Challenges

I've never tried a book challenge before, but I'm going to try the What's In A Name challenge this coming year.

The requirements are to read a book from each of the categories (taken from the introductory post at the What's in A Name blog:

*Dates: January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009

*The Challenge: Choose one book from each of the following categories.

1. A book with a "profession" in its title. Examples might include: The Book Thief, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Historian

2. A book with a "time of day" in its title. Examples might include: Twilight, Four Past Midnight, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

3. A book with a "relative" in its title. Examples might include: Eight Cousins, My Father's Dragon, The Daughter of Time

4. A book with a "body part" in its title. Examples might include: The Bluest Eye, Bag of Bones, The Heart of Darkness

5. A book with a "building" in its title. Examples might include: Uncle Tom's Cabin, Little House on the Prairie, The Looming Tower

6. A book with a "medical condition" in its title. Examples might include: Insomnia, Coma, The Plague

I'm thinking of the following tentative list:
1: Beast Master by Andre Norton
2: Caress of Twilight by Laurell K. Hamilton
3: Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien
4: Lord John and the Hand of Devils by Diana Gabaldon
5: Fortress of Frost And Fire by Mercedes Lackey
6: Plague Ship by Andre Norton

Some of these are going to be re-reads but not all of them. One or two, I've had for over a year and have yet to read them, so this should be a good push to get reading.

The Adept: The Lodge of the Lynx - Katherine Kurtz and Deborah Turner Harris

Edited on January 20th to add links to the other books in the series.
Edited on August 21, 2011 to add the cover image and some formatting.

The Adept: Lodge of the Lynx
Katherine Kurtz and Deborah Turner Harris
Ace Books
Copyright: 1992
0441003443

The blurb on the back of the book:

He is eternal
So are his foes...

Through countless lives and eras, the Adept has fought against the powers of Darkness. Now, as psychiatrist Adam Sinclair, he leads his loyal Huntsmen against supernatural evil in all its myriad forms.

But the Darkness is striking back - In the guise of an unholy cult long thought to be extinct. Endowed with the elemental energy of an ancient Druidic artifact, the Lodge of the Lynx stands ready to unleash destruction on Sinclair, his allies and, ultimately, all of Scotland.

The old battle begins anew - and this time the future may belong to The Lodge of the Lynx.

This is the second book in the series, which is comprised of: The Adept, The Adept: the Lodge of the Lynx, The Adept: The Templar Treasure (I'm now rereading this one), Dagger Magic and The Death of the Adept. Two other books, The Temple and the Stone and The Temple and the Crown are set in the middle ages in the last years of the Templar Knights that are linked to this series as well, although somewhat tentatively if I'm remembering right. Its been a while since I've read those two books. There are also two short stories set in the same world and time period in two of the Templar anthologies Katherine Kurtz has edited.

The Lodge of the Lynx follows up on The Adept, starting almost immediately after that book left off. Given the start of this book, I'd say it isn't more than a couple of weeks after the end of the previous book. The two books could almost be seen as one book in two parts. This was the first book from the series that I read originally, and I did find things a bit confusing at first then, as the character introductions all occurred in The Adept. Now though, having read the books several times in order, I consider them to be 'old friends'.

All of the loose ends from The Adept are wound up in this book: Gillian Talbot/Michael Scot being the main one, and a whole host of new characters are introduced. Some of them, such as the villains will turn up in later books in the series. In fact, some of the events in this book are setting the stage for the fifth book in the series, Death of an Adept.

To give you an idea of how much I've enjoyed this book, my copy is starting to look as though it came from a public library: a couple of the pages are torn, the spine is getting faded and the corners and edges are all battered.

As with Lammas Night, this is an older series, marked by Indigo Books as 'sold out', and your best bet for finding the books is a used book store.

I wish I knew of more books like these. The closest I can think of are Mercedes Lackey's Diana Tregarde books.

Rereading

I do a lot of re-reading books, and so, inspired by Darla of Books and Other Thoughts, I'm adding a tag just for that. In fact, I'm going to go through the posts I've already made and tag them for it, and not just start from here on in.

