Mogsy’s Bookshelf Roundup: New Books & Books I’ve Read
Bookshelf Roundup is a feature I do every two weeks where I talk about the new books I’ve added to my library or received for review, what I plan to read soon, and what I’ve finished reading in the last fortnight.
Received for Review
Please excuse my paltry attempts at artistry; as you can probably tell, I was messing around with the #bookstagram tag on Instagram last week. If you have an account, feel free to look me up (I’m on there sporadically, but I do use it).
Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey – Hardcover, with thanks to Orbit. Most sci-fi series have lost me by this point, but The Expanse is still going strong at book 5. Who’s excited for the SyFy TV series? I am, I am!
Court of Fives by Kate Elliott – Print ARC, with thanks to Little Brown Books for Young Readers. I was invited to read this book by the publisher, and I’m really glad they got in touch because Kate Elliott is awesome and I’m curious about her YA.
Twelve Kings in Sharakhai by Bradley P. Beaulieu – Print ARC, with thanks to the author who contacted The BiblioSanctum to see if I would be interested in reviewing his upcoming book. My answer was ABSOLUTELY! A couple years ago I backed Bradley P. Beaulieu’s The Flames of Shadam Khoreh on Kickstarter, which was the third book of his Lays of Anuskaya so I have all three of those books on my shelf too.
The Gods of Laki by Chris Angus – Paperback, with thanks to Yucca Publishing. This one showed up in the mail from Yucca’s parent publisher Skyhorse – looks like an interesting fantasy adventure-thriller.
Earth Flight by Janet Edwards – Print ARC, with thanks to Pyr. So happy to see this book coming to the US! I loved the first two Earth Girl books.
The Veil by Chloe Neill – Print ARC, with thanks to NAL . I’ve never read any of Chloe Neill’s books before, so the upcoming book of her new series seems like it’ll be a good place to start. Really looking forward to it.
The Good, The Bad and The Smug by Tom Holt – Digital ARC, with thanks to Orbit. I’ve been curious about this comic fantasy. And now that we also know Tom Holt is K.J. Parker, if I haven’t read Parker before, once I read this will it count? Hmm.)
The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi – Audiobook with thanks to Audible Studios. I’ve been meaning to read something by Paolo Bacigalupi for ages, so when an opportunity to review the audio of his new book came up, I enthusiastically seized it.
The Undying Legion by Clay Griffith and Susan Griffith – Digital ARC, with thanks to Del Rey via NetGalley. I liked The Shadow Revolution I just had to request the sequel. In case you missed it, The BiblioSanctum also had a Q&A with the authors earlier this week about this series.
Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell – Digital ARC, with thanks to Clarion Books via NetGalley. I know what you’re thinking – the description makes it sound a lot like Cinder. But apart from it being another book about a mechanical Cinderella, I don’t think there are that many similarities. It’s unfortunate that a lot of comparisons are probably going to be made, but I want to give it a fair shot.
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff – Digital ARC, with thanks to Random House Children’s Books. I’ve never read anything by Amie Kaufman but I have read Jay Kristoff. I think his Lotus War trilogy is excellent, so I have some high expectations to see what they can do together.
Kindle Unlimited
I did something silly a couple weeks ago. By that, I mean I signed up for a free trial of Kindle Unlimited, as if I needed more books on my plate. It didn’t cost anything though, and they have a lot of great stuff in their list of eligible titles that makes it worth it. Even if I don’t decide to keep the KU sub, I was able to get a bunch of sweet Whispersync audiobook deals out of it:
Of the audiobooks I grabbed, End of Days by Susan Ee and The Mermaid’s Sister by Carrie Anne Noble were among my most-wanted. Pines by Blake Crouch was one that intrigued me too, anyone watching the TV show?
Books I’ve Read Since the Last Update
Keep an eye out for my reviews of these books in the coming weeks, and you can see my reviews for these books which are up already: The Fold (5 of 5 stars), Artemis Awakening (2.5 of 5 stars), The Liar’s Key (5 of 5 stars).
Have you heard of or read any of the books featured in this week? What looks interesting to you?
The BiblioSanctum 
So many good books 😀
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“Nemesis Games” is out???? I must have lost track of time, because I thought it would be another month! Oh, thank you, THANK YOU for reminding me!
