloggers get a little butthurt at the sheer availability of books to the so-called undeserving, those who hadn't worked as long as hard as they had to earn their review copies.

I'm seeing more and big big review sites talking about NetGalley these days, mentioning that they got their review copies from there, putting a blurb up about what they saw that they're interested in, and it honestly amazes me that it took some of them this long to take advantage of this resource.

Why is it such an amazing resource? It's a two-fold thing. First off, bloggers get access to books they might not otherwise have been able to read before. Finances, fame, familiarity, and other things that begin with F can conspire pretty well against a person sometimes. But with NetGalley, there's a work of books just waiting for people to read and review them.

And thus it also helps the publishers and authors. The publishes loses nothing by making even some of their books available through NetGalley, and gains free -- or at least inexpensive -- publicity. No shipping charges, no having to make pitches at potential reviewers. Just a simple point-and-click interface that allows hundreds and thousands of people the chance to spread the word and help make the authors and publishers a little more money.

I can't wait to see what happens to this site in the future. It's been a godsend to me, has helped me find books that are amazing that I wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise, and has done wonders to give me confidence about my reviews and my reading material. I love seeing other people using the site, and honestly, if you haven't at least browsed around it to see what's available, then what are you waiting for? Don't let a good resource pass you by, not if it's so easy to take advantage of.

In My Mailbox

2012-01-21T10:00:00.044-04:00

Candace Fleming's On the Day I Died. This book is described as "Stephen King for teens," and is filled with short ghost stories that will no doubt make this one a quick fun read. This one isn't due out until the summer, though a read-and-review might be more appropriate during the run-up to Halloween. I guess we'll see when the urge to read this takes me. For all I know, it could be next week!

Ursula Poznanski's Erebos I'm very happy to have a copy of the English translation. This is another novel involving an engrossing video game that has more to it than meets the eye, and for some reason, I've got a real weakness for that kind of plot. Naturally I couldn't pass up the chance to read this one when I saw it on NetGalley. Due out in February, it won't be long before you see my review of this one.

Nicholas Orme's Fleas, Flies, and Friars, a fascinating-sounding nonfiction book that takes a look at children's poetry during the Middle Ages. I told my roommate I got this book and even she sounded interested. I can't wait to read this one; I know it's going to be right up my alley!

Michelle Muto's Don't Fear the Reaper. I was happy to have won a copy of The Book of Lost Souls a few weeks ago, and so I couldn't resist entering a contest to win a copy of this one. I didn't win, but the author was sent me a copy anyway, because she's just that awesome. I can't wait to read it; it sounds like it's going to be a really interesting one!

Rio Youers's Westlake Soul, a story of an unlikely superhero that I don't doubt is going to end up being funny and thought-provoking at the same time. ChiZine puts out interesting and rather unique books as a rule, so if you enjoy that sort of book, then definitely check out this, or some of the other books published by ChiZine.

Suzanne Johnson's Royal Street. Is that a Tor book on NetGalley? Is...is that really a Tor book on NetGalley?! Mwahaha, and it's mine!

Okay, all evil laughter aside, I love Tor books to death, and so I wasn't about to pass up the chance to request a copy of this very interesting-sounding urban fantasy novel when I saw that I had the opportunity.This book isn't due out until April, and one of the request criteria is that I wait until the publication date to post reviews, so I won't be doing my write-up for this one for quite a while, but believe me, I'll practically be counting down the days!

So that was what I got in my mailbox this past week. All of them looking good, and all of them ones that I can't wait to sink my literary teeth into.

What did you get this past week? Anything I have to be envious of?

Revealing Eden, by Victoria Foyt

2012-01-20T10:00:00.060-04:00

Buy from Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or IndieBound

Author's website
Publication date - January 10, 2012

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) Eden Newman must mate before her 18th birthday in six months or she'll be left outside to die in a burning world. But who will pick up her mate-option when she's cursed with white skin and a tragically low mate-rate of 15%? In a post-apocalyptic, totalitarian, underground world where class and beauty are defined by resistance to an overheated environment, Eden's coloring brands her as a member of the lowest class, a weak and ugly Pearl. If only she can mate with a dark-skinned Coal from the ruling class, she'll be safe. Just maybe one Coal sees the Real Eden and will be her salvation her co-worker Jamal has begun secretly dating her. But when Eden unwittingly compromises her father's secret biological experiment, she finds herself in the eye of a storm and thrown into the last area of rainforest, a strange and dangerous land. Eden must fight to save her father, who may be humanity's last hope, while standing up to a powerful beast-man she believes is her enemy, despite her overwhelming attraction. Eden must change to survive but only if she can redefine her ideas of beauty and of love, along with a little help from her "adopted aunt" Emily Dickinson.

Thoughts: I was cautious about this book from the beginning, since it stood a high chance of having a strong dose of racefail, given that the premise of the novel is that the ruling class consists entire of dark-skinned people, and now caucasians are treated with disdain and have no rights. Tie that in with the series title, "Save the Pearls" (Pearls being the derogatory term for white-skinned folk), there was every chance that this could turn into a sod story about how poorly whites are treated and how unfair it was that poor whitey gets such a raw deal in life.

As it was, I didn't have so much of a problem with that, but only because it was overshadowed by so many other problems. The plot itself was, on the surface, fairly interesting. Earth is no longer protected by the ozone layer, the population and life expectancy has dwindled, and scientists are secretly working on a plan to fiddle with the human genome in order to combine attributed from sun-resistant animal species in order to increase humanity's chance for survival. As an antagonist, we get the Federation of Free People, a group who seem to have the destruction of all Pearls as their main agenda. The government keeps the population complacent with carefully-delivered information and doses of emotion-changing drugs and nutritional pills.

But there are a lot of problems that got in the way of me enjoying that plot. For starters, it's established right at the beginning that mineral-related terms to reference different ethnicities is a racist thing, and thus we're expected to see it as bad. But everybody uses them. Not just when they're angry or attempting to be insulting. hey use them all the time. Casually. In reference to each other, and to themselves. They're all but sanctioned code-names. But when Eden gets annoyed and calls someone a Coal, everyone acts as though she just dropped a nuclear n-bomb in the office.

The author also has a habit of throwing in scientific names for plants and animals. This would have been fine had the book been written in first-person, from Eden's perspective, since she's deeply involved in the scientific world, but it came across more as the author trying to show off that they know scientific terms. They weren't appropriate to the plot, and appeared with such freqency that it got downright annoying.

There is a huge logical flaw in the government's plan to keep humanity on top of things, too. Females are required to breed by 18, males by age 24, and if they don't, the government cuts off all supplies of food and water to them. Eden is 6 months shy of her 18th birthday, and is paid a visit by a government representative to remind her that if she doesn't breed soon and contribute to the continuation of the decimated human race, her supplies will soon end. But couples may only have one child. Essentially halving the population with each generation. This doesn't increase humanity on the whole, but decreases it. Food and water supplies are limited, and this may be a good reason for the limitations on offspring, but that still doesn't mean that one child per couple is a viable way to keep the population even stable.

Then there's Eden herself. She was a whiny self-involved brat quite often, who seemed to engage others in emotional circular arguments that served little point. her reactions to Bramford were particularly annoying, and they amounted to frequent renditions of, "Ugh, I hate this guy so much, he's so arrogant and annoying and so dark and sexy and I keep getting turned on when he looks at me but I hate that jerk so much." Repeat ad nauseum. It drove me nuts, and was profoundly frustrating and boring.

This was one of those rare books where I couldn't wait to reach the end, not because I was compelled to keep reading but because I couldn't wait to stop reading it so that I could move on to something potentially better. I can't recommend this book. Other people seem to have enjoyed it quite a bit, but I found it too flawed, too unrelatable, and too boring to be worth passing along to somebody else.

(Received for review from the publisher via NetGalley.)

Hitchers, by Will McIntosh

2012-01-19T10:00:00.002-04:00

Buy from Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or IndieBound

Author's website
Publication date - January 24, 2012

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) Two years ago, on the same day but miles apart, Finn Darby lost two of the most important people in his life: his wife Lorena, struck by lightning on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, and his abusive, alcoholic grandfather, Tom Darby, creator of the long-running newspaper comic strip Toy Shop.

Against his grandfather's dying wish, Finn has resurrected Toy Shop, adding new characters, and the strip is more popular than ever, bringing in fan letters, merchandising deals, and talk of TV specials. Finn has even started dating again.

When a terrorist attack decimates Atlanta, killing half a million souls, Finn begins blurting things in a strange voice beyond his control. The voice says things only his grandfather could know. Countless other residents of Atlanta are suffering a similar bizarre affliction. Is it mass hysteria, or have the dead returned to possess the living?

Finn soon realizes he has a hitcher within his skin... his grandfather. And Grandpa isn't terribly happy about the changes Finn has been making to Toy Shop. Together with a pair of possessed friends, an aging rock star and a waitress, Finn races against time to find a way to send the dead back to Deadland... or die trying.

Thoughts: I could rate this novel highly solely due to the fact that McIntosh referenced steampunk rock band Abney Park (who, by the way, do some seriously awesome music, and if you haven't listened to them before then you're missing out), but that would involve ignoring all the other talent that McIntosh presented as the plot of Hitchers developped.

The premise for the novel is a fairly simple one. The souls of the dead have come back, are possessing people, and now these people have to figure out how to either stop it or live with it. McIntosh layers on the intrigue by adding time constraints (the spirits are taking control more and more, sometimes to the point where the original personality is being driven out entirely), and some very interested character interactions and conflicts, and when it all adds up you get a book that compells you to keep turning pages just to see what happens next.

The story brings up the interesting quesion of the ethics of body-sharing, and the conflicts that can arise from it. Finn, the main character, lost his wife in a boating accident, and during the possession incident, the spirit comes back in the body of the woman who Finn realizes he's getting a crush on. Meanwhile, Finn is possessed by the spirit of his angry drunken grandfather, who is annoyed that Finn went against his final wishes. This is a story built upon layers, all of them wonderfully and finely detailed so that you truly feel as though you're reading about real people instead of merely characters in a book.

This is the kind of book that can appeal not only to those who tend to enjoy speculative fiction but also those whose tastes run a bit more to the mainstream. It was an excellent introduction to McIntosh's writing, and I can't wait to see what else he's done, or what he will do, because after this I think he's got me hooked as a fan for a long time to come. Highly recommended!

(Received for review from the publisher via NetGalley.)

Ending the silence

2012-01-19T00:01:00.017-04:00

I spent January 18th offline, silent on Blogger and Twitter and Facebook, in honour of everybody trying to do their part to protest SOPA and PIPA, propositions that could, given that people are people and often foolish, do terrible damage to free speech and online content.

In a nutshell, for those who don't know, the proposed acts state that if a site has pirated or illegal content, it can be shut down at the source. This is ostensibly to cut down on Internet piracy, but does serve a darker purpose. By "at the source", I don't mean that one blog with illegal content will get shut down. No, I mean that the blog's host can get shut down. Or blocked from search engines.

Who decides that the content is illegal? The owner, of course. As it should be. But shutting Blogger down because one blog linked to a pirated book is not the way to go about rectifying the issue of piracy.

Especially because, humans being humans, pettiness occurs. The acts allow for perceived misuse as well as legitimate misuse. If I write a bad review of a book and use a quote from it to back up my point, and the author takes exception, they have the right to take action. Not against me. Against my blog's host. Essentially shutting down millions of perfectly legitimate blogs not because of one bad egg, but because one person had a hissy fit.

Now, I want to state that this sort of thing is unlikely, and there are things people can do to fight back if something ridiculous like that actually happened. People have tons of rights under the law that 90% of the time they don't take advantage of or push as far as it can go because the effort of doing so outweighs the benefit, and I fully expect that if SOPA passes, the very same thing will happen. Less shit will get stirred than people expect.

But the face that the law, as written, would allow that to happen is what is so threatening. Many people see it as censorship, or a sort of proto-censorship in that nobody is being censored yet but could end up being.

I disagree with online piracy. I don't think that SOPA will, in practicality, be as devastating as a lot of people are claiming. (I highly doubt it will lead to a shutdown of the majority of Internet sites within a month, as I've seen some claim.) But I do support their efforts to stop the proposition in its tracks, because of the implications. It amounts to the fact that even if freedom is only threatened, people have a right to stand up and say something about it. I do not take threats lightly, and that is why I was silent yesterday, and why I write this now.

Blog of Books wrapup

2012-01-16T10:00:00.000-04:00

If you'll recall, I challenged myself to read and finish 3 books during the Bout of Books. Ultimately, I regret to say that I didn't quite make it. I finished 2 full books (one of which I already reviewed, this past Friday), and got halfway through a third before running out of time. The downside to having a dayjob, I guess. Less time in which to read.

Still, I came close, and considering I started late, it may well by that if this is run again at a later date and I actually start on time, I might be able to meet my goals. But it was fun either way, and it certainly did challenge me to spend more of my spare time reading.

Happy reading, everyone!

Judging a Book: Adam Slater's "Hunted"

2012-01-15T10:00:00.024-04:00

Welcome to Judging a Book, a new feature I want to make a regular one on this blog. Now, normally I don't go in for posting about the difference between cover art in different areas or different editions, but one has really been sitting on my mind lately, and so I felt that taking a look at both editions was worth the time. The cover art difference for Adam Slater's The Shadowing: Hunted.

First we have the cover from the Kindle edition. The image fairly accurately shows what the major enemy of the book looks like, as it's described as a person without a face, just slick muscles and veins showing where there should be skin. However, it's fairly crude, and puts me in the mind of old Goosebumps books, with a sort of childish shock value to it that doesn't really do the story much justice.

Then we've got the cover art from the hardcover version of the book. A hazy dark figure in the mist, indistinct, very atmospheric. However, it doesn't give you much of an idea about anything in the story at all. This could be a story about a ghost, or a coming-of-age tale about a man trying to discover himself in mysterious times. It definitely has artistic value, but is more vague about conveying what's in the book.

Ultimately, even though it's not perfect, I find myself preferring the hardcover art far more than the Kindle art. I can't get over the crude shock value of the Kindle image. One of the reasons it took me so long to read the book was because although the story sounded interesting, but the Kindle art just kept putting me off, making me wonder repeatedly if I'd made a mistake in requesting a copy in the first place. I was glad that I finally did read it, because it was indeed an interesting story, but it just proved a point very well. While we're advised not to judge a book by its cover, sometimes the art really does make all the difference in drawing in the right audience, giving the right first impression, making somebody want to look at the inside based on what's on the outside. Very often, it doesn't make too much difference, and the differences between editions are so superficial that I pretty much don't care what's on the cover.

But here's a case where I found it made all the difference, if not in getting me to read the book, then certainly in delaying my reading of it.

What do you think? Which cover to you prefer?

In My Mailbox

2012-01-14T10:00:00.020-04:00

Well, based on last week's IMM and this week's, I think we can safely say that my goal of not accepting more books than I had reviewed in the previous week is, shall we say, caput. In a spectacular fashion, no less, because wow, I think I've gotten more books in these past two weeks than I've gotten in entire months last year!

So without further ado, let's see what we've got!

Anne Rice's The Wolf Gift, and I cannot tell you how privileged I am to have received a review copy of a book by such a big name author. I may have my opinions on Rice, but I can't deny that unless it involves her newer Vampire Chronicles books, the woman can certainly tell an interesting story. I hope this one -- a werewolf tale scheduled for release on Valentine's Day -- will prove me right on that statement.

On Haunted Ground, by Lisa Rogers. This supposedly true tale of a haunted house seems to bear many similarities with the basic Amityville Horror story. I won't draw any conclusions as to whether or not this all really happened, but I'm hoping for an interesting story nevertheless.

Alicia K Leppert's Emerald City. I was originally under the impression that this was speculative/supernatural, and since reading the description that made me think so, that description seems to have changed. Still, even if it isn't what I thought it was, I'm going to give it a try. Sometimes the best things come out of the most unlikely circumstances.

Starters, by Lissa Price. A newcomer to the field of YA post-apocalyptic/futuristic novels, Price tells the story of a world in which the bodies of the young can be rented out to the elderly who are looking to revisit youth. But something goes wrong, and the scheme isn't what it appears to be on the surface. I'm looking forward to this one, as the synopsis has really caught my interest, and the cover art is stark and intriguing.

There's no cover art on Amazon for this one yet, but I don't need art to express just how happy I am to have received a copy of Aimee Carter's Goddess Interrupted, the much-anticipated sequel to The Goddess Test (my review here). Scheduled for release at the end of March, I'm putting this aside until closer to the release date, and believe me, that's not an easy decision to make! I've been looking forward to this one for a long time now.