Some of the books that are going to be getting this tag today include the Tamora Pierce books, Sherrilyn Kenyon's older books (if I've read them recently enough for the blog), Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books and the Katherine Kurtz Adept series.

Merry Christmas everyone.

I've removed the Christmas songs list from the blog, mostly because it was slowing things down for me. Well, that and the fact that Christmas is almost over :)

I hope to add reviews soon for Smart Cookies: Making More Dough and the second Adept book by Katherine Kurtz.

I've also started reading a translation of the letters of Abelard and Heloise, as well as a couple of recent anthologies including Dark Hunter stories by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Those should be experiences as I haven't read anything by the other authors in the anthologies.

Upcoming Paperback releases

These are some of the books being released in paperback that I think might be interesting in the near future. All of the release dates are taken from the Indigo/Chapters website.

Acheron
Sherrilyn Kenyon
Due out March 31, 2009

One of the Dark Hunter series, Acheron's story has finally been told. It came out in hardcover last August. I found it to be an incredible story when I read the hardcover. My review, although I haven't bought the book yet. I've been waiting for paperback.


The Snow Queen
Mercedes Lackey
Due out February 1, 2009

A gem of a story, to say the least. This is the most recent of the Five Hundred Kingdoms series. I'm not sure though if it is the fourth or fifth in the series. Either way, I loved it. My review of the hardcover edition. Again, I've been waiting for it to come out in paperback before buying.


Victory Conditions
Elizabeth Moon
Due out January 27, 2009

The conclusion to the five book Vatta's War saga. Elizabeth Moon is one of my favourite authors for both her science fiction and her fantasy. This definitely met the standard. My review.


Swallowing Darkness
Laurell K. Hamilton
Due out August 25, 2009

The hardcover of this book is barely out yet, and they've got the paperback lined up already! This is the most recent of the Merry Gentry novels, and I think, one of the best. I'm waiting for the paperback though to buy it. My review of the hardcover.

The Adept - Katherine Kurtz and Deborah Turner Harris

Edited on January 20th to add the links to other books in this series.
Edited again on August 21, 2011 to add the cover image.

The Adept
Katherine Kurtz and Deborah Turner Harris
Ace Books
Copyright: 1991
0441003435

The blurb on the back of the book:

More than a doctor,
more than a detective...

He is Sir Adam Sinclair: nobleman, physician, scholar - and Adept. A man of learning and power, he practices ancient arts unknown to the twentieth century.

He has had many names, lived many lives, but his mission remains the same: to protect the Light from those who would tread the Dark Roads.

Now his beloved Scotland is defiled by an unholy cult of black magicians who will commit any atrocity to achieve their evil ends- even raise the dead!

Only one man can stand against them...
The Adept

This is the first book in the series: The Adept, The Adept: the Lodge of the Lynx (my current read), The Adept: The Templar Treasure, Dagger Magic and The Death of the Adept. Two other books, The Temple and the Stone and The Temple and the Crown are set in the middle ages in the last years of the Templar Knights are linked to this series as well. There are also two short stories set in the same world and time period in two of the Templar anthologies Katherine Kurtz has edited.

As the first book in the series, The Adept sets up the major characters very well, but it also stands as a full book on it's own, although it doesn't exactly wrap everything up, leaving plenty for the next book.

As with Lammas Night, this is an older series, and your best bet for finding the books is a used book store.

There's plenty of action as well, making this an exciting book. Even though I've read it several times, I generally have trouble putting the book down at night. It's always 'just one more page and I'll put the book away'. Then I realize it's already the next day and the book is finished.

Kurtz and Harris use foreshadowing and hinting very well in all of the books to build the tension, and the events, taken in sequence, even with the magical included are very believable, building one on the next.

I wish I knew of more books like these. The closest I can think of are Mercedes Lackey's Diana Tregarde books.

Lammas Night - Katherine Kurtz

Edited on January 23rd, 2009 to add links to the books in the Adept series.

Lammas Night
Katherine Kurtz
Ballantine Books
Copyright: 1983
0345295161

The blurb on the back of the book:
What magic can stop Adolf Hitler - History's most evil Black Magician?

Modern War
The year is 1940
Hitler's Germany is about to employ the secret arts of evil witchcraft to destroy England. What can stop them?

