annathepiper: (Beckett and Book)
League of Dragons

League of Dragons

Short but sweet, just because I’m cleaning out my inbox again and wanted to file the receipts for these! Picked up from Kobo:

League of Dragons, the final Temeraire novel by Naomi Novik. Picked up because duh, Temeraire! \0/ My love for this series has been long-running, from the very first day I heard it pitched as “Patrick O’Brian meets the Dragonriders of Pern”. I mean honestly, how could I not love a series that’s what you get if you take Aubrey and Maturin and make Maturin a dragon?

Tor.com says that League of Dragons sticks the landing, and Dear Author liked it too. (And I may not often comment on Dear Author but yeah, if they’re going to go and review one of my favorite fantasy series even though they’re usually a romance site, fuck yeah I’m going to speak up in that comments thread. 😀 )

And Tor.com has a lovely Temeraire reread series of posts that Kate Nepveu just did. Her reviews of the books lit a fire under me to finally get caught up on the series. I found Crucible of Gold very satisfying, and Blood of Tyrants uneven, despite it involving an amnesia plot (and I am a known sucker for amnesia plots). I’ve started League as of today. More thoughts on this to come.

(And also, let it be noted that I am sad, SAD I TELL YOU, that I apparently cannot acquire the entire Temeraire series in French in ebook form. I went looking, because once I eventually finish doing Harry Potter in Trilingual Form, Temeraire would be a very strong contender for another multi-lingual reread!)

Meanwhile, I also scarfed Seanan McGuire’s Every Heart a Doorway while it was briefly available for $2.99 in electronic form. (Its standard price is $9.99 right now and that’s a little more than I’m comfortable paying for a novella.) But! I’ve been hearing a lot of great things about this story (including a lot of buzz at the aforementioned Tor.com), so I’ve been wanting to give it a go.

This makes 18 titles acquired for the year.

(Which, for those of you who pay attention to these posts, may strike you as a surprisingly low number given my book-buying history; here we’re halfway through the year already and I’ve barely cleared two digits. This would be because I am disgruntled at the return of agency pricing, which has made ebooks a lot more expensive from the big publishers again. So I’ve been making an effort to get caught up on reading books I already own, and for newer things by authors I don’t know yet, I’ve been checking those out from the library.)

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.

annathepiper: (Book Geek)

Ebooks grabbed from Book View Cafe:

  • A Fatal Twist of Lemon and A Sprig of Blossomed Thorn, by Patrice Greenwood. First two books of a cozy mystery series oriented around a tea shop. Grabbed these because 1) I like tea! and 2) Book 1 was very favorably reviewed by Doranna Durgin on Goodreads. And I’m quite willing to follow her recommendations!
  • Dispossession and Light Errant, by Chaz Brenchley. Couple more books by the excellent Chaz Brenchley, ebook repubs of some of his backlist.
  • French Fried, by Chris Dolley. Humor/true crime, grabbed because I saw it while poking around the BVC site and I thought it sounded potentially charming and amusing.

And from Barnes and Noble:

  • Codex Born, by Jim C. Hines. Book 2 of his Libriomancer series, bought because urban fantasy with book-based magic! Also because I adore Jim’s books.
  • Possession, by Kat Richardson. Book 8 of the Greywalker series. Bought because, as previously mentioned, big fan of those books.
  • Blood of Tyrants, by Naomi Novik. Book 8 of the Temeraire series. Bought because BOOK 8 OF TEMERAIRE SERIES. :D

144 for the year.

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.

annathepiper: (Book Geek)

Ebooks grabbed from Book View Cafe:

  • A Fatal Twist of Lemon and A Sprig of Blossomed Thorn, by Patrice Greenwood. First two books of a cozy mystery series oriented around a tea shop. Grabbed these because 1) I like tea! and 2) Book 1 was very favorably reviewed by Doranna Durgin on Goodreads. And I’m quite willing to follow her recommendations!
  • Dispossession and Light Errant, by Chaz Brenchley. Couple more books by the excellent Chaz Brenchley, ebook repubs of some of his backlist.
  • French Fried, by Chris Dolley. Humor/true crime, grabbed because I saw it while poking around the BVC site and I thought it sounded potentially charming and amusing.

And from Barnes and Noble:

  • Codex Born, by Jim C. Hines. Book 2 of his Libriomancer series, bought because urban fantasy with book-based magic! Also because I adore Jim’s books.
  • Possession, by Kat Richardson. Book 8 of the Greywalker series. Bought because, as previously mentioned, big fan of those books.
  • Blood of Tyrants, by Naomi Novik. Book 8 of the Temeraire series. Bought because BOOK 8 OF TEMERAIRE SERIES. :D

144 for the year.

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.

annathepiper: (Book Geek)
After the densely packed prose of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, it was rather a relief to tear through Empire of Ivory, the fourth installment of [livejournal.com profile] naominovik's Temeraire series--which roared along at quite a satisfying pace and as always, latched onto my attention and refused to let it go until I was done.

This time around we have Captain Laurence and Temeraire up against the challenge of a plague that threatens to kill off the entire dragon population of Britain. The search for a cure builds nicely upon earlier details from Books Two and Three, following up on not only Temeraire's own earlier illness, but also his efforts to enlighten his fellow dragons to the virtues of liberty and self-determination, Laurence's ongoing relationship with Jane Roland and the status of her daughter Emily, and the bringing of the twenty feral dragons from Book Three to England. Iskierka, now grown, is absolutely delightful ("you didn't say it had to be a French ship", hee hee). The plot's taking the reader to Africa gives us another opportunity to see the parallels between human slavery and dragon servitude; the further developing of the characters of Jane and Catherine Harcourt gives us more opportunity to see how women officers in the aerial corps still have quite the ongoing battle of their own to win in British society.

