Review: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

A richly inventive novel about a centuries-old vampire, a spellbound witch, and the mysterious manuscript that draws them together.

Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell.

Debut novelist Deborah Harkness has crafted a mesmerizing and addictive read, equal parts history and magic, romance and suspense. Diana is a bold heroine who meets her equal in vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont, and gradually warms up to him as their alliance deepens into an intimacy that violates age-old taboos. This smart, sophisticated story harks back to the novels of Anne Rice, but it is as contemporary and sensual as the Twilight series-with an extra serving of historical realism.

Star Rating: 4 stars

This book is well written and a quick read despite its length. It is very descriptive. Most books, I get a good visual idea of the characters and the setting but many authors miss out the other senses, or they are just not as prominent as the visuals. We all experience things differently depending on whether we are a visual, kinesthetic or audio type of person. I know I'm a very visual person but smells also play a big part in how I remember things (perhaps that's all the years of being an aromatherapist). Anyway, this book details smells and tastes quite heavily and I thought it really added to the whole experience. At the beginning, it was mainly in relation to wine tasting but then it was in relations to places and people.

I did enjoy the book and gave it 4 stars but I think I've got to the stage now where I've read too many "good vampire" books. They are all a bit too samey for my liking. Male vampire and female of another supernatural race (witch in this case) fall in love. It's a forbidden love. There are secrets and organisations to satisfy/avoid. The vampire is always scared they are going to hurt the woman because he's so powerful. They can't have children. blah blah blah blah... They are all the same. I think I need to go back to reading some scary vampire books as they might appeal to me more.

I thought the book was a little slow in places, especially in the middle when Diana is in France - it felt like it ebbed and flowed a lot with it's pace. I liked the first part of the book the most as it was more mystery but then it became more about the romance which became a little frustrating for me. I will continue the series as I think the next book will be interesting because of its setting (plus I own the rest of the books in the series).

I did like all the witch stuff though and I guess that was supposed to be the main focus.

Review: The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson

A heretic thief is the empire’s only hope in this fascinating tale that inhabits the same world as the popular novel, Elantris.

Shai is a Forger, a foreigner who can flawlessly copy and re-create any item by rewriting its history with skillful magic. Condemned to death after trying to steal the emperor’s scepter, she is given one opportunity to save herself. Though her skill as a Forger is considered an abomination by her captors, Shai will attempt to create a new soul for the emperor, who is almost dead.

Probing deeply into his life, she discovers Emperor Ashravan’s truest nature—and the opportunity to exploit it. Her only possible ally is one who is truly loyal to the emperor, but councilor Gaotona must overcome his prejudices to understand that Shai’s forgery is as much artistry as it is deception.

Brimming with magic and political intrigue, this deftly woven fantasy delves into the essence of a living spirit.

Reading Format: Paperback
Year Read: 2014
Star Rating: 5 stars

As the synopsis mentions above, this novella is set in the same world that Elantris was set. That said, there were no characters or cities or story lines carried over so it can be read as a stand alone. While short, it packed a punch and I absolutely loved it. I can see why it was a winner of the Hugo Award, despite it's length.

This tells the story of Shai, a Forger who has been captured after breaking in to the Emperor's Palace to steal two very prized possessions. Meanwhile, someone else attempts to assassinate the Emperor, fails but leaves him in a comatose state without his soul. So those left in charge while the Emperor is “out of action”, make Shai forge a set of Soulstones to create a replica of the Emperor's soul so that he can return to ruling the empire.

I loved the magic system in this and how Forgers can change the history of an object which in turn changes the object itself. It is different to the main magic system in Elantris but I think that's because this book is set in a different region to that which was focused upon in Elantris. This gave off a more oriental and exotic feel. I loved it!

I've heard that Sanderson will be writing another book set in Elantris which I will look forward to as it was a very interesting world with great characters.

The Emperor's Soul: View on Amazon || View on Goodreads

Tuesday Into & Teaser: Storm Front

First Paragraph - First Chapter - Tuesday Intro is hosted by Bibliophile By the Sea. So for this book meme, I just have to post the first paragraph of the first chapter of either a book I am currently reading or about to start.

I'm going to be focusing on my current read Storm Front by Jim Butcher, which is the first book in The Dresden Files series.

"I heard the mailman approach my office door, half an hour earlier than usual. He didn't sound right. His footsteps fell more heavily, jauntily, and he whistled. A new guy. He whistled his way to my office door, then fell silent for a moment. Then he laughed.

Then he knocked.

I winced. My mail comes through the mail slot unless it's registered. I get a really limited selection of registered mail, and it's never good news. I got up out of my office chair and opened the door."

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Miz B of Should Be Reading. So for this book meme, I have to randomly turn to a page (or two) and choose a sentence to post here to tease you all with. I'm combining the two book memes and using the same book for both.

