The Leaning Pile of Books
May
30
2010

As you probably know, I was gone for most of this past week to go to Book Expo America and the Book Blogger Convention. I just got home around 10:30 last night after spending hours on a couple of buses. It was a lot of fun (if also very exhausting) and I’ll write a post later on the actual events, but for now I’m going to do my Sunday book posts.

This week I got far more books than normal even though I was careful so I could fit them all in my suitcase (it actually worked out quite perfectly; I had just enough room to stuff everything in there). Due to the number of books, I have decided to split this into two posts. The first will be all unsigned books I got this week – which will include one I bought, one my husband retrieved, a review copy, two books from the friend who was nice enough to let me stay with her this week, and all books from BEA (Book Expo America) that are unsigned. The next one will consist of the signed books from BEA (which is the majority of the books I got there).

Part 2 may not be up until tomorrow – it took me forever to get this post together. This may mostly be a week of Book Expo America related posts since there is still a lot to say!

Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews

The fourth book in the Kate Daniels series just came out on May 25. Magic Strikes, the third book, was the book I read on the bus on the way to New York and finished on the way back. I discovered what I keep hearing about this series is very true – the first book is good, the next is better, but the third book is really great. From start to finish, it was difficult to stop reading. So many of the things I was wondering about from the first couple of books were answered, but there are still more mysteries introduced that I’m wondering about. I loved it and was kind of mad that I finished it with so much of my trip still left. And I didn’t want to start another book unless it was Magic Bleeds. I could have downloaded it to read, but I didn’t want to pay for it since I wanted the actual book to go with the rest that I already have. So I settled for reading the free excerpt on iBooks. When my 40% off Borders coupon was extended today, I took that as a sign (ok, an excuse) to go purchase it so I can start it now. I’m now officially addicted to this series.

Atlanta would be a nice place to live, if it weren’t for the magic. When the magic is up, rogue mages cast their spells and monsters appear, while guns refuse to fire and cars fail to start. But then technology returns, and the magic recedes as unpredictably as it rose.

Kate Daniels works for the Order of the Knights of Merciful Aid, officially as a liaison with the mercenary guild. Unofficially, she cleans up the paranormal problems no one else wants to handle—especially if they involve Atlanta’s shapeshifting community.

When she’s called in to investigate a fight at the Steel Horse, a bar midway between the territories of the shapeshifters and the necromancers, Kate quickly discovers there’s a new player in town. One who’s been around for thousands of years—and rode to war at the side of Kate’s father.

This foe may be too much even for Kate and Curran, the Lord of the Beasts, to handle. Because this time, Kate will be taking on family…

Anti-Ice by Stephen Baxter

My husband already had this book, but we didn’t have it in our apartment. He got it this past week so now I have it on the to read list. It’s a book he’s mentioned to me frequently as a good steampunk book, and recently Thea from The Book Smugglers reviewed it for Steampunk Week and really enjoyed it. I was surprised by how short it was since all of Baxter’s other books I’ve seen are massive.

Discovering a new element, Anti-Ice, a mysterious substance that unleashes vast energies when warmed, a millionaire industrialist dreams of power from an item that promises world peace–or world destruction.

Married with Zombies by Jesse Petersen

This is a review copy I received while I was gone (although it was also available at BEA, but I knew I already had it thanks to my husband). It’s a romantic comedy set during the zombie apocalypse about a couple trying to save their marriage. It will be out in September 2010 and a sequel, Flip This Zombie, will be released in January 2011.

A heartwarming tale of terror in the middle of the zombie apocalypse.

Meet Sarah and David.

Once upon a time they met and fell in love. But now they’re on the verge of divorce and going to couples’ counseling. On a routine trip to their counselor, they notice a few odd things – the lack of cars on the highway, the missing security guard, and the fact that their counselor, Dr. Kelly, is ripping out her previous client’s throat.

Meet the Zombies.