Nostalgia Friday: Black Dawn, by L J Smith

2012-01-13T10:00:00.004-04:00

Buy from Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or IndieBound

Author's website
Publication date - November 1, 1997

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) First he put her in a dungeon. Then he realized they were soulmates. Now he wants to make her a vampire princess. Maggie Neely is a short, spunky sixteen-year-old with auburn hair and an iron will. When her brother turns up missing, she’s determined to find him. But she never suspects that the trail will lead her into the most secret heart of the Night World, a kingdom where no outsider has stepped in five hundred years.
The kingdom is ruled by the young vampire prince Delos…who keeps all humans as slaves. When Delos falls in love with Maggie, he frees her and demands that she join him in his life of dark pleasure. He’s handsome, he’s romantic Maggie can hardly resist him. But did he kill Maggie’s brother? And who are the strange people searching the kingdom for a Wild Power? Maggie won’t give up until she learns the truth even if it means destroying Delos and his secret land. If he doesn’t destroy her first...

Thoughts: More and more when I read this series, I wonder what I found so fascinating and good about them when I was younger. As far as the storytelling goes, they're fairly average, and while I can make some allowances because the author was writing in a time when YA novels were mostly confined to 200 very short pages or less instead of having the allowance of expanding the plot, but that grace can only go so far.

This book starts out with another example of a teenager -- Maggie -- making a ridiculous leap of logic that turns out to be right. She awakens to find her parents distraught as her brother's girlfriend Sylvia informs them that Miles (said brother) has died. Maggie deduces that Sylvia must be lying about what happened because her display of grief is "too perfect" and so must be acting. Following her intuition, she sneaks out of the house to follow Sylvia and ends up getting kidnapped by a group of Night People who are intent on bringing human slaves to their kidden kingdom in the mountains.

Yeah, you read that right.

The story itself, while fairly simple, is interesting enough. Maggie finds other people who are kidnapped, living in the castle town as slaves, and sets out trying to free them. Along the way she meets Delos, the vampire prince, scornful and cold and yet still her soulmate, as is typical for the Night World books.

But this really fails when you throw in some logical scrutiny. Aside from the opening scene, which really just seemed like the author wrote herself into a corner very quickly and needed some way -- any way! -- to get Maggie to follow Sylvia so the real plot could start, I have a hard time suspending my disbelief when it comes to the major end-of-the-world prophecy, specifically how it's done here.

My biggest problem with it? Aside from the fact that the prophecy is translated into English and only one translation is ever mentioned anywhere ever, the kingdom in the mountains in relation to it is a major fail. The kingdom, with its sanitized medieval-style culture, was established around 600 years ago in an American mountain range, and yet they have the exact same version of the prophecy. Same translation, in modern English, in spite of only very recently (last couple of decades or so) having contact with the outside world. They all speak modern English there, in fact, and quite easily.

Then on top of it all, the "finding Miles" subplot that occasionally pokes its head up at random places in the story, gets wrapped up almost as an afterthought, like Smith had forgotten Maggie's sporadically-driving goal until someone pointed it out, and then she just tacked on an ending that makes sense but still comes somewhat out of left field and doesn't flow well with the rest of the scene.

I keep trying to tell myself that I'm being too hard on the book and the author, that most teens won't catch that, but that really isn't much of an excuse. Smith has made some other major gaffes in this series, including some incredibly ironic and hypocritical ones, and the more I read them, the more I notice them. And the more I wonder why I bought the rereleased books a few years back. They aren't as good as I remember, and rereading them now has ripped away the shiny happy veneer that nostalgia once gave them. There are so many better YA urban fantasy novels worth reading, and if truth be told, I'm rather glad that this is the penultimate novel in the series (unless you count the as-yet-to-be-released final book that should have come out over 10 years ago but is still in progress) and I won't have to keep reading them much longer.

Sometimes things are best left in the past.

Tor's 2011 Reader's Choice Awards

2012-01-12T14:00:00.000-04:00

Also known as the Stubbies, Tor.com has an update on their 2011 Reader's Choice Awards. At the end of the first day, the preliminary results are as follows:

Top Novels
The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss (13 votes)
The Seventh Throne by Stephen Zimmer (11 votes)
Embassytown by China Mieville (10 votes)
The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson (9 votes)
The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie (5 votes)
A Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin (5 votes)
Osama by Lavie Tidhar (5 votes)
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (5 votes)
The Rift Walker by Clay & Susan Griffith (5 votes)
The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man by Mark Hodder (4 votes)
Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi (4 votes)

I regret that there are so many of these that I have yet to read. Really, the only one I have read so far is Ready Player One, but at least I can say with certainty that the book is a highly entertaining one!

Best Book Cover
The Seventh Throne by Stephen Zimmer (6 votes)
Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey, Daniel Abraham, and Ty Frank (2 votes)
Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning (2 votes)

Best Short Fiction
“An Island Sojourn” by Stephen Zimmer (appearing in Dreams of Steam) - 6 votes
“Absinthe Fish” by M. David Blake (appearing in Bull Spec) - 3 votes
“Perfect Lies” by Gwendolyn Clare (appearing in Clarkesworld) - 2 votes

Best Comic still have too few votes to really tell much at the moment, but that'll change quickly enough, I don't doubt. Head on over to the voting post to make your own opinion heard!

Bout of Books update

2012-01-12T10:48:00.000-04:00

How am I doing for Bout of Books? Not too badly, considering I signed up late and also spent a good chunk of yesterday doing video editing for my latest project (not book-related, sadly, so there isn't much point in going into much detail here.) I finished L J Smith's Black Dawn (review to come tomorrow), and am 27% done with Will McIntosh's Hitchers, which is shaping up to be an awesome book thus far and is really making me want to read more of what he's written.

My goal is to finish reading 3 books by the end of the challenge, which is on January 15, so with any luck, I should make it.

Anyone else here participating in this challenge? How are your goals coming along?

Who likes cheap books?

2012-01-11T11:16:00.001-04:00

I like cheap books!

The Tattered Scroll has a listing of good fantasy/sci-fi/speculative e-books that are currently on sale on Amazon.com. There are a couple of them that are flat-out free, and others that are definitely in the easily affordable range. Go check out the list, and don't miss your chance to get some great books for low prices!

Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor

2012-01-11T10:00:00.043-04:00

Buy from Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or IndieBound

Author's website
Publication date - September 27, 2011

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Thoughts: This book starts off in a fantastic way to get the reader interested. We dive headfirst into the life of Karou, protagonist, dweller in both the mundane world and among the chimeras she grew up with. Taylor does a wonderful job of blending reality with fantasy, and of showing the difficulties of living in two different worlds. Karou's relationships suffered greatly for all the secrets she had to keep, something which many urban fantasy writers will touch on but for the most part gloss over the more painful and inconvenient aspects of. Realism also shone through in the dialogue, with Karou having conversations that encompassed crude insults, sexuality, and slang in a way that's perfectly suitable for her age but that others may deem inappropriate for that age group to read.

Many of the high points of this novel do come out when compared to other works. Not that the book would falter without that comparison, mind. It just becomes stronger for it. Taylor clearly understands how late-teen minds and social interactions work, and doesn't try to dumb them down for propriety's sake.

he first part of the book centres mostly around Karou, with the occasional point-of-view chapter from Akiva, an angel who is assisting in cutting off the portals to the chimera world in order to reduce their "demonic" influence. Gradually we see more of Akiva, until it almost feels as though the viewpoint has switched to him entirely. Thus rather than the angels of the book being presented as the bad guys, we get a somewhat more balanced perspective, seeing things from both sides.

Though in regard to the reason why angels have a grudge against chimera, I have to agree with Karou that in a war, the invaders are always the bad guys.

A story of war and love told from both sides is always interesting, in that even when you support one side, part of you can't help but at least sympathize with the viewpoint of the other, even if you don't find yourself agreeing with it. It highlights how very rarely is one side completely right and the other completely wrong, and this is definitely no exception.

My biggest complaint about this book is that it starts off as a very interesting tale with a large amount of fascinating mystery, segues into being a story mostly focused on love, and then the last half of the book is spent giving us the backstory that led up to the earlier events in the first place. While I won't deny that the backstory was fascinating to read, showcasing Taylor's incredible sense of creativity and fluid style, I very often found myself wishing I could depart from Madrigal's story and get back to seeing Karou. The star of the show spent surprisingly little time on the page, and spending the latter half of the book on backstory made it feel slower-paced than the beginning, even though it was no less action-filled.

The story very often departed from a linear timeline and jumped back and forward a bit, showing memories of memories, and that was occasionally difficult to keep up with.

But I can't deny that the author has incredible talent here, and in spite of its flaws, I was captivated by the world that Taylor created and developped. I'm greatly looking forward to reading the sequel, and Taylor's style or writing alone could keep me coming back to her books time and again.

(Preview provided by NetGalley, later purchased in full by me.)

Bout of Books? Yes please!

2012-01-10T22:00:00.000-04:00

So at almost the last minute, I signed up for Bout Of Books, which seems to be another one of those "read as much as you can" challenges between the 9th and 15th of January. I'm cool with that. I need to make sure I'm fitting in some good reading time anyway, during my days off work, so that I don't fall behind and end up missing some great reading opportunities.

No idea how much I'll manage to get read between now and Sunday. My goal is to fit in 3 books. I might even be able to achieve said goal! Wish me luck!

Blogiversary Contest Winners

2012-01-10T10:00:00.001-04:00

Thanks to everyone who entered my blogiversary contest. It was a lot of fun seeing the names pile up on the list.

Ultimately, though, there could only be 2 winners, and they have been chosen. (Fate chose them via a random number generator.)

And the windows are... *drumroll*

Milo (Bane of Kings)

and

Jamie (Mithril Wisdom)

You will be emailed with the gift certificate code within 24 hours.

Once again, thanks to everyone who entered. Stay tuned for the next contest!

The Shadowing: Hunted, by Adam Slater

2012-01-09T10:00:00.030-04:00

Buy from Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or IndieBound

Publication date - September 13, 2011

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) Once every century, the barrier between the human world and the demon realm begins to break down. Creatures gather, anxiously waiting to cross the divide, to bring death and destruction from their world to ours. This time is called The Shadowing.

Callum Scott has always known that there is a supernatural world out there—he’s seen ghosts for as long as he can remember. Lately, he’s had visions of children being brutally murdered by a terrifying creature. Then the visions start coming true, and Callum realizes that he’s being hunted, too.

Driven by a dark destiny, he must stand against the demons that threaten our world.

And The Shadowing is almost here...

Thoughts On the surface, this is a fairly standard ghost story involving a young teenager, one of many that you can find on the bookshelves today. Dig a little bit deeper and you'll find a surprisingly disturbing tale, not just in regard to the supernatural but also the more brutal and tragic sides of mundane teenage life. From the image of a skinnless humanoid figure and bloody murders involving the removal of eyes, to violent bullying and a painful hidden family legacy, this book has a good deal to make teens and adults alike think hard.

The story itself is a fairly simple one, when you get right down to it, but it is still an interesting read, with some interesting takes on folklore and legends. His storytelling style is fairly smooth, though I often found myself picturing the characters as somewhat younger than they really were, due to the tone of the writing. It wasn't quite a mesh, but was close enough that I can't complain too loudly about it.

My only real complaint about this novel was the way some things were established without really being introduced first, so to speak, in such a way that it occasionally felt as though I must have blinked and missed a character's name being mentioned. A perfect example of this is when Callum introduces his friend as a "translator", somebody who can't interact with the spirit world but who knows plenty about it. It sounds at first as though he's using the word as a way to describe what she does, but immediately afterward it starts being used almost as a title, as though a translator is something that a person is instead of something a person does. Other characters just accept it, but to the reader it comes across as clumsy, like something got skipped over.

Other than that, Hunted is a quick and decent beginning to what I'm hoping will continue to be an entertaining series. I look forward to seeing what the sequel will contain.

(Provided for review by the publisher via NetGalley.)

In My Mailbox

2012-01-07T10:00:00.039-04:00

I ended up with more books coming my way this past week than I really expected I would. Not that I'm complaining. More books means more wonderful things to read, even if it inches my To Read pile just that much closer to infinity. So, let's take a look at what I got!

Won

James Crawford's Caleo, won in a blog giveaway. This piece of YA fiction sounds like it's not a plot that may not be entirely original, but it still sounds interesting never the less. From what I've heard about it, too, the plot doesn't have to be the most original thing to be good and entertaining, and I hope my opinion ends up being much the same.

Michelle Muto's The Book of Lost Souls, which I have heard a hundred and one good things about, and which I was very happy to discover that I'd won a copy of. This one got an instant bump up the TBR list, and I'm looking forward to starting it. It seems like it'll be quite fun to read, no doubt with some good humour to go along with it!

NetGalley

Brent Hayward's Filaria, provided by ChiZine with many thanks. Interesting cast of characters in a dying world? Sign me up! Throw in a confrontation with gods, either real or metaphorical, and I'm cutting to the front of the line for this one. Filaria seems like it'll be a winner!

Shoebox Train Wreck, by John Mantooth and Danny Evarts. A series of genre-bending short stories that, if the synopsis is to be believed (and I don't doubt it), will be a mind-screw of a journey that's never short on entertainment. Once again provided by ChiZine, who seem to put out no end of good twisted books.

The Steel Seraglio, by Mike Carey, Linda Carey, Louise Carey, and Nimit Malavia, and don't ask me to repeat those names again for a while! Filled with Middle Eastern influence, this is a story of betrayal, survival, and revolution, which pretty much manages to combine a good half of my pet interests into one speculative novel. Does anyone hear me complaining? Didn't think so.

Nicholas Read's Endworlds, and interesting-sounding sci-fi adventure that sounds like it'll be quite a fast-paced and exciting tale.

Nostalgia Friday: Huntress, by L J Smith

2012-01-06T10:00:00.003-04:00

Yes, it's the return of Nostalgia Friday! I started doing this last year, and didn't so much lose steam as get distracted by a hundred and one other things. So I'm reviving it. For those who missed the original goal of Nostalgia Friday, I'm going to try to post each Friday with a book that I read first years ago and have recently reread, to see how well the book stacks up against my memories of it. In some cases it ends up being more enjoyable, and in others, less so. But no matter which way my opinions go, it's kind of fun to look back on the books I used to read and see just how much my reading tastes have changed or stayed the same.

And so, on with the show!

Buy from Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or IndieBound

Author's website
Publication Date - September 1, 1997

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) Jez Redfern is unique. She's a vampire hunter...who's half vampire. Raised in the Redfern family, the girl with fiery hair and silvery-blue eyes was the undisputed leader of a gang of vampire raiders. Then came the discovery that shattered her life - her mother was a human. Now, Jez hunts her former friends, protecting humans from the Night World.

But when Circle Daybreak sends her on a search for one of the legendary Wild Powers, Jez has to rejoin her old gang. They want her back — especially Morgead, the gorgeous green-eyed vampire who used to be her second-in-command. Jez wants to stay faithful to Hugh Davis, the human she loves. But Morgead swears he's her soulmate and he'll do anything to lure her back to the old ways. With danger and temptation around, Jez finds herself irresistibly drawn to him. And she's afraid that if she tastes blood again, she'll become the evil huntress she once was...

Thoughts: My rather lackluster opinions of the Night World books isn't dramatically improved by this book, but I did enjoy it more than I expected I would, and even more than I remembered doing when I first read it all those years ago.

Part of my improved opinion of this book is due to the fact that in this, there are demonstrated consequences to a teenager living a secret double life as a vampire hunter. Not many consequences, I'll grant you, as Jez's family don't seem to understand the meaning of the word "discipline", but some, and that was a favourable comparison to other books in the series.

Comparing to books these days, however, it's nothing. More authors are actually giving the time needed to put reality into their fantasy and urban fantasy, and making a point of showing that when a high school kid skips class and stays out all night and doesn't give their parents and teachers a damn good reason why, they get in massive amounts of trouble. Really, even Buffy the Vampire Slayer showed this, and that show was on TV at the same time that the Night World books were being written.

This is the beginning of what the previous books in the series were really building up to. The start of the prophecies being fulfilled, the countdown to the millennium, and the truth behind all the hints about the changes in the Night World that have been taking place.

Prophecies are old hat and have been done to death. More annoying is the fact that one of the twists on the prophecy's interpretation relies on the assumption that the word for sight and prophecy were just as interchangeable in English ("vision") as they were in whatever language the prophecy was originally written in. This sort of assumption that the reader will either overlook these things or not notice them seems to be very common in Smith's books, and is one thing that particularly annoys me.

But still, Huntress was a decent book, as far as the Night World series goes, and was an interesting way to kick off the more action-filled part of the series. Jez's story is an interesting one, as is her struggle to fit into two worlds while not really feeling like she belongs to either. Also interesting was the way that Jez and Morgead, the established soulmates of the tale, were resistant to their bond at first. Jex had her heart set on someone else and experienced an internal struggle over the issue, though admittedly not much of one. Still, much like one of the earlier novels in the series, it was interesting to see a connection between two people who didn't want to be connected, showing that the soulmate principle isn't an instant recipe for "happily ever after."

