#wyrdandwonder : Friday Face Off : “simples”
(May is the month of Wyrd and Wonder – details here, Twitter: @wyrdandwonder)
Here we are again with the Friday Face Off meme created by Books by Proxy . This is a great opportunity to feature some of your favourite book covers. The rules are fairly simple each week, following a predetermined theme (list below) choose a book, compare a couple of the different covers available for that particular book and choose your favourite. Future week’s themes are listed below – the list has been updated to help out those of you who like to plan ahead – if you have a cover in mind that you’re really wanting to share then feel free to leave a comment about a future suggested theme. I’ve also listed events that take place during the year, that I’m aware of, so you can link up your covers – if you’re aware of any events that you think I should include then give me a shout. This week’s theme:
“simples” – A favourite fantasy cover
I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with this week. And, at the same time I have to confess that I found that the freedom that came with choosing a favourite cover was a lot more difficult than I expected! Probably because there are A LOT of great covers out there so choosing one to highlight was difficult. I’ve gone with the first two books in the series and this is a Face Off for the two different sets of covers. This week I’ve gone for the Golgotha series by RS Belcher:
Vs
I like both of these sets of covers but my favourite set of covers, without doubt, is below:
(I’ve added the third book in the series so you can see the full set – there isn’t a tarot card version available for Queen of Swords at the moment).
Which one is your favourite?
Like last week I’ve added a Mr Linky here so that you can leave a link if you wish or please leave me a link in the comments so we can all visit and check out each others covers. Thanks
I’ve updated the list and included themes through to the end of 2019 – I’ve also included events that I’m aware of so that you can perhaps link your themes up where possible (if you know of an event you’d like to share that let me know in the comments). I also have a list prepared for 2020 and so will set up a separate page soon for forthcoming themes. As always, if you wish to submit an idea then leave me a comment.
Next week – A cover that makes you think of Summer
Future themes: (if you’re struggling with any of these themes then use a ‘freebie’ or one of your favourite covers)
2019
(May is the month of Wyrd and Wonder – details here, Twitter: @wyrdandwonder)
7th June – “One swallow does not make a summer” – A cover that makes you think of Summer
14th June – “Coraline opened the box of chocolates. The dog looked at them longingly.” – A cover featuring something sweet
21st June – Summer Solstice – the longest day of the year – Pagan rituals/standing stones/blazing suns – a cover with your own interpretation
28th June – “And who decided which people wore the striped pyjamas” – A cover that is striped
5th July – “The question of whether or not we are alone in the universe… has been answered” – a cover featuring something/somebody historic
12th July – A wrap around cover
19th July – “You can’t choose between life and death when we’re dealing with what is in between.” – A cover that is grainy or looks like ‘white noise’
26th July – “Ludo ….. down” – A cover that is Upside Down
2nd August – “There are children here somewhere. I can smell them.” A cover featuring children
9th August – “I’m disinclined to acquiesce to your request.” – A cover featuring Pirates
16th August – “The haft of the arrow had been feathered with one of the eagles own plumes” – a cover featuring feathers
23rd August – A cover that is a movie tie in
30th August – “I wandered lonely as a cloud” – a cover that is predominantly yellow
6th September “Warm September brings the fruit” – a cover that is seasonal for Autumn/Fall
13th September – Friday the 13th – unlucky for some! A cover with ‘curse’ in the title
20th September – “Your hair is winter fire,January embers.” – A cover featuring hair
27th September – Freebie
4th October – “Feed me Seymour” – A cover that is 60s horror
11th October – ““And, though there should be a world of difference between the smile of a man and the bared fangs of a wolf, with Joss Merlyn they were one and the same.” – a cover featuring an Inn
18th October – “It’s your favorite scary movie, remember? He had on the white mask, he stalked the babysitters.” – A cover featuring a scream
25th October – for Halloween – pick any scary cover you like
(I’m hoping that November will once again bring to us SciFiMonth – Twitter @SciFiMonth)
1st November – A cover that is predominantly grey
8th November – “big badda boom” – a cover that features an explosion
15th November – “No thinking thing should be another thing’s property, to be turned on and off when it is convenient.” – a cover featuring a robot
22nd November – A cover that is Futuristic
29th November – “When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off by sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere.” – a cover that is 60s sci fi
6th December – Now is the winter of our discontent, Made glorious summer by this sun of York” – a cover that puts you in mind of winter
13th December – A cover that features a temple/or religious icon
20th December – Longest Night – a dark and foreboding cover
27th December – the festive season – a cover that is glittery or sparkling
(2020 – January is Vintage SciFi month so I’ll be including possible themes to take that on board.)
May : My Month in Covers
Hi everyone, hope you’ve all had a lovely May. I’ve managed to complete 11 books in total this month, I’m not completely up to date with my reviews but I only have a few outstanding. My month in review will follow tomorrow with lots of links. For now, feast your eyes on my last month of covers:
#wyrdandwonder: Can’t Wait Wednesday: The House of Sacrifice (Empires of Dust #3) by Anna Smith Spark
29 May 2019
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Anna Smith Spark, Can't wait Wednesday, Empires of Dust #3, The House of Sacrifice, Wishful Endings, Wyrd and Wonder
Wyrd and Wonder – a month long event that is a celebration of fantasy. Check out the details here and join in the fun in whatever way you would like to do so.
