On the Bookshelf

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. Go here to find out more.

This week I only picked up two books but I have been interested in getting to read these for awhile now.



 
Terra

Go read this book. Right now.

Occasionally you know that you are going to love a book within reading the first couple of pages. For me, The Name of the Wind was one such book. The Name of the Wind serves as a reminder of what makes good fantasy and has renewed my love of the genre.

There is a vast difference between Kvothe ("pronounced nearly the same as "quothe"."), the little boy who grew up in a traveling troupe of performers, and "Kote", the keeper of a failing inn in a small town, and between them lies the tale of Kvothe "Kingslayer", "Bloodless", "Arcane". While there is action and adventure, this first book of the Kingkiller Chronicles is very much the story about the person Kvothe was before he became a thing of legends, where he came from and how he started on the path to the man he became and who he is today, while also being full of promise of great events to come in the following books.

In realising that The Name of the Wind is a debute novel, it is a really amazing piece of work. It is clear that Rothfuss is dedicated to creating a world with it's own unique culture and history. Magic, or "sympathy" as it is known, has a role and as do some fantastical creatures. There is a fascinating aspect of seeking the truths behind superstitions, tales, and songs and through this Rothfuss has succesfully made the unbelievable aspects believable in terms of his reality.

When I first picked up The Name of the Wind, I balked a little at it's length as lately I have not had so much time to sit and read longer books to give them the time and dedication that I felt that this one would deserve. However, once I picked it up I became engrossed in the world and life of Kvothe, finding it difficult to set the book down. While reading I experienced a range of emotions, from laughter to having tears burning in my eyes (minding that I do cry at the drop of a hat, so to speak) and found the role of music on Kvothe's life to be particularly touching. In addition, I found the language flowed well and that the novel was well paced, making for an easy read. Upon finishing The Name of the Wind I felt the kind of satisfaction that comes with having just finished reading something wonderful, having found a new favourite book, and the need to visit again in the very near future.

Ignore any release dates that you have seen around for the second book of the Kingkiller Chronicle, The Wise Man's Fear, according to Patrick Rothfuss' website, all such dates are incorrect and he is still working on the book. I will be waiting patiently, however very eagerly, for the sequel.

Terra

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

From page 176 of The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.

A bit spoilerish? I would say not really in the context of the story but I suppose that you are just going to have to read the book to find out that context for yourself, which I absolutely recommend that you do.

I have done a teaser for this book a couple of weeks ago but it is only now that I have been able to give this book the attention it deserves. As a result there will be only the one review this week, which will be of The Name of the Wind, and sometime late in the week at that. This is so that I can enjoy the book without feeling rushed to finish it or, as I usually do, juggle it with reading several other books at once. I am really loving it so far.

Terra

It has been a bit of a slow week for me, reading wise. I have been running around looking at cars and in this heat that does not leave much energy left over for book hunting or even reading.

However, after enjoying Dreaming Again, edited by Jack Dann, so much I decided to pick up another of the anthologies that he edited as it was available down at the library. I also hope to, sometime soon, get the chance to read some of his own actual writings.


In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. Go here to find out more.

Terra

All across the seven kingdoms there are people born with Graces, special skills above and beyond the norm. As a girl Katsa killed a man with her bare hands without even trying and from hence forth her Grace was recognised as killing. Her Grace is used in service to her king who has her punish any who displease him. While Katsa is feared by many for her horrific role, she is not without a conscious and in secret leads a Council with the goal to do good. One such mission leads her to Prince Po, a Graced fighter who is the only person that she has ever encountered who can match her in a fight. Together they seek the truth behind the kidnapping of Po's grandfather and discover a terrible secret that could be the downfall of all the seven kingdoms.

A massive thank you must go to my brother for buying me this book because I really loved it. Kristin Cashore has made a wonderful debut with Graceling.