Ancient Weapon
It is the mission of John Graham, colonel in British Intelligence, to stop the onslaught of evil with an extraordinary strategy that defies all the rules of twentieth-century warfare: Unite the different witches' covens throughout England, drawing upon powers that reach back through dark centuries, in a ritual of awesome sacrifice on the first night of August, the magical Lammas Night.

Lammas Night is an older book. I tend to say it's set in the same world as the Adept series: The Adept (which I'm reading now), The Adept: Lodge of the Lynx, The Adept: The Templar Treasure, Dagger Magic and Death of an Adept. Thing is, it was written before the other series, so properly, I should say they were set in the world of Lammas Night. However. the books don't overlap until The Templar Treasure, when Gray (John Graham) plays a role. There's also, if my memory is correct a short story in one of the Templar anthologies that Katherine Kurtz has edited (Tales of the Knights Templar, More Tales of the Knights Templar and Crusade of Fire) where Grey and Adam are interacting.

Good luck finding Lammas Night, although it's well worth the read. I ended up searching used bookstores for a few years, but it was well worth it. I've read the book before, but this last time the ending brought tears to my eyes.

Katherine Kurtz uses foreshadowing very well in this book and the others that I've read. As the book builds I found myself hoping that this time things would work out, even though I've read the book before. Of course the story didn't change though. Every time I wish it would. I don't want to say more for fear of spoiling the story, however.

Meme - Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Review Blogs

Copied and pasted from Scifiguy's blog:

Meme - Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Review Blogs

John Ottinger at the excellent Grasping for the Wind has put out the call to create the ultimate blogroll of science fiction and fantasy book review sites (and in my mind that includes sites that feature urban fantasy and paranormal). So have a look at what John has to say below and see if you can add to the list. As simple as posting a revised list to your own blog.

My list of fantasy and sf book reviewers is woefully out of date. I need your help to fix that. But rather than go through the hassle of having you send me recommendations or sticking them in comments, what you can do is take the following list and stick it on your website, then add yourself to the list, preferably in alphabetical order. That way, I will be able to track it across the web from back links, and can add each new blog to my roll as it comes along. So take this list, add it to your blog, and add a link to your blog on it. If you are already on the list, repost this meme at your blog so others can see it, and find new blogs from the links others put up on their blogs. Everybody wins! Be sure to send the list around to others as well. There is an easy to copy window of all the links and text at the bottom of this post to make it even simpler to do.

I would be ever so grateful if you would help me out.

THE LINK LIST

The Accidental Bard
A Dribble Of Ink
Adventures in Reading
All Booked Up
The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.
The Agony Column
Barbara Martin
Bibliophile Stalker
Bibliosnark
BillWardWriter.com
Blood of the Muse
Bookgeeks
Bookslut
Bookspotcentral
The Book Swede
Bookrastination
Breeni Books
Cheaper Ironies [pro columnist]
Cheryl's Musings
Critical Mass
Dark Wolf Fantasy Reviews
Darque Reviews
Dave Brendon's Fantasy and Sci-Fi Weblog
The Deckled Edge
Dragons, Heroes and Wizards
Dusk Before the Dawn
Enter the Octopus
Eve's Alexandria
Fantasy Book Critic
Fantasy Cafe
Fantasy Debut
Fantasy Book Reviews and News
Fantasy and Sci-fi Lovin' Blog
The Fix
The Foghorn Review
From a Sci-Fi Standpoint
The Galaxy Express
Galleycat
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Grasping for the Wind
The Green Man Review
Highlander's Book Reviews
io9
Jumpdrives and Cantrips
Literary Escapism
Michele Lee's Book Love
Monster Librarian
Mostly Harmless Books
My Favourite Books
Neth Space
NextRead
OF Blog of the Fallen
The Old Bat's Belfry
Outside of a Dog
Pat's Fantasy Hotlist
Piaw's Blog
Post-Weird Thoughts
Publisher's Weekly
Realms of Speculative Fiction
Reading the Leaves
Rob's Blog o' Stuff
ScifiChick
SF Diplomat
SciFiGuy
Sci-Fi Songs [Musical Reviews]
Severian's Fantastic Worlds
SF Gospel
SF Reviews.net
SF Revu
SF Signal
SF Site
SFF World's Book Reviews
Silver Reviews
Speculative Fiction Junkie
Speculative Horizons
Sporadic Book Reviews
Stella Matutina
The Sword Review
Tangent Online
Temple Library Reviews
Tor.com [also a publisher]
The Road Not Taken
Un:Bound
Urban Fantasy Land
Vast and Cool and Unsympathetic
Variety SF
Walker of Worlds
Wands and Worlds
The Wertzone
WJ Fantasy Reviews
The World in a Satin Bag
WriteBlack