“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that was originally created by Breaking 
the Spine. Unfortunately Breaking the Spine are no longer hosting so I’m now linking my posts up to Wishful Endings Can’t Wait Wednesday. Don’t forget to stop over, link up and check out what books everyone else is waiting for. If you want to take part, basically, every Wednesday, we highlight a book that we’re really looking forward to. This week the book I can’t wait for is: The House of Sacrifice (Empires of Dust #3) by Anna Smith Spark.
This series is fantastic, I’m loving Anna Smith Spark’s style of writing, it’s really quite something. Anyway, The House of Sacrifice is, I think, due for publication either end of July or beginning of August and here are the covers and details:
Marith’s power is growing. His empire stretches across half the world, and allies are flocking to his banner to share the spoils of war. With Thalia ruling at his side they are unstoppable.
But Marith is become increasingly mentally unstable and their victories cannot continue forever.
Here are my reviews for The Court of Broken Knives and The Tower of Living and Dying.
A decade of good reading
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme where every Tuesday we look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) bookish examples to demonstrate that particular topic. Top Ten Tuesday (created and hosted by The Broke and Bookish) is now being hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and future week’s topics can be found here. This week’s topic is:
Favorite Books Released In the Last Ten Years
Now, this is really hard. I find it difficult to narrow it down to a best of 10 list at the end of the year given that I read usually about 100 or more books. I do a ‘best of’ list at the start of the new year so I’ve gone back through those lists and tried to choose a varied selection from the past 10 years.
2010 – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
2011 – Witch Light by Susan Fletcher
2012 – The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
2013 – Beauty by Sarah Pinborough
2014 – City of Stairs by Robert Bennett
2015 – Dreamer’s Pool by Juliet Marillier
2016 – Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
2017 – Red Sister by Mark Lawrence
2018 – The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell
2019 –A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay
I hope there’s something here that appeals. 2019 isn’t yet half way through but I’ve gone for A Brightness Long Ago because it was very good and it was my first book by Guy Gavriel Kay.
Here are the lovely covers:
Dark Shores (Dark Shores #1) by Danielle L. Jensen
Dark Shores is a story about two people, both with secrets, brought together in an unlikely alliance in order to protect the people they love.
I confess that I got off to a shaky start with this one. Ultimately it redeemed itself and was an entertaining read but it was touch and go there for a while.
Dark Shores brings to us a world divided into East and West. The Celendor Empire in the East is heavily inspired by Ancient Rome, particularly it’s desire to conquer and become rich on the spoils. It remains oblivious to the West however and particularly to the ways to reach it’s shores, until that secret is spilled in a moment of unguarded naivety.
The tale is told from two POVs. Teriana is a young woman of the seas. Her mother is captain of the Quincense that regularly travels between East and West bearing goods for trade. Teriana is one of the Maarin. The Maarin are devoted to their Gods and indeed protected by them for keeping the secrets that prevent the ambitious war mongering East from discovering the rich plunder on the soils of the West.
Marcus is the commander of the infamous 37th legion. A legion that is well known for their ruthless tactics in conquering the East. Marcus has something of a history with his own family, who gave him up as a tithe to the Empire, but all isn’t quite as simple as it may at first seem – the family are keeping a secret that could lead to their downfall and the problem with secrets is they have a way of coming out of the woodwork.
I’m going to start this review with why I struggled at the start. Firstly, as the book began I found Teriana a little annoying – simply put she came across as very immature which made it difficult to buy into her being the Second Mate on board a ship particularly when her actions serve to put everyone and everything she knows in danger. On top of that the initial chapters felt too modern – Teriana and her friend acted like teenagers from the modern era – not one that is akin to a civilisation from many many moons ago. Okay, I don’t expect the language to be all ‘ye olde worlde’ but I think there has to be some sort of nod to the fact that this isn’t a modern world and attitudes might not be quite as they are today. The other area that I took issue with was the Celandon empire, trading on a regular and quite long standing basis with seafarers from the West, and yet never having turned their attention in that direction – until a certain secret is spilled. In fairness, the reasoning behind why the Celandon Empire couldn’t conquer the West becomes more apparent as the story unfolds so I advise patience on that front.
I’m not going to give too much more away about the plot other than to say that Teriana and Marcus are thrown together and in spite of their mutual distrust have to learn to rely on each other if they’re to succeed in keeping the people they love alive and, after a shaky start, I found myself enjoying the story more than I’d expected.
In fact I think that I enjoyed the story more once the protagonists left the shores of Celandon behind. I enjoyed the adventures at sea, the choppy waters and the dangers that had to be faced in order to find the route to the East. I enjoyed the way the Gods play into the story with their meddling and I enjoyed discovering more about the West. I thought that what was really well done here was that although the Celandon’s are trying to conquer in some respects they didn’t really come across as the baddies. I liked the way the legion comes into their own displaying their discipline, tactics and loyalty, setting up boundaries and establishing a strong foothold.
Now, you may be able to see a romance in the offing between our two main characters and that is the case. Fortunately this isn’t rushed and in fact when the two do eventually give in to their own feelings they still have a good deal of trust issues to work through. I liked that they didn’t overnight forget their bad history.
Overall this was a fun read that I found more enjoyable than I expected to following the opening chapters. I would advise that if you’re expecting a world of really rich world building based on history then this probably isn’t the read for you but if you’re in the market for an adventure and a budding romance then this could be just what you’re looking for.
I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publishers, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
Books and travelling with Lynn 