Waiting On Wednesday: The Magician's Land

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine, a great place to geek out over upcoming books!

My pick for this week is The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman, to be published by Viking in August. I’ve really enjoyed this series so far (yes, despite Quentin’s whining!) so I can’t wait for the conclusion. And not just because I share the same somewhat-guilty love of Narnia that seems to permeate these books! The Magician King had an excellent ending, and I do want to know what happens to Quentin now he’s been flung back into the real world. Plus the blurb is promising epic things. Ah portal fantasies, how I love you.

Quentin Coldwater has been cast out of Fillory, the secret magical land of his childhood dreams. With nothing left to lose he returns to where his story began, the Brakebills Preparatory College of Magic. But he can’t hide from his past, and it’s not long before it comes looking for him.

Along with Plum, a brilliant young undergraduate with a dark secret of her own, Quentin sets out on a crooked path through a magical demi-monde of gray magic and desperate characters. But all roads lead back to Fillory, and his new life takes him to old haunts, like Antarctica, and to buried secrets and old friends he thought were lost forever. He uncovers the key to a sorcery masterwork, a spell that could create magical utopia, a new Fillory—but casting it will set in motion a chain of events that will bring Earth and Fillory crashing together. To save them he will have to risk sacrificing everything.

The Magician’s Land is an intricate thriller, a fantastical epic, and an epic of love and redemption that brings the Magicians trilogy to a magnificent conclusion, confirming it as one of the great achievements in modern fantasy. It’s the story of a boy becoming a man, an apprentice becoming a master, and a broken land finally becoming whole.

Waiting on Wednesday: Posion Fruit by Jacqueline Carey

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine, a great place to geek out over upcoming books!

My pick for this week is Poison Fruit (Agent of Hel #3) by Jacqueline Carey. It’s coming out in October and is the final book in her Agent of Hel series, so I’m expecting slew of delicious magical chaos for Daisy. It’s going to be awesome. Possibly more exciting than that (for me, anyway) is that Jacqueline Carey will have to start writing a new series now this one is over. Fingers crossed for something epic!

The hot-as-Hel series with the “Sookie Stackhouse type of vibe” (Paranormal Horizon) is back—but this time the paranormal Midwestern town of Pemkowet is feeling a frost in the air and the residents are frozen in fear...

The Pemkowet Visitors Bureau has always promoted paranormal tourism—even if it has downplayed the risks (hobgoblins are unpredictable). It helps that the town is presided over by Daisy Johanssen, who as Hel’s liaison is authorized by the Norse goddess of the dead to keep Pemkowet under control. Normally, that’s easier to do in the winter, when bracing temperatures keep folks indoors.

But a new predator is on the prowl, and this one thrives on nightmares. Daisy is on her trail and working intimately with her partner and sometime lover from the Pemkowet PD, sexy yet unavailable werewolf Cody Fairfax. But even as the creature is racking up innocent victims, a greater danger looms on Pewkowet’s horizon.

As a result of a recent ghost uprising, an unknown adversary—represented by a hell-spawn lawyer with fiery powers of persuasion—has instigated a lawsuit against the town. If Pemkowet loses, Hel’s sovereignty will be jeopardized, and the fate of the eldritch community will be at stake. The only one who can prevent it is Daisy—but she’s going to have to confront her own worst nightmare to do it.

Top Ten Tuesdays: My Summer TBR Pile

Cheers to the gals at The Broke and the Bookish for hosting this lovely meme!

This is meant to be the Top Ten Books on my Summer TBR pile. However, I’ve listed the nine books (or possibly 13, if you count all the titles by Hobb that I intend to read!) that are definitely next up in my TBR list, although I’m sure I’ll pick up some random others based on reviews I see floating around. I've got a one month holiday coming up in August too, so I'm hoping to get through quite a few!