New additions

I've added some more book review blogs to the sidebar today, as well as adding a link to Elizabeth Moon's new blog on the world of Paksenarrion.

Moving Targets - Mercedes Lackey

Moving Targets
Edited by Mercedes Lackey
DAW Books
Copyright: 2008
9780756405281

This is the fourth anthology of stories set in Valdemar, the book came out at the beginning of this month. There are fourteen tales by different authors making up the book. The other three anthologies are in order: Sword of Ice, Sun in Glory and Crossroads.

I must admit that I found this anthology slightly disappointing, mostly as there are few stories that jumped out at me as outstanding. Generally I find the best stories are the ones that Mercedes Lackey herself adds to the volume. In Sun In Glory, it was the tale of how Talia became a Sun-Priest which was alluded to in the Mage Storms books. In Crossroads it was a take of Tarma and Kethry. Sword of Ice has no Mercedes Lackey story, but she helped co-write two, one of which was about Selenay. Also, unlike the other three volumes (and also unlike all the other multi-author anthologies such as Sword And Sorceress or the Friends of Darkover books like The Other Side Of The Mirror) there was no introduction by the editor.

The Mercedes Lackey/Larry Dixon story at the beginning of Moving Targets was a bit of a disappointment to me. From the beginning of the Valdemar books she's written kyree as mindspeakers. Here she's written a kyree in which you have to make out the words around spoken growls. With no explanation of why, especially given the kyree in Magic's Price, the Vows and Honor series and even Riss from the Mage Winds books, it just didn't seem to fit. The kyree in this story made me think of Scooby Doo instead.

What I really missed in this anthology was stories about characters I already knew, even with them as simple peripheral characters. Most of the stories had no recognizable time in which to place them.

I did like the story Passage At Arms by Rosemary Edghill. It seems like something most Herald Trainees would go through as they started out. We see hints of similar problems through the series: Vostel and Christa for example.

Another favorite from the anthology was A Dream Deferred by Kristin M. Schwengel. This one did the Kyree as Mercedes Lackey has portrayed them throughout the Valdemar books.

The story set after the Mage Storms in the Empire, Heart, Home and Hearth, by Sarah Hoyt and Kate Paulk, was another nice one. Given what Storm Breaking had laid out for the 'hobgoblins' this story has a very nice twist or two.

Judith Tarr's story Widdershins was another good one, and unique. I liked the use of advanced Dressage as the plot mover, although I'm not sure how well it works within established Valdemar. I've certainly liked some of Judith Tarr's other books like A Pride of Kings.

Overall, I'd have to say I probably built up my anticipation too far while waiting for the anthology to be released. I like it, but not as much as I'd hoped to.

Christmas Music

For the holiday season I'm taking advantage of a new widget offered by Blogger to supply a list of great Christmas music. This is a temporary addition for the season.

Librarything's 100 most popular

Found this list on Book Junkie's blog from a while back. I should be studying for tomorrow's final exam.

Here is the Top 100 Most Popular Books on LibraryThing. Bold what you own, italicize what you've read. Star what you liked. Star multiple times what you loved!



