What’s in a Name?

I completely missed this.  Sarah Monette’s next book will be published by Tor under a different name – this is because her Ace sales figures for the Doctrine of Labyrinths quartet were disappointing, and therefore the big bookstores would not be ordering many books under the Sarah Monette name going forward.

Firstly, I’m so pleased that she’s sold another book because I loved her writing, and “Corambis” (the final book in the series) was one of my favourite books of 2009.  I will say though, that the books were very dark, complex, and really, unconventional fantasy, and probably not for everyone.  And then you take into account that these books need to be read in order, the first appears to be out-of-print now, and finally, that they were first released in hardcover… difficult sell. 

So if you loved the Labyrinth books, look out for “The Emperor of Elfland” (title subject to change, I’m guessing) by Katherine Addison hopefully sometime next year.

 

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And on a not-really related note, here’s a Suvudu blog post about book titles.  Apparently, Naomi Novik’s “Temeraire” (or “His Majesty’s Dragon”, if you read the US version) had the working title “Between Wind and Water”.  Not as catchy as the final one(s), I have to say. 

Speaking of which, her sixth Temeraire book, “Tongues of Serpents” will be released July 2010 (thanks to Renee for the heads up).

Books for April

I’m so late with this post that I’ve already read quite a few of the April releases!  However, better late than never…

So first up was Karen Chance’s “Curse the Dawn” (urban fantasy), fourth in her Cassandra Palmer series.  Excerpt here. 

I’m a big fan of this series, and this installment didn’t disappoint.  Cassie’s trying to figure out how to be Pythia with zero training, and she’s got to learn fast.  Very fast.  I’ve gotten used to Ms Chance’s writing style of non-stop action, where you pretty much hit the ground running from the first page onwards, and this story was no exception.  I think fans of the mage Pritkin will be pleased with this one as there is much Pritkin.  I’m on Team Mircea myself, and I like the way things are developing.  I admit if I were extremely picky, I wish Ms Chance would slow down at times and let me catch my breath.  Still, I really enjoyed this and it was a B+ for me.  I’m very much looking forward to her Fall release “Death’s Mistress”, the second in the Dorina Basarab series.

 

The next book I read was Sarah Monette’s “Corambis” (dark fantasy), the fourth and final book in her Doctrine of Labyrinths series.  Podcasts of the first two chapters here.

“Corambis” is an incredibly satisfying finale to a rather complex and dark series.  In a way, I think this is the most accessible book in the series – it’s probably the most focused of all four and possibly the most conventional?  I’m not sure, will have to think about that a bit more.  Also, not hugely relevant, but I am constantly impressed by how Ms Monette writes different POVs so effortlessly.  In “Corambis”, we get Felix and Mildmay’s POVs, as well as a new character’s, and each is just right for the character.  This was an A- read for me.

 

And last night, I finished Jim Butcher’s “Turn Coat” (urban fantasy), the eleventh in his Dresden Files series.  Excerpts here.

I pretty much glommed the entire series late last year, and really couldn’t wait for this one.  I’ve said it before, but what makes this series for me is the fact that there is no sense of either characters or plot stagnating, and that’s saying quite a bit for a series with eleven books in it.  I guessed the traitor quite a bit in advance, but not the how.  “Turn Coat” advances the overall series plot by quite a bit, and I can’t believe we’ve to wait another year for the next Dresden book.  A strong B+.

 

And then the other April releases I haven’t yet read but definitely plan on getting:

Tamora Pierce’s “Bloodhound” (YA fantasy): Second in her Beka Cooper series.  I love Tamora Pierce, and “Terrier”, the first book, came out way back in 2006.  It’s been too long.  Out April 14.

Jo Beverley’s “The Secret Wedding” (historical romance):  Part of her long-running (and loosely-connected) Malloren series.  I read a lot less historical romance nowadays, but Ms Beverley is on my autobuy list.  Excerpt here, out now.

Ann Aguirre’s “Blue Diablo” (urban fantasy):  First in a new series and with a cover blurb from Patricia Briggs.  And of course, glowing reviews all over the web.  Excerpt here, out now.

Kelley Armstrong’s “The Awakening” (YA urban fantasy):  Second in the Chloe Saunders trilogy.  The first book “The Summoning” ended on a cliffhanger and I hate, hate that.  I’ll forgive Ms Armstrong for a lot of things, however.  Excerpt here, out April 28.

Books for December

Okay, a bit late with this one, but here are the new releases I’m planning on getting this month:

Jim Butcher’s “Princeps’ Fury” (fantasy):  Book 5 in his Codex Alera fantasy series.  Technically a November release, and one I bought in my BooksonBoard splurge last week.  I’m a couple of chapters in at the moment, and am hoping to finish it over this weekend.  It’s a completely different setting to his Dresden Files books, but just as enjoyable, if not more.  The last book finished with a couple of major events and revelations, so it’ll be interesting to find out what happens next.

