strange and random happenstance

Glamour in Glass by Mary Robinette Kowal
Published by: Tor
Publication Date: April 10th, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Jane and Vincent have become quite the powerful couple. Working side by side they have elevated Vincent's art, their art, to a new level. Even if the newspapers don't really give Jane any credit. He is the toast of London, the Prince Regent throwing a dinner in honor of the magnificent grotto they have created for his New Years festivities. Yet part of Jane is sad. Being a woman, she is viewed as women of the time are, not as the equal her husband does. She is easily pushed aside after dinner when the men sit and talk and the women retire. Jane has no desire to retire! She wants to be next to Vincent discussing magic and politics and all the things that matter in the world, not shut up in some parlor till the men deign to come to them!

Soon though Vincent receives an invitation from his mentor, M. Chastain, to visit him in Belgium and to look over the school he has created. Vincent and Jane treat this as the honeymoon they never really had time for. To be surrounded by others able to work their craft and to perhaps learn more than she was able to teach herself is a dream come true to Jane. Though the journey there is no without peril. Troops are rallying for Napoleon, it is rumored that he shall escape Alba and make an attempt on reclaiming his throne.

Soon Jane and Vincent stumble upon and idea that would take his Sphere Obscurcie, which makes a person invisible, if in a fixed location, and make it portable, with glass. This discovery could mean defeat or victory at the hands of the French. A discovery the French and the newly escaped Napoleon would gladly kill for. Though a hitch has been thrown into Jane's world. She has discovered she has a condition that will not allow her to work glamours. Will Vincent still love her if they are no loner able to work side by side and she where to become a more traditional wife? As she quickly sees, Vincent is already keeping secrets from her and not confiding as much as he used to, now that she is no longer with him at all times. Yet, when Vincent is threatened, Jane might be the only one able to save him.

I adored this book. I was bereft when it ended. Never in a very very long time it seems have I been so enamoured of the world a book has created. The first book I quite enjoyed, it was quite enjoyable, but it didn't prepare me for the awesomeness of the second. I here refer to the original origin of awesome, like one million hot dogs as Eddie Izzard would say. The mix of magic and the Regency world was what captured me initially. Yet here, Mary Robinette Kowal has taken it further. She has added in a level of French history that I am always drawn to, ie, the despotic wacko, Napoleon. How could you not love magic and deceit and Napoleonic spies? Napoleon and his hundred days, sigh. It is literally in my blood to be drawn to his time period. My great great great however many greats need to be there, grandfather was a high muckety-muck for Napoleon, François Joseph Lefebvre, the Duc de Danzig. Family legend always had it that he had actually abandoned Napoleon during the hundred days, turns out, that wasn't quite the case... but, well, would you like to say you rallied to him? At least his portrait is still at Versailles...

Back to the book. Not only is there this wonderful and believable magic system that Mary Robinette Kowal has created, but Jane is so perfect. She is not of her time. Vincent sees this and loves this in her. They are a modern couple who defy the expectations and mores of the time they live in. The deepness of their love is so romantic, but what's more romantic? The fact that Jane is clever, smart, and, in the end, not a damsel in distress, but the one who saves the day and her husband. If more books would just have kick ass females that where modelled on Jane. Clever, analytical and above all, successful in their endeavours. By not falling prey to stereotypical tropes, by magnificent world building and by creating a couple that truly love each other and depend on each other, Mary Robinette Kowal's series is quickly becoming not just a wonderful and unique series, but an author to watch and to wait for with baited breath.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Duc de Danzig, Eddie Izzard, Glamour in Glass, Glamoural, Jane Austen, Jane Vincent, Magic, Mary Robinette Kowal, Mr. Vincent, Napoleon, Regency, Shades of Milk and Honey, Spehere Obsurcie

Speaking from Among the Bones by Alan Bradley
ARC Provided by the Publisher
Published by: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: January 29th, 2013
Format: Kindle, 400 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Bishop's Lacey is in a state of excitement. As Easter draws near there is an excavation underway at St. Tancred's. Five hundred years ago their patron Saint died and was buried in the church at Bishop's Lacey. It was rumored that he was buried with The Heart of Lucifer, a diamond as big as a turkey egg that had healing powers and was the centerpiece of a staff made from holy wood. But only a few people know of this legend, and they obviously wanted to find it prior to the official excavation, because once the exhumation begins, it is obvious that someone has been there before. The most obvious sign of disruption being the body of Mr. Collicutt, the church's organist of the luscious locks who has been missing for some weeks.

