Some information about the book
Author: Jeff Wheeler
Title: Knight's Ransom
Publisher: 47 North
Date of Publication: 26th January 2021
Pages: 432
Synopsis
Some information about the book
Author: Jeff Wheeler
Title: Knight's Ransom
Publisher: 47 North
Date of Publication: 26th January 2021
Pages: 432
Synopsis
Title: The Year of the Witching
Author: Alexis Henderson
Date published: 23rd July 2020
Publisher: Bantam Press
Pages:386
Alex Award-winning author P. Djèlà Clark, A Dead Djinn in Cairo is a Tor.com original historcal fantasy set in an alternate early twentieth century infused with the otherworldly.
Egypt, 1912.
In Cairo, the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural
Entities investigate disturbances between the mortal and the (possibly)
divine.
What starts off as an odd suicide case for Special Investigator Fatma el-Sha’arawi leads her through the city’s underbelly as she encounters rampaging ghouls, saucy assassins, clockwork angels, and a plot that could unravel time itself.
This is a short story by P. Djeli Clark, clocking in at forty six pages, and I have to say that they are forty six pages of pure gold.
I don't know how P. Djeli Clark does it, he must be a magician becasue he sets up this little self contained story with such craftsmanship. When I read this was absolutely engrossed with this take on an alternative world in which Cairo is inhabited by Djinn, Clockwork Angels and murderous ghouls, all painted on a steampunk backdrop.
In such a short space of time, he introduces his snarky, bowler hat wearing female protagonist, Fatma el Sha'arawi at the scene of a death in which a Djinn has died in what appear to be suspicious circunstances. Fatma is an investigator in the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Emtities, who besides wearing a bolwer hat, carrying a specially made cane, likes to look 'exotic' by wearing an english style suit. As soon as Fatma quips at the salacious police chief Aasim in the first scene I knew I was going to like her. However, P. Djeli Clark just populates his little world with brilliantly realised characters.
Immediatley you are thrust into a world which is vibrant and colourful, and that is surprisingly expansive. Cairo is brilliantly realised with trams, motorised cariages and strange flying machines. Clark builds the world so vividly that never once are you lost as you move through the city with Fatma.
The pace of the story is like a runaway motorised carriage and it takes you along at such a speed you are shortly out of breath. Honestly, from begining to end not one word is wasted. And before you know it, you are at the climactic end, holding your breath until events play out.
I will most definitelybe seeking out the next instalments of these stories, with the Novella 'The Haunting of Tram Car 015 and Clark's debut novel, The Master of Djinn. Which is to be relaesed in May 2021. I'm not sure if they have Fatma el Sha'arawi in, but I hope so!
Here is some info about the book
Title: Inscape
Author: Louise Carey
Publisher: Gollancz
Publication Date: 21st January 2021
Pages: 334
Louise Carey’s stylish and sleek first book is a sci fi thriller set in a post - apocalyptic London.
For all those people that have not read Terry Pratchett, why
not? You will love it, although I do realise that his books are not for
everyone.
After that, Terry Pratcchett books became a staple of my
book buying and also most likely my life as I also have a pretty decent
collection of the old Clarecraft figures which were produced in the 90’s. In
fact, I actually met him on a few occasions and got books signed by him (up
until earlier this week, they were the only books that I ever had that were
signed). He was generally a lovely, affable man when I met him, and I have to
say at the time I did not know how popular he would become. It was a great loss
to both fantasy fiction and British Literature when he died aged 66 in 2015.
Now going back to my earlier statement of why haven’t you
read Terry Pratchett? Well it is quite easy really isn’t it. I think on the
whole he wrote about 70 books, not all of those were set in the Discworld, but
there is a large majority of them set there. I think he wrote about 41 in
total. And there were the other books that he wrote that connected in there,
like The Science of the Discworld (which he wrote four books with Ian Stewart
and Jack Cohen) and also The Folklore of the Discworld (written with Jacqueline
Simpson). So, when it comes to starting these books it must seem pretty daunting!
*See Below
Let’s give some background to what the Discworld is!
