Sunday, December 6, 2009

The Leaning Pile of Books

This week I received two review copies from Blind Eye Books, which publishes science fiction and fantasy featuring gay and lesbian characters. Lately I've accepted none of the review copies I've been offered in an attempt to get caught up on the reading pile, but I remembered hearing about one of these books, read some excerpts and couldn't resist.






The Archer's Heart by Astrid Amara

This was the book I remembered hearing about thanks to Orannia. Back when we were both reading Havemercy, she asked me if I had read it and mentioned hearing good things about it. I read the blurb and a portion of the excerpt on the website and decided it did indeed sound good. The Archer's Heart was a finalist in the science fiction/fantasy/horror category for the Lambda Literary Award in 2008. I'm really looking forward to reading it, but it is rather long so it will be waiting until after the holidays are over.

Wicked Gentlemen by Ginn Hale

I read part of the excerpt for this one as well and was curious about it. This is actually the book I'm reading now since I picked 5 short-ish books I was considering reading and got my husband to pick one. He thought this one had the most interesting cover of the group and picked that one. I'm about 50 pages in now and like it quite a bit so far. Wicked Gentlemen was a finalist in the science fiction/fantasy/horror category for the Lambda Literary Award in 2007 and it won the Spectrum Award for Best Novel in 2008.

5 comments:

Benjamin said...

I'm always leery of books with homosexual relationships as it seems most authors only do it for the titillation factor. The Archer's Heart though looks pretty interesting. I'll look forward to your review of the book. :)

orannia said...

I'm embarrassed to admit Kristen that I still haven't bought Archer's Heart, but it is on my 'to buy' list!

Oh, and Wicked Gentlemen is a brilliant book! I loved it and so am looking forward to reading your review. I believe too that Ginn Hale is writing a sequel :)

orannia said...

Oh, and thank you for the shout out :)

Brenda Hyde said...

These both look interesting, but perhaps complicated? I think in December my main thing isn't so much length as it is saving the "complex" books til after the holidays. I can only think about so much with all the family stuff happening. BAHAHAHAHA

Kristen said...

Benjamin - The Archer's Heart does sound interesting. I'm about halfway through Wicked Gentlemen now and it doesn't seem like it's only for titillation. There hasn't been any graphic sexual content and it's definitely a book that's about more than romantic relationships.

Orannia - That sounds about normal to me - I have sooooo many books on my list that I haven't bought yet. Or read yet of those I have bought.

I'm about halfway through Wicked Gentlemen now and am enjoying it so far. The first story was good; I'm kind of sad to be starting the next one because I really liked Belimai as the main protagonist.

Moonsanity - Since I haven't read it yet, I don't know about The Archer's Heart. Wicked Gentlemen isn't the least complicated book I've ever read, but it's far from the most complicated. I do agree about length not being the only factor when reading for December, although I want to read books that are at least somewhat short so I don't have as many chances to put it down and forget what happened before finishing.