1. Harry Potter and the sorcerer's stone by J.K. Rowling (32,484)
2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6) by J.K. Rowling (29,939)
3. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Book 5) by J.K. Rowling (28,728)
4. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2) by J.K. Rowling (27,926)
5. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3) by J.K. Rowling (27,643)
6. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4) by J.K. Rowling (27,641)
7. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (23,266)
8. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (21,325)*
9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) by J.K. Rowling (20,485)
10. 1984 by George Orwell (19,735)
11. Pride and Prejudice (Bantam Classics) by Jane Austen (19,583)
12. The catcher in the rye by J.D. Salinger (19,082)
13. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (17,586)
14. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (16,210)
15. The lord of the rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (15,483)******
16. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (14,566)
17. Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics) by Charlotte Bronte (14,449)
18. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (13,946)
19. Life of Pi by Yann Martel (13,272)
20. Animal Farm by George Orwell (13,091)
21. Angels & demons by Dan Brown (13,089)
22. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (13,005)
23. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (12,777)
24. One Hundred Years of Solitude (Oprah's Book Club) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (12,634)
25. The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, Part 1) by J.R.R. Tolkien (12,276)******
26. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (12,147)
27. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (11,976)
28. The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, Part 2) by J.R.R. Tolkien (11,512)******
29. The Odyssey by Homer (11,483)
30. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (11,392)
31. Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut (11,360)
32. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (11,257)
33. The return of the king : being the third part of The lord of the rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (11,082)******
34. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (10,979)
35. American Gods: A Novel by Neil Gaiman (10,823)
36. The chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis (10,603)
37. The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy by Douglas Adams (10,537)
38. Lord of the Flies by William Golding (10,435)
39. The lovely bones : a novel by Alice Sebold (10,125)
40. Ender's Game (Ender, Book 1) by Orson Scott Card (10,092)
41. The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, Book 1) by Philip Pullman (9,827)
42. Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman (9,745)
43. Dune by Frank Herbert (9,671)
44. Emma by Jane Austen (9,610)
45. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (9,598)
46. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Bantam Classics) by Mark Twain (9,593)
47. Anna Karenina (Oprah's Book Club) by Leo Tolstoy (9,433)
48. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (9,413)
49. Middlesex: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides (9,343)
50. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire (9,336)
51. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (9,274)
52. The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien (9,246)**
53. The Iliad by Homer (9,153)
54. The Stranger by Albert Camus (9,084)
55. Sense and Sensibility (Penguin Classics) by Jane Austen (9,080)
56. Great Expectations (Penguin Classics) by Charles Dickens (9,027)
57. The Handmaid's Tale: A Novel by Margaret Atwood (8,960)
58. On the Road by Jack Kerouac (8,904)
59. Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt (8,813)
60. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery - (8,764)
61. The lion, the witch and the wardrobe by C. S. Lewis (8,421)
62. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (8,417)
63. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (8,368)
64. The Grapes of Wrath (Centennial Edition) by John Steinbeck (8,255)
65. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (8,214)
66. The Name of the Rose: including Postscript to the Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (8,191)
67. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (8,169) **
68. Moby Dick by Herman Melville (8,129)
69. The complete works by William Shakespeare (8,096)
70. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond (7,843)
71. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (7,834)
72. The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel (Perennial Classics) by Barbara Kingsolver (7,829)
73. Hamlet (Folger Shakespeare Library) by William Shakespeare (7,808)
74. Of Mice and Men (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) by John Steinbeck (7,807)
75. A Tale of Two Cities (Penguin Classics) by Charles Dickens (7,793)
76. The Alchemist (Plus) by Paulo Coelho (7,710)
77. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (7,648)
78. The Picture of Dorian Gray (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (Barnes & Noble Classics) by Oscar Wilde (7,598)
79. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition by William Strunk (7,569)
80. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (7,557)
81. The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, Book 2) by Philip Pullman (7,534)
82. Atonement: A Novel by Ian McEwan (7,530)
83. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (7,512)
84. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (7,436)
85. Dracula by Bram Stoker (7,238)
86. Heart of Darkness (Dover Thrift Editions) by Joseph Conrad (7,153)
87. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (7,055)
88. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (7,052)
89. The amber spyglass by Philip Pullman (7,043)
90. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Penguin Classics) by James Joyce (6,933)
91. The Unbearable Lightness of Being: A Novel (Perennial Classics) by Milan Kundera (6,901)
92. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (6,899)
93. Neuromancer by William Gibson (6,890)
94. The Canterbury Tales (Penguin Classics) by Geoffrey Chaucer (6,868) (both modern and Middle English versions)
95. Persuasion (Penguin Classics) by Jane Austen (6,862)
96. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (6,841)
97. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (6,794)
98. Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt (6,715)
99. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers (6,708)
100. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (6,697)

A Brief History Of Ancient Greece - Sarah B. Pomeroy

A Brief History Of Ancient Greece: Politics, Society And Culture
Sarah B. Pomeroy et. al.
Oxford University Press
Copyright: 2008
9780195156812

Ancient Greece: A Political, Social And Cultural History
Sarah B. Pomeroy et al.
Oxford University Press
Copyright 1999
9780195097436

I'm classing both books together as Librarything counts them as the same book. I don't see much of a difference between them either.

