Sunday Musings: Challenges
Posted on November 9, 2014 5 Comments
November is well under way, and it seems that I am not so well under way with the challenges I’ve set out for myself this year. I’ve read only 108 of the 150 books and comics I intended to read for my Goodreads challenge. I have written all of 2281 words for NaNoWriMo. And my Worlds Without End checker board still has a lot of incompletes.
With only two months left before the end of the year, I don’t think I’m going to make it. I’m not giving up though. I’ll do what I can when I can with what I can. And I’m not disappointed in the results, either. For one thing, a lot of my time has gone into a great new job, as well as several writing projects. One particular project has been ongoing for over a year now, but will finally be coming to fruition within the next few months. Very exciting… but I can’t tell you what it is just yet….
Lootz: Mogsy’s Book Haul
Posted on November 8, 2014 15 Comments
Welcome to this biweekly feature where I showcase all the books I bought/won/received for review in the past fortnight. First, the physical pile:
Radiant – I’ve heard great things about this book. My thanks to Talos Press/Skyhorse Publishing for sending this one along, I’m reading this now and pretty excited to be able to feature it for sci-fi month.
Touch – A surprise arrival from Orbit, I knew nothing about this book when I got it other than the fact the author Claire North is also the author of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August released earlier this year. Looks interesting!
The City Stained Red – Courtesy of Orbit, I was also really excited to receive an ARC of this book. The print edition isn’t coming out until early next year but of course you can get the ebook now, which I also did for $1.99 (hope it’s still that price at the moment!) which is an awesome deal, obviously!
Your Servants and Your People – From Jo Fletcher Book, I received this sequel to last year’s Your Brother’s Blood by David Towsey. Yay for zombie westerns! I really enjoyed the first book, so I’m really looking forward to continuing with The Walkin’ Trilogy. My thanks to the publisher.
Willful Child – Courtesy of Tor, you might have already seen my review of this one earlier in the week. I loved this hilarious Star Trek spoof that also pokes fun at a bunch of sci-fi and pop culture tropes.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories – I won this classic as part of a Halloween themed giveaway hosted by Beauty in Ruins!
Tainted Blood – As you know, I adore the Generation V series and had a blast with this book. I’ve got my finished copy now! My internet handle is also immortalized within its pages. Even-tempered and bred to herd/kill lions, that’s how M.L. Brennan thinks of me, RAWRRR!
And now the digital pile. I broke 90% on my NetGalley stats last week, so of course I did the reckless thing and went on a requesting spree.
The Eterna Files – From NetGalley. This had been on my watch list, so I didn’t hesitate to request.
Unbreakable – Maybe I’ve just got sci-fi on the brain now, but the more I learned about this book, the better it looked! Also from NetGalley.
Horrorstor – NetGalley again, and Quirk Books auto-approved me! I’ve heard such great things about this book. I missed my chance before release, so when I saw this up I jumped on it right away.
Tarkin – From NetGalley earlier last week when I got my stats up and felt confident enough to request again. I want to make a stronger effort to keep up with Star Wars novels now, and I really enjoyed Luceno’s last Star Wars “villain” book Darth Plagueis so I have high hopes for this.
The Garden of Stones – Kindle deal! Several bloggers I know have had great things to say about this series, so I couldn’t resist. Also will pick up the audiobook via Whispersync.
Thorn Jack – Harper Collins had (or still has?) a pretty good ebook sale going on, and I decided to pick up this Young Adult novel in the re-imagining genre which I’ve had my eye on for a while.
#RRSciFiMonth: In the Beginning, There Was H.G. Wells
Posted on November 7, 2014 18 Comments
Sci-Fi November is a month-long blog event hosted by Oh The Books and Rinn Reads this year, created to celebrate everything amazing about science fiction! From TV shows to movies, books to comics, and everything else in between, it is intended to help science fiction lovers share their love and passion for this genre and its many, many fandoms.
I’m making a point of reading the classics, and when it comes to science fiction, where better to start than with them an considered to be the father of the genre, H.G. Wells?
Published in 1895, The Time Machine is Wells’ first book, which I read in 2012. It was a difficult read for me initially, because of all the scientific and mathematical chatter in the first chapter. But I managed to trudge through, as this did not last long and the Time Traveller was off and returned from his adventure soon enough.
