Fantasy

You are currently browsing the archive for the Fantasy category.

The Black Prism Releases August 25!

August 4, 2010 in Fantasy, News | Comment

I have been looking forward to The Black Prism ever since I read Brent Weeks’ Night Angel series. The Black Prism sounds completely different from the Night Angel series, but just as interesting:

Gavin Guile is the Prism, the most powerful man in the world. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace. But Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live: Five years to achieve five impossible goals.

Alas, it isn’t out yet, but you can spend some time learning what color drafter you are at a quiz over at Brent’s site! You can also get a sneak peek at the first three chapters, courtesy of Orbit.

Confessions of a Bookslut

June 3, 2010 in Fantasy, Thriller, Urban | Comment

Or, What Haven‘t I Done?

I get around a lot.

But shockingly, there’s a lot out there I haven’t done.

First, I have never listened to an audiobook. Secondly, I have not yet read Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series. I know, I know!! Bear with me here.

Last month, I did something amazing. Something unbelievable. Something naughty. I signed up for Audible.com. The first thing I downloaded was Charlaine Harris’ Dead Until Dark. I got sucked in (haha, get it?). Now I got it bad, for both audiobooks and Ms. Harris alike.

But aren’t audiobooks just for listening while driving? Au contraire, dear readers! I thought that too, not so long ago. Dead Until Dark, a delightful 8 hours, kept me entertained while I:

  • walked/played with the dog
  • worked in the garden
  • prepped and cooked dinner
  • tried to fall asleep
  • folded laundry
  • prepared boring spreadsheets at work
  • drove

Now, normally, I would never be able to read while doing some of these things. Many a time have I wished I could walk the pup while reading a book (though I have a feeling it would end in disaster). Of course, for safety, I walk with only one earbud in so I can still hear what is going on around me.

This has been a breakthrough. Of course, I knew audiobooks existed, but for some reason (mostly $$) I never really got into them. I am furious at myself now for not experimenting earlier! When I was in college, it was a 3 hour drive to get home to see my parents. The time wasted trying to figure out new radio stations when I could have been immersed in a book! While driving! Ugh. Well now I know better. Now, with a long distance wedding coming up next month, a lot of driving, and a dog that needs exercised, I couldn’t be happier about this choice.

What about Sookie??

The Dresden Files: Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes! Or, what happens when you get comfortable

May 10, 2010 in Fantasy, Urban | Comment

First, apologies to Mr. Butcher. While The Dresden Files are one of my all time favorite series, in my last review on Turncoat, I mentioned this:

Side Note: In this sense, the books are a little formulaic, but that’s what makes them so ‘comfortable’ to me– Someone comes to Harry for help. Big baddies come after Harry while he investigates. Help is going to take a lot more than Harry anticipated. Harry outsmarts/outlucks/outmaneuvers baddies. Harry saves the day.

Oh boy. I couldn’t have been more wrong *looks contrite*. Changes begins in the usual Dresden manner–fast, gritty, and in your face. You are left sputtering “Harry has a daughter????? With Susan???” (not a spoiler, it’s on the back cover!) and the book just keeps getting better from there.

The beginning of the aforementioned formula begins to weave itself together, and I can almost see Jim’s face while he says “Ha! Take that!!” while pulling out the rug from under the reader’s feet. Just when you begin to fall under plot’s hypnotic spell, everything Changes. The book title is significant in that Harry’s relationships with many supporting characters also undergo some form of Change. He learns that Mouse, while often a great help in a tight spot, has even more to offer. He finds out about his mother’s relationships and how they affect him and those in his care. He discovers Susan’s reasons for keeping such a life altering secret, and the list goes on.

Finally, there is a HELL of a cliffhanger ending that kept me reading right into the author’s note. I realized that Jim’s living arrangements and vicious guard dog have nothing to do with Harry’s story, and had to go back a few pages and reread. I simply kept on reading because I assumed there would be more!

I’ll end with that, as MORE is what I am left wanting. Maybe that will be the next title (Eh? Think about it, Jim!).

The first four chapters can be found on Jim Butcher’s site.

Inside the Blogosphere: How Do You Organize Your Library?

March 31, 2010 in Fantasy | Comment

John over at Grasping for the Wind has posted a new “Inside the Blogosphere” question:

As an avid reader, you probably have scads and scads of books. How do you like to organize them? Category, title, author, ebooks only, or some mix thereof? Explain your organizational system for books, (or lack of it) and why it works for you.

Unfortunately, I didn’t participate this time around, but check out the variety of answers!

Changes are Coming!

