Review – Glimmerglass

Glimmerglass (Faeriewalker 1)

by Jenna Black

A YA novel about find out about your heritage and self, dealing with an alcoholic parent, and a little bit of romance or major crushing really.  Cute but with dark undercurrents.

So Dana has an alcoholic mother and doesn’t know her Fae father.  They move all the time to keep her away from him but her mom has some major problems and embarrasses the heck out of this half-fae 16 year old.  She decides to run away to Avalon to look him up and have a “normal” life with a hopefully loving father.  *uh huh*  Anyway, nothing is normal from here on out.  She has a rare ability (basically because fae and humans generally don’t breed) but she can see the glimmerglass which means she can go to faery or the human world and can bring another person either place, basically bringing magic to earth or technology to faery.  So of course, she is a powerful tool for the politicians in Avalon so everyone tries to win her over by friendliness or force.

There is a hint of a love triangle, not that anything sexy happens, a lot of looking and some kissing.  The POV is first person following Dana about, thank goodness because her inner voice gives us a little more information about her thought processes because she flip flops around a bit.  As for story, not too much really happens, she doesn’t know who to trust and people mess with her and eventually try to kill her.  For a girl who had to take care of her mother, she is quite young, eager and naive, but she means well.

I enjoyed the book, Avalon has a lot of politics, we don’t learn too much about them, but maybe someday Dana will take a big part in things or actually go into Faerie.  I am willing to try another book or two to see where Black takes this series.  3.5 stars of perfect notes, floating into the ether, eliciting their own musical magic.

WWW Wednesdays 5-22

Happy Wednesday everyone!  What travels are you on these days? Play with MizB from Should be Reading and let us know what you just finished, what you are currently reading and what is up next.

I just finished Nakba a science fiction book which sucked me into its world and I am having a hard time letting it go.  I also finished Shadowspell by Jenna Black, a young YA book about a half fae girl and the issues she has in Avalon, the Wild Hunt is looking for her help in releasing them into the mortal world.

I am in the middle of a couple of things.  I am almost finished with Incarnate by Lawrence Weill which is about the lady who thinks her 7 year old is the messiah and I guess loosely based on the authors life.  It is really good but quite upsetting and I have to keep setting it down to calm myself.  I am also in the dead middle of Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie.  It is also really good and well written but looooong and about revenge and some horrible things just happened to my characters and I had to set it aside for a bit because I was going to freak out.

Next up, I am a few chapters into The Vampire Code by EC Adams and it is a fun mix of legal procedural and vampire book.  I am hoping for a little romance too!!  Excited to get back to it.  And I will also be picking up Boneshaker by Cherie Priest.  This is a steampunk and zombie book set during the American Gold rush in Seattle.  I just read a chapter and it is exciting and I want to read more!  There are differing reviews on goodreads, but I like it so far.

What worlds are you traveling this week?

Review – Nakba (Civilizing War, #1)

Nakba (The Civilizing War, Volume 1)

by Jason S. Walters – Tomorrow Comes Media tour

Summary: A thousand years ago humanity’s dissidents fled, leaving behind a peaceful, unified world content to exist in a state of perpetual hedonism. Then a daring escape plunged civilization into chaos, forcing its rulers to expand outward to maintain order. Now all that stands between a newly imperial Earth and the rest of the solar system is a loose coalition of Maasai tribesmen, cloned feminists, shape shifting humannequins, and vengeful Berbers led by the least likely hero in human history: a young woman with Down syndrome and a bad attitude.

Review: A short little sci fi novel with surprising amount of world-building.  I was very impressed with how much is stuffed without overdoing this story.

This is a future earth that has finally decided to deal with the colonists that left centuries before. A bit of a dystopian government because, “Everything in Posthemogeny society had to do with not being suspicious. Not being “interesting”, even if you genuinely weren’t up to anything.” (Loc 89)

I can’t describe anything else because I think it will spoil it.  I was amazed at how much detail Walters shares through the story itself.  There is a blend of pop culture (Rita Hayworth and Elvis Presley) and a crazy artificial intelligence future.  Loved it.  It is poetic, quoting some Wordsworth even, yet dystopian with a controlling, large government.  And what do we love about dystopians?  Well, you know, overbearing government which thinks it knows best and puts the pressure on until something happens. 

