Giveaway! 'Kushiel's Scion' (Jacqueline Carey)

To mark the UK release of 'Kushiel's Scion' I thought it would be a cool thing to run a competition to give away some copies :o)
Here's the synopsis from Amazon...

'I was afraid of the dark tide that stirred in me. I did not want any part of my mother's blood. And yet it called to me.' Imriel de la Courcel, third in line to the throne, was enslaved and tortured as a boy, leaving him scarred and wary of his future. Son of a traitor, Imriel fears the dangerous passions of his bloodline - and his potential for destruction. His beloved stepmother, exotic and lovely, has trained him in the arts of covertcy - espionage skills that will either serve his country well, or draw him into a web of corruption and treachery. Imriel will need all of these resources as he travels, incognito, to escape the demands of court and family ...What he discovers is not freedom, but a city at war, and a political game so deep that he may never escape its net.

Sounds good doesn't it? Do you fancy a copy? Here's the thing, due to copyright stuff this competition is open to UK residents only, sorry...
Still here? Still fancy a free book? Drop me an email (address at the top right hand side of the screen) telling me who you are and what your mailing address is.
I'll let this one run until August 1st and announce the winners on the 2nd...

Good Luck!

Science Fiction and Fantasy that makes you laugh…

I used to be a big fan of Terry Pratchett when I was a teenager, not only was he writing fantasy (all he needed to be doing to become a favourite author of mine) but he was writing fantasy that made me laugh out loud because it was so funny. He was poking fun at the fantasy genre but in a way that made me think, “You know what? He’s right and it’s really funny at the same time.”
Christmas was the time of year when I would get the new Terry Pratchett ‘Discworld’ paperback and you wouldn’t see me (you’d hear me laughing though) until Christmas Dinner was on the table!

But then it all changed. While Terry was poking fun at fantasy tropes I was really enjoying the ride but when his eye started to focus on the real world the Discworld evolved to fit in with it. It was still a fantasy setting but there was enough of the real world there to take that sense of escapism, that I lived for, out and leave me with a book where (horror of horrors!) the jokes weren’t making me laugh any more…
I bowed out of the series (although you’ll still see me picking up ‘Guards! Guards!’ occasionally) but that was ok as I had just discovered Robert Rankin’s ‘Brentford Trilogy’…

Here’s a set of books (along with some of his others) where I think you need to have been born and bred in Britain to really get the humour. Having said that though, I think anyone will get a lot out of other books such as ‘Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse’. Matters of life and death begin and end in the pub and will often take second billing to compiling that winning ‘accumulator’ on the horses or trying to cheat Neville (the part time barman) out of a pint. John Omally and Jim Pooley don’t really want to save the world but when it’s a choice between that and looking for full time employment…

These days Rankin is my drug of choice when I’m after a read that will make me laugh. Christopher Moore is another good one; ‘The Stupidest Angel’ is a book that I think I’ll be reading every Christmas from now on! :o)
It’s also refreshing to see comedy moments popping up where you least expect it, Steven Erikson is a great example here with his epic fantasy series veering off into comedy every now and then with characters such as Kruppe and Iskaral Pust (not forgetting the mighty Bauchelain and Korbal Broach!)

I don’t read an awful lot of humorous genre stuff though and I’m after you to help me fill in the gaps. What am I missing out on? I don’t think I’ve ever seen any humorous sci-fi stuff, anyone care to enlighten me on what’s out there?
Comments in the usual place please! :o)

From my bookshelf… ‘Memory, Sorrow and Thorn’ (Tad Williams)

‘The Dragonbone Chair’
‘The Stone of Farewell’
‘To Green Angel Tower: Siege’
‘To Green Angel Tower: Storm’

I’ve gone on about this series so much, in other posts, that I think it now deserves a thread all to itself!

It was way back in 1989 that I found a copy of ‘The Dragonbone Chair’ while trying to find something decent to spend my book token on; I’d heard some good things about it so figured I’d give it a go… The first hundred pages, or so, were really hard going with detailed description about life in a castle and introductions to a plethora of characters, I stuck with it though and the payoff came much sooner than I had expected.
Betrayal! Strange creatures carrying out human sacrifices! More strange creatures swarming out of the ground to attack unsuspecting soldiers! Giants! A castle destroyed by magic! A dragon! This was more like it. I was totally gripped by the story that was playing out and, as I mentioned a few posts ago, ‘The Dragonbone Chair’ was the first fantasy book to show me that things don’t always go the way they’re expected to.
But then came the downer… Not only did I finish the book but I then found out that the sequel was still being written. For the first time ever I had to cope with the fact that I was into a series that was still ‘in progress’ and hadn’t been completed.

