strange and random happenstance

Soulless Volume 3 by Gail Carriger
Published by: Yen Press
Publication Date: November 19th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 207 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Condemned by society and her werewolf husband due to a pregnancy she cannot explain, Alexia Maccon-preternatural, tea aficionado-seeks an explanation for this "infant inconvenience" so as to cleanse her sullied reputation and prove her fool of a husband wrong. Preternaturals are a rare breed and the only history of their kind lies in Italy with the Templars, a group that once partnered with preternaturals to hunt down werewolves and vampires. Will Alexia find an explanation for her impossible offspring? Or do the Templars have other plans for the curious "Soulless One"?"

I love this manga series! Seriously, I adore the art and clothing, and I mean, it's just a great refresher to remember how good the books are. Plus the ladybirds on the cover! Too perfect!

Dandy Gilver and a Bothersome Number of Corpses by Catriona McPherson
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: November 19th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A mystery writer perfect for fans of Upstairs Downstairs, Downton Abbey, and Gosford Park, Catriona McPherson has charmed readers everywhere with her fun and clever series set in 1920s Scotland. In this new adventure, witty, aristocratic sleuth Dandy Gilver travels to an all-girls school in the small seaside town of Portpatrick to investigate the disappearance of a childhood friend who taught there. Soon, Dandy discovers that her missing chum is not the only thing that's off in Portpatrick. Other teachers have been disappearing at an alarming rate. The BBC has optioned the Dandy Gilver series for television, and mystery fans will love Dandy Gilver and a Bothersome Number of Corpses, the newest excursion with Scotland's most charming sleuth."

This might be my favorite cover in the Dandy Gilver series... well Jessica Hische plus a menacing apple, what's not to love?

The Venom Business by Michael Crichton
Published by: Hard Case Crime
Publication Date: November 19th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"As an expert handler of venomous snakes - and a smuggler of rare artifacts - Charles Raynaud is accustomed to danger. So the job bodyguarding an old acquaintance about to come into a fortune shouldn't make him break a sweat.

But when the attempts on the man's life nearly get Raynaud killed, he's left wondering: is he the killers' real target...? "

OMG! They are FINALLY releasing the full back catalog of Michael Crichton books he wrote as John Lange. "New" Crichton! Be still me teenage heart (yes, as a teenager, I adored all his books and devoured every single one!)

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Blameless, Catriona McPherson, Dandy Gilver, Gail Carriger, John Lange, Manga, Michael Crichton, Soulless, The Parasol Protectorate, The Venom Business

Blameless (The Parasol Protectorate Book 3) by Gail Carriger
Published by: Orbit
Publication Date: August 31st, 2010
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
Challenge: Fantasy
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy
Alexia Maccon has left her husband due to his stupidity. Sadly this means she has ended up back in the "loving" bosom of her family. She has been fired from the Shadow Council and has a very problematic infant inconvenience, but at least her family throws her out, so things are looking a bit brighter. If only she had someplace to go and didn't have mechanical ladybugs attacking her. There are so many unanswered questions, the most obvious being, how could this happen, followed by, who can give me answers. The Vampires seem the logical ones for knowing the secrets of the Soulless, but seeing as it's probably them trying to kill her, best not to ask. Her one counselor to turn to in regard to all things, cravats to conspiracies, Lord Akeldama, is MIA. Alexia calls on those still close to her who trust she is not an unfaithful wife, but one wronged by lack of knowledge. Madame Lefoux, a milliner to be reckoned with, Tunstall, an ex-werewolf groupy, aka Claviger, and now famous actor, Floote, a butler through thick and thin, and her husband's Beta, Professor Lyall. Leave it to the logical werewolf to believe her and not drown his spirits in formaldehyde...