My teasers:

"Paranoid? Probably. But just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face." ~ pg8

"No wonder she had recovered from her terror enough to come back up the stairs and fire my gun at the demon." ~ pg 169

Storm Front: View on Amazon || View on Goodreads

What do you think? Would you keep reading?

Review: Age of Iron by Angus Watson

Bloodthirsty druids and battle-hardened Iron Age warriors collide in the biggest epic fantasy debut release of 2014.

LEGENDS AREN'T BORN. THEY'RE FORGED.

Dug Sealskinner is a down-on-his-luck mercenary travelling south to join up with King Zadar's army. But he keeps rescuing the wrong people.

First, Spring, a child he finds scavenging on the battlefield, and then Lowa, one of Zadar's most fearsome warriors, who's vowed revenge on the king for her sister's execution.

Now Dug's on the wrong side of that thousands-strong army he hoped to join ­- and worse, Zadar has bloodthirsty druid magic on his side. All Dug has is his war hammer, one rescued child and one unpredictable, highly-trained warrior with a lust for revenge that's going to get them all killed . . .

It's a glorious day to die.

Reading Format: Kindle eBook
Year Read: 2014
Star Rating: 4.5 stars

I was really excited to receive this book through NetGalley for free in exchange for an honest review.

Badgers Cocks! That was a good read! No I am not making up new expletives but it is one that Dug, one of the main characters in the book, uses. A LOT!!! Actually, he pretty much proceeds our usual swear words with Badgers. I thought this was a nice touch as it added some humour, lessening the impact of the language.

Still on the subject of language, I didn't like how sex and women generally were described. Shag this, bang that, and riding the red horse are just a few of the terms used. I suppose the language was in keeping with those who were saying it and may also be the culture of the time but it just bugged me a little.

I don't think the book was male focused, although that was my first impression based on the front cover (reminds self to take the advice of never judging a book by its cover). A lot of fantasy stories are male dominant in characters and the women tend to be weaker and in need of rescue so it was good to have some strong female characters in this one.

This book is being marketed as being similar to Martin's Game of Thrones series and Joe Abercrombie. I've read the former and loved it but none of the latter so I cannot comment on the similarities there unfortunately. It's dark, consists of battles between ruling “kings” of the three main regions of Britain, and plenty of raping and pillaging so I suppose that is why it has been compared to Game of Thrones. But that's really where the similarities end for me. This is no Game of Thrones in my eyes but I am a Thrones geek so perhaps I'm a bit biased. I don't like it when publishers compare new books to other authors.

That said, I still enjoyed this book. It is the authors first fictional debut in what looks like could be a promising new fantasy series. I say fantasy series as that is what it's listed as but it's not really fantastical. It's fantasy-light. Yes it mentions Druids who practice human sacrifice, tell the future by spilling the innards of children, and the odd bit of magic but that's as magical as it gets.

As well as it being light on fantasy, it is also light on history. The book is set around the time of the Roman Invasion of Britain and I think it's listed as historical fiction but it's more alternate history I'd say. This was my view while reading it but once I got to the end and read the authors “historical note”, it did give me a different viewpoint. He states that the book is “a fantasy story, not intended to be serious history. However, the history in it is generally accurate. I've made up the tribes and the characters, but all details – their homes, the towns and villages, clothes, industry, farming, flora and fauna, weapons, etc. - are as correct as they can be.”

If you can get past the lack of history and fantasy, for your historical fantasy book, then I think you'd enjoy the book. I like the writing style and the characters are well developed. It is darkly humorous in places too.

I thought the book started well by dragging us straight in to a battle (although it's pretty one-sided) and I thought I was going to be in for one hell of a ride with cover to cover battles but then things quietened down a bit and more characters were introduced and the story was developed. There is lots of action, some of which is a little disturbing in places but it isn't described in graphic detail so it's easy to skip it if you would rather do that. I thought it had the right amount of battles in it. As much as I like a good battle, I do like the journeys, chance meetings, and personal quests which help develop the characters.

The main three characters, Dug, Spring and Lowa are an unlikely trio, all stumble upon each other after the beginning battle. All of them have different agendas: Dug is trying to stay alive, Lowa is hell bent on revenge and Spring is just Spring. I loved all of them for different reasons.

I will definitely be reading the rest of the trilogy.

Age of Iron: View on Amazon || View on Goodreads

Related Articles: First Paragraph - First Chapter - Tuesday Intro: Age of Iron

Review: Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

My name is Peter Grant. Until January I was just another probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service, and to everyone else as the Filth. My only concerns in life were how to avoid a transfer to the Case Progression Unit - We do paperwork so real coppers don't have to - and finding a way to climb into the panties of the outrageously perky WPC Leslie May. Then one night, in pursuance of a murder inquiry, I tried to take a witness statement from a man who was dead, but disturbingly voluble, and that brought me to the attention of Chief Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in England. And that, as they say, is where the story begins.