The romance aspect was interesting in terms of Katsa's strong anti-marriage stance. Katsa views marriage as being like a cage, something that will tie her down and give a man ownership over her. Considering what Katsa then goes on to experience in a romantic relationship I found it disapointing that those experiences did not bring her to consider her views on marriage even if such considerations did not change her mind. Aside from the issue of marriage that could very nearly lend towards making her too strong, I thought that Katsa was well balanced as a strong female protagonist with both strengths and weaknesses, often tough but with occasional moments of softness.

The fantasy aspect of Graceling I enjoyed thouroughly. The antagonist was well matched to provide Katsa with a believable opponant, seeing as she is near unmatchable as a fighter. This was such an important aspect because, in knowing Katsa's physical capabilities, it was difficult to ever worry that her physical journey, however harrowing, was truely a threat to her.

The only other thing is that I would have liked Graceling to have been a bit longer, to have Cashore go into deeper detail with her world and the characters.

Some of the twists in Graceling I could guess while others took me entirely by surprise. I thouroughly enjoyed Graceling and after reading the preview at the end of the book of the "prequelish companion", I cannot wait to get stuck into Fire.

Terra

Wishful Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Bluestocking at The Bluestocking Guide.

 I have just finished reading Graceling by Kristin Cashore (review tomorrow!) which I loved. At the end of the book there was a preview of Fire

From Goodreads.com:
Fire, Graceling's prequel-ish companion book, takes place across the mountains to the east of the seven kingdoms, in a rocky, war-torn land called the Dells.

Beautiful creatures called monsters live in the Dells. Monsters have the shape of normal animals: mountain lions, dragonflies, horses, fish. But the hair or scales or feathers of monsters are gorgeously colored-- fuchsia, turquoise, sparkly bronze, iridescent green-- and their minds have the power to control the minds of humans.

Seventeen-year-old Fire is the last remaining human-shaped monster in the Dells. Gorgeously monstrous in body and mind but with a human appreciation of right and wrong, she is hated and mistrusted by just about everyone, and this book is her story.

Wondering what makes it a companion book/prequel? Fire takes place 30-some years before Graceling and has one cross-over character with Graceling, a small boy with strange two-colored eyes who comes from no-one-knows-where, and who has a peculiar ability that Graceling readers will find familiar and disturbing...

After reading Graceling I simply cannot wait to get stuck into Fire.

Terra

 Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

From page 268-269 of Graceling by Kristin Cashore. I just finished this book. Look for my review on Thursday!

Terra

From the moment that she first lay eyes on Daniel Grigori on her first day at Sword & Cross boarding school, Lucinda "Luce" Price has felt drawn to him as though a moth to flame. Daniel's attitude towards her is inexplicably hot and cold - cold and rude one moment and oddly kind the next.

Luce finds it impossible to let Daniel go. There is something achingly familiar about him and something more that he is keeping hidden. All the while, dark, ominous shadows are stalking Luce and only she can see them. Is she insane or are they actually something very real and dark tied in with the bizarre death that landed Luce in reform school?

I am happy to say that Fallen by Lauren Kate was better than I feared it might be. In this day of Twilight mania I find it very easy to expect very little out of these young adult supernatural romances. Fallen did, however, capture my interest after a woman came into the library where I was working ranting about how very good she thought it was.

The novel is well paced and I particularly enjoyed the rate at which Kate chose to slowly reveal information. On that note, thank you to the publishers for not giving away every single little mystery on the back cover! Too many YA supernatural romances seem to give these things away in the blurb these days. Fallen starts with a very strong prologue and I absolutely loved the tone that it set. If only that tone could have carried as strongly throughout the rest of the book although it was still good.

Luce's friendship with Penn developed well but in contrast other characters seemed to be forgotten. I am mostly speaking about Arriane. She was introduced as if she was going to be a significant character and seemed as though she would be one of Luce's closest friends but quickly seemed to fall to the wayside. While Arriane does make the comment "you've been hiding from me" as though to imply that she has been avoided by Luce, I still felt as though her absence went unjustified and prior to that moment I had been wondering why she had disappeared from the story.

