Long time no see and a plan for the new year

Well, I seem to have fallen off the world again, haven't I?

Christmas is past, and it's time to get back on the wagon. I've read several great books over December that I'm excited to talk about, and reviews should be back on schedule.
Here's the plan for the coming year:

• Two reviews (or a 'Thoughts on Books' post) a week
• Letterbox Love/Stacking the Shelves on Saturday
• An occasional 'Top Ten Tuesday' post

I'll hopefully get a review up tomorrow, to get things kicked off early!

Letterbox Love: The WFC Haul part 2

 

I missed doing last weeks, so here are the rest of the books I picked up at World Fantasy Con in Brighton at the start of the month. I've been a little busy with uni work (it's essays time of the semester) but I'm planning to put up my write-ups of it this coming week. I'll also have more reading time now, so reviews will be back! *g*

On to the books!

'Farlander' by Col Buchanan - Fantasy, sounds like it could be interesting

'Black Feathers' by Joseph D'Lacey - Don't know much about this, but I've heard good things about Joseph D'Lacey and the cover is just gorgeous.

'The Emperor's Knife' by Mazarkis Williams - Fantasy, again don't know much about it.

'The Knights of Breton Court' by Maurice Broaddus - A new version of the King Arthur myth - I'm not particularly interested in Arthur stories, but this one looked different so I thought I'd give it a go - it's fairly far down the tbr pile at the moment though.

'The Fifth Wave' by Rick Yancy - this one sounds a bit mid-apocalyptic, and I've heard a little bit about it. I'm actually quite keen to read this one soon. 

At the top of this one is the lovely commemorative program they gave to everyone, which features lots of nice pictures and some cool short stories. 

'The Queen of the Tearling' by Erika Johansen - This is a proof copy, so the cover isn't final, about a 19 year old girl about to inherit a kingdom that's a bit of a mess, by the sound of it. I think this sounds really cool, and I'm hoping to read it soon. It doesn't come out till summer, so I won't be posting a review for a while though. 

'The Martian' by Andy Weir - Don't know much about this at all, so it's fairly low in the pile again, but it could be interesting, I'll give it a go sometime.

'The Forbidden Library' by Django Wrexler - This one sounds really cool, it has an introduction letter from the author tucked inside that says it's built on the question of what if you couldn't trust the mentor figure there often is in fantasy books? I hope to read it soon, but again, it's a proof copy, not releasing until April, so it'll be a while till I actually post the review.

How about you? Leave me the links to what you got this week and I'll come check them out! 

~Ailsa

Letterbox Love/StS: The WFC haul, part 1

  

Last weekend I went to the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, and one of the many awesome things that happened was they gave away a whole lot of free books. Since I came home with so many, and I don't anticipate buying any more for a little while, I'm going to split the haul over two Letterbox Love posts. 

First of all, here are the three books I did actually buy: 

'Darkness Splintered' by Keri Arthur (Dark Angel #6)  - I've loved Keri Arthur's work for a long time now, and I was very excited to find this for sale (a little early) at the weekend, so I could get her to sign it! :) I've already started reading, and it's going well so far. Review or 'Thoughts on Books' post to come soon. 

'A Conspiracy of Alchemists' by Liesel Schwarz - I had an e-arc of this back in the spring, and was really enjoying it, but unfortunately it expired before I could get to the end. I'm looking forward to reading the end of the story now.

'The Prince of Lies' by Anne Lyle (Night's Masque #3) - I'm currently half way through the audio of book 2, and was looking forward to meeting Anne Lyle at the con, but didn't have the book for her to sign, so when they had book 3 (again, a little early), I picked it up. I'll get to this one soon.

'The Garden of Stones', by Mark T Barnes - I wasn't sure about this one, but I really enjoyed hearing the author speaking on a panel, so I decided to give it a go.

'The Emperor's Blades' by Brian Stavely - This sounds like a great new fantasy series, and I"m excited to read it.

'The Path of Anger' by Antoine Rouaud - Another fantasy which I'm very excited to read, and on the spine it says 'The Debut of the Year' which I thought was fun :)

'Unspoken' by Sarah Rees Brenan - I've heard a lot about this from people who've already read it, and I think I'll have to keep the tissues close to hand, so I might wait until I have the rest of the series to cope with it.