A plan is formed. To Italy and the Templars they will go. Of course they are pursued by night by Vampires and by day by drones. They seek refuge with Madam LeFoux's inventor friends, one is quite helpful, the other, Mr. Lange-Wilsdorf, a scientist with a murky past, is a bit over excited to study "the female specimen." He soon throws them out onto the mercy of the world once learning of Alexia's condition. The barely make it to the "safety" of Italy. The Templars are a strange bunch, viewing Alexia as a taint on the world, a necessary evil. She is the perfect weapon in their fight against the supernatural, yet she is all that they abhor. If she could just find some answers it will all be worth it so that she can crow her innocence at her husband, Conall. She just hopes that the Templars don't figure out her real reason for visiting, who knows what their reaction would be to a pregnant Soulless. But if worse comes to worst, at least coming to Italy made her discover the most wonderful thing she has ever encountered, pesto!

Let me preface this with, I love the Parasol Protectorate and all things Alexia, but this was not my favorite book in the series so far. It seemed to lack a certain spark that the other two contained. Perhaps it's that Alexia was more contemplative and lacked a pragmatism that she previously possessed. Better a doer than a dweller anyday. The pregnancy has changed her. She's so focused on proving herself right that in order to come to an explanation as to how that happened things get a little too into the technical mumbo jumbo that bog down most Steampunk books and have until now been gratefully minimal. The thing that was a barrier to overcome in reading the first book was the steampunky technology of the day, which you were used to by book two, but now there's all this new stuff being thrown at you and it gets confusing.

 It felt like the technology was a crutch to the wonderful back story and mythology of the Soulless. Aether this and that, when I feel it could have been simpler. Plus the lack of Akeldama, while key to the denouement, made this book lack his sheer wonderful presence. Also the separation of Conall and Alexia made their verbal sparring rather hard. Plus, in the end, we didn't really learn that much. We know what might be, but not what is. So more than anything, this felt like a bridge book and now I need the next book desperately. That could be, in the end, why I feel dissatisfied. There's so much I want to know NOW, that having to wait, having to have patience to learn the back story of Floote, more on the Soulless breeding program, more on what their child could be, is excruciating. Maybe I'm greedy, but I want more answers, less techno fluff.

Moste Importante Steampunkery:
A tie between the awesome mechanical ladybugs and the ornithopter. Seeing as ornithopter's technically exist, even as far back as drawings by Da Vinci, and seem to be a fun side project for inventors, I think the ladybugs will win. Also, I do see my contrary nature in choosing dirigibles in Gail's earlier book Soulless, because dirigibles exist as well... but there's a romanticism to dirigibles that ornithopters just don't have. So back to the lady bugs. They are homicidal whereas the ornithopter is just a means of transport... yet the ladybugs will appear before series end in a more begnin incarnation. "They where clockwork, or some variety of windup mechanical. And they were beetles - larger, shiny red beetles with black spots and multifaceted crystal eyes, boasting nasty-looking syringes that poked upward in place of antennae." See, that easily beats ornithopter. Beetles it is.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alexia Tarabotti, Blameless, Floote, Gail Carriger, Lord Akeldama, Lord Maccon, Madame Lefoux, Professor Lyall, Reading Challenge, Templars, The Parasol Protectorate, Tunstall