March 8, 2010 in Fantasy, Urban | Comment

Jim Butcher’s latest addition to the Dresden Files will be out in April! You may recall the fun I had reading Turn Coat, and I expect Changes will be no different.

Long ago, Susan Rodriguez was Harry Dresden’s lover-until she was attacked by his enemies, leaving her torn between her own humanity and the bloodlust of the vampiric Red Court. Susan then disappeared to South America, where she could fight both her savage gift and those who cursed her with it.

Now Arianna Ortega, Duchess of the Red Court, has discovered a secret Susan has long kept, and she plans to use it-against Harry. To prevail this time, he may have no choice but to embrace the raging fury of his own untapped dark power. Because Harry’s not fighting to save the world…

He’s fighting to save his child.

You can check out the first few chapters on Jim Butcher’s site here!

Inside the Blogosphere: Who Introduced You to the Love of Literature?

January 27, 2010 in Fantasy | Comment

John over at Grasping for the Wind has posted a new “Inside the Blogosphere” question:

Who first introduced you the love of books and reading? What about them resonated so deeply with you that you came to love books and reading too?

Check it out for a variety of answers from some venerable SFF bloggers (and me, Daya!)

Beautiful Creatures

January 6, 2010 in Fantasy, Young Adult | Comment

In the Southern town of Gatlin, Ethan Wate meets a new girl who is radically different from the ‘same old’ girls he has been seeing all his life. To make things even more interesting, Lena is living with her uncle Macon Ravenwood, the town shut in and subject of much small minded town speculation. Ethan’s family life is different from most in Gatlin– his mother passed away and his father has become reclusive in his grief. His caretaker Amarie, or Amma, is a great character with a hilarious attitude and even better accent.

As Ethan and Lena become inexorably attracted to each other, another world opens up to Ethan. He finds that Lena and her family are Casters, those with unimaginable powers. As Ethan discovers Gatlin’s secrets about the Caster population, he also finds that Lena’s family has secrets as well: As Lena’s sixteenth birthday approaches, she will come into her powers, and unlike other Casters, she has no choice whether she will Turn Dark or Light. As Ethan pieces together his nightmares, he realizes that his and Lena’s attraction goes back hundreds of years, to another pair of star crossed lovers in their family tree. Now it’s up to them to find a way to break the curse before Lena’s birthday, before Ethan loses Lena forever.

How many of Lena’s battered notebooks have Mrs. Ethan Wate scribbled on them?

Hand of Isis

November 10, 2009 in Fantasy, Historical Fiction | Comment

The eldest was born in the season of planting, when the waters of the Nile had receded once more and the land lay rich and fertile, warm and muddy and waiting for the sun to quicken everything to life. She was born in one of the small rooms behind the Court of Birds, and her mother was a serving woman who cooked and cleaned, but who one day had caught Ptolemy Auletes’ eye. Her skin was honey, her eyes dark as the rich floodwaters. Her name was Iras.

The second sister was born under the clear stars of winter, while the land greened and grain ripened in the fields, when fig and peach trees nodded laden in the starry night. She was born in a great bedchamber with wide windows open to the sea, and five Greek physicians in attendance, for she was the daughter of Ptolemy Auletes’ queen, and her name was Cleopatra.

The youngest sister was born as the earth died, as the stubble of the harvest withered in the fields beneath the scorching sun. She was born beside the fountain in the Court of Birds, because her mother was a blond slave girl from Thrace, and that was where her pains took her. Water fell from the sky and misted her upturned face. Her hair was the color of tarnished bronze, and her eyes were blue as the endless Egyptian sky. Her name was Charmian.

Once, in a palace by the sea, there were three sisters. All the stories begin so.

9780316068024_154X233The Hand of Isis is a historical fantasy by Jo Graham, and easily one of the best books I have read this year. The book follows Charmian, Cleopatra’s handmaiden and half sister, as she helps Cleopatra navigate the political turmoil as she becomes the Queen of Egypt.
Being a self professed Classics nerd, I knew that after reading Black Ships I was obligated to read anything else that Ms. Graham decided to write. The Hand of Isis eclipses all other historical fantasies I have read to date.

In The Hand, the veil between mortals and the divine is very thin, and the book begins with Charmian in the Halls of Amenti, telling her story to Serapis and Isis before her heart is weighed against a feather. Thus the book switches between third and first person, always coming back to where Charmian stands in judgment.