'Banished' by Liz De Jager - This is the one I was most excited to see on the 'goodies' table - the cover was just revealed the other week, and it looks great! Liz was the author of the first book blog I ever read, and I'm looking forward to reading this story a lot. 

There's the first part! So many books that I'm really excited to read. 

Thank you to publishers, 47 North, Simon & Schuster, Gollancz and Tor for your generosity offering the copies.

What books did you get this week?

~Ailsa

Preparing for World Fantasy Convention

I've heard a lot in the past few years about various bookish conventions, and I'm very excited to be heading to my first one this week! I'm heading to Brighton for the World Fantasy Convention.
There are loads of authors that I'm excited to see, doing readings, panels, and signings. I've made sure there are fresh batteries for my camera, and I'm planning on taking lots of photos. It's also going to be a great chance to catch up with some of my online friends who I either haven't seen for far too long, or have yet to meet in person. There are many plans for meet ups in the bar :)

Some high points I'm looking forward to:

• Seeing Patrick Rothfuss
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• Seeing Scott Lynch
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• Exploring the 'dealers room' and looking at the books and other geeky fun things
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• Hearing some agents and publishers I'm interested in take part in several panels
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• Exploring the town of Brighton itself - I've never been there before

It's going to be a very jam-packed few days, but I'm so stoked for this. I'm planning on doing a few posts when I get back about the various events.

If you're going, let me know!

Book review: Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

Title: Etiquette & Espionage
Author: Gail Carriger
Release Date: February 2013
Publisher: Atom (UK)
Genre: YA fantasy
Source: Gift

Description: It's one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It's quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to Finishing School.
Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners--and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. 
But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine's, young ladies learn to finish...everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but the also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage--in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year's education.

My thoughts: I love Gail Carriger's 'Parasol Protectorate' series, so I was looking forward to this new 'Finishing School' series, which is set in the same world, 25 years earlier. Thankfully Ms Carriger did not disappoint: 'Etiquette & Espionage' is as much fun to read as her previous novels.

We first meet Sophronia as she is trying to hide in the dumbwaiter in her house to spy on the conversation her mother is having with a neighbour. Unfortunately it doesn't go as planned, and an incident with a trifle leads to having to meet a mother who seems more exasperated than angry - a state she seems to be in a lot around Sophronia. That same afternoon, Sophronia is whisked off to the finishing school, but right from the start, things don't go to plan. Before they even make it to the school, the carriage is attacked by 'flywaymen', who use contraptions like hot air balloons to attack passing carriages. As they get to the school and start to learn more, Sophronia and her new friend and roommate Dimity realise that it was no random attack, and start trying to piece together what the flywaymen were looking for, and why.

As readers have come to expect from Gail Carriger, the book is a lot of fun. She continues to paint this steampunk, alternate-history Britain in beautiful little details, while keeping up a plot that had me racing through the story. Fans of the series will be glad to see some familiar faces, albeit a little younger. One of my favourite things was seeing a young Madame Lefoux, who has always been one of my favourite characters. I also thought it was fun to meet a new vampire, one of the Professors, and another werewolf, both of whom seem like very interesting characters with much more to them than we get to see in this book. There is just enough to hint at the fascinating personal stories the two must have, and given Sophronia's constant curiosity, I'm sure there will be more revealed about them in the future books.

I've always enjoyed books set in boarding schools - Enid Blyton, Hogwarts, and many others, and reading something like that again was a flashback of being curled up on a cushion in the school library, reading about the adventures people could have living away from home. Sophronia and her friend get to try things like figuring out how to get past mechanical hall guards, how to sneak in and out of the ship's boiler room, and how to pass notes undetected while dancing.

With 'Etiquette and Espionage', Gail Carriger has produced just the sort of fun-filled story readers have come to expect from her, and the Finishing School series promises to put a new twist on the 'adventures at boarding school' theme.
Overall, I give Etiquette & Espionage 8 out of 10.