Direct your questions to the right person

2012-01-04T12:00:00.007-04:00

Recently, The Writing Bomb posted an article entitled, "10 Questions Every Author Should Ask", aimed at indie and self-published authors, or rather those who wish to become so. The article made some fantastic points, reminding people that making it as a writer isn't as easy as just spending a weekend writing some short stories and then compiling them into an e-book. To assume that it is actually does a great disservice to all the authors who spend months and years honing their talent, reading and writing and rewriting and editing and passing over an hour of sleep in favour of the cup of coffee it will take to keep them writing just that much longer.

And writing the book is only part of the battle. Looking at Amazon.com's self-publishing platform for e-books, pricing a book at $0.99 means that the author probably gets paid an average of $0.15 every time they make a sale. Want to quit your dayjob on that kind of money? Keep in mind that if you're getting paid $6 an hour at your dayjob, it will take 40 book sales to equal an hour's worth of work. Think you can manage to advertise and market your book enough to get the 300+ sales a day it'll take to cover the cost of quitting? That's 300 sales each day, every day, for the foreseeable future.

Not looking so easy anymore, is it?

But that's not what I really wanted to get at here. You can find stats like that all over the Internet. What I really wanted to comment on was question 8 of The Writing Bomb's list: "Am I ready for publication?"

In my opinion, that's far too subjective a question to be on such a list.

Not that I don't think it's a question worthy of asking, mind you. But the answer is one that could be the subject of a hundred and one articles and blog posts and books and still ends up too subjective to really be answered. Is the question asking about whether the draft is typo-free? Whether you can handle rejection and negative reviews? Do you have a marketing plan? I can assume not, since those were also questions asked on the 10 Questions list.

Honestly, a good number of people think they're ready for publication when in reality, they aren't. And I'm not just talking about their marketing plan or whether the book has formatting errors. I'm referring to quality. Can the reader follow the plot? Is the pacing even? Can the story hold a reader's attention? Is your book even interesting?

The prospective author is probably actually the least-qualified person to provide the answer to this question, since chances are the majority of new authors are going to say yes when the rest of the world will say no. While most authors write because they have stories to tell and the talent to tell them, that's only half the battle. Having a story to tell doesn't sell the story. You've got to convince others to actually read your book, or you may as well just leave your story sitting on your hard drive, unread by anyone but yourself.

This is exactly what "Am I ready for publication?" isn't really something that I would say should be on that list. It's too subjective. The other questions make their point quite nicely by reminding people that it takes hard work and perseverence and planning. But that one's too open-ended, too subjective, too vague to really be worth asking at that stage of the game. If you could give me an objective checklist of what makes a thing definitely ready for publication, then sure, it's worth asking, but until then, there are better questions that I think should be asked in its place.

Such as, "Can I really handle doing all that work and only getting 15 cents in return?"

The Bookman, by Lavie Tidhar

2012-01-04T10:00:00.038-04:00

Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or IndieBound

Author's blog
Publication date - Spetember 28, 2010

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) A masked terrorist has brought London to its knees - there are bombs inside books, and nobody knows which ones. On the day of the launch of the first expedition to Mars, by giant cannon, he outdoes himself with an audacious attack. For young poet Orphan, trapped in the screaming audience, it seems his destiny is entwined with that of the shadowy terrorist, but how? Like a steam-powered take on V for Vendetta, rich with satire and slashed through with automatons, giant lizards, pirates, airships and wild adventure, The Bookman is the first of a series.

Thoughts: Speculative alternate history with a steampunk literary twist, The Bookman is one book that aptly fits the name "genre," mostly because classifying it more specifically might give one a headache. The plot is multilayered, factions working against factions, with pawns doing the dirty work for who knows who by the end of things. It's a book that's rich in creative thinking and creative license.

The pacing of the plot is steady and even, but still fairly slow. Many things are hinted at and revealed that, in all honestly, would probably make the most sense to people who have had a taste of the literary characters this book is filled with, but unfortunately leaves those without a classical literary education in the dust. I'm sure there were plenty of plot twists in here that would have been glaringly obvious to many but for me came completely out of left field, simply because I have not read certain great works of fiction. I was left with the feeling of a book that I could have considered great, but the lack of an insider's view left it only on the high side of mediocre.

Which is a true shame, because it's clear that Tidhar put a great deal of effort into developping the world in which this book takes place. Far from your average piece of steampunk fiction, The Bookman combines politics and a rather twisted sense of alternate history (England's royal family consists of a load of extra-terrestrial lizards) into a deep story that really makes you think to wrap your head around some things. Throw in the mysterious protagonist with an unknown past and developping identity issues, and a host of characters from well-known literature, and you've got a cast of characters that makes the tale a page-turner despite its slow pace. You keep wanting to read just to see what crazy thing happens next.

Though it did take me a while to really get into the novel (and even then I'm not sure I was able to get as much into it as I would have liked), I have to say that I am impressed by Tidhar's writing style, which was descriptive and endlessly witty. Even if it doesn't rate as one of the best books I've ever read, I was intrigued enough to want to pick up the second book of the series, curious as to the things that Tidhar will surprise me with next.

Tankborn, by Karen Sandler

2012-01-03T12:20:00.001-04:00

Buy from Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or IndieBound

Author's website
Publication date - September 15, 2011

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) Best friends Kayla and Mishalla know they will be separated for their Assignments. They are GENs, Genetically Engineered Non-humans, and in their strict caste system, GENs are at the bottom rung of society. GENs are gestated in a tank and sent to work as slaves as soon as they reach age fifteen.

When Kayla is Assigned to care for Zul Manel, the patriarch of a trueborn family, she finds secrets and surprises; not least of which is her unexpected friendship with Zul's great-grandson. Meanwhile, the children that Mishalla is Assigned to care for are being stolen in the middle of the night.

After weeks of toiling in their Assignments, mystifying circumstances enable Kayla and Mishalla to reunite. Together they hatch a plan to save the disappearing children. Yet can GENs really trust humans? Both girls must put their lives and hearts at risk to crack open a sinister conspiracy, revealing secrets no one is ready to face.

Thoughts: There are a multitude of themes in this YA novel, all of them worth paying attention to. From racism, caste systems, the effects of bioengineering, slavery, corruption wihin the government, religious differences (and the issue of man creating god instead of the other way around), and more, this book has many of the earmarks of a typical dystopian tale without actually being typical. Tankborn feels new and fresh, not another copy of an oft-retold story in a new pretty package.

First off all, the vast majority of characters have dark skin tones. Second, rather than society having strong Western overtones, many of the cultural and societal traits demonstrated here bear a strong Indian influence, which alone would set it apart from a vast majority of other novels of its genre even if its plot didn't show enough creativity to impress the reader. Which it does.

Central to the plot are the GENs, Genetically Engineered Non-humans, who are essentially slaves to the upper class. Created to have specific skillsets that would benefit them in their later roles, GENs make up a rich and complex culture of their own, having their own religion (the belief that their god created them to serve and so serving is the only way to achieve paradise after death) and linguistic terms that we see them use that are not typically used by the upper classes. GENs are supposed to have rights and limited freedoms under the law, but it comes as no surprise to discover that those rights are frequently ignored by those in power. Of course, unsurprisingly, the origin and purpose of the GENs is not what in initially appears to be, though there are some definite twists thrown in that I didn't quite expect, when all was finally revealed.

The majority of the plot revolves around two GEN girls. Kayla, assigned to serve an aging man in an incredibly important family, is bitter about her life and her role in the world, and comes to find kindness in places she didn't expect. Mishalla, kidnapped from her original assignment and forced to play caretaker to frightened babies and toddlers, falls in love outside of her class, and ends up in the middle of a illegal plot to give the upper classes yet more power and control. The two of them find themselves drawn into a plot for revolution and equality that neither of them could have predicted.

Sandler does an excellent job of putting the reader in the mindset of the downtrodden lower class as well as showing the viewpoint of the privileged upper class, giving us a good way to compare and contrast and to form our own opinions instead of having opinions forced down our throats. The writing style is smooth and easy to follow, the pacing is fantastic, and the story engaging and very creative. For fans of dystopian fiction who want something that isn't "white-bread", this is the book to have.

(Book received for review from the publisher via NetGalley.)

The Thirteen Hallows, by Michael Scott and Colette Freedman

2012-01-02T12:30:00.001-04:00

Buy from Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or IndieBound

Michael Scott's website / Colette Freedman's website
Publication date - December 6, 2011

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) The Hallows. Ancient artifacts imbued with a primal and deadly power. But are they protectors of this world, or the keys to its destruction?

A gruesome murder in London reveals a sinister plot to uncover a two-thousand-year-old secret.

For decades, the Keepers guarded these Hallows, keeping them safe and hidden and apart from each other. But now the Keepers are being brutally murdered, their prizes stolen, the ancient objects bathed in their blood. Now, only a few remain.

With her dying breath, one of the Keepers convinces Sarah Miller, a practical stranger, to deliver her Hallow—a broken sword with devastating powers—to her American nephew, Owen. The duo quickly become suspects in a series of murders as they are chased by both the police and the sadistic Dark Man and his nubile mistress.

As Sarah and Owen search for the surviving Keepers, they unravel the deadly secret the Keepers were charged to protect. The mystery leads Sarah and Owen on a cat-and-mouse chase through England and Wales, and history itself, as they discover that the sword may be the only thing standing between the world… and a horror beyond imagining.

Thoughts: And did those feet in ancient time... It didn't take long for me to realize that this book was heavily based around the old legend that Jesus went to England, though it surprised me how long it took the book to state it explicitly. There were very strong hints throughout, interestingly from the viewpoint of Jesus/Yeshu'a himself. (Something here I'd like to point out is that he was alternately called Yeshu'a and Yeshua, and I'm not sure if they were printing/copyediting errors or if the authors couldn't decide whether or not to actually include the apostrophe.)

The plot revolves around Sarah, a woman who seems to have perpetually bad luck when it comes to those around her being killed by a group of people bent on recovering the sacred Hallows for a mysterious man bent on using the Hallows for his own purposes. Sarah is on the run from the police, who believe that she is the one committing the murders, while she unravels the mysteries of the Hallows and races against time to keep her Hallow from the hands of the aforementioned mysterious man. The plot has many layers and many viewpoints which really add to the excitement and tension of the tale.

There was a good deal of name-dropping in the book, not so much of people but of brand names. In most cases this added to the atmosphere and the realism of the story, but in some cases seemed excessive and pointless. Maybe I'm just brand-name illiterate, but mentioning that someone has a Dolce & Gabana jacket did nothing for me but tell me that there's a company called Dolce & Gabana that makes jackets. I can assume by context that it's a fancy brand, but the same effect could have been given by simply calling the jacket "expensive."

There were some truly frightening and gruesome descriptions of murder and death here that are not for the faint of heart. While they never went over the top, they did on occasion make me feel a little nauseous, which is a credit to the authors for the realism of the scenes they set up. The killers are brutal and cruel, and the people ordering the killings are a frightening duo who constantly evoked emotions within me. The relationship between Ahriman and his wife was both twisted and touching, and thought it would have been easy to see it as a relationship devoted to sex and power, I think they genuinely did, in their own ways, care about each other beyond that.

Though I do have to comment here on the ultimate stupidity of Ahriman's scheme. He was no doubt intelligent and cunning, and ruthless when it came to getting what he wants, but really, he was something of a flat villain in that he really was little but a villain. There was very little depth to him, and even less foresight. Really, he couldn't predict that if he unleashes the hordes of hell, he might get caught in the crossfire. Aside from a protective circle, he didn't do much to prevent his own destruction, and his death was ultimately a bit anticlimactic.

But the research and effort that was clearly put into the plot, and the creativity in twisting bits of an established legend, made for a highly entertaining book in spite of a shallow villain. The book was full of British history, relatable protagonists, and a fascinating take on a legend that, frankly, doesn't seem too well-known outside of the UK. The writing style was beautifully fast-paced and smooth, making it a very hard book to put down. Definitely recommended to fans of urban fantasy who want a good taste of England in their novels.

(Received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)

Catching Up

2012-01-02T11:28:00.000-04:00

So during my blog hiatus (in which I tried to get a better handle on my health), I ended up reading 5 books which need reviewing. Those reviews will come over the next week. Possibly dipping into next week, depending on what other things I end up posting about here.

What books did I read?

Tankborn, by Karen Sandler
The Bookman, by Lavie Tidhar
The Thirteen Hallows, by Michael Scott and Colette Freedman
The Shadowing: Hunted, by Adam Slater
Huntress, by L J Smith

Reviews will come shortly, as I said. And after that, the regular schedule of reviews will resume.

Looking forward to an awesome review-filled year! This is a good start for it, I think!

2011/2012 - a Hopeful Comparison

2012-01-01T14:00:00.012-04:00

It's now 2012, and as I mentioned earlier, I'm now into my third year of book blogging. 2011 was a year of highs and lows for me, both in and out of the blogging world. I broke my finger, sprained my ankle, and was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid. I left an crappy job and exchanged it for an awesome new one. I read 100 books, though I didn't review all of them. I found a lot of new authors, made some friends, and did more here than I ever expected I would be able to. It was a year to remember.

2012 is going to be another good year. I just know it. I may not be able to read quite as many books as I did this past year, but I do have my goals in mind. For one thing, I'm going to work on wittling down my list of unread/unreviewed books from NetGalley. There are a lot of them, and they all deserve their chance, so I'm going to put some real work into them. Consider this the Year of the ARC.

I also want to bring back my Nostalgia Friday reviews, and get back to work on the Great Valdemar Reread. I miss doing those, and they deserve a good come-back too.

I want to do giveaways and contests more often. I did more giveaways this past year than the year before that, but there could be more. Everybody loves a good giveaway!

I also want, if I can, to try to do some more author interviews. I still get intimidated by approaching authors to ask if they'll let me ask them a few questions for my blog, and the only way to get over that is, well, to get more used to it. Nothing else for it, and I do enjoy getting an insight into what makes people tick!

So consider these my goals for the coming year. More improvements for the blog and its content, and more good books!

I hope everyone's coming year is going to be as successful as I want mine to be. Best of luck to us all!

New Year's Resolutions?

2012-01-01T12:00:00.010-04:00

I've mentioned to a few people now that I try not to make New Year's resolutions, not because I disagree with challenging and improving myself, but because I have an awful habit of promising myself that I'll do something and then in the end, I don't do it. It makes me feel like a failure, disappoints myself and others whom I've told of my goal, and in general just makes me look like somebody who can't keep her promises and stick to her committments.

I don't want that image for myself.

That being said, I do have some goals that I want to set for myself for the coming year, pertaining to this blog. I'm not going to give specifics. I'm not going to say, "I want to double my readership" or "I want to read another 100" books, because while these things are attainable, if I read only 99 books this year and come in 1 person short of doubling my readership, then in essence I failed. Specifics are my downfall when it comes to stuff like that.

So in general, here's what I'm hoping to do over the coming year:

Rewrite old reviews so that they have the standard format I use now.

Start taking notes when I read, to help me remember all the points I want to mention in my review.

Keep up with my In My Mailbox posts.

Start Nostalgia Fridays again.

Write 2 reviews per week on average.

Increase my blog readership. No specific amount. If more people read this blog, it will make me supremely happy no matter what the number is.

Make better use of Twitter, and stop forgetting that I have an account for weeks on end.

Comment more on other blogs.

I wish I could make grander goals, such as reading a large number of books, or selling advertising space, or something like that. (Despite having existed for 2 years now, my blog doesn't have a large readership base because I don't market and spread the word half as much as I ought to, so I can't justify selling ad space.) But for now, these goals will suit me just fine. I may end up going above and beyond what I want to do, but even if I do a little, at least a little is something.

May your coming bloggy year be bright!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T10:00:00.005-04:00

It's 2012 now, and we're all set for a brand new year of speculative fun and adventure. There are any number of new books to come out, still a million and one books from previous years that have yet to be read and reviewed, and a hundred topics to discuss and expound upon.

And I, for one, can't wait.

But today marks another special day for Bibliotropic. This marks the day on which my blog turns 2 years old. I started reviewing on January 1, 2010, and you know, I want to still be here next year when I can celebrate 3 years of awesome reviews.

So here's the fun part for you all. Here's where I start talking about the giveaway. Not just one, but 2 prizes to be won, in honour of the 2 years I've been doing this. 2 $5 Amazon.com gift cards to be won. I know it isn't much, but I don't host many giveaways here and I want to change that, so I'm starting out small.

Rules

1 entry per person

Entries must be in by 11:59PM AST on Friday January 6 to qualify

Fill out the form below to enter

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Worst Books Discovered in 2011

2011-12-31T14:00:00.041-04:00

In addition to all the good books we get to read over the course of a year, we inevitably come across some that we wouldn't possibly go back to. It isn't always because they're bad books, with poor writing and plot, but sometimes they just don't resonate with us. This can make it hard to judge them fairly, but ultimately, they end up on our scrap pile while others get to stay.

