Following on from an earlier post, Celebrating Military SF, and for those of you who are looking for something different, why not try one or two of the novels mentioned below. Each offers an alternate perspective and narrative to the category it is listed under.
Of course, this is by no means a definite list but rather a cross section of books I’ve read over the years.
First of all, let me just begin by saying this debut novel by Aussie author, Emma Viskic, is outstanding. Truly a remarkable novel on just about every level. It’s not long, at just 280 pages, so I read this in one frantic, page-turning day!
Let’s start with the well crafted, well delineated characters. I love Caleb Zelic who narrates the story. He’s such a great down-to-earth character, feisty and oh so different from the usual MC in that he just happens to be deaf. This makes for a wholly unique POV both in the visuals and descriptions, and more, the dialogue.
Choppy and jarring, we see the world how Caleb hears it. With broken sentences that obviously make for a few comic and laugh out loud moments. And, of course, because of this difference, we feel every ounce of Caleb’s frustration. His determination to not to give in, stubborn to the last. Which inevitably causes clashes with both his work partner, Frankie—who, by the way, is another excellently flawed character—and his ex-wife, Kat. It’s only when we learn why Kat and Caleb spilt that we understand the weight of emotions involved.
Thank you for having me! I live in Dallas, Texas, where all the heat in the world comes from. I spend most of my time being a dad to my six-year-old, and I fill the time gaps writing, drawing album covers, and practicing law.
I’d been writing novels for several years when I had the idea for The Phlebotomist, though none of them had been published. In fact, I was in the middle of writing a different book when the premise for this one came to me. I was upset about the fast-moving, malignant blend of aristocratic authoritarianism that was spreading through our government and a premise came to mind. I didn’t want to write a straight-up political screed, so I couched it in a dystopian story and tied it to a well-loved trope that I’m not going to disclose because spoilers! Sorry!
Thank you! This is an interesting story. One of the first things many of my family and friends said when I told them I had a book coming out was to suggest that I do the cover. If you’ve seen my work, it’s very art nouveau and metal-y, and absolutely NOT the style I wanted for the cover. My only strongly worded desire to Angry Robot was that it be pink and gold. I wanted a book so pink that it burnt people’s eyeballs out. Beyond that, though, I was not tempted to do the cover. Soon, they began sending me their cover mocks. They had taken a medical-illustration style angle, which I had not expected at all, but quickly warmed to. It really was a perfect fit for this story, with its heavy reliance on medical science. Their very patient designer, Glen Wilkins, had mocked up the pink cover with an anatomical heart surrounded by flowers. I loved it, but wanted to tailor the image to my story, and so asked to illustrate it. They agreed and the rest is history! The pinkest book to ever exist!
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish, which is now being hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.
The rules are simple:
This week’s topic is Book Titles That Describe Me/My Life.
And you, what books made it onto your list this week?
I absolutely love the Great British Bake Off so, when I saw this book challenge I though ‘yeah, sign me up for that one.’
I can’t wait to read The Last Mandarin, a fast-paced, all-too-real thriller co-written by #1 New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny and award-winning journalist Mellissa Fung, global politics become personal for two unlikely heroines.
The Last Mandarin is an electrifying study of absolute power and voracious greed, political terror and personal conviction. But it is also, as to be expected from the minds of Louise Penny, beloved author of the Gamache novels, and Mellissa Fung, an acclaimed international journalist, an intimate examination of choice, of sacrifice, of memory and myths, both cultural and personal. It is the story of a mother and daughter, as well as a compelling international thriller about the precarious balance of power across the world, and within a family. And what happens when both break down.
This series, Her Majesty Investigates, just goes from strength to strength and this title, coming out in May, is one that’s been on my radar for a while. I mean, just look at that cover?
Though I love SFF and read a lot of crime fiction, I also love a good historical novel now and then, and recently discovered The Boleyn Curse which also just happens to have a great cover.
The court of young King Henry VIII seethes with secrets and scandals, but every ambition has its price. Elizabeth Boleyn, loyal wife to Thomas Boleyn and devoted mother to Anne, Mary and George, believes she can navigate the shifting tides of court life. But when she catches the eye of the lascivious king, Elizabeth is drawn into a perilous game and the cost of her defiance will echo through the generations.
There are not many book that make me cry but there was a certain scene in Foundryside that, when a certain character died, got me really choked up. And yes, I may have shed a tear or two.
I read The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett last year and it was, for me at least, the perfect fantasy read (if ever there was one). Excellently written from cover to cover, a unique setting and clever world building, I was hooked from page one.
Ugh, I have read one too many books that ended up being a DNF for one reason or another. Sadly, this was one of them.
My 5-Star read? Has to be the superb second book in the Shadow of the Leviathan series, A Drop Of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett.
As anyone who reads knows, it’s really hard to choose just one book as a winner/favourite out of all the books we read week to week. So asking me to choose just one is thrown me into a quandary. I want to say one of the above mentioned books but is that cheating?
Ha! I’m going to choose THE TAINTED CUP (mentioned above) — book one in the Shadow of the Leviathan series by Robert Jackson Bennett — as it’s the book I read that got me back into reading fantasy again after a very long hiatus.
And you Dear Reader, what would make it onto your Great British Bake Off list?