Showcase Sunday #10

Inspired by Celine from Nyx Book Reviews, I've decided to combine several weekly wrap-up memes into one post. Showcase Sunday is hosted by Vicky at Books, Biscuits and Tea. Stacking the Shelves is hosted at Tynga's Reviews, and Sunday Post is hosted at Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer. Letterbox Love is a special British book-haul meme hosted by Lindsey at Narratively Speaking.


Last Week:

Wow, it's been a super busy week! On top of a lot of work I seemed to have so many of those little things to do, and also went to a book fair in Leicester yesterday - fun, but COLD! My parents also came to visit, which was really nice. :-)

So only one review last week:

Warm Bodies, by Isaac Marion (which I enjoyed and would really recommend!)

And an article over at Fantasy Faction:

Science vs Magic Part 1: Particles and Pixie Dust


New Books:

Osprey has a new line called Myths and Legends, which tell the story of famous legends from our history with extra facts about the time they come from, additional details about the myth, and lots of illustrations. They sent me the first two books to review. They're absolutely beautiful books, and I'm really enjoying Book One (Jason and the Argonauts) so far!

And more goodies...

Tithe

The Book of Lost Things

The Rogue

Lonely Souls

 How was your week? :-)

Warm Bodies - Book Review

'R' is a zombie. He has no name, no memories and no pulse, but he has dreams. He is a little different from his fellow Dead.

Amongst the ruins of an abandoned city, R meets a girl. Her name is Julie and she is the opposite of everything he knows - warm and bright and very much alive, she is a blast of colour in a dreary grey landscape. For reasons he can't understand, R chooses to save Julie instead of eating her, and a tense yet strangely tender relationship begins.

This has never happened before. It breaks the rules and defies logic, but R is no longer content with life in the grave. He wants to breathe again, he wants to live, and Julie wants to help him. But their grim, rotting world won't be changed without a fight... (Synopsis from Goodreads)

 ---

If you’ve seen the trailers for the film version of this without really knowing much about the book, like I had before reading it, then you’re in for a surprise. The film looks like it takes a more comedic approach, and the world looks much less dystopian (though of course, it’s hard to tell from a short trailer), which could fool people into thinking this is a lighter, fluffier book than it really is. It’s deep, sometimes disturbing, weirdly romantic even in the most bizarre circumstances, clever, full of black humour, often violent, and told in an interesting style that’s somehow both poetic and very matter of fact. And, while I do think the movie looks fun, this book is really something special: a unique and moving twist on the zombie apocalypse that I can’t recommend enough.

Make no mistake; this book is dark. The zombies eat people with gusto, post-apocalyptic human civilisation is pretty bleak, and there are plenty of people – both dead and alive – who are trying to kill each other. There’s also a particularly monstrous kind of zombie that moves more quickly than the others, scuttles up buildings, and forms a kind of skeleton zombie-cult, that I found very scary. In the story, R, the main character, is a zombie who’s changing for some mysterious reason that neither he nor the others understand. He becomes obsessed with a human girl who helps him to think about life again... but this isn’t exactly a fuzzy love story. R and Julie’s fates become entwined when R eats the brain of a boy called Perry. R literally consumes Perry’s memories, including thoughts of Perry’s girlfriend, Julie. Then, while still covered in Perry’s blood, R helps Julie to escape his ravenous zombie friends.

It doesn’t sound like the best start to a romance, but R and Julie’s odd relationship is actually surprisingly sweet. That’s because this is also a book with a lot of heart; it has deep messages about human nature, and while it does not necessarily gloss over the more disturbing elements of its subject, it is a very hopeful story. The latter is a little ironic, given that the story is so strongly based on Romeo and Juliet, even referencing the names of characters and specific scenes (such as the balcony). Where Romeo and Juliet is about tragic fate, however, Warm Bodies shows that there is life and love even in the most desperate and dangerous times.

There were some elements of the book that were perhaps a little cliché, which was disappointing given the otherwise original spin on the zombie idea. In particular, the obvious ‘military leader who is too set in his ways to accept differences of opinion and just wants to shoot stuff instead’ character irritated me slightly. I also thought Julie’s extreme importance to the other zombies later in the story was a little bizarre and unconvincing. However, using zombies as a metaphor for despair and apathy, and the boneys as a symbol of rigidity and intolerance was very interesting, and I thought a lot of the messages the book carried were cleverly conveyed.