Of course it had to be Flavia who found Mr. Collicutt... she had stumbled upon the tunnel that the nefarious gang was using to access the tomb... and the thought of long undisturbed bones was too much of a temptation to the precocious poisoner. But the discovery of the body brings many people to the scene. Besides the cops there's Adam Sowerby, who as a Flora-archaeologist, is on hand to see if there are any viable seeds buried with St. Tancred... but he also happens to dabble in PI work, knows Flavia's father from long ago, and is so mysterious, he might, just might, be an agent for the Queen. Many close scrapes and a few startling revelations later, including an effigy weeping blood, leads to the biggest surprise of Flavia's life. Her mother Harriet has been found.

While this book was, I am sure, just as wonderful as the previous volumes, the murder, the mysteries, the daring escapes, the thugs, the diamond, all of it top hole, but all of it vanish into a dim memory buried deep in the fog, like the mist taking over the sinking churchyard at St. Tancred's when you read that last line: "Your mother has been found." The rest of the book just whooshed out of my head at this stunning revelation. Harriet has been found! My mind started working overtime, is it possible she is still alive, or is she dead... could her estate be settled, can Buckshaw be saved? All these what ifs pushed everything else out of the way. The sheer torture of having to wait to find out the answers is a burden that I don't know if I can bear, but bear it I must.

The working title for the fifth volume of Flavia's adventures was Seeds of Antiquity, and I rather wish that this had remained the title. The books duel yet connected themes of family/heredity and history seem interconnected with the word antiquity, whereas bones, though they have a story to tell, are far less romantic. The knowledge that Flavia is accumulating with regard to her mother and her own place within Buckshaw makes her more a part of the family then Feely and Daffy would like. Flavia is her mother reborn, no matter what any sibling has tried to convince her of in the past. What we are comes from our parents, the madness or genius that is inherited, much as the burden of Buckshaw is inherited. To be able to embrace all that we are while also loosing it, with the imminent sale of the house, shows who we truly are. But how sad for Flavia, to be coming into all this knowledge while also learning that she will loose her connection to this past.

The past though can live again, and it is through Adam Sowerby the Flora-archaeologist that the most interesting aspects of history live. Sure there is the history of the town and St. Tancred, the history of Buckshaw and Harriet, but all this is dry history, it was alive, it is no more. That history is gone. What Adam Sowerby does is bring history to life. By going to ancient burial sites he examines the remains, because most people throw flowers into graves. He then takes these seeds and tries to revitalize them. To bring back seeds long gone, plants that are no longer part of this time and place. To be able to breath life into something long dead. It is a bit like playing god. But it's the closest thing we have to time travel. We can't go into the past, but here is a very small part of the past that might be brought back to us. A bit of magic in a world of murder.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Adam Sowerby, Alan Bradley, Bishop's Lacey, Buckshaw, Daffy, Diamond, Feely, Flavia De Luce, Flora-archaeologist, Harriet, Seeds of Antiquity, Speaking from Among the Bones, St. Tancred, The Heart of Lucifer

Speaking from Among the Bones (Flavia De Luce Book 5) by Alan Bradley
Published by: Delacorte
Publication Date: January 29th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Eleven-year-old amateur detective and ardent chemist Flavia de Luce is used to digging up clues, whether they’re found among the potions in her laboratory or between the pages of her insufferable sisters’ diaries. What she is not accustomed to is digging up bodies. Upon the five-hundredth anniversary of St. Tancred’s death, the English hamlet of Bishop’s Lacey is busily preparing to open its patron saint’s tomb. Nobody is more excited to peek inside the crypt than Flavia, yet what she finds will halt the proceedings dead in their tracks: the body of Mr. Collicutt, the church organist, his face grotesquely and inexplicably masked. Who held a vendetta against Mr. Collicutt, and why would they hide him in such a sacred resting place? The irrepressible Flavia decides to find out. And what she unearths will prove there’s never such thing as an open-and-shut case."

Another great entry in the Flavia lexicon that left me desperate for the next book. Come on Alan, write faster!