And here, I give you the worst 5 books I discovered in 2011. Regretfully, a good number of them are YA novels, and I can't tell if that's more of a sign that teens will read utter crap no matter what, or that some writers and publishers can't tell utter crap when it stares them in the face.

Brandon Mull's Beyonders: a World Without Heroes (review here). In video games, nobody enjoys fetch quests, especially when they seem to be ceaseless. And this is exactly what this book felt like. One unending series of fetch quests. Go here, get this thing, go to the next place, get the next thing, and so on and so forth. Combined with the main characters being unimaginative and playing Mr. Exposition every could of chapters in order to recap what had happened so far. The idea that Mull toyed with was creative enough, but poorly executed. For instance, the main characters have to go find an old man in a cave who will give them the next item they need for their quest. Twice. Two different wise old men in two different caves. How many times has it been recommended that authors not use this terribly cliched plot device, and Mull uses it twice in the same book. It was a tedious and dull books and I could not, for the life of me, understand why people actually enjoyed this.

Anna Carey's Eve (review here). The world has changed and society has completely restructured. In a way that wastes resources and makes absolutely no logical sense, putting girls through years of education training when they will graduate and become broodmares. The female protagonist trusted for no reason except that the plot required her to, a romantic setup that was transparent as glass without much actual chemistry behind it, and a complete lack of medical understanding on the author's part (you don't start coughing up blood and then just sleep it off and feel better the next morning, I'm sorry) all added up to a boring and mockable read that is best avoided. At best, this book could be called a lackluster attempt to cash in on the dystopian craze.

Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban's Two Moon Princess (review here). Convenient plot devices were at odds with the book's established history and level of technology, and the author seemed to think that the expiration dates on modern medicine don't serve any particular purpose. The main character is constantly shown that she doesn't know as much as she thinks she does and yet always thinks she knows better. And the storytelling isn't even good enough to counterbalance all that. It wasn't a particularly good book, and it's best to be skipped over. There isn't much about it that's redeeming.

Tara Hudson's Hereafter (review here). This book fails purely for its level of hypocrisy. The lead female falls in love with the lead male at first sight, not knowing a thing about him, wants to be in his life and is constantly around him, to the point of being obsessive. This is treated as perfectly fine and good, whereas the antagonist feels the same sort of obsessive love for the female lead but in him its presented as creepy and wrong. I can't endorse that kind of hypocrisy. Even if it weren't for that, the book suffers for being little different from a dozen other paranormal romance books on the bookshelves today. The only way it stands out is in that hypocrisy, and that's never a good thing.

K J Parker's The Hammer (review here). This book doesn't suffer for its writing style (which is wonderfully smooth and descriptive) or for its characters (who are rich and well-developed), but for the way that the main character goes about essentially overhauling an entire society in order to get revenge for something that isn't even revealed until near the end of the book. Precious few hints are given, plenty of questions are asked, but his motivations are essentially nonexistant until the big reveal, which left me feeling lost for the bulk of the novel. This is one of those books that I can't honestly say was bad and that instead simply wasn't to my taste, but since it was such a disappointment for me, I felt it had earned a spot on this list. It wasn't a good introduction to Parker's writing, though I do hear that his works are something of an acquired taste.

Best Books Discovered in 2011

2011-12-31T10:00:00.065-04:00

Not unknown to reviewers is the recap, and the end of the year recap is a pretty special one. In it, we get to go over the best -- and worst -- books of the year.

So far be it for me to miss out on this chance. I know I said I wouldn't be posting again until the new year, but oh well, one day early isn't going to kill me.

And so I present to you, in no particular order, a run-down on the top 7 books that I discovered in 2011.

Tabitha Suzuma's Forbidden (review here). If you have a mind open enough to accept that true love can strike in the most unexpected places, even within your own family, then I can't recommend this book enough. Suzuma's writes with a wonderful stream-of-consciousness style that perfectly suits the situations at hand, and your preconceptions will end up blown out of the water. Not to mention the fact that if you're like me, you'll bawl like a baby at the end. I cannot express how fantastic this book is, and if you give it a try, you won't be disappointed.

Jo Walton's Among Others (review here). Magical realism at its finest, this book is less a story of the supernatural and more of a story about a bibliophile who knows more about how the world works than those around her. The novel is written in the style of a diary, which suits the tale very well, and gives us an intimate look into the protagonist's mind. Walton weaves a tale of darkness and betrayal that will speak to anyone whose priorities lie more with books than anything else.

Daniel Abraham's The Dragon's Path (review here). While the most interesting parts of the book were nearly always confined to being from Geder's perspective, Abraham set up a very interesting world with interesting characters, and I really enjoyed the chance to experience this first book of what I hope will continue to be a great series!

Courtney Schafer's The Whitefire Crossing (review here). When it seems like the bookshelves have been taken over by teenage vampire romances and gritty dark fantasies, take a turn back to some classic epic fantasy with Schafer's mountaineering adventure. This one was well-received by damn near everybody who read it, proving ultimately that traditional fantasy tales still have their place today, even when most advice seems to be to the contrary. I discovered this book at just the right time, when I was craving the kind of fantasy novel I would have read in high school but didn't fancy reading something a decade or more old. Fantasy fans can't go wrong with this one.

John Ajvide Lindqvist's Let the Right One In (review here). After watching the movie, I was thrilled to have gotten this as a Yule gift in 2010. It was a dark and rich tale, one that disturbed as much as it entertained. From the cold dark setting the the chracters that were so well defined and so realistic that it was hard to believe they were fictional, this one was a fantastic novel from beginning to end.

Cory Doctorow's For the Win (review here). Far from being a preachy rant about foreign sweatshops and the ridiculous lengths people will go to in order to corner virtual markets, Doctorow presented the whole situation in a way that entertained as well as horrified. I couldn't imagine, before reading this, that economics could be interesting, and I was also tremendously impressed at the way Doctorow shone light on the appalling conditions that many virtual gold farmers live and work under. This book will open your eyes to the world around you, and you won't be the same person at the end that you were at the beginning.

Veronica Roth's Divergent (review here). I waited long enough to read this book, and it was worth every second. Roth took an idea for a dystopian world that had been done a dozen times over in other places, but twisted the cliches until they were both more and less than you'd expect. Most impressive was the way the main character was not an ultimate goody-goody who was right while everyone else was wrong, who fought with guns instead of with tears and pouts, and who, when faced with tough choices, did what she had to in order to survive. If you want a strong female protagonist, look no further than this amazing YA novel.

2011-12-25T14:00:00.020-04:00

One year ago today, I received my Kindle. It was a gift from my father, bought after I'd started expressing an interest in getting an e-reader some time soon to help me cope with the large number of e-ARCs I was getting. Until then, my only choice was to read them on my laptop, which was cumbersome at best and an outright chore at worst.

A Kindle wasn't my first choice. Amazon hadn't exactly endeared me to them with all the mistakes they'd made regarding e-books and licenses and the random deleting of things that people had purchased. I was looking, probably, for a Kobo reader, or a Nook. Amazon was actually pretty far down my list of choices.

But in spite of that, a Kindle was what I received.

How has it held up? Surprisingly well, actually. Hearken back to this post to see a good example of just how much I've been using it for reading. (The number of books in my NetGalley folder has jumped significantly since I took that picture, too...) With one exception, I think that every book I've received and reviewed from NetGalley this year was read on my Kindle, which took the average reading time down from approximately 1 week on my laptop to maybe a couple of days. The Kindle allowed me to get through far more review copies than I would have otherwise been able to do, which has done wonders for the number of reviews I'm able to post here.

For me, having a Kindle isn't about the ease of purchasing books and having them quickly at hand. I rarely turn on the WiFi connection unless I've got a book or two coming my way from NetGalley, and half the time if I buy an e-book from Amazon I do it via my laptop anyway, then just turn the WiFi on the Kindle for a minute when I want to download it. Being able to browse from the Kindle is a nice feature, but I rarely use it. I have yet to use its ability to play MP3s, nor have a I shared any favourite book quotes to Facebook using it. Half of its features go entirely unappreciated in my case.

No, where the Kindle really proved its worth to me was this past summer, when I broke my finger and had my right hand stuck in a cast for a month. I found out pretty quickly that regular books were not going to work out for me then. I could hold them up, but had to brace them awkwardly to turn pages. It was more of a hassle than it was worth. But my Kindle? It was light enough to hold in one hand, and a press of my thumb against a button would flip to the next page. No awkwardness, no pain, no dropping of books on the floor by accident. That thing kept me sane for a month, when I was alone in the apartment and discovering just how limited I was with only one good hand. That's where the Kindle really shone. Not in the ease of browsing, but in the ease of use, in being light and simple and endlessly entertaining.

And happily (*touch wood*) I have not had any issues with Amazon deciding I shouldn't own certain books and deleting them from my Kindle, which was my biggest worry.

Would I upgrade to a better Kindle? Probably. Eventually. When this one dies. I don't need a Kindle with a touchscreen or the ability to play movies or any of that stuff. The model I have now more than suits my needs, and when it finally kicks the bucket, I hope I can get another one exactly like it. It's been a great reading tool, and I'm more than impressed with my first year of having it.

Thanks to my father for buying it, to Amazon for making a solid product and learning from their mistakes, and the publishers associated with NetGalley who make their books Kindle-ready.

2011-12-25T10:00:00.000-04:00

Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate it, and best wishes to them and their loved ones!

And to everyone else, if you're lucky, enjoy your day off from work! (I'm not so lucky. I'm probably at work as you read this. But that's okay, since it being a public holiday means that I get extra pay for being here!)

2011-12-22T17:33:00.000-04:00

For reasons related to my health, this blog is going on hiatus until the new year. I had a couple of reviews to write, but they can wait. Honestly, just getting through a single day is difficult enough when my body is acting against my best interests, and though it may sound a bit lazy, I can't handle another thing right now. So the reviews and posts will have to wait. A couple of brief blurbs have been scheduled, but beyond that, I will be silent until the beginning of 2012, hopefully returning to you all in better health.

2011-12-22T10:00:00.002-04:00

A happy Yule to those who celebrate it. My own celebrations were a touch early this year, but I still make a point of noting the solstice when it occurs. Shortest day of the year, folks. And while that thought may not be particularly comforting when you look out the window and see how dark it is at suppertime, just remember that the days will be getting longer and brighter from here on out. And that's a cheerful thought indeed.

In my Mailbox

2011-12-20T12:43:00.000-04:00

Slightly belated due to the holiday feasting, but better late than never! Let's take a look at the wonderful books I received last week!

The Bloodlight Chronicles: Retribution, by Steve Stanton. This is the second book in what looks to be a very promising series, and upon seeing the summary of this book, I immediately regretted not having paid more attention to the first book, which I received some time ago but never got around to reading. With my interest piqued for the newest one, I suspect that will change quickly enough. Definitely looking forward to seeing what Stanton has to offer.

The ever-awesome Night Shade Books (honestly, I can't say enough about the great books these guys send forth into the world) has given me the chance to read Stina Leicht's And Blue Skies From Pain. If the interesting cover art isn't enough to catch your attention, then how about a plot involving late 1970s Ireland (and all of the associated political turmoil), religion, and faeries? Yeah, that combination sounded pretty good to me, too.

Victoria Foyt's revealing Eden, the first book of the Save the Pearls series. This book comes across as one that could easily stir up some controversy among those who prefer their books to have some racial sensitivity and diversity. One one hand, the ruling class in this novel are darker-skinned, while paler-skinned people are pretty much society's outcasts. So that much is definitely a bit of history turned on its head. On the other hand, just based on the title of the series, "Save the Pearls" (Pearls being light-skinned people), I can see some people disliking that on the grounds that the focus is still on the plight of white people. I, however, am going to reserve judgment until I've read the book. I can't say, just based on a synopsis and a title, whether this one will be another case of racefail or racewin. Time will tell. Regardless, the post-apocalyptic setting appeals to me, so I don't doubt that there'll be at least some enjoyment in reading this.

Greg Logsted's The Stuttering Tattoo. This book, based on the description, seems to be a YA mystery thriller with a possible touch of the supernatural to it. Either way, it sounded interesting enough to catch my eye, and I'm looking forward to reading it. Reviews on Amazon thus far are encouraging, and I'm expecting a past-paced and exciting ride when I start this one.

David Constantine's Pillars of Hercules, which seems like it'll be a fascinating novel simply in the way it launches headlong into historical adventure with more than a dash of magic and myth. This book sounds like it's the kind of meaty historical fantasy that I'll really be able to sink my teeth into, not a light read but something rich and fulfilling. Once more, Night Shade, just seems bent on releasing damn near everything that I want to read!

Lari Don's First Aid for Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts. Now, I don't normally read much in the way of mid-grade fiction, but I do make exceptions when something interesting comes along, and here's one of those exceptions. The concept sounds whimsical and amusing, and I do enjoy being able to take a look at the kind of books that work as gateways into a wider world of fantasy and the supernatural. Lari Don has done other books in this series, none of which I have heard of before, let alone read, but by the looks of it I can jump in at any point and not be completely lost, so I have no problem no starting at the beginning of the series. I hope this one comes out as entertaining as it sounds!

Well! This is the point where I pretend that I did not make the vow to at least attempt cutting down on the review copies of books that I request and/or accept because wow, that's a lot of books. I wanted to try to keep things to the point where I only accepted as many books as I managed to read during the week, but clearly this isn't the case. I blame the publishing companies for releasing (or planning to release) so many books that just sound so interesting!

So, what did you all get in your mailboxes this past week? Anything worth bragging about?

Religious exemption

2011-12-17T10:00:00.001-04:00

No posts today or tomorrow. I know it's a little bit early, technically, but this weekend will be consisting mostly of Yule celebrations. I know Yule isn't until next week, but I've got to schedule my religious celebrations around my work schedule, and this was really the only time to do anything. So I'm taking the weekend off in order to feast and spend time with loved ones.

Regular posts will resume on Monday.

Want the chance to win an awesome book?

2011-12-15T10:13:00.000-04:00

Fantasy Book Cafe is giving away a copy of Teresa Frohock's wonderful Miserere: an Autumn Tale. My own review of this book is here, and I have to say that if you're a fan of fantasy and want to read a book with a really interesting take on religion, enter your name in the Fantasy Book Cafe contest. Or just go buy a copy of the book from Amazon. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

A little bit of author arrogance goes a long way

2011-12-15T10:00:00.038-04:00

Recently, I came across an article written by an author who was giving advice to reviewers on how to review on Amazon. Most of the article contained good advice. Don't write a really lengthy review, make sure you mention what you liked, be sure to leave a star rating. Good advice, definitely.

But one piece of advice really got under my skin. Paraphrasing, it amounts to, "Authors really get hurt, both emotionally and in terms of sales, when you leave low ratings, so don't leave a rating on Amazon that's 3 stars or less."

...Excuse me?

To me, that just smacks of arrogance. I can see where the author's coming from, but it's awfully high-thinking to assume to give that advice. For one thing, it's entirely self-serving. If I were an author and said, "I don't like low reviews of my books no matter what you thought of them, so I demand that you not publish said bad reviews," it would cycle around the blogosphere so quickly that it would make your head spin. I've seen it happen. It ends up doing little but making the author look like a fool and generating hits for whatever blog the author said that on.

In all honesty, if I think a book is bad, I'm not going to avoid saying so just to spare the author's feelings. If that makes me a cruel person, then so be it. But I'm not going to keep quiet when I have something to say. Hard to believe, but low-star reviews can actually contain some really good advice to the author. If someone rates a book 1 star and says simply, "This book sucked," then sure, that doesn't really tell you anything. But if somebody rates it 1 star and then talks about the pacing was uneven and how the characters weren't very believable and how there were typos everywhere and that a quick Google search would have prevented some factual inaccuracies, then too bad, author, but you might just have to put up with some constructive criticism. The people saying that aren't trying to screw over your sales, but give you legitimate commentary on what you might need to improve on as a writer. Nobody's perfect, and everybody can improve on something. And to demand that people only rate your book as 4 or 5 stars isn't reasonable, it is arrogant, and it's not going to be advice that's taken well by reviewers.

To illustrate, I'll point out what I've heard so often about self-published books. A lot of readers and reviewers are leery of self-published books that only have 5-star reviews. Why? Because those reviews likely came from friends and family, and don't actually reflect much but the loyalty that the reviewer has to the writer. A lower review may not look that great to your rankings, but what it means is that people are reading your book. People who don't have a particular reason to keep you happy. A couple of lower ratings means that you reached other people, which means that if nothing else, your book has an interesting enough premise to attract strangers to purchase it. Which will make other people interested in purchasing it. And so on down the cycle.

Again, I can understand some of where that author is coming from. I know that if I were an author and I saw negative reviews of my books, I'd be a little upset. On the other hand, I also accept that such things happen. You put your work out there for everyone to see, and not everyone is going to love it. Lower reviews provide perspective and sometimes contain good advice. If they lower your rankings and hurt your sales a little, it sucks but it's part of what being an author is about. Sales have ups and downs. A 3-star review might detract one potential buyer, but if a 5-star review convinces 2 people to buy, then you're still in the plus column. Your potential readers have a much better idea of what's contained in your book, and you might have some pointers to pay attention to for your next book. You take the good with the bad. It's what you do. But telling people not to post ratings of 3 stars or less just makes you look whiny and needy, like you got a bad review and just can't take the criticism.

