This is My Genre
5 November 2016
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Book tag, The Tattooed Book geek, This is my genre
Today I’m taking part in the ‘This is My Genre’ book tag created by Drew over at The TattooedBookGeek. Thanks Drew for the tag 😀
The Rules:
- Credit his bad self Drew @ TheTattooedBookGeek as the creator of the tag, either use the created tag name graphic or create your own and link back to Drew’s blog.
- Answer the questions.
- Tag as many people as you want.
- Simples
To the Q&A:
1). What’s your favourite genre?
Fantasy – and everything it encompasses really ranging from good old swords and sorcery through to magical realism.
2). Who’s your favourite author from the genre?
Surprisingly this is a question where the answer is an ‘ever evolving’ thing. If you asked me this just 3 or 4 years ago my answer would be undoubtedly different. My most immediate answer to this question over recent years would have been either Patrick Rothfuss or Scott Lynch because I love the work by these two authors. Neil Gaiman is also a favourite author of mine. But, I’d say that my favourite author at the moment is Mark Lawrence. His books have been consistently among my top ten reads for the last five years which really speaks for itself. I love his writing style and I think his books are so damn clever. He’s like Daz – I will explain! For those from different countries – Daz is a washing powder for your clothes – every year (according to the tv commercials) Daz comes out with a newer and better powder – even though last year’s was the ‘best ever’. This is ML in a nutshell. Every time I read one of his books I think ‘this is his best yet’ and I wax lyrical about how he’s an author at the top of his game, blah blah blah – and yet then I read his next book and it blows everything else out of the water (see what I did there!!) I admit I’ve put him up there on a pedestal and every time I read his newest work I almost have a sense of fear going on – how on earth can his books keep getting better and better. The answer – I have no idea but they just do!
And, coming soon:
Red Sister (The Red Sister Trilogy #1) – could this be the absolute best of the best of the best!!???
Just to cheat, I would also include Sarah Pinborough (because you have to have the women represented too!) I love her work and how she defies any kind of pigeon holing! I’ve not read everything she’s ever written but I’m working on it and I’ve yet to find something I dislike!
3). What is it about the genre that keeps pulling you back?
I love reading because I get to travel as I read through the pages of a book – I love fantasy because that travel takes me to places that don’t exist! On top of that, yes, fantasy seems to have a bit of everything – if you love historical books, crime, mystery, horror – it’s all included within fantasy. Time travel, life on Mars, dragons, wizards, angels and demons, gas light, steampunk – reading fantasy just, for me has everything. I still read from other genres, but fantasy has been a long time love starting in my younger years and continuing to date. It always pulls me back.
4). What’s the book that started your love for your favourite genre?
Well, I guess I would have to start really early by saying fairytales – everyone must surely love fairytales and it’s the common ‘go to’ book for bedtime stories. Yes, I was heavily influenced by those bedtime reads and to date I love retellings. My favourite is Beauty and the Beast – no doubts. The first fantasy books that I picked up independently were probably around the age of 8 or 9 – The Wizard of Oz and the Borrowers – and I credit both of those to my teacher at the time who I just really liked and was a person who greatly encouraged reading in all her pupils. But – I suppose the book that really sealed the deal was The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien.
One book to rule them all!
5). If you had to recommend at least one book from your favourite genre to a non-reader/someone looking to start reading that genre, what book would you choose and why?
This is such a toughie, there are such a lot of things to consider and I would hate to choose a book that was wrong for that particular person and perhaps sour for them the whole fantasy read experience!
I think I would go for The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. I loved this book in fact I was captivated. Gaiman can write some very dark material but he can also write some beautifully whimsical stories and this is one such. Plus- opening lines and quotes:
‘There was a hand in the darkness and it held a knife…’
6). Why do you read?
I’ve always read – it’s just my thing. I like to use my imagination which is why I prefer to read a book before seeing adaptations – I want to make up the characters in my own mind’s eye, visualise the places and be thrilled by the plot. Books are just something I can enjoy whenever I want to – on the bus, during my lunch break, before sleeping – I’m pretty much always reading and I always have a book with me – (kindle has definitely helped in that respect). With a book – basically I never feel alone – that probably sounds odd but there it is!