Now I'm a Detective Constable and a trainee wizard, the first apprentice in fifty years, and my world has become somewhat more complicated. I'm dealing with nests of vampires in Purley, negotiating a truce between the warring god and goddess of the Thames, and digging up graves in Covent Garden - and that's just routine. There's something festering at the heart of the city I love, a malicious, vengeful spirit that takes ordinary Londoners and twists them into grotesque mannequins to act out its drama of violence and despair.

The spirit of riot and rebellion has awakened in the city, and it's falling to me to bring order out of chaos - or die trying. Which, I don't mind telling you, would involve a hell of a lot of paperwork.

Reading Format: Kindle eBook
Year Read: 2013
Star Rating: 5 stars

Interestingly, this book is called Midnight Riot in the US and has a very different front cover. I often wonder why Publishers do this. I know it's to attract to a different audience but still. So what I'm getting from this book title/cover change is that us Brits like any mention of London and where we are from and Americans like a good riot?!?

Title aside, I really enjoyed this quirky and unusual book. I quite like crime fiction and very much enjoy anything supernatural/paranormal so I was really excited to read this book as it combines the two.

Peter Grant, a police constable in the London Metropolitan Police, sees a ghost while policing a crime scene. Life as he knows it changes from this point on as he realises that there is more to reality including gods and goddesses of the river, ghosts and ghouls, vampires, and even magic. Because of his ghostly encounter, he is placed in a special police division which deals with supernatural stuff, along with the last magician, Detective Nightingale. The two of them, along with the "normal" police, investigate a string of murders across the city which are carried out by unsuspecting people who have been subjected to a destructive magical spell.

The book is really fun and fast paced and the characters are all really likeable, in particular, the lead character Peter Grant. I also really liked the house servant, Molly and her interactions with the other characters.

I'm really looking forward to reading the other books in the series. I do have the second one loaded on my kindle already, I just need to get to it!

Rivers of London View on Amazon || View on Goodreads

Review: Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

Sisters Vivenna and Siri are princesses of Idris. Susebron is the God King one must marry. Lightsong is the reluctant minor god of bravery. Vasher is an immortal still trying to undo mistakes of centuries before. Magic from individual breath from everyday objects can perform all manner of miracles and mischief.

All revisions of this book starting from the rough draft, except the copyediting stage, were published by Brandon Sanderson under a Creative Commons license and can be read online as well as downloaded from his website.

Reading Format: Audiobook
Year Read: 2013
Star Rating: 5 stars

This is the first book by Brandon Sanderson that I have read (or in this case listened to) and I thought it was fantastic. In fact, I immediately started to read another of his books, Elantris, ater I put down Warbreaker because I liked his writing style so much.

I really liked how he introduced each of the main characters, how he portrayed them - their interests, what they stood for, what they looked like etc. and how the characters progressed and grew as people (and Gods and Returned). The viewpoint shifted between four main characters - Siri, Vivenna, Lightsong, and Vasher, and it alternated between them throughout to progress the story. I always knew who was the focus and each character was very distinct.

Warbreaker tells the story of two princesses of Idris. It was agreed that the eldest daughter, Vivenna, would be sent to marry the God King, Susebron, of the rival nation Hallendren. Instead, the younger of the two, Siri, ends up being sent. Both sisters become involved in very different ways in the events leading up to a war which seems imminent between the two nations.

I listened to the audio book and the narrator (James Yaegashi) was fantastic! He had slightly different voices for each character and I thought they each fitted really well with their personality and the voices were believable too (and not annoying).

I really liked all the characters, even the bad guys, but I particularly liked Siri (one of the Idrian Princesses sent to marry the God King), Susebron (the God King), Lightsong (one of the Returned), and Vasher.

I quickly became engrossed in the story and I loved the magic system that Sanderson created within in. Because the magic system was based on colour, it made the descriptions of objects, places and events very visual which I loved and I had a great imagining and understanding of what the characters and the fantasy world looked like.

Sanderson is a prolific writer and since reading this book, I have read many of his (and have many awaiting my attention on my book shelves/kindle). It's good that he writes a lot as it means that you don't have to wait too long for the next book in a series like some fantasy authors out there. It's looking like Sanderson is going to be writing another book based in the same world as Warbreaker although I don't know whether it is a continuation of the story or not as yet. I eagerly await it's release!