Two years later…

It’s Christmas Day and I’ve finally got my hands on ‘The Stone of Farewell’, as far as I’m concerned it doesn’t matter what’s on the television as I’m just glad to get back into the world of Osten Ard and find out what has been happening to Simon Snowlock and his friends. It’s just as good as the first time round but I’m finding that the more of the world I get to see the more questions there are that need answering. I’ve also got used to the fact that ‘The Stone of Farewell’ will end on another cliffhanger and I’ll have to wait another couple of years to see how it ends. I was right on both counts; a character comes back from the dead (that still gets me whenever I read it) and that’s how it ends. Time to settle down for another long wait. Having said that though, these days I’m able to wait twice as long (at least) for the latest from GRRM!

If waiting for ‘To Green Angel Tower’ wasn’t bad enough I then found that, due to the publishers ‘wanting to put a good product on the shelves’ (so, nothing to do with making more money then…), I was going to have to wait even longer for a book that was being published in two parts! Damn them…
I got there in the end though, a slightly off key ending (a series that questioned certain fantasy tropes fully adopted one of the biggest ones of all) but overall a great series that has certainly inspired George RR Martin in his own fantasy series.

‘Memory, Sorrow and Thorn’ looks just a little bit dated when placed against some of the edgier works of today but is a series that will always have some charm as far as I’m concerned. It’s a series that will always occupy one of the more prominent spots on my bookshelves and gets a re-read at least every couple of years. If you’re a fan of epic/high fantasy, and you haven’t tried this series out, then you could do a lot worse than give it a go…

Giveaway! 'Empire in Black and Gold' (Signed!) - Adrian Tchaikovsky

While you're reading this post, I should be well into Adrian Tchaikovsky's debut 'Empire in Black and Gold' and hoping that it is as good as I've heard. It sounds just like my kind of thing so I've got a good feeling about this one...

Here's the synopsis from Amazon...

Seventeen years ago Stenwold witnessed the Wasp Empire storming the city of Myna in a brutal war of conquest. Since then he has preached vainly against this threat in his home city of Collegium, but now the Empire is on the march, with its spies and its armies everywhere, and the Lowlands lie directly in its path. All the while, Stenwold has been training youthful agents to fight the Wasp advance, and the latest recruits include his niece, Che, and his mysterious ward, Tynisa. When his home is violently attacked, he is forced to send them ahead of him and, hotly pursued, they fly by airship to Helleron, the first city in line for the latest Wasp invasion.Stenwold and Che are Beetle-kinden, one of many human races that take their powers and inspiration each from a totem insect, but he also has allies of many breeds: Mantis, Spider, Ant, with their own particular skills. Foremost is the deadly Mantis-kinden warrior, Tisamon, but other very unlikely allies also join the cause.
As things go from bad to worse amid escalating dangers, Stenwold learns that the Wasps intend to use the newly completed railroad between Helleron and Collegium to launch a lightning strike into the heart of the Lowlands. Then he gathers all of his agents to force a final showdown in the engine yard ...

Sounds good doesn't it, how do you fancy winning a copy? Even better than that, how do you fancy winning a signed copy? Thanks to Tor UK, I have three signed copies to give away to readers of the blog. Anyone can enter this one, it doesn't matter where you live!
If you fancy your chances then you need to send me an email (address at the top right hand side of the screen) telling me who you are and what your mailing address is. There are other competitions taking place this week so you will need to be clear in your email as to which competition you are entering. I'll leave this one to run until the 29th of July and announce the winners on the 30th.

Good Luck!

Giveaway! 'Return of the Mystery Book Giveaway...'

I've got a whole load of books waiting to go the charity shop, some have been read and reviewed whilst others (for whatever reason) haven't. How would you like a couple? You would? Here's the thing, I'm not going to tell you what they are...

Yep, it's that time of year again where I run a competition for books where you're not going to know what you've won until they come through the door... Cool isn't it? :o)
This time round two lucky (or unlucky, depends whether you like what you get!) people will have mystery book packages turn up on their doorstep, would you like to be one of them?

If you fancy your chances, drop me an email (address at the top right hand side of the screen) telling me your name and mailing address. You will need to make it clear in your subject header as to which competition you are entering. Anyone can enter, it doesn't matter where you're from!
I'll let this one run until the 28th of July and announce the winners on the 29th.

Good Luck...

