Thursday, September 29, 2011

Book Haul

I got a few this week from Gallery and one courtesy of Tor. I can't keep up (what a terrible problem to have I know) and they all look awesome.


Laddertop by Orson Scott Card and Emily Janice Card, Illustrated by Honoel A. Ibardolaza - I've only read a couple manga novels (One Piece) and loved every one. It's fun and fast and I hope this lives up to my expectations.

Twenty-five years ago, the alien Givers came to Earth. They gave the human race the greatest technology ever seen— four giant towers known as Ladders that rise 36,000 miles into space and culminate in space stations that power the entire planet. Then, for reasons unknown, the Givers disappeared. Due to the unique alien construction of the Laddertop space stations, only a skilled crew of children can perform the maintenance necessary to keep the stations up and running.

Back on Earth, competition is fierce to enter Laddertop Academy. It is an honor few students will achieve. Robbi and Azure, two eleven-year-old girls who are the best of friends, are candidates for the Academy. They will become entangled in a dangerous mystery that may help them solve the riddle of the Givers...if it doesn’t destroy the Earth first!


Thawed Out & Fed Up by Ryan Brown - Can't say I've heard of Brown before, but this seems pretty interesting.

Sam Bonham—bad husband, deadbeat dad, and possible criminal on the run from the law—wanders out of modern-day East Texas into an ersatz Wild West boomtown created for a movie that never happened. And when Sam strikes a blow against the gangsters who’ve been terrorizing the town, the locals look to him to save them. He’s no hero, but he’s stumbled upon someone who is: John Wayne. But the John Wayne of this story is not the stalwart lawman of Hollywood films—he’s a seventy-two-year-old man who had himself cryogenically frozen. He’s weak, bald, frail…and unrecognizable to everyone but Sam.

In The Duke’s “defrosted” state, he’s not entirely himself. In fact, he believes he’s actually Ethan Edwards, the character he played in The Searchers, one of Wayne’s most beloved films. Ethan or Duke or Marion Morrison, at his side Sam learns how to be a man, and a hero—and a pretty good shot! As he takes on the Old West gang of thugs, he finds that he might have become a family man at last. But back in the real world, someone has his eye on Sam’s wife, and if Sam doesn’t get back soon, the results could be devastating.


Day by Day Armageddon: Origin to Exile by J. L. Bourne - This is an omnibus of the first two books in the Day by Day Armageddon series. This is supposed to be similar to Max Brooks' World War Z, which I also need to read. :)
START INTERCEPT
Armies of undead have risen up across the U.S. and around the globe;there is no safe haven from the diseased corpses hungering for human flesh. But in the heat of a Texas wasteland, a small band of survivors attempt to counter the millions closing in around them.

INTERCEPT COMPLETE

Survivor,

Day by day, the handwritten journal entries of one man caught in a worldwide cataclysm capture

the desperation—and the will to survive—as he joins forces with a handful of refugees to battle

soulless enemies both human and inhuman from inside an abandoned strategic missile facility.

But in the world of the undead, is mere survival enough?

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

What I'm Reading - September 7-21

I've really gotta stop this business, but I can't help starting multiple books at one time. There's just too much good stuff I guess.

Reading Progress:

Heaven's Needle (Ithelas 2) by Liane Merciel - 250 out of 473. Wow, I'm loving this book.

Dust of Dreams (Malazan 9) by Steven Erikson - 100 out of 888. It's been far too long since I've read a Malazan novel and it's good to be back. At this rate I might actually be done before Erikson's new Malazan series starts next year.


Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Zombies
by Matt Mogk - 80 out of 288. I couldn't resist starting this one. It's got seriously everything about zombies from Romero to Max Brooks, but it's almost too much. This cover's really cool though.

Audiobook:

The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card - 6 out of 10 CDs. It's hard to tell at this point. I've enjoyed what I've read and no matter how controversial card has been, I think we can all agree he's a great writer.

Finished/Review in Progress:

Low Town by Daniel Polansky
The Shadow Rising (WoT 4) by Robert Jordan
The Fires of Heaven (WoT 5) by Robert Jordan - These are just hard to review for me especially on audiobook. I loved them, but something this big on audiobook kind of just runs together.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Book Haul


Star Trek: A Choice of Catastrophes by Michael Schuster and Steve Mollmann- Never read a Star Trek novel before, maybe this will be the first...
The U.S.S. Enterprise, under the command of Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu, is returning from a mission to deliver medical supplies to Deep Space Station C-15, one of Starfleet’s most distant installations. All is routine until the Enterprise comes within a light-year of the planet Mu Arigulon, when the ship is suddenly thrown from warp and suffers a momentary power cut, having run aground on a spatial distortion not revealed in previous scans of the system. When the pride of Starfleet hits another, much worse distortion, Dr. Leonard McCoy has his hands full caring for officers who have suddenly fallen into comas for no apparent reason. The Enterprise medical team soon discovers that the dying officers are espers—humans with a rare and abnormal level of telepathic and psychic ability. With no choice but to link to the officers’ minds in order to come to their aid, McCoy is plunged into a nightmarish dream-world . . . with the end result being nothing short of the possible destruction of the Enterprise and all aboard her. . . .