One Good Earl Deserves a Lover by Sarah Maclean
Published by: Avon
Publication Date: January 29th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Lady Philippa Marbury is . . . odd

The brilliant, bespectacled daughter of a double marquess cares more for books than balls, for science than the season, and for laboratories than love. She's looking forward to marrying her simple fiancé and living out her days quietly with her dogs and her scientific experiments. But before that, Pippa has two weeks to experience all the rest—fourteen days to research the exciting parts of life. It's not much time, and to do it right she needs a guide familiar with London's darker corners.
She needs . . . a Scoundrel

She needs Cross, the clever, controlled partner in London's most exclusive gaming hell, with a carefully crafted reputation for wickedness. But reputations often hide the darkest secrets, and when the unconventional Pippa boldly propositions him, seeking science without emotion, she threatens all he works to protect. He is tempted to give Pippa precisely what she wants . . . but the scoundrel is
more than he seems, and it will take every ounce of his willpower to resist giving the lady more than she ever imagined."

I have been hearing nothing bit praise for this book all around the blogesphere, so why not check it out? I know I will.

Dangerous Gifts by Gaie Sebold
Published by: Solaris
Publication Date: January 29th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Babylon Steel, former avatar of the goddess of sex and war, currently owner of the Scarlet Lantern, the best brothel on Scalentine, city of portals, has been offered a job; as bodyguard to Enthemmerlee, the latest candidate for the Council of Incandress; and as spy for the Diplomatic Section, the barely-acknowledged government of Scalentine.

She doesn’t want it. Incandress is on the verge of civil war. Enthemmerlee represents the hopes or fears of a large portion of its population and is a prime target for assassination. And on Scalentine racial tensions and economic stresses are boiling up, with Babylon’s lover, Chief Bitternut, trying to keep the lid on.

But circumstances conspire to send her to Incandress. There, what with attempting to turn Enthemmerlee’s useless household guard into a disciplined fighting force, dodging the Moral Statutes, the unwilling presence of a very annoyed member of the Diplomatic Section and the need to keep both herself and her client alive, things become rather too interesting. And that’s before Babylon realises that the situation is far worse than she thought, and is driven to a choice that will have far-reaching consequences..."

Recently I have been intrigued and think I will read the first in this Babylon Steel series, this being the second...

Fair Game (Alpha and Omega Book 3) by Patricia Briggs
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: January 29th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"It is said that opposites attract. And in the case of werewolves Anna Latham and Charles Cornick, they mate. The son—and enforcer—of the leader of the North American werewolves, Charles is a dominant Alpha. While Anna, an Omega, has the rare ability to calm others of her kind.

When the FBI requests the pack’s help on a local serial-killer case, Charles and Anna are sent to Boston to join the investigation. It soon becomes clear that someone is targeting the preternatural. And now Anna and Charles have put themselves right in the killer’s sights…"

If you haven't read this book yet, now's your chance, nice new paperback... also, if you haven't read this, why am I still talking to you, Patricia Briggs is awesome.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alan Bradley, Alpha and Omega, Babylon Steel, Fair Game, Flavia De Luce, Gaie Sebold, Mercy Thompson, Patricia Briggs, Sarah MacLean, Speaking from Among the Bones

Days of Blood and Starlight, Daughter of Smoke and Bone Book 2 by Laini Taylor
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: November 6th, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 528 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

"Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war. This is not that world."

Karou's homeland has been destroyed. The man she loved in another life, in another body, destroyed it because of her death. Akiva never thought, never even dared to hope that he would one day be with her again. His destruction of her people has sealed his fate and his chance at happiness. A happiness he never expected is lost yet again to him by his own hands. The monsters have all been destroyed by the Seraphim. There are only a few holdouts of Chimera hidden here and there in Eretz, and the Seraphim are flushing them out.

Yet there is hope... Karou. Her name literally means hope. Little did she realize that in spending two lives in the company of Brimstone she has been able to learn the art of resurrection, the secret to the Chimera's ability to thwart the enemy. Of course helping the Chimera means she must ally herself with the man who was her intended, Thiago. Oh, and he is the one who happened to have her executed the first time around. Going by the theory the enemy of my enemy is my friend, she agrees to be Thiago's resurrectionist, in the hope that this will save her people by creating a rebel band of Chimera.

But will a band of rebels be able to thwart the might of the empire? Or is it in Akiva and Karou's old dream of creating a new world that a future for Eretz might be found? Either way, the Seraphim and the Chimera must come together, must be willing to see past the war that has consumed their lives, or in the case of the Chimera, multiple lives, and look to what comes next.