If your book is really good enough to deserve all the 4- and 5-star reviews you'd like to have, then a couple of bad apples won't actually affect things all that much.

Again, I say that it's too arrogant a demand to be worth making. And good reviewers are going to ignore it anyway. We're going to continue on as we have, reviewing honestly, posting the bad alongside the good, and insisting that nobody has the right to dictate our opinions but ourselves. You have as much right to tell us what to write as we have to tell you the same.

Grave Mercy, by Robin LeFevers

2011-12-13T10:00:00.002-04:00

Buy from Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or IndieBound

Author's website
Publication date - April 3, 2012

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf?

Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.

Ismae's most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?

Thoughts: Compared to the average YA novel, this book was wonderfully complex, dark, and didn't pull any punches when it came to sex, death, or violence. That's to be expected, really, when you're dealing with a protagonist who's an assassin. Still, there are plenty of novels that would have glossed over some of the more distressing aspects of death and warfare, where here LaFevers didn't go out of her way to make everything full of blood and gore but instead gave respectful treatment to the topics at hand.

The premise of the novel is an interesting one. Old gods have been given new faces as Christian saints, but those who acknowledge the old ways still know them for what they are. Mortain, the old god of death, sired the protagonist, and as such it's her destiny to become his handmaiden in a convent devoted to him. Interestingly, when it comes to a convent devoted to the god of death, you'd almost expect a more modern approach to life there, in an attempt to appeal to the modern female teen. Wearing pants all the time, and that sort of thing. Modern feminism with an old face. Instead, you get a nice little piece of historical accuracy, as the girls and women dwelling there still practice modesty, wear habits, even as they're being trained in the arts of assassins.

Things that are easily accessible to the modern teen, however, are the ideas that not everything is as it first appears, and that blind obediance without understanding is a bad thing. Those two themes are woven into the story quite often, but not in such a heavy-handed way that leaves you rolling your eyes. The contract between Beast (ugly as sin with a friendly and enthusiastic personality) and de Lornay (almost impossibly attractive but with a cold and aloof demeanor) is a perfect example of this. You almost expect that de Lornay is working with the wrong side, simple because he's attractive and doesn't think much of the main character. It's a stereotype that's been done hundreds of times. The ugly one who'se nice is clearly good, and the pretty one who's mean is bad. De Lornay, however, is as loyal to his lord as Beast is, without any thought of betrayal in his head. Stereotype happily broken.

The relationship was also handled wonderfully here, a nice contrast to the still-popular, "I've just met this guy but I'm totally in love with him and he loves me back" style that I've previously expressed distaste for. Ismae and Gavriel Duval dislike each other at first. This grows to a grudging tolerance, progresses to friendship, and then later on becomes something much deeper than that. The natural and realistic progression of emotions was refreshing to see here, and it made me far more interested in the two characters than I would have been had the other approach been taken.

LaFevers deftly dealth with complex politics in a way that could easily be understood by those who don't make politics their forte. From a pre-teen duchess trying to hold her duchy intact, to a foul old nobleman who wants to marry said duchess in order to take control of her lands, to a man orchestrating the downfall of the duchy who you still can't help but sympathize with, the realism of the people and the situations they're in add wonderful tension to the story, and there are very few things so out of place as to throw you out of the groove you'll undoubtedly get into while reading Grave Mercy.

Between complex dark themes, a well-done romance, and an interesting twist on conventional religious beliefs, Grave Mercy is a must-have for fans of historical fiction who enjoy a strong realistic female protagonist both by modern standards and by the contextual standards of the story she features in. I'm definitely looking forward to the second book in the series, since I don't doubt that it's going to be just as captivating as the first.

(Book provided for review by the publisher via NetGalley.)

Free Kindle book, and a bit of a giggle

2011-12-12T10:30:00.001-04:00

A while ago, I posted about getting a copy of Martha Wells's The Serpent Sea, and only realizing too late that it was the second book in a series. Not to worry, I said to myself. I can save up and buy a copy of the first one. Even if not now, then at some point in the semi-near future.

So imagine my joy to wake up this morning and find out that The Cloud Roads, that first book in the series, is currently free for the Kindle on Amazon.com. Since I've heard a lot of good things about this book and its author, this is also a great chance for people to give her a try and see what they think without risking anything in the bargain.

Today's giggle will be of particular interest to people who've played Skyrim for longer than half an hour. Really, I think just about everybody's made some sort of joke about this!

Helping each other

2011-12-11T10:00:00.021-04:00

This past month, I made $0.84 in Amazon referrals. Okay, sure, that may not sound like much (I have a grand total of $7 and change sitting in my referral "bucket" since starting this blog), but I am grateful, since it means that people are actually clicking the Amazon links on this blog. Any money I make through that is being cycled right back into the blog in the form of new books for me to read and review.

Looking at the balance this morning got me to thinking. Some people disparage those who write blogs and have referal links or ads on them. The general concensus for people who feel that way seems to be the assumption that people who have such things are clearly doing what they do for profit only. Either that or they're begging for handouts.

Myself, I don't see it that way. For one thing, maintaining a theme blog is difficult work, especially when it comes to creating enough interesting content to keep readers coming and coming back. I don't begrudge a person the chance to make a kickback or two for all the work that they do. I don't know how many times I've had to convince people that bookblogging, for example, involves more work than just posting a review or two once a month and getting then getting more free books than you can handle. I put work into this blog. And I freely admit that I don't put as much work into this blog as some others put into theirs. So for all that work, I don't see any harm in the blog maintainer making a few bucks from their hobby.

By my way of thinking, assuming that such a thing is greed is much the same as going to a craft fair and complaining that everyone there should be crafting for the love of the art, not to make some extra cash.

Secondly, it seems that most people who have ads or referral links or ads do much what I'm doing, and cycle the profits back into their blog. Whether that results in them renewing their domain name for another year, paying a designer to come up with a new look for the blog, or purchasing the very things that they talk about on their blog. Those things don't come for free. They have to be paid for. In some ways bookbloggers have it a bit easier than some other kinds of bloggers, since even if we get no review copies and can't afford to purchase books, we still have libraries, or the occasional free book from an Amazon sale or a self-pub author. There are options. The person who writes the award-winning travel blog, though, has to have the money to travel. Product reviews involve actually buying a product to review. Even craft blogs, since even though you may not find yarn talk that interesting, craft supplies are not free. Again, if somebody's providing content, then I see no harm in them making a little bit of money, especially if that means they get to keep providing content. The money isn't just padding a bank account. it's going right back into the site in one form or another.

If I see a blog with ads, I usually try to click on any that seem interesting. It helps the blogger, and takes all of 10 seconds of my time. If I'm going to purchase books, I'll try to use a referal link, since it gets me to the same place and once again, helps the blogger.

I don't mean to be preachy here. I'm not saying that everybody should do as I do, because my way isn't for everyone. But I do disagree heartily with the idea that blogger who use ads or referral links are blogging only for the money it can make them. 99% of the time, that's blatantly false. There are easier and quicker ways to make a few dollars, after all, than to run a blog.

So if you'll excuse me, I'll go be happy with the $0.84 I earned last month. I didn't expect it, I didn't beg for it, but by damn, that doesn't mean I'm going to pretend it's not worth anything or that I didn't work for it.

In My Mailbox

2011-12-10T10:00:00.036-04:00

Good morning, everybody! How was your week? Mine went well enough. Didn't have much time for reading, I confess, but that was mostly due to work and trying to get holidays gifts together, one of which is handmade and thus takes up a fair chunk of my time. Hopefully I'll have more time to read during this coming week.

Well now, let's take a look and see what wonderful books came my way this past week, shall we?

Ellen Evert Hopman's Priestess of the Fire Temple, published by Llewellyn Worldwide. It seems a bit of an odd thing to make a fantasy novel with pagan themes, not because pagan themes have no place in fantasy, but because so many fantasy novels already have heavy pagan themes that it just seems a little redundant to write one and specifically advertise it. Nevertheless, if there's Christian fantasy, then there's room for pagan fantasy, and I for one am actually quite interested to see what fiction is being written with the pagan teen in mind.

Where There's Smoke...: The Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man, is the memoir of actor William B Davis, best known to most for playing the notorious Cancer Man on The X-Files. As a X-Phile, I was just thrilled to receive a copy of this book! I enjoy the chance to take a glimpse into the lives of actors I admire from shows that I love, and I'm hoping that this book will be no disappointment. My thanks to ECW press for allowing me the chance to read this one.

Women and Their Gardens, by Catherine Horwood. Appealing to my interest of the lives of women and domestic history, this book examines the contributions that women made to gardening (for food, medicinal herbs, and aesthetics) for the past four centuries. This is the kind of book that will clearly not appeal to all, but I find the subject fascinating, and I was really glad to have been given the chance to read this book. Thrilling the domestic history geek in me, I don't doubt that I'm really going to enjoy reading this.

A collaboration between Michael Scott and Colette Freedman, The Thirteen Hallows has really been making itself known in the blogosphere lately, and I was pleased as punch to get a hardcover copy of this in my mail from Tor. Since this is part of a book tour, my review of this will be posted toward the end of December. The review seems to be mixed so far, some saying it's amazing, other's saying it's crap. Me, I'm leaning toward the 'amazing' side, but time will tell, and I look forward to reading and reviewing it.

Well, more books in than out this week. Not doing so well when it comes to reducing the number of books I have, but it does make for a far more interesting IMM post, don't you think?

What did you get in your mailbox this week?

Author Interview: Shawn McGuire

2011-12-09T10:00:00.030-04:00

I have here today local author Shawn McGuire, author of The Shadow Thieves of Rouen and writer/podcaster for Mission Geek. Shawn was kind enough to allow me to interview him for Bibliotropic. And so without further ado, let's get down to business and see what makes Shawn tick!

I know that The Shadow Thieves of Rouen is your first published novel. How long have you been writing in general, and what is it that first inspired you to go for broke and get your work published?

I've always enjoyed writing but I made my first focused attempt at writing something in grade 9. I wrote a fantasy novel but I kind of shelved it because I was a teenager and lazy. In grade 10 I had a short story due for english class and I hadn't done anything the night before it was due. Again this was because of the lazy teenager thing. So instead of making something new I took the beginning of my book and the end of my book and mashed them together with some stuff in the middle and handed it in. My teacher, Mrs. Mary Marshall, loved it so much she called me in after school with my Mom and told me that I should get the short story published and finish the book. For the third time lazy teenager syndrome struck and I did nothing with it.

I guess that was my first inspiration but more recently I have been inspired by Brett Rounsaville and Andrew Mayne. Brett has always wanted to make a comic so he put up a kickstarter and raised the money to do it on his own. Andrew wanted to write sci-fi so he wrote it and published it on his own and has been very, very successful with it.

Self-published books such as yours tend to have mixed opinions about them. Some say that self-published books lack quality, while others promote self-publishing as a way to get your work out there without the wait-time of traditional channels. What was it that drew you to the idea of self-publishing in the first place?

I wrote my book in a very specific way so that people who are new to the fantasy genre would be able to get into it. It's a novella. I think that makes it less daunting to get into. A 400,000 Robert Jordan tome is a hard pill to swallow for someones first foray into reading fantasy. I didn't go deep into the magic system or the political machinations of the time because I didn't want to scare off the new fantasy readers. Even the 99 cent price tag is meant to create a low barrier to entry.

These are things that I can only do because I'm self published. You yourself picked up on things that I did, specifically the length, and questions it. I recently had a book interview with Adam Curry and he picked up on the odd length as well (however, he dug the length). A traditional publisher would likely have forced me into making a full length novel and adding stuff I don't want to add until book two or later.

Following up on that, what would you say to the naysayers who insist that traditional publishing channels are the only true way to go and who look down upon self-published works?

I look at self publishing as the independant live music of books. When you go see a local band play a live show you know there are going to be problems. The drummer is going to show up late from his job as a waiter, the sound guy is going to trip over a lead cord and unplug the bassist, etc... Despite all those issues you still go see them and have a great time because the music is awesome.

Self publishing a book is the same way. Sure the editing might not be the best or the formatting is weird or the cover is from a google image search with some words put on using Microsoft Paint but it's still awesome because it has a good story.

I think writers have lost track of why they write. It isn't about getting the big cash advance, it's about producing something that people will dig.

I know that some of the characters in The Shadow Thieves of Rouen are heavily based on people you know, right down to the names. While it's definitely far from uncommon for authors to do this, it can create snags when you want the characters to do something that the person wouldn't, or vice versa. How difficult did you find working with these constraints?

I put people in there who helped me with the book as a form of payment. I had no idea if I'd ever sell any of these so I didn't know if I could pay my editors and illustrators. This was my form of payment. I told them in advance though that I wasn't going to keep them true to their real life counterparts. I had one character whose situation I was a little worried about writing but I spoke to the characters real life counterpart and sorted it out.

I didn't really keep anyones personality intact, except for Grand General Nick Delony who is based off my best friend Nick DeLong. You know the person Melissa was based off of and she isn't the same at all.

Which of the characters in The Shadow Thieves of Rouen was the most fun for you to write?

I started answering this question then realised I was basically listing off every charcter. It's a hard question to answer because I only write fun characters. If I don't like writing a character, I don't include them in the book.

If I absolutely had to pin down one Character I'd say Chelsie. She is kind of a free character in that I can make her do anything I want. I suppose I can make any character to whatever I want but it just feels right when it's Chelsie.

Interestingly enough, I enjoyed writing the females more than the males. I don't know why but I did.

A lot of writers tend to be big readers. Is this true of you, too? Do you find what you've read in the past has had much impact on your writing now?

I almost exclusively listen to audio books but I listen to them all the time. So yes, I suppose I am a big reader. I don't think any one author or book has influenced me in any significant way. There are things in my writing, such as my blow-by-blow fights, that have probably been impressed upon me by other authors but none in specific.

If there's one novel, any novel (other than your own, of course) that you would recommend to just about anyone, which novel is it, and what makes it so great?

My recommendation is going to sound really pretentious but it's such a good work I think everyone should read it. War and Peace. It's a really daunting task but the payoff is immense.

And last but certainly not least, what advice have you got for the aspiring writers out there?

Get a good Editor. I don't consider myself a very good writer but I do think I'm a good story teller. A good editor will turn a good story into a good book.

Thanks, Shawn, for taking the time to answer all of my questions. It was very much appreciated, and it's great to have been able to make contact with a local fantasy author!

You can purchase The Shadow Thieves of Rouen for your Kindle from Amazon.com, or check out Shawn's podcasts and articles on Mission Geek.

Death by Petticoat, by Mary Miley Theobald

2011-12-07T10:00:00.014-04:00

Buy from Amazon.ca or Amazon.com

Author's website
Publication date - June 5, 2012

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) Every day stories from American history that are not true are repeated in museums and classrooms across the country. Some are outright fabrications; others contain a kernel of truth that has been embellished over the years. Collaborating with The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Mary Theobald has uncovered the truth behind many widely-repeated myth-understandings in our history including:

·Hat makers really were driven mad. They were poisoned by the mercury used in making hats from furs. Their symptoms included hallucinations, tremors, and twitching, which looked like insanity to people of the 17th and 18th centuries—and the phrase “mad as a hatter” came about.

·The idea that portrait painters gave discounts if their subjects posed with one hand inside the vest (so they didn’t have to paint fingers and leading to the saying that something “costs an arm and a leg”) is strictly myth. It isn’t likely that Napoleon, King George III, or George Washington were concerned about getting a discount from their portrait painters.

·Pregnant women secluded themselves indoors, uneven stairs were made to trip up burglars, people bathed once a year, women had tiny waists, apprenticeships last seven years – Death by Petticoat reveals the truth about these hysterical historical myth-understandings.

Thoughts: I'm always interested in historical trivia, so this book seemed right up my alley. It was simple, quick to read, and more than striving to explain the truth behind some of the myths, it also opened my eyes to some of the more ridiculous things that people actually believe about not just Colonial America, but North American history in general.

This isn't the sort of book that a hardcore historian might want on their shevles, though. It breezes through things, relying more on dispelling eneral myths in the manner of a trivia book than really seeking to go into depth about where most of the myths came from and what life was really like at the time. It tells the facts briefly and with a sense of sarcastic humour, but leaves further research to the reader's discretion.

The downside to this approach is that most people who are interested in history will already know the truth behind most of the myths mentioned, and those who aren't interested in history probably won't pick up the book to begin with. Which is a shame, really, since books like this are actually decent ways to learn a little without getting truly invested in the material. You read, you learn, you move on. But getting this book into the hands of the people who need it the most is usually a difficult task. Not impossible, but difficult.