Star Trek: Vanguard: What Judgments Come by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore - ...or maybe this one.
Operation Vanguard has risked countless lives and sacrificed entire worlds to unlock the secrets of the Shedai, an extinct alien civilization whose technology can shape the future of the galaxy. Now, Starfleet’s efforts have roused the vengeful Shedai from their aeons of slumber. As the Taurus Reach erupts with violence, hundreds of light-years away, on “The Planet of Galactic Peace,” Ambassador Jetanien and his counterparts from the Klingon and Romulan empires struggle to avert war by any means necessary. But Jetanien discovers their mission may have been designed to fail all along . . . Meanwhile, living in exile on an Orion ship is the one man who can help Starfleet find an ancient weapon that can stop the Shedai: Vanguard’s former commanding officer, Diego Reyes.

THE END OF THE EPIC SAGA BEGINS


StarCraft: Spectres (StarCraft Ghost Series) by Nate Kenyon - This sounds cool, I'm always a fan of elite groups of space dudes doing awesome stuff. :)
On the release of the electrifying StarCraft II, Nova--the elite stealth operative of the Terran Dominion's Ghost Program--returns in a new adventure.

Monday, September 19, 2011

New Header

Thanks to the amazing Shellie at Layers of Thought, I have an awesome new header that actually contains STAMPS! How cool is that?


Shellie has some of the best headers I've ever seen, and right now she's got a great one for the Halloween season. As you can see, I'm pretty lucky to have her on my side. :)

So, what do you think?

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Book Haul


Some Amazon purchases, some review copies. One is something I ordered for a certain challenge I may have mentioned not too long ago. It will be epic. Can you guess which one?

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks - I've been waiting on this for far too long. I wanted to read it when it first came out, but it kept moving back on the stack. Now I'll have something to get ready for next year's release of the sequel, The Blinding Knife.
Gavin Guile is the Prism, the most powerful man in the world. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace. But Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live: Five years to achieve five impossible goals.

But when Guile discovers he has a son, born in a far kingdom after the war that put him in power, he must decide how much he's willing to pay to protect a secret that could tear his world apart.

Monster Hunter International
by Larry Correia - I've heard tons of great things about this author and I can't wait to learn a bunch about guns I guess.
Five days after Owen Zastava Pitt pushed his insufferable boss out of a fourteenth story window, he woke up in the hospital with a scarred face, an unbelievable memory, and a job offer.

It turns out that monsters are real. All the things from myth, legend, and B-movies are out there, waiting in the shadows. Officially secret, some of them are evil, and some are just hungry. On the other side are the people who kill monsters for a living. Monster Hunter International is the premier eradication company in the business. And now Owen is their newest recruit.

It’s actually a pretty sweet gig, except for one little problem. An ancient entity known as the Cursed One has returned to settle a centuries old vendetta. Should the Cursed One succeed, it means the end of the world, and MHI is the only thing standing in his way. With the clock ticking towards Armageddon, Owen finds himself trapped between legions of undead minions, belligerent federal agents, a cryptic ghost who has taken up residence inside his head, and the cursed family of the woman he loves.

Business is good... Welcome to Monster Hunter International.

The Golden Queen by Dave Wolverton - This has been a popular one, but not necessarily for the content.
The insectoid Dronon invaders have slain Semaritte, ruler of 10,000 human worlds. Only her clone, Everynne, survives to rally the forces of humanity. Pursued across a multiplicity of worlds, she enlists the aid of Gallen O'Day, a cocky young bodyguard from a backwater planet, along with the beautiful orphan Maggie Flynn and Orick, an intelligent black bear.

Howl's Moving Caste by Diana Wynne Jones - This is one of those where I didn't become interested in the author until I heard about her passing. It saddens me when that happens, but I'm happy to be able to enjoy her work.

In the land of Ingary, such things as spells, invisible cloaks, and seven-league boots were everyday things. The Witch of the Waste was another matter.

After fifty years of quiet, it was rumored that the Witch was about to terrorize the country again. So when a moving black castle, blowing dark smoke from its four thin turrets, appeared on the horizon, everyone thought it was the Witch. The castle, however, belonged to Wizard Howl, who, it was said, liked to suck the souls of young girls.

The Hatter sisters--Sophie, Lettie, and Martha--and all the other girls were warned not to venture into the streets alone. But that was only the beginning.

In this giant jigsaw puzzle of a fantasy, people and things are never quite what they seem. Destinies are intertwined, identities exchanged, lovers confused. The Witch has placed a spell on Howl. Does the clue to breaking it lie in a famous poem? And what will happen to Sophie Hatter when she enters Howl's castle?

Diana Wynne Jones's entrancing fantasy is filled with surprises at every turn, but when the final stormy duel between the Witch and the Wizard is finished, all the pieces fall magically into place.