The narrative then became quite verbose and descriptive, as is to be expected since the Time Traveller was describing his experience. At times, it perhaps felt a bit over embellished, but not enough for me to truly claim that to be a negative in the story.
![The Time Traveller's Time Sled [Source]](https://bibliosanctum.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/time-machines-through-er-time-20100325065957774.jpeg)
The Time Traveller’s Time Sled [Source]
In light of this being considered by some to be the first true science fiction novel, I can see it being rather impressive at the time of its publication. A whole new world and the reader gets to listen to the Time Traveller’s story in the same manner as the journalists, medical men and scientists whom he tells it to. I imagine the reaction of the readers at that time was very similar to those in the book.
Speaking of reactions, Wells’ second book, The War of the Worlds, inspired quite an intense one when Orson Welles narrated the book on the radio in 1938, causing wide spread panic.
The fallout from Orson Welles’ narration of The War of the Worlds [Source]
While the Time Traveller went to a distant future, The War of the Worlds brings martians to earth. For what purpose? Why, our destruction of course!
Some say that true science fiction must involve real science. Wells set that precedent with his works. But while I had trouble with the influx of science in the first book, it is more organically used in this book, which is told from the point of view of a philosopher in the midst of writing when the first martian cylinder arrives. He survives the chaos wrought by the martians and their deadly heat rays. Through his eyes, we see the human struggle for survival — the fight, flight, or succumb instinct.
The most fascinating thing about Wells’ writing is that he spends no time on characterization. Indeed, characters aren’t even named, much less described. Those details are unimportant, yet through the narrator’s eyes, we gain so much.
Even more fascinating? Wells wrote all of these out-of-this-world tales long before humanity ever took to the skies.
Tough Traveling: Novices
Posted on November 6, 2014 16 Comments
The Thursday feature “Tough Traveling” is the brainchild of Nathan ofReview Barn, who has come up with the excellent idea of making a new list each week based on the most common tropes in fantasy, as seen in The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynn Jones. Nathan has invited anyone who is interested to come play along, so be sure to check out the first link for more information.
This week’s tour topic is: Novices
Novice is a term in frequent use. There are not only Novice Priests and Priestesses and nuns: you will also encounter novice healers and bards, and sometimes also novice mages…Novices are always young, frequently skinny and undernourished, and clad in robes.
Mogsy’s Picks:
Life has been a bit busy lately and I had a bit of trouble this week coming up with new titles I didn’t talk about back in Tough Traveling: Mentor. Here’s a few I wanted to feature, but otherwise, take it away, Wendy!
Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey
The Court of Night-Blooming Flowers is the formal name given to a group of thirteen houses dedicated to serving the goddess Naamah. Its members are respected courtesans and highly sought after companions. Each house has a different way of preparing and training their novices, some who come to them at a very young age. A servant of Naamah will be a novice until they have their debut, usually at age 16, and become an adept. Once they earn enough to pay off and complete their marque (a very large and intricate tattoo that all Night Court members bear) they will finally become full-fledged courtesans.
A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin
In the world of Westeros, maesters are an order of scholars, healers, scientists and advisers trained at the Citadel in Oldtown. Here, a young man (women are barred from joining the order) will enter as a novice and undergo training until they have achieved the status of maester, earning links of certain metals until he has a full chain and is no longer considered a student.
Shattering the Ley by Joshua Palmatier
Shattering they Ley takes place in a world where cities are powered by the Nexus and a system of magical ley lines. One of the main characters in this book is Kara, first introduced to us as a child, but later on in the book we see her grow into a young woman who joins the Wielders, a group of specialists who control this system of ley lines, before working her way up from novice to become a Prime.
Wendy’s Picks
Children of Fire by Drew Karpyshyn
Four unique children are born under the portents of Chaos. They are each raised in different environments and must learn to survive accordingly. At least one of them sports appropriate robe-y attire.
Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind
Richard Cypher is so new that he doesn’t even know he’s the seeker who must learn the secret of wielding the Sword of Truth to cleanse the land of the evil Darken Rhal. He’s not clad in robes, nor is he malnourished. But he is kinda skinny at least.
Hanani is a very skilled healer, but she is still only a Sharer Apprentice with much to learn. She’s also the only female that the Hetawa has permitted to learn the arts of narcomancy.