Anyway, it is a tiny bit silly at times, I was reminded of an Austin Powers scene but the story makes me wonder about our world and our treatment of people or things that scare us.  Humans are not very nice sometimes and this book it brings up some good discussion points about humanity.  Walter’s daughter influenced a character as well, super fun.

Also, the writing was interesting and descriptive “Yet technology kept lurching forward, a Frankenstein’s monster stumbling amongst terrified, reactionary peasants desperate to burn their way back to an understandable world even as the desiccated corpses of the Earth’s nations swatted feebly at one another with the last of their dying strength.” (Loc 886)

I will be looking into Walters other works and look forward to the second volume of The Civilizing War.  I really enjoyed the writing and was impressed with the ideas and the style.  My version (pre-release version) had a couple of typos, no grammar issues, but misspelled words, like campaign instead of champagne.  That one confused me for a second!  I give this little story 3.5 AI stars that can drive your car and run your house for you.  I am hoping I can convince one to stay with me. 

PS – I received this book free to provide an honest review. These thoughts are my own! You heard them here first.   This book is not yet released and I am sorry, I don’t know when it will be available.

About Jason S. Walters:

Jason S. Walters is an author, essayist, and publisher best known for running Indie Press Revolution (IPR), a distributor of micro-published roleplaying games. He is also one of a small group of investors that purchased Hero Games in 2001, and serves as its general manager. After owning a San Francisco bike messenger service for 15 years, he and his wife Tina moved to Midian Ranch: a homestead near the town of Gerlach, Nevada. It is also the location of IPR’s warehousing complex. They have a daughter with Down syndrome named Cassidy and animals too numerous to mention.  Jason’s Blog, and his facebook page.

Review – Paranormalcy

Paranormalcy (Bk 1)

by Kiersten White

I wasn’t sure about this book at first because the lead protag is really young, silly, bouncy, wears a lot of pink and is a bit spoiled.  But after reading one chapter, yes, just one, she grew on me. I found her funny and sweet, trying to do right even when she is huffing and puffing and rolling her 16 year old eyes. Basically because she throws herself whole-heartedly into what she is doing and is so excited about certain silly and normal things. Her love interest is a slow build which felt natural and her inner voice was enjoyable and felt real (or real enough).

Evie can see through glamor.  She is the only one who can do that, and having been raised by the IPCA (some sort of paranormal watch agency) who now uses her as an operative to bag and tag paranormals so they can’t hurt the normal people out in the big wide world.  The problem starts when she finds out that someone is killing paranormals and no one knows who or what it is.

“All paranormals are classified as endangered; that’s why even the icky ones just get neutered instead of, well, dead.” (pg 66)

Her agency is very clandestine, but well, a government agency and she has drunk the koolaide and believes in her work and their policies.  Notice the quote above, they neuter paranormals.  Hmmmm.  So it is nice as she begins to speak to people outside of the agency and starts thinking for herself.

The love interest relationship is very young, cute and sweet.  She is a teenie-bopper after all.

“Oh heavens, I liked that boy. When I got back to my unit, I stared at the drawing. He really captured me, which made me hope he spent a lot of time thinking about me.” (pg 147)

Awwww!  But it doesn’t stay all bubble gum and pom poms, though she would if she could.  Evie learns a lot about her world, herself and begins to make decisions based on her experience instead of what she is taught from a rule-book.  Illusions are shattered, people are killed and she has to make some hard decisions.  This book is both light and dark, easy and difficult, pink swirled into black.  Even though it was dark, it was an easy and enjoyable read, I give it 4 stars glowing so bright they hurt your eyes, if you can see through glamour that is!  I will be reading the next book, when I need my darkness bleeding cotton candy.