The Discworld is a flat planet that lies on the backs of four elephants (Berelia, Tubul, Great T’Phon and Jerekeen) who all stand on the back of the Giant Star Turtle, Great A’ Tuin.
(Now this might seem a little bit out there, but it does bear a striking resemblance to
Hindu Cosmology in which the tortoise Chukwa supports eight elephants, four
named male elephant, Viroopaakshaa (east), Mahaapadma (south), Saumanasa (West)
and Bhadra (north) and four unnamed female elephants)**See Below
Now, the first book in the series
was The Colour of Magic, which was published in 1983 and this introduced
us to Rincewind (apprentice wizzard because it says so on his hat!), Twoflower and
the Luggage (a magical luggage trunk that has a hundreds of tiny legs, a
voracious appetite and a really bad temper!).
The other character that everyone remembers is Death (who really likes cats and has a daughter called Ysabell. Oh, and a horse called Binky).
“What is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?”
Death thought about it.
CATS, he said eventually. CATS ARE NICE.” - SOURCERY by Terry Pratchett
For the first time in her life Granny wondered whether there might
be something important in all these books people were setting such store
by these days, although she was opposed to books on strict moral
grounds, since she had heard that many of them were written by dead
people and therefore it stood to reason reading them would be as bad
as necromancy. - From Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett
However, there are a multitude of
characters throughout all his books (my personal favourite is Cut-me - own – throat
Dibbler) ***
One of the things that I love
about Pratchett is that whilst set in a fantasy world, they are generally a
parody of the non sensical aspects of our own world and they centre around such
things as film making (Moving Pictures), newspaper publishing (The Truth), religion
(Small Gods), music industry (Soul Music) and all sorts of other things.
Well for one you could go in
publication order and start from the very beginning with The Colour of Magic
and work your way through them like that. ****
Or maybe you could cut it into
tiny digestible pieces and read it by character. Like read all the Death books
(I think there are 5), The Witches books (6), The City Watch (The largest
amount of books clocking in at 8), Moist von Lipwig (3) Rincewind/The Wizards
(7) and the Tiffany Aching Books (5)*****
You could dip your toe in and
read some of the standalones, or gateway books like Mort, Small Gods, or Moving
Pictures
Or maybe you want to do it your
own way and just do whatever. They are all fine, these are suggestions.
However, there are a load of
sites out there but a couple that I like are:
www.terrypratchett.com and www.discworldemporium.com (which is
also a shoppe, so beware! There are loads of oooh too many tempting things on there)
So, if you want to start reading Terry
Pratchett, I hope you find this useful.
Oh, and if you were wondering about the little asterisks. Each one will go to a little comment at the bottom of the page. This is a sneaky training session to getting you used to these as Pratchett’s book have these and lead to some funny comments at the bottom of the page.
*I am only doing the Discworld in this post, I might be
here all night if I have to write about the rest of his books. I have a job you
know! And a nerd needs to sleep, you know!
**If any of those facts are wrong, I take no responsibility
for any of it. It was the internet and we all know what that is like!
*** And there is a multitude of supporting characters
**** That’s the way that I read them, coz I had to wait for
the next instalment (patiently, very patiently!)
***** These are what would be called Young Adult in
todays publishing terminology
Well, today was a good day. It was the first day of work and you know what that is like bluuurgh. But lo and behold, text received from the Mrs - you have a book, from Dan Fitzgerald. Everybody was a sispicious because I was smiling on my first day back.
Yep, I got a book and it was signed.
It was such a lovely surprise and I cannot wait to read it. It was on my TBR anyway
look at these!
Some little nuggets of information about the book
Title: Blood Metal Bone
Author: Lindsay Cummings
Publisher: HQ Young Adult
Date of Publication: 7th January 2021
Pages: 384
Lindsay Cummings' new novel is an enjoyable genre-fusing mix of Sci-fi and Fantasy.
Maybe, when picking your next book to read you might have a hard time deciding between SciFi or fantasy. Lindsay Cummings must have been thinking this when writing Blood, Metal, Bone. But then she just thought, well why do I need to choose? Let's stick 'em in a blender and see what it tastes like.