Now, who to tag!!
Well, firstly – everyone – please join in! Curious minds need to know your answers and if you enjoy a different type of read it would be great to see your answers.
And – (and yes, I know everyone is very busy so if you can’t take part no worries):
- Susan at Dab of Darkness – I always tag Susan because I love her answers!
- Agnes who blogs at Mitriel Faywood and That Thorn Guy
- Zezee at zezee with books
- Tammy at Books Bones and Buffy
- Rinn at Rinn Reads
- Andrea – at Little Red Reviewer
- Mark Lawrence – because you never know – he might be super keen to share his answers too but nobody probably ever thinks to tag him! (or not – plus, no harm in trying…)
#SPFBO Final Round
November is upon us and so is the second stage of the SPFBO, – the Self Published Fantasy Blog off organised by Mark Lawrence. All the details can be found here.
There can be only one and we are now down to the final 10 books and what a gorgeous looking bunch of books!
I’ve listed the final entries below and linked the titles to the Goodreads synopsis. At this stage of the competition each blogger will read and score all the other nine books put forward within a six month timeframe. Here are the final books:
Fionn: Defence of Ráth Bládhma (The Fionn mac Cumhaill Series #1) by Brian O’Sullivan
Larcout (Fire Born, Blood Blessed Book 1), by K.A. Krantz
The Moonlight War by S.K.S. Perry
Outpost by F T McKinstry my review here
The Music Box Girl, by K.A. Stewart
The Path of Flames (Chronicles of the Black Gate #1)
The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French
Assassin’s Charge (Echoes of Imara) by Claire Frank
The Shadow Soul (A Dance of Dragons #1).by Kaitlyn Davis
Nomad is an Island: The Friday Face Off #RRSciFiMonth
4 November 2016
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: #RRSciFiMonth, Books by Proxy, Friday Face off, I am Legend, Richard Matheson
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. This week’s theme:
4th November – Nomad is an island – a cover with a wanderer
You may have seen on recent posts that November is Sci Fi 2016 which is an event that celebrates all things sci fi. So, I’m using my weekly memes to highlight sci fi novels. For the theme this week I’ve chosen: I am Legend by Richard Matheson. This book is perfect for this week’s theme because of course the main character really is by himself!
plus the first edition cover:
And the winner:
I had to go with the scary cover! I just couldn’t help it – even though it doesn’t necessarily fit in with the theme!
Which is your favourite??
If you fancy joining in with the FFO the themes for the next few weeks are below.
11th November -Falling off the rails – a cover with train tracks
18th November – The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house. All that cold, cold, wet day – a cover with stormy weather
25th November – As old as the hills?? – A cover with mountains
2nd December – Oranges and lemons say the bells of St Clements – A cover with fruit
9th December – Soul Meets Soul on Lovers’ Lips – a cover with lips
16 December – Give a Girl the Right Shoes and she can conquor the world – a cover with shoes
23rd December – The first noel… – a cover with angels
30th December – Ho ho ho! To the bottle I go… – a cover with drink
Friday Firsts: Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel #RRSciFiMonth
4 November 2016
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Emily St John Mandel, Friday Firsts, Station Eleven, tenacious reader
Friday Firsts is a new meme that runs every Friday over on Tenacious Reader. The idea is to feature the first few sentences/paragraph of your current book and try and outline your first impressions as a result. This is a quick and easy way to share a snippet of information about your current read and to perhaps tempt others. Stop on by and link up with Tenacious Reader. As this month is Sci fi Month 2016 my book today is a science fiction novel that I’ve had on my shelves for a while now.
‘The king stood in a pool of blue light, unmoored. This was act 4 of King Lear, a winter night at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto. Earlier in the evening, three little girls had played a clapping game onstage as the audience entered, childhood versions of Lear’s daughters, and now they’d returned as hallucinations in the mad scene. The king tumbled and reached for them as they flitted here and there in the shadows. His name was Arthur Leander. He was fifty-one years old and there were flowers in his hair.
