Coming Up

There were no books to add to the leaning pile this week, but I just wanted to give a quick update on what is coming up.

Tomorrow Tia Nevitt will be here as part of her blog tour for the release of The Sevenfold Spell. She will also be giving away a copy of her book. I've read it and it's a very enjoyable romantic fairy tale based on the story of Sleeping Beauty.

For reviews, I'm working on one for The Sevenfold Spell and one for Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs. My hope is to get both of them up this week, but as I already know it's going to be a crazy week we'll see how that goes.

I've read an unusually crazy number of books for me this month so even with writing 1 -2 reviews a week I'm behind. After that, reviews that still need to be written are:

• Lady Lazarus by Michele Lang
• Blameless by Gail Carriger
• Of Darkness, Light and Fire by Tanya Huff (an omnibus containing two of Huff's earlier novels - Gate of Darkness, Circle of Light and The Fire's Stone)

Whew! It might be time to get out a longer book to give myself a chance to catch up.

Update

Unfortunately, it's been pretty quiet here lately since my main writing time has been absorbed by new home ownership activities (starting to move, buying new stuff for the home and in a few minutes the more major moving back - finally!). Usually I write most of my reviews on the weekend, but I haven't had a lot of spare time during the weekends lately. I've been finding this week that trying to write in the evenings after my brain is thoroughly fried after work doesn't work out very well. Hopefully after this weekend I'll be able to write more, although I am also working on a couple of things that will not be up until next month...

Right now I'm working on a review of The Devil in Green by Mark Chadbourn. Other books in the review queue are:

The Lord of the White Hell: Book One by Ginn Hale (this isn't out until August so I won't be reviewing it until then but I loved it)
Naamah's Curse by Jacqueline Carey (just finished it last night and really liked it)

The OCD part of me had to put up a new book since I just finished one. I haven't officially started it yet so maybe it will change but right now I'm planning to start The Last Stormlord by Glenda Larke. It was a tough choice between that and The King's Bastard by Rowena Cory Daniells (I had been thinking about starting Death Most Definite by Trent Jamieson but decided it was too short for the amount I'm behind right now).

November Reading: The Plan

In an attempt to try to clear a few books off the pile that have been sitting there for too long, I've come up with a November reading plan. Right now I am reading By the Mountain Bound by Elizabeth Bear, which I absolutely love for its mythology, subtlety and troubled characters. For reviews, I am working on The Bone Key, a collection of ghost stories by Sarah Monette.

I just read a book I need to read for work last night so I'm going to reward myself next with a book I absolutely cannot wait to read - Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor.

After that the plan is to read the following:

The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington (This one sounds dark and I really like the sound of it)

Busted Flush edited by George R. R. Martin (one of the Wild Cards books in preparation for Suicide Kings, the next book in the new trilogy, coming out next month)

Then depending on how much time is left after I finish those, I'd like to read as many of these in November as possible:

Twilight of Avalon by Anna Elliott
The Dragons of Hazlett by Michelle Scott
The Wolverine Files by Mike W. Barr

If I get through two of the above, I may swap one out for Graceling, though, since I'm also really looking forward to that one and would like to read it sometime in the near future.

What's everyone reading this November?

October Reading

Where did September go?

This was a slow reading month and I didn't end up getting through as many books as I'd hoped since I wasn't very far into The Magicians at the start of September. I did make it through Havemercy by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett, Soulless by Gail Carriger and Doubleblind by Ann Aguirre, but I've only just begun Fire by Kristin Cashore. It was a good month though - Havemercy was just my kind of book and Soulless and Doubleblind were both tons of fun. The Soulless review is almost complete - I just finished a rough draft of it a minute ago so hopefully I can get it up tomorrow night.

Fire and Medicine Road (by Charles deLint) were on my list for September so finishing up the former and beginning the latter will be first on my list. After that, I'd like to read something I don't recall seeing reviewed before - perhaps Night's Master by Tanith Lee or My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due. Then it will be on to Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler. After that, I refuse to plan - it will all depend on how much of the month is left at that point.

What's everyone reading/thinking about reading this month?