Warbreaker: View on Amazon || View on Goodreads

Review: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. The black sign, painted in white letters that hangs upon the gates, reads: Opens at Nightfall Closes at Dawn. As the sun disappears beyond the horizon, all over the tents small lights begin to flicker, as though the entirety of the circus is covered in particularly bright fireflies. When the tents are all aglow, sparkling against the night sky, the sign appears. Le Cirque des Reves. The Circus of Dreams. Now the circus is open. Now you may enter.

Reading Format: Paperback
Year Read: 2013
Star Rating: 5 stars

I'm not going to go in to a description of what the book is about as I do not want to give anything away plus any synopsis that I could write of the book would simply not do it justice. Even the description of the book above which was listed on the Goodreads site doesn't give much away about what the book is about. I like to see this book as a big circus tent, you know it's going to be fun and there will be surprises and enjoyment but you don't know exactly what it will entail until you go inside.

This is the first book I have read which I have wanted to start again immediately after I finished it. I didn't want it to end. It firmly made it on to my favourite books of all time shelf!

The book is beautifully written and really sucks you in to the magical world of Le Cirque des Rêves. I particularly liked the sections which addressed the reader directly, getting you to see, hear and feel the circus around you and drawing you in deeper.

When I took a break from reading the book and returned to real life, I felt a little sad and I missed the Night Circus. I would so be a Rêveur (a member of a group called the Rêveurs who are an unofficial fan club of the Night Circus who follow the circus from town to town)! And on many occasions I wished it were a real place so that I could visit and experience its wonderment! And as the book approached the end, I kept wishing that my visit at the Circus didn't have to end. But then my outlook changed once I read the beautiful words of Friedrick Thiessen at the beginning of Part V - Divination

"I find I think of myself not as a writer so much as someone who provides a gateway, a tangential route for readers to reach the circus. To visit the circus again, if only in their minds, when they are unable to attend it physically. I relay it through printed words on crumpled newsprint, words that they can read again and again, regardless of time of day or physical location. Transporting them at will. When put that way, it sounds rather like magic, doesn't it?"

Yes it does! So the Night Circus may not exist in reality but this book has allowed me to visit it, if only in my own mind, and I can do so again and again by reading this book whenever I want to. This book is truly magical!

There were many quotes in the book which I made a note of in addition to the one already mentioned. Two of my favourites are:

“You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone's soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows that they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift.”

“You think, as you walk away from Le Cirque des Rêves and into the creeping dawn, that you felt more awake within the confines of the circus. You are no longer quite certain which side of the fence is the dream.”

The book I read was a library book but as I loved it so much and will definitely be re-reading it in the future (something I don't tend to do very often), I am going to buy myself my own copy.

The Night Circus: View on Amazon || View on Goodreads

Review: Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

In a faraway land where members of the royal family are named for the virtues they embody, one young boy will become a walking enigma.

Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals - the old art known as the Wit - gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility.

So when Fitz is finally adopted into the royal household, he must give up his old ways and embrace a new life of weaponry, scribing, courtly manners; and how to kill a man secretly, as he trains to become a royal assassin.

Reading Format: Kindle ebook
Year Read: 2013
Star Rating: 4 stars

This is the first book by Robin Hobb that I have read and it won't be the last.It is the first book in the Farseer Trilogy although I believe that a couple of her other series also take place in the same world.

I thought that Assassin's Apprentice started out a bit slow and I found myself wishing I was reading something else instead but then once I got to the part where Fitz (the bastard son of Prince Chivalry) and Burrich (his father's right hand man) start talking about "The Wit", it started to catch my interest and then I became quickly sucked in.

Fitz possesses "The Wit", an ancient and distrusted magic which allows him to bond telepathically with animals. He forms a relationship with a young puppy called Nosy shortly after he is left with his father's men; he was dumped on their doorstep by his maternal grandfather. Fitz's relationship with Nosy doesn't last too long once Burrich realises that Fitz has "The Wit" and he dispatches the dog.

"The Wit" was what had originally drawn me to the book as it is a similar skill to that possessed by the Stark children in Game of Thrones. And I love everything about Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series.

After a few years in the care of Burrich, Fitz goes in to the King's service (his paternal grandfather). His father isn't around as he went in to exile once it became known that he had a bastard son.

What I like about the book is how Fitz goes from being a small boy who nobody wants or has use for to a boy who lots of people want (in a way). After being in the service of the King for a while, he becomes an Assassin's Apprentice and even the Keep's Scribe wants Fitz to become his apprentice. He learns "The Skill" which proves to be both good and bad for him.

Fitz does assassinate people in the book but it doesn't detail them as such just that he's done it or is preparing to do it which I quite liked. Normally I like a good helping of blood and gore but I found the lack of it in this book quite refreshing. I have the second book of the series, Royal Assassin, ready and waiting on my kindle so I will get to it at some point soon hopefully.

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