Nevertheless, in reading death by Petticoat I did learn a thing or two, so I can't and won't consider it an evening wasted. This is the kind of book you can get through in an evening, after all. It was worth reading even just for the discussion it generated between my roommate and I. But mostly, I would recommend it to history enthusiasts who want to have a good chuckle at some of the more silly things that people believe about their history.

(Book provided for review by the publisher via NetGalley.)

Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day, by Ben Loory

2011-12-05T10:00:00.020-04:00

Buy from Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or IndieBound

Author's website
Publication date - July 26, 2011

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) Loory's collection of wry and witty, dark and perilous contemporary fables is populated by people–and monsters and trees and jocular octopi–who are united by twin motivations: fear and desire. In his singular universe, televisions talk (and sometimes sing), animals live in small apartments where their nephews visit from the sea, and men and women and boys and girls fall down wells and fly through space and find love on Ferris wheels. In a voice full of fable, myth, and dream, Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day draws us into a world of delightfully wicked recognitions, and introduces us to a writer of uncommon talent and imagination.

Thoughts: I was thrilled to have won a copy of this book, since it was one that I'd wanted since, oh, around the time it was published. Lack of cash always seems to be my downfall in acquiring the new books that I want... But that's neither here nor there. What is here, there, and all the spaces in between, in Loory's Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day.

This book, written in the style of fables that call to mind the numerous tales of Aesop, is hard to categorize. Horror, science fiction, speculative, just plain weird, it's all of these things together, and yet reducing it to just one category doesn't quite express what's contained within the pages. One particular story put me in the mind of a Japanese horror film, even (and I wonder if that's where Loory drew some of his inspiration from, in some cases).

The fables are modern, and aren't entirely morality plays, though there is a lesson to be taken from each of them. The theme behind most of the stories seems to be along the lines of the world not being what it appears to be and yet at the same time shaped by our perceptions of it, which is a line of thought that I can really get into. The characters are not always human, instead sometimes becoming sentient plants or animals, which is not uncommon for fables, and always a fun change of perspective which can serve to underscore the message that the author or the tale is trying to convey.

Loory shows a great amount of creativity with the stories he wrote for this one, and quite frankly, I think it's a worthy addition to the bookshelves of anybody who enjoys tales that are just on the other side of the "weird" line.

In My Mailbox

2011-12-03T10:16:00.000-04:00

Welcome, welcome! So, let's jump right into things and take a look at the books that I got in my mailbox this past week.

...

...

Death by Petticoat, which currently has no cover art listed on Amazon. This book is full of neat little facts surrounding many of the common misconceptions that people have about life in Colonial America. It was a fun read (I finished it in an evening), which will be reviewed later this week.

That's it. Only the one book received for review. Which isn't that bad a thing, though it makes for a less-than-interesting post. I read more books last week than I received, so progress is slowly being made to cut down the TBR pile. Huzzah!

What did you get in your mailbox this past week? Was it more exciting than mine?

What is it that you think I do?

2011-12-02T10:00:00.052-04:00

This is something I finally feel I can talk about, as I no longer associate with the person I'm going to be discussing. Regardless, names will be changed to protect the ignorant.

In one of my previous jobs, I seemed to work with more than the average amount of writers. While you'd think this would be a great thing to somebody who reads obsessively and writes almost as obsessively, the downside was this: these writers were all poets, and published through vanity press.

If you'll pardon a little snobbery, vanity-press poets are sort of scraping the bottom of the literary barrel. One of them, after finding out that I did book reviews, tried pretty hard to convince me to buy her 80+ page book of poems (priced at $15.99) and do a review of it so she could get a few more sales. I don't think she was too impressed when I told her that I had enough free review copies of books that were actually of the genre that I preferred to read and didn't have the time to take on hers.

But the real cake-taker was a woman whom I'll call Peggy. Peggy was also a vanity-press poet who liked to talk big. She was always going on about how she had a 4-book deal going with her publisher and how she just needed one more poem to finish the project but had writer's block, etc.

Then she too found out that I did book reviews. Once that little fact was in the open, she seemed hell-bent on me helping her get better deals, to give her publicity. She came up to me one day and told me she'd finally finished another book of poems, and she wanted me to read them.

I was reluctant. That was when she threw out this gem: "Don't worry, I'll still pay you your reader's fee for it."

Now, for those who don't know much about publishing and vanity press stuff, the rule of thumb is that if a company charges a reader's fee, it's usually a scam. A reader's fee is something that a prospective author pays to the publisher or agent simply for the privilege of having their stuff read. It doesn't guarantee publication. It doesn't cover the cost of editing. It's just money that an author shells out for no real reason other than that the publishing company or agent tells them to. As this article states, "Someone charging $25 per reading could average over $50,000 a year without ever leaving home or attempting to seek a publisher for anyone."

Now, I could have been a dishonest person and charged Peggy $50, let her manuscript sit around for 2 days without me looking at it once, then tell her she can go right ahead and submit it to the vanity press that will publish it anyway, because she's going to pay them even more money just to have her work in print. And she would have cheerfully paid it, too, because that was the rate she was paying to her current publisher.

I resisted the urge to teach her a lesson the hard way and instead tried to explain to her that most places that charge fees like that are scams, but she wouldn't listen. I changed tack and tried to explain to her what it was that I actually did, which wasn't charging people fees to read whatever they write so much as reading books and writing reviews of them online. I thought she got it at the time, but given that she approached me a week later and asked if I would still take the reader's fee of $50, I'm guessing it didn't sink in.

I want to feel bad for Peggy, but instead, I just felt annoyed. Not so much that she refused to listen to reason or do research that was easily accessible with a simple Google search, but that she continually misunderstood just what it is that I do here, even after I flat-out explained it to her. Is it actually that hard to understand, "I review books online"? I know Peggy wasn't exactly the brightest crayon in the box, but one thing that frustrates me more than anything else is people being unable to compehend something no matter how often they're told.

It also bothers me to think that if Peggy conflated the two things, other people might be doing the same. It makes me wonder how many people will look at review blogs and scoff to themselves and mutter about how much the blogger must have been paid to write a good review.

Let me put it this way to show just how ridiculous this idea is. Let's assume I'm an unscrupulous reviewer who charges $10 for a 3-star review, $20 for a 4-star, and $30 for a 5-star. This year alone, I would have made $1660. Which, I admit, is only about a month and a half's wages at my dayjob, but would someone like to tell me how I managed to squeeze $20 out of China Mieville or James Dashner or Mercedes Lackey? And I believe that Suzanne Collins owes me $80 for me reviews of her Hunger Games trilogy.

And those rates are cheap. Hey, if Peggy was willing to pay me $50 just to read her poems, how about I start charging a flat $100 for every review I write, and they'll always be at least 4 stars.

What? No takers? Why don't you want this fantastic deal?

Oh, right, because it's insulting and blatantly ridiculous. Knew I was forgetting something.

(If anyone's curious, if I charged $100 for every 4- and 5-star review I wrote, I'd have made I'd have made $6400 this year and probably could have quit my dayjob to write deceptive commentary.)

The Emperor's Knife, by Mazarkis Williams

2011-12-01T10:00:00.043-04:00

Buy from Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or IndieBound

Author's blog
Publication date - November 29, 2011

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) There is a cancer at the heart of the mighty Cerani Empire: a plague that attacks young and old, rich and poor alike, marking each victim with a fragment of a greater pattern. Anyone showing the marks is put to death. That is Emperor Beyon's law . . .

But now the pattern is reaching closer to the palace than ever before. In a hidden room, a forgotten prince has grown from child to man, and as the empire sickens, Sarmin, the emperor’s only surviving brother, is remembered. He awaits the bride his mother has chosen: a chieftain’s daughter from the northern plains.

Mesema travels from her homeland, an offering for the empire’s favour. She is a Windreader, used to riding free across the grasslands, not posing and primping in rare silks. She finds the Imperial Court’s protocols stifling, but she doesn’t take long to realise the politicking and intrigues are not a game, but deadly earnest.

Eyul is burdened both by years and by the horrors he has carried out in service to the throne. At his emperor’s command he bears the emperor’s Knife to the desert in search of a cure for the pattern-markings.

As long-planned conspiracies boil over into open violence and rebellion, the enemy moves toward victory. Now only three people stand in his way: a lost prince, a world-weary killer, and a young girl from the steppes who once saw a path through a pattern, among the waving grasses.

Thoughts: Steeped in classic middle-eastern society influence, Mazarkis Williams's debut novel is a wonderful addition to my shelves. More and more I seem to be coming across books that make me go, "Wait, this is the author's first book?" simply because it can be hard to believe that so much talent has only just arrived on the scene. This was my impression with The Emperor's Knife.

The plot is a complex one, full of politics at once deep and twisted and yet still comprehensible without having to twist your mind around multi-layered deceptions. A disease has infected Cerana, showing itself in mysterious patterns upon the skin of the infected. Emperor Beyon tries to hide that he has the pattern on him. Eyul, charged with being the emperor's assassin, is thrown into a quest to find the source of the pattern, and comes closer to it than he realizes. Sarmin, Beyon's sole remaining brother, is either mad or incredibly insightful, or both, and holds the key to the pattern in his mind. Mesema, a barbarian girlintended for a man she has never met, follows duty to places she never expected it to lead her. And that just scratches the surface of the richly-developed cast of characters contained within the pages of The Emperor's Knife. Williams has great skill at writing well-rounded and realistic characters. Each have their place on the board of destiny, a concept that features quite promimently within the book itself.

I felt particular attachment to Sarmin and Mesema. While a large portion of the book centres around Eyul (and with good reason, as he's integral to the plot), I was more interested in reading the sections from their viewpoints. Sarmin's views of the world and people were intriguing and insightful, and I found Mesema's challenge to adjust to the new culture she found herself thrust into was something very relatable. She was a young women trying to find herself while finding the world, and while she was hot-headed and sometimes flighty with her emotions, I liked seeing that she was deep enough to also have more of a level-head when needed. It would have been very easy for her to develop more as a caricature than a well-developed character, but happily, that didn't happen.

Williams shows good skill with world-building, too. It's clear that a great amount of time was put into this novel, with all its detail and subtleties. There's no doubt that a talented hand guides this novel, and I was pleased to see it as I turned the pages.

However, no book is ever perfect, and for all its strengths, occasionally I did find myself a little lost. It wasn't so much that essential details were omitted or forgotten so much that sometimes things worked a little too subtly to be picked up on. Characters reveal their hands in ways that sometimes seem counter to what the reader has come to think of them as, and it was a little bit disconcerting.

The ending, too, felt somewhat hurried. It reminded me a lot, actually, of Mercedes Lackey's novels, where 95% of the book is set-up for a very quick confrontation at the end, and while that can work, it does lead to the book's conclusion feeling rushed and unsatisfying.

Regardless, though, I greatly enjoyed reading The Emperor's Knife, and while I can't imagine what's going to happen in the sequel (there were questions left unanswered at the end, but it wasn't really cliff-hanger), I look forward to the day I can pick up the next book and continue with the adventure. This book leaves me hands highly recommended for fans of fantasy, especially those who crave a different setting than the standard "based on medieval Europe."

(Book provided for review by the publisher via NetGalley.)

Divergent, by Veronica Roth

2011-11-30T10:00:00.002-04:00

Buy from Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or IndieBound

Author's blog
Publication date - May 3, 2011

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) Beatrice "Tris" Prior has reached the fateful age of sixteen, the stage at which teenagers in Veronica Roth's dystopian Chicago must select which of five factions to join for life. Each faction represents a virtue: Candor, Abnegation, Dauntless, Amity, and Erudite. To the surprise of herself and her selfless Abnegation family, she chooses Dauntless, the path of courage. Her choice exposes her to the demanding, violent initiation rites of this group, but it also threatens to expose a personal secret that could place her in mortal danger. Veronica Roth's young adult Divergent trilogy launches with a captivating adventure about love and loyalty playing out under most extreme circumstances.

Thoughts: I felt like I'd been waiting just shy of forever to read this book, when when I finally got myself a copy, I was more than happy to sit down and read through the whole thing as quickly as possible. I'm glad to be able to say that it lives up to my expectations, which were, I confess, flagging in the wake of so many lackluster dystopian novels that seem to be cluttering the shelves these days.

Divergent starts with a concept that's fairly familiar to readers of dystopian fiction, especially YA dystopian fiction: deperating people into basic categories. In this case, the categories are personality traits. Whether you're more selfless, or brave, or other such traits will determine your faction in Roth's future, the section of society in which you will live out the rest of your life past the age of 16. Of course, the main character has a classic case of not quite fitting in, having multiple dominant traits in her personality. This is referred to as Divergence, and must be kept a secret at all costs.

I admit that when I got that explanation, I had a knee-jerk reaction of rolling my eyes and assuming that the only reason that Divergence would be so bad in such a society is because it flies in the face of whatever philosophy declares that people can be reduced to a single personality trait. Reading on, however, reveals that although that is part of it, it only skims the surface of why Divergence is so dangerous to the current regime, and is both more and less than such a simple explanation.

Roth does a wonderful job of showcasing the way that humanity takes things to extremes. Where the Dauntless faction are supposed to embody bravery as a primary trait, this has, over time, come to manifest in a daredevil lifestyle in which peircings, tattoos, and violence are the order of the day. The selflessness of the Abnegation faction has gone beyond charity and modesty and instead teaches that the self is less important than the other, and that not setting yourself aside for everybody else is just selfish and bad. Good in theory, but human nature being what it is, over time people will always take things to the next level and the ritual becomes more important than the meaning.

In much the same way that I praised Mike Mullin's Ashfall for not shying away from the darker side of life, I must give that same praise to Roth here. There is death in this book, bloody and violent and senseless. There is suicide. There is war, and cruelty, and frank discussions that highlight the way that morals and ethics are a millions shades of grey instead of black-and-white. Roth manages to do all this without being heavy handed about it all, and that works all the more effectively to get her point across. Other writers of YA-oriented novels could do worse than to follow in Roth's footsteps.

There are a dozen things I could praise this book for, and I can think of only one thing that I really disliked about it. And that is this: it came as no surprise that Tris's dominant traits were selflessness, bravely, and intelligence. Just about every heroine in every novel, especially ones intended for teenagers, have their main traits be these. It's getting overdone. Yes, Tris's personality is rich and layered enough to make her more than just these basic traits, so it's not a huge flaw, but really, in three words Roth just described the generic heroine, and so it was hard not to wince a little bit there.

But when that's my biggest complaint, and even I can find counters to my own arguments in the way that Tris was developed, that's not much of a flaw in the novel as a whole. Really, Divergent is a realistic and exciting ride through a future that's all too believable, and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the books in the planned trilogy. I can't wait to see what Roth will do next.

Do reviewers make good editors?

2011-11-29T10:00:00.038-04:00

Since I started blogging here, I've seen people come and go. Happily, it seems a good percentage of other reviewers leave the bookblogging world because they end up with positions within publishing companies, and it seems often it happens that it's in an editing capacity.

It got me thinking. Do book reviewers make good editors?

Good reviewers certainly do have discerning tastes, and they (I'm not going to say "we" here because that feels just a touch arrogant, assuming that I consider myself to be that good) know what works in a book and what doesn't. The reviews that I read on some of the more notable blogs have commentary on plot, pacing, character voice, development, pacing, tone, the whole shebang. I've seen good reviewers make the distinction between what's good and what they like, and admit that the two don't always go hand-in-hand.

I've also seen some reviewers have their reviews consist of little but, "Squee, I totally want Heroine and Hero to hook up because their romance is so hot, yay!" That certainly does convey what the reviewer thought, but it's not exactly... constructive.

But even being able to give constructive commentary and criticism doesn't mean that a reviewer would be a good editor. A person might be really good at pointing out flaws but be lousy at suggesting ways to fix them. It's still constructive, in a way, but not quite as useful as being able to offer suggestions and improvements. So there's that to consider, too.

But being able to look at a book with a critical eye is definitely a good skill to have when it comes to both reviewing and editing. It's something that can be developped by doing exactly what I and tons of other people are doing, simply reading and reviewing books.

But the most critical eye and the best suggestions in the world aren't going to do anything unless a person's got the guts to actually say them. Just from my own experience, I've found that it can be really difficult to say something negative about a book when I've developped a relationship, even a casual one, with an author. Being an editor means you've got to quiet that inner voice that tells you to not makes waves and to just let things slide and occasionally be brutally honest with someone. That's tricky. It's difficult. It's the part of the job that nobody really enjoys doing.

But it's the part that can turn a good book into a great one, and so it's vital. Reviewing books on a blog, with the safety and partial anonymity of the Internet on your side, is a step or two removed from having the author sitting right across from you and you know you have to tell them to change what they've already confessed is one of their favourite scenes, because it doesn't work with the rest of the book's pacing. Good reviewers know how to take ownership of their opinions too, but that doesn't mean it's an easy thing to do by any stretch of the imagination.