Coming Soon

Over the weekend I finished two things necessary for reviews I've been planning on doing. One was the book The Drowning City by Amanda Downum, and the other was putting books on the new bookshelf. I'm hoping to get a review of at least get one of those up before next weekend, preferably both.

At the moment, I'm about a quarter of the way through The Magicians by Lev Grossman, which just debuted at #9 on the New York Times bestseller list. So far, I really like it.

For September books, I'm planning to read Soulless by Gail Carriger and Fire by Kristin Cashore, and I'll read Doubleblind, the third Sirantha Jax book by Ann Aguirre as soon as I can find a copy (it's supposed to be out on September 29). If I have time to squeeze it in before the end of the month, I'd also like to read Medicine Road by Charles deLint. For my very next book, I'm not entirely sure what to read. After I finish The Magicians, I've decided to read something that's not from this year but I'm having trouble picking just one book. It could end up being Alpha or another Skolian book by Catherine Asaro, Havemercy by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett, My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due, or maybe one of my unread Elizabeth Bear books. I can't make my mind (but what else is new - decisiveness has never been my forte).

Update

Now that I'm back from Vegas and not spending time preparing for Vegas, I'm hoping to get back into writing some of these book reviews that are piling up. (At some point, there may be a post about Vegas adventures but right now I'm too tired.)

The books I've read but not yet reviewed are Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie, Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs, and Archangel by Sharon Shinn (which did end up being my book for airplane reading since so many recommended it, it was a book I had, and it was the book I had with the cover that made it least likely that John would leave me in New York if I read it in public). Since there are plenty of reviews of Last Argument of Kings already, I may end up just writing a few thoughts on that one depending on how long it takes me to write the other reviews. Cry Wolf was somewhat of a disappointment for me in comparison to the Mercy Thompson series, but it picked up enough by the end that I'll probably give the next book a shot sometime after it comes out next month. Archangel was very good although the main character was the type that you just wanted to talk some sense into sometimes.

Now that I will (hopefully) have some time again, I am going to finish Catherynne Valente's The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden, which I am very impressed with so far. It's a beautiful intertwining of stories, but it is also definitely a book that is best read all at once. I felt a bit lost when I picked it up last night after a bit of a break from reading it. After that, I'll probably start Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie, Medicine Road by Charles de Lint, or Twilight of Avalon by Anna Elliot. I want to read Best Served Cold by the end of the month but I might try to squeeze in something shorter first if time permits it.

Update

Well, I mostly stuck to my reading plan for this month. Amazon was shipping Jacqueline Carey's Santa Olivia earlier than I'd expected so I got a copy of that a couple of days ago and stopped reading The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle to read that one. It was a quick read and I finished it today so I'll go back to reading The Mote in God's Eye. I noticed today that there is a sad lack of science fiction in the books I've read this year.

On Tuesday (the 26th) there will be a book giveaway! For those of you who love free books (and who doesn't?!), be sure to keep an eye out for that.

Tomorrow I plan to get started on that Santa Olivia review. For reading, I have a partial plan for next month and the end of this month (if I happen to finish The Mote in God's Eye before then - it's longer than it looks and I'm only three chapters in so I may not). I was going to squeeze the second of the new Wild Cards books, Busted Flush, in this month if I had time and if not read it next month. Also, I want to read The Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie before reading my copy of his Best Served Cold (it's a stand alone set in the same world as the First Law books but I have heard it gives away the ending of the trilogy, which I have already read 2/3 of). Other than that, I'm not completely sure what I'll read next month. A friend is sending me some books and she only told me what one of them is but said I must read it soon so that one will most likely be on next month's list (Tanith Lee's Silver Metal Lover). I think I might just pick something that's been sitting on my shelf unread for a long time for my challenge book of the month.

Update

I was hoping to get up a review of Starfinder, John Marco's YA fantasy adventure that was released today, but after finishing work and then doing the grocery shopping, I was too tired. It is about halfway done so I am hoping to finish it tomorrow night (I usually end up working on reviews while waiting for Lost to come on). In the meantime, there is a very good interview with John Marco over at SciFiGuy - and a giveaway for a signed copy of the book.