Now, Sarah and David are fighting for survival in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. But, just because there are zombies, doesn’t mean your other problems go away. If the zombies don’t eat their brains, they might just kill each other.

Mansfield Park and Mummies by Jane Austen and Vera Nazarian

This one was given to me by roommate for the week, who kindly put up with me and gave me advice on finding my way around the city. Vera Nazarian is one of her favorite authors. I’m not usually interested in the monster mashup books even though I love Jane Austen, but I did read one review somewhere (wish I remembered where now) that mentioned this was much more clever than Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. And I did really enjoy Lords of Rainbow by Vera Nazarian so I’ll give it a try. Vera Nazarian also founded Norilana Books, which has some really gorgeous books. I bought the reprint of Tanith Lee’s Night Master published through Norilana and it is beautiful.

MANSFIELD PARK AND MUMMIES: Monster Mayhem, Matrimony, Ancient Curses, True Love, and Other Dire Delights

Spinsterhood or Mummification!

Ancient Egypt infiltrates Regency England in this elegant, hilarious, witty, insane, and unexpectedly romantic monster parody of Jane Austen’s classic novel.

Our gentle yet indomitable heroine Fanny Price must hold steadfast not only against the seductive charms of Henry Crawford but also an Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh!

Meanwhile, the indubitably handsome and kind hero Edmund attempts Exorcisms… Miss Crawford vamps out… Aunt Norris channels her inner werewolf… The Mummy-mesmerized Lady Bertram collects Egyptian artifacts…

There can be no doubt that Mansfield Park has become a battleground for the forces of Ancient Evil and Regency True Love!

Alanya to Alanya by L. Timmel Duchamp

This was another book from my roommate for the week since it is one she keeps mentioning to me. I also read a great review of it at Adventures in Reading that made me want to read it more. It’s the first book in the Marq’ssan Cycle.

Seattle, February 2076. The Marq ssan bring business as usual to a screeching halt all over the world, and Professor Kay Zeldin joins Robert Sedgewick, US Chief of Security Services, in his war against the invaders. Soon Kay is making rather than writing history. But as she goes head-to-head against the Marq ssan, the long-buried secrets of her past resurface, and her conflicts with Sedgewick and Security Services multiply. She faces terrifying choices. Her worldview, her very grip on reality, is turned inside out. Whose side is she really on? And how far will she go in serving that side?

The Devil in Green by Mark Chadbourn

I picked up this first book in the Dark Age series at the Pyr booth at BEA when wandering around with Ana and Thea of The Book Smugglers (who are just as fun and awesome in person as you’d expect from their blog). Pyr has published some decent books such as Joe Abercrombie’s First Law series, as well as some I keep hearing are good and have been meaning to try out (The Quantum Gravity series by Justina Robson, The Entire and the Rose series by Kay Kenyon and The Age of Misrule series also by Mark Chadbourn). So picking this one up was a no-brainer. It’s set after the Age of Misrule, but hopefully I won’t be too confused.

Humanity has emerged, blinking, from the Age of Misrule into a world substantially changed: cities lie devasted, communications are limited, anarchy rages across the land. Society has been thrown into a new Dark Age where superstition holds sway.

The Tuatha De Danaan roam the land once more, their terrible powers dwarfing anything mortals have to offer. And in their wake come all the creatures of myth and legend, no longer confined to the shadows.

Fighting to find their place in this new world, the last remnants of the Christian Church call for a group of heroes: a new Knights Templar to guard the priesthood as they set out on their quest for souls. But as everything begins to fall apart, the Knights begin to realize their only hope is to call on the pagan gods of Celtic myth for help….

Matched by Ally Condie

I picked up this one after seeing a panel on Dystopian fiction including this author. This young adult novel will be available on November 30, 2010. It sounds interesting, although it also sounds very similar to one of the other books I picked up (that will be in the signed post).

In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.

Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s barely any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one . . . until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow—between perfection and passion.

Matched is a story for right now and storytelling with the resonance of a classic.