I thought that Kate could have upped the action just a bit. I can understand why she approached the big finale the way that she did but, for example, instead of Luce just mentioning that Arriane showed her how to dodge the security cameras why did we not get to see it? Was she nervous about getting busted? I couldn't help but think that little things like the could have been used to up the tension just a little bit more. Speaking of the security, for having all of those cameras around, the students at Sword & Cross sure seemed to still get away with a lot. If the security cameras are supposed to create a feeling of oppression it seemed like nobody was really watching.

As for the romance, well, I confess I find it hard to get into a romance where the male love interest shares the same name as my brother but that is no fault of the author. The romance that Lauren Kate portrays is one of those where Luce feels intensely and is drawn to Daniel when she hardly knows him but Kate gives reason for this and it works in terms of the overall story. The love triangle also adds an interesting dynamic while trying to interpret Cam.

I found myself quite enjoying Fallen and that it was easy to read. There was something that drew me in, even if I cannot say for certain what it specifically was. Something that kept me up reading late wanting to know what would happen next. Early on while reading I could not honestly see how Fallen could warrant a sequel and if Lauren Kate had chosen to do so I am sure that it could have been fine as a stand alone novel. However, Kate has set herself up for the upcoming sequel while leaving plenty of questions open yet still providing enough answers to satisfy for now so I will definitely be keeping an eye out for the next book, Torment.

I also cannot help myself but to mention that I really love, love, love the cover on Fallen.

Terra

Once again, I have only one book to add to my bookshelf this week. I should be making a trip to the library (for borrowing instead of work purposes) sometime soon but in the mean time I still have a massive reading pile to work through, hence why I am not in a rush to add a million more books to it.

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. Go here to find out more.

Terra

Jack Dann first co-edited Dreaming Down Under with Janeen Webb. Ten years on, Dann returned with a second anthology of Australian speculative fiction, Dreaming Again.

Looking at the list of authors within, Dreaming Again promises to be good. Certainly, one expects a lot from an anthology that begins with Garth Nix, ends with Isobelle Carmody, and hosts names such as Sara Douglass, Kim Wilkins, and more in between. All stories within are either written by Australian authors or are about Australia. Dreaming Again contains thirty-five short stories written by thirty-five very talented authors. That is too many stories for me to review one-by-one so I am choosing to focus on a select few.

Dreaming Again serves up a variety of unique short stories promising to "celebrate the wild side of Australian fantasy" and ranging from dystopias to apocalypses to time travel to futuristic crime. It is hard to pick just one favourite story out of this collection. I absolutely loved The Jacaranda Wife by Angela Slatter, who created her own Australian legend surrounding the jacaranda trees. Speaking of legends, Manannan's Children by Russell Blackford and Conquist by Dirk Strasser were really enjoyable and Paradise Design'd by Janeen Webb was a really interesting take on the story of Adam and Eve, weaving dinosaurs into the picture.

Jason Fischer's Undead Camels Ate Their Flesh wins for having the best title and was one of th emost amusing the tales, but out of the zombie stories surely Heere Be Monsters by John Birmingham was the best. I simply loved the concept in this one and how the past collided with the future.

I found In From the Snow by Lee Battersby to be by far the most chilling. Strangely enough, as a fan of the flesh eating undead, cannibilism creeps me out everytime and combined with the pack mentality and family heirarchy this story sure scared me. People with an issue with blood might find This is My Blood by Ben Francisco and Chris Lynch to be a bit creepy but mostly I just found the culture presented to be fascinating. I really enjoyed the tone and setting of Nightship by Kim Westwood and particularly loved This Way to the Exit by Sara Douglass.

Neverland Blues by Adam Browne is by far the very strangest of all of the short stories in Dreaming Again. In this futuristic story, Michael Jackson (this was published prior to his death, just for the record) has undergone so many changes he is no longer physically human and now seeks to draw in a young companion to travel through space with him. I could not decide whether I liked it or not. It was just so strange.