I've had both as textbooks over the years, with the most recent of the two being this past fall (2008). While I liked it, finding it fairly readable, the teacher spent much of the class picking the book apart. I don't agree with everything he's said, but he did have a point: the book is quite inconsistent at various points:
For example, when it's talking about the Spartans, in the first paragraph the book says that the Helots were not slaves, then in the next paragraph it's talking about their enslavement. There are other examples as well.

Another thing I found frustrating was the tendency for the book to make claims without stating the evidence it was using. That and the lack of dates. I took to reading it this morning with the Oxford Classical Dictionary in front of me so I could find the specific dates for events and write them in the margins. Otherwise it wasn't going to be much help for the final exam.

Still, it does give an understandable, if brief, overview of Greek history from the neolithic down through the Hellenic periods, with each era given it's own chapter. Obviously both versions of the text are good for introductory courses at the university level at least, although they need to be backed up with some more specific books as well. But then, isn't that usually the case?

Both books are likely to stay in my collection as I've added notes to both and they work well for double-checking some fact or another.

Swallowing Darkness - Laurell K. Hamilton

Edited to add a link to my earlier review of A Lick Of Frost (01/07/09).
Edited to add a review link at the end (12/11/08).

Swallowing Darkness
Laurell K. Hamilton
Random House Publishing Group
Copyright: 2008
9780345495938

Swallowing Darkness is the most recent novel in Laurel K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry series. If I'm recalling the series correctly, it is the sequel to A Lick Of Frost. Honestly, it's been a while since I read the series through (I don't even own copies of the most recent novels), so I was a bit lost at the beginning of this one, but this book has inspired me to do a re-read. Currently I'm a few pages from the end of A Kiss Of Shadows.

The world Hamilton has created here is an interesting one. For the most part, it's the modern world, with the addition of magic and Faerie, which adds some interesting twists and background to events everyone knows about. This is not a series for children, which I assume by now everyone knows about all of Hamilton's latest books from both series, as the author gets fairly explicit.

Merry Gentry as she introduces herself in the first book is now pregnant, so the goal of the series to this point is mostly fulfilled. However, as anyone reading Hamilton's blog knows, this is not the final book in the series, no matter how much it looks like it is. I know I'm waiting for the next book quite eagerly, although in terms of buying this one I'm going to wait for it to come out in paperback.

Other books in the series include (in no particular order)
A Lick of Frost
A Caress of Twilight
A Kiss of Shadows

Also reviewed at:
Books And Other Thoughts

One Silent Night - Sherrilyn Kenyon

I'm finally catching up on the books I read over the last month while working on NaNoWriMo. As a result, the reviews may be a bit shorter than normal. I know in this case it's been nearly a month since I read the book.

One Silent Night
Sherrilyn Kenyon
St. Martin's Press
Copyright: 2008
9780312947064

This is the most recent offering from Sherrilyn Kenyon in her Dark Hunters series. On the down side, I found it a bit too short (I finished it by mid-afternoon the day I bought it, and I wasn't even at home. This involved doing most of the reading on the bus), which I found disappointing given the cost of the book. I've found lately that font sizes and margins are going up for a few authors, including Kenyon.

I did find the story to be good to say the least, although it was different. I don't think she's done a story from the villain's point of view before. In fact I don't think I've ever read a story in a series that's set from the villain's view. I liked it though.

Before reading this book you really need to have read Acheron. A lot of her books can be read out of order, but for this one, you need to have the background, or else a lot of the characters won't make sense.

I'm waiting for the next book now, as she's left plenty of open questions to tease us with.