Gool by Maurice Gee

This is the second book in the Salt trilogy, following Salt. It was given to me at the publisher’s booth. It will be released in September 2010.

Beyond the Inland Sea, beyond the jungle and mountains, the world was in turmoil. He thought of it as a hissing cauldron, with a thousand unknown things, alive and tormented, throwing the steam and stench of hatred high into the air.

Will Xantee and Lo find the strength to destroy the gool and save Hari?
The gool cannot be seen, not properly, but Xantee, Lo and their friends sense its evil presence. It lurks in the jungle in rock clefts, an enemy from outside nature. And now a fragment of gool grips Hari by the throat, draining the life from him. They can hold it back with the force of their minds, but for how long?

Xantee, Lo and Duro set out on a perilous mission to find the Dog King Tarl, Hari’s father, and the ruined city of Belong. Can he help them find the source of the gool? Will they find it in time? And do they have the strength to destroy the mother gool to rid the world of this life-sucking force?

The Leaning Pile of Books
May
23
2010

This week I got two books as late birthday presents from my husband (one of them was not out before my birthday last month). He got me personalized copies of the two books in the Rain Wilds Chronicles by Robin Hobb from The Signed Page, which I was perfectly happy to wait for considering Robin Hobb is one of my favorite authors. Plus this is a followup to The Liveship Traders trilogy, quite possibly my favorite of the three I read (it took longer for me to get into than the others but once I did it was completely worth it).

The only problem is I want to start them now but there’s no way I can finish them before it’s time to head out for Book Expo America and I’m not traveling with big hardcover books OR precious signed books (although I may read the unsigned copy of the first book I already had in order to preserve the other one).

Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb

For years, the Trader cities valiantly battled their enemies, the Chalcedeans. But they could not have staved off invasion without the powerful dragon Tintaglia. In return, the Traders promised to help her serpents migrate up the Rain Wild River after a long exile at sea—to find a safe haven and, Tintaglia hopes, to restore her species. But too much time has passed, and the newly hatched dragons are damaged and weak, and many die. The few who survive cannot use their wings; earthbound, they are powerless to hunt and vulnerable to human predators willing to kill them for the fabled healing powers of dragon flesh.

But Tintaglia has vanished and the Traders are weary of the labor and expense of tending useless dragons. The Trader leadership fears that if it stops providing for the young dragons, the hungry and neglected creatures will rampage—or die along the river’s acidic muddy banks. To avert catastrophe, the dragons decree a move even farther up the treacherous river to Kelsingra, their ancient, mythical homeland whose mysterious location is locked deep within the dragons’ uncertain ancestral memories.

To ensure their safe passage, the Traders recruit a disparate group of young people to care for the damaged creatures and escort them to their new home. Among them is Thymara, an unschooled forest girl of sixteen, and Alise, a wealthy Trader’s wife trapped in a loveless marriage, who attaches herself to the expedition as a dragon expert. The two women share a deep kinship with the dragons: Thymara can instinctively communicate with them, and Alise, captivated by their beauty and majesty, has devoted her life to studying them.

Embarking on an arduous journey that holds no promise of return, the band of humans and dragons must make their way along the toxic and inhospitable Rain Wild River—an extraordinary odyssey that will teach them lessons about themselves and one another, as they experience hardships, betrayals, and joys beyond their wildest dreams.

Dragon Haven by Robin Hobb

There is a shadow of a legend of a city, a fireside tale of a place where dragons and Elderlings once lived side by side in harmony and comfort. Kelsingra. To the final remnant of the dragon population and the human outcasts of the Rain Wild settlement, it seems a dream too good to be true. Does a haven exist for them? As they continue their trek up the uncharted Rain Wild River, fate and hardship will gnaw at their numbers and their determination. And the legends of the ancient beings called Elderlings will intrude into their adventure in a destiny beyond human control.