Assassin's Quest (Farseer Trilogy #3) by Robin Hobb
This is the last book in an epic trilogy that I have loved so far. I binge-read the first two books, and have definite plans to finish off the third soon (and probably the Tawny Man trilogy too, because why not). Based on the first two, I have no doubt that they will be awesome. Just look at that dragon on the cover!

Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
I’ve only ever read one short story by Nnedi Okorafor. (It was marvellous.) Plus, her books seem to keep extremely good company on Goodreads – whenever they pop up, they’re always listed with others I love. So looking forward to her novel on the alien invasion of Nigeria!

Lord of Emperors (The Sarantine Mosaic #2) by Guy Gavriel Kay
I started reading Kay a couple of years ago, and have loved everything he’s written. Now this book was actually on my Spring TBR list, but somehow I didn’t get around to it (I blame Netgalley!). But I love Kay’s novels. They’re dramatic, and epic, and always make me cry. Definitely reading this over summer.

Shadowplay (Micah Grey #2) by Laura Lam
I read Book 1 earlier this year, and now Book 2 is sitting on my Kindle, waiting patiently to be read. A second instalment of queer fantasy, apparently with more magic than the last? Yes please.
  
The Mirror Empire (The Worldbreaker Saga #1) by Kameron Hurley
I’ve heard a lot of good things about Hurley’s other books, although I’ve never read them. This new series of hers seems like a good place to start! It looks suitably epic. 

The Magician’s Land (The Magicians #3) by Lev Grossman

I know there are a lot of people who dislike these books, but I’m not one of them. (Maybe this could be blamed on my love of Narnia, despite its many flaws?) Anyway, I can’t wait to see how Grossman wraps this trilogy up.  

Rose Under Fire (Code Name Verity #2) by Elizabeth Wein
Another WW2 pilot novel, this time about an American who gets captured and sent to Ravensbruck, the notorious women's concentration camp. Looks as heart-wrenching as the last, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Also, that cover! Arty & dramatic.

Earth Star (Earth Girl #2) by Janet Edwards

I don’t read much YA, but am happy to make an exception for this series. The first book was awesome, and I’ve heard the second lives up to its predecessor. Yes to clever sci-fi & awesome female protagonists. 

 

War for the Oaks by Emma Bull

This book has been sitting on my Kindle for at least a year, and I found it when I was reorganising my books. I know it’s a classic (with faeries! I have a terrible weakness for faeries) so am really looking forward to reading it.

Top Ten Tuesday: The Best Books I've Read (So Far) in 2014

Cheers to the gals at The Broke and the Bookish for hosting this lovely meme.

This week’s list features the top ten books I’ve read so far this year. It was an easy list to make as I haven't actually read that much recently - I blame my new job. Still, the list below is filled with great novels so I'm happy to let the gushing (re)commence! 

SFF: 

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. I never got around to reviewing this one, but my god did I love the adventures of Breq the gender-subverting ex-spaceship. Probably my favourite novel this year.

A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar. A beautifully-written fantasy about literacy and ghosts. (My review.)

Child of a Hidden Sea by A. M. Dellamonica. An awesome portal fantasy - full of nautical mishaps, pop-culture musings and even a few gay people. Although I find it depressing how happy that last fact made me. (Review coming soon.)

Assassin's Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy #1) by Robin Hobb. A compelling fantasy about Fitz, a lonely royal bastard and apprentice assassin. (My review.)

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. A very thoughtful stand-alone examining the burdens of leadership in an elven court. (My review.)

Pantomime by Laura Lam. Queer fantasy with circuses and a slight bit of of magic. Yes, of course I liked this. (My review.) 

Historical/Lit Fic: 

Somewhere in France: A Novel of the Great War by Jennifer Robson. A satisfying story about a rich-girl-turned-ambulance-driver and her on-off boyfriend. (My review.)

Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay. A surprisingly easy read concerning the Vel D'Hiv incident in France. (My review.)  

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini. Heartbreaking novel about a string of interlinked families.