Agreed, this is a great series and to say I’m looking forward to the tv show would be a *massive* understatement 🙂
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Yes it’s out! Run out and get it! I’ve started it and so far it’s going great. For our sake, let’s hope the show is going to be AWESOME 🙂
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One of these days I’ll have to give The Expanse another shot. I’ve abandoned the first book twice now, but am not ready to consign it to DNF hell. I nabbed an e-ARC of Twelve Kings in Sharakhai, but there should be a shiny print copy on the way soon.
I’ll be curious to see what you think of Pines. It’s a great trilogy, but takes a major left left in terms of theme and storyline after the first book. So far the series has been pretty faithful, but they’re going pretty quickly, so I suspect we’ll see the big twist somewhere mid-season.
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I’ve been meaning to read the Pines trilogy, because I’ve heard such good things and anytime a self-pub/small pub/indy like this shoots to the top of the charts from positive word-of-mouth, I take notice. I’m going to have to On-Demand the episodes I’ve missed.
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OOh nice! Curious about Court of Fives! And ooh The Veil! That one was good! Just read that this week! Hope you enjoy all the reads!
My STS will be up tomorrow, so be sure to stop by then!
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
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Thanks, I’ll probably read both Court of Fives and The Veil closer to their release dates, but I’m looking forward to them!
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Still waiting to hopefully be approved for The Veil, it sounds really good. I have Illuminae as well, and I’m super excited to read it. It seems quite different from Jay’s Lotus War books. Awesome haul, Mogsy!
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Yeah, I’m glad that it’ll be different from Lotus War, it’s always good to experience something fresh. I still hope that we’ll see some of his great writing style in this collab!
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I saw the hardcover arc for Illuminae on SFF180’s Youtube video; It looked extremely interesting in the way they were visually telling the story. I’m going to be very interested to see what people have to say about it
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Yeah, the cover of Illuminae didn’t grab me when I saw it – but I saw that video too and it was fascinating. Looking at it now, it’s still not doing much for me, but knowing the story makes me appreciate it a bit more.
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I have been meaning to start the The Expanse series so good to know it’s staying strong. There are not many series that can keep it up and even fewer that keep getting better.
I’ll be interested to hear if you keep your KU membership and think it’s worthwhile. I sometimes contemplate it because I sometimes want a particular book RIGHT NOW but not ready to pay for it and that would be another place to look.
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I’m finding that the audiobook deals (some are available to listen to for free via KU, or sometimes you can choose to buy them to keep at a steep discount) are making it extremely worth it, at least I can see it being so for the first couple of months while I scout out all that I want to read/listen to. We’ll just have to see if more good stuff keeps getting added as the program continues, I think in the end that will determine if its worth keeping.
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Hearing good things about The Water Knife. Quite a lineup.
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I really enjoyed it. Audiobook was a great listen.
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LOVE your book pictures – I just went and followed you on Instagram so I can see them all 😀 You seriously got some awesome goodies this week: Court of Fives, The Water Knife, Illuminae, Mechanica, End of Days…Wow ♥ Happy reading and have a great week^^ x
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Yay, thanks, I followed you back! I’m probably not as active as I can be on there and I don’t always post books, but I try to share interesting pics whenever I come across cool stuff 🙂
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So many great picks here – I’m especially eager to hear your thoughts on Court of Fives and The Veil. I ADORA Kate Elliott and I’ve really liked some of Chloe Neill’s books in the past, so I’m hoping both titles will be winners. Illuminae makes me so wary…I was probably one of the only people who didn’t like These Broken Stars (co-written by Kauffman) and I liked Stormdancer but thought it suffered from over-writing. Hopefully you enjoy it!
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I’m with you on Stormdancer! Though some of the over-writing issues are improved in books two and three. I liked the trilogy over all. Never read These Broken Stars, but I’ve seen mediocre to okay ratings for it so I’m sure you’re not the only one who wasn’t blown away 🙂 I personally have no desire to read that, but Illuminae sounds more up my alley 😀
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You know I’m definitely curious about seeing what you thought of The Water Knife. I’ve been trying to be good and not preview it before it goes live. Oh, temptation.
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Go ahead and peek! I admit to have snuck in looks at post previews in the past, it’s a co-blogger perk 😛
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Kate Elliot is another fantasy writer whose work I’ve been meaning to read. I’ll look forward to reading your thoughts on Court of Fives. In the meantime, which of her adult fantasy stories would you recommend?
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I confess, I’ve actually only read one Kate Elliott book and it was the first of her Spiritwalker series, Cold Magic. It was pretty good, though many people tell me I should have started with her Crossroads series, as that is her best work. Hope that helps 🙂
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And now I realize that I completely forgot to respond to an email about one of the books you mentioned. Oh damn…
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