Sorry for the quiet week. I have been working on a couple of posts, but I wasn’t satisfied enough with them to post them yet. However, I am hoping that means I can make up for this week and finish posts on the rest of the books I read in 2010 so I can move on to books read in 2011 (there’s only one so far but it was a lengthy book so I’m hoping books read will increase quickly now). Also, last week I finished getting together some interview questions and sent those off.
For books received this week, I have 2 ARCS and one finished copy of books all coming out in March and my husband bought an e-book that he has reminded me twice now to mention (I usually remember books he buys in paper but usually forget about e-books).
This is the fourth book in the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire, coming March 1. It’s an urban fantasy series set in a San Francisco populated by faeries, unknown to the humans (and it’s in my top 3 favorite urban fantasy series along with Kate Daniels and Mercy Thompson). I’ve been getting ARCs of these since before the first book was in stores, and I’m very glad I have been (seriously, whoever suggested my site to Seanan McGuire when she was looking for people to review her books – THANK YOU!) since they’ve been getting better and better. It may sound like I don’t entirely like them sometimes since I’ve mentioned some reservations about the main character as a PI, and while it does bug me, I mostly mention it so often so others better know what they are in for when they pick it up (since I can understand how some people may not be able to get past something like that). Personally, it’s not a deal breaker for me because there is so much to love about the rest of it – Tybalt, Toby’s sense of humor, the different faerie creatures, the different characters, the fast-paced adventures, the eeriness in the last book… and did I mention Tybalt? The fact that I started shrieking and jumping up and down when I got this book in the mail and started reading it almost immediately says a lot about how much I really do enjoy the series. Right now I’m almost halfway through it and it is definitely living up to my expectations of awesomeness. I won’t review it until closer to its release date, though. The fifth book, One Salt Sea, will also be coming out later this year (September).
Two years ago, October “Toby” Daye believed she could leave the world of Faerie behind. She was wrong. Now she finds herself in the service of Duke Sylvester Torquill, sharing an apartment with her Fetch, and maintaining an odd truce with Tybalt, the local King of Cats. It’s a delicate balance—one that’s shattered when she learns that an old friend is in dire trouble. Lily, Lady of the Tea Gardens, has been struck down by a mysterious, seemingly impossible illness, leaving her fiefdom undefended.
Struggling to find a way to save Lily and her subjects, Toby must confront her own past as an enemy she thought was gone forever raises her head once more: Oleander de Merelands, one of the two people responsible for her fourteen-year exile. But if Oleander’s back, what’s her game? Where is she hiding? And what part does Toby’s mother, Amandine, have to play?
Time is growing short and the stakes are getting higher. For the Queen of the Mists has her own agenda, and there are more players in this game than Toby can guess. With everything on the line, she will have to take the ultimate risk to save herself and the people she loves most—because if she can’t find the missing pieces of the puzzle in time, Toby will be forced to make the one choice she thought she’d never have to face again…
This debut novel (available March 16) is the first book in the Verona trilogy. The description, particularly the idea of recreating history through the history camps, sounded intriguing so I figured I’d give it a try when I was offered a review copy.
THERE’S HOPE FOR THE FUTURE,
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE PAST?
It’s the 24th century and humans, with the help of artificial intelligences (A.I.s) have finally created the perfect post-dystopian society. To make equally perfect citizens for this world, the elders have created History Camps, full sized recreations of cities from Earth’s distant pasts. Here teens live the way their ancestors did, doing the same dirty jobs and experiencing the same degradations. History Camps teach youths not to repeat the mistakes that almost caused the planet to die. But not everything goes to plan.
In this first of a trilogy, we meet three spoiled teens in the year 2347. Hansum almost 17, is good looking and athletic. Shamira, 15, is sassy, independent and an artistic genius. Lincoln, 14, is the smart-aleck. But you don’t have to scratch too far beneath the surface to find his insecurities.
These three “hard cases” refuse the valuable lessons History Camps teach. But when they are kidnapped and taken back in time to 1347 Verona, Italy, they only have two choices; adapt to the harsh medieval ways or die. The dangers are many, their enemies are powerful, and safety is a long way away. It’s hardly the ideal environment to fall in love – but that’s exactly what happens. In an attempt to survive, the trio risks introducing technology from the future. It could save them – or it could change history.
This is the sixth book in the Thursday Next series by New York Times bestselling author Jasper Fforde, coming March 8. I have not read the first five books, but I have been curious about the series so when I was offered a review copy I asked whether or not it could work as a stand alone. Since I was told this particular book could be read as a stand alone, I figured why not? I’m also curious about the author’s work after seeing Thea from The Book Smugglers named Shades of Grey one of her favorite books from 2010.
The newest tour de force from The New York Times bestselling author of Thursday Next and Shades of Grey.
Jasper Fforde’s exuberant return to the fantastical BookWorld opens during a time of great unrest. All-out Genre war is rumbling, and the BookWorld desperately needs a heroine like Thursday Next. But with the real Thursday apparently retired to the Realworld, the Council of Genres turns to the written Thursday.
The Council wants her to pretend to be the real Thursday and travel as a peacekeeping emissary to the warring factions. A trip up the mighty Metaphoric River beckons-a trip that will reveal a fiendish plot that threatens the very fabric of the BookWorld itself.
Once again New York Times bestselling author Jasper Fforde has a field day gleefully blending satire, romance, and thriller with literary allusions galore in a fantastic adventure through the landscape of a frisky and fertile imagination. Fans will rejoice that their favorite character in the Fforde universe is back.
This is a novelization of the first three volumes of the Hugo award-winning Girl Genius graphic novel (available online). I haven’t read them although they do sound good, but my husband is a big fan so when he was looking for a new book to read on the Kindle, he bought this one. It was just released on January 1.
The Industrial Revolution has escalated into all-out warfare. It has been sixteen years since the Heterodyne Boys, benevolent adventurers and inventors, disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Today, Europe is ruled by the Sparks, dynasties of mad scientists ruling over – and terrorizing – the hapless population with their bizarre inventions and unchecked power, while the downtrodden dream of the Hetrodynes’ return. At Transylvania Polygnostic University, a pretty, young student named Agatha Clay seems to have nothing but bad luck. Incapable of building anything that actually works, but dedicated to her studies, Agatha seems destined for a lackluster career as a minor lab assistant. But when the University is overthrown by the ruthless tyrant Baron Klaus Wulfenbach, Agatha finds herself a prisoner aboard his massive airship Castle Wulfenbach – and it begins to look like she might carry a spark of Mad Science after all.