I won't deny it. I've got some serious envy of the people who've gone on and managed to snag a position as an editor. I think that's pretty high on my list of dream jobs, if push comes to shove. Do I think I have the skill to do what they're doing? Possibly. It's hard to say. I'd love to think so, but I long ago learned that I'm a lousy judge of my own qualities, so I won't even really go there right now. But it's enough to say that in many ways, I'd love to be in their shoes, and I think it's an amazing thing that they've gone on and been able to do something that's already an extension of what they love.

It's not a given that a good reviewer will make a good editor. But it's definitely a good first step to take, and one that, happily, is available to anyone with a computer and an Internet connection. Undeniably, simply being able to do this has opened doors for people, and it's a wonderful thing to be able to see people advance themselves not because they bought their way up the corporate ladder, not because they begged and begged and begged, not because they kissed the right butts, but because they demonstrated that they had the skills and they had the chance to catch somebody's eye.

The Shadow Thieves of Rouen, by Shawn McGuire

2011-11-28T10:00:00.038-04:00

Buy from Amazon.com

Author's website
Publication date - 2011

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) Aden is a thief. What is supposed to be a normal job starts him on a path that may affect the history of Europe.

Up against rival thieves, mages and the king of the nation of Europe he must wrestle with his past life, his future love and figure out where his allegiance lies.

Thoughts: This is a review that I had to take a while to really sort out in my head, because the book itself is actually a rather difficult one to rate. I had to really give it some good thought, and at the end I have to admit that the final teacup rating I was forced to give it really doesn't speak properly to what I found within the book's pages.

The story follows Aden, a French thief who is hired for a job and quickly becomes embroiled in something far more complex than he could have ever guessed. An interesting cast of characters followed in Aden's wake, most of whom were decently developed and entertaining to read about. While the book is billed as straight-up fantasy, it seems to take place on an alternate Earth in which North America's influence on the rest of the world has expanded, overriding traditional customs and culture. This is not stated outright so much as hinted at in various ways as the novel -- or rather, novella -- goes on.

But outside of the basic premise, that's where things get a little dodgy, and harder to really pin down my thoughts and feelings on this.

On one hand, it was clear pretty quickly that the book still needed work. I found more than the average amount of typos and grammatical errors that were very distracting, especially in the final quarter of the book. The story suffered in some places, mostly for being undeveloped in some and overdeveloped in others. A good half of the story consisted of Aden and his sudden love interest, and that got rather boring to read when I would much rather bet getting back to the more interesting matters of a guild of thieves, international politics, large-scale betrayal, and magic. Battles were written out as a blow-by-blow, which wasn't bad per se but really distanced the reader from the action of the battles themselves.

Also along with this comes the personal peeve of seeing yet another story in which two characters fall head-over-heels in love with each other within hours of their meeting. I've never liked that, and I doubt I ever will, but it still seems to be a popular thing in novels.

That being said, it's still very clear that the author has some serious potential with his writing and style. It wasn't always smooth and consistant, but some of the descriptions and phrases showed good skill with words, and the creativity evidenced by the hints at the world's political situation are signs that McGuire definitely put good thought into his world-building. So while the book wasn't exactly great and did need some improvements, it wasn't exactly bad either, and I saw the potential for something great to come out of it all.

Ultimately, I think the book's biggest failings were the pacing and length. For a 30k word novella, it was a good beginning to a story but didn't really get far before it cut off and the reader must wait for the next book. I think it could have benefitted from both tightening the plot and expanding it. It's a shame to have to say it, because as I said, I can definitely see potential for both the author and the story, but as it stands, those are the main things that I feel would need to have been changed to turn this from an average story to a great one.

(Book provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.)

Gettings your ROCS off

2011-11-27T10:00:00.027-04:00

Okay, so maybe I'm a little late to the party when it comes to discussing this, since it seems like the majority of posts featuring whether or not to Read Only Completed Series (ROCS) were written and posted on other blogs last week, but really, it's a good topic to discuss at any time, and well worth giving through to.

Do I read only completed series? A quick check of the reviews here will reveal that no, I don't. But it is something that I can all too easily understand why people choose to do. While part of me kind of enjoys the anticipation that comes along with closing one book and knowing that it'll be a few months, possibly longer, before I get to read the next one, another part of me is saying, "But I want to read it now!" Waiting for it is both fun and not fun at the same time.

So I can completely understand why some people choose to wait until all the books in a series are released before starting in on it. However, that brings its own set of problems.

For starters, sometimes you're not dealing with something as simple as a trilogy, with one book released every year. If, for example, I waited until all of the Wheel of Time books were released, I still wouldn't be able to start on the first book at this point, which was released over 20 years ago. Drawback number one.

Drawback number two is that even if it is something as relatively short as a trilogy, waiting until all the books are released means that, in short, I miss out on some of the fun community type stuff that's done surrounding book releases. Especially with the other review blogs that I read, it can be really nice to get involved in discussions with other people about books we've just read, pondering what might happen in the next book, discussing theories, and so on and so forth. Waiting until they're all released means I miss out on that, and to me, that's just not worth it.

But I can see why people do it. Especially when you're really enjoying a book, it can be incredibly satisfying to finish it and know that you don't have to wait to find out what happens next, because book 2 is sitting right next to you, just waiting for you. There's plenty of pleasure in that too.

But I think for me, the fun of anticipating the next release will always keep me reading books from unfinished series. I love finishing something and then looking forward to something else. Weirdly, what it reminds me of most are my high school days of scouring used book stores for the next Wheel of Time novel to read, or waiting for the library to order something in for me. Or yes, waiting for the next Lord of the Rings movie to hit theatres. Waiting for something was its own kind of fun, and it gave me something to look forward to.

In my Mailbox

2011-11-26T15:26:00.001-04:00

This week has been the week of annoyance, pain, sickness, and a load of general crap. Quite honestly, I'm glad it's over, and I hope I can get my life back to something approaching normal ASAP.

And in the spirit of that, here's a run-down of the books I acquired during the past 7 days. May they bring normalcy and entertainment!

Will McIntosh's Hitchers, which is the story of a man possessed by the spirit of his deceased grandfather. This book sounds like it could easily straddle the line between hilarious and chilling, and so I'm quite excited to have the chance to read it. Published by the ever-wonderful Night Shade books.

Jennifer Safrey's Tooth and Nail. Also published by Night Shade, this book centres around the story of a woman who discovers that she's half tooth-fairy. Yes, you read that right. I'm particularly interested in this one, because the plot sounds little different than what you could find in a hundred and one YA novels, but is actually intended for an older audience, and I'm quite curious as to how that story will work out. It could go either way, really, and either be badly done, or perhaps brilliant. I'm of course hoping for the latter.

Michael Bedard's The Green Man looks like a fairly simple but interesting piece of mid-grade fantasy that likely won't take too long for me to read through. My attention was caught by the cover and title, because of my interest in pagan mythologies. The fact that it's by a Canadian author doesn't hurt either, since I do enjoy lending support to more local authors when I can.

And that's my haul for this past week. Three books in, and as you'll see from the upcoming reviews, three books out, too. I think I struck a nice balance, really. Hope I can keep up that balance in the future!

What did you all get in your mailboxes this week? I want to know who and what I have to be envious of!

Graphic novel reviews

2011-11-25T10:00:00.008-04:00

In the past, I tended to steer clear of graphic novels whenever I did reading challenges, and that carried over to my book reviews here. In my mind, I figured that while graphic novels certainly could tell a good story and have amazing plots and intricate characters and all that, they weren't really reading. More than half of getting through one was looking at the pictures, and it seemed to me that if I was to review graphic novels, then I may as well review the latest issue of Reader's Digest for all the literary worth they held.

I won't lie. That was arrogant of me. But that's how I viewed it. I enjoyed the process of reading, and having a story told mostly by pictures just wasn't the same. It was the same thing behind audiobooks. Sure, I get the story, but I didn't read the book, and so in a way, it didn't count.

The jury's still out on audiobooks. I've tried them again and again, and I still can't bring myself to enjoy them even half as much as I enjoy sitting down and making my eyes scan the text in front of them.

But I'm caving a bit of graphic novels. I'm not going to go out of my way to read and review them, but I am going to include them here when I find something I've considered worth reading and reviewing.

And yes, I am including manga in this category. (Partly because manga make up the majority of graphic novels that I read anyway...)

It just seems unfair to continue excluding them. Especially when it's not like I haven't made commentary on video games, movies, and TV shows on here. So here's to a slightly more open mind, and some new literary adventures!

Touch of Power, by Maria V Snyder

2011-11-24T10:00:00.021-04:00

Buy from Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or IndieBound

Author's website
Publication date - December 20, 2011

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) Laying hands upon the injured and dying, Avry of Kazan assumes their wounds and diseases into herself. But rather than being honored for her skills, she is hunted. Healers like Avry are accused of spreading the plague that has decimated the Territories, leaving the survivors in a state of chaos.

Stressed and tired from hiding, Avry is abducted by a band of rogues who, shockingly, value her gift above the golden bounty offered for her capture. Their leader, an enigmatic captor-protector with powers of his own, is unequivocal in his demands: Avry must heal a plague-stricken prince—leader of a campaign against her people. As they traverse the daunting Nine Mountains, beset by mercenaries and magical dangers, Avry must decide who is worth healing and what is worth dying for. Because the price of peace may well be her life...

Thoughts: I had seen other books of the author's that sounded interesting but that I hadn't been able to read yet, and had heard good things about what she has written, and so when the chance came to read Touch of Power, I eagerly pounced. I'd sad to say that this was not the greatest introduction to Snyder's work, and I sincerely hope that her other books are better.

The premise itself was fairly creative. The world has been decimated by a plague, and people ironically blamed Healers for starting that plague in the first place. Avry is the last Healer, on the run and trying to keep her identity hidden. She is found, however, by a band of men who abduct her and demand that she Heal their prince of the plague. Avry isn't fond of this idea. As her journey progresses, we get to see more of the world and the cultures that have been carefully created to be interesting and with enough parallels to our own world that we can relate the the situation that Avry finds herself in.

Healers themselves are done quite interestingly here, too. Rather than merely curing an illness or injury, a Healer takes the problem upon themselves and then heals at an accelerated rate. Some thing do prove too much for them to handle, though, and they bear the scars of injuries healed, sicknesses cured. It's an interesting form of sacrifice that intrigued me.

So the plot itself wasn't where I found this book lacking. Rather, it was in the writing itself. Snyder writes mature themes into the story, such as swearing, lust, sex, bloody vengeance, all that stuff, while her writing reads like it was written for younger teens rather than older ones who might better relate to the subject matter. As the book is written from Avry's perspective, any mysteries encountered are slowly revealed by way of Avry thinking questions at herself and pondering things, not so much hinting sometimes as beating the reader over the head with the answer without ever actually coming to that answer. It does the reader a disservice, assuming that they can't see half of what's coming.

Subtle foreshadowing is almost nonexistant. As an example, later in the book Avry comes across a man who doesn't seem to like her very much, is short of patience, acts a quite secretive about some things, and yet is supposed to be on her side as he aids her in infiltrating the enemy city. At this point in the book, the fact that this man doesn't instantly like Avry is sign enough that he's a turncoat, because everybody else seems to show an instant trust and liking to her when they're good guys, and any bad guys seen at that point have either tried to use her in some way or else made it plain that they disliked her. The execution of the story was too simplistic and at odds with the more mature aspects of the story, making for a few odd read. I honestly had trouble telling what age range this book was intended for. The writing hinted at younger teens, the themes and plot hinted at older teens to adults.

Sadly, this actually turned me away from giving the author's other books a chance. It was a poor introduction to her work, which is a shame because there was so much potential in the story and I hated to see it executed the way it was. I can't say I'd recommend this book, mostly because I can't tell who I'd even be recommending it to. There'd be problems either way.

(Book provided for review by the publisher via NetGalley.)

Debris, by Jo Anderton

2011-11-23T10:00:00.030-04:00

Buy from Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or IndieBound

Author's website
Publication date - September 27, 2011

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) In a far future where technology is all but indistinguishable from magic, Tanyana is one of the elite.

She can control pions, the building blocks of matter, shaping them into new forms using ritual gestures and techniques. The rewards are great, and she is one of most highly regarded people in the city. But that was before the “accident”.

Stripped of her powers, bound inside a bizarre powersuit, she finds herself cast down to the very lowest level of society. Powerless, penniless and scarred, Tanyana must adjust to a new life collecting “debris”, the stuff left behind by pions. But as she tries to find who has done all of this to her, she also starts to realize that debris is more important than anyone could guess.

Thoughts: Even if I hadn't read a description of this novel that said it drew many themes from manga and anime, I would have been able to tell. It was quite easy to picture this entire novel as an anime, and to that end, the themes and imagery were quite clear and creative, and I would have very much enjoyed watching it.

But some things that would be great visually don't always transfer well to text, and I found this to be the case in a few instances of Debris Not that the novel was lacking or flawed in that sense, but I found myself thinking more than once that one scene or another would have made a better visual presentation than a textual one. This was particularly the case when it came to the character of Tanyana investigating debris. Many of the attacks and overloads of debris felt episodic rather than part of a flowing story, almost in the way that shows do when they fill half of their episodes of "new bad guy of the week" plots.

Still, it's quite clear that Anderton has a brilliantly creative mind, and really put the effort into world-building. Creating the history of the world with brief tie-ins to our own history, culture-building, creating rich and interesting characters; it was all there, and it was a treat to read. Her writing and smooth and moved the plot along quite easily, and in spite of the somewhat episodic segments of the story, the pacing was also quite good, pulling the reader in and building layers onto the mystery of pions, debris, and the puppet-men who watched over everything that was happening.

Where it seemed Anderton fell down, though, was in foreshadowing. From the very beginning it was clear that Devich wasn't all he appeared to be, and that although Tanyana had some friction with Kichlan (no rhyming pun intended), they were obviously going to sort it out and get involved with each other. Kichlan almost fit the "grumpy love interest" archetype to a T, and Devich practically wandered around carrying a sign reading, "I'm using you, Tanyana," the entire time. Why Tanyana didn't pick up on at least Devich's motivations, I can't say. She's demonstrably not a stupid woman, but he practically tells her that he's going to betray her at one point and she just brushes it off. Subtlty was not the name of the game in Debris, and it spoiled a bit of the reading for me. It's hard to want to invest yourself in a character when you can't help but wonder how she can be so uncharacteristically blind.

Still, for the few flaws it had, it was still fun to read, and I enjoyed Anderton's writing and creativity more than enough to want to read the sequel when it's released. While this may not be the book for everyone, it definitely had strong merits that endeared me to it, and I enjoyed following the plot and trying to figure out the mystery of debris and pions alongside Tanyana. I would recommend this book mostly to fantasy fans who are accustomed to the plot and imagery found in anime, as I think that would help them appreciate it all the more, and to those fans who are looking for an easy and fun read that doesn't lack for mystery and talent.

(Book provided for review by the publisher via NetGalley.)

Never catching a break

2011-11-22T13:47:00.000-04:00

Taking a moment for some slight personal ranting here. Remember how I mentioned earlier that I collapsed at work last week? Well, I've still been sick, which isn't too surprising, and I got a doctor's note excusing me from work until Thursday, giving me some nice time to rest.

Today, I got a call from HR, telling me that for liability and safety reasons, they won't actually let me return to work until I have a note from my doctor clearing me to come back. Having a note excuse me for a certain period isn't enough.

I can appreciate their concerns. I mean, when an employee collapses and has to be hauled out in an ambulance, it doesn't exactly make for a happy comfy atmosphere. And if I'm not okay to return to work, they do have the right to know. So I can see where they're coming from. And considering the doctor at the hospital was worried that the problem might be related to my heart, confirming that I can handle my work duties really isn't too much to ask, and I can see that.

I was all set to return to work on Thursday morning and start catching up on everything I'd missed. The problem? The earliest I can get an appointment for is noon on Thursday, meaning that even if I get cleared to come back (and I probably will, all things considered), I'll only be able to get half a shift in at best.

Go figure this all happens at this time of year, when I still have rent and bills to pay and holidays gifts to buy for people. Money's going to be very tight for the next month or so, it seems. I missed time last week due to collapsing. I missed time the week before that because I sprained my ankle, and WorkSafe won't cover that time because the time I had to take off was less than 60% of my regular work week. (I guess they figure that everyone can miss three days of pay and be fine...) This week, I'll be missing about three and a half days...

On top of it all, a fuse blew and now I can't use my stove or drier, meaning I have very few clean clothes, and can't actually cook anything. *headdesk*

I don't mean to be all complainy. I am thankful, at least, that I still have a job to return to, because some places I've worked for in the past would be, shall we say, less than lenient with me injuring myself and getting very sick. But it's all such bad timing and it's frustrating enough that getting through the next month seems like a huge chore...

I guess one good thing will come out of it. Next week should be a good week for reviews, since I'd had more time in which to read these past few days. Got to look on the bright side, right?

Thanks for listening to me rant, guys. Much appreciated.