Dragon Flight by Anne Macaffrey
Lessa is seemingly nothing but a ragged kitchen girl when she regains her birthright and a place among the those dragonriders of Pern. She even gets to bond with a queen dragon and learn all the fun dragonrider stuff.
Vin is a skilled young thief when we meet her, but her “luck” actually turns out to be her skill in allomancy. When she meets Kelsier, she learns that she’s not only an allomancer, but a mistborn–one of the precious few able to use all of the metals to perform incredible feats.
The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin
A young boy uses his exceptional skills to aid his village, bringing him to the attention of a wizard who knows he is destined for even greater things. Master and apprentice go on a learning journey that eventually leads to wizard school.
The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks
A young boy discards his old life as lackey to a petty crime lord to become apprentice to one of the deadliest assassins (a.k.a. wet boys) around.
Waiting on Wednesday 11/05/14
Posted on November 5, 2014 15 Comments
“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that lets us feature upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on!
Mogsy’s Pick:
Echo 8 by Sharon Lynn Fisher: February 3, 2015 (Tor)
Well, it is Sci-Fi November, after all. I still regret missing out on Sharon Lynn Fisher’s The Ophelia Prophecy earlier this year, because I’ve heard some great things about it. Of course I’ve put the book on my list now and hoping to read it this month, and so I was also immediately interested when I found out she will have another sci-fi romance out early next year. Looks like Echo 8 is a separate stand alone too, so this time I probably won’t hesitate to jump on an ARC if the opportunity arises.
“As a parapsychologist working for Seattle Psi, Tess has devoted her life to studying psychic phenomena. But when doppelgangers begin appearing from a parallel world that’s been struck by an asteroid, nothing in her training will help her survive what’s to come.
After dislocating to Seattle Psi from the other Earth, Jake is confined by a special task force for study. But when he drains life energy from Tess, almost killing her, it causes a ripple effect across two worlds — and creates a bond neither of them expected.
Ross is an FBI agent ordered to protect Tess while she studies Jake. His assignment is not random — he and Tess have a history, and a connection the Bureau hopes to use to its own advantage. By the time Ross realizes his mission could be compromised, it’s already too late — he’ll have to choose between his love for Tess and his duty to protect the people of his own Earth.”
#RRSciFiMonth: Willful Child by Steven Erikson
Posted on November 4, 2014 28 Comments
Sci-Fi November is a month-long blog event hosted by Oh The Books and Rinn Reads this year, created to celebrate everything amazing about science fiction! From TV shows to movies, books to comics, and everything else in between, it is intended to help science fiction lovers share their love and passion for this genre and its many, many fandoms.
Willful Child by Steven Erikson
Genre: Science Fiction, Humor
Series: Stand Alone/Book 1
Publisher: Tor (November 4, 2014)
Author Information: Website
Mogsy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
I have my husband to thank for my love of Star Trek. I wasn’t a fan before we met, but back when we first started dating he sat us down in front of the TV with a bunch of Star Trek shows and movies and sought to make a new convert out of me. And of course, he insisted we just had to start with the 1960s Original Series.
Yes, when you watch TOS now it does seem cheesy, with the special effects and props looking stunningly fake, aliens that look almost undistinguishable from humans, newly discovered planets with landscapes that look suspiciously like Northern California, and William Shatner’s Captain Kirk coming across as a bit of a lech given his inclination to jump into bed with any beautiful female no matter her shape, size, or species. But all that was part of the show’s charm, and it’s the reason why a lot of my all-time favorite Star Trek episodes are from that series. And no surprise, it’s also what makes Willful Child such an uproarious work of genius.
Steven Erikson essentially takes the tropes and campiness we know and love from TOS (and some from a couple other Star Trek series besides. The part with the Bor–I mean, Plog Collective had me in stitches), transforming and packing it all into this clever and downright hilarious novel which is one of the best spoofs I’ve ever read. These are the voyages of the starship A.S.F. Willful Child. Its ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations and wreak havoc upon them all. Led by the fearless but not terribly bright Captain Hadrian Sawback, who has an insatiable appetite for sex and a scary tendency to ignore all Affiliation regulations, the crew of the Willful Child traverses the galaxy and gets up to all kinds of shenanigans in this non-stop rollicking space adventure.
