Books!

I realized I haven’t done a lot of reading since I went away to Ireland. I’ve read 4 really good books since January. Pitiful right? On the bright side it’s summer and I always do a ton of reading! So I’m happy I can just curl up and read. Plus I don’t have to stress about my manuscript because that’s off to the publishers and I’m crossing my fingers. So my schedule is wide open for reading. Which means I’ll probably have more blog posts on books to come. Right now I’ll tell you about 2 very good books.


This fist book is super creepy… but a good creepy. I picked it up in London. It was the first time I’d traveled without a book so when I decided to stay at the hotel for the night I figured I needed something to do so I stopped by a book store by the Gloucester Road station and Picked up Dancing Jax by Robin Jarvis. I originally bought it because I liked the cover…

Then I started reading it. And it’s rather creepy but a good creepy.


And what is this here book about you ask? Well it’s about a book. And not just any book, a demon book, called Dancing Jacks. Whenever someone reads the book they become a character from the book, and not all the characters are nice. Martain (a school teacher) is put right in the middle as first tragedy strikes then weird things begin to happen as more and more read Dancing Jacks. And it all starts with a group of thieves finding crates of books in the basement of a haunted mansion.


This is only the first part and the second book will be published next year. I’m actually looking forward to reading more because the way they ended the first book!! I love writing cliffhangers but reading them… grrr! I dislike the wait but I know it’ll be worth it since the first book was absolutely amazing. Not to mention absolutely British. They used terms and places that I had to look up a few times to understand what was going on but that just made me love it even more!

And now allow me to commence a rant on Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. As most of you probably know I’m a HUGE fan of Pat’s and I’ve been waiting patiently for this book to come out for a few years now. As I’m sure you could have guessed with my elated post when I first got the book. I had brought it with me on spring break and ended up reading about half of it. Then I stopped and waited till I got home to finish it since I was so sad I’d nearly finished it. I wanted to savor the book… and I did… and it was amazing! Everything about it made me so happy.

Wise Man’s Fear picks up where Name of The Wind left off. Kvothe continues to narrate his life first at University then at his travels. After mishaps befall him at the University he is advised to take a break from school to avoid a high tuition. Kvothe is left with few options till a possible patron comes into his life. Little did Kvothe know that the quest to gain a patron would lead him along a trying path. And an old enemy would make an appearance.


Annnd yeah… It’s everything that I could ever dream of in a fantasy book. Plus Pat is an amazing author. So you should read it, but as it’s the second book in a series you’ll want to start with The Name of The Wind first.
And that’ll be it for now. I’ll try to get around to other books soon.


Cheers,

Book Reviews!!

Book Review Time!!

It’s been a long time since I did my last reviews so I thought it would be cool to do another. I’m going to Review The Daemon’s Curse and The Darren Shan Saga. Now Darren is a series of 12 books… but they are amazing!

First. The Daemon’s Curse is by Dan Abnett and Mike Lee. It’s the first in a four book series… so I guess I’m reviewing two series. Haha. But they’re really good books if you’re looking for some gore. I don’t know about you but sometimes a good gory book beats out a good plot. But there’s also a decent plot that goes with the hack and slash. But just a bit more basic info before the plot. It’s a Warhammer novel which means it’s written off of the miniatures game of Games Workshop. Which is actually how I found it because I play as Dark Elves and Malus Darkblade is a Dark Elf figure I LOVE to use cause he kicks major butt. I was tot def excited when I found that there was a whole book series about him! The series goes as thus (1) The Daemon’s Curse (2) Bloodstorm (3)Reaper of Souls and (4) Lord of Ruin.

So The Daemon’s curse starts the epic journey Malus must make to save his soul. Now among the Dark Elves of Naggaroth it’s common for one to conspire against your siblings and kill to get to the top. Epically if you are the youngest child of the Vaulkhar of Hag Graef. So what better way than to travel to the Chaos Waste to a temple that holds “great power”? Too bad that “great power” was in the form of a Daemon. Malus becomes possessed by the ancient daemon Tz’arkan. Now Malus has two options either live with Tz’arkan slowly taking over and poisoning his body……or…… find five artifacts that have been lost in time within a year. So Malus embarks on a journey to try and find these five artifacts that have only been seen in tales over the last centuries. In the next three books Malus travels the known world looking for the artifacts. In his wake he leaves blood and hate. Will Malus find the artifacts? Or will he loose his soul?

Now lately there has been a craze about vampires. Now I hate to tell people that vampires were cool before their image was turned into that of a cute sparkly thing. Besides I hate to tell certain authors that REAL vampires don’t sparkle in sunlight, they die. I have a gig and a half of research to prove it… but I diverge, but only a tiny bit. Because I’ve been an avid vampire book reader for years now. And the Darren Shan saga is a fantastic way to demonstrate thus. It’s actually a vampire series but Shan does an amazing job of making his vampire’s all his own yet not diverging too much from “traditional” vampire. So The Saga of Darren Shan is by Darren Shan. The order of the books is as follows (1) Cirque Du Freak (2) The Vampire’s Assistant (3) Tunnels of Blood (4) Vampire Mountain (5) Trials of Death (6) The Vampire Prince (7) Hunters of The Dusk (8)Allies of The Night (9) Killers of The Dawn (10)The Lake of Souls (11) Lord of Shadows and (12) Sons of Destiny

It’s about a young boy (Darren Shan) and it follows him through the motions of growing up… as a vampire’s assistant. It was never his plan to be turned into a half vampire but when Darren attends a freak show and falls in love with Mr. Crepsley’s spider Madame Octa. Now Darren loved all types of spiders but Madame Octa is a large and way cool spider. So Darren steals Madame Octa and that’s when everything changes for him. The young boy gets swept up into a whirl wind of adventure as he goes with Mr. Crepsley who turns Darren into a half vampire.

