Reading roundup – September 26th 2014
Uncategorized / September 26, 2014

This week has been a quiet week in terms of reading.  It’s been the start of the new TV season which might have had in impact…  (on that topic, I’m watching Forever and Gotham as new shows.)  I finished Robert Galbraith (AKA J.K. Rowling’s) second mystery novel, The Silkworm and you can expect my full review next week.  Sneak preview: I liked it. I’m also continuing with the audiobook of Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel.  It’s not grabbing me in the way that The Silkworm did, but it is very intriguing and I am enjoying it.  Also being listened to is Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.  I’m just at the wedding night scene.  Yum.  Especially when you add Mr. Sam Heughan into the equation… For once, I didn’t add any books to my library this week!  Incredible, I know.  I will make up for it next month, trust me…  I have been waiting for the next book in Anne Robillard’s A.N.G.E. series, Tribulare, to hit Kobo.  The hard copies have been out for a while, but this series is only now being released in electronic format.  I see it’s available on prologuenumerique.ca and archambault.ca, and even amazon.ca but I have…

Codex Angelicus by Anne Robillard – Review
Book Reviews , eBook reviews / April 16, 2014

Codex Angelicus by the Quebecoise author Anne Robillard is the fifth entry in her A.N.G.E. series.  This contains 10 books of which five are currently available in ebook format.  For those of you unfamiliar with this series, A.N.G.E. stands for Agence Nationale de Gestion de l’Étrange (National Agency for the Management of the Bizarre) and refers to the top secret agency which investigates paranormal phenomena.  We are introduced to the Agency in book 1 through new recruit Cindy Bloom.  Cindy is only one of the many fascinating characters in the series.  Sadly it is only available in French right now.  I have read books 1-5 and here are my thoughts on the series up til now. What I liked Steady plot developments and twists. Throughout the series Robillard has built up the plot.  We start off with Cindy being assigned to the False Prophets department under the tutelage of Oceane Chevalier – False Prophets is referred to as the new agents’ kindergarten as it’s normally a very safe and boring field where nothing much happens.  Of course, what they learn there drives the whole plot for the rest of the series.  Each subsequent book picks up on what has gone before…

Irianeth by Anne Robillard – Review
Book Reviews , eBook reviews / October 9, 2013

Irianeth is the twelfth and final book in Robillard’s Chevaliers d’Emeraude, (Knights of Emerald) series.  In her native Quebec and also France Anne Robillard has a following like that of George R.R. Martin, complete with conventions and banquets, music and merchandise.  The series is, as of yet, not available in English, which is a real shame – it is a brilliant high fantasy series with compelling characters and wonderful worldbuilding.  If Anne or any publishing houses are reading this, please,  please publish this series in English so that fans the world over can share this fantastic tale. However, as there is no English language version available, I will have to review the series for you. In terms of plot, Knights of Emerald follows a pretty standard fantasy trope: the Dark Emperor wants to take over the continent of Enkidiev and destroy it and, only the Knights of Emerald and their allies stand in his way.  Naturally, there is a prophecy predicting his downfall with both sides using magical means to ensure/prevent its fulfilment.  There are twelve books in the series of which Irianeth is the final one.  Although there is the overarching plotline of the final prophesied confrontation with the…

Reading Roundup – 26th July 2013
Reading Roundup / July 26, 2013

After the frantic reading of BookTubeAThon 2013 I don’t have many books to discuss for this week’s reading roundup. The first book I read was Switched at Birth by “Kathryn Kennish”.  The quotes are around the author’s name as this book was written in the universe of ABC Family’s drama Switched at Birth about two families who discover their daughters were involved in a hospital mixup.  This show has been my recent guilty pleasure when not reading.  Other than the character drama the merging of two families causes, I’ve found it a fascinating insight into the world of the deaf – one of the young women concerned is deaf.  Many of the scenes involve, or are wholly in, American Sign Language.  The writing and acting on the show are of excellent quality, so perhaps my expectations of the novelisation were too high.  I found the novel uninteresting and lacking the depth that comes across in the show.  It was written from the point of view of the hearing mother and barely touched on one of the most interesting aspects of the book, her learning about the deaf language and culture.  I would suggest you skip the book and watch the show,…

A Tale of Three Comparisons
Miscellaneous / December 2, 2012

First of all, apologies for the delay in posting. It’s been a busy few weeks on both a personal and work level, so I have not been able to post much. Anyway, here I am! Some of the books I’ve read recently have led to some natural comparisons. Two of these are Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan and Libriomancer: (Magic Ex Libris Book 1) by Jim C. Hines. These both have in common a theme of magic and mystery being hidden within books, a love of reading, and also a setting which couldn’t be anywhere other than in the present day, within the last few years. There were references to the dot.com crash and Google and the Twilight series. Personally, that second point is something which irritated me. I feel it limits the books’ durability. While Libriomancer was more of a traditional good vs evil fantasy, Penumbra is more of a mystery in which the protagonist attempts to resolve an ages old mystery hidden within books. I found it a fresh and entertaining concept. I had a few issues with the magic system in Libriomancer. Brandon Sanderson, considered one of the better contemporary developers of magic systems, wrote…

So many books… so little time
Book Reviews / August 15, 2012

It always seems to happen this way. I’d placed holds on three library e-books and all three became available within a few days of each other! On my reading list I now have: Harry Potter et les Reliques de la Mort by J.K. Rowling. (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in French). For some reason it really amuses me to see how the Potter-specific terms were translated into French; “Muggle” becomes “Moldu”, “Squib” becomes “Cracmol” and “Crumple-Horned Snorkack” becomes “Ronflak Cornu.” However, Quidditch remains Quidditch. Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake by Anna Quindlen. I think this was a recommendation I picked up from GoodReads. I don’t know much about it, other than that it’s a well written memoir by a Pulitzer prize winning author but it seemed an interesting read. It was free to borrow from the library, so I thought I’d give it a go. Rapture by Kate Lauren. This is the fourth and final part of Lauren’s Young Adult fantasy series about angels and demons. It’s not the best series in the world, and probably not one I’ll invest in to buy, but again, I don’t mind borrowing it from the library to see how it ends….