Blameless (The Parasol Protectorate Book 3) by Gail Carriger
Published by: Orbit
Publication Date: August 31st, 2010
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
Challenge: Fantasy
Rating: ★★★★
Recommended for: Anglophiles, Janeites, Buffy Buffs, Steampunk Supporters and Parasol Paramours
To Buy
Alexia Maccon has left her husband due to his stupidity and ended back in the "loving" bosom of her family. She has been fired from the Shadow Council and has a very infant inconvenience, but at least her family throws her out, so things are looking a bit brighter. If only she had someplace to go and didn't have mechanical ladybugs attacking her. There are so many unanswered questions, the most obvious being, how could this happen, followed by, who can give me answers. The Vampires seem the logical ones for knowing the secrets of the Soulless, but seeing as it's probably them trying to kill her, best not to ask. Her one counselor to turn too in regard to all things, cravats to conspiracies, Lord Akeldama, is MIA. Alexia calls on those still close to her who trust she is not an unfaithful wife, but one wronged by lack of knowledge. Madame Lefoux, a milliner to be reckoned with, Tunstall, an ex werewolf groupy and now famous actor, Floote, a butler through thick and thin, and her husband's Beta, Professor Lyall. Leave it to the logical werewolf to believe her and not drown his spirits in formaldehyde... A plan is formed. To Italy and the Templars they will go. Of course they are pursued by night by Vampires and by day by drones. They seek refuge with Madam LeFoux's inventor friends, one is quite helpful, the other, Mr. Lange-Wilsdorf, a scientist with a murky past, is a bit over excited to study "the female specimen" but soon throws them onto the mercy of the world once learning of Alexia's condition. Barely making it to the "safety" of Italy. The Templars are a strange bunch, viewing Alexia as a taint on the world, a necessary evil. She is the perfect weapon in their fight against the supernatural, yet she is all that they abhor. If she could just find some answers it will all be worth it so that she can crow her innocence at her husband, Conall. She just hopes that the Templars don't figure out her real reason for visiting, who knows what their reaction would be to a pregnant Soulless. But if worse comes to worst, at least coming to Italy made her discover the most wonderful thing she has ever encountered, pesto!

Let me preface this with, I love the Parasol Protectorate and all things Alexia. But this was not my favorite book in the series so far. It seemed to lack a certain spark that the other two contained. Perhaps it's that Alexia was more contemplative while being a woman of action and lacked a pragmatism that she previously possessed, she did versus dwelled. The pregnancy has changed her. She's so focused on proving herself right that in order to come to an explanation as to how that happened things get a little too technical mumbo jumbo. The thing that was a barrier to overcome in reading the first book was the steampunky technology of the day, which you were used to by book two, but now there's all this new stuff being thrown at you and it gets confusing. It felt like the technology was a crutch to the wonderful back story and mythology of the Soulless. Aether this and that, when I feel it could have been simpler. Plus the lack of Akeldama, while key to the denouement, made this book lack his sheer wonderful presence. Also the separation of Conall and Alexia made their verbal sparring rather hard. Plus, in the end, we didn't really learn that much. We know what might be, but not what is. So more than anything, this felt like a bridge book and now I need the next book desperately. That could be, in the end, why I feel dissatisfied. There's so much I want to know NOW, that having to wait, having to have patience to learn the back story of Floote, more on the Soulless breeding program, more on what their child could be, is excruciating. Maybe I'm greedy, but I want more answers, less techno fluff.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alexia Tarabotti, Blameless, Floote, Gail Carriger, Lord Akeldama, Lord Maccon, Madame Lefoux, Professor Lyall, Reading Challenge, Templars, The Parasol Protectorate, Tunstall

Blameless (The Parasol Protectorate Book 3) by Gail Carriger
Published by: Orbit
Publication Date: August 31st, 2010
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Quitting her husband's house and moving back in with her horrible family, Lady Maccon becomes the scandal of the London season.

Queen Victoria dismisses her from the Shadow Council, and the only person who can explain anything, Lord Akeldama, unexpectedly leaves town. To top it all off, Alexia is attacked by homicidal mechanical ladybugs, indicating, as only ladybugs can, the fact that all of London's vampires are now very much interested in seeing Alexia quite thoroughly dead.

While Lord Maccon elects to get progressively more inebriated and Professor Lyall desperately tries to hold the Woolsey werewolf pack together, Alexia flees England for Italy in search of the mysterious Templars. Only they know enough about the preternatural to explain her increasingly inconvenient condition, but they may be worse than the vampires -- and they're armed with pesto. "

I really don't know how I've been able to hold out for this third installment! I don't know how I can even wait till tomorrow!!! And how will I handle the wait for books four and five? Also, pesto, ewww, me and pesto, oh, we do not get along.

The Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices Book 1) by Cassandra Clare
Published by: Margaret K. McElderry
Publication Date: August 31st, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 496 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Magic is dangerous—but love is more dangerous still.

When sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London's Downworld, where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.

Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What’s more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa's power for his own.

Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by—and torn between—two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm's length . . . everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world. . . . and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all."

Look at that steampunky goodness of a cover, plus Cassandra Clare, I know what book I want to get!

Spy Glass by Maria V. Snyder
Published by: Mira
Publication Date: August 31st, 2010
Format: Paperback, 432 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"After siphoning her own blood magic in the showdown at Hubal, Opal Cowan has lost her powers. She can no longer create glass magic. More, she's immune to the effects of magic. Opal is now an outsider looking in, spying through the glass on those with the powers she once had, powers that make a difference in the world.

Until spying through the glass becomes her new power. Suddenly, the beautiful pieces she makes flash in the presence of magic. And then she discovers that someone has st olen some of her blood—and that finding it might let her regain her powers. Or learn if they're lost forever… "

The third book in the Maria V. Snyder's Glass series, and I can't count how many people I know who view this and her other series as their favorites.

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White
Published by: Harper Teen
Publication Date: August 31st, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Evie’s always thought of herself as a normal teenager, even though she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she’s falling for a shape-shifter, and she’s the only person who can see through paranormals’ glamours.

But Evie’s about to realize that she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.

So much for normal."

Yeah, I know, I shouldn't be going, ooooh, pretty cover, me want... but the synopsis sounds good too... we'll see...

Radiance by Alyson Noel
Published by: Square Fish
Publication Date: August 31st, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 192 Pages
To Buy
The official patter:
"Riley has crossed the bridge into the afterlife—a place called Here, where time is always Now. She has picked up life where she left off when she was alive, living with her parents and dog in a nice house in a nice neighborhood. When she’s summoned before The Council, she learns that the afterlife isn’t just an eternity of leisure. She’s been assigned a job, Soul Catcher, and a teacher, Bodhi, a possibly cute, seemingly nerdy boy who’s definitely hiding something. They return to earth together for Riley’s first assignment, a Radiant Boy who’s been haunting a castle in England for centuries. Many Soul Catchers have tried to get him to cross the bridge and failed. But all of that was before he met Riley . . ."

Alyson Noel, of The Immortals fame, has a new book with ghosts, sounds cool! Plus English castle? I'm in!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Alyson Noel, Blameless, Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel, Gail Carriger, Kiersten White, Maria V. Snyder, Paranormalcy, Radiance, Spy Glass, Steampunk, The Parasol Protectorate, Tuesday Tomorrow

Ok, so while we impatiently waiting for the second book in Gail Carriger's Alexia Tarabotti series, still not out till March 30th, because sadly the laws of time and space don't see fit to jump ahead so that I'm on Spring Break and also immersed in a wonderful new book... sigh. But! Yes, dramatic declaration. The lovely people at Orbit have seen fit to release the lovely cover for the third book in the series, Blameless, out in September. Oh, gargoyles and parasols! What could be better? Yes, stop saying, if it was March 30th, or if there actually were ARCS. This is all we get... ok I lie, we also get an awesome making of video. Which, shows how they did what they did. In other words, the awesomeness of Photoshop, Illustrator... and I think InDesign made it in there as well. So while you're all going, look at the dress change color, look at the Eiffel Tower come and go (it really had to go, cause it wasn't built yet!) I'm going (*graphic design geek alert warning*), oh look they used the pen tool, damn that's an elaborate clipping path, I wonder what the feather weight was on that. So, really this video has something for everyone. The book geeks can have new cover lust and the graphic design geeks can have tool and job envy, although I have CS4, and they're only using CS3, so I can feel very mildly superior. Enjoy!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 3:47 PM 0 comments  

Labels: Alexia Tarabotti, ARCs, Blameless, Changeless, CS3, CS4, Eiffel Tower, Gail Carriger, Graphic Designer, Orbit, Soulless