For some time now I have had several friends who where verging on the insistence level of drug pushers to read Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I mean, every single time I talked to or emailed them, it would end with, "by the way... have you read it yet?" The day the second book came out the amount of texts I got might have been able to crash my data plan. Needless to say, as soon as I had the time I agreed I would finally read it. After the harsh semester of school I had I spent quite literally all of December sick and under a blanket somewhere. Now the "best" part about being sick is that you are literally incapable of doing anything other than lounging... which means reading! Ah December... I might not have been able to speak without hacking up a lung, but you passed in a haze of crisp fonts and snowy white pages. I devoured Daughter of Smoke and Bone quite quickly. I was intrigued by the world. There where things I loved, and there where things I raised my eyebrows at, angels, really? But I was sold enough to need to pick up the next volume immediately... or in this case, send someone forth to get me said volume because you aren't allowed to drive a car when on a codeine based cough syrup.

What the first book hadn't prepared me for was the awesomeness of the second book. By reading blurbs and snatches of reviews the second book seemed to veer very much into the war of otherworldy creatures category with Karou playing Frankenstein... which seemed, well, I'll say it, I thought it would be lame. I thought taking Karou out of this wonderful little world she lived in in Prague with her lovely diminutive if occasionally violent friend Zuzana was a mistake. No more sketchbooks and art school and evil exes. It was rewriting everything the first book was and giving us a map of another world. Side note, I usually love books with maps of other worlds, I just wasn't expecting this series to go that way. I think that's why I loved Days of Blood and Starlight, it went where I didn't think it would go and brought me along for an amazing ride, thankfully I didn't have to be in a beat up truck in Morocco for real.

Yet it is the believability of the world building that has made the narrative work. Laini has created a beautiful and brutal world, but it has humor in it. The surest way to get complicity is to make someone laugh. Zuzana was my entry into this world of monsters. She was so funny and her connection to Karou made a character who might not be completely relatable, I mean Karou is a monster resurrected into the body of a blue haired teenager with amazing drawing skills, real and likable. Their quippy emails and how Monty Python is used to bring levity yet also hint at the truths behind the words made me love this book all the more. Add in magic, a trio of mismatched angels, a mysterious island and some very wicked Guerilla tactics,  and I am not only beyond excited for the next installment, I want it now!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Akiva, Chimera, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Days of Blood and Starlight, Eretz, Frankenstein, Karou, Laini Taylor, Monty Python, Prague, Seraphim, Zuzana

Peter and Max: A Fables Novel by Bill Willingham
Published by: Vertigo
Publication Date: November 6th, 2012
Format: Paperback, 400 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Peter and Max lived an idyllic life, traveling the countryside of their mythic world as wandering minstrels. Their little caravan with their talking mule wandered from town to town, playing at festivals and giving the Pipers a rather glorious life. The highlight of the year was when they arrived at their good friend Squire Peep's house and had a glorious party before continuing on together to the towns local festival. Though this year is different. Max is growing into a young man and his sullen moods have started to surface, whereas young Peter keeps thinking of Squire Peep's daughter Bo.

That night their world will change forever. It's not just that Peter and Max's father gives the family's one item of value, the flute Frost, to Peter, when Max is the oldest, it's that the rumor's of a great invading army come to pass. The Peep's estate is seized and everyone is locked away. The heads of the two families devise a plan. They will escape through the haunted and dangerous woods and make for Hamlin, a fortified town nearby that has to have withstood the forces of their Adversary.

Breaking into two parties, they go forth into the gloom, little knowing that it is not the advancing army that is their true threat, but that Max is. Overlooked by his family, his rightful inheritance taken away, the dark forest awakens something even darken within him. If he has anything to say about it, the people whom he entered the forest with won't make it out alive. Hundreds of years later and in a different world, similar to theirs, Peter and Max's final confrontation will happen.

Fairy Tales are the stories told to make us behave as children. To make us learn that not doing as you're told and going into the woods at night are the most dangerous things in the world. Because the woods are where the nightmares live. As we grow older, this fear lessens, but underneath the knowledge we have gained with age and wisdom, there is still that underlying fear. The woods is dangerous. Peter and Max bring these childhood fears back to life. Don't venture into the woods, not because there's witches and creatures to prey on you, but because Max is there. A man driven insane by his desire for what he believes is his right. Living his life between indolence and sheer rage, he haunts to woods in his quest to find Peter. This book is like Silence of the Lambs goes feudal. A sibling rivalry of fire and ice that will leave as many people dead in it's wake as possible.

