Mogsy’s Bookshelf Roundup: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads
Bookshelf Roundup is a feature I do every other weekend which fills the role of several blog memes, like Stacking the Shelves where I talk about the new books I’ve added to my library or received for review, as well as It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? where I round up what I’ve read since the last update and what I’m planning to read soon. Mostly it also serves as a recap post, so sometimes I’ll throw in stuff like reading challenge progress reports, book lists, and other random bookish thoughts or announcements.
Received for Review
My thanks to the publishers and authors for the following review copies received, and be sure to click the links to their Goodreads pages for more details and full descriptions!
The new year’s ARCs are starting to come in. Most of these were complete surprises, and with thanks for Orbit for this awesome haul: A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher is a journey of survival through a post-apocalyptic landscape, following a beloved family dog that is stolen and her owner who will do anything to get her back. I’m also looking forward to checking out Soulkeeper by David Dalglish, the opener of a new fantasy trilogy about a warrior priest who must answer the call to protect his world from monsters. Up next, The Rosewater Insurrection by Tade Thompson is the sequel to Rosewater, which was one of the strangest books I read this year, but I nonetheless enjoyed it very much. Speaking of sequels, Shadow Captain by Alastair Reynolds is the follow-up to Revenger, a book I had some really mixed feelings about, so I’m still deciding whether or not to continue the series, and The Unbound Empire by Melissa Caruso is the finale volume of the Swords and Fire trilogy, but this one I know I’ll definitely be reading!
Also thanks to the kind folks at Saga Press for sending along an ARC of Vultures by Chuck Wendig, the sixth and final installment of the Miriam Black series. I look forward to this ending with bittersweet excitement.
With thanks to Harper Voyager, I also received an ARC of The Lost Puzzler by Eyal Kless, a dystopian sci-fi mystery about a society trying to unlock the secrets of the past. I hope to get to this one over the holidays, because the more I hear about it, the more curious I get.
From the amazing team at Tachyon Publications comes this ARC of The Unicorn Anthology edited by Peter S. Beagle and Jacob Weisman, a collection containing sixteen magical and powerful tales about unicorns from an incredible line-up of authors including Garth Nix, Patricia A. McKillip, Carrie Vaughn and more.
My thanks also to Ace/Roc/DAW for ARCs of Titanshade by Dan Stout, a noir fantasy thriller which, judging by the cover and description, promises a lot of fun; as well as Wild Country by Anne Bishop which is the follow-up to Lake Silence, the book that began a new chapter in the author’s world of The Others earlier this year.
Also thank you to Tor Books for the following finished copies: Blood of Ten Kings by Edward Lazellari is the concluding volume of the Guardians of Aandor trilogy, and I just realized I’ve only read the first book so it looks like I’ll have a bit of catching up to do before I can dive into this one; and King of the Road by R.S. Belcher is the sequel to Brotherhood of the Wheel, continuing this amazing series a secret society of guardians who protect travelers from all kinds of supernatural threats that seek their prey along the US Interstate highway system. I’m currently reading this now and I’m loving the hell out of it – be sure to keep an eye out for my review and a very special giveaway, coming soon!
And can you all feel the holiday cheer in the air? I got a few extra goodies in the mail this month, with a huge thanks to Harper Voyager for sending along a festive holiday package containing The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty as well as an ARC of its sequel, The Kingdom of Copper. Included with the books were also a couple of yummy looking Arabic sweets, which I’m looking forward to eat! Also a shout-out and a big thank you to Peter Tieryas, who sent me a Mecha Samurai Empire holiday card, which is so unbelievably cool!
My digital haul is lighter this week, with thanks to Tor.com for kicking us off with Miranda in Milan by Katharine Duckett, described as a haunting story that re-imagines the consequences of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Also thanks to Serial Box for providing me with an advance reading copy of The Vela by Yoon Ha Lee, Becky Chambers, Rivers Solomon, and SL Huang. Described as a space opera combining adventurous action with political intrigue, this serial has been compared to sci-fi franchises like The Expanse and Battlestar Galactica, but all I had to do was take one look at the writing team involved and I was sold. And finally, I was thrilled to snag an advance listening copy of The Wicked King by Holly Black earlier this week, and this one is already queued up to be my next audio listen. With thanks to Hachette Audio for the opportunity.
Reviews
A summary of reviews posted since the last update:
Soulbinder by Sebastien de Castell (4.5 of 5 stars)
The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman (4 of 5 stars)
Little White Lies by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (4 of 5 stars)
Abandoned by W. Michael Gear (4 of 5 stars)
The Mansion by Ezekiel Boone (3.5 of 5 stars)
Mass Effect: Annihilation by Catherynne M. Valente (3.5 of 5 stars)
The Darkest Star by Jennifer L. Armentrout (2 of 5 stars)
Roundup Highlights:
Interviews & Guest Posts
Here’s to the authors who stopped by The BiblioSanctum this week!