Review of The Queen of Attolia
May
20
2010

The Queen of Attolia
by Megan Whalen Turner
368pp (Paperback)
My Rating: 9/10
Amazon Rating: 4.5/5
LibraryThing Rating: 4.3/5
Goodreads Rating: 4.27/5

The Queen of Attolia is the second book in the Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner. Currently, there are four books in this YA fantasy series in the following order: The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia and A Conspiracy of Kings, which was just released in hardcover in March. The Thief can currently be read online free of charge.

Warning: Although I did try to keep descriptions at least somewhat vague (and kept the plot details to a minimum to try to avoid spoiling this book), there may still be hints that could lead to spoilers for The Thief in this review. If you have not yet read The Thief and are interested in this series, you may want to just skip this review other than perhaps the last paragraph, which sums up basic thoughts on it.

Once again, Eugenides is sneaking around – this time in the castle of the Queen of Attolia. Although he manages to make it outside the palace, he is caught in an alley and returned to the queen for judgment. Initially, the queen decides to have him executed, but fearing that a quick death would be too kind to her rival Eddis, Attolia instead brings back an old punishment for thieves. She then has him returned to Eddis, inciting a war.


While I enjoyed The Thief, I didn’t absolutely love it and didn’t quite understand all the rave reviews this series gets – until reading The Queen of Attolia. The Thief is a quest fantasy with a great twist at the end, but this second volume starts with the twists much earlier and just keeps getting better all the way to the very last sentence, which is a wonderfully satisfying conclusion. It’s a darker story and much tighter than its predecessor, which sometimes digressed into too much travelogue for my taste. This novel also has the emotional connection that The Thief was mostly lacking, and I found myself completely invested in seeing what happened to all the different characters. The Queen of Attolia was an improvement over The Thief in just about every way.

Unlike the first book, The Queen of Attolia is told from the third person perspective of multiple characters, including Eugenides, Attolia and Eddis. Having so many point of view characters made for a richer experience and the narration was still very sneaky even without being solely from Eugenides’ point of view. There are still bits that are deliberately left out until later, although they are revealed more throughout the story instead of all being saved up for the end like in The Thief. There were a couple of reveals that were predictable, but even knowing what was going to happen did not ruin those parts at all because the way they were handled was superb. Every little detail and conversation was full of significance and I found myself going back and rereading the same part two or three times before forging on ahead just because it was so good. Because there is a tendency for parts to potentially have more than one meaning and so many of the little touches are important, this book would be a great one to reread.

This novel was more about the politics and the characters than the previous installment and there is some great dialogue and interaction (and a wonderful romance!). Eugenides is still full of surprises as a skillful thief, even when his talents are applied to something very different than the object obtained in the first book. For in this novel he is asked to steal peace between kingdoms during a turbulent time between many nations, particularly Attolia and Eddis. The leaders of these two countries are both fascinating women who play much bigger roles than in the first novel. Both the Queen of Attolia and the Queen of Eddis are competent rulers, but they are both very different women shaped by their different cultures and political situations. Yet both are perfectly capable of holding their own even if they do not have the same style of leadership.

The main fantasy aspect is the setting, which is similar to ancient Greece with a pantheon similar to the Greek gods and goddesses. Attolians tend to view the gods and goddesses as superstition, but Eugenides takes them very seriously.

The Queen of Attolia is much more mature than the first book in this series with a focus on political maneuvering and characters. It’s clever, it’s fun, it’s completely absorbing, it’s full of both heartbreak and joy – it’s one for the keeper shelf.

My Rating: 9/10

Where I got my reading copy: It was a birthday present from my mile-long wish list.

Reviews of other books in this series:

Other reviews of The Queen of Attolia:

The Leaning Pile of Books
May
16
2010

For reviews, I’m working on a review of The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner, which will be followed by Magic Burns by Ilona Andrews and Servant of a Dark God by John Brown. I’m taking a break from reading Feed by Mira Grant to read Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder because I have read very few of the authors who are going to be at Book Expo America. So I picked a book by one of the authors who was going to be there that I had unread on my shelf (and that looked like something I could have read by the time I go).