Right now, I'm reading the new Lane Robins book, Kings and Assassins, that came out toward the end of last month. I really enjoyed her previous novel Maledicte and I'm also really enjoying this one. It's definitely for people who like characters who aren't always pleasant people, though.

Last week I visited Lane Robins's blog and I discovered she actually had two books come out last month - she also wrote an urban fantasy under the name Lyn Benedict called Sins & Shadows. I hadn't heard anything about that but ever since then I've been dying to read it, so I got a copy today and am planning to read it next.

After that, I plan to read Blackbringer by Laini Taylor, and then if I don't chicken out I'll attempt to read a book containing hard science fiction with my personal challenge book for this month, The Mote in God's Eye. I'm hoping to have time to squeeze in Busted Flush, the second book in the new Wild Cards trilogy after that, but if not, I'll read it sometime next month. (Last Argument of Kings will probably be one I review next month, too, since even though Best Served Cold isn't a sequel I'd like to read that one first. And I desperately need to procure Santa Olivia, the new Jacqueline Carey book that is coming out the end of this month.)

So what are you reading/hoping to read soon?

Update

Well, I was starting to get caught up on reviews... Then I got sick the beginning of last week and haven't really felt up to concentrating well enough to write a coherent book review (although I got lots of reading done last weekend). So I'm not sure when I'll get the rest of those reviews written, but I'm hoping I'll feel up to writing one or two this coming weekend. Sadly, this means I missed the Blogger Book Club last week, but I did read the book beforehand and will write about it sometime after I'm feeling better.

Here are the books that will be reviewed once I've recovered:

• A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham
• Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (This is the Blogger Book Club book I missed last week.)
• Hope's Folly by Linnea Sinclair (I still much preferred the darker Gabriel's Ghost and Shades of Dark but I also enjoyed this one far more than An Accidental Goddess.)
• Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs (Liked this one even better than the first book and absolutely love Mercy as a character. I'm definitely getting the next book soon and maybe some other books by Patricia Briggs. Any suggestions other than this series and the Alpha and Omega one?)

Now I am reading an alternative history mystery, The Two Georges by Harry Turtledove and Richard Dreyfuss. I haven't picked up The Oracle Lips in a while but want to read some more stories from it soon (it's too dense for me right now - been trying to read light, easy to read books for the time being).

Hope's Folly Is Out Today/Update

Hope's Folly, the third book in Linnea Sinclair's Dock Five series, is out today. The copy I pre-ordered is now on its way! This one is about Philip instead of Chaz and Sully. As much as I liked Philip, I'm a little worried he'll be too normal and uncomplicated to carry a whole book for me (which is why I preferred Gabriel's Ghost/Shades of Dark over An Accidental Goddess - the characters in the latter were much more normal with fewer complicated, darker issues than the former). Guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Over the weekend, I started a review on Catherine Asaro's The Charmed Sphere, the first book in The Misted Cliff fantasy series. It looks like I may not have a lot of time to make progress on it this week, unfortunately - but I'm hoping I'm wrong about that. The next books in the review queue after that one are:

• Watchmen by Alan Moore (had to read this before the movie came out)
• A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham
• Moon Called by Patricia Briggs (I'm about halfway through this one now and really enjoying it now that it's gotten going)

After Moon Called, I'll be starting Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower in preparation for the March Blogger Book Club.

Tomorrow is Guest Dare Day

Wednesday the 18th is the day Ana and Thea from The Book Smugglers are reviewing Melusine over here, and I'll be over there with a review of Dead Witch Walking. Their review will be up tomorrow morning. I'll be gone at work all day tomorrow and after that I desperately need to go grocery shopping, but when I get back I'll put up the link to the review on their blog. At least I should be back earlier than tonight... it's 10 and I haven't even had dinner yet (of course, I ordered food when I got back an hour and a half ago and it's still not here yet).

Update

Now that I finally got that Kushiel's Dart review written, I've been working on a review of Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End. That was one of my "scary science fiction" books and I made it my challenge book for the month of January.