Blood, Metal, Bone tells the story of Sonara. Cinderella bastard child of the warrior queen of Soeria, who when we first meet her is forced to maintain the horses of her mother's stable. She has a deep bond with her brother, Soahm the crown prince of the aforementioned land and jewel of his mother's eye.
However, one fateful day, a spaceship with a phoenix symbol takes Soahm, we don’t where or why, he’s just taken. Subsequently, Sonara gets the blame for this and it is assumed that she has nefariously done away with the crown prince. She is then publicly flogged by her mother, placed on a horse that her beloved brother gave her, and then forced to ride over the edge of a cliff.
Well, there’s no coming back from that one! The End!
Not quite the end, because Sonara comes back from the dead as a Shadowblood, a mysterious, magicy type of … person. The story then moves forward ten years and we meet Sonara again. Now she is working with a gang of cutpurses and she has taken up the mantle of The Devil of the Deadlands, a badass thief with magical powers. However, the shadow of her missing brother hangs over her and she is determined to find out what happened to him.
Lindsay Cummings' book is an interesting one, in that she mixes a number of different things together in this plot-driven story. In fact, she chucks everything at you Medieval fantasy that includes dragons, magic swords and quests, and then she also has a Sci-Fi story that has space smugglers, shady conglomerates, and alternative earths.
The points of view are mainly from Sonara (the medieval fantasy bit) who after been brought back from death, is surviving by being a thief in the Deadlands with other like-minded individuals who have also been brought back from the dead and now have magical powers. The other point of view comes from Karr (the sci - fi bit) who is a space smuggler aboard a spaceship called Starfall. Initially, the book is split into these two protagonists' individual story and you are wondering what on earth the girl with the sword and the boy in the spaceship has in common.
Well, it’s obvious innit, Einstein! Brother gets pinched from his planet by a strange spaceship, what more do you need? Yep, that is what I thought too. However, Lindsay Cummings skilfully weaves, twists, and manipulates this story to leave you with answers that quite honestly, I didn't see coming. And I enjoyed the spaceship ride that she took me on.
However, not only are there two points of view, there are two separate stories happening at the same time and at first, this can make the book a little disjointed, making you split your brain a little bit because you have to throw yourself into two separate settings.
Firstly there’s Sonara’s adventures in the Deadlands as she tries to steal stuff from the tyrannical King of the Deadlands, gets sent to jail, gets saved by her gang (who have a Dragon!), and then gets hired by a deposed princess and her skeleton encased friend to undertake a quest. Oh, and she has to come to grips with the magic powers that she gained when she was brought back from the dead, why she was brought back from the dead with all her mates, and work out her relationships with those around her, including her ex-boyfriend who also had a bit of a thing with the deposed princess and is a bit of a one!
Phew, that’s enough for one book there! However, Lindsay Cummings doesn’t stop there, she also gives us the tale of Karr and his brother Cade, who are escaping the tyrannical Jeb, who took them in as children when their parents were murdered and forced them to do some pretty underhanded jobs for him. To escape him Cade decides that taking up with a mysterious head of the shady conglomerate is the best way to escape Jeb’s clutches
The Head of the shady conglomerate then gives them a quest to get a mysterious object that is located on Sonara’s planet and can save the galaxy from a deadly disease called the ‘Reaper’, which has decimated the people of Earth and forced them to create a second Earth called Beta Earth. In the process, Karr realises that he doesn’t want to do the space smuggling thingy anymore and wants to be an artist, and he has to work out his relationship with his brother.
Now, I know that that sounds like a lot and that it may be a little confusing. But honestly, it kinda works. The stories do converge and become one and that is quite a feat, but Lindsay Cummings manages to pull it off well, and when the stories do converge we rush headlong onto the end of the book and what on earth all those things have to do with each other, beat the bad guy and discover why the Deadlands gang all have these mutant powers and who or what brought them back from the dead in the first place.