This week I received one review copy and bought one book. Both of these are books I am very much looking forward to reading.

Stealing Fire by Jo Graham

Jo Graham writes historical fantasy, and I really enjoyed her retelling of The Aeneid entitled Black Ships (review). So I am very much looking forward to reading this book, which is told from the perspective of a soldier of Alexander the Great after Alexander’s death, and I probably “squeed” a bit when I found it in my mailbox. Stealing Fire is due for release on May 25, although it appears to be available on Amazon now.

Alexander the Great’s soldier, Lydias of Miletus, has survived the final campaigns of the king’s life. He now has to deal with the chaos surrounding his death. Lydias throws his lot in with Ptolemy, one of Alexander’s generals who has grabbed Egypt as his personal territory. Aided by the eunuch Bagoas, the Persian archer Artashir, and the Athenian courtesan Thais, Ptolemy and Lydias must take on all the contenders in a desperate adventure whose prize is the fate of a white city by the sea, and Alexander’s legacy.

The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

After reading The Queen of Attolia, my new favorite book read so far this year, I knew I had to get a copy of the next book. This book is longer and it includes a short story! I was actually very happy that it was longer because I just loved The Queen of Attolia so much that I wanted it to never end.

As a side note, right now the first book in this series, The Thief, can be read for free online.

I’m leaving out the blurb because there are spoilers for earlier books and this is a series that you do NOT want spoiled. I’m struggling with my review of the second book for just that reason… There’s so much I want to say but I’m trying to decide how much is too much information.

Nebula Winners
May
16
2010

Last night the Nebula Award winners for this year were announced. The winners in each category are as follows:

Novel
The Windup Girl – Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade Books, Sept. 2009)

Novella
The Women of Nell Gwynne’s – Kage Baker (Subterranean Press, June 2009)

Novelette
“Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast,”
Eugie Foster (Interzone, Feb. 2009)

Short Story
“Spar,” Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld, Oct. 2009)

Ray Bradbury Award
District 9, Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell (Tri-Star, Aug. 2009)

Andre Norton Award
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making,
Catherynne M. Valente (Catherynne M. Valente, June 2009)

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making is a free story that is available to read online. The short story “Spar” can also be read online.

Congratulations to all the winners! I’m especially glad to see Catherynne M. Valente win an award since she is a very talented writer based on the novel by her I have read (The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden). I haven’t read any of the other authors, but I’m starting to think I should read The Windup Girl and sort of wish I’d picked it up when I saw it at Borders yesterday.

Review of The Poison Throne
May
14
2010

The Poison Throne
by Celine Kiernan
512pp (Trade Paperback)
My Rating: 7/10
Amazon Rating: 4.5/5
LibraryThing Rating: 4.09/5
Goodreads Rating: 4.08/5

The Poison Throne is the first book in the Moorehawke trilogy by Celine Kiernan. The second book in this fantasy series, The Crowded Shadows, is already out in some countries including the author’s native Ireland. It will be coming out in the US in July 2010 even though The Poison Throne just came out there in April. The final book, The Rebel Prince, will be released for the first time in the fall 2010 (October 18 in the US).

At first, fifteen-year-old Wynter Moorehawke is ecstatic to be returning home after spending a long time in the North with her father, who is now in poor health. However, she finds that much has changed during her absence. She finds it strange when a cat runs away from her when she tries to speak to it, which never would have happened when she was the King’s Cat-Keeper. Later, she tries to talk to a ghost she used to be on friendly terms with and he also refuses to converse with her.

Once she is reunited with her friend Razi, the king’s oldest bastard son by an Arab woman, she learns some of the truth – the king has been acting very strangely. He sent away his son Alberon, the heir to the throne, and Razi suspects there is more to the explanation for his departure than he has been told. Also, the king has decreed there are no ghosts and he had all of Wynter’s cats poisoned as if he were afraid they may reveal a big secret.