After that, I will be reviewing:

Inside Straight edited by George R. R. Martin
The Charmed Sphere by Catherine Asaro

I also finished Dead Witch Walking, the first Hollows book by Kim Harrison, last night. Although I'll be reviewing it, it will be over at The Book Smugglers a little later this month, since they dared me to read it. In return, I dared Ana and Thea to read and review one of my favorite books, Melusine.

In preparation for the movie next month, I've just started reading Alan Moore's Watchmen graphic novel, and I've been reading short stories from Storm Constantine's The Oracle Lips collection here and there.

Update

It's been rather quiet around here since I'm reading a long book right now (The Court of the Air) and haven't had much time for reading. I'm about 2/3 of the way through it now. Last night I read one of the Malazan novellas so I'd have something to review but I'm not sure if I'll have time to do so over the weekend since I'm going to be doing some freelance work then. I'm hoping to get in some more time for reading soon, especially since I'm only 4 books away from completing the 50 book challenge. After The Court of the Air, it's on to All the Windwracked Stars and The Jackal of Nar, most likely followed by either Schismatrix Plus or some space opera (depending on how close to December it is by the time I'm done).

Coming Up

Since Friday is Halloween, I decided it was a good time to read and review the newest from Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book. If you are a fan of his, don't wait for the review to read the book! I absolutely loved it and it was my favorite of his novels I've read so far. (Other than that one, those would be Neverwhere, Stardust, Anansi Boys, and Good Omens, the novel he co-wrote with Terry Pratchett. I have not yet read American Gods; I know that's a tragedy of epic proportions, especially since it is on my bookshelf. Of course, I've read all of Sandman, but that was incredible and surpasses any of the novels.)

Right now, I am a little more than halfway through The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt, which will be the next book reviewed. After that, the next books I read will be The Jackal of Nar by John Marco and All the Windwracked Stars by Elizabeth Bear. Then there will probably be some space opera but I still have Nation on the to-read pile so that's a possibility too.

Update

I was hoping to get up at least one review this week but it turned out to be a busier week than normal and I didn't have much spare time in the evenings. This weekend I plan to get up a review on Probability Moon by Nancy Kress and perhaps a "post-discussion" post on Camp Concentration. If I can just get that one review done, I will be most of the way caught up since I just have the one on Elizabeth Bear's "The Stratford Man" duology left other than that. I'm reading two long books right now to give myself some time to get caught up - The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt and The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks. Since I've barely had any time to read this week, that's working out well as far as not reading more than writing goes.

Clarkesworld Books is temporarily open again for those of you who are addicted like I am. I'm still trying to figure out just what to order and have been working on narrowing down my list of potential buys. If anyone has any feedback on why I should or should not get the following books let me know:

Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh
The Onion Girl by Charles de Lint
A Sundial in a Grave by Mary Gentle
Nekropolis by Maureen McHugh
Sunshine by Robin McKinley
A Princess of Roumania by Paul Park (they have signed copies of this one)
Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds (I'll probably wait on this one since I apparently need to be on vacation to read his books and I'm sure I won't be having one of those for a while)
Sister Light, Sister Dark by Jane Yolen
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (think this is a must buy from what I've heard)

They're all fairly cheap (about $8 for most of the trade paperbacks and $3-$4 for mass market) and I'm not sure what to get. Other than Yolen, McKinley and Reynolds, I haven't read anything by the authors in the above list (yet).

Free Stories and Novels/Update

I've seen quite a few free stories and novels available the past couple of days so thought I'd post them here in case anyone has missed any of them.

Tor.com has decided to bring back having free e-books available on the site for a limited time. Right now War for the Oaks by Emma Bull and Dogland by Will Shetterly are available for download here. (If you are not a registered user already, you will need to sign up in order to access these.)

Also on Tor.com is a short story by Elizabeth Bear entitled "The Girl Who Sang Rose Madder."

In honor of International Talk Like A Pirate Day, a story from the forthcoming Fast Ships, Black Sails anthology edited by Jeff and Ann VanderMeer is available as a PDF on the Geekdad Wired Blog - "Boojum" by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear. (As I'm sure anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, those are my two favorite new authors I've discovered this year.)