~Ailsa

DNF review: Full Blooded by Amanda Carlson

Title: Full Blooded
Author: Amanda Carlson
Publisher: Orbit
Release date: September 11 2012
Source: NetGalley

Description: Born the only female in an all-male werewolf race, Jessica McClain isn't just different - she's feared. After living under the radar for the last twenty-six years, Jessica is thrust unexpectedly into her first change, a full ten years late. She wakes up and finds she's in the middle of a storm. Now that she's become the only female full-blooded werewolf in town, the supernatural world is already clamouring to take a bite out of her. Now her new Pack must rise up and protect her. But not everyone is on board. There are certain superstitious werewolves who think Jessica means an end to their race - and they're not about to go down without a fight.

My thoughts: I wouldn't normally review a DNF book, partly because I prefer to give time to the books I did enjoy, and partly because I think it's unfair when I haven't read much of the book. However, this is a title I received from the publisher via NetGalley, so I think it's fair to give some reasons for DNF'ing.

I made it through two or three chapters of 'Full Blooded', and I'm afraid even some of that was skimmed over. With so many books in my physical 'to be read' pile in my room, Full Blooded just didn't grab me enough with its begining. In the opening scene, Jessica goes through her first ever change from human to werewolf. I think this is an exciting thing, but I didn't know Jessica enough to care, and if I hadn't read the blurb, I wouldn't have known why it was significant. But I pushed on, hoping to be grabbed a little more in the next bit.
Unfortunately, I wasn't, and mostly skimmed through the chapter where Jessica is running around as a wolf and has an altercation with a human. Again, I didn't care enough about her to be interested, and I was hoping to get to the good stuff, find out who she was, and see what the plot was going to turn in to.
Jessica wakes up, and I hoped that here, I would finally be hooked, but the attitudes of the male characters who are around Jessica when she first comes to were a little irritating, and I think the way she reacted considering she'd just done something that everyone thought was impossible, was not very accurate - she's very very calm about everything.

At that point, it was just one thing too many counting against it, and with so many books and so little free time for reading at the moment, I had to put it aside and read something that grabbed me more. Perhaps if I come across it in the library, I'll give 'Full Blooded' another chance, as people seem to be really enjoying the rest of the series, but this go around it just wasn't for me.

Rating: DNF

~Ailsa

Cover love: Strange Chemistry Titles

We're always told not to judge a book by its cover, but I constantly do exactly that - a cover I love will make me pick up a new book to read the back and find out more. It's the cover or title that catches my eye in the first place.

Strange Chemistry sent out some of their 2014 covers last week, and I thought I'd share some of them on the blog.

First, there is the sparkly 'Under Nameless Stars' by Christian Schoon. I'm not familiar with this series (the blurb makes it sound as though it's at least 2nd in a series) and I'm not personally a fan of stories set in space, but I think this cover is very eye-catching, with the window of stars pulling you in. 













Next, there's 'Emilie & the Sky World' by Martha Wells, which has a great cover and sounds like an excellent story! There's a lot happening on this cover, and from the blurb I'd say it gives an accurate impression of what the story will be about. I love how there is the map in the background, and the circle in the middle looking up through trees to the sky also looks like a globe. This story makes me think back to reading Kenneth Oppel's 'Airborn', which I loved when I was in high school. 










Finally, one with a more simple cover, but the one I'm most intrigued to read: 'Feather Bound' by Sarah Raughley. Yes, girls in dresses is a cover trope that's been done over and over for YA, but I like how it turns very feathery around the edges here, and how the birds blend in with it. Here's the description: 

In contemporary New York, a swan girl must help her enemy destroy her best friend or risk being sold to the black market.

When Deanna’s missing friend Hyde turns up at his father’s funeral to claim his corporate empire and inheritance, she is swept into his glittering world of paparazzi and wealth.

But Deanna has a secret - and somebody knows. Someone who is out to get Hyde. And if she doesn’t play along, and help the enemy take Hyde down…she will be sold to the highest bidder in the black market for human swans.

Now Deanna is struggling to break free from the gilded cage that would trap her forever…

We must all remember the stories about swan princesses from when we were little, right? I don't think I've seen a story yet that modernises that, and I'm really excited about how this book sounds. It looks like Strange Chemistry have some awesome books coming out next year, with some equally awesome covers.

Which is your favourite of these three?

~Ailsa