Guest Post: “Why Write About Ghosts?” by Ben Galley
What I’ve Read Since the Last Update
Here’s what I’ve managed to “unstack” from the TBR since the last update. More reviews coming soon!
Have you heard of or read any of the books featured this week? What caught your eye? Any new discoveries? I hope you found something interesting for a future read! Let me know what you plan on checking out. Until next time, see you next Roundup!
The BiblioSanctum 
The cover of shadow Captain caught my eye, but your hesitance and the fact that I didn’t hear much about Revenger has me unsure. Guess I’ll wait to see what reviews are like. A Boy and His Dog sounds promising. The Unicorn anthology has me interested too!
I do want to take the plunge into the The cruel Prince soon too and The Wicked King is pushing me in that direction!
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The reviews for Revenger were very mixed. It was my first Alastair Reynolds book, and now I wish I had chosen another one to tackle instead because apparently Revenger is not really indicative of his usual work!
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Ooooh I want Wild Country!!! and I loved the Chakraborty series! Happy reading!
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I can’t wait to start Wild Country either, and I’m so excited about the next book in the Chakraborty series!
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Shadow Captain is an automatic “no” for me. Revenger I just couldn’t enjoy and I want to enjoy Reynolds.
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I didn’t like Revenger either. I wish I had chosen another book as my first Reynolds.
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I am just thankful that “Beyond the Aquila Rift” was my first book by him. If Revenger had been the first, I probably wouldn’t have read another thing by him. But considering “Beyond” was so good, it has led me to the Revelation Space books, which are pretty enjoyable.
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The Mansion might end up on my list but I haven’t decided yet! I still want to find a copy of The Hatching without spiders all over the cover!
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The Hatching trilogy’s okay, but The Mansion might be better since it’s a quick read if you want to try the author! 😀
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Whoa!! That’s a lot of good stuff! Lots of new to me stuff too!! I cannot wait to read The Wicked King next month! It’s one of the few things I am looking forward to in the new year! So far I’ve got nothing else going on besides books! Lol!
Hope you enjoy all your new reads!
My STS will be up tomorrow, so stop by then if you can!
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
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Yeah, I’m hoping to listen to The Wicked King next. Plenty of time to read over the next week, I’m excited!
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I just saw Titan Shade somewhere and immediately added it to Goodreads, it sounds like my kind of book. And I just started King of the Road, and boy does Belcher know how to write an opening scene!
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I just finished King of the Road and yep, loved it! 5 star read! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
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I’m lucking enough to have a copy of A Boy and his Dog…
The Lost Puzzler looks interesting. I might look into getting a copy.
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The more I hear about A Boy and His Dog, the more curious I get! I think I’m going to have fun with that one, and The Lost Puzzler!
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The conclusion to Melissa Caruso’s trilogy is something I’m more than looking forward to: there was so much at stake at the end of book 2 that I can’t wait to see how she wraps it all up… 🙂
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Oh I agree, after The Defiant Heir, I’m even more excited about the direction of this series! I can’t wait to dive into The Unbound Empire!
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OMG I am so jealous that you’ve got an ARC of the Wicked King!!!
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Yeah, I managed to score an advanced listening copy of the audiobook, but since I listened to the first one in audio, guess that worked out perfectly 🙂
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So many great books in that haul! Kingdom of Copper!!! I’ve already heard good things about that one. I’ve been thinking about reading Rosewater because it looked interesting. It feels like that one just came out, can’t believe the sequel is on its way already. Hope you enjoy these!
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Rosewater was wild! Not your typical alien contact story at all. I thought it would be too weird for my tastes, but I ended up doing okay with it. I believe it was actually a re-release by Orbit (originally pubbed a couple years ago by Apex…I think), so that’s why the sequel is following on its heels so soon!
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Ah, that makes sense! Too weird has me intrigued, finding my tastes running toward weird these days! Lol
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Sweets with a book? 😀 My oh my! If there was a loot box like that, I’d definitely subscribe to it. Two of my favourite things 😉
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Oh yes, I love me some sweets with my book haul, haha! Can’t complain about some pastries and sugar 😀
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MAAAAAN, Orbit really hooked you up with some great ARCs!!
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I hope you enjoy all of them.
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Wild Country! So jelly
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Nice haul! Seeing the Melissa Caruso book reminds me that I got The Tethered Mage as a Christmas gift this week. 🙂 So I’ll finally be able to join in on that series next year!
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What another great haul. The Wicked King jumps out at me immediately. I can’t wait to read it.
Lynn 😀
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