Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon is the fourth in the time travelling historical fiction series following our protagonists Claire and Jamie Fraser as they attempt to start a new life in the American Colonies. Weighing in at nearly 900 pages, or 44 hrs and 54 mins of audiobook, this is a real behemoth of a book. It’s also the book on my shelf that’s taken me the longest to read. GoodReads tells me that I finished the previous book in the series, Voyager, back in April 2015, and I started Drums of Autumn around that time. This means that Drums of Autumn has taken me almost a year to finish. I read it in chunks. I would read a large section – usually when the Outlander TV series piqued my interest again – and then struggle to continue and put it aside for other books. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy it; I simply struggled to maintain my interest to read 800+ pages over a short period. What I liked The characters. I love the characters in the book, particularly Claire and Jamie and their unconventional romance. Gabaldon has said that she wanted to show a mature relationship…
I received a free review copy of The Cobweb Bride via Netgalley. The Cobweb Bride by Vera Nazarian is a fantasy novel which tells the story of Death’s demand for his Cobweb Bride. The premise of the book is that Death has refused to take any more dying people or animals until his Cobweb Bride presents herself to him at his hidden fortress. It follows the journeys of several potential Cobweb Brides as well as those interested in aiding as well as thwarting them.
I was motivated to write this entry today following the news that GoT screenwriter Bryan Cogman has left Twitter. He explains that this is due to negative backlash on some of the creative decisions made by the team. I can respect Mr. Cogman's decision and am sorry that the feedback he received was phrased in a negative and hurtful way. As a fan of both book and TV adaptation, I would like to share my thoughts. One of George R.R. Martin's strengths as a writer is in his characterization. The multiple point of view structure of the novels allows him to populate his world with characters as varied as a young tomboy, a young Queen coming to grips with her newfound power and a smart dwarf who wears his armour in his mind and for us to get to know and love them. Each of these characters has a well thought out story arc with its own emotional beats, and following these characters on their respective journeys is one of the pleasures of reading A Song of Ice and Fire. HBO has brought together a fantastic cast and crew to bring these characters to life, and it has been a…
This last couple of months I've got through a few good books, and rather than reviewing each individually, I decided to write a post discussing all of them. On the fourth of May no fewer than four new releases were downloaded to my Kindle, so I am happy I had a week off work to read them all. Fair Game – Patricia BriggsThis is the next book in the Alpha and Omega series, and it was the usual enjoyable Briggs fare. Anna and Charles are interesting characters and it's fun to see their development. I was particularly interested in the end game changer – I understand it's impacting the Mercy Thompson series, too. I had been surprised that Briggs was planning a new Mercy book. I'd felt the character had come to the end of her story, but this will add a new dimension. I look forward to Frost Bitten next year I gave Fair Game four stars. The Iron King – Julie Kanawa.This is an ebook I borrowed from the library. A Young Adult novel, it is the usual tale of modern teen finds she has an undiscovered past and hidden powers, finds herself in a fantasy world. It's…
What an absolutely wonderful surprise I had on reading my Twitter feed this morning (thanks @Elmblade43!) to find that the Harry Potter ebooks are now available for purchase through the Pottermore store. This was unexpected to me as I'd not seen any prior announcements that the store was due to open; I'd expected it to be delayed until after the opening of the Pottermore site to the general public given how the original beta launch of the Pottermore site was launched. I had many misgivings about the Pottermore store given how poorly the beta site was handled. However, from the moment I went to the store it was clear I was in much safer hands. The first step in the process was to create a Pottermore shop account (not the same as your Pottermore account, meaning that non Beta Pottermore fans can still purchase the books.) This was all pretty straightforward. The rest of the purchase process was too; select the books (I opted for the bundle of all seven for a 10% discount) – and it has to be noted that they are very reasonably priced – $7.99 – $9.99. The next stage was the one which caused me…