I am reading Hell and Earth, the second part of "The Stratford Man" duology in Elizabeth Bear's Promethean Age series now, which is even better than the first two books in the series. It's much more mature and has none of the problems of too many characters that Whiskey and Water had - in fact, the new duology has a rather narrow focus on Christopher Marlowe and Will Shakespeare that works excellently. While the first set of books had more references to mythology, this set has more references to history and literature (but characters such as Puck and Lucifer are still present and the first set of books certainly had a few references to literature and history as well). Either set of books can be read first as long as the two parts are read in the correct order (Blood and Iron followed by Whiskey and Water or Ink and Steel followed by Hell and Earth). I think I would have started with Ink and Steel first since it does take place before the other books and now there are parts I want to reread because of it.

I'm hoping to make some progress on reviewing this weekend since I have no major plans (although I may end up doing some cleaning now that I'll be home for a weekend finally -ick). The next reviews will be The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia and Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. After I'm done with Hell and Earth I'll review the duology (which was originally intended to be one book until it grew too long).

Update

After finishing The Cipher one week ago, I've finished 3 more books (it helps that I've had the last 3 days off from work). Here are the next books I need to review and some short impressions of them:

The Cipher by Diana Pharoah Francis (of course) - This one started off somewhat good (although never that great) but by the end, I really didn't like it very much at all. I won't be continuing with the Crosspointe series.

Archangel Protocol by Lyda Morehouse - This is the first in a series I definitely will be continuing with - a cyberpunk story about not just the tech but religion with an interesting female lead and a mystery. Any time I have tried reading cyberpunk I haven't liked it because the character and story always seemed secondary to the cyberpunk aspect of it but this one didn't have the same problems.

The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia - A lovely, well written story using the character of an intelligent automaton to explore social inequality.

Wanderlust by Ann Aguirre - I read this in one day. That is something I have not done in forever but this was very difficult to put down. I liked it better than the first book in the series, Grimspace (which I also couldn't put down). It was very fast paced with lots of adventure yet still had focus on character interaction (this one was more about friendships than the romantic relationship although there was some of that too).

Now I'd better read some longer books while I get caught up on all these...

Update

I have no plans for this weekend other than catching up on some cleaning so I am hoping to get caught up on my reviews then (or at least caught up on what I have right now since I'm almost done with The Cipher by Diana Pharoah Francis and don't think I'll be able to manage 3 reviews over the weekend). These next reviews will be Tobias Buckell's Crystal Rain and Iain M. Banks's Use of Weapons. I seem to be pretty much the only speculative fiction fan who didn't enjoy the former, but I did like the latter very much (although still not quite as much as the fantastic The Player of Games in the same series).

Diana Pharoah Francis is an author who is new to me. So far, the book is all right but I'm not so sure I'll be seeking out the next book in the series.

After The Cipher, I think I might try another book by an author I've never read before.

Update

There are two reviews coming up soon, one on Elizabeth Bear's Whiskey and Water and the other on Young Miles by Lois McMaster Bujold (both by authors that I am now hooked on). I'm still getting caught up after a crazy couple of weeks but should be able to get one of those up in the next couple of days.

I've been reading two books - Crystal Rain by Tobias Buckell and Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. The latter has captured my interest even though it can be rather dense at times, but at least so far, I'm not understanding all the rave reviews of the former. I'm only a little past the halfway point now, though, so there's still time for that to change.

After these two, I think I'd like to go for something a bit more character driven. Any suggestions?

Update

I finished Blood and Iron, the first book in Elizabeth Bear's "Promethean Age" series so I should have a review of that up in the next couple of days. You could say I liked it since I want the next book now. It is out, but I'm going to be patient (ha!) and wait until the third book is out on July 1 and just order them both since I can't find the next book at any of my local bookstores. The final book comes out in August but I'm not going to be quite that patient.

Now I'm reading The Radiant Seas by Catherine Asaro (the sequel to Primary Inversion which I reviewed earlier this year) and Witness by Bill Blais.