The Constant Past by Sean McMullan is another of my favourites, with a modern day librarian trying to solve the mystery of a time travelling serial killer from the past. In contrast, I enjoyed Paul Collins' futuristic crime story about the murder of people's avatars, Lure, for the concept but overall it did not make it up into my list of favourites. Lost Arts by Stephen Dedman, on the otherhand, was a really enjoyable future crime story on the whole.

Dreaming Again is an unique anthology packed with a diverse range of tales of zombies, vampires, aliens, and ghost in the past, future, and present. Dreaming Again is rarely dull but in honesty chances are that a reader is not going to love each and every single one of the stories but it is surely a worthwhile read and an excellent showcase of Australian fiction.

Terra

Wishful Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Bluestocking at The Bluestocking Guide.

This week I am wishing for an oldie but, so I hear, a goodie. I feel a bit like, perhaps, I have lived a deprived life having never read The Princess Bride by William Goldman or seen the movie.

From Goodreads.com:


Terra

 Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Terra

I am posting this a day later than I normally would due to the fact that yesterday I was busy partying hard and celebrating my 21st birthday!

With all of the party preparations I did not have any time to spare for book hunting over the past week but people were very generous to me this birthday and I did receive one book among my gifts.


In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. Go here to find out more.

Terra

Azoth is a guild rat, struggling to survive in the slums of the city. Azoth dreams of becoming something more, of escaping life as a guild rat, of never having to scared again, of being strong. He apprentices himself to the best wetboy - an assassin gifted with Talent - in the city. Under the guidance of Durzo Blint he sheds his identity of Azoth and becomes Kyler Stern so as to navigate a world of politics, magic, and death.



The Way of Shadows is the first book in The Night Angels Trilogy by Brent Weeks. I really enjoyed this book but there were a few issues that hindered my ability to absolutely love it. I get the impression that in the author's mind there is a fully detailed and complex world but Weeks does not clearly communicate this onto the page. Things are often not clearly defined, leaving the reader attempting to piece together this world and what role is played by who in an already complex narrative. At times it threatened to become just too confusing. There was also a certain significant plot twist that, when looking back, I didn't feel that there was enough, if any, foreshadowing for. Maybe I would find it on a reread but with trying to keep track of everything else I could not recall it.

There was something that I found distinctly Shakespearean about how the story unfolded, which I rather liked. Indeed, in the extras at the back of the book, Weeks himself names Shakespeare as an influence. I quite enjoyed reading the extras, in fact. Weeks says that Durzo Blint is his favourite of his character and I think that he is mine too followed by Logan Gyre. Brent Weeks has written some fantastic characters, although sometimes conforming to certain archetypes, with some great conflict and contrast between them.

The Way of Shadows is well paced and there were some great moments of suspense and tension, moments where I just couldn't put this book down until I knew what happened next. Just clean up that world building a bit and The Way of Shadows would be a really fantastic book.

Terra

Wishful Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Bluestocking at The Bluestocking Guide.

You may recall my previous post about online sitcom, The Guild, starring Felicia Day who plays a socially maladjusted MMO player dealing with life - both virtual and real - and her guild mates. Recently it has announced that the show is getting it's very own comic and Dark House has released a preview of two different covers for issue one.


What do you guys think? I quite like the one on the top as it shows the whole guild as their MMO avatars but then  the one on the bottom has that hint of when fantasy mixes with your reality.

Terra

 Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Terra

Terra

Booklover Book Reviews is hosting a great challenge featuring Australian authors!

The challenge runs from 1 January 2010 and ends 31 December 2010 and has two different levels: Tourist and Fair Dinkum!

As an Australian, I really should be showing more support for Australian authors. Hence, I am going to aim for the Fair Dinkum level of the challenge. The goal for Fair Dinkum is to read at least eight books by a minimum of five Australian authors. Here is my tentative list of my minimum five Aussie authors:

• John Marsden
• Garth Nix
• Isobelle Carmody
• Kim Wilkins
• Tim Winton
  

I am not going to pick which titles I will read just yet. There are high chances that I might change my author picks or expand the list.