Max is the kind of sociopathic antihero you just can't get enough of. This is a killer, who at the height of his power, has witches and other powerful creatures scared. His love of gaudy clothes combined with his desire for servitude, make crossing his path one very dangerous prospect. And into this man is weaved the basis for the Piped Piper of Hamlin. What kind of sick and twisted person, when they don't get what they want, would steal all your children? Max is the answer. Max legitimizes and makes sense of a rather odd Fairy Tale. He is the Brothers Grimm's very own Hannibal Lecter.

There is one thing though that needs to be addressed, how this fits into the Fables Oeuvre. For those who don't know (which you should by now given that my ninth best read of last year was in this series), Fables is a comic series created by Bill Willingham about storybook characters being real and living in seclusion without the rest of the world knowing. They were forced out of their homelands and into our world. Parts of our world mimic parts of theirs, the Hamlin of Peter and Max's world is similar to ours, and our world's reverence of Max entertains him to no end.

Your main question at this point is probably, will I understand this book without following the series. Simply, yes. They explain enough that you get the Fables "Universe" but it isn't essential to the plot. There are a few jokes you won't get here or there, but overall the Fables world doesn't drive the story. Which leads me to an important question. Why even make this a Fables novel? It would have been perfectly fine, perhaps even better, standing on it's own. Strip it down of any previously needed knowledge and then expand it. Because really, this book could have held my attention even longer, which is rare, usually I'm the one bemoaning the lack of editors in this day and age. This was just an amazing book, which makes me realize one important thing... if Bill Willingham can write this good, why is he wasting his time on a hit or miss comic series when he could be writing novels, novels that could rival some of the best fantasy writers out there? Really, that's the only thing that made me sad about this, knowing that Willingham is this awesome and usually performing below his abilities... well, that and the fact that I hated the one drawing in the book that was in the 20s I think... it looked like Leialoha was imitating Leyendecker, when all his drawings previously had a very Arthur Rackham, traditional storybook vibe... pick a style and stick to it, duh.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Arthur Rackham, Bill Willingham, Bo Peep, Brothers Grimm, Comics, Fables, Hamlin, Hannibal Lecter, Leyendecker, Peter and Max, Peter Piper, Pied Piper of Hamlin, Silence of the Lambs

The Ninnies by Paul Magrs
Book Provided by Obverse Books
Published by: Obverse Books
Publication Date: April 30th, 2012
Format: Kindle, 172 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy
One day Alan's Dad disappears. Everyone, even his Mom, believes Alan's Dad has done a runner. The family's reduced circumstances with a new baby on the way would make anyone do a bunk. Alan knows it isn't true. He saw his dad taken. They where tall with scorched looking skin and drove a black limousine. Then there was the sound of their feet, krunch, krunch, krunch, and their high pitched laugh, hee hee hee. These creatures where the very stuff of nightmares. But why would they want Alan's Dad? He's just a window cleaner, nothing much. More importantly, what are they?

Soon there are more disappearances in town. The police aren't taking an interest, but Alan knows it's the same creatures. In the flat above Alan's are two oldsters, a brother and sister, who, despite their advancing years, are quite sprightly, and noisy, and are driving Alan's mom insane with their disco music. When Alan finally gets to know Bunty and Marlton, he finds out that they have had dealings with these creatures and they know what they are, they are Ninnies.

No one quite knows what a Ninny is or what a Ninny wants. They are scary, shadowy creatures. They might be from space, or a different dimension, or straight out of our nightmares. They could explain the unexplainable, they might be the fairies and trolls of legend, they could be the spacemen people claim to see, they could be all of this and none of this, but disappearances are the first sign that they have arrived. The second sign is mutilation of animals. This soon occurs at the Bonnitime Zoo which is run by Twitsy Nesbit, a friend of Bunty and Marlton's. The final sign is people being addicted to some savory treat... very soon there is a new brand of crisps on the mark, Krispies, with strange names like "Zebra and Artichoke." Alan finds out about the crisps from his classmate Amy who works at her families store. Alan quickly becomes addicted. Even once he knows they are from the evil creatures that took his Dad, he can't stop himself. The Ninnies meanwhile can't leave Alan and his friends alone. Tapping on windows late and night, their menacing hee hee hee's coming out of the shadows. Something will have to be done about them... after one more bag of Krispies.

