Honestly, I haven’t been online much this year and I’m starting to feel a little disconnected to everyone as a result. So today I’m on my twitter feed and see a link to what appears will be a review for a “badly written book” on Goodreads. I click over and from what I can take away from the person’s review, the book indeed sounds pretty badly written. But the book has also gained a lot of praise and even some quotes of “Brilliant!”. I really am of the mindset that you enjoy what you enjoy and that’s all there is to it. But. Yep – but. When I see a comment that readers don’t care about the poor quality in some books, of the grammar/spelling/sentence structure variety, I have to say waitadurnminute.

Actually, readers do care.

This reader cares. I can overlook a few typos or a grammatical error or two. We’re human after all and as someone who works in a creative field I know how easy it is for errors to slip through no matter how tight you may think your editing process is and the team managing it sharp and with it. However, if the majority of the book is a poorly written hot mess of a land mine, I’m not giving it a pass. I don’t care if the characters are endearing or hot or saving the world with only a toothpick and a chocolate bar to their name. If the author hasn’t gone through the trouble to present the characters, plot and world within a well-written structure that shows some skill, then I’m really not obligated to give that a pass.

I have no way to measure, really, how the majority of readers feel. Maybe many don’t care about a well-written book when the hero is a hawt, ripped Studly McStud Muffin. I….may have been susceptible to such books at one time. Over the years, though, what’s become apparent to me is that it matters, personally, when an author has gone to the trouble to make my $7.99 worth it. Or my $14.99. Or even my $0.99! Not to mention my time.

I understand how the generalization that readers don’t care can be made when books don’t have good grammar/punctuation/etc. for the most part (and make it onto a NYT-type list), but whenever I see it pop up, I wonder about the other side, those that do care. Surely there’s plenty of us that care. To demonstrate how much I care, and because I can’t ever get enough scifi lately, let’s review in gifs:

Someone has proclaimed again that it seems readers don’t care about the lack of quality in books….

See? You’ve made Picard one sad panda. And then you get some agreement that readers don’t care about the quality level in books…

Just….I can’t.

At this point, Picard could fucking cry.

There there, guys, even the Daleks don’t think it’s quite that bad. Though…they have a really weird way of showing it.

Unfortunately, the original crew can’t come to a consensus. Set your phasers to “screwed”.

However, I do believe plenty of readers care about having good quality books to read. I refuse to believe the publishing industry as a whole will give up on editing books and striving for the best in quality they can achieve. And other such ideals! And Data agrees with me.

So there.

James S.A. Corey
Leviathan Wakes (Expanse #1)
orbit
science fiction
june 15, 2011 (Kindle Edition)

Blurb via Goodreads:

Welcome to the future. Humanity has colonized the solar system—Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond—but the stars are still out of our reach.

Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, The Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for—and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to The Scopuli and rebel sympathizer, Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations—and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.

I’d had my eye on this one for quite some time before finally opening it up here recently. Earlier this year I read a wonderful scifi book by John Scalzi, Old Man’s War, which had a very engaging human element to it. After awaiting reviews from other readers, I finally felt prompted to try Leviathan Wakes on the recommendation from a friend that it, too, had that engaging human element to it. Unfortunately I found myself not quite as engaged as I’d like to have been and had trouble connecting with almost all of the book. But one thing kept me going and made me interested enough in the second in this series.

 Leviathan Wakes is unlike any scifi I’ve read prior in that it lacks that wondrous quality that comes with most other recognizable and, well, commercial scifi such as Star Trek. There’s no smooth, svelte futuristic setting where everything is pristine. Technology isn’t really of the advanced kind that’s launched humanity into a scientific utopia. People haven’t become interested in the furthering of humane kindness and other such ideals. Not that all scifi that shows society that has achieved a higher level of living is without turmoil, grief and despair, it’s just that Leviathan Wakes is full of almost nothing but despair.

Yes, people have colonized planets like Mars and our race has reached across the galaxy and built enormous space stations, but it’s not an easy future by far. No one is really for the other. Mars and Earth are in some kind of superiority complex race. Stations floating in space are full of gangs vying for ultimate rule and the general quality of life is sparse (homes referred to often as holes barely big enough to stand in – think Korbe Dallas’ miniscule apartment in The Fifth Element, but barely even that cheerful or cool). Riots are frequent, the station security agents are often told to overlook serious cases and to top it off most of the main characters are about as uplifting as a a carrot with no ranch to dip it in. That being said, it’s clearly the atmosphere the book is going for. This, admittedly, was hard for me to get past at first.

With the characters somewhat morose outlook on life and the horrific situations they all find themselves in, I was kind of looking to the worldbuilding next. Action sequences were anticlimactic in many chapters (not to mention I had a hard time visualizing something the authors obviously tried to be descriptive with), there’s a need to repeatedly convey the negative effect of g-forces on the human body (after a few chapters if I never heard the explanation again I’d have happily eaten the rest of this book up), and the science behind the authors’ version of space travel, while very realistic to me, weighed the book down with its apparent clumsiness and slowness.

For all that, something kept me reading. I even wondered to myself whey I didn’t let this one go into the pile of readerly castoffs. It was the plot. This book has a really solid one. While the execution of it was about 75% too redundant/slow/despairing for me, I was eventually hooked by the plot. I wanted almost desperately by some point to know too what had happened to Julie Mao, the “poor little rich girl” whose parents want her back. So they have station security put Detective Miller on the case, the male main character that becomes in some ways this book’s own “leviathan waking”. Just in case I still haven’t driven home just how screwed up life is in this future, here’s a quote from Miller on Julie after he investigates her a little:

Attacked, the man had said. There was nothing about it in her record. Might have been a mugging. Might have been something worse. Miller knew lots of victims, and he put them into three categories. First there were the ones who pretended nothing had happened, or that whatever it was didn’t really matter. That was well over half the people he talked to. Then there were the professionals, people who took their vicitimization as permission to act out in any way they saw fit. That ate most of the rest.

 

Maybe 5 percent, maybe less, were the ones who sucked it up, learned the lesson, and moved on. The Julies. The good ones.

 

–pg. 129-130 (Kindle version)

OK, just so we’re clear, the “good victims” suck it up in Miller’s world. They get raped/beaten/trafficked/harassed, maybe? Eh, if they sucked it up, learned to defend themselves and looked at it as a lesson learned, they were A-OK with him. Good to know about you, Miller. Bet that 5% makes anyone’s job easier. This made it even harder for me to appreciate his character in any way and he makes up a sizable chunk of the book. At some point I must have learned how defend my sensibilities against his incredibly assholish outlook, sucked it up and learned how to enjoy the book a little. Though, it must be said, Miller is just batshit crazysauce.