 

Non-fiction: 

The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why by Amanda Riply. Very interesting book, full of anecdotes & a bit of research. 

Top Ten Tuesday: Covers I'd Frame As Art

Cheers to the gals at The Broke and the Bookish for hosting this lovely meme.

This week TTT is a free choice, so I’ve decided to list the top ten book covers I’d frame as pieces of art. (I wanted to join in for this topic a couple of weeks ago, but I’ve been working 65-70 hour weeks recently and couldn’t find the time.) 

Anyways. Let the ogling commence!!

God's War by Kameron Hurley: I haven't read the book, but I like the cover. Nice sense of movement & interesting patterns. 

Earth Girl by Janet Edwards: Silhouetted birds against a dramatic sky and beautiful choice of title font? Yes please. 

L'Elue, aka the French edition of Kushiel’s Chosen, by Jacqueline Carey: I love this cover. It has great colours and an overall sense of sensual epicness that I think fits the book very well. I would put this in my bathroom and cackle at visitors' reactions to it.

  

Welcome to Bordertown edited by Holly Blak and Ellen Kushner: An otherworldly city featuring a decrepit motorcycle covered in ivy? Come on, who wouldn't want that on their wall? 

The Magicians by Lev Grossman: I like this cover. It manages to be simple yet somewhat magical all at once.

The Scar by China Mieville: It seems that I have a thing for dramatic skies. This one is in green and yellow, crowning the city of misty ships on the horizon. I approve. 

 

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson: I think a lot of minimalist fantasy covers are on the boring side, but this one really works. Beautiful colours & lovely shading.  

Lud in the Mist by Hope Mirreles: Another fantasy city paired with a striking title and yet more birds. I really like the colours and old-school magic vibe I get off this one. I would put it in my office to stare at and daydream.

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff: Creepy and a little bit fey. I haven't read this book, and this cover is making me regret that.

And finally, The Peter Grant books by Ben Aaronvitch: I love all these because I collect maps – my entire house is covered them. It’s not great cartography, but it is great design. I think Whispers Underground and Moon Under Soho are my favourites so far.

Thursday Thoughts: On eReaders and Their Awesomeness!

Another Thursday, another bookish discussion! Thursday Thoughts is a feature started up by Ashley over at Ok, Let’s Read, and I’m super excited about it this week because hey, got strong feelings about this one!  
 
Her questions: eReaders - Do you own an eReader (or a tablet that you read on)? Do you prefer eReaders or physical books and why? Do you think it is wise to invest in an eReader? If you could only read physical books or an eReader for the rest of your life, which would you choose and why?

My answer: Team Kindle, all the way.

I admit I used to prefer print books. I would rhapsodise about the smell of books (old & musty, new & salt-and-vinegar-ish), the beauty of their binding, and the pleasures of reading in a bathtub. And I still do appreciate bookbinding, although I think it’s an archaic hobby and have thus given it up in favour of learning R.

But I personally think ebooks (and ereaders) are far superior to their print counterparts. Why? They’re cheap. They’re light. You can carry hundreds of them in your purse. They help declutter your house. The automatic dictionaries improve your vocabulary and are complete life-savers when you read in a second language. They’re easy to search, preserve, and share. And how many people own bathtubs anyway? I haven’t lived in a dwelling that had one for, oh, the past ten years or so.

Downsides: eReaders rarely display maps well, which is sometimes an issue when reading geographical non-fiction texts/ epic fantasy novels. I expect this will change as the technology improves.

Basically I LOVE ebooks because they can go anywhere. My print books - twenty odd boxes of them - are still sitting in my parents’ garage. They’ve been there for years. They’ll probably never leave. It’s just not practical to shift that number internationally, especially since I've no idea how long I'll be based in China. (Another six months? Another year? Another three?) So yes: if pressed, I would exclusively read ebooks for the rest of my life. It wouldn't be hard; I practically do that already. 