This book quite literally blew me away. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. The title and the cover led me to think that this would be a silly little story about some mischievous creatures called The Ninnies that would be on the younger side of YA... don't ask me to explain why my brain thought this, it just did. My brain was not prepared to be blown. I think that's the best kind of book, the one that sneaks up on you and just wows you. This book was like Roald Dahl at his best, Neil Gaiman at his darkest and wittiest, or what you always wanted the Sarah Jane Adventures to be, but never quite where. Ghoulish, macabre and suspenseful, I loved it. It kept my up to the wee hours every night hoping not to hear a ghoulish hee hee hee coming from outside my bedroom door.

The mystery of the Ninnies combined with their side business in Krispies, which was run out of an old red brick Victorian Factory, made me feel like I was reading the dark cousin of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It's like the Oompa Loompa's had taken over the factory and started to kill and eat the small children. Hence it isn't odd that the book felt reminiscent of Gaiman, with his proclivities to kill families and children. Yet, despite these literary correlations, this book was all Paul Magrs. His wit and humor remained intact. You could tell this was the writer of the Brenda and Effie books with the eccentric cast of characters, the loving way he portrays the elderly and his love of pick and mix shops, yet, he stepped it up a notch. More humor, more horror, more suspense. The fact that Alan, once learning the truth of his food addiction and being unable to give it up, left you with a slight nauseous feeling while you where also finding it funny that he's hiding crisp packets about his person so that no one knows his "dark secret."

The Ninnies I think has quickly become my favorite of Magrs works. It brought back that feeling of horrible delight I had upon first reading Roald Dahl's Matilda in sixth grade. He also was able to maintain the suspense by only giving us a little bit at a time, like a single crisp instead of an entire packet to wolf down like Alan. If there was a down side it was that I felt the story should have been self contained and not open to a sequel. Sometimes a stand alone is what's needed and I don't know if the horrible suspense Paul has created will be able to carry though a second volume... but that again, I am willing to be surprised.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Brenda and Effie, Krispies, Magrs Month, Matilda, Meat Pies, Neil Gaiman, Oompa Loompa, Paul Magrs, Roald Dahl, Sarah Jane Adventures, The Ninnies

Villa Triste by Lucretia Grindle
Published by: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: January 22nd, 2013
Format: Paperback, 640 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Florence, 1943. Two sisters, Isabella and Caterina Cammaccio, find themselves surrounded by terror and death; and with Italy trapped under the heel of a brutal Nazi occupation, bands of Partisans rise up.

Soon Isabella and Caterina will test their wits and deepest beliefs as never before. As the winter grinds on, they will be forced to make the most important decisions of their lives. Their choices will reverberate for decades.

In the present day, Alessandro Pallioti, a senior policeman agrees to oversee a murder investigation, after it emerges the victim was once a Partisan hero. When the case begins to unravel, Pallioti finds himself working to uncover a crime lost in the twilight of war, the consequences of which are as deadly today as they were over sixty years ago."

Past and present come together in a mystery that goes back to Italy during WWII, yes please!

Shadows of the Workhouse by Jennifer Worth
Published by: Ecco
Publication Date: January 22nd, 2013
Format: Paperback, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The sequel to Jennifer Worth's New York Times bestselling memoir and the basis for the PBS series Call the Midwife
 
When twenty-two-year-old Jennifer Worth, from a comfortable middle-class upbringing, went to work as a midwife in the direst section of postwar London, she not only delivered hundreds of babies and touched many lives, she also became the neighborhood's most vivid chronicler. Woven into the ongoing tales of her life in the East End are the true stories of the people Worth met who grew up in the dreaded workhouse, a Dickensian institution that limped on into the middle of the twentieth century.

Orphaned brother and sister Peggy and Frank lived in the workhouse until Frank got free and returned to rescue his sister. Bubbly Jane's spirit was broken by the cruelty of the workhouse master until she found kindness and romance years later at Nonnatus House. Mr. Collett, a Boer War veteran, lost his family in the two world wars and died in the workhouse.

