The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks

Just finished The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks. It is the second book in the Lightbringer series. I enjoyed the second book even more than the first. The first book introduced a novel but, I thought, simplistic, magic system and a number of interesting characters in a variation of a court politics plot.

The second book fleshes out the magic system admirably and firmly embeds it into the religious and political context. The character development is very good. The plot is well-paced and the action is believable.

The ending is pretty good considering it is the second book in whats planned to be a four book series. Looking forward to the next book.

2012 Nebula Award Finalists Announced | Tor.com

2012 Nebula Award Finalists Announced | Tor.com:

Novel:

Throne of the Crescent Moon, Saladin Ahmed (DAW; Gollancz ’13)
Ironskin, Tina Connolly (Tor)
The Killing Moon, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
The Drowning Girl, Caitlin R. Kiernan (Roc)
Glamour in Glass, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
2312, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

I haven't read any of these.

Moon Reader (app review) TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics

Moon Reader (app review) TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics: After Moon Reader was reinstated in the app store, I bought a copy to play around with. I figured it would be like other e-reading apps I’ve tried: I’ll use it for a couple of books, but find it’s just not compelling enough to make me switch from the Kindle app.

Not so with Moon Reader. It’s a great app, and worth taking the extra step of manually syncing between my Kindle Touch and Moon Reader.

I still prefer FBReader for its speed and simplicity.

Captain Vorpatril's Alliance By Lois McMaster Bujold - comfortable

Read Captain Vorpatril's Alliance  by Lois McMaster Bujold. If you have read the rest of the series you are going to enjoy this. If you haven't then you should start from the beginning. Its a light-hearted story set in the Miles world but centered around his cousin Ivan. Its one of the romance-centric books in the series so its lots of fun and an easy read by an author who knows her craft.

The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams - flavorless

The Dirty Streets of Heaven is the first volume of Tad Williams's new Bobby Dollar urban fantasy series. While a decent enough read, there was nothing especially outstanding to recommend it. The plot is tight and the action is well written. Coming up with a cast of interesting characters was the main difficulty. The world-weary gumshoe/angel Bobby Dollar wasn't particularly endearing as a protagonist. The cast of supernatural characters were mundane and the mundane characters were cookie-cutter stereotypes.

I'll probably read the next book in the series only to see if the author can find a way to put a unique spin on the sub-genre. If you want to read urban fantasy with an angelic hero dealing with hell on earth you're better off reading Kadrey's Sandman Slim series or Simon Green's Nightside.

Jack Glass by Adam Roberts - weak 3rd act

The full title is Jack Glass The Story of a Murderer. The book is structured as three short stories, each paying homage to the classic Arthur Conan Doyle-esque murder mystery. The inspired twist is that the protagonist in the stories is the murderer (not a spoiler since its in the Prologue). The author combines the classic murder mystery with the classic rocket ship space adventure.

The first story is an incredible tale of a locked room murder told from the inside out. The gritty story is a masterpiece of pacing and tension and the dramatic reveal of how the crime is committed is inspirational. Unfortunately the remaining two stories, while entertaining and innovative, do not raise the dramatic stakes. A bit of a let down.

Definitely worth reading. Many reviewers are putting this book on their top ten lists of 2012, even book of the year. It definitely deserves a top ten nod but that's as far as I will go.

Little Brother - Cory Doctorow - Scifi light on the fiction

Finished reading Little Brother last night and boy was I impressed. This book is going to deservedly win some awards. I have not read anything that presents the erosion of civil rights in the US as well as this book. The teenage angst/love story sub-plot is necessary but gives the book the aura of the YA novel.

The sequel is coming out February 5th and, as usual, Mr. Doctorow is doing what he can to market and distribute his works as fairly as possible.

via BoingBoing:
Teachers, librarians, etc: sign up for free copies...

Mockingbird by Chuck Wendig - Urban Fantasy or Horror?