Environmentally, I’m not sure if print or electronic books are better. I’ve read articles arguing it both ways. Yes, print books require paper... but ereaders also require resources, and old electronics are rarely disposed of properly. 

But this brings me to the main criticism I hear about ereaders – that they break, leaving you bookless. And yes, I have felt this pain. The first time my Kindle broke, it took me over three months to replace. Because it turns out that Amazon.com doesn’t ship to China, and Amazon.cn doesn’t sell Kindles – in fact, they’re really hard to buy over here (although there are other ereaders on the market). In the end, I had the Kindle sent to a friend in NZ. She then posted it onto me. A month later, after some bureaucratic wrangling with customs, I got a very exciting box in the mail. Still, during that Kindle-less period, it wasn’t like I didn’t have access to books. I had a Kindle app on my phone. Because I am a firm believer in stripping the DRM off books, I could also read everything on my computer with Calibre. (I know Amazon has a Kindle app for PC, but it’s really buggy and I’m not a fan. Also, the app doesn’t allow you to organise books, which becomes a problem when you have 300+ of them.)

What about you? Do you prefer ebooks to print, or don't you care either way?

Tough Travelling: Dark Lords

Tough Travelling is a feature started up by Nathan over at Fantasy Review Barn, an alphabetical tour through the tropes of our beloved genre (as defined by the awesome Tough Guide to Fantasyland).

This week’s topic? Dark Lords. Because we all know that…

There is always one of these in the background of very Tour, attempting to ruin everything and take over the world.  He will be so sinister that he will be seen by you only once or twice, probably near the end of the Tour.  Generally he will attack you through MINIONS…

1. Satoris from The Sundering Duology by Jacqueline Carey
 
Ok, I admit it. The main reason I’m joining in this week is so I can gush about The Sundering Books, which are severely underloved. They basically deconstruct The Lord of the Rings, mostly through telling the tragic story of Satoris: a dark lord misunderstood god of sex who spends his time pacing the austere towers of Mordor Darkhaven, controlling an army of orcs Fjeltroll, and generally attempting to thwart any plan the “good” guys come up with.


2. Sauron from The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
I’m not a huge LotR fan but I figured since we visited Satoris, we might as well visit his inspiration – pretty much the classic dark lord of fantasy.


3. The White Witch from (some of the) Narnia Books by C. S. Lewis
Ah, another classical fantasy despot, this one with a love of winter and the colour white. You’ve got to admire Jadis for her class, though: she cultivated dramatic gardens and had brilliant seduction skills (come to the dark side! We have Turkish Delight!).

Random, slightly personal fact: I actually got married at Castle Hill, which is where they filmed her final showdown with the forces of Aslan in the most recent version of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.


4. Voldemort from the Harry Potter Books by J. K. Rowling 

Yes, yes, I went with the easy choices this week. But I loved the Harry Potter books. I couldn’t leave He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named off this list, although to be honest I think he was at his creepiest as the teenage memory of his former self. 

Thursday Thoughts: Reading Slumps

Thursday Thoughts is a new(ish) feature hosted by Ashley over Ok, Let’s Read. The topics look interesting and I’ve enjoyed reading posts from previous weeks, so I thought I’d finally join the fun! 

 

This week’s discussion centres on reading slumps. Just to pander to my logical side, I’m going to start with a definition: a reading slump is when you look at your TBR pile… and instead of feeling like Belle in a library, you just can't be bothered. This either means that you 1) read less, or that 2) the reading you do is a chore. 

Now at times, I do read less – but that’s usually because I’m binge-watching a TV show, incredibly involved a roleplaying game, or watching a lot of theatre. I worked out a long time ago that I need stories to function, and I don’t really mind where I get them from. Occasionally I’ll forgo reading because I’m busy hiking/ travelling/ board gaming/ hanging out with friends, but that never lasts very long; I always need to recharge with a book eventually. But that’s not a slump. I’m still excited about reading – I just happen to be waiting a little longer between books. 