‘The Walking Dead’ – Volumes Five and Six (Robert Kirkman)

After picking up the last three issues I knew that I needed to get back into this series and the best way to do this is by picking up the trade paperbacks. One trip to Forbidden Planet and I was ready to go!
It’s a little bit weird reading these books knowing what is going to happen to certain characters but it’s still been fun watching Rick and his band slowly start to turn the prison into a proper home. There are still some surprises in store though including a couple of scenes that made me wince more than just a little bit…



‘The Best Defense’ (Volume Five)

Things are looking good for the prison dwellers now that they’ve managed to clear out all the zombies but things are about to change in a way that will have massive repercussions for a long time to come…
A helicopter in the sky is the first sign of life seen in a long time but following it leads Rick, Glenn and Michonne into even worse danger. Zombies are bad enough but humans are still the most dangerous animal (with the greatest capacity for evil) on the planet... Or are they? Kirkman keeps hopping backward and forward between the dark side of human nature and people doing what they have to do in order to survive in this post apocalyptic landscape. Rick’s group seem to be in the ‘do what you have to do camp’ while the new community, in Woodbury, are full of the ‘darkness of human nature’ and this seems a little bit too polarised to be realistic. Having said that though, the ‘Governor’ of Woodbury does have some nasty tricks up his sleeve and these will make you wince at the very least. ‘The Best Defense’ is not a comic book for kids!
It’s a little bit too polarised in places, like I said, but ‘The Best Defense’ is a read that carries on the story in the best traditions of this series

Eight out of Ten.




‘This Sorrowful Life’ (Volume Six)

The ‘Woodbury Arc’ comes to an end in a swarm of zombies and a torture scene that left me gasping but unable to look the other way. Did the Governor deserve what he got? In light of his crimes he definitely had it coming to him but Michonne has already been shown to be a law unto herself in this new world which makes me wonder how much the guy really deserved to get. Michonne is so far off the scale that even she questions her own actions in a conversation between her two personalities; I want to find out what’s going on here and am looking forward to learning more in future issues.
Rick and his group return to the prison to find it in a somewhat worse state than when they left it, easily fixed though!
The rest of the book is spent on relationships being re-established and Rick having to accept a new role in the group because of his newly acquired disability. This doesn’t stop him from taking care of a situation where the location of the prison is in danger of being revealed. Once again, Rick has carte blanche to do whatever is needed while the other guy is just there to be stopped. To be fair though, Kirkman does acknowledge that there are two sides to the argument by allowing Martinez to put his case across (doesn’t really make much difference though…)
‘This Sorrowful Life’ is a book that sets up events that are only now coming to fruition and it’s cool to see Kirkman thinking of the ‘long game’ here. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on more of these books.

Eight out of Ten

Not on the bookshelves anymore...

If you want to buy a book these days then you’re not just limited to what’s on the shelves at your local bookstore. Shopping online is where it’s at right now with any number of internet stores that will find whatever you’re after. I’ve never shopped there but apparently the Book Depository is supposed to be pretty good and I’ll always be grateful to Abe Books for having a cheap copy of Robert McCammon’s ‘They Thirst’ in stock (seriously hard to find over here in the UK, at least where I was looking anyway…)

All in all we’re looking at a time where we’ll never be without that book we really want, good isn’t it?
I don’t know about you though but despite how easy it is to buy books I still find it a little bit sad to go into a bookshop and find that my old favourites are no longer on the shelves. There are loads of sound business reasons for this, I’m sure, and you can still buy them online but I think it’s a real shame to see the actual books themselves drop off the radar, especially when trends these days could easily fit in some of the old series…

The series that’s on my mind, regarding this post, is Michael Scott Rohan’s ‘Winter of the World’ series. It’s been a while since I last read it but I’ve still got the impressions of complex worldbuilding and plots that could go anywhere with a cast of Gods who were just as human as their subjects. Couple all that with a real gritty and vicious attitude towards the characters and you’ve got a series that I reckon would appeal to anyone who’s into Brian Ruckley’s work or Erikson’s ‘Malazan’ series. Don’t go looking for it, during your lunch break, though as you won’t find it in your high street book store…
Like I said, it’s a shame but I guess priority has to go to all the new books that are being published and that’s not exactly a bad thing either :o)

How about you? Are there any books/series that you miss when you can’t see them on the shelves? Is this purely a nostalgic thing or do you think that genre fans are missing out by this stuff not being so readily accessible? Do you even go into book shops anymore? Leave a comment below and let me know what you think…