But get past it I must have because as we’re slowly (and  I cannot emphasise how slowly) clued into the mystery of Julie’s disappearance, we begin to see things on a universally fucked up political scale. The more the plot reveals, the more in unravels until you finally see the full horror of what’s going on. It in some ways was worth waiting for. I’m not into scifi horror at all, but it seems the most easily used of all scifi, I dunno how to put it – tactics?- to write or film science fiction subjects. It makes sense because space and a future in it are obviously so far beyond our understanding in reality that it’s probably easier at this point to imagine all kinds of horrific scenarios. And when I say easy I don’t mean it was easy for the authors’ to execute their ideas in this book, I just mean that it makes sense horror makes its way so often into our imaginings of life in space. This is where the book began to truly grab me, much to my surprise. The pure evil behind it all, the descriptions of what happens to millions of people, it was quite a well done, chilling atmosphere. I continued to lament the slow pace that is a huge unwanted consistency in the book, but I was thankful that something hooked me anyway.

Besides Julie and Miller, other characters of note were Captain Jim Holden (he was made captain due to circumstances, right? Arg, finding that again would be a needle in a haystack thing.) and his small crew that survive their own ordeal, intertwined with that of Julie and Miller. As a whole, Jim and Miller are what make up the 3rd person alternating points-of-view in the book, and with them and the descriptions of and dialogue from the others, you’d probably expect a wide variety of personalities. That was my other problem (I’ve lost count of the problems) with them, though – none of them came across much differently to me than the next. I mean, each has traits and while some effort at characterization is definitely made, they honestly could’ve almost been the same person to me. The few female characters are either victims that were able to brush off their abuse and therefore mucho kewl for doing so to the delusional and crazy main male character (who ends up being a noble semi-savior for his sacrifices) or the love interest of another who, while insanely smart and, let’s call it like it is, much smarter than said male love interest (to which he admits), is still only really his love interest in this book’s grand scheme of things. The characterization wasn’t particularly stellar to say the least. It wasn’t so much that I didn’t care for any of the characters or had anyone to root for particularly, it was that they were flat, cardboard-ish or frustratingly relegated to obvious insignificance.

So why, again, did I enjoy this book at all? Let’s review: the plot was sound. It was interesting enough for me to try out book two, even, which awaits me in my Kindle line-up. There were a few moments of lip up-tilting, for example a quote from Dune, “Fear is the mind-killer,” (pg. 254, Kindle version). I don’t know, so much of this book disappointed, but I found myself eventually drawn into the authors’ world, a bleak existence for most with a huge wake-up call in the horror that was coming for them from millions of years ago. What’s the appeal in that? It was well done. It has a haunting atmosphere with it that was very tangible. I like that. I hope the rest of the elements that make up a good book follow suit in book 2.

Rating: Three Scoops

Rachel Hartman
seraphina (seraphina #1)
random house for young readers
young adult Fantasy
july 10, 2012

blurb via Goodreads:

Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty’s anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.

Seraphina has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen’s Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift – one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.

Seraphina is a first person narrated fantasy novel about a young girl hiding a terrible secret, surrounded by even more terrible malice and bigotry. For now, she holds a somewhat favored position at court as the assistant to the master of music (I’m sure his title is different, but I’m still trying to grasp and remember all the unique terms and words the author has coined) and her days are exhausting if not normal. And it’s extremely important that she be seen as normal. To keep her secret safe, she makes herself as unnoticeable as possible, a hard lesson learned after years with a stifling father. A hard lesson because here there be dragons, and people that hate them and intrigues and other such novelish shenanigans.

I was originally meaning for this post to be about my initial reactions as I was reading the book. And not just any book, but a book, finally, that I was really enjoying. What’s been going down at Casa de Lurv is a whole lot of mediocre reading. Stuff that never takes off. Or stuff that starts out great and gets way too full of itself.

Dune, I am looking straight at you.

But that aside, something magical happened after about the first half of Seraphina or so, maybe a little prior. I got completely sucked in. The kind of sucked in that allows you very little sleep. If I could have taken this book and myself back about ten years ago, when I could’ve still physically and mentally handled no sleep, I’d have finished the second half of this book in one night. During that first half I was beginning to get the Dreaded Feeling, as if I’d found yet another book that wasn’t going to play well with my interests. I started to get a little irritated at what seemed like way too much dwelling on elements like Seraphina’s obvious need to hide her true identity, her dream garden of “grotesques” (I was beginning to wonder if this was indicative of multiple personality disorder), the country’s general hatred of dragons and the tense, any-minute-now-lynch-mob air. It seemed as if it was all overdone because not much was happening as a result of them for some time. But then I got to a point in the novel where it was as if there was a jump start to its engine and from there it took off. All those elements that seemed overdone in fact felt paid off, and quite nicely, too.

A light went off and I took a step back and was like, “I see what you’re doing there, book.” Oh Seraphina, you are a clever thing. This is one of those young adult reads that offers a lot to readers of varying ages because of how almost timeless and ageless Seraphina comes to feel. Slowly but surely, she wasn’t merely this young adult character to me. Her own views on dragons aren’t exactly fairly balanced at first either; she’s just as susceptible as anyone else to the fears and prejudices against dragonkind as a whole. But she changes and undergoes some of the better development I’ve seen of a young adult character, transforming into a character type that is something readers of all ages can appreciate if they want to read good fantasy. This is especially important because of how she views herself and her secret, holding it close but detesting herself for it at the same time – an obvious side effect of a society built on stilts of hatred. There is a particularly painful-to-read passage where she physically tries to remove the evidence of her secret, and at no other point in the book is her self-loathing more evident.

Hatred tore at my insides. I was desperate to stop feeling it; like a fox in a snare, I’d have gnawed my own leg off to escape it. I drew the little dagger from the hem of my cloak and stabbed myself in the arm.

– pg. 277

She is constantly reevaluating herself, though, because of her secret, and it’s heartbreaking to read at times, but thankfully she comes to realize that her secret isn’t a weakness at all, and she develops a true strength that is beautiful to behold. She grows in awareness thanks to others as well, one being her relationship with the bastard Prince Lucien, head of royal security:

 He did not know the truth of me, yet he had perceived something true about me that no one else had ever noticed. And in spite of that – or perhaps because of it – he believed me good, believed me worth taking seriously, and his belief, for one vertiginous moment, made me want to be better than I was.