I think slumps happen when you’re trying to read on schedule. You feel like you have to read, but nothing really appeals. This is partly about the books you have in your TBR pile, of course, but also about relaxation – maybe you’ve just been reading too much and want to take a break. I'm guessing this can be stressful if you’re a book blogger with a regular posting schedule. (Especially if you’re one of those machines that plough through 3+ books a week! Honestly, guys, I don’t know how you do it.) Personally, I try to switch genres first – fantasy for historical fiction, historical fiction for sci-fi, sci-fi for contemporary, contemporary for whatever. But if that doesn’t work, I take a break until I feel excited again... because ultimately, I know who I'm reading for. 

What about you?

Ten Awesome Books on my Spring Reading List

Top Ten Tuesdays is a weekly book meme hosted by The Broke & The Bookish.

Gotta say I'm really excited about this week's topic. Why? Because a fortnight ago, I didn't really have a Spring TBR list. And then I decided that I would start reading/ reviewing/ blogging more, and spent the week discovering awesome new sites full of awesome new (and old!) books that somehow I had never heard of, and now my bulging TBR list is making my wife talk about hiding our credit card. Muhahahah.

ANYWAYS. Here's a list of books I intend to read in the next month or so.

A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar
I first picked up this book when I was on holiday in New Zealand and killing time in a bookstore. A few chapters in, I was entranced by the rich prose and the promise of misadventures in an decadent city across the sea. It's been nominated for a Nebula too... I can't wait to read the entire thing.

Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay
I am a raging fangirl when it comes to Guy Gavriel Kay. His work is just that magnificent. This is the second book in his Sarantine Mosaic duology; one I would have read months ago, were I not trying to pace myself on his backlist.

Who fears death by Nnedi Okorafor
I came across a review of this book last week and was surprised it slipped under my radar. Post-apocalyptic fantasy set in Africa, good enough to have won the World Fantasy Award in 2011 – I’m looking forward to it.

Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
I suspect this is on a lot of people’s to read lists! I love most of Sanderson's work (I always want to translate his magic systems into RPGs) and thought The Way of Kings was great. I'm sure this one will be too.

Pathlight: New Chinese Writing (Spring 2013)
Pathlight is a quarterly magazine featuring Chinese stories & poetry. The Spring 2013 edition focused on "The Future" aka Chinese sci-fi. I've been meaning to pick up a copy for ages. Listening to Ling Chen talk at the BLF Global Science Fiction panel only cemented this urge, as apparently this is the only place where her work has been translated in English.

Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch
I’ve been following this series for a while. I first started reading them because of the British covers (which are awesome. Come on. Look at those maps.) but I’ve continued with them because they’re a lot of fun. It’s police bureaucracy meets magic, set in a London that actually feels diverse. 

The Silvered by Tanya Huff
Tanya Huff is a pretty prolific novelist, although I don't recall reading any of her other books. This one looks interesting though: high fantasy with werewolves and a magic school drop-out.

Somewhere In France: A Novel of the Great War  by Jennifer Robson
This book has been getting lots of good reviews, and I've been aiming to read more straight historical fiction. Hopefully this one will live up to the hype. 

Hild by Nicola Griffith
Another historical novel I can't wait to get my hands on. Mostly because I've seen a lot of comments on the quality & thoughtfulness of the writing, but also because it's been nominated for a Nebula and the cover is pretty.


China's Urban Billion: The Story Behind the Biggest Migration in Human History by Tom Miller.

Yes, there is non-fiction on this list. Is that cheating? (Guess I'm a cheat.) This book is here because I went to a fascinating talk on urban China at the Beijing Literary Festival last week: a 90 minute discussion on city verses population growth, hukou reform, eco-design, water & air pollution, and how China's changing government structures have impacted all of the above. Tom Miller was one of the speakers. I'm sure it'll be interesting to a geo-nerd like myself.



Have you read any books on this list? What are you most looking forward to?