I loved the idea that zombies such as R might be intelligent and almost poetic inside their own minds, but that when they try to speak only groans emerge. R was a fantastic point-of-view character, who told the story with wit, charm, and a dry sense of humour that made it a joy to read. The book is written in a literary style with plenty of black humour and zombie pop-culture references thrown in. This really makes it stand out from typical zombie stories, being a more thoughtful read and focusing less on the horror. The character of R is what really makes this work, and holds the whole thing together. There was one small thing that niggled about R, however; there were points where he seemed to get off a little too lightly with things he had done. Julie and her friend are very quick to forgive his zombie behaviour, and though this makes logical sense, it didn’t ring true emotionally for me.

Warm Bodies is definitely a quirky book. It’s thoughtful, surprisingly romantic, funny, and takes quite a unique approach to the zombie story. It also has a sense of dark fun to it, and includes a few scares and some gore too. R is a wonderful narrator, who pulls the book together and adds a strong sense of heart and hope to the story. The author combines all these elements effortlessly into something moving, exciting, and very different from anything I’ve read before in this genre. I really loved this one!


Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for providing a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Showcase Sunday #9

Inspired by Celine from Nyx Book Reviews, I've decided to combine several weekly wrap-up memes into one post. Showcase Sunday is hosted by Vicky at Books, Biscuits and Tea. Stacking the Shelves is hosted at Tynga's Reviews, and Sunday Post is hosted at Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer. Letterbox Love is a special British book-haul meme hosted by Lindsey at Narratively Speaking.


Giveaway!

Have you entered my Fire and Ice GIVEAWAY yet? There's still time (closes tonight)! There are two prizes, one open worldwide (as long as the book depository ships to you) and one goody package (UK only). Good luck! :-)

Click here for my Post and Giveaway

Last Week on the Blog:

Book Review - The Stars My Destination, by Alred Bester

Book Review - Fragile Things, by Neil Gaiman

Top Ten Series I'd Like To Start

New Books: 

 

1) Daughter of Smoke and Bone

(won in Tabitha's mini-challenge in the WWReadathon,

at Shelf Confessions. Squee! Thank you so much!)

2) Angelmaker

3) Magic: An Anthology of the Esoteric and Arcane

(both from the library)

 
Other Stuff:

- YA and Fantasy author Mhairi Simpson is running a Choose Your Own Adventure style story on her blog. Readers can vote on what they want to happen next. Should be a lot of fun; check out Part One of the adventure here: When Dragonflies Attack!

- Angry Robot have released the first books in their new crime imprint, Exhibit A. Angry Robot and Strange Chemistry consistently put out fantastic books, so this new line is very intriguing. The books - 'Scare Me' and 'Penance' - are up on NetGalley now, so if you like crime, go take a look!

- Laura Lam has written a post about how to support debut authors, which I found really interesting. And in the spirit of that, here are my top three debut author books that I've reviewed since starting my blog, in three very different genres:

The Red Knight, by K. T. Davies (Gritty Fantasy)
Geek Girl, by Holly Smale (YA, Contemporary)
The Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller (Literary, Historical)

I've heard amazing things about Laura's own debut book, Pantomime, but haven't had a chance to read it yet (it's high on the list!).

Fragile Things - Book Review

Neil Gaiman’s second collection of short fiction, a dazzling book of short stories from one of modern fiction's greatest and most imaginative writers. These stories will dazzle your senses, haunt your imagination and move you to the very depths of your soul. This extraordinary book reveals one of the world's most gifted storytellers at the height of his powers. (From Amazon UK. Click here for Fragile Things on Goodreads.)

---

If you’re looking for somewhere to start with short stories, or if you already love short stories and are searching for something new to read, this is a fantastic choice. It’s fair to say that Neil Gaiman is an incredibly popular author, but I’ve actually found his longer books a bit hit-and-miss for me. Some are wonderful (The Graveyard Book is a must read), while others I wasn’t so keen on. Neil Gaiman’s shorts, however, I love. I should clarify... I love his short stories, though I’m sure he has very nice summer wear. I’m betting they’re knee-length and black, featuring a pattern of whimsical dancing skeletons in top-hats. Which, oddly, is not that far off being a description of his short stories as well.