Charmian and her half sister Iras were born of different slaves, and Charmian’s mother died in childbirth. Thus Iras’ mother raised them both, and when they begin taking lessons with Cleopatra to keep her company, they become a triumvirate, each a face of Isis: Cleopatra, mother of the World with Horus at her breast, Iras as the Lady of Amenti, and Charmian as Isis Pelagia, the Goddess of Love. Thus with their individual strengths they secure a kingdom for Cleopatra, the embodiment of Isis on earth.

Read More about Charmian!

Tempest Rising

October 26, 2009 in Fantasy, Urban | 1 comment

final-cover-185x300In the tiny village of Rockabill, Maine, Jane True—26-year-old bookstore clerk and secret night swimmer—has no idea that her absent mother’s legacy is entry into a world populated by the origins of human myths and legends.  It is a world where nothing can be taken for granted: vampires are not quite what we think; dogs sometimes surprise us; and whatever you do, never—ever—rub the genie’s lamp.   For Jane, everything kicks off when she comes across a murder victim during her nightly clandestine swim in the freezing winter ocean.  This grisly discovery leads to the revelation of why she has such freakish abilities in the water: her mother was a Selkie and Jane is only half human. With this knowledge, Jane soon finds herself mingling with supernatural creatures alternately terrifying, beautiful, and deadly—all adjectives that quite handily describe her new friend Ryu.  When Ryu is sent to Rockabill to investigate the murder, he and Jane fall hard for each other even as they plummet into a world of intrigue threatening to engulf both supernatural and human societies.  For someone is killing half-humans like Jane.   The question is, are the murders the work of one rogue individual or part of a greater plot to purge the world of Halflings?

Jane True is a character that the reader begins to empathize with almost immediately. She is fun, sarcastic, and just a little unsure enough to make her downright lovable. Jane spends her days caring for her father and going through the same motions day in and day out, all the while never directly asking questions about her mother. In fact, the first few pages gave me sudden Twilight flashbacks (Bella cooking for her dad) but the comparison ends there (thank god).

Given that Rockabill, Maine, is such a small town, everyone remembers Jane’s mother, who showed up in the middle of town one day completely naked. Her father offered her a jacket, and the rest is history. Except her mother disappeared a year later, leaving her young daughter to fend for herself in a town that was more that happy to see their fears about ‘that woman’ confirmed.

Read more about Jane!

Fire

September 28, 2009 in Young Adult | Comment

FireI’m afraid I’ve gone and done things out of order. Again. I read  Kristin Cashore’s Fire as soon as I could get my hands on it, but I have not read Graceling (yet). Apparently Fire is a bit of a prequel, set 30 or so years before the events of Graceling, with one crossover character.

I thought Fire rocked.

Now, with that out of the way, Fire is a very intriguing book, different from anything else I have read. It takes place in a war-torn land called the Dells. Fire, a young 17 year old girl, is the last human shaped monster. The land is rife with beautiful creatures called monsters: birds, cats, lizards, etc. but they have gorgeously colored feathers, fur, and scales. And they have the power to control the minds of humans.

Fire is stunning beautiful, so beautiful that people (men especially) can forget themselves and proclaim their love for her, resulting in small scale battles, violence, etc. You get the idea. Unlike animal monsters, Fire has morals that she lives by and so does not abuse her powers, often keeping her fiery red hair under wraps. And so Fire lives in her own little corner of the world, until the day her King needs her. What happens after Fire leaves her comfortable niche is  a stunning story with love, war, and everything in between.

What made this book really interesting is that we don’t meet Fire for several chapters into the book. Instead, we meet a little boy with different colored eyes and his father, who leaves his home so that his boy (a Graceling because of his telltale eyes) will not be taken away for the King’s personal use. Those first few chapters are chilling. This boy is everything that Fire is not. While he wants to get to know Fire, she wants nothing to do with him, and so Fire finds herself in the center of a disastrous plot.

Miss Cashore does an excellent job driving home that even though Fire is considered “monstrous”, she is still human at heart. Her love of her horse, Small, is so innocent and girlish that it makes the reader smile. Fire also has a difficult time removing herself from the shadow of her monster father, adviser to the old king. Her father was the cause of much dissension in the kingdom, and many people hate Fire simply because of the deeds of her father. Poor Fire has to navigate through a dangerous castle with people that either hate her, or love her because of her overpowering looks.

Fire is an excellent read, though at one point I felt as though almost every character was the victim or participant in rape, adultery, or some other deviant behavior. Members of the royal family turn out to have not-so-royal lineage, and it gave the characters a soap opera-like air. Otherwise, the writing and worldbuilding were excellent, and I plan to read Graceling very soon, followed by Bitterblue, which does not currently have a release date.

« Older entries