I enjoyed this book. Lindsay Cummings is a writer that treats her audience with respect. Whilst it is not up there with something like Grimdark, Cummings does pepper the story with some violence and does not shy away from it. She also introduces some complexity to the plot that twists and turns and keeps you guessing to the very end. She introduces curveballs constantly throughout the plot that leaves your brain a bit numb. In fact, at some points I met myself coming back, there were that many twists and turns in the story.
The only downside is that because there is so much in the book. I didn’t feel that I connected with the characters enough. It was like being in a perfectly decorated house, but something was a little amiss. At times, I didn’t feel that the characters quite hit their mark. For instance, Sonara was not particularly devilish, she could be a bit grumpy, but she wasn’t entirely devilish. For me, it was the same with quite a lot of the characters. I don’t want to go into it too much as this would spoil the plot.
Additionally, I felt that since there was so much in the book, a couple of storylines just didn’t feel finished. Particularly the shady space conglomerate. I just felt that I needed to know some more about them.
I’m not sure if there is another book planned, but there is definitely lots more room to carry on the story of Sonara, Karr, and the magic gang.
On the whole, the book has a mix of fantasy and sci-fi that I enjoyed right till the very end.
Song by Steven Wilson
What do I do with all the children's clothes
such tiny things that still smell of them
And the footprints in the hallway
onto my knees scrub them away
To all you Fantasy Book Nerds everywhere!
Well, here we are on the first day of the New Year. I hope the celebrations went well and you were able to share time with everyone you hold special.
As we come into the New Year, I have no doubt that you may have set yourself new reading goals and Challenges.
Me too!
So, throughout 2021, I will be taking part in two readalongs with different groups. The first one is working my way through Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere books over at Ben's Blurbs.
This is reading a book a month starting with Elantris.
(it may take some time to write this post as my dog, Alfie, is obsessed with his new Christmas presents and is demanding to play! Calm down Alfie!)
I read Elantris earlier this year and although not Sanderson's best, it is quite good. I think the problem with Elantris is that many people come to it after reading Mistborn or The Stormlight Archives and the fact that Sanderson's greatness is already established. However, if we put Elantris into context and forget all that stuff, Elantris is an excellent debut from a promising new author. It has excellent worldbuilding and the magic system is exceellent with believable and enthralling characters. Yep, already Sanderson is developing his trademarks and they shine through.
(There is also a discord channel for this readalong called Cosmere conquest which is a lovely community of bloggers and people taking part)
The second readalong that I am taking part in is The Malazan readalong with the excellent Mike's Book Reviews. If you haven't seen Mike's Book Reviews on Youtube, I urge you to seek him out. He presents reviews of books in a warm, friendly and comprehensive way (and he has a cup and T-shirt collection to die for!).
As well as starting Elantris, I will also be reading Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson.
I have heard so many things about this series, and although I am looking forward to it, I do have a slight bit of trepidation entering into this one. So, I will update you with my progress.
There is plenty of support out there, particularly on my twitter buddy's excellent blog Under the Radar blog
Under the Radar is doing a Discord channel to discuss and support those taking part, as well as Mike's Book Reviews Discord Channel (which you can find in the info for his channel on youtube)
I also have a buddy read with one of my other favorite book blogs Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub
For this buddy read, I am re - reading The Dragonlance Chronicles
I read these many moons ago and I loved them. However, this will be like reading new books again for me bescause to be honest, I cannot recall much about them except the bare bones of the story, so I am looking forward to that immensley.
In addition to these books, I will be continuing to tackle the Mythical beast known as the TBR and bringing you reviews of the books that I have read. Starting with Blood, Metal, Bone by Lindsay Cummings. I need to write it first because I have only just finished it.
This year, I am determined to start my journey in The Banished Lands. Many of my book blogging compatriots have been telling me for ages that I need to read this as John Gwynne's books are excellent. So as a bit of a motivator, I went and bought the first two books yesterday, along with Northern Wrath by Thilde Kold Holdt.
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Vikings on my mind! |
That's All Folks!
So, what plans do you have?
Are you taking part in any readalongs or buddy reads? Have books that you plan to read?
Whatever they are, I wish you all good luck and will hopefully see you back here again soon!