There are all kinds of stories and poems in Fragile Things, ranging in atmosphere and subject matter. Identity, love and loss, storytelling, and, as you might expect, fragility, are all themes running through the collection. There are stories and poems about magic, ghosts, monsters, aliens, vampires, curses, zombies, and fairies, to name only a few, and many of these take turns and approaches that you might not expect. Most of the stories and poems in the book can also be read on several levels; they are very rarely just about what is literally happening on the page. They are all very clever, and some demand more than one reading. For fans of American Gods, there is also a longer story featuring Shadow, the main character of that novel.

Most of the content leans towards dark fantasy or horror, though there is nothing that I found really gruesome or too frightening. Instead, many of the stories are creepy or enchanting, sometimes both, in a way that lingers long after the telling has finished. All of them have that signature Gaiman subtlety in dealing with magic; the supernatural and the fantastical are shown to exist alongside our modern world, sometimes in the most mundane places, and in several of the stories the supernatural is also used as a metaphor for aspects of the human condition. This is particularly the case with the zombie story ‘Bitter Grounds’, which was one of my favourites in the collection. If the book carries one message throughout all the stories and poems, it is of the power and importance of telling stories, how stories can affect people, and how creating them and passing them down is a large part of what makes us human.

Stories and poems that really stood out for me included ‘October in the Chair’, ‘Closing Time’, ‘Bitter Grounds’, ‘Locks’, ‘The Problem of Susan’, ‘How to Talk to Girls at Parties’ and ‘Sunbird’. ‘A Study in Emerald’ is also a great concept for a story, but I wish that it had been longer and developed further. This also goes for a few other stories, and there were one or two that I found a bit dull. But really, most of the pieces in this collection are very good, and all worth reading, and because they are so open to interpretation in different ways, I think every reader’s favourites are likely to be different.

Fragile Things is an extremely strong collection that can be enjoyed by both new readers and long-standing fans of Neil Gaiman’s work.

The Stars My Destination - Book Review

Gully Foyle, Mechanic's Mate 3rd Class.

EDUCATION: none
SKILLS: none
MERITS: none
RECOMMENDATIONS: none

That's the official verdict on Gully Foyle, unskilled space crewman.

But right now he is the only survivor on his drifting, wrecked spaceship, and when another space vessel, the Vorga, ignores his distress flares and sails by, Gully becomes obsessed with revenge. He endures 170 days alone in deep space before finding refuge on the Sargasso Asteroid and returning to Earth to track down the crew and owners of the Vorga. But, as he works out his murderous grudge, Gully Foyle also uncovers a secret of momentous proportions... (Synopsis from Amazon UK. Click here for The Stars My Destination on Goodreads.)

---

This is one of those sci-fi classics that you hear a lot about, that everyone says you should read, but that you never really get around to buying because there are so many new books coming out all the time. But thankfully my husband bought me this one for Christmas, and I’m so glad he did. This book is fantastic, packed full of ideas and such a gripping story; I can certainly understand why it’s considered a masterwork of science fiction.

At its most basic level, The Stars My Destination is a revenge story. Gully Foyle, left to die out in space, wants revenge on the ship that abandoned him to his fate. At first his revenge mission is basic and not very well thought through; he attacks the physical ship itself in its shipyard. But Gully soon learns patience and forces himself to get into a much longer game, determined to find the person responsible for the order to leave him. This not-so-simple mission of revenge pushes him to his limits, forcing him to learn and adapt, and to discover skills that seemed impossible.

I found the revenge mission itself interesting and compelling; when I thought about it, it’s actually quite a rare kind of revenge story. Most stories based on revenge involve a person trying to gain justice for what was done to another person – a wife or husband, girlfriend or boyfriend, brother or sister, mother or father (so many revenge stories are based on the death of parents) etc. It was fun to read about a victim trying to get some payback for himself, for once.

Having said that, Gully Foyle doesn’t stay a victim for long. He’s definitely an anti-hero, and he does enough things in the book to make him unlikeable, and yet, I couldn’t help wanting him to succeed. It also helped that while Gully started off a brute, he gradually began to grow a conscience and to see the bigger picture beyond his own petty quest. Though I’m sure reactions to him will vary (for some, he might have gone too far to ever be forgiven), his character arc is a very interesting and believable one. The author also does a great job of showing the collateral damage of Gully’s mission, unexpectedly reintroducing characters who had the misfortune to be brought into his circle of destruction, and showing how he has affected their lives for the worse. With sometimes surprising compassion, the collision of Gully’s story with others’ also explores how certain science fictional advances have disempowered various members of society.