Excerpt here (out now)

Julie Hyzy’s “Hail to the Chef” (cosy mystery):  I loved the first book in this mystery series (“State of the Onion”) when I read it at the beginning of this year, and have been waiting impatiently for the second book to come out.  Olivia (Ollie) Paras is a White House chef, so you get food and mystery combined in this series, with a sprinkling of White House trivia.  Oh, and a dash of romance.  The perfect recipe.

No excerpts, but more series info here (out now)

 

“Moving Targets and Other Tales of Valdemar” (fantasy): This is a collection of short stories set in Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar world.  Contributors include Tanya Huff, Judith Tarr, Rosemary Edghill, and many others, plus there is an original short story by Ms Lackey herself.  I’m a sucker for all things Valdemar, so yes, I think I will probably get this.

No excerpts (out now)

 

 

“Unusual Suspects” (mystery/fantasy):  I got this the other day, it’s a follow up to the “Powers of Detection” anthology that came out a couple of years ago, IIRC.  Contributors include Charlaine Harris (with a Sookie story) and Sharon Shinn (contemporary ghost story).  I’m about three-quarters through and have enjoyed most of the stories so far, only skipping one because the way the dialogue was written gave me a headache.  The Sookie story is much better than the one in the “Mistletoe and Wolfbane” story, btw – but then again, I thought the MaW one was a bit of a letdown.  I liked the Donna Andrews story, and oh, I’ve just looked her up and she writes straight cosy mysteries – I may have to check them out!

No excerpts (out now)

 

So it’s a quiet month for new releases, especially full-length novels.  A couple of other releases that I’m considering are “Fast Ships, Black Sails”, a pirate anthology with Sarah Monette and Naomi Novik amongst the contributors, and “The Vorkosigan Companion”, a reference book for Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan series.

Two more books I read recently

“The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever” by Julia Quinn (historical romance): I’m a bit late with this one – it came out ages ago but I somehow never managed to pick it up.  Anyway, it’s Ms Quinn’s first standalone historical for ages – i.e. not Bridgerton-related!  Miranda Cheever has been hopelessly in love with her best friend’s elder brother forever.  He, on the other hand, has just been widowed and is completely disillusioned with the idea of love, due to the unfaithfulness of his late wife.

This book reminded me just why I like Julia Quinn – no other author comes close to the way she writes dialogue.  The scenes between Turner and Miranda were wonderfully humorous and I just loved the wry snippets from Miranda’s diary. 

But I’ll be honest, I couldn’t figure out why Miranda was in love with Turner.  I completely understand the schoolgirl crush (I mean, which girl wouldn’t?), but why and how it turned into proper love – well, Ms Quinn didn’t quite sell me on that.  And the conflict in the last third of the book – again nope, not really.  But a B- all the same, because her writing makes me smile.

And oh, did I think of the Bridgertons when I was reading this?  Err… yes.  Did that detract from my enjoyment?  I don’t think so.  I think her voice comes through no matter what she’s writing, which is why some of the scenes, especially the family ones, reminded me of the Bridgerton books. 

Also, slight spoilers: 

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I don’t have the book with me, so I can’t check, but the last third of the book somewhat reminded me of Anthony and Kate’s story, when he was obsessed with the idea he would die young, and that took over his life.  Except that obsession was more understandable than Miranda’s hang-up in this book.

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“The Mirador” by Sarah Monette (dark fantasy): Third book in Ms Monette’s Labyrinth series, this book sees Felix and Mildmay back in the Mirador.  It’s been awhile since the events of the second book ”The Virtu”, and well, nothing much has changed.  Mildmay still hates the Mirador, Felix is still struggling with his inner demons, everyone is still stepping gingerly around Felix… you get the idea.  In this book, a new first-person POV is introduced, Mehitabel, and through her, we get to know a couple of other secondary characters a bit better.

I was halfway through and still waiting for something to happen, when it hit me – this was it.  “The Mirador” is different from the first two books in the sense it focuses more on political intrigue and plotting, rather than action-packed scenes.  While slow-moving, it’s still immensely readable.

What started to frustrate me was all the third-party descriptions of arguments between Felix and Mildmay/Gideon/anyone else - you know, when Mildmay thinks back to an argument the night before.  Sure, it’s first-person and Mildmay can’t hear, say, Felix and Gideon arguing mind-to-mind, but at some point I was wondering if it was a cop-out on Ms Monette’s part.  Is leaving Felix’s cruelty to the reader’s imagination more effective than putting the dialogue down on paper?  Towards the end, it does change – there is a particularly effective passage between Felix and Mildmay on trust.  And I wish there had been more of that.