– pg. 174

Another way in which Seraphina is a clever read is the plot and the worldbuilding that is woven into it. The two work together seamlessly and when this happens, it’s a beautiful thing. I thoroughly enjoyed the almost Germanic Medieval atmosphere (for lack of better terms), the heavy emphasis on patron saints and the unique words the author coins supporting this (grausleine, for example, which I took to mean something like “madame” – “Do not think me mad, grausleine…” page 138), as well as a completely new-to-me order of knights with their dracomachia fighting style. While there are still some terms I’m not one hundred percent certain on (the terms associated with dragons a lot, saar and saarantras – I never really was sure what these meant; is the latter a dragon in human form??), for the most part the juxtopositioning of the human religion pitted against the severe emotional control the dragons insisted on maintaining was very interesting. Neither society is particularly accepting of the other, let alone its own people.

What all this blather is about, really, is that Seraphina is a book that makes you think about what you’re reading, and the bonus is you’ll have a lot of fun while you’re doing it. Other things that contribute to this are rare moments of humor. Characters with names like Sir James Peascod. Because who woudn’t love a double-take like that followed by an irrepressible snort laugh. And lines like:

“You’re not a villain,” I said. Or else we were two villains in a pod.

– pg. 259

Character-wise, I’d begun to fear that this would be one of those first-person deals where only the main character felt truly developed, but around the same time as everything else picks up and dragged me along for a spectacular read, so too did the characters. Favorites were the intuitive Prince Lucien, who knows something’s different about Seraphina, but who also looks past the typical upper crust desire to dismiss the “little people” and engages her help in state affairs. He see her as a valuable asset from the get-go, but he’s also poignantly sweet with her, too. I think we can guess where that leads.

Another character that deserves a shout out is the delightful Princess Glisselda, and if I’m remembering correctly, third in line for the throne. A lot falls on her young shoulders (Memory tells me she’s fifteen or so, a year younger than Seraphina I think?) but she handles everything with maturity and aplomb when it comes down to the wire. Any other time she is an excellent supporting character who, like Lucien, draws Seraphina out of her self-induced shell in ways that were funny, heart warming and not a little devious. I wasn’t sure about her at first and liked that she could have gone exactly the opposite, but instead the author chose to section out a female support base for her main character without it being cardboardy and fake feeling.

THEN there’s Seraphina’s dubious relationships with her father, and the strange one with her teacher, Orma. Both strong fatherly figures in her life, but for vastly different and complex reasons. I was so touched by them both and happy with how things turned out.

There’s a ton more that can be touted about this novel because it is so rich in detail throughout every aspect that creates a Good Book. Seraphina’s intense musicality, the importance of her dreamworld and its inhabitants, the intricate machine and tools the dragons create, their persecution in a supposed time of peace – gah! So much! Instead, I’ll leave off here with a strong, fervent encouragement to go ahead and fork over the cash or time to the library for this book.  There is an enormous amount of payoff with this first in a new series because, though it leaves some things unsettled, there are a lot of things revealed, answered and new things opened. It’s the kind of book that leaves me very satisfied and full. Now if only the second book was arriving sooner than 2014 (according to Goodreads, anyway)! As soon as I was finished with this one, I thought for sure the second must be out by now or would be soon. And that’s how good Seraphina was. I was ready for more immediately, but this is one series I am certain I’ll be just as ready for in another year. If there’s anyone left who hasn’t read this, go read it. If you love fantasy, you’ll forget this was ever a young adult novel in the first place and enjoy it for the plain ‘ole excellent story it is.

Rating: Five Scoops

series order:

• Seraphina
• Dracomachia (2014, date TBA)

Seanan mcguire
Midnight-blue light special(Incryptid #2)
daw
Urban Fantasy
march 5, 2013

I wasn’t going to offer up excuses as to why this review is so late but since I got food poisoning the weekend I intended to finally get my review up – excuses, you can has them!

Seriously, I have been pretty out of it with some of the worst allergy/sinus attacks and infections in a while. Then I had an allergic reaction to my allergy medication. Then this past weekend I had my first ever food poisoning experience – never again, thank you very much – and I literally threw my hands up and said fuck it. None of this kind of crap puts anyone in a good frame of mind, let alone someone trying to write up a book review. So this review’s gonna suck, just be warned.

I have to lay something else on the table right away and be honest. I didn’t enjoy this second installment in the Incryptid series as much as the first. That is what I’ve struggled with the most and I really didn’t want to say that. This book has been on my mind more than any other in the last month or so because of it. It’s one thing to be disappointed in a book in a newly beloved series, it’s another to have to go on your blog then and actually say it.

When we ended with book one, I suppose I had built up expectations for this book without even realizing it. It was pretty much a given that some kind of showdown between Verity and the Covenant would happen. While it does in Midnight Blue-Light Special (I missed the significance of this title, too…what did that mean?), I was disappointed in how it all goes down. What kept nagging at me after a certain point, a third of the way through or so, was that this was reading like a mid-series placeholder. The plot and action felt predictable. There was the moment here and there that I laughed or enjoyed a scene, but for the most part it felt like I was reading something entirely different. There was a big disconnect for me this time and it was really weird not to be able to get past that.

The part that I especially struggled with in the book though, was when the POV switch to Verity’s cuckoo cousin, Sarah. I think one reason is, this is when something particularly dangerous (and therefore interesting) just happens to Verity, then we’re whipped to another POV entirely with Sarah. Sarah was also, unfortunately, someone I could just not get into at first. It took quite a while of reading her POV to feel any kind of connection to her. I don’t know if this was intentional with the cuckoo nature as it is, and that was trying to be conveyed, or…what. I was relieved when we finally got back to Verity’s POV.

I still love me some Aeslin mice, so HAIL! to them. I still enjoyed Verity as the heroine and she definitely goes through some character-growing stages in this one, so there’s that to appreciate about her. Dominic is almost a non entity this time, and while there’s a scene or two and it’s understandable why he’s mostly absent from the page time, it was a little boring without him. Scenes with other Incryptid characters from book one felt almost forced as they and Verity try to prepare for whatever’s coming.

I also wish that the pace had picked up a lot more and that I’d been able to gel better with whatever this installment was trying to do. I’m still on board for the next one, because the ending leaves things as though big changes are in the making. Maybe those changes will once again lead me on an entertaining route. I’m willing to give it another go to see.

Rating: No clue

Kim Harrison
Ever After (Rachel Morgan #11)
Harper Voyager
Urban Fantasy
January 22, 2013 (Kindle Edition)

Blurb via Goodreads (which has spoilers for previous books):

The ever-after, the demonic realm that parallels our own, is shrinking, and if it disappears, so does all magic. It’s up to witch-turned-daywalking-demon Rachel Morgan to fix the ever-after before the fragile balance between magic users and humans falls apart.

Of course, there’s also the small fact that Rachel is the one who caused the ley line to rip in the first place, and her life is forfeit unless she can fix it. Not to mention the most powerful demon in the ever-after—the soul-eater Ku’Sox Sha-Ku’ru—has vowed to destroy her, and has kidnapped her friend and her goddaughter as leverage. If Rachel doesn’t give herself up, they will die.