Despite having a strong main character, the book isn’t simply character-driven, and it’s also about a lot more than revenge. Gully is more important than he realises, and soon there are several groups of people trying to find him, with intergalactic peace and perhaps even the fate of humanity at stake. There are so many ideas in this book, and so much happens, that it’s hard to believe it’s so short. There really isn’t any padding; the story shoots through years and space, exploring a number of different societies and people. It also explores how one development in human evolution – the ability to teleport large distances with the power of the mind (called ‘jaunting’) – has had incredible ramifications, and how this has affected all levels of society. The author really thinks this through, and the universe he has created is fascinating.

You also have to give it to the author for managing to begin the story with an entire chapter of infodump that is completely absorbing. This is pretty much Rule No.1 on the List of Writing Don’ts, and yet here it really works. This is probably due to the entertaining and conversational way that the information is given, avoiding the feeling of simply being presented with a history textbook.

This book was surprising and unexpected in many ways – in the depth of the worldbuilding and the author’s observations on human behaviour and society, in the compelling anti-hero main character, in his simple yet exciting mission, and in the sheer amount of ideas and events in this short, fast-paced book. I didn’t always agree with the messages that I think the author was trying to get across, but I did find it an entertaining and thought-provoking read. This certainly deserves to be considered a science fiction masterwork, and has convinced me that I need to pick up more of sci-fi and fantasy’s older classics.

Top Ten Series I'd Like to Start

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, with a different topic set each week. This week the top ten topic is:

Top Ten Series I'd Like to Start

I have so many! Narrowing this down to ten is hard, but here we go. A lot of these I have sitting waiting on my shelf, like rows of sweets calling me to come eat them...

The titles link to Goodreads so if there are any you haven't heard of you can see what they're all about!

1) The Skyscraper Throne series by Tom Pollock. Book One - The City's Son.

2) Daughter of Smoke and Bone series by Laini Taylor. Book One - Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

3) Gentleman Bastard series by Scott Lynch. Book One - The Lies of Locke Lamora.

4) Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas. Book One - Throne of Glass.

5) Seraphina series by Rachel Hartman. Book One - Seraphina.

6) Pantomime series? (I'm not actually sure what the series title is) by Laura Lam. Book One - Pantomime.

7) The Inheritance Trilogy by N K Jemisin. Book One - The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.

8) Graceling Realm series by Kristin Cashore. Book One - Graceling.

9) Tales of the Kin series by Douglas Hulick. Book One - Among Thieves.

10) Glamourist Histories by Mary Robinette Kowal. Book One - Shades of Milk and Honey.


I'm almost afraid to go look at everyone else's lists... I have a feeling my To Be Read pile is about to erupt out of control! :-)

Showcase Sunday #8

Inspired by Celine from Nyx Book Reviews, I've decided to combine several weekly wrap-up memes into one post. Showcase Sunday is hosted by Vicky at Books, Biscuits and Tea. Stacking the Shelves is hosted at Tynga's Reviews, and Sunday Post is hosted at Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer. Letterbox Love is a special British book-haul meme hosted by Lindsey at Narratively Speaking.


Last Week on the Blog:

Book Review - Bitten, by Kelley Armstrong

Book Series Review - The Night's Dawn, by Peter F Hamilton

Romances that Melt the Ice, and Giveaway!

Top Ten Auto Buy Authors

Review Copy Clean Up - Wrap Up Post


New Books:

Thanks to Harlequin, NetGalley, and Anachron Press for review copies, and to Project Gutenberg for the free book (Carnacki)!

The Eternity Cure
Carnacki the Ghost Finder
Urban Occult


Other Stuff:

Emma Newman, author of Between Two Thorns, has written a short story set in the Split Worlds using one of my prompts! You can read it here.

Why not visit her blog and suggest a prompt of your own? If she likes it, she may use it in a story!

 

Review Copy Clean Up - Wrap Up

The Review Copy Clean Up, run by Vicky at Books, Biscuits and Tea, and Celine at Nyx Book Reviews, is now finished, and I succeeded in my goal to read four review books (I read five). Yay!

Here's what I read:

Here are my updates from the month.

How did you do? :-)

Fire and Ice – Romances That Melt The Ice, and GIVEAWAY

The Fiery Hot Reads for Icy Cold Nights blog tour is an event organised by Rainy Day Ramblings, Cambria Hebert, Love of Books, Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer, and Mostly Reviews. It’s been running from Jan 28th and today is the LAST DAY!