Though these are stories of unimaginable hardship, what shines through each is the resilience of the
human spirit and the strength, courage, and humor of people determined to build a future for themselves against the odds. This is an enduring work of literary nonfiction, at once a warmhearted coming-of-age story and a startling look at people's lives in the poorest section of postwar London."

When Call the Midwife started airing in England, all Jenny Worth's books shot straight into the bestsellers lists. Thankfully PBS is smart enough to release them stateside, so we don't have to order them from overseas. This is the second in Worth's three books, the third will be coming out in March and I just recently picked up the first.

Ever After by Kim Harrison
Published by: Harper Voyager
Publication Date: January 22nd, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 448 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The ever-after, the demonic realm that parallels our own, is shrinking, and if it disappears, so does all magic. It's up to witch-turned-daywalking-demon Rachel Morgan to fix the ever-after before the fragile balance between magic users and humans falls apart.

Of course, there's also the small fact that Rachel is the one who caused the ley line to rip in the first place, and her life is forfeit unless she can fix it. Not to mention the most powerful demon in the ever-after—the soul-eater Ku'Sox Sha-Ku'ru—has vowed to destroy her, and has kidnapped her friend and her goddaughter as leverage. If Rachel doesn't give herself up, they will die.

Forced by circumstance, Rachel teams up with elven tycoon Trent Kalamack—a partnership fraught with dangers of the heart as well as betrayal of the soul—to return to the ever-after and rescue those she loves. One world teeters on the brink of interspecies war, the other on the brink of its very demise—and it's up to Rachel to keep them both from being destroyed."

Urban Fantasy fans get ready for some more Kim Harrison!

Fables Volume 18: Cubs in Toyland by Bill Willingham
Published by: Vertigo
Publication Date: January 22nd, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 192 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"For years, Snow White and Bigby Wolf's cubs have grown up knowing that one of them was destined for a much greater, more grave role amongst the Fables community. But no one knew how soon it would come.

When Snow and Bigby's cub Therese receives a Christmas gift from an unknown admirer, this red plastic boat magically takes her on a journey to a desolate place known as Toyland. Will Therese be their savior? Or their destroyer? FABLES VOL. 18: CUBS IN TOYLAND is the latest epic from New York Times best-selling author Bill Willingham's hit series FABLES, as the Bigby Wolf cubs learn that adventures in the land of misfit toys is much less fun than it sounds.

Also collected here are all the backup stories that feature Bufkin's exploits in the land of Oz, beautifully painted by Shaw McManus (CINDERELLA: FROM FABLETOWN WITH LOVE)."

Oh, seeing as I'm almost all caught up with Fables back issues, a new one is just what The Doctor ordered (and you know there's only one doctor I could mean...)

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Bill Willingham, Call the Midwife, Cubs in Toyland, Fables, Jennifer Worth, Kim Harrison, Lucretia Grindle, Oz, PBS, The Hollows, Villa Triste

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
Published by: Harper
Publication Date: June 19th, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Everything changed on "Step Day." One day there was one Earth. Overcrowded and dying slowly. Then innumerable Earths opened up just a step away. Pure, untouched, Earth as it once was or could have been, yet completely uninhabited, save for animals and insects. Each Earth different and another step away. All because of a simple device whose instructions where placed online. A machine powered by a potato, that could lead you to these infinite worlds, only one after the other in sequence though. Yet there was Joshua. Joshua didn't need a stepper. He was a natural. Unbeknownst to him, so was his mother. At the time of his birth, Joshua's mother accidentally stepped and Joshua was born and left for a moment on an Earth all his own. That was when he first became aware of the silence.

On Step Day Joshua inadvertently became a hero because due to his natural stepping ability, he was able to go from one Earth to the next without having the debilitating nausea that most people experienced. That night he rescued countless children from Earth 1 and brought them back to Datum Earth, or so they would come to be known as. Joshua became something of a folk hero then, because he was more comfortable out exploring the Long Earth as it came to be called, than back in the Home on Allied Drive.

Yet in a world that was changing so fast, taxes and policing having new definitions, with people abandoning their lives, with precious metals becoming worthless, with iron becoming precious because of it's inability to be taken on a step, one corporation stands tall. The Black Corporation. They summon Joshua to their headquarters for a special mission. Lobsang is a reincarnated Tibetan motorcycle repairman who now resides as an AI in a computer. Yet he is definitely human, in that he proved it in a court of law. Lobsang wants Joshua to take him to the end of the Long Earth. They will journey to worlds end in a flying dirigible.