Mr. Monster by Dan Wells - This might be next up in the stack. Can't wait to get back to John Cleaver.
I killed a demon. I don’t know if it was really, technically a demon, but I do know that he was some kind of monster, with fangs and claws and the whole bit, and he killed a lot of people. So I killed him. I think it was the right thing to do. At least the killing stopped.

Well, it stopped for a while.


In I Am Not a Serial Killer, John Wayne Cleaver saved his town from a murderer even more appalling than the serial killers he obsessively studies. But it turns out even demons have friends, and the disappearance of one has brought another to Clayton County. Soon there are new victims for John to work on at the mortuary and a new mystery to solve. But John has tasted death, and the dark nature he used as a weapon---the terrifying persona he calls "Mr. Monster"---might now be using him.

No one in Clayton is safe unless John can vanquish two nightmarish adversaries: the unknown demon he must hunt and the inner demon he can never escape.

In this sequel to his brilliant debut, Dan Wells ups the ante with a thriller that is just as gripping and even more intense. He apologizes in advance for the nightmares.

I Don't Want To Kill You (Autographed) by Dan Wells - Supposed to be a great ending to the trilogy, can't wait.
John Cleaver has called a demon—literally called it, on the phone, and challenged it to a fight. He’s faced two of the monsters already, barely escaping with his life, and now he’s done running; he’s taking the fight to them. But as he wades through his town’s darkest secrets, searching for any sign of who the demon might be, one thing becomes all too clear: in a game of cat and mouse with a supernatural killer, the human is always the mouse.

In I Am Not a Serial Killer we watched a budding sociopath break every rule he had to save his town from evil. In Mr. Monster we held our breath as he fought madly with himself, struggling to stay in control. Now John Cleaver has mastered his twisted talents and embraced his role as a killer of killers. I Don’t Want to Kill You brings his story to a thundering climax of suspicion, mayhem, and death.

It’s time to punish the guilty.

And in a town full of secrets, everyone is guilty of something.

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Zombies by Matt Mogk - At first I wasn't sure about this one, but then it even has an introduction by Max Brooks and quotes everything from Brooks' World War Z and Zombie Survival Guide to George A. Romero's films. It looks amazing. From the Zombie Research Society:
“If you’re already a zombie fan, you’ll be blown away by the time and energy sunk into this book. If you’re not a zombie a fan, this book will make you one!”

World of Warcraft: Wolfheart by Richard A. Knaack - This is the second in a series, of which I don't have the first, beginning with Stormrage. I'm very interested in this one and although it's been a while since I've played World of Warcraft, it is an awesome game.
New York Times bestselling author Richard A. Knaak continues the thrilling story begun in the record-breaking MMO game expansion WORLD OF WARCRAFT: CATACLYSM in this new hardcover!

Hellhole by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson - Can anyone convince me to read this? I'm only partially interested at this point. The concept sounds good, but I don't have the highest expectations of the authors.
Only the most desperate colonists dare to make a new home on Hellhole. Reeling from a recent asteroid impact, tortured with horrific storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and churning volcanic eruptions, the planet is a dumping ground for undesirables, misfits, and charlatans…but also a haven for dreamers and independent pioneers.

Against all odds, an exiled general named Adolphus has turned Hellhole into a place of real opportunity for the desperate colonists who call the planet their home. While the colonists are hard at work developing the planet, General Adolphus secretly builds alliances with the leaders of the other Deep Zone worlds, forming a clandestine coalition against the tyrannical, fossilized government responsible for their exile.

What no one knows is this: the planet Hellhole, though damaged and volatile, hides an amazing secret. Deep beneath its surface lies the remnants of an obliterated alien civilization and the buried memories of its unrecorded past that, when unearthed, could tear the galaxy apart.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

What I'm Reading Aug. 22 - Sept. 6

I've done a bit better the last couple weeks reading-wise, moved some things around a bit, and now I'm back in business.

Reading Progress:

Low Town by Daniel Polansky - 150 out of 341. I'm impressed so far although worried I may already have called the ending. We'll see I guess, although it's still good.

Heaven's Needle by Liane Merciel - 88 out of 473. I love this series and this book sucked me right in immediately.

Lord of Chaos (WoT Book 6) by Robert Jordan - I decided to put this to the side for now. I'm loving it (although the glacial pace is really apparent in this volume), but I felt bad about not reading some of my review books. I'll head back into the Wheel of Time in a month or so.

Audiobook:

The Lost Gate (Mither Mages 1) by Orson Scott Card - 1 out of 10 CD's. I'm glad Stefan Rudnicki is back on this one. He just does an amazing job. So far, we'll see, I don't really have high hopes based on reviews I've read.

Finished:

RuneScape: Betrayal at Falador - Review here.

The Prestige by Christopher Priest (Audiobook) - Awesome. Different from the movie but I loved both versions.

Demon Squad: Resurrection by Tim Marquitz - I owe a huge apology to Tim for the time it took me to read this. I loved it, but it took me way too long.