Forced by circumstance, Rachel teams up with elven tycoon Trent Kalamack—a partnership fraught with dangers of the heart as well as betrayal of the soul—to return to the ever-after and rescue those she loves. One world teeters on the brink of interspecies war, the other on the brink of its very demise—and it’s up to Rachel to keep them both from being destroyed.

I was a little out of sorts with my most ultimate supreme favorite series last year, but I’m happy to say we are BACK, people. Back in black, set to go and pining once more beyond belief for the next book already. And that means that the next book could possibly be the last. Harrison’s FAQ page says 12-13 and her “prerogative”…Ever After is book eleven. SOB.

I was really happy to see that this book wraps up an ongoing plot thread in the overall series arc, mostly because said, er, demon was getting beyond ridiculously pesky and tiresome. The book follows the basic premise that Rachel Can’t Stay Out of Trouble to Save Anyone’s Life Let Alone Her Own, but thankfully this time it felt more cohesive and with Rachel growing in control of the situation and ultimately triumphing. There’s really nothing I like more than for her to literally kick ass and take names.

I think one reason the book worked so well for me is because Ivy is absent for a good bit of it, though I won’t say why. I’ve grown more than a little unappreciative of her emo vampire problems, and it grates on my nerves a little that Rachel is still expected to find Ivy’s soul for her or some such ridiculous nonsense. Talk about the ultimate price of friendship. Given all that, it does put Rachel in a bind to have a powerful friend unavailable when the shit hits the fan. This time someone is stealing witch babies once infected with the Rosewood syndrome (the same syndrome Rachel had as a child) but that were showing signs of improvement. When Rachel and Trent visit the hospital and Rachel sees her sceavy ex, Nick, fleeing the scene, she knows exactly who’s behind it. I’ve got to say, as much as I loathe Nick’s character, there is something utterly fascinating about watching a selfish douchwaffle like him continue to be a selfish douchewaffle. I prefer that over Ivy’s pseudo-sexual blood lust emo problems? I know, I can’t explain it. Let’s just say Nick manages to up the entertainment this time. It’s possible there’s just nothing better than watching a douchewaffle get what they deserve.

We could tell from the previous installment (and a little before it, too) that Rachel and Trent have been growing closer, and not just when it comes to business. I remember loathing him, almost as much as I do Nick, earlier in the series, thinking there’s no way Rachel should ever have anything to do with him. Let’s review some of Trent’s less finer qualities: he’s the biggest producer and dealer of the most nefarious drug in the city, brimstone; he’s a consummate thief and liar if it’ll get him what he wants; he’s constantly putting Rachel in danger and expects her to do so, cuz, hello, would not be him in immediate danger; he tormented her as a child….the list could go on. Never in a million Hollows series years would I ever have imagined these two in a romantic light.

Until now. Trent is changing. The only question is, are those changes enough? Rachel continues to struggle with these feelings and growing attraction as she gets involved with him one more time to figure out how to stop Ku’Sox from destroying the demon world of the Ever After and moving onto reality (aka, Earth) next. The horrific happens when the nasty demon kidnaps Ceri (Trent’s bodyguard’s wife and Al’s used-to-be familiar) and Lucy, Trent’s daughter. Suddenly, Trent is desperate to save them and Rachel is once again left in the cold, bitter dark when the infuriating elf takes the situation into his own hands.

This was a really hard installment. As much trouble and danger as Rachel’s gotten into, those she loves sometimes being drawn in, too, we’ve not really had that many deaths of important characters in the series. I have to say that the way a death was handled this time was a little too sudden and, frankly, poorly handled. It was like an afterthought. While I realize it happens in the midst of all the danger with plenty more for Rachel to deal with after, therefore not allowing for much grief or talk of said death, it was kind of like, Oh guess what? Yeah, afraid that happened. Behind the scenes. I was totally unprepared, but that’s not the issue. It was like it happened, move along, nothing to see here. Because we didn’t see it happen. So frustrating.

Other than that, the book was (mostly) smooth sailing for me. The action was nonstop, thrilling and only felt weighed down when Ivy does finally come back on the scene with her issues clouding the main point of the book. There is a rather obvious point in the book that jarred me a little with its Next Book Topic flag waved in the middle of an important showdown with Ku’Sox, but I tried to ignore it and get on with the goodness. This means, though, that the last or next-to-last book in the series might be taken up with my least favorite subject: Ivy and Her Issues. Buuuuut, thankfully the rest of this book manages to wow, the ending in particular. I feel like other fans of the series will be just as pleased.

SO THEN we have a great final scene involving Rachel and Someone I Shall NOT Name cuz it’s good and you, fellow reader, should enjoy it for yourself. It made me feel a little sigh-y and breathy and hopeful for Rachel’s happiness levels. Other great features in this book were the gargoyles, who thanks to the broken ley line Rachel has to fix, are major players this time (Love you always, Bis! That’s Rachel’s own young 50-year-old kidlet gargoyle). I loved Al, as usual. He’s the bestest shithead of a demon you can’t help but love! I was rather put out with the whole of demonkind, though, for their continuing making of Rachel into their scapegoat. No respect for them a s whole because damn do they tuck tail and hide at the slightest sign of trouble. Not to mention they are gullible as hell. This is supposed to be some kind of ancient, powerful race? Weren’t they smart at one time?

All that aside, I am totally back on track with my fave series. It was nonstop fun, not a little sad at times, absolutely breathlessly thrilling at others – in other words, the kind of entertaining roller coaster read the series usually is. We get to learn new things while, as usual, staying true to past events and seeing how it all weaves together. Harrison is a master writer at keeping her series cohesive, fun and engrossing. I can’t wait for the next book and if it really is the last, I’ll be starting the series over from the beginning and continuing to feast on the best urban fantasy series out there.

Rating: Five Scoops

(Interestingly enough, this was actually inspired by my day job.)

(via Tor.com’s twitter account. Create your own here. Which I rec. Is fun.)

John Scalzi
Old Man’s War (Old Man’s War #1)
TOR Books
science fiction
April 1, 2010 (Kindle Edition)

Blurb via Goodreads:

John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First he visited his wife’s grave. Then he joined the army.

The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce–and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So: we fight. To defend Earth, and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding.

Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity’s resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force. Everybody knows that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don’t want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You’ll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You’ll serve two years at the front. And if you survive, you’ll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets.

John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine–and what he will become is far stranger.

If it wasn’t for social media and glomming my Twitter feed like the Twitter pig I am, I might never have tried this book. Or Scalzi’s work, period. It takes me way too long to branch out to new authors, it seems. I’m especially picky about male authors because most I’ve tried just have this history with me whereby I don’t feel emotionally engaged enough to their story and characters. There’ve been a few over the years, but it hasn’t escaped me that I connect more with female authored books. So I was particularly psyched to dive into this book and enjoy pretty much every minute of it. Strong characters and dialogue mark this one’s road to success.

Military scifi is pretty new for me. I tried and failed to get into the classic tale of Stormship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein (though I simply must try again some day) and I really disliked in the end A Soldier’s Duty by Jean Johnson – so I’ve not had a lot of military scifi exposure. I’ve nothing much to compare Old Man’s War to that’s similar or in the same genre. What I can say for absolutely sure is that it immediately sucked me in, which I deeply need books to do in those first crucial pages and subsequent chapters.

We begin by learning John Perry’s backstry of what led up to him joining the Colonial Defense Forces. Right off we experience Perry’s dry wit, a trait that never let’s up the entire novel, despite how much his circumstances change. The CDF is a big mystery to Earth’s citizens, though an impossible-to-resist one because they only take on recruits that are seventy-five years old. The questions this raises are obvious, as is the fact that once you actually join up to serve at said ripe age, you don’t get to come back to Earth. Ever. You’re essentially declared dead there. What waits for these aged recruits is anyone’s guess. It’s the biggest gamble of their lives, to say the least.

I loved this book. Just loved about minute of it. I only marked it as a four star read for me on Goodreads, but I’m honestly having a problem remembering why at the moment. I do remember that the beginning does some really heavy foreshadowing of the CDF’s Big Secret – do they have some kind of tech that reverses the aging process? Why else take on old fogy types? There’s all kind of repeated dancing around of the topic, while the recruits basically wait in a limbo-like process, that it did get old. But there’s a scene when John finally discovers how he’s going to become fit enough again to take on war and – oh my – it’s frightening and exhilarating all at once. From there on out there’s not a redundant point or slow pace in the entire book. I kind of get why the need for all that build up. It is, after all, so curious a situation, but a little less time spent on it might have been OK with me. Then again, this is also the time when John establishes a friendship with several other recruits, who we see again and hear about from time to time, but not always happily.

I loved this book so much that I’m a little scatterbrained in figuring out how to convince you it’s just that awesomesauce. Maybe some quotes would help.

“Christ on a popsicle stick,” Master Sergeant Antonio Ruiz declared after he glared at the sixty of us in his recruit platoon, standing (we hoped) more or less at attention on the tarmac of Delta Base’s shuttleport. “We have clearly just lost the battle for the goddamn universe. I look at you people and the words “tremendously fucked” leap right out of my goddamned skull. If you’re the best the Earth has got to offer, it’s time we bend over and get a tentacle up the ass.”

That was courtesy of Perry’s first ever drill sergeant. And he’s got more:

 ”From this point forward you will take your MP-35 with you everywhere you go. You will take it with you when you take a shit. You will take it with you when you shower – don’t worry about it getting wet, it will spit out anything it regards as foreign. You will take it to meals. You will sleep with it. If you somehow manage to find the time to fuck, your MP-35 damn well better have a fine view.”

Hey, it’ the military! Frank is the name of their game. Oh, and…

“….You have these bodies and weapons because they are the absolute minimum that will allow you to fight and survive out there. We didn’t want to give you these bodies, you dipshits. It’s just that if we didn’t, the human race would already be extinct.

Do you understand now? Do you finally have an idea what you’re up against? Do you?”

Oh, this is a good one, too, next up. My, but that Sergeant Ruiz was a GEM.

“Your impression is fucked, because unlike you, I have actually been out in the universe. I have seen what we’re up against. I have seen men and women that I knew personally turned into hot fucking chunks of meat that could still manage to scream…”

And last but definitely not least…

“I want to make one thing clear. I do not like, nor will I ever like, any one of you. Why? Because I know that despite the fine work of myself and my staff, you will inevitably make us all look bad. It pains me. It keeps me awake at night knowing that no matter how much I teach you, you will inevitably fail those who fight with you. The best I can do is make sure that when you go, you don’t take your whole fucking platoon down with you. That right – if you only get yourself killed, I count that as a success!”

I think I’d pay money in whatever futuristic form to actually see this guy rant. Heh!

But the point is, John’s drill sergeant completely embodies in that chapter what those soldiers are in for, what they can expect, and exactly how brutal it’s going to be. The future is a very unforgiving place, and the rest of humanity back on Earth literally has no idea what’s happening across the universe or how lucky they are that their old and infirm are guarding them and their colonies. But there comes a point in the book (and I’d begun to question this before then) when John begins to wonder if maybe there’s a different way than the deadly rat race to colonize the CDF insists is the only way. Slowly we begin to see how John himself effects a change in the CDF. Along the way we see him agonize, mourn, celebrate and grow along the way as he does his part wherever he’s sent.

The worldbuilding is interesting in that Scalzi’s come up with some incredibly imaginative worlds and races, peppering it with bits of scientific and mathematical theory as to how much of what the CDF does is possible. I thoroughly loved the worldbuilding itself while being vaguely accepting of the theoretical dialogue. And hey, thank goodness the theoreticals are given in the form of dialogue by witty and engrossing characters. Otherwise it probably would’ve been Snore Central up in that spaceship for me. As I said on my Goodreads update once, I think I vaguely get what Alan is trying to explain while also being pretty sure I don’t much at all but will try to hold on to what I think I know cuz that’s all I’ve got. At least I vaguely got it! I think. Maybe? Anyway, the point is, this is all very reader friendly. Scalzi does an excellent job of conveying his worlduilding in ways that are completely engaging for the reader and the theoretical stuff isn’t so overwhelming that you’ll feel the urge to take a hammer to your head. Bonus points, this book has ‘em.

Scalzi’s writing style is snappy and fast-paced, with just the right balance of witty banter and thoughts from John and his fellow soldiers to counter the horrific realities of war on a universal scale. I love this kind of book because it offers a solace and opportunity to de-stress after feeling particularly shocked at a terrible event in the book. That’s not to say there’s no depth, either. There are very poignant moments that are surprisingly introspective and thoughtful, and gratifyingly so given the natural grave state of war. Scalzi simply does it with writing that is brief yet no less profound for that brevity. I love it when things of this nature are driven home with beautiful, concise words.

There’s a lot more I could say about this book. John takes readers on an incredible adventure of war and it’s universal repercussions, of a new human culture that, despite their advances in space, are still very much the infants of that universe with so much to learn and understand. The only other thing I can really do is to highly recommend this book, even if you’re not a fan of scifi particularly. It’s a wonderful book that explores important topics and whether you agree with anything in the book or not, what a way to be entertained in the process. I’ll definitely be continuing with the series.

Rating: Five Scoops

Diana Rowland
Touch of the Demon (Kara Gillian #5)
DAW
Urban Fantasy
December 31, 2012

Blurb via Goodreads:

She’s used to summoning supernatural creatures from the demon realm to our world, but now the tables have been turned and she’s the one who’s been summoned. Kara is the prisoner of yet another demonic lord, but she quickly discovers that she’s far more than a mere hostage. Yet waiting for rescue has never been her style, and Kara has no intention of being a pawn in someone else’s game.

There’s intrigue to spare as she digs into the origin of the demonic lords and discovers the machinations of humans and demons alike. Kara is shocked to discover that she has her own history in the demon realm, and that the ties between her and the demonic lords Rhyzkahl and Szerain go back farther than she could have ever imagined. But treachery runs rampant among all the lords, and she’s going to have to stay sharp in order to keep from being used to further their own agendas. The lords have a secret that dates back to earth’s ancient history, and it could have devastating repercussions for both worlds.

Yet more than anything else, Kara’s abilities as a homicide detective will be put to the test—because this time the murder she has to solve is her own.

Books With Balls is a special reviewing segment here at Lurv where an author goes where no other author can, meaning this author’s style is unique. It’s a book with balls. Big meaty ones.

Number of Balls (scale of 1-5, 5 being best): 5

Why is this book ballsy?

Answer: I can’t reveal exactly why, it’d be a huge spoiler, but Rowland takes some huge risks with Kara in this installment. It’s ugly. It’s pretty horrifying. It’s absolutely riveting and took the book and series to whole different level. The author really made it work.

After my disappointment with book 4, I’d begun to wonder when Rowland was going to take the plot somewhere a little heavier duty. Considering that was the fourth in the series, after all, I’d expected it to be a little more bang for the series buck. That bang came in the form of book 5 and I’m delighted to say it was completely worth the wait after all. Touch of the Demon holds nothing back and takes Kara on a darker path than I doubt any of us expected (though I had my suspicions about certain sex-i-fied demons aheeeem).

Before we go any further, yep, there will be past book spoilers (like, immediately following this statement), but I’ll try my best not to give away anything about the current book. When last we saw Kara, she’d been summoned to the demon realm and had some kind of collar fastened about her neck. Oh the suckage that wrought on us agonized readers! And of course it picks up right where it left off and we learn that she’s become the property, more or less, of another demon lord named Mzatal, pulled from Earth by his boy wonder human summoner, Idris. For the first several chapters, Kara is terrified of what they want of her, and it doesn’t become clear for quite some time. All we know is what Kara does, which is next to nothing about whatever is going on (As has been the case for, ooooh FOUR books. Huff.). What’s clear though is that Kara wishes to escape and find her way back to the only demon she feels she can trust, the ever-sexy Rhyzkahl. Mzatal isn’t giving her a lot of confidence that he harbors the warm fuzzies for her and I admit I felt he probably didn’t either. The book begins at a tense, fast pace that doesn’t let up for almost the whole book, with a lot of well-done mystery that the reader will be rewarded for waiting patiently for.

Hmm, what to say, what to…or rather what not to say. I can say a crap ton of interesting things happen in this book, but that’s boring as hell. So, so boring compared to the goods in Touch of the Demon. Goods as in Finally, Something Happens. Not necessarily good things happen to Kara. For the most part, I would say this is not a happy installment for our favorite amateur demon summoner. First I kind of hated Mzatal because it seems he’s bound to hurt her, and if you’re like me, you’ve really come to care about the character of Kara Gillian. Despite her inept knowledge of demons and summoning. In spite of some foolish things she’s done. Given how awful things eventually go for her in the demon realm, you’d think this wouldn’t be such a great read for me, but we finally begin to see the light with many a point in the series arc. Characters we thought we knew by now were revealed, their true colors shining through so brightly a reader’s bound to need some shades. Kara finally begins to have a Real Clue what it means to be a summoner as well as some training. I mean, hallelujah! That woman has needed some true summoner training all her life. Her ineptness has always been one of my few peeves with the series. She also experiences these weird flashbacks and memories of another summoner that used to receive training from a few of the demonic lords, and there was a sentence that caught my eye and made me giggle:

And there I was alone in the bath chamber staring at a tub already full of steaming water and no clue what happened to Giovanni. Like a fucking cliffhanger. Gah! I tried to get the image back but no luck.

Could this possibly have been a salute to the keen disappointment many readers expressed in the last book’s crushing cliffhanger? Heee!

I’ve seen several reviews upset at how much of the book takes place in the demon realm, citing this installment as a switchover to high fantasy and no longer residing in the urban fantasy distinction. I disagree. Yes, it takes place for the most part in the demon realm, but the series has dropped clues for a while now that a visit to the demon realm could be possible. Plus, it’s an integral part of the book, whether we’d visited or not up to this point in the series. It’s where those bad ass demons live and are summoned from. It just makes sense that we’d eventually get an extended look at it.

And I liked the demon realm. A lot. Rowland does a fantastic job of segueing into the alien-like world the demons are from, as well as explaining to readers through Kara’s experiences what the place is like. Basically, there are a certain number of demon lords, all of whom hold their own kingdoms within the demon realm. They own lavish estates, for lack of better terms, adorned with expansive mansions, villas or fortresses. I kind of got a Medieval vibe at times, though that’s not absolutely correct. The different parts of the realm are connected by magical groves that act as some kind of transportation device – here I got a Mortal Combat visual, when they’d go down that warpy tunnel-y thing to travel to other places. The demon realm is recovering from a long ago disaster, and the destruction of some of these lavish homes and the surrounding countryside are evident in crumbling towers and craters the size of a meteor landing. It’s a beautiful, alien-esque world and Kara gets to experience it pretty much to its fullest. She also gets to experience demon cuisine, and let’s just say some of the descriptions are not a little gag-inducing.

We get to meet some interesting and integral new characters, some of which are already mentioned. Mzatal has far more to him than first expected, as does Rhyzkahl. Hopefully without giving too much away, I’ll say that I have never fully trusted Rhyzkahl, though I’ve always been for his and Kara’s sexy times. And speaking of sexy times – they’re back this time. Thank you, Rowland – they. are. BACK. And I mean back with a  vengeance. Quick, grab a fan before opening the book. Is mucho nice.

But that aside, yes, lots of interesting characters, Idris, Mzatal’s summoner being one. I really came to like him, and it’s clear from the end of this book he’ll continue to be very important in the next. We meet several other demon lords, all of whom are pretty good at concealing their true motives.

A few nitpicks – Kara is a tad annoying at times when she starts going all super supreme confident. I want her to be confident and I want her to kick all the ass, I just got tired of her repeating that she and her compatriots were going to kick all the ass ( <— a real, actual line she proudly proclaims). For one, it’s cool once or twice, but several times in a few chapters and sometimes within pages of the last, it gets cheesetastic and lame. Especially cuz, they’re not always managing to kick all the ass. Thy make a valient effort and they definitely kick some of the ass, but I wouldn’t say all of it.

And one more – back to the sexy times. Kara is a free spirit and unashamed of her body’s needs. I get that and I respect it. I just don’t want her to sleep with every demon she wants to trust, is all. Other than that, I’m still all for hawt demon smutty sex. Two big human thumbs up plus some razor-tipped demon ones!

Touch of the Demon will leave you absolutely shocked and breathless at certain points in the book, maybe punch you in the face even because there is some serious bad stuff going down. But that’s OK. The series has need something to jar it back into a rocking series arc pace and this one does so in spades. We get to find out lots of information. But of course we’re also still left with plenty of questions. Still, I’m happy. I feel back on track with this series. I’m excited to perv gawk at some more hawt demon sex. I can’t wait to see what demon lord shitnannery goes down next. I can’t wait to see Kara kick some more of that ass – so long as she doesn’t feel the need to keep saying it over and over. I am excited to see her grow in her powers, something she’s always deserved. Till next year! *SOB*

Rating: Five Scoops

Stephenie Meyer
The Host
Back Bay Books
Science Fiction
april 26, 2010, kindle edition

Blurb via Goodreads:

Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. Earth has been invaded by a species that takes over the minds of human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed.

Wanderer, the invading “soul” who has been given Melanie’s body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn’t expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

Melanie fills Wanderer’s thoughts with visions of the man Melanie loves – Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body’s desires, Wanderer yearns for a man she’s never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love.

*A few slight spoilers*

I bought this book years ago in its hardback incarnation and promptly stowed it to Never Be Read. I don’t know what I was thinking because even back then I hated holding a hardback (still do) and The Host as one isn’t just a hardback – it is a force to be reckoned with due to its rather healthy girth. Yep, it’s a log way around to its ending, but I found, to my absolute delight, that it was well worth the trip. So much so that this ended up tying with another book for my most favorite read in 2012.Late in 2012 I bought The Host in ebook format and almost immediately upon opening its digital pages, I fell in love. Now, I have to admit – I wasn’t expecting to actually enjoy it this much. I’ve read the Twilight series, for the most part. (Breaking Dawn, the second half, was just awful. DNFed.) As a result, I wasn’t expecting a book that was as well-written as The Host. Let’s face it, Twilight was fluffy entertainment. This one, however, engaged me on a deeply emotional level and sucked me in so thoroughly that I was staying up as late as possible on work nights to see what happened next. Every lost hour of sleep was well worth it.

The Host takes place in the successful aftermath of an alien invasion. Humans are becoming extinct and it’s not due to an ultra violent race that came in guns blazing. Quietly and with an efficiency that was downright scary, these “souls” that now inhabit almost every living human managed to take over Earth with barely any casualties, on their part and on the human front. The fact remains, though, that what’s left when a soul takes over is anything but human. While the souls think they’ve been successful, there are actually a few humans left fighting for survival in the wilderness and those few are about to get the surprise visitor of their lives. One that will change their lives forever.

I was prepared to find a pretty black and white story of good versus evil, bad aliens against brave humans, or some such cliched nonsense. What I got instead was a surprisingly riveting and complex story that slowly tethered me to it in ways I didn’t expect. We have Wanderer, one of the invading aliens called souls that is placed inside Melanie Stryder so that Wanderer can try to find the sect of rebel humans still out there. Wanderer is so named because she’s seen many more worlds and experienced many more alien cultures than almost any other soul. When she waked inside Melanie’s body, she is unprepared for the force with which Melanie fights back. This is Wanderer’s first time as a human, and she quickly begins to realize that humans may be the most intricate of all the alien races her people have ever conquered. She is unable to completely suppress Melanie’s personality, nor her strong emotions and ties to those she loved. Wanderer quickly begins to spiral into a double life where she’s unable to distinguish whose feelings are coming through – hers or Melanie’s.

At times I felt a though Wanderer and her people’s motives are completely horrifying. The thought of being taken over by a parasitic alien and suppressed till my own personality and love and life is gone is the basis for one of the most well-known scifi horror tropes today. Meyer puts her own spin on the tale by delving deep into Wanderer’s personality as well as her own motives, which she is struggling to figure out through the entire book. I found, much to my surprise, favoring her instead of Melanie, and this was despite the beyond sad acknowledgement that, if this kind of scenario were ever possible, I would never see those I loved again. But that’s why Melanie fights and soon the interesting part of the story is how Melanie and Wanderer begin to come to an understanding. It is a long and painful journey but it is also beautiful and deeply meaningful.

The actions of the souls versus humans is stark. Souls, while yes, they invaded and took over the human race, are also peaceful and see it as their task in the universe to save races from themselves that are destructive and warring. What better race to save than the human one? The souls bring with them medicine so advanced and simple to use that they make cancer look like the common cold. They demolish the need for money and simply provide to one another the things needed for day-to-day life because it is the right and kind thing to do. They create, for lack of more original terms, a utopia on Earth. The only problem is, it’s at the cost of humanity. Wanderer, or Wanda as she’s come to be known as amongst the band of rebels Melanie was with, begins to realize that maybe her people aren’t right. That maybe there’s a better way.

I don’t think the story reaches any satisfying answers what that better way is by the end. For all it’s moral dilemmas and deep exploration of the evils of humanity versus the idealistic earnestness of the souls, it is clear that there can be no perfect world. There were some things that made me uncomfortable as the author tries to tie some kind of bow on The End. One was where, at the end almost, the humans procure a new human body for Wanderer/Wanda, and they’d been stalking this young woman for a while to see ow she would suit. They wanted someone that was innocently beautiful for Wanderer/Wanda so that she wouldn’t attract attention in the sense that people would think she was trouble. They also managed to find, for some reason, someone they felt would appear very docile and almost helpless – which I found kind of creepy. Almost doll-like. I didn’t understand this because Wanderer isn’t helpless. She’s strong and brave. Yes, I get that they needed to essentially hide her in plain sight, but still, the situation was creepy. Never mind the fact that this was a previously human person whose personality had already been suppressed to the point that she would never come back. It’s just weird that no one spared a thought for that human person who’d once existed when they decided her body would make a good shell for Wanderer.

There was also some violence committed against Wanderer soon after she’s found by Melanie’s band of rebels that, while I feel it was completely realistic, still made me wince over and over. In reality, should anything like this be possible, I suspect a alien-inhabited body like Melanie’s would have been treated much worse. Still, it may have felt particularly bad because it’s Melanie’s boyfriend, Jared, who initiates the violence against her/Wanderer. And not just once. I had a really hard time buying into a love between him and Melanie at all when he could so violently strike her.

But this opens up what is the pivotal part of Melanie and Wanderer’s combined story. What led me to care for them both, despite Wanderer being from a race of body snatchers and Melanie being a shrill, unlikable personality at first. Several other characters from this point contribute to the slow discovery of Life After. There’s Ian, who also played a role in the initial mistreatment of Wanderer, who builds an affinity for Wanderer in particular. There’s Kyle, Ian’s brother, who is the most worrisome in his hatred. There’s Jeb, Melanie’s uncle, who literally saved Wanderer’s life over and over because of his fair and just practices. There’s Melanie’s brother, Jamie, who Melanie is fighting the hardest for. Many more become entangled in small and large ways that build and build upon Wanderer’s growing realization of what she must ultimately do.

I was quite undone while reading The Host. Meyer did an absolutely fantastic job of reeling me in. One minute I was hating a character only to empathize with them chapters later. I cried – a lot. And I don’t mean some tears dropped onto my shirt and I wiped them away and that was the end. No, I had to go get several tissues and have a cry-a-thon more than once. This has to be one of the most emotionally evocative books I’ve ever read. It’s that kind of read that, as soon as it’s over, you wish you were starting it fresh for the first time just to experience again the rush of wonderful it gave. I can’t think how else to get across how this book made me feel any better than that – now let’s hope there’s a sequel one day and it lives up to the level of spectacular this one sets.

Rating: Five Scoops

All book blurbs were taken from Amazon.com or Goodreads.

Vivian Maylor can’t sleep. Maybe it’s because she just broke up with her boyfriend and moved to a new town, or it could be the stress of her new job at the hospital. But perhaps it’s because her dreams have started to bleed through into her waking hours.

All of her life Vivian has rejected her mother’s insane ramblings about Dreamworlds for concrete science and fact, until an emergency room patient ranting about dragons spontaneously combusts before her eyes—forcing Viv to consider the idea that her visions of mythical beasts might be real.

And when a chance encounter leads her to a man she knows only from her dreams, Vivian finds herself falling into a world that seems strange and familiar all at once—a world where the line between dream and reality is hard to determine, and hard to control…

This reads like a PNR but not sure if it’s meant to be one since the publisher is Ace. It sounds interesting. Releases January 29, 2013

The traveling carnival is a leftover of a bygone era, a curiosity lurking on the outskirts of town. It is a place of contradictions—the bright lights mask the peeling paint; a carnie in greasy overalls slinks away from the direction of the Barker’s seductive call. It is a place of illusion—is that woman’s beard real? How can she live locked in that watery box?

And while many are tricked by sleight of hand, there are hints of something truly magical going on. One must remain alert and learn quickly the unwritten rules of this dark show. To beat the carnival, one had better have either a whole lot of luck or a whole lot of guns—or maybe some magic of one’s own.

Featuring stories grotesque and comical, outrageous and action-packed, Carniepunk is the first anthology to channel the energy and attitude of urban fantasy into the bizarre world of creaking machinery, twisted myths, and vivid new magic.

Normally anthologies aren’t my thing, but this one has a good lineup of authors and sounds unique. Releases July 30, 2013.

What if Rapunzel was Snow White’s evil stepmother?

From the author of Godmother and Mermaid, The Fairest of Them All explores what happens when fairy tale heroines grow up and don’t live happily ever after.

Living in an enchanted forest, Rapunzel spends her days tending a mystical garden with her adoptive mother, Mathena. A witch, Mathena was banished from court because of her magic powers, though the women from the kingdom still seek her advice and herbal remedies. She waits, biding her time to exact revenge against those who banished her.

One day Rapunzel’s beautiful voice and long golden locks captivate a young prince hunting in the forest nearby. Overcome, he climbs her hair up to her chamber and they fall into each other’s arms. But their afternoon of passion is fleeting, and the prince must return to his kingdom, as he is betrothed to another.

Now king, he marries his intended to bring peace to his kingdom. They have a stunning daughter named Snow White. Yet the king is haunted by his memories of Rapunzel, and after the mysterious death of his wife, realizes he is free to marry the woman he never stopped longing for. In hopes of also replacing the mother of his beloved daughter, the king makes Rapunzel his queen.

But when Mathena’s wedding gift of an ancient mirror begins speaking to her, Rapunzel falls under its evil spell, and the king begins to realize that Rapunzel is not the beautiful, kind woman he dreamed of.

Fairy tale retellings and I haven’t always gotten along but I don’t think I’ve read enough of them either, so I thought about giving this one a try. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Rapunzel becoming the evil queen. Releases August 6, 2013.

In a futuristic world nearly destroyed by religious extremists, Justin March lives in exile after failing in his job as an investigator of religious groups and supernatural claims. But Justin is given a second chance when Mae Koskinen comes to bring him back to the Republic of United North America (RUNA). Raised in an aristocratic caste, Mae is now a member of the military’s most elite and terrifying tier, a soldier with enhanced reflexes and skills.

When Justin and Mae are assigned to work together to solve a string of ritualistic murders, they soon realize that their discoveries have exposed them to terrible danger. As their investigation races forward, unknown enemies and powers greater than they can imagine are gathering in the shadows, ready to reclaim the world in which humans are merely game pieces on their board.

Gameboard of the Gods, the first installment of Richelle Mead’s Age of X series, will have all the elements that have made her YA Vampire Academy and Bloodlines series such megasuccesses: sexy, irresistible characters; romantic and mythological intrigue; and relentless action and suspense.

I haven’t had the urge to read a Mead story since the plot went all rape-y in one of her books, but this one’s blurb intrigues me. We will hope for the best. Releases June 4, 2013.

First came the storms.

Then came the Fever.

And the Wall.

After a string of devastating hurricanes and a severe outbreak of Delta Fever, the Gulf Coast has been quarantined. Years later, residents of the Outer States are under the assumption that life in the Delta is all but extinct…but in reality, a new primitive society has been born.

Fen de la Guerre is living with the O-Positive blood tribe in the Delta when they are ambushed. Left with her tribe leader’s newborn, Fen is determined to get the baby to a better life over the wall before her blood becomes tainted. Fen meets Daniel, a scientist from the Outer States who has snuck into the Delta illegally. Brought together by chance, kept together by danger, Fen and Daniel navigate the wasteland of Orleans.  In the end, they are each other’s last hope for survival.

Sherri L. Smith delivers an expertly crafted story about a fierce heroine whose powerful voice and firm determination will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page.