Posts from 2014 :: Page 5
The Beautiful Land
Tak does not lead a normal life. As a sort of Asian-American version of Man vs Wild he’s spent his life adventuring all over the world. At the opening of THE BEAUTIFUL LAND (Amazon) we discover that life isn’t going the way he planned. In the middle of a suicide attempt, Tak gets a fateful call that will give him a new purpose in life.
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Half A King
HALF A KING (Amazon) by Joe Abercrombie is one of the most hyped novels of the year. Check out some of the author blurbs and you’ll see what I mean. Patrick Rothfuss, Rick Riordan, Robin Hobb, and Brent Weeks are among the fantasy heavyweights heaping praise on the novel. When Abercrombie first announced HALF A KING I was anxious. He’s my second favorite author and my very reason for returning to the fantasy genre, but I couldn’t see how well his brutal wit and grim perspective would translate to a YA novel. You’ll no doubt notice that this review has been filed under “Books We Love,” but it didn’t start out that way.
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The River of Souls
I’ve been waiting for this book for two years. You see, once you read a novel by Robert McCammon, you want the next one. Then the next. And the next. McCammon’s writing has an intoxicating nature about it, and since the day I first read his work, I’ve wanted to read every single word he writes. Thankfully, Subterranean Press was kind enough to send me a review copy of McCammon’s THE RIVER OF SOULS (Amazon).
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The Executioner’s Heart
THE EXECUTIONER’S HEART (Amazon) is the fourth Newbury and Hobbes novel, and it takes place several months after the crazy events of the prior novel, THE IMMORALITY ENGINE (EBR Review). Veronica Hobbes’ sister has been rescued, and now Sir Maurice Newbury is desperately trying to figure out the key to her prophetic visions, and why the Queen of England is after her.
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Bloodstone
In FIREBRAND (EBR Review) we met the Sithe brothers Seth and Conal. They were exiled beyond the Veil to the world where full-mortals live, as part of a promise to their queen that they would find the bloodstone. By the time BLOODSTONE (Amazon) begins, four hundred years have passed, and Leonna, Conal’s mother, is coming to the conclusion that they will never find what they’re looking for, that it doesn’t exist.
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Fiery Edge of Steel
Noon Onyx is a waning magic user–the same magic used to control the demons who won Armageddon. Her magic is not what’s extraordinary, it’s that she’s a woman with an ability that manifests only in men. In the series’ first book, DARK LIGHT OF DAY (Amazon), Noon had to come to grips with her ability and be trained so she wouldn’t be a danger to herself and others.
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Slow Apocalypse
Sometimes it’s way too easy to make a call on a book. There are some indicators that, when they come up, scream, “Run away!” One of the classics is when you get to the end of the first chapter and the last sentence is something with a flavor similar to: It all started less than 24 hours ago… Oh, yeah. Those? They’re doooozies.
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Hunted
Atticus and Granuille are in trouble. Of course. But the stakes are higher than usual. The Norse god of mischief, Loki, is on the loose and needs to kill Atticus before he can start the Apocalypse. At the same time our favorite Druids are being tracked by the goddesses of the hunt themselves–Artemis and Diana–in retaliation for giving Dionysus grief in TRAPPED (Amazon). The only safe place for them is in the world of the Tuatha De Danann, but the only way they can get there is to find a gateway on English soil, and they must run fast across Europe if they want to live.
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Darkness Unmasked
It’s Risa Jones’ fault that the first key to the portal of hell was found and used, and why dark energies are beginning to leach into the world. OK, maybe it’s not all her fault, but she’s convinced that none of it would have happened without her interference. Or her existence.
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The Tropic of Serpents
You were first introduced to Isabella Camherst in A NATURAL HISTORY OF DRAGONS (EBR Review) in what Steve called a fantasy version of Downton Abby… kinda. I would also like to point lovers of Novik’s Temeraire series, and even those who enjoy Elizabeth Peter’s Amelia Peabody series, to this exciting new world Marie Brennan has created.
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