This is a post all about those romances that start with icy hate or enmity, or differences that are seemingly too big to overcome, but turn to love so strong it melts the ice. These aren’t the slow friendship-turned-to-love romances (though I do love those)... this is a post for the you-drive-me-crazy ones, the I-was-so-wrong-about-you ones, or the I-know-shouldn’t-but-I-could-never-stop-loving-you ones.

Now, there are a lot of really great hate turned to love classics, and I could easily have filled the list with them, but I wanted to mix it up with a bit of variety... with some well-known books, some old, some new, and some that many will never have heard of. Hopefully there will be something that everyone recognises on the list, as well as something completely new. Naturally, there may be a few minor spoilers for the books listed here (such as who ends up with who!), but hopefully nothing too big.

Oh, and check out the giveaway at the end of the post too!

This is really the definitive book for the hate turned to love romance. Lizzie can’t stand Mr. Darcy at first, and he certainly thinks himself above her. Their conversations are definitely icy. At first, Mr. Darcy falls in love despite his better judgement, despite her low station compared to his. Lizzie points out that this isn’t enough, that his attitude could never inspire love in return. But Mr. Darcy doesn’t give up; he listens to everything she says and realises the truth behind it. He changes, but he also reveals more about himself to Lizzie, and slowly she begins to see that she judged him too quickly. Both of them are forced to change their minds, and both to see the other in a new light as their love begins to melt away the ice.

If Pride and Prejudice is the definitive hate turned to love romance, then Romeo and Juliet is definitely the definitive love defies all obstacles romance. It’s one of the most famous of all love stories and has been re-imagined in so many different ways, from West Side Story to Underworld. Romeo and Juliet are from rival families and their love is doomed from the start, but that doesn’t stop it from burning fiercely, defying everything thrown at it before its tragic end.

Anne really doesn’t like Gilbert; at school he makes fun of her hair colour and she smashes her writing slate over his head. But there’s something there, a spark between them that turns first into friendship, then into a deep love that weathers every storm.

I actually haven’t finished this series yet, but it strikes me as a beautiful example of the I-shouldn’t-love-you-but-I-can’t-fight-it kind of romance. Ash is a prince of the Winter Court, and Meghan is the daughter of the Summer King; they are age-old enemies and Ash has been tasked with capturing Meghan. He didn’t realise he would fall in love with her...

Sophie doesn’t trust Howl. She thinks he’s an evil wizard who literally eats young women’s hearts. Then she meets him and finds out that he’s just a self-absorbed jerk with an eye for the ladies and an obsession with his hair-care. Which is almost as bad. It takes Sophie a long time to see that she's fallen completely for Howl, and it takes even longer for him to admit his own feelings for the bossy woman who cuts up his shirts. Sophie and Howl drive each other crazy, but their love is strong enough to battle anything.

Whether you’re a fan or not, this is a great example of a romance that works despite seemingly insurmountable differences. Not only is Wanderer a different species that looks more like a little insect thing than a person, she’s part of the invading race who are literally obliterating humanity. She’s also inhabiting a human body that belongs to Melanie, who’s in love with a different guy. Oops. But Ian and Wanderer’s love conquers the enmity and suspicion, and as revealed in the quote above, Ian loves her for who she is, no matter what she is.

This was a really recent read for me and i loved it! Elena and Clay are constantly at each other, whether it’s arguing, throwing around insults, scrapping as werewolves, or having passionate sex. Elena cannot forgive Clay for something he did to her in the past, and she tells herself over and over that she hates him. It’s soon obvious that Elena’s hate is wound up with a deep love that will never burn out. And Clay is determined to do everything he can to win her over. This romance had an added bonus for me – I wasn’t rooting for it at first, but then it won me round too. Their love can even melt the reader’s ice!

 ---

And now for the...

GIVEAWAYS!

I'm giving away your choice of one of the books mentioned (or any other book that you think might have a 'romance that melts the ice' in it - your choice) up to the price of £8 (UK pound). Open worldwide as long as the Book Depository ships free to your country.

Aaaaand... for a second winner I'm giving away a little goody package of romance-themed stuff. Sadly, postage costs mean I can only open this one to the UK.

No following necessary, though always appreciated and rewarded with imaginary cupcakes. ;-)

Congrats to winners Samantha Stewart and Angela C! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hope you enjoyed the post, and be sure to stop by Mostly Reviews for Veronica's post too!

(Thanks to ArsGrafik, Gangstarr71, and Shiranui for photoshop brushes used)