Stayed up until the wee hours to finish Mockingbird, the second of the Miriam Black series. The action is fast paced and explicit and the superb character development makes what happens to primary and secondary characters matter. A fast paced ending was a satisfying payoff for a story that started off a bit slowly. Well-written gore and violence with clever twists and turns. The supernatural framework and the level of violence tilts the book a bit toward the horror genre.

Looking forward to reading the next book in the series.


You will definitely want to read the first book, Blackbirds, before reading Mockingbird. Flashbacks that reveal more and more of what makes Miriam tick need to be read as the author intended. The main characters are changing in significant ways throughout both books. Miriam is not the typical private-eye/good Samaritan with special powers found in many urban fantasy series. Her gift has (so far) been truly a curse to her - leaving her alone and bitter. Learning to use her 'gift' is essential to holding on to her humanity.

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

Finished reading The Black Prism by Brent Weeks last night.

Its the first book in the Lightbringer series. Its in the high fantasy genre with a few interesting twists. The magic system is based on the light spectrum with each primary color representing a different flavour of magic that manipulates the raw energy of magic called luxin. The system is seems internally sound and not overly complicated. There is a fair bit of color-based wordplay but not to the point of being annoying (with one exception).

Kip looked, torn. Lord Omnichrome was disappearing up the hill, rejoining his entourage. He was the heart of this; Kip knew it. He should kill him. Orholam, his chance was passing through his fingertips. But to the south, Karris was charging to her death, and to the east, that snake Zymun was stealing the only thing Kip had to remember his mother by. Kill Lord Omnichrome and stop the war. Kill Zymun and take the knife. Or save Karris and have a chance at King Garadul.

All the major players are introduced and the table is set for the conflicts to follow. The Man in the Iron Mask aspect is a sharp twist to the standard underdog youth becoming a heroic figure. Some of the characters are a bit flat, but there are at least two more books to flesh them out (or kill them off). As always (read Weeks's Night Angel Trilogy) the action scenes are gory and well choreographed.

Looking forward to the rest of the series.

P.S. Exercise your vocabulary building skills and look up "promachos". Brent Weeks is quite enamored with the term and Wikipedia doesn't do the word justice.

The 47 Books I Read in 2012

Here are the books I read in 2012. The list is in chronological order. My favourite read of the year was Mira Grant's Newsflesh trilogy. Best Urban Fantasy was Mike Carey's Felix Castor series. Best Sci-fi novel was David Brin's Existence.

1) Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charan Newton
2) Iron Jackal by Chris Wooding
3) Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
4) Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch
5) Vicious Circle by Mike Carey
6) Dead Men's Boots by Mike Carey
7) Thicker Than Water by Mike Carey
8) The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde
9) The Naming of the Beasts by Mike Carey
10) The Quiet War by Paul McAuley
11) Soulless by Gail Carriger
12) Dead To Me by Anton Strout
13) The Song of the Quarkbeast by Jasper Fforde
14) The Bride Wore Black Leather by Simon R. Green
15) Unholy Night by Seth Grahame-Smith
16) His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
17) Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik
18) Black Powder War by Naomi Novik
19) Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik
20) Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik
21) Tongues of Serpents by Naomi Novik
22) Crucible of Gold by Naomi Novik
23) Feed by Mira Grant
24) Deadline by Mira Grant
25) Blackout by Mira Grant
26) Tricked by Kevin Hearne
27) Redshirts by John Scalzi
28) Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch
29) The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett; Stephen Baxter
30) Changeless by Gail Carriger
31) 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
32) The Apocalypse Codex by Charles Stross
33) Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore
34) Blameless by Gail Carriger
35) Gardens of the Sun by Paul McAuley
36) The Coldest War by Ian Tregillis
37) The Woman Who Died A Lot by Jasper Fforde
38) Existence by David Brin
39) Dodger by Terry Pratchett
40) Red Country by Joe Abercrombie
41) Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
42) Heartless by Gail Carriger
43) The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M. Banks
44) The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi
45) Railsea by China Mieville
46) Cold Days by Jim Butcher
47) Devil Said Bang by Richard Kadrey