Frivolous Fridays – May 17th

Happy Friday everyone!  I just got back from NY city and am super happy I was able to spend some time in one of my favorite bookstores – the Strand!  They say they have like 11 or 12 miles of books and it is packed with people and even new books are half off if they are older.  It was tough, and I must admit I was walking (I had forgotten how much of a hike it is from Canal Street to 14th!) and couldn’t carry too much, but I somehow limited my purchase to one book (the book after Patient Zero – so excited!)

I managed to get a picture inside the store without people in it.  Honestly I don’t know how that happened because the place was hopping, you know, the type of busy where every time I would stop I was in someone’s way?  Also, I had to climb a ladder to get my book and because I am greedy I originally grabbed the third in the series as well, I denied myself, returned it and stepped on a girl on the way back down.  I was smooth!

Review – Infinity

Infinity (Chronicles of Nick, Bk 1)

by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Nick is 14. He is poor, his clothes are crappy and his mom, with her heart of gold (who had him at 14) doesn’t understand that her goodwill clothing choices get him beat up. She is so young and so clueless, it is weird.  Anyway, they live in New Orleans, there are a lot of non-humans in this part of town.  Nick is a something or other that will eventually go down the path of evil and destroy all of humanity. But right now he is a really good kid with anger management issues, because all the kids at his rich kids school make fun of him for being poor with weird clothes.  It felt a little like paranormal Pretty in Pink for a bit.

But the story goes quickly, probably because the font is huge, so I continued to read and suddenly the football team are turning into zombies! Yay! Zombies. (I have a weird fascination with zombies lately)  Oh by the way, this is a spin-off of a paranormal romance series that I haven’t read before because there are a billion of the books in the series but people seem to love them.  Maybe someday.

Anyway, there are a ton of paranormals, all types and they all seem to have an agenda which was either for or against what Nick has the potential to become. Honestly it was a little confusing, but it was fun so I just kept reading.

The story is great.  It captured my attention and I will be looking for the next book to keep up with the trials and tribulations of Nick.  However, I think this book expected the reader already knew all these characters that were introduced.  Some folks seemed to have a cameo just to trot them out and say, “See, here is one of your favorite characters back when Nick was a kid.”  I guess I would have enjoyed it more if I had more background and knew who they all were.  So I really recommend this to fans of the series.  For paranormal YA readers, it is enjoyable.  A bunch of crazy stuff happens and it keeps you interested.  But, too many names, too many hidden agendas, a bit of future affecting the past, almost too much is tackled.  Plus, things are overtold a bit.  His backpack is battered, dirty AND second-hand.  His mom picks out neon orange Hawaiian shirts and thinks he looks classy.  His breakfast is powdered eggs and bacon which he continually chokes down.  “he shoved the grainy powdered eggs into his mouth and swallowed them. He forced himself not to shiver at the taste. But it was all they could afford.” (pg 12) I don’t know, we are shown a bit, told a lot and I suddenly don’t care they are poor because we are told about it too much “chipped blue plate next to the rusted out stove”.  Anyway.  I am only hypercritical because she has sold tons of books.  Wouldn’t the editor pull some of that stuff back?! Lazy.

Anyway, it is a nutty plot, the good vs evil folks are doing their good and evil deeds and there is a big “How will this guy ultimately turn out?” question hanging over this series.  He seems like a good kid, Neil Gaiman in Good Omens had the antichrist raised by normal folks by mistake and he turned out ok.  Just because the potential is there, doesn’t mean they have to go down the evil road, but good intentions make good pavers when you are out of cobblestones or something.

So, you won’t write a literary discourse on this one, but it is cute. Nick has a crush, he won’t take charity and he only freaks out a little when he finds out about the paranormal community surrounding him.  3.5 stars, one is a zombie, one a demon that eats zombies, one a werewolf and the other half is a dark hunter but I can’t tell you what he does yet, you gotta read the next book.

Quoting the Quill – May 15th

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” ― Dr. Seuss

Thank you Dr. Seuss, I was feeling common.

Love you guys! Hope everyone celebrates their “You”ness today.

Quoting the Quill is a meme created by Becky from Blogs of a Bookaholic.  Visit her and her quote, which usually has a bit more surrounding it.  I am on vacation and doing this ahead of time in a slapdash fashion.  But that is just “ME”.