This is definitely new territory for me when it comes to Erikson. Prior to this book, I’ve only read his first Malazan Book of the Fallen novel, and so seeing him do over-the-top humor and sci-fi was a bit of a double treat. Obviously, Willful Child is a very different kind of book, being a parody of sorts. With the nature of comedy being so subjective, it probably shouldn’t be taken too seriously. The book is pulpish in the best way, featuring exaggerated larger-than-life characters, exotic places, bizarre aliens and outlandish villains. Still, there is no doubt Erikson is a passionate fan of Star Trek. Behind his merciless lampooning of the genre, I also see a loving homage. Readers will find this book highly amusing and Trekkers especially will recognize the references and source for a lot of the jokes, resulting in lots of laughs.
Sweepy spoke up, “Captain. I recommend we displace a squad down here and send them through. That way, should they all die, well, we only lost a few faceless nobodies. Excepting the chief engineer, sir.”
“Hardly seems challenging,” said Hadrian, rubbing at his manly jaw. “I was thinking of going through first, actually.” ~pg. 158
As with most works of satire, I was actually quite curious as to how Erikson would handle the storytelling. Turns out, the pace is snappy, heavy on the dialogue, and each story arc immediately segues into the next, emulating the episodic format of a television serial (in a couple instances, characters even break the fourth wall by referring to the situation as an “episode”). Fast-paced and filled to the brim with witty japes poking fun at Star Trek tropes and sci-fi themes, I really couldn’t have asked for more.
Needless to say, books like these are difficult to review and likely won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, often because of how over the top they are. And yet they are fully intended to be this way, and as long as you know what you’re in for and recognize Willful Child as the entertaining parody it is, I think you’ll find it to be very enjoyable. For me, it was a nice change of pace, something I could sit back and read with abandon and simply indulge myself in its silliness. As every avid reader probably knows, every once in a while you just need a FUN! book like this in your life!
A review copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Tor Books!
#RRSciFiMonth: Koko Takes a Holiday by Kieran Shea
Posted on November 3, 2014 16 Comments
Sci-Fi Month is a month-long blog event hosted by Oh The Books and Rinn Reads this year, created to celebrate everything amazing about science fiction! From TV shows to movies, books to comics, and everything else in between, it is intended to help science fiction lovers share their love and passion for this genre and its many, many fandoms.
Koko Takes a Holiday by Kieran Shea
Genre: Science Fiction
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Titan (June 10, 2014)
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Mogsy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Don’t let my middling rating fool you, because I really did enjoy this book. It was like eating a big bowl of popcorn for lunch; sure, you didn’t really get much out of it, but boy, it filled you up nicely and gobbling it down felt so wickedly good and yummy. Like a B-action movie, I don’t think Koko Takes a Holiday will stay with me for any significant length of time, but it was some great pulpy fun while it lasted.
The book takes place five hundred years from now, starring ex-merc Koko Martstellar who has retired from the hired soldier gig to run a brothel at the tropical archipelago resort known as The Sixty Islands. A place for tourists to indulge in their sexual simulated violent fantasies, the SI is rather like a playground for adults and Koko’s taking full advantage of the decadent life, surrounded by her boytoys and booze. She figures, what the hell, she’s having a good time and she’s earned her rest.
But then an old comrade-in-arms had to show up and ruin it all. Portia Delacompte, former-mercenary-turned-corporate-bigwig, blazes into town with a mind to see Koko dead. With her bar and brothel utterly destroyed by Portia’s deadly hired goons, so ends the good times for Koko, who is forced to take a holiday from her holiday to escape being hunted by her ex-buddy. But Koko, the very picture of a kickass heroine, hasn’t forgotten the tricks of her old trade – and she isn’t going to go down without a fight.
A lot of people have said this book reminds them of a graphic novel, for good reason, and not just because of the eye-catching art style on that fantastic cover. More likely it’s due to the story itself being very fast-paced, action-filled, and quite heavy on the dialogue. However, Shea’s descriptions of the various extraordinary and outlandish places also make it easy for the reader to picture his world in their mind’s eye. The very nature of the novel’s futuristic setting lends itself to this; it’s a high-tech dystopia with rampant corruption and depravity, and it’s also disturbingly vivid.