Lobsang has theories about what he will find and Joshua is his fail safe. Joshua can bring him back if anything where to go wrong. Also, Joshua won't get sick on the journey. The two of them set forth, jumping from world to world in the blink of an eye. The way they travel, watching movies at night and eating fine cuisine, makes Joshua a little jaded, and even wish for the way he used to travel. Yet, in all his travels he has never seen the mysterious creatures that are known as Trolls and Elves till now. Soon he realizes that there is more to the Long Earth than anyone could have ever imagined. And that's what scares people the most back on Datum Earth.

This book had two very good reasons for going straight to the top of my "to be read" pile, well, actually three, in that I've been waiting for it to come out for a year... The first reason is my undying love of Terry Pratchett. He is just the most amazing writer out there able to combine hard truths with laugh out loud humor. The second reason is that a fair amount of this book takes place in my hometown of Madison, Wisconsin! Ok, so, it's not really a weird coincidence that it takes place in Madison, seeing as Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter used last years North American Discworld Convention that was here in Madison as a research trip and therefore thought setting a good chunk of the book in Madison was handy. At the convention they had a panel where the two of them discussed basically the structure of how the "Long Earth" works, so I had some foreknowledge as to how stepping worked. The idea fascinated me. It's not really an original hypothesis, versions of this theory have existed, even in Philip Pullman's Dark Materials books, we have worlds upon worlds stacked on top of each other only a slim knife's cut away. But here the lack of humanity is intriguing. Also the idea that all the Earths are what could have been possible had something happened differently is fascinating.

At times though, the book does get bogged down in the science of the hows, whys and wherefores. As the authors said, this first book in the series, is more just an introduction to the concept of the Long Earth. A travelogue wherein we familiarize ourselves with how things work. This of course brought to mind the writing style of Douglas Adams, with his Hitchhiker's Trilogy. If you think about those books, nothing much happens, yet you are travelling with these people through space. I think this book owes a lot to Adams, Doctor Who, and Mark Twain. The airship after all is named the Mark Twain, and it very much reminded me of a movie I watched once which I believe was a dramatization of Tom Sawyer Abroad,  a novel by Mark Twain featuring Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in a parody of a Jules Verne-esque adventure story. I distinctly remember the hot air balloon knocking the nose off of the sphinx. So, I can see the validity of people who claimed that this book was thin on plot. Though everything else made up for that loose, and, really, it's the first book, we have to see where it's going.

What really intrigued me though was all the things that would fall under the category of "that's so Pratchett." How the "other" creatures they encounter would account for an actual basis in mythology of Trolls and Elves. The "iron" that the fae feared being the only metal unable to step. His love of the word susurrus. His humor, dear lord, his dead on humor. It was subtler than in some of his other books, but still, to have the AI Lobsang, who I kept picturing as Jude Law from AI, constantly being unclear in his loyalties yet encouraging movie night wherein they would watch 2001. Or where he would say how he had originally created his appearance and demeanor based on the replicants from Bladerunner. To have Lobsang not just have these overtones, but then have Lobsang himself with a nudge and a wink then reference them himself was priceless. I particularly liked when he started to take on his "British Butler" persona, seeing as if there is a true flaw in the book, it's that the authors being British using turns of phrase that Americans would never use, so therefore the Butler kind of made up the language gap. I really think that David from Prometheus has a thing or three to learn from Lobsang.

In the end, I will say that this is yet another series of Terry Pratchett's that I will eagerly await the next book. Even if my heart will forever remain in Discworld, I was happy to say that I really enjoyed this book, far far more than his other stand alone, Nation, but that is another story all together, not just the "book" by my dislike of that book... he should have so stopped before the afterword... ok, I said I wasn't going to get into it, so I won't. Pratchett is wonderful, Baxter worked well with him, but again, like Gaiman and Good Omens, I think it's Pratchett's voice that comes out the clearest.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Bladerunner, Datum Earth, Doctor Who, Douglas Adams, Elves, Joshua, Madison, Mark Twain, Philip Pullman, Prometheus, Step Day, Stephen Baxter, Terry Pratchett, The Long Earth, Tom Sawyer Abroad, Trolls