It has been an exciting week for me as a few books from my favourite series have landed on my doorstep/Kindle. I have tried to read them all but felt I needed to save a few for next week. So what did I read?
I started the week with Kai Ashante Wilson's debut - The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps. The story is centered on Demane who is a child of the gods that have abandoned him for the Heavens. Now earthbound he is now labelled a sorcerer and along with his companion Captain they must help their caravan of brothers survive the perilous journey across the Wildeeps.
I found The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps a struggle mainly because of the overly verbose language. Let me give you some a couple of examples to demonstrate:
"...besoaking gleam..."
"But most sapiens—even those of us with fully expressed theogenetica—haven’t yet attained the psionic phylogeny necessary to sublimnify the organism."
I spent far too much of this story trying to figure out what was going on by re-reading passages several times and figuring out what all the extraneous words actually meant. The story is also very violent which did fit the setting and the plot. However, when the only scenes you can follow are those where someone is being gutted or having his head sliced off then it does make for a rather tedious read. I suspect this is just not my kind of fantasy.
I also read Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel which I received from the publisher via NetGalley. What I didn't notice until I started to write this review is that this book will not be released until April 2016 and is debut novel!!!! I can't believe that I got it and read it so early and now can't go into detail about what I thought of it. Hopefully, the publisher won't mind me saying that I LOVED IT and it is one of my fave reads of this year. Make sure you pre-order it for next year. You are sure to enjoy it as much as I did.
This has also been a year for me to forget that I have already read and reviewed certain books. You may remember a couple of months ago I ended up re-reading (and buying) Cold Days by Jim Butcher as I didn't recognise the story based on the book description. This time I ended up buying Seanan McGuire's The Winter Long which is the 8th book of the October Daye series. I got slightly confused as on Amazon it has a release date of May 2015 but I missed that was only for the Kindle version. I actually read this book for the first time last September and my reviewing colleague Doreen provided you with a great full review in January. I still loved it and have now bought book 9 - A Red Rose Chain which I hope you tell you about next week.
That I am afraid is it for me this week. I hope I have something a bit more to tell you about next week but until then Happy Reading.
I found The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps a struggle mainly because of the overly verbose language. Let me give you some a couple of examples to demonstrate:
"...besoaking gleam..."
"But most sapiens—even those of us with fully expressed theogenetica—haven’t yet attained the psionic phylogeny necessary to sublimnify the organism."
I spent far too much of this story trying to figure out what was going on by re-reading passages several times and figuring out what all the extraneous words actually meant. The story is also very violent which did fit the setting and the plot. However, when the only scenes you can follow are those where someone is being gutted or having his head sliced off then it does make for a rather tedious read. I suspect this is just not my kind of fantasy.
I also read Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel which I received from the publisher via NetGalley. What I didn't notice until I started to write this review is that this book will not be released until April 2016 and is debut novel!!!! I can't believe that I got it and read it so early and now can't go into detail about what I thought of it. Hopefully, the publisher won't mind me saying that I LOVED IT and it is one of my fave reads of this year. Make sure you pre-order it for next year. You are sure to enjoy it as much as I did.
This has also been a year for me to forget that I have already read and reviewed certain books. You may remember a couple of months ago I ended up re-reading (and buying) Cold Days by Jim Butcher as I didn't recognise the story based on the book description. This time I ended up buying Seanan McGuire's The Winter Long which is the 8th book of the October Daye series. I got slightly confused as on Amazon it has a release date of May 2015 but I missed that was only for the Kindle version. I actually read this book for the first time last September and my reviewing colleague Doreen provided you with a great full review in January. I still loved it and have now bought book 9 - A Red Rose Chain which I hope you tell you about next week.
That I am afraid is it for me this week. I hope I have something a bit more to tell you about next week but until then Happy Reading.
The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps
Tor.com, September 1, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 224 pages
Tor.com, September 1, 2015
Trade Paperback and eBook, 224 pages
Critically acclaimed author Kai Ashante Wilson makes his commercial debut with this striking, wondrous tale of gods and mortals, magic and steel, and life and death that will reshape how you look at sword and sorcery.
Since leaving his homeland, the earthbound demigod Demane has been labeled a sorcerer. With his ancestors' artifacts in hand, the Sorcerer follows the Captain, a beautiful man with song for a voice and hair that drinks the sunlight.
The two of them are the descendants of the gods who abandoned the Earth for Heaven, and they will need all the gifts those divine ancestors left to them to keep their caravan brothers alive.
The one safe road between the northern oasis and southern kingdom is stalked by a necromantic terror. Demane may have to master his wild powers and trade humanity for godhood if he is to keep his brothers and his beloved captain alive.
Sleeping Giants
Del Rey, April 26, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 320 pages
Del Rey, April 26, 2016
Hardcover and eBook, 320 pages
An inventive debut in the tradition of World War Z and The Martian, told in the cutting-edge cadences of interviews, journal entries, transcripts, and news articles, Sleeping Giants is a literary thriller fueled by a quest for truth—and by a struggle for control of earthshaking power.
A girl named Rose is riding her new bike near her home in Deadwood, South Dakota, when she falls through the earth. She wakes up at the bottom of a square-shaped hole, its walls glowing with intricate carvings. But the firemen who come to save her peer down upon something even stranger: a little girl in the palm of a giant metal hand.
Seventeen years later, the mystery of the bizarre artifact remains unsolved—the object’s origins, architects, and purpose unknown. Carbon dating defies belief; military reports are redacted; theories are floated, then rejected.
But some can never stop searching for answers.
Rose Franklin is now a highly trained physicist leading a top-secret team to crack the hand’s code. And along with her colleagues, she is being interviewed by a nameless interrogator whose power and purview are as enigmatic as the relic they seek. What’s clear is that Rose and her compatriots are on the edge of unraveling history’s most perplexing discovery—and finally figuring out what it portends for humanity. But once the pieces of the puzzle are in place, will the result be an instrument of lasting peace or a weapon of mass destruction?
The Winter Long
October Daye 8
DAW, September 2, 2014
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 358 pages
October Daye 8
DAW, September 2, 2014
Mass Market Paperback and eBook, 358 pages
Toby thought she understood her own past; she thought she knew the score.
She was wrong.
It's time to learn the truth.
Thanks for sharing some new to me books and authors. Happy reading.
ReplyDeletesherry @ fundinmental My Sunday Memes
You are more than welcome Sherry
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