Click here to visit the Booklover Book Reviews site for details about how to join in!

Terra

All across the United States, a strange phenomenon has been taking place. Sometimes when teenagers die they come back to life. Only, returned from the hands of death, these teens are no longer the same. They move differently and speak with difficulty, struggling to find a place in a society that fears and rejects them and provides no laws to protect them from people who would like to see them dead for good.

Phoebe is a student at Oakvale High, a school attempting to be more welcoming of the "differently biotic." Pheobe is just your average goth teen with a crush, only the boy that she is crushing on is dead. But there is something different about Tommy Williams and Pheobe is determined to forge a connection with him.

I have always been a fan of zombie stories, what with the desperation of survivors huddled together in their hideaway listening to the moans of the undead outside who will inevitably break in and devour their flesh, so I find this latest trend of wanting to take a zombie as your date to the school dance to be a little... odd. Oh sure, I enjoyed Never Slow Dance With a Zombie by E. Van Lowe enough for it's cute quirkiness but Daniel Water's debut novel Generation Dead is aiming for a deeper social commentary but therefore trips over itself with things like Phoebe being a stereotypical goth who writes poetry, spikes her hair, and of course becomes fascinated by the dead guy. I could suppose that Water's aims to look at how the dead rising from their graves impacts upon a sub-culture that takes an interest in the theme of death (I do not know much about the goth sub-culture, but Waters wants me to believe that all goth persons are very interested in death) but then again, seeing as he is trying to commentate on diversity and discrimination it seems odd to make the main character so very stereotypical. Then there is the name dropping of goth bands every few pages. Apparently when you die your taste in music also changes to reflect your undead state.

I found Generation Dead quite hard to get into at first. I made my way about ninety pages in before putting it aside for a week. However, when I came back to it I did find it better going and was able to finish the book in one sitting.

Generation Dead does have some good going for it. I think that the concept is quite good and has a lot of potential if only there were fewer stereotypical characters (and less band name dropping). Phoebe and her friend Margi's history with the now dead Collette, for example, was a plotline that really took my interest. I enjoyed how the details were revealed and how it was impacting on Margi but thought that it should have had more influence on Phoebe as well. The use of the study group aimed at developing a better understanding of the "differently biotic" allowed for some interesting dialogue, as well.

I have come away with mixed feelings on Generation Dead. Daniel Water's has a good concept here but the details could use some polishing and perhaps did not engage me as well as it could have.

Terra

Here we are for the first look at my bookshelf for 2010. I'm posting this a bit earlier than usual, but what the hey? Why not? You will get a nice shiny new review tomorrow instead.



In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. Go here to find out more.

Terra

Happy new year, everyone! Or, if you are in a part of the world that is not yet in the future, I hope that you are enjoying wrapping up 2009.

I am now back from my hiatus with some great reviews lined up thanks to all of the reading that I got done. Over the next few days keep an eye out for my reviews of books like Generation Dead by Daniel Waters and The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks. I'll also be getting up my review of the movie Avatar. I am now finally making my way through Dreaming Again edited by Jack Dann and The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.


This year I will also be reading Graceling by Kristin Cashore and finally continuing on with Isabelle Carmody's Obernewtyn series. I hope to revisit the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien and, in light of the upcoming movie, reread The Tomorrow Series by John Marsden, one of my all time favourite authors. Time allowing I also intend to once again read the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling. I also look forward to giving Stephen King another try with his latest release Under the Dome. I am also thinking that it is high time that I give James Patterson a go with his new book Witch & Wizard, written with Gabrielle Charbonnet, catching my attention.




I am also very much looking forward to the final volume of the Return to Labyrinth manga being released. Squee!


Here's to a new year filled with many great new books!

Terra