Although Wynter is horrified, the situation only gets worse as she settles back into court life. The king declares Alberon to be “mortuus in vita” (dead in life) and has every trace of him removed. Furthermore, he forces Razi to become his new heir, even though he does not want the role both due to loyalty to his brother and a desire to escape politics and practice medicine. Wynter may be the only person who can discover the reasons the kingdom has been cast in turmoil – but it may cost her.


The Poison Throne did not hook me immediately and there were a few issues with it, but it was an entertaining story that kept me reading after getting through a few chapters. It was a simple, straightforward story and did not strike me as anything exceptional or out of the ordinary, but it was absorbing once it got going. The novel takes place in an alternate France during the 1400s, but I wouldn’t have recognized it as Europe if not for the fact that it mentioned the Moroccos a few times. There are a few differences between this setting and world history in addition to ghosts and talking cats.

The main factor that prevented me from enjoying it earlier was my early impression of the main character, Wynter. In the first couple of chapters she seemed likable enough, then she found her old friend Razi and was quite appalled to meet his new friend, Christopher. At first, she mistakes him for an acrobat, then she decides he is a rake since he was quite obviously just with one of the women nearby. From one perspective, I can understand her beliefs about him, but she seemed very quick to judge him very harshly as the type of person who used everyone, including Razi, based on this:

She found herself glaring up at this man, her rage such that she made no effort to hide it. I’ve met lots of people. Just. Like. You.

You saw them all the time in palace life, people who latched on. People who used. They would find someone close to the throne and befriend them, usually separating them from the people who cared about them, before bleeding them dry. Not that Razi was any type of idiot. But Wynter had seen fear, isolation and need make fools of the wisest men. I’m watching you, she thought as the young man curled his lip at her in a very speculative smile. I have your measure. [pp. 36]

It’s one thing to jump to conclusions in one’s head, but Wynter made no attempts to be polite toward Christopher and wait to see if he really was the despicable example of human nature she thought him to be even though Razi was obviously fond of him. She was jealous and petty and quite rude to him, and it made it hard for me to warm up to her early on. Throughout the rest of the book, she doesn’t tend to act this way, but she seemed rather annoying and immature during this particular episode.

In spite of this, I did generally like the characters although they did confuse me at times and Wynter did remain my least favorite. She had a loyalty to those she cared about and a desire to seek that truth that I admired, but she was also the least interesting as she largely seemed to be lacking in importance until near the end – until that point, she just seemed to be the person who tied everyone together.

Christopher was my favorite of the bunch and seemed the most real. Wynter’s judgment of him was not completely inaccurate as he was a bit of a womanizer, but he was also caring, the most vulnerable and the most open. As Wynter often observed (and worried about), he didn’t play the court games and he just seemed the most real to me, as well as the one who seemed to act most true to his character. I found Razi’s actions a bit confusing at times – it seemed like he only did extremes. He was sometimes very, almost sickeningly, good with his treatment of his friends (which could describe almost everyone in this book), but he also displayed a cruel streak several times, including once with one of those same friends. It could be argued that he was trying to do what he thought was best, but even with that explanation, I felt some his behavior didn’t quite ring true.

By the end, the question of why exactly the king has turned into such a harsh ruler is still unanswered, although there are plenty of hints and part of the story is revealed. Some glimpses of goodness leave one wondering just what made the king turn into this tyrant who would have his own son erased from history, and I look forward to finding out more about what happened and the reason behind these actions.

The Poison Throne is a fun, easy to read book with a rather intriguing mystery in what has changed during Wynter’s absence from the kingdom. At times, a couple of the protagonists seem to behave out of character, but one of them was sympathetic and likable. In spite of any issues, it kept me wondering what would happen next and I would like to read the next volume in the series.

My Rating: 7/10

Where I got my reading copy: The publisher sent me a copy.

Other Reviews: