Post Christmas squee

It's friday night, I'm summering gently on half a bottle of red wine and I'm feeling remarkably squeeful considering the week at work I've had.

First things first, I love my kindle.  I knew I would, but the level of adoration I have for my ereader is one of cheerful enthusiasm, I want to read ALL OF THE BOOKS ALL OF THE TIME. Ahem.  I am restraining myself at least enough that I'm only reading at my lunch time and when I'm in bed, I'm also researching ways I can safely read my kindle in the bath, because reading in the bath is one of life's true pleasures.

Anyhoo I set myself a target last year to read 50 books and I succeeded  in finishing 54 and if you are interested the full list in all it's glory is found here.  I have to say, there were very few books I didn't enjoy, the succubus novels excepted and some of the hollows novels were whiney. This year I intend to read 50 books again.

Second things second, my Doctor Who series 6 arrived today on Blu Ray. I look forward to watching over and over especially the Doctor's Wife, and well hell; all of it!

Third things third, it's the time of the year that I like to think of as the run up to my birthday, I'm going to be 33 which makes me rather hyper as I love numbers like this, I enjoyed being 11, 22 and I hope to the lords of Kobol that being 33 will rock hard.  In order to celebrate I'm treating myself to a Lucky Voice Karaoke box and mikes. I am making plots for something to happen in the near future. Friends and singing = awesome.

Whilst I am composing this blog post I am watching season one of the Closer which my chap and I both find hilarious and easy to watch. I'm also vibrating with squee over the impending Hound in Sherlock.

Futile Flame and Demon Dance by Sam Stone

Where the first novel focuses on Gabrielle the second novel concentrates on Lucrezia (yes Borgia) and her story. I have to say Sam Stone doesn't shy away from tough storylines and the second chapter might be rather tough for some readers.

The pace of the novel is quick and I've had to do a few things one handed the last couple of days just so I could see what happens next.

The last third of the novel really takes an unexpected turn and I'm not 100% convinced by it, it's quite a departure to what has gone before, what I will say is that it didn't make me any less determined to read the third in the series.

Demon Dance is the third in the Vampire Gene series of novels and by far the most complicated in terms of its narrative. Futile Flame left us dangling with Lilly disappearing and then phoning up from Sweden and Demon Dance picks the tale up from that point and runs with it.

Again I don't want to give much of the plot away but the major theme in this of time travel and paradox and places which were visited within Futile Flame are returned to and explored from a different point of view.  Lilly is very different to the version we meet in killing kiss. The change is necessary and  does make sense once you start reading.

I have to confess some elements of the book didn't move me, some of the mystical stuff was a bit bangly hobbity for my tastes and the Allucians don't really work for me but having said all that it didn't stop me from enjoying the book.

I like that the author is prepared to make her narratives unreliable and things that one character has told us might not be the truth. I like being hoodwinked by an author it means I have to make decisions as a reader and that's always fun.

I do like the author's use of language, the imagery that she uses to describe scenes is evocative and I particularly enjoyed the description of the relationship between Lilly and Rhuddlan castle.  The description of her magical elements, ley lines and gene magic are both utterly compelling and so vivid.

One thing that I thought sorted itself a tad too easily was the triangular relationship between Lilly, Gabrielle and Caesare. I would have expected there to be some awkwardness even if that was dealt with in the next book.

Overall a very enjoyable and entertaining read, less disturbing than the previous one, I'm looking forward to the next one which I believe is out soon.

Killing Kiss

I picked up all three Vampire Gene novels at a convention I recently attended and as such I got to meet Sam Stone we got to talking about how vampires have been defanged somewhat, she reassured me that her vampires didn't sparkle and so I bought the books and have been looking forward to reading them.

And I have made a start, I've read killing kiss and it is enjoyable. First off I think this is probably one of the few urban fantasy novels that I've read that is set in the UK so that immediately gets bonus points from me. Secondly Gabriele is definitely a predator, the reader is left with no misconception that he's a pretty efficient killer.

That said, I found the character fairly easy to empathise with, as the novel fills in his backstory alternating with the contemporary one.

Lilly is a really likeable character, she's strong willed and really doesn't take any vampire crap.

The story rattles along at a good pace and is both fiercely enjoyable and rather sexy, even if I do say so myself.

I am really looking forward to reading the sequels.

Book review: Blueeyedboy by Joanne Harris

First my declaimer, I've read most of Joanne Harris' novels and there isn't one I haven't thoroughly enjoyed.  Blueeyedboy, is one of her finest works to date.

The theme of the novel is about the fluidity of identity and putting fingers to keyboard right now, its always been one of her signature themes.  This novel has a darker tone, it is still a playful novel, but there is a dark side to the psyches that are presented here.  As with her previous work language is used in both a skilful and playful way. The protagonist's voice, Blueeyed boy himself revels in the language that he uses. Meanings are layered and words are chopped up to subvert and enhance their meaning.

There are two narrators and the strands of story twist and knot and provide a non linear structure. The novel is also written in the form of journal entries like Live Journal and Dream Width and some of the many copies that are out there. The narrators contradict each other and as a reader you cannot trust that anything you are told is truth even in the 'private' entries. The ending is not big on closure and not everyone copes well with books like this and if you don't get on with this style of writing then move on you probably won't get much from this novel.

What I love about Blueeyedboy and Harris' work in general is her descriptive writing. Much of the narrators' ideas are explained in the language of colours and taste. I also love that as a reader you experience the same event multiple times throughout the novel from different perspectives so there isn't any one Truth but a plurality of truths.

I've seen reviewers complain that they have trouble keeping up with the changes in narrators and who don't like the fluidity of the narrative. To be honest I've got little time for these people, I don't like being spoon fed as a reader and enjoy the challenges of working things out and actively enjoy being surprised by an author.  I like that Joanne Harris is leading me up the garden path with parts of the narrative, she's so beguiling with her words that I'm happy to be lead.

The novel also resonates with me because I'm one of those users of  those journaling sites not the murky depths of  badguysrock but I understand these sites and her portrayal of them is refreshingly accurate and completely recognisable.

Awesome book.

 

Dead Reckoning - a point of view

Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris       

Is the eleventh (!) book in the southern vampire mysteries.  It still revolves around Sookie Stackhouse and whereas the earlier books really engaged me to the point of obsession. Dead in the Family and Dead Reckoning both have left me somewhat cold.

I was mulling the reasons over and I came up with this conclusion: there is no mystery in these two novels. It's all character but and a lot of questions answered but really no major questions set up and no central mystery. I still liked the characters and I still wanted to find out what happened, but the urgency just wasn't there like it was in the earlier novels.

I still love Eric though, so that's all right with the world.

Badass witches and Viking vampires

Writiing is kind of hard for me to do at the moment, energy is no where but there are some diversions in the form of the books I've been reading. Oh dear I've been a bit remiss at reviewing what I've read but things have come into alignment for the first time in an age and so I'll bring you up to speed on where I've been escaping to.
 
To be honest reading lost momentum, doing a show does that to you. So it took far longer than it should to complete Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison. Which was a shame as it's a corking read,  even if it is somewhat at odds with it's cover.  The tone of the cover is that the witch concerned is a complete badass which would be totally fine, but the novel is pitched in a softer way.  Rachel can be all butt kick but there's also a lot of worrying and no small amount of stupid decisions.
 
the novels are good fun though and the second has enough twists and turns to keep me guessing, I'm always wring in whodunits and there are genuine surprises in the novels.
 
I like the universe that's been created, I love then idea that vamps wws witches and other mythical creatures had to 'come out' after a genetic accident wiped out half the human population some really awesome ideas IMO.
 
I am also looking forward to resuming the series once I've finished my next book. This is the first book I've bought in about 12 months. I know right? However, I have special dispensation to buy books which are really important to me.  At the top of this list is Terry Pratchett novels and then if JK Rowling decides to publish ever again I'll probably be there and then there are the books which got me into the urban fantasy genre themselves. The southern vampire mysteries.  My friend gave me the first 6 which I inhaled in about a fortnight then ordered then next two from amazon second hand and then bought the following two brand new, in hardback for the final one.
 
This one Dead Reckoning I actually preordered and had delivered to my little home.
 
I am currently one chapter deep and I have really missed fictional Eric. I love vikings.

Runemarks by Joanne Harris

The latest book in my challenge was Runemarks by Joanne Harris.  Runemarks is her first novel aimed at young adults and whereas her other novels have contained fantastic elements whereas this one is a proper fantasy novel. It's also been sitting on my bookshelf for about two years. This is because I've been a lazy reader buying books and then not getting around to reading them.  Its only in the last two years when I've set myself some challenges have I got back tinto the habit of reading have I managed to yomp through so many.  Anyway, back to the review.

It centres around Maddy a young girl who is an outsider in her own village. She has a runemark or a ruinmark as the villagers call it.  The novel starts there with visits from a gnarly old mad called One-Eye.

This novel rapidly stops being about a small village and more about Harris' reinterpretation of Norse mythology with a little bit of questioning organised religion.

Needless to say I found the novel beguiling and I really enjoyed the instense descriptions.  Its a great story and she invokes a whole lot of life into the Norse Gods.

Go read it, its fab.

What I've been reading...

Kerri Arthur's Riley Jenson series.

Oh how do I love this series? Let me count the ways…

Firstly she's a werewolf/vampire half breed and she kicks ass. Secondly the series is set in Melbourne which makes a nice change from the US. Thirdly they are full on with naughty bits and Kerri Arthur gives good naughty bits. Fourthly there is a cast of likeable characters. A love interest that has me vacillating between hating and approving of. Fifthly the universe has an interesting premise with clones as well as a host of other shifters, Vamps and other supernatural beasties.

The books are quick paced and importantly not too long. They are fun and whist some elements get a tad repetitive, I can't seem to stop reading them.  I seem to be in somewhat of a completist mind set of late and am really enjoying reading series after series. It's partially because once I'm in a particular universe I like to stay there for a while and enjoy. The downside is that some turns of phrasing become a little bit over used.  This wouldn't be the case if I was mixing things up a little.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the first seven! 

Next up is a slight break from the urban fantasy, I'm reading Joanne Harris' Runemarks

books and stuff

Update on books I've been reading.

Finished the books I had on the weather warden series. Windfall and Firestorm both cracking.  I zipped through them because they begged to be read and quickly.  The pace which was already break-neck speed went up another notch and its completely flat out with very little respite from the dangers that are besetting our heroine Joanne on all sides.

As I've previously stated the novels are a lot of fun and have been very enjoyable. There is a further book in the series that I don't have that I will have to seek out at some point because I need to know how the sequence ends.  It is a very inventive series of books and highly addictive.

Following on from that I realised that I had been given the 4th book in the Succubus series: Succubus Heat by Richelle Mead.  I intently disliked the third book in the sequence but the fourth one was rather good.  I think it is like the star trek films and the even number ones are better than the odd numbered ones.

I'm caught up on those which left me with a quandary, what to read next.  I've been eyeing the Kerri Arthur Books for a while so I'm sinking my fangs into Full Moon Rising.

Also in order not to be boring I might mix up the series a little.  I find it hard to write about the same author in spurts the way I've had to.  Especially if I'm reading a series I feel like I'm being repetitive when talking about them. If this series is too addictive then I might not be able to help what I read but I'll see how it goes.

Books: Ill Wind - Rachel Caine

This series of books came highly reccommended by my book doner twitter's @boneist.

Ill Wind is the first in the Weather Warden series.  What makes this series of novels unique is that weather wardens are kind of elemental magicians. They manage their magic with help from their Djinns.  Its an intriguing and unique set up, no vampires or werewolves.

Its first person narrative, its pacy and its sexy.

I found it scarily easy to read and very definitely addictive.

Books: Succubus Nights and Succubus Dreams

Succubus Nights

Having had an attack of the meh's about the first novel, the second took me by surprise with just how good it was.  Far more entertaining and it seemed to hang together better.  It started to address some of the flaws that the first book had and it was good.   Georgina Kincaid was less irritating and supah speshal and was far more likable.

The pacing was good and I really enjoyed.

Succubus Dreams

With good vibes from the second book I really looked forward to the third one, and was disappointed. 
Maybe it's like Star Trek films and only the even number books are entertaining.

What got me, was the lead character's attitude and the drama she generates.  Obviously the protagonist has to generate drama but meh it didn't do it for me.  I found her annoying and in a number of ways incredibly selfish.

Also the relationship with Seth. IDEK I can only assume that Richelle Mead thought that the readers would think it sweet that Seth Calls her Thetis and in a way it is a creature from mythology who was a shape shifter and so is she. But I've been on the recieving end of someone bestowing a new name upon me and it wasn't done to be sweet, it was done to manipulate and control.

I don't think the relationship was written particularly well.



So for reading the first three books in the series I'm unlikely to read any more.

Book: Succubus Blues By Richelle Mead

In some ways I hate starting a new series of novels, I get submerged into the rules of that universe and I get miffed when I then have to change the rules. Silly I know but there you are. It’s me being lazy.

So I was coming at Succubus Blues from a disadvantage. The good news is that by the end of the novel I’d been more won round the bad news was it took me a while.

The premise is that Georgina Kincaid is a Succubus; she is not the demon you would expect, she’s actually kind of good and a lot tired of seducing good men to get her fix. There is her crux, by setting her sights on morally dubious men she doesn’t get her fix or not to the same extent. Enter Seth, her favourite author and all round good egg. He’s a really nice stable guy and she likes him but there’s the whole OMG-I-CAN’T-SLEEP-WITH-HIM-LEST-I-KILL-HIM! Thing. There are also other interests, Roman for instance.

Coupled with her predicament there is also the mystery, someone is killing immortals but who.

I don’t do spoilers, so I’ll stop talking about the plot and get on with things. If I’m honest the set up is more than a little cheesy. Georgina is a little bit of a Mary-Sue. The thing that I think makes me roll my eyes is the whole supahspeshal thing. Sure she’s a succubus and with her current morality it makes it hard for her.

But she’s surrounded by men, all of whom fancy her a bit, even her vampire friends, which is a by product of being a succubus, there are very few women in the book, none of them are characterised fully apart from Georgina.

Don’t let it put you off, it’s a perfectly adequate novel which was enjoyable to read, its just I do get somewhat irked at things like this.

Book: American Gods, Neil Gaiman

This book is epic, in all senses of the word.

Epic in scope, in length as a journeyman tale and the fact it features certain Norse deities.

It was a satisfying read, there were patterns which weave and present themselves in such ways which are so clever and you get to feel quite clever when you've worked them out. Well you do if you're me.

My main reservation is that I was quite underwhelmed by the novel.  I wonder that it is a tad overhyped.  It is beautifully written, but I didn't get sucked in, I couldn't quite believe and that made me sad because of all the books I want to believe in I wanted it to be this one.

Maybe I missed something, but I found it lacked something.

It's also long and on occasion there is a long long way between chapters which doesn't complement my style of reading. I still think its a good book, it just didn't get me burning up with the degree of enthusiasm I thought it would.

My next book is Richelle Mead's Succubus Blues

Book: Men of the Otherworld

Another book, I know, no actual TV this year, I promise I'll get to the TV soon enough it is just that my brains are being eaten by fiction and I'm really enjoying this fact.

Now in the run up to christmas last year I was reading a lot of Kelley Armstrong, I read the first eight in the women of the otherworld series and as I read I realised that there was a short story collection, Men of the Otherworld which I really had to read.

It's not really a collection of short stories more a sequence of episodes which deal with Jeremy's early life, and Clayton's story.  It is a lot shorter than her novels and it really is more about the pack history than anything else.  I really enjoyed it.  Jeremy is one of those characters you wish you were more like, or that you wish you knew someone like that.  Clayton isn't, but its a great deal of background knowledge that only get's hinted at in the novels and its great to see what happened to the pack prior to Elena and tie some ends together.  Questions are also answered about Jeremy and it does so in a neat short story.

Not really a book for someone looking to start reading a series, I'd send you to the beginning and get you to read Bitten and Stolen.  I think it is a book for the fan and its none the worse for that.

Next on the reading list is the expanded and full version of American Gods by Neil Gaiman.  I adore Neil Gaiman, I've read a lot of his novels over the years and this is one that has eluded me a little bit.  I cannot wait to read this because Neil Gaiman writes so effortlessly and so beautifully it makes me want to cry beecause I'll never handle words as well as he can.

I'll be back to let you know how I got on.

A lick of frost

And I'm sad at finishing this book mainly because I don't get to know what happens next because I don't have the next book yet. I have a self imposed book buying ban because I have about fifty unread books from last year that were given to me in a sort out.

Lick of Frost is like the rest of a the series a bit of a romp.  Though this one has a more vicious twist than some of the others. Again enjoyable, sexy and addictive to read.  I'm not sure what else I have to say on this because I'd feel like I'm repeating myself.

Merry is for the most part an engaging protagonist, she's fiesty and she kicks ass. I like her men too, of course Doyle is my favourite, he always has been.

My next read is a collection of short stories by Kelley Armstrong Men of the Otherworld.

Well This could be considered a little embarassing

I started reading Laurell K Hamilton's Mistral's Kiss at some ungodly hour this morning because my stomach was whinging at me and not letting me sleep. I have occasional bouts of stomach trouble and I don't want to put you off so we'll leave it there. Suffice to say I was awake and grumpy.

I had finished the book I blogged earlier and made a start on this one.  Again enjoyable, as all the Merry Gentry books seem to be, this one was a good hundred pages shorter than the last one and I kind of just absorbed it.  The plot is that Merry is still trying to get with faerie baby and alongside that she beds her guards and fights those who would wish her harm.  There are many people who would wish her harm.  There are also random bursts of symbolic wild magic which make for interesting plot developments.  I'm not sure I'm doing a good job of selling the book here but it is good fun.

Also being part of very much an ongoing series its hard to discuss plot points because they refer to the other books and in my fragile state of mind I start to get confused.

The next one A lick of Frost will be started later and I'll see how I get on.

I will be posting about TV at some point, its just there seems to be a fallow patch for viewers such as me at the moment.  Am chomping at the bit for Outcasts though.

First book of the year

First let me explain:  I have started setting myself challenges to read, I had badly gotten out of the habit of reading books.  Reading webistes sure but committing myself to the pleasure of a novel was something I just put off for something more immediate.  I took a stand against myself last year when I challenged myself to read a book a fortnight in 2010.  When I reached the target of 26 books by June I kept going and by 31st Decemember 2010 I had read 49 books and was reading my 50th.

This year I aim to improve the number of books I'm reading by reading one a week.  Not too much of a stretch when I'm rattling through them.  I'm also going to be better at recording exactly what I've read and when. My reading record  has two tabs one for 2010 and one for 2011 there are a couple of differences between the two.  2011 has date information and so I'll be able to see who I'm reading quicker and I might even get statistical on your ass at some point.

I've already finished one book, and this is book zero on the list, I started it at some point in the christmas break and I'm not exactly sure when, I'm guessing boxing day.  The book was the fourth in Laurell K Hamilton's Merry Gentry series A stroke of midnight.  I have been reading the series in order and have found them to be both sexy and entertaining.  Sometimes the pacing can be a little off and sometimes some of the characters are infuriating with their reactions to things but the good more than outweighs the bad.

If you are interested the series starts with a Kiss of Shadows and goes on from there, I have been devouring them like a rabid fangirl devouring fic.  The sex within the novels are a little on the kinky side and might be a bit much for those who really don't like the idea of pain.  But they are good fun and if I don't like a book I don't pick them up and with these books I really can't put them down.