Waiter Rant, by Steve Dublanica

2011-11-21T10:00:00.005-04:00

Buy from Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, Book Depository, or IndieBound

Author's website
Publication date - July 21, 2008

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) In this book, the pseudonymous Steve Dublanica (a.k.a. Dan John Miller) achieves for waiters what Anthony Bourdain did for cooks in Kitchen Confidential. By the evidence of Waiter Rant, not even his seminary classes or job as a psychiatric worker could prepare Dublanica adequately for what he would experience pulling shifts at an upscale restaurant outside New York City. He tells story after entertaining story about customers, co-workers, and bosses who range individually from the imperious to the clinically insane. Along the way, the author-waiter delivers sound advice on proper tip etiquette and the art of getting good service.

Thoughts: Always interested in what things look like from the other side, this book seemed like a perfect fit for me. I've had good service, bad service, and utterly indifferent service from people at different restaurants, and I figured it was worth seeing the thoughts and opinions of this person who turned commentary on his work into a book that thousands of people were talking about.

My intuition led me in the right direction.

The author's candid commentary on the inner workings of an upscale restaurant and all the politics and insanity surrounding it was a wonderfully entertaining read, and more than a little informative. I can't say that I previously even thought about some of the issues he brought up, both in dealing with coworkers and with customers.

While the author did paint himself as something of a sympathetic figure through the whole tale, he was up front and honest enough to not do that in every instance. He freely admitted that he could be just as much of a jerk as anybody else, took his revenge on cranky customers, and talked trash with the kitchen workers. While I can't say I approved of some of the things he did, I commend him for being honest about it all, and not making himself seem completely like the poor trod-upon worker whose boss and coworkers were all out to get him.

Though I won't lie; there were plenty of people who treated him unfairly enough, and for stupid enough reasons, that I wanted to be able to knock their heads together more than once.

This book does more than shed light on the inner workings of the restaurant world, though. Many of the practices shown in here can be transplanted and applied to just about any job. Unscrupulous business practices, manic control-freak bosses, and corporate politics doing more to ruin a job experience than anything else. These aren't things that only exist in restaurants, and I found myself relating to the author's situation numerous times even though I have never had a job like his before. I think this is the kind of book that can speak to anybody who's ever worked in a less-than-enjoyable job, and as such ties many people together in a loose community that they may never have even thought existed before.

Funny, irreverent, honest, and enlightening, this book is one that I can highly recommend to just about anybody. Wjether you close the book loving it or hating it, you won't be able to honestly say that you didn't learn something, or that you couldn't ever relate. Definitely worth taking the time to read.

Realism in Fantasy

2011-11-20T10:00:00.033-04:00

This may seem like a strange topic, at least on the surface. Realism in fantasy. Isn't fantasy, by its very nature, supposed to be unrealistic? Isn't it supposed to have all the things that mundane modern life just doesn't have? Why even approach the issue of realism in a story that you know from the beginning isn't supposed to be real?

Okay, now that I've gotten some of the cynicism out of the way, I can get right down to the meat of the issue.

Maybe I've just been looking in all the wrong places lately, but I see a lot of people writing fantasy and assuming that because they're writing about magic and dragons and a world that doesn't exist, all the rules can go out the window. And I'm not just talking about laws of physics that could legitimately be handwaved by magic (though that brings up its own unique set of challenges and issues), but things that basic research could have avoided. Like the language patterns of toddlers. Or how someone who's had a couple of lessons on knifefighting can suddenly take down veteran guards. That sort of thing.

It bothers me. A lot. For one thing, it's sloppy. It's sloppy research on the author's part, and it makes for sloppy storytelling when any reader knows better. For another, I find it rather arrogant in that these writers may legitimately think that the rest of their story will be so good that readers will overlook glaring errors and inaccuracies.

But the real pain in the butt comes in when people will use as their defense, "It's fantasy. It's not supposed to be realistic."

Here's the thing. Reality has laws. It's how the world as we know it exists. Even if we don't know the laws, they're still there. The sword-wielding hero is so good with his weapon because he has muscles and training and experience. Dragons soar the skies thanks to the laws of physics and biology. There are still rules that have to be obeyed in order for the fictional world you're creating to even make sense.

If I may use a really obscure example here, throwing the rules out the window is one of the things that made the movie Baby Geniuses so bad. I can suspend disbelief enough to follow the idea that babies have a language that only they understand, and that certain factors can influence the intelligence of developping children. However, when it comes to a kid not yet out of diapers drop-kicking a fully-grown man, that's there the disbelief comes crashing down. No matter how smart the kid is, they still don't have the muscle tone or coordination to do that. But the movie handwaves it by going, "They're genius babies, highly developed, so of course they can." No logic to it. No corresponding change in physiology. Just throwing the rules out the window.

And you know, that's actually the biggest complaint I hear about that movie.

The same thing follows for fantasy worlds. Even if it's a world that doesn't really exist, even if it follows different rules from this world, it still has its own rules to be followed. Handwaving the issue does not get rid of it. And not paying attention to things like that is the mark of a lazy storyteller.

Magic, as I said before, brings in its own set of problems. Typically, magic can be used to do many things that can't be done in normal ways. Healing the sick, throwing fireballs at people, long-distance communication, you name it. The difference between bad magic and good magic is, 90% of the time, this: poorly-written magic will have the mage be able to do anything, at any time, with no preparation, increase in fatigue, or other adverse effects. Well-written magic has a balance; nothing comes without a price. If you're using energy to heal someone, the energy has to come from somewhere and be worked by somebody, which often produces a drain on the caster. Or wounds them somehow. Or kills plants for half a mile around. Something. Anything. The magic works with rules and laws unique to itself, but within its own rules, it's very realistic.

People often assume that fantasy and realism are completely mutually exclusive. If you're dealing with fantasy, there's no need for realism, and nothing realistic could have fantastical elements. And this simply isn't true. Whether it's got to do with magic or sword-swinging or language skills or simply unrealistic character behaviour, make it real.

What's truly sad is that there's a very easy set of questions you can ask yourself while writing to avoid half of this kind of mistake. "Could I do this thing? If I can't, what would it take for me to be able to do it? What would need to happen for me to do this at the same rate that my character did it?" If you can't even answer those questions to your own satisfaction, and realistically so, you can't expect your readers to overlook the issue either.

Part of the problem could also be that if we all wrote only what we knew, we'd all write boring crap most of the time, so we always throw in things that we think we know, but that maybe we don't know as well as we think. Someone may think it's perfectly fine for a boy of two years to say, "Mommy, I'm really tired and I want to go to bed," and honestly not know better because they haven't heard many kids talk. Knowing what we don't know can be hard, especially when we know a little but don't even realize that we don't know enough. This is what proofreaders and editors are for, half the time. Another set of eyes and another mind with different experience, who can do wonders for adding the realism that you didn't even know was missing.

But writers, do your best to make that easy on the editors. Don't be like a certain author who will go unnamed and write about the sensei of a fencing dojo. If you can tell me what's wrong with that concept, good, and I know that I won't be seeing that mistake in anything of yours. If you don't know what's wrong with that concept, then I suggest doing what neither the author nor the editor must have done and Google just what you call someone who teaches fencing, and in what place they teach it.

"A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing."

In My Mailbox

2011-11-19T10:00:00.001-04:00

The first IMM post in a few weeks. That's what happens when I get busy with other stuff, I guess. But now we can take a look at the few books I acquired over the last little while.

Won

Winning a copy of Empire in Black and Gold was a real treat for me, since I'd heard many good things about it and I kept wanting to give it a try but then always kept forgetting about it whenever I had the money to actually purchase it. No longer! (And I'm hoping that purchasing the sequels won't have the same effect on my memory, either!) I haven't started reading it yet, but it's really only a matter of time.

Also won was a copy of Loory's Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day, which I imagine I'm going to tear through in record time once I start reading it. I hadn't realized that it was such a slim book, either, which will probably make it even quicker to read through. Quite looking forward to this one.

Purchased

Since I got a review copy of The Folded World, I wasn't about to leave the previous book in the series unpurchased and unread, so I exchanged my SwagBucks for some Amazon.com gift certificates and purchased Habitation of the Blessed. Love the cover art on this one, which is in the same style that attracted me to the second book when I saw it. And the author's supposed to be quite good, too, so I have no doubt that both of those books will keep me happily engaged.

NetGalley

As always, the wonderful NetGalley is responsible for the majority of my ARC collection. Honestly, I don't know what I'd do without this site. It's introduced me to countless wonderful books that I might not otherwise have had the chance to read. (Money's always a factor; more than once I considered changing the name of this blog to The Penniless Reader.)

Robert Boyczuk's Horror Story and Other Horror Stories. The title alone was enough to catch my attention, and I really have been finding that my previous intolerance for short story collections has been waning, and so this seemed like another interesting book to add to my collection. One of the best things about short story collections is actually the thing that used to bother me so much; coming to the end of one story throws you out of the groove for a bit, which instead of being annoying actually makes numerous good places to put the book down if you don't have a lot of time for reading. Given my schedule of late, this sort of thing is turning out to be invaluable!

Gemma Files's A Book of Tongues, book 1 in the Hexslinger series, seems like it'll be a great way to stay within a familiar and well-loved genre while looking at a slightly different setting, stepping out of my comfort zone and staying within it at the same time. The synopsis makes this book sound like it's a wonderfully creative endeavour, and I hope that stays true throughout the pages.

Sarah Zettel's Dust Girl is the first book in the American Fairy trilogy, and seems like it could be a fun and easy YA read.

Though I do wish that someday people would start writing more Canadian fantasy and sci-fi. Really, Canada does need more love.

Not too many books here, but this is also the accumulation of a few weeks, and I am making an effort to tone down the books that I get. I'm gaining books faster than I can sometimes read through them, and while I can't say I'm entirely displeased at having such a wide range of options at my fingertips, it does create an awful obligation sometimes.

But such is life. If I have books, I'm a happy person, and I can't see that ever changing.

Back in business

2011-11-18T10:00:00.001-04:00

It's been an adventure. I managed to get to my NaNoWriMo goal in time for Skyrim's release, and have spent most of my time watching my roommate play it. Seems like an awesome game so far.

ot much reading being done, but I do have a few reviews that have been waiting to be posted, so they'll be coming up next week.

I've had the half-month of being utterly accident-prone and unlucky. Sprained my ankle at work, tripped on a cat toy two days later, slipped on the floor a few days after that, sliced my finger open on my swipe badge for work, and then, on top of it all, on Wednesday I collapsed at work. Had a nice ride in the back of an ambulance with an oxygen tube in my nose and wondering why my blood pressure would be quite different between one arm and the other. I'm fine now, at least as fine as I can tell, and I'll be seeing my doctor about all this to find out what the heck's going on with me. Nearly fainting is never a good thing no matter where it happens.

But aside from that, it seems I can start getting this blog back in order. It'll be nice to get out some new reviews, and to finish up a couple of others along the way.

Boy, it's good to be back!

Break time

2011-11-03T19:37:00.000-03:00

I know I said that I would keep making updates throughout November, even though I'd be busy with NaNoWriMo. Yeah, that prediction was a little, shall we say, optimistic. I've thus far managed to read about half a book (and it's a short book, too), and can't even think about taking the time to write up reviews when I could be using that time to sneak in precious precious wordcount.

The bad news is that I think I'll have to go all the way and put the blog on hold until I've finished NaNo.

The good news is that I'm aiming to finish by the time Skyrim is released, so that really only means that half the month will have a blog hiatus instead of the full month. More time to write now means I get through it all that much quicker, and can return to having time not only to read but also to actually write the reviews without feeling guilty.

See you all in about a week, and thanks for your patience!

New equipment

2011-10-31T21:23:00.003-03:00

I now have a new laptop! The old laptop was having its problems, and this new one was on sale for an amazing price considering the stats, so I couldn't resist a little upgrade.

The biggest downside is that the keyboard layout is a little screwy, so please excuse any typos you see on posts and reviews until I adjust to the new positioning of the keys.

Now, the fun of transferring all my files over...

In My Mailbox

2011-10-29T14:41:00.000-03:00

Hi, everyone! Let's take a little look at the goodies I got this past week, shall we?

Shawn McGuire's The Shadow Thieves of Rouen is a fantasy novella written by a local author whose editor I work with, so I've got plenty of incentive to read this one. I enjoy supporting local authors where and when I can, after all, especially small-press or self-published ones when I really believe in their work. I'm looking forward to giving this one a try; expect the review for this first novella some time in November.

Julianna Baggott's Pure seems like an interesting work of dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction, and readers of this blog know that I'm a general fan of both of those genres. I'm really looking forward to having the time to crack this book open (metaphorically, since it's an e-copy that I have). I wouldn't be surprised to see a good deal of hype surrounding this book eventually, if it turns out to be as good as it sounds.

Cathy's Brett's Scarlett Dedd is more mid-grade/YA than I usually go for, but the premise of this book sounded too fun and interesting to pass up. It's a perfect fit for November's YA month here, too, so expect a review of this one coming very soon.

And true to form, Rachel Hartman's Seraphina is the book that didn't have cover art loaded on Amazon yet this week. Really, I find one of these every week. It's almost starting to become a game, trying to figure out which one of the batch will it be!

Just a note to everyone, through the month of November I'm also going to try to do my very best to read and review more books than I receive. That way I might make a little more of an inroad into my TBR pile. I can't promise anything (there are so many good and interesting books in the world), but I will at least try. So there may even be weeks where I get nothing, and there'll be no IMM post! Shocking!

Nostalgia Friday: Soulmate, by L J Smith

2011-10-28T10:00:00.024-03:00

Buy from Amazon.ca, Amazon.com, or IndieBound

Author's website
Publication date - April 1997

Summary: (Taken from GoodReads) Hannah Snow's life was perfect...until the notes started appearing. Notes in her own handwriting, warning her: Dead before Seventeen. Then she starts having visions of another time, another life. And of a stranger who tore her world apart.

Now the stranger, Thierry, Lord of the Night World, is back. Convinced Hannah is his soulmate, he has searched for her throughout the years, waiting for her to be reborn. But if Hannah’s destiny is death, can even Thierry's love protect her?

Thoughts: This used to be my favourite book in the Night World series, tied for first with Spellbinder. I loved the way that reincarnation was approached, the idea that love could follow people through lifetimes, always calling back to each other and finding each other once again, even when both parties could well be vastly different than their previous incarnation.

Reading this book again now, I'm sad to say, ruined the story for me. It was very hard to keep the shine of happy nostalgia going when I found so many flaws.

As stories go, it was something of a creative one, and I can't fault Smith for that because the idea and ideals fits so very well with the established mythos of the Night World. The reader also gets to see, in a very close-and-personal way, the fabled first vampire Maya, whom we've really only heard about in passing back in Spellbinder, when Thea told the legend of Maya and Hellewise. Maya herself was quite an interesting character, carried through the ages by a singular obsession, one that went so deep and was so engrained in her mind that she herself really couldn't attach any logic to it. "I have to win," is all that mattered to her, even when it was clear that she didn't entirely know what her own idea of winning would even mean. It was interesting to see her be so flawed and unhinged and yet so very calm about it all.

However, the biggest problem I had with this book was exactly what I used to love about it: reincarnation. Not so much the concept, but the way it was carried out. Hannah's first incarnation was Hana, a Stone Age girl living in some place that I'm fairly sure is geographically and anthropologically impossible. She lives in a place where there are Arctic foxes and wild cattle, part of a tribe consisting of people with quite varied hair and skin tones (though it's established that they're all at least Caucasian), they worship Hekate as a dark goddess who also seems crossed with a mother goddess figure, and the tribe is run by a matriarch. Her best friend is somebody who "always has to wear something new to every festival" and is fretting because a man she doesn't quite like wants to "mate [her]". Sorry, honey, but when you're in that era and 16, you're approaching the end of the average lifespan, and you've probably popped out a couple of kids already. You're not a modern teenage girl in a furry bikini.

This all wouldn't have been quite so painful (the books all deal with hidden aspects of the world we live in everyday, so I might possibly have been able to suspend my disbelief for a while) if the psychiatrist character who was helping Hannah uncover her past didn't state quite bluntly that the majority of past-life regressions were always told in ways that made it quite clear that the people who romanticized living in the past actually knew nothing about the past they were talking about. I winced when I read that line, because the character was trashing the sort of people who were doing exactly what the author was doing! That entire situation was ironic and painful enough to have a lot of the gloss stripped from the memories of this book, and I'm sad to report that reading this now that I'm older does not have anywhere near the same appeal that it did when I was a teenager.

As far as its place within the series, this is one of the essential novels. A lot is revealed about Circle Daybreak, far more than the hinting mentions that appeared in other novels of the series. And we get to take an interesting look back at Night World history, looking at the characters of Maya and Thierry. If you're going to read the series, you really can't afford to skip over this one. But too much sat wrong with me for it to have a very high rating, in light of all the irony and historical mangling.