Ya… that’s a rather shitty review… but I can’t say too much without giving away a ton. So apparently it was made into a movie… I watched the previews and I spotted at least 20 things that were wrong with it. Hahaha. Aaannnnd it’s also a manga (http://www.onemanga.com/Darren_Shan/) pretty nifty. I checked it out and it looks cool. And check out Darren’s website (http://www.darrenshan.com/) cause his other series (The Deamonata Series) is awesome too. Oh yes and I need to say a special thanks to my friend Luke (who leant me his name for The Cycle of Zantor) because he was the one who told me to read this series.


Laters,
T.V.

Book Reviews!

Hi all,

Okay so I decided to do something different. I read Patrick Rothfuss’s and Laini Taylor’s blogs on a regular basis and I saw that they both did this. They would review one of their favorite books and I thought that was so way cool. So I wanted to do one too. Then it came to the question of what book to review… now that’s a tough one because I have so many favorite books. So I decided to make it easy and review Rothfuss’s “Name of The Wind” and Laini Taylor’s “Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer” since they are both HUGE inspirations for me because I want to be just like them in a few years! So here it goes…

The Name of The Wind

Okay this book was actually recommended and lent to me by my friend Ryan. Best thing he has done in my life because it’s a really amazing book. I read it in like two or three days because it’s so darn addicting! I wanted to reread it but I had to give it to my older brother so he could read it and get the book back to Ryan. So I went out and bought it. Anyhow…

Kvothe (“pronounced nearly the same as "quothe."”) is the main character and since it’s the first in a trilogy you only get a dose of his early life and you’re left hungering for more. The book opens in The Waystone Inn where you the innkeeper Kote and some towns people talking about the Chandrain. Their conversations are interrupted when Carter comes in with quite the tale to tell about being attacked by huge spider thingys. Kote takes one look at the one Carter brought into his inn and knows exactly what it is. That’s when he leaves the inn to go find more of the Scrael. And it’s in that scene that you find out the Kote is more then a simple innkeeper. It’s also where the whole story starts because Kote runs into someone who knows who he is. Chronicler insists that the great Kvothe tells his tale to him so that he can write it down. And that my friend is where you delve into Kvothe’s life.

It’s written in first person. Now let me tell you usually I hate first person books. But Patrick Rothfuss his writing is so fantastic and precise that I didn’t care it was first person because it was written so eloquently. But the fact that it was eloquent did not make it any harder to read. I found it easy to read and understand and Rothfuss develops Kvothe in the most amazing ways that makes him one of my favorite characters of all time! Plus Rothfuss has a really unique voice throughout the book that makes it even more lovable. Plus here’s another amazing thing about Mr. Rothfuss. The Name of the is published in six countries…. Correct me if I’m wrong. So ya go out and buy Name of the wind by Patrick Rothfuss and read it cause it rocks. And I’m waiting patiently for the second book The Wise Mans Fear to come out (there is no release date yet).
P.s. Check out Patrick’s site:: http://www.patrickrothfuss.com/content/index.asp

Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer

So I spend the summer on LBI and the Ocean County Library is amazing so I spend a lot of time there. And one day when I went I was on a quest for a good book. And I saw this one and I was totally intrigued because I love faeries and anything faerie like. So I picked it up and read it in a day. Yes it is that good.

Magpie Windwitch is no ordinary faerie. She doesn’t live in Dreamdark with the rest of the faeries instead she travels the world with her group of crows to fight and kill devils. Magpie is also the granddaughter of the West Wind (I think that’s way cool). So one day when they are out hunting a particularly nasty devil they find something very bad. They try to follow the devil but that doesn’t work because the devil left no trail so they had to make guesses and search the world for traces of it. It’s not long before the clues of this mysterious devil show Magpie that she must return to the place of her birth. So it’s off to Dreamdark for Magpie and her crow friends. But when they get to Dreamdark they find that things are much worse then they first thought. The devil that they have been hunting is the legendary Blackbringer. So how does one kill a devil that was thought to be a child’s tale? That’s a question Magpie Windwitch must answer.

Okay so I loved this book it was a fast read because Laini Taylor does a fantastic job of writing in easy sentences. Now that’s not a diss it’s quite the opposite. Because if you have hard sentences then only people who can understand hard sentences without reading them twice will like the book. While Ms. Taylor does a great job of writing a book that a wide range of people can read and enjoy and that’s what I want my books to be like. Plus the story line is so enchanting and surreal yet tangible… if that makes any sense. Oh and she has three books out. I hope I can get to a bookstore soon to pick them up. Cause they both look realllllllly good plus it’s Laini Taylor. So check out any of her books Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer, Faeries of Dreamdark: Silksinger, or Lips Touch: Three Times.

And another p.s. check her sight out! http://www.lainitaylor.com/

So I think that’ll do it for now.. hope you liked it! Read the books cause they rock!

Laters,
T.V.