Reviews :: Book Rating :: Books We Love :: Page 26
Partials
I don’t often read YA, but when I do, I read Dan Wells. His writing is just so accessible to younger and older readers alike. So when he approached me a year ago about reading a draft of his newest novel, a dystopian SF titled PARTIALS (Amazon), I jumped at the chance.
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Shadow’s Master
SHADOW’S MASTER (Amazon) is Jon Sprunk‘s concluding volume (maybe) to his assassin-themed series published by Pyr. It’s a series of books that I quite enjoy due to its fast-paced nature, fun characters and extreme quantities of action. The first novel, SHADOW’S SON (EBR Review), was a great debut novel that lacked some polish while tempting readers with its potential. SHADOW’S LURE (EBR Review) was about as good of a sequel as I could ask for. It improved on nearly all my problems from the first novel.
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Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon
In my experience, history is a dry and rather boring subject that has made me more prone to “study by osmosis” than other, obviously more effective, methods of gray-matter absorption. There has been but one exception to that rule in my short lifetime, and that exception was my high school AP history teacher. History was not just another subject for her. History was LIFE. It had substance, it had breath; it had body and it had soul. Her passion for the stories of history and the people that populated those tales made me open my eyes and want to learn–not just to get a good grade in the class, or to see what I might glean from mistakes of the past, but to feel and know what it was like to be a part of that past. She made me love History, and no one else has ever had that same effect.
Until now.
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The Language of Dying
Horror writers often get a bad stigma attached to them. It seems like no matter who you are (with a few notable exceptions), once you are a “Horror author” you are looked at as not being a good writer. I’ll admit that I was one of those super judgmental folks before I began this blog. I’ve since learned that genre has nothing to do with writing quality.
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Red Claw
Wow! Is it just me or has Orbit quietly become one of the better SF&F publishers out there? It seems that just a few years ago I was joking about them, yet here we are now, and they have Daniel Abraham publishing some excellent books (THE DRAGON’S PATH and LEVIATHAN WAKES). Jeff Somers has been writing some addictive and fun SF with his Avery Cates novels. Mira Grant and N.K. Jemisin both were nominated for Hugo’s last year for best novel. And now I’ve discovered Philip Palmer.
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Shadow’s Lure
There is just something about assassin novels that I love. A while back when I read Jon Sprunk‘s SHADOW’S SON (EBR Review), I was immediately struck by how smooth the novel was, and how fun the main character was. Sprunk’s first novel wasn’t perfect, but it was loaded with promise.
As you all know by now, when it comes to judging new authors I use a slightly different measuring stick. With the first book I want to be pleasantly surprised. The second book is all about improvement. I’m happy to report (and very relieved, because Sprunk is a ridiculously nice guy with an even nicer wife) that Sprunk’s second novel SHADOW’S LURE (Amazon) is better in nearly every way when compared to his first novel.
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The Daemon Prism
I’ve been looking forward to reading THE DAEMON PRISM (Amazon) since reading THE SOUL MIRROR (EBR Review) in May. I had no clue what to expect, or where Carol Berg was going with the story. After the stunning climax in MIRROR, what else could happen? As it turns out, there’s an even bigger plot we haven’t discovered yet.
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The Folded World
I feel kind of like a broken record here. Once again we have another book by the amazing Catherynne M. Valente is out. Once again the book is wonderful. Once again the prose is beyond the capacity for mere mortals to absorb without crying. Once again I am left enraptured at the end of her tales wanting more. How many times can I say that Valente is writing flat out brilliant stuff and you guys should go out (and I mean the DAY a book of hers is released) and buy it? You need me to say it once more? Very well. If you insist. Buy it! Buy it now!
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Ready Player One
READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline (Amazon) is a book I’d come across in various online blogs and forums. Going into it, I knew it was some sort of love letter to 80s pop culture. Since I’m sort of an 80s pop culture nut myself, I figured I’d give it a go.
What I got was so much more.
There are few books these days that can make me stay up late, read during breakfast, and keep reading during my lunch breaks (or skip my lunch breaks altogether). This is one such book. I finished it in under a day. Once I started reading, I just had to know what happened next.
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Cry of the Newborn
James Barclay. You know the name. You know that his Raven novels made him one of my favorite authors. If you live in the US, finally getting his novels has been a welcome breath of fresh air. That’s all great and dandy, but there is something we in the US are missing that our UK buddies still have exclusive.
The Ascendants of Estorea.
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