“Dost thou know me?” the actor playing Gloucester asked. “I remember thine eyes well enough,” Arthur said, distracted by the child version of Cordelia, and this was when it happened. There was a change in his face, he stumbled, he reached for a column but misjudged the distance and struck it hard with the side of his hand.’
Station Eleven – which is your favourite cover: I like both and they’re so completely different but on balance I think the dark cover would attract my attention more.
My First Impressions
I really don’t know what to expect from this book and I’m not sure that opening really gives much away! But, I’m really looking forward to this book so, here goes..
What are you reading right now? Did it start out strong? Feel free to join in.
The Apothecary’s Curse by Barbara Barnett
The Apothecary’s Curse is a strange mix of myth and medicine. It begins in the Victorian era and winds up in the present day and it tells the story of two men whose lives become inextricably entwined and not always in the most pleasant way.
The story unfolds using split timelines jumping backward and forwards where we gradually learn the tale of physician Simon Bell and apothecary Gaelan Erceldoune. I confess from the outset I found the Victorian aspects of the story quite fascinating, this is when we first uncover the real truth behind our two protagonists and it was a story that I really enjoyed. Simon is in search of a miracle cure for his wife Sophie who has terminal cancer and as a last resort he begs Gaelen to help him. Unfortunately the cure doesn’t work and Sophie dies leaving Simon bereft and angry. Hoping to take his own life he swallows the remainder of the remedy himself and in a bizarre twist becomes immortal. At the same time Gaelen is unfairly accused of a crime that will see him convicted of murder and sentenced to hang. And he does indeed hang – he just doesn’t die! Gaelen is also immortal.
In the modern day story Gaelen and Simon’s lives occasionally cross. Gaelen owns an antique bookshop and Simon has become a successful author. Simon is tormented by the Ghost of Sophie and Gaelen is tormented by dreams of the time he spent in a mental institution where he was subjected to horrific torture. Gaelen and Simon seem to lead lives that revolve around each other and the one key ingredient that keeps them coming together is an ancient book. This book once belonged to Gaelen. A possession that had been in his family for as long as any one could recall. Impossible for most people to read, this book supposedly contained cures for every disease. Simon is anxious to locate the book – he thinks it holds the secret to his immortality and as he longs to join Sophie in death this book could finally give him his release. Of course Simon and Gaelen are not the only two interested in the secrets of longevity. A major pharmaceutical company are also keen to discover more and their search is finally beginning to close the net around our two lead characters.
What did I enjoy about this? It’s an intriguing tale and I thought well written. I wouldn’t say it was a particularly fast paced story but in spite of that it really held my attention. As I mentioned above I preferred the Victorian aspects of the tale – I thought those sections of the story were richer in detail and the characters just seemed to fit better in that timeframe. I liked the way the author kept the story primarily focused on Simon and Gaelen, their lives seemed to frequently gravitate back together as though their paths were fated to continually cross. The story also looks at our search for the impossible, whether that be turning metal into gold, the philosopher’s stone or immortality and the question of whether any of these things can truly make a person happy. Is the grass greener, would we be truly happy, is it just a matter of perspective?
In terms of criticisms. I had a few niggles. I think primarily, whilst I liked Simon and Gaelen I never really became solidly attached to either of them and I’m not sure I can put my finger on why that is. Although, on balance, I would say I preferred Gaelen and I think that is probably because we spend more time with him in the latter part of the book. The other thing that I couldn’t help focusing a little bit negatively on was during the latter stages of the book as it becomes apparent that there’s a major pharmaceutical company looking for Gaelen. This is a company who seem to have a ‘no holds barred’ approach to getting what they want – I wanted to feel the urgency and tension of the situation but it was a bit difficult given Gaelen’s relaxed approach.
But, in spite of my niggles, I think The Apothecary’s Curse was an entertaining read with it’s dual timeframe and mythological aspects. If you enjoy a story with a bit of murder, mystery, intrigue, corruption and a couple of love stories alongside all of that then this could be just for you.
I received a copy courtesy of the publisher for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
Books and travelling with Lynn 