As you would expect, there’s nothing deep here. Koko Takes a Holiday goes for fast, shameless fun and it achieves that marvelously. You won’t be able to stop yourself from turning those pages. Delightfully unrestrained and bombastic, the book is heavy on violence and explosions but light on plot and characters, but hey, sometimes that’s exactly what you need.
I had a good time with this book, but admittedly the experience is already fading fast. Summer is long behind us now, but I would recommend this if you’re in need of a good beach read type of book, or just something like this to pick you up on a crappy day. It’s hard to go wrong with something this high-energy and entertaining.
#RRSciFiMonth: The Galaxy Game by Karen Lord
Posted on November 2, 2014 6 Comments
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Random House (January 2015)
Author Info: merumsal.wordpress.com
Wendy’s Rating: 2 of 5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
My love for the previous book, The Best of All Possible Worlds, prompted me to pick this up the moment I could. I enjoyed the up close and personal feel the book gave me, while it quietly detailed the struggles of a few survivors of a horrific planetary genocide.
Now, the Sadiri people have settled in and a lot of politics come into play. A lot of politics that made this book a significant struggle for me. The machinations seem to be leading somewhere interesting, but never quite solidify into anything that I could aptly describe.
The story is meant to centre on Rafi, the nephew of Grace Delarua whose father used his psychic abilities to abuse his wife. With his father locked away, the government now wants to monitor Rafi closely to ensure he does not use his own abilities for evil as well. Again, a lot of potential with this story, especially as he seemingly becomes wrapped up in the political aspects (sort of), travels to new worlds, and meets new people.
Along the way, Rafi plays a gravity-defying game called Wall Running that is a bit reminiscent of Ender’s Game. With all the politics and uprisings and, well, the title of the book, I thought the game would play a bigger part. I also hoped to see and understand a lot more about the mind ships that were vaguely introduced in the previous book. But all of these ideas, while fascinating–as is the world building–just never quite pay off. Where I was so firmly connected with Delarua and Dllenahkh, I felt nothing for Rafi and his friends. It certainly didn’t help that the story jumped from point of view to point of view. One particular character gets a first person point of view that ought to have been significant, save for the fact that I could not figure out which character it was until well into the book.
I do appreciate Lord’s prose and attention to detail, but I couldn’t handle the meandering nature of this story.
November Happenings: Sci-Fi Month, NaNoWriMo 2014, and Gaming Flail!
Posted on November 1, 2014 20 Comments
November is going to be a very busy month for us at BiblioSanctum, from NaNoWriMo to SciFiMonth, to our many gaming endeavors. Here’s what’s up!
November is SciFiMonth! We’ll be joining other bloggers, authors, and readers in everything science fiction! Look out for reviews and more, as we turn away from the fantastical to partake of the scientific! For more information, visit Oh,The Books SciFiMonth post, and follow the hashtag #RRSciFiMonth. Here at BiblioSanctum, our reviews and posts will branch off from the usual to encompass the various mediums that science fiction touches. From television and film, to video games, and more.
And of course, November is also National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo. For those not familiar with it, NaNo is a month-long writing event that challenges participants to write 50,000 words of a new novel from November 1 to November 30. Once again the BiblioSanctum bloggers will be taking part, but fear not, we’ll be doing our best to keep this blog updated with plenty of reviews and other goodness in the midst of all the novel writing frenzy! November 2014 may be a busier month than usual, but for many of us, NaNo is an annual tradition — it’s just something we do every year no matter what! And ultimately, it doesn’t matter if you don’t “win” because it never hurts to try. Whether or not you reach 50K words or even just a fraction of that, at the end of the month you’ll end up much farther ahead on your writing project than you would’ve if you’d never even started, and that’s the important thing.
As you know, Mogsy, Wendy, and Tiara are gamers, so November will also bring us lots of gaming flails with the release of Dragon Age: Inquisition and World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor. When we’re not busy playing our shiny new games, we’ll be reading and reviewing some of the many gaming related books and comics out there, including the latest Dragon Age novels. While these games are deeply entrenched in the fantasy genre, you won’t be able to fight the signal when we get our hands on them. Be prepared for much flail and many feels!
The BiblioSanctum