And then I was really trying to figure out why the hell does Mildmay behave the way he does with Felix.  What’s the draw?  Was I missing something horribly obvious?  Their relationship didn’t seem to be developing – they kept repeating their long-established patterns, and it made me want to shout “Enough already!”.  And then Mildmay has a moment of self-realisation and again, towards the end, it all picked up and I felt like cheering. 

It all comes together at the end (that’s the third time I’ve used the phrase, so I think you get the idea) and everything’s set up nicely for the final book.  I do like tortured heroes, and hey, you get two in this book, so well, it works.  This isn’t for new readers to the series – heck, I was getting confused, and I’ve read the first two – but I’m still glad I read this one. 

Two very different books, but both rate a B- for me.

Books for August

August is a good month for books – books I want:

Stephenie Meyer‘s “Eclipse”: Third book in her YA vampire series.  I love Bella and I *love* Edward.  “Twilight” and “New Moon” are the first and second books in this series respectively – if you haven’t read them, go and try “Twilight” at least.  Even if you don’t do YA and hate vampires.  Really.  “Eclipse” excerpt here.

Rachel Caine‘s “Thin Air”: Sixth book in her Weather Wardens series.  Right, the first book “Ill Wind” completely captivated me – people with the power to control weather, a secret group of weather wardens who work to avert natural disasters, and a very cute and yummy Djinn called David.  It was a great start to the series, and then… arrrgghhh.  I really really hate non-conclusive endings, and that’s how most of the later books have ended – with a major plot twist or reveal in the last few pages.  I’m going to get “Thin Air” because it’s meant to wrap up loose threads from the previous books.  And then I’m going to see how it ends, because I’m not 100% sure I want to continue with this series.  I love Ms Caine’s writing, but I just don’t like her plots.  Sigh.  Excerpt here.

Staying with the fantasy books, Gail Dayton‘s “The Eternal Rose”: The third in a trilogy.  The first two books in this series was published by Luna, but they decided not to continue with the series.  Thankfully, it was picked up by Juno.  While it’s not ground-breaking fantasy by any means, it’s an enjoyable and fast-paced fantasy series.  Err… alternative lifestyle warning:  There is polygamy in a sense here; Kallista, the lead female character is “married” to about five others (both male and female).  

An anthology with some of my favourite authors – “On the Prowl” (Patricia Briggs, Eileen Wilks, Karen Chance, and Sunny).  I think I’ve probably said this about a million times already, but I really love the first three authors.  If I were asked who I wanted to see in an urban fantasy anthology, those would have been the three names I’d have picked.  Though maybe I’d have liked Charlaine Harris as well, and oh, Kelley Armstrong. Anyway, I’m very much looking forward to this book – excerpts from Patricia Briggs and Eileen Wilks‘ stories are up.

Sarah Monette‘s “The Mirador”: The third in her dark fantasy series (btw, yes, I’ve noticed the “3″ theme in this post!).  I think I’ve posted the link before, but excerpts from the book are up on her website.  The series revolves around two main characters, Felix and Mildmay, and they take turns to narrate the story.  I love these books – they’re dark, edgy, and compelling. 

That’s it for the fantasy – on the historical front, I want Diana Gabaldon‘s “Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blades”.  A spin-off from her Jamie and Claire books, this book focuses on Lord John, a secondary character in the “Outlander” series.  I’ve no idea when it’s set relative to the J&C story timeline though (and no idea when the next J&C book will come out – I just wish she’ll write faster!).  Excerpt here.

And finally, I want Suzanne Brockmann‘s “Force of Nature”.  Mainly to see what happens to Jules – he better get his HEA soon.  Oh, and just one more, Jayne Castle‘s “Silver Master”.  Jayne Ann Krentz’s futuristic romances are my guilty pleasure.

I did say August was a good month for books

Around the Web

Sarah Monette’s posted the first three chapters of her upcoming book “The Mirador” (dark fantasy – August 2007) on her website.  This is one of my definite hardcover purchases for August, as I really liked the second book in the series (“The Virtu”).  I liked the first book (“Melusine”) as well, but it was the second that really grabbed my attention.

There’s a very interesting post on the Word Wenches blog on horses *grin*.  I don’t ride, so this answered all my questions about riding sidesaddle and doubling up, and a few other questions I hadn’t thought about!

Anne Bishop‘s posted the cover of the new Black Jewels novel “Tangled Webs” (out March 2008) on her website.  Umm… unusually, I’m not in love with this – maybe because the model doesn’t really fit my mental image of how Surreal looks like (yes, it’s meant to be Surreal).  Whereas with the trilogy covers, the model fits my image of Jaenelle more closely.  Hmm… maybe that’s the problem with using photographic shots.  But I’m very much looking forward to this book!