I am feeling ill today — sympathy please — so this Top 10 will be brief to the point of brusqueness!
1) Do you like tattoos?
Lurv a la Mode is getting really tired of the tattoos all over book covers right now! Is this one of your pet peeves? Are there any other cover conventions that you find difficult to take?
2) In celebration of authors
A couple of Wednesdays ago I introduced you to the Author Fan Letter blog crawl that was occurring —
June 9th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest) | World Wide Wednesday | 9 comments |
For this third edition of the semi-regular feature Living With The Writer, we welcome our first husband to the hot seat. Today we talk to Dave Fenn, husband of Jaine Fenn who has two books (Principles of Angels and Consorts of Heaven) published through Gollancz. Dave is a rather private person, so we express our gratitude that he was willing to spill some details about his life with Jaine.
Gollancz have very kindly put up three copies of Jaine’s latest book,
June 1st, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest) | Author Interviews, Giveaway! | 5 comments |
Ah Wednesday, how I love thee! Wednesday means the middle of the week, and we’re halfway to the weekend at last. Wednesday means bringing you, our loyal FanLit readers, the very best of what is going on out there in the wide world of the Internet. Without further ado, let’s get started!
1) Three of the Best
This event has received a write up from a few notables — in the UK on Thursday 20th May, at Forbidden Planet, three fantastic authors of speculative fiction came together for a mass signing: these being Mark Charan Newton,
May 26th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest) | World Wide Wednesday | 7 comments |
White Witch, Black Curse by Kim Harrison
White Witch, Black Curse is the seventh installment in Kim Harrison’s Hollows series featuring witch Rachel Morgan and her companions Ivy (vampire) and Jenks (pixy).
I enjoyed White Witch, Black Curse, but felt that there were certain elements of the plot that dragged a little bit. The whole banshee story feels tacked on. They are a cool addition to the Inderlanders that inhabit the series, but, since there has been no mention of banshees in any of the other books,
May 25th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest)´s rating: 4 | Kim Harrison | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Silver Kiss by Annette Curtis Klause
The Silver Kiss by Annette Curtis Klause entwines the two stories of Zoe and Simon, chapter by chapter. We start with Zoe, a lonely girl who is struggling with the steady decline of her mother to cancer and the loss of her best friend who is moving to a new city. She feels lost and unloved, and as though no one can understand her grief and pain. Enter Simon, one of the undead. A vampire who has flitted from city to city in pursuit of his monstrous brother,
May 23rd, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest)´s rating: 4 | Annette Curtis Klause | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was extremely gripping and exciting, with a great deal of plot progression.
Here, Harry is dealing with the aftermath of the return of Lord Voldemort, and coping with the fact that he is kept very much in the dark about what is happening. While at the Dursleys’ over the summer, he has been relying on the Muggle news to see whether Voldemort has started the expected killing spree and reign of terror.
May 22nd, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest), Bill Capossere, Kat Hooper and Kelly Lasiter´s rating: 4.5 | J.K. Rowling | Children | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Outlaw Demon Wails by Kim Harrison
The Outlaw Demon Wails (Where Demons Dare in the UK) is easily the best of the books so far in Kim Harrison’s Hollows series, featuring Rachel Morgan. I thoroughly enjoyed For A Few Demons More, but this entry into the series had me gripped from the very start.
We open the story with an explosive visit from Al, where he reveals that he is being summoned each evening out of jail by a demon summoner hell-bent on getting rid of Rachel.
May 20th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest)´s rating: 4.5 | Kim Harrison | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
As is usual, seven days in the world of the Internet is plenty of time for people to write interesting articles and share fabulous news – and I’m here once again to bring you my ten favourites!
Well, I simply can’t start with anything else but the wonderful news that FanLit guest reviewer Tia Nevitt is to be a published author! We’re all fabulously excited and offer our congratulations and best wishes to Tia.
2) Minors Who Review Adult Books
This,
May 19th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest) | World Wide Wednesday | 13 comments |
Another of Gollancz’s heavily promoted debut authors is all set to release his book Wolfsangel on 20th May (reviewed by Amanda). In celebration of that, we’d like to introduce you to M D Lachlan! He sits down and chats with us about research, Norse mythology, and whether Lad Lit is an appropriate genre tag…
We have a giveaway linked to this interview: three lucky UK readers can get their hands on a copy of Wolfsangel by leaving a comment for M D Lachlan below.
May 18th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest) | M.D. Lachlan | Author Interviews, Giveaway! | 18 comments |
M.D. Lachlan brings us a story from the North, where a Prince falls in love with a farmer’s daughter and goes to the far ends of the earth to rescue her from slavery. Vali is the Prince in question, a boy stolen by King Athun under the influence of prophecy. What begins as a straightforward tale of Viking politics and berserker raiding as Vali grows from boy to man becomes infinitely more rewarding — a novel dealing with secretive magic and an everlasting battle between the Gods Odin and Loki.
May 18th, 2010. Amanda Rutter (guest)´s rating: 4 | M.D. Lachlan | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Thanks for the kind words, Marion! Coming as they are from a professional writer, they are much appreciated!
Wonderful review, Sandy.
The "body count" bothered me a bit less because being dead seemed more like an inconvenience than anything else... unlike…
Detailed, thoughtful review, Bill. I'm going to read it for two reasons. First, Karen Russell wrote it, and second, it…
this sounds like a fun one