Sunday, October 25, 2009

The Leaning Pile of Books

It's Sunday so it's time to post any new additions to the TBR for the week. I have three new ones and they are all copies I received for review.

By the Mountain Bound by Elizabeth Bear

I was psyched to get a copy of the second book in The Edda of Burdens series a few days ago - it is one of my most anticipated 2009 releases (it's out on October 27). Elizabeth Bear is one of my favorite authors and I loved the first book in this series, All the Windwracked Stars. (Well, I called it the first book but this is actually a prequel to it even though it is the second book - which excited me even more because I cannot wait to read about the events leading up to All the Windwracked Stars.) The Edda of Burdens series is based on Norse mythology, and I just absolutely love how Bear writes anything based on mythology. I just started The Bone Key by Sarah Monette for my last Halloween read (I can't believe I forgot about this book when I was trying to think of horror/Halloweenish novels - I was going to read Sunshine but decided I'm vampired out for the moment), but as soon as that is finished, I'm reading By the Mountain Bound.

Servant of a Dark God by John Brown

Ever since I first read Tia's review of this book over at Fantasy Debut (which has just moved to Debuts & Reviews), I've been intrigued by it. Plus I really like how ominous the title sounds and enjoy reading new debuts, so I'm looking forward to reading this one.



An Illustrated Guide to Mythical Creatures by David West and Anita Ganeri


This is a children's book that's exactly what the title says - information on mythical creatures with illustrations. It's relatively short so it's not an exhaustive guide by any means, but it looks as though it could serve well as an introduction to these creatures for younger readers (of course, I haven't read it yet - only flipped through it a bit to see what was there).

9 comments:

orannia said...

Oh, I look forward to reading what you think of Elizabeth's Bear book. I haven't read any of her books yet, but A Companion of Wolves is on my TBR list :)

Happy reading!

Kristen said...

Orannia - I've read six of Elizabeth Bear's books including A Companion to Wolves and I've loved all of them. So I'm really looking forward to this one, especially since I was just thinking the other day that it had been a while since I'd read one of her books.

Harry Markov said...

I am waiting on a copy for "Servant of a Dark God". I even have an interview with the author. I hope it is good.

ediFanoB said...

I'm really interested in "Servant of A Dark God".
For all people like me who are interested in: You can read the first seven chapters for free! I finished the download. Now I only need to read....

Kristen said...

Harry - I read your interview and enjoyed it. :) Servant of a Dark God sounds good from the reviews I've read and I really like the ominous sounding title. I hope it is good too.

ediFanoB - I hadn't seen that that much of the book was up online to read. Very nice!

Anonymous said...

My daughter would love the Mythical Creatures book. I need to keep an eye out for it.

Anastasia said...

Kristin, I like this feature!

I wasn't aware of By the Mountain Bound coming out, so that's a great heads up. My personal book-buying has slowed significantly. My to-read pile is too big, and for the next 7 months I'm be preparing for the CFA exam - so I can only read for leisure on weekends. I won't be buying new authors for a while yet, but I'll make exceptions for ones that I already know & love.

I'd really enjoyed All the Windwracked Stars; it was so different in style from the wolves books or her scifi (the others are good too, but the lush, dark lyrical writing is what hits the spot for me).

Are you going to be reading The Gathering Storm? I couldn't believe myself, but I finally broke down yesterday, tired of scouring the Internet for spoilers, trekked to my parents' house in the suburbs and read the damn thing. I stuck with just one storyline (Egwene in the White Tower) so by 1am I was finished and satisfied.

Kristen said...

Anastasia - Glad to hear you like the feature! I was afraid too many people would find it boring, but I like reading these types of posts since sometimes they do remind me about books I was interested in (that's how Havemercy was brought to my attention again).

I hear you about the to-read pile. If only I had that type of willpower - it would be smart if I stuck more to new books by authors I've already read and enjoyed.

Have you read the Promethean Age series? I haven't read any of Bear's scifi yet, but the things I liked about All the Windwracked Stars were the same things I liked about the Promethean Age books - the writing style, the way she didn't hold reader's hands and explain everything, how dark it was and the mythology. I had thought all of her books must be written like that since I've only read those and A Companion to Wolves. While enjoyable, that one was a bit different but I just figured that was because it was a collaboration.

I'm not planning to read The Gathering Storm. There are too many other books on the pile and I'm not nearly as interested in the series as I once was. I was thinking about reading the spoilers to find out what happened, though.

Kristen said...

Anastasia - Good luck with the CFA exam! Wow, seven months is a long time. Here I was annoyed about having time I could be reading something else taken up by one little book I have to read for work in the next couple of weeks.