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith follows a similar structure to his earlier book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies in that it combines existing material with the fantastical. The premise of the book is that American President Abraham Lincoln’s life was spent hunting vampires as well as abolishing slavery. A mix of genres Now, straight historical biography is not a genre I tend to read very often; I’d rather be transported to a new world than learn about someone who lives or lived in ours. I found this particular combination of hard fact and fantastical fiction to be both fun and somewhat informative. A reader of this book would not finish it with an encyclopedic knowledge of Lincoln’s life – I must admit I kept Wikipedia on hand to check historical facts – but he may know more about him than he did previously, and possibly be inspired to learn more. It should be pointed out that as a Brit, my knowledge of American history is sketchy at best. It may be that American readers will learn little that is new to them. They however may enjoy trying to guess how the author will incorporate certain events into the…
I thought I would write a short entry today about a few thoughts that have occurred to me. First, Pottermore announced yesterday on its blog that it is extending the beta process for another month, new registrants will have to wait weeks or even months for their welcome emails granting them access to the site, and that the Pottermore store selling Harry Potter ebooks and audiobooks will not open until mid 2012. None of this comes as a surprise to those of us in the beta program, who have borne witness to the numerous downtimes and the notorious Purple Screen of Death. Indeed, it's probably the sensible – if only – decision the Pottermore site managers could make. It is very disappointing though. The site itself is fun and interesting when you actually get on, and of course, I was anxious to be able to add the Harry Potter ebooks to my collection. Speaking of ebooks, I realised over the last couple of days just how much more enjoyable I find long form reading on my Kindle rather than my iPad, my iPhone or my iMac. In all fairness, I should add that reading magazines is a delight on the iPad. The…
Amazon recently announced that their flagship Kindle ebook reader was now capable of borrowing from public libraries. As my ebook budget is a source of, um, friendly banter between my husband and me, this is one functionality that was very welcome to me. However, at this point, this ability is only available in the US. I know from past experience that the Montreal public library, of which I am a member, does have some limited ebooks to borrow, so I decided to check it out. When I last checked several months ago, the selection available, at least in terms of my preferred genre of fantasy, was extremely limited, especially in English. Well, it is the main city of Francophone Canada, so I guess I’ll forgive it for having most books in French. In all fairness I believe their selection has improved markedly since my initial investigation 18 months or so ago. My experience borrowing from the library was painful and I felt it would have been easier to write the darned book. I am no technophobe by any means, in fact more the opposite, but I found the numerous stages ponderous and unnecessary. I really hope Amazon’s process is much easier….
It hardly seemed less than a week since I was last in our comfortable, if tiny, flat in London, unaware of the existence of Amalisia, nor that my husband was its rightful king. Yet here I was, staring across the field at my brother-in-law’s army and his dragons. Let me just repeat that. DRAGONS! I mean big, scary, fire-breathing lizards – three of them, and not too happy, to judge from the snarls and clouds of smoke drifting over. What the heck was I doing here? What could a website designer from Hammersmith hope to achieve against the might of a dragon-backed army? Then I looked over at my husband, and remembered why I had come to this place. His brother’s prisoner, chained, dressed in rags and beaten to within an inch of his life, he still retained that quiet, calm dignity and inner strength that had won my heart the first time we met. I may not be able to do much, but I had to try. Taking a deep breath to steel myself, I stepped out to confront the new king, ignoring the frantic mutterings from the ragtag little group at my side. It had to…
To start I must disclose that this blog entry contains spoilers for all five of George R.R. Martin’s currently published A Song of Ice and Fire books. I am also obliged to preface it by the full and frank admission that I am a spoiler junkie. Anywhere I can hunt them down, I will. For those of you who do not know, a slip up by Amazon meant that a handful of copies of A Dance with Dragons (hereafter ADwD) were shipped a week or so early to customers in Germany. The internet being what it is, full and explicit spoilers were therefore readily available well before publication, and I drank them all up like a parched woman who has not had a taste of A Song of Ice and Fire for six long years. Now, I also know that George R.R. Martin detests spoilers and pleaded with those fans who got early copies not to spoil the book for the rest, and for the rest of us to wait until we had the book (or freshly fed Kindle in my case) in our own two hot, sweaty, little hands. Did this stop my hunting down spoilers? I confess not….