Scrying the Fantastic is Alive!

Check out an introduction to Scrying the Fantastic, a resource for finding the latest in new releases in speculative fiction in the UK (for now).

The goal is to have all the new releases for the year in one easy-to-navigate place. We will have posts for each month detailing the new releases for the following month along with posts for each publisher detailing the new releases for the entire year.

But don't take my word for it... check out Reading Rainbow, hem, I mean Scrying the Fantastic to find out what all the collaborators have to say.

Guess this Book...

Each book that I read, I like to find out where the halfway mark is. I don't really know why, but it gives me a chance to set two goals I guess. One to get to halfway by a certain time and another to finish the rest.

This is probably good for a whole discussion itself, but back on topic - I was reading a book the other day and I got to page 550. I found out that I was 80 pages away from the halfway mark and it made me laugh.

Any guesses as to what book I'm slowly reading? (Hint - it's in a series)

This is probably either really easy for some forum members and really hard for others...sorry. :)

Scrying the Fantastic

Beware the ides of March, or...hem...the end of March, March 31st to be exact. A handful of bloggers all over the world have combined their might to create a resource that will (hopefully) be useful to science fiction and fantasy fans in the UK, with plans to move over to the US.

Scrying-the-Fantasic is the name and lots of information is it's game. More will be posted soon, along with the site launch.

Excited yet?

Peter V. Brett - Free Signed Bookplates

I'm currently listening to The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett and it's just plain awesome. This is the exact book I love to read.

In looking for a map for the book, for some reason he didn't put one in the audiobook :D, I found Peter's blog where he's giving away free signed bookplates. For those of us who can't make his signings, he's sending these (completely free of charge) to anyone who emails him (limited to the first 500).

Check out Peter's blog for the email address and directions on how to put your bookplate into your new copy of The Desert Spear.

Speculative Book Review - Open to the Public

Some of my favorite people on the interwebs have started a collaborative blog over at Speculative Book Review and I couldn't be more excited. They've already got some great reviews up as well as an interview with Tad Williams.

Now, this isn't any ol' interview. This is Peter living the dream and interviewing his favorite author of all time. How cool is that? If you say less than uber-cool, you will be shunned. :)

On a similar note, I got an email from John Marco (Jackal of Nar) the other day and on a very small level, I know the feeling.

Review - Shadow's Edge by Brent Weeks

Get on over to Only the Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy for my review of Book 2 in the Night Angel Trilogy, Shadow's Edge. This was a definite improvement over the first with one heck of a great ending. I refused to comment on the cover this time, don't worry.

I Love Lost

I finally had a chance to catch up a bit on Lost over the last week and I have to say I love this show (and Hulu). Now that doesn't mean I haven't had my problems with it; I had to take a break midway through seasons 2 and 3 because there was little to no plot development and it was driving me crazy.

Overall, I guess I like complex, mysterious stories with a slow moving plot as long as there's a reward of some crazy action. I mean, I do read Erikson.

But the main reason I enjoy Lost so much is because of the characters. There are so many shows with cardboard-cutout characters (now that's alliteration) where the jerk guy is always giving someone a hard time or where the protagonist always does the right thing whether people think she's crazy or not.

Lost is great because I hated Sawyer at the beginning and now he's my favorite character. This has happened with many of the characters for me in some form or another and I'm actually sad that the reverse has happened for Jack. But Lost does a great job with realistic characters that have really made me attached. Is it pathetic that I'm already sad there's no more Lost after this season?

Don't get me wrong, I'm really happy to have so many answers at one time I don't even know what to do with them.

Any other Lost fans out there? Waxing nostalgic already?