And oh my, the ending. I won't say anything about it except this: AUGH! And that Ms. Novik now has me on tenterhooks awaiting Book Five! Four stars.
annathepiper: (Uhura Squee)
This just in: [livejournal.com profile] naominovik is up for not only the Campbell Award for Best New Author this year, she's also on the Hugo list for Best Novel with His Majesty's Dragon! All hands: present ARMS! SALUTE!

This, I daresay, shall be the most fun I'll have had with the Hugos in years. For the full list of nominees, go check out the [livejournal.com profile] makinglight post here, or Ms. Novik's own announcement!

(x-posted between my journal and [livejournal.com profile] temeraire_fans)
annathepiper: (Blue Hawaii Grin)
To steal a concept from [livejournal.com profile] technoshaman, I'd like to do another post about some things that don't suck.

  • I have finally been able to find a copy of Shannon K. Butcher's new novel No Regrets. For the benefit of my listening audience, Shannon Butcher is [livejournal.com profile] jimbutcher's spouse, and I am looking greatly forward to discovering whether she writes as well as her husband. Between Jim and Shannon, I have fantasy and romantic suspense covered. All my book-reading needs in one husband/wife writing team!

  • I have also finally started reading Robin McKinley's Sunshine, which has been sitting neglected Too Damned Long on my To Read Shelf. I am about 100 pages in thus far, and enjoying it quite a bit. More to come on this when I finish the book.

  • Speaking of more authors I greatly enjoy, [livejournal.com profile] naominovik announces here that the fourth Temeraire novel now has an official title and release date: Empire of Ivory, due out in October of this year. Elves say "YES PLEASE, I'll have some!"

  • I have been feeling light-years better since I have started actually enforcing my two-sodas-a-day limit. Quite a bit of background tension has dropped out of my system, and while my sleep isn't quite back to normal yet, it's getting there.

  • Going to see The Painted Veil with [livejournal.com profile] mamishka this past weekend turned out to be very pleasant indeed, especially as she followed it up with the DVD of The Illusionist, so we had an Edward Norton double feature. I hadn't seen The Illusionist yet, and I found it quite fun. Especially after The Painted Veil, which was a fine film, even though it was terribly, terribly grim. Meems also gave me belated birthday presents: the DVD of Eddie Izzard's Glorious show (to wit, YAY! And, I'm covered in BEEEEEEEEES!), and for particular giggles and grins, a toybox that contained both this and this. I am still laughing and laughing every time I look at them both.

  • Speaking of [livejournal.com profile] mamishka, I look forward to joining up with her and others this Saturday to see Pan's Labyrinth, of which I have heard many good things.

  • Last night we watched The Maltese Falcon again, which is chock full of goodness as well as the sterling lesson of how you just do not mess with Humphrey Bogart. Under any circumstances.

  • The Young Dubliners are about to put out a new album, With All Due Respect: The Irish Sessions. Looking forward to this!

  • Last but not least, tomorrow is FRIDAY!

Saturday through Thursday miles: 17.1
Miles out of Hobbiton: 1747.5
Miles out of Rauros Falls: 438.5
Miles to Isengard: 45.4
annathepiper: (Great Amurkian Novel)
(Hrmm, clearly I need me a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea icon... and now I have the capability to do something about that. Muahahaha. But. Later!)

Folks, Nanowrimo time is upon us. Which means that, although I am going to be shooting for only half a Nano this year--i.e., adding about 25K to Queen of Souls, already in progress--a lot of my already limited cycles are about to go into making that push. Which means that I'll most likely be paying reduced attention to my Friends list. I will still be periodically posting, so be on the lookout for such things as BSG commentaries, impending squeeage over the release of A Good Year (which is out in NINE! MORE! DAYS!), and even louder impending squeeage over the coming of Courage and Patience and Grit (TWENTY!). Because really, if there's anything that can make a November for me, it's a new Russell flick and a Great Big Sea DVD!

But reading the Friends list, not so much maybe. So if there's anything hugely critical you want to share with me, better do it in email or via IM.

Oh, but before I go completely dark, I have got to share this link, cheerfully snurched from [livejournal.com profile] temeraire_fans, of a page where someone's done some nice Temeraire fan art. I am especially impressed by her depiction of Temeraire's hatching. And gosh, I think her Laurence looks a little familiar. ;)

Anyway, if you're interested in actually following my word count updates, you might glance over on [livejournal.com profile] scuzzboppers for short Nano-related upates, or on [livejournal.com profile] annathewriter, where I post all my writing updates anyway.

Days till A Good Year: 9
Days till Courage and Patience and Grit: 20
Monday through Wednesday miles: 5.55
Miles out of Hobbiton: 1498.9
Miles out of Rauros Falls: 189.9
Miles to Isengard: 294.1
annathepiper: (Uhura Squee)
In "couldn't happen to a cooler set of novels" news, [livejournal.com profile] naominovik has just announced that Peter Jackson has optioned the Temeraire novels. WOW. I mean, WOW. I will look forward to seeing Laurence and Temeraire come to life with great, great anticipation. :D

Man, now I'm going to spend the rest of the day trying to figure out who they might get to play Laurence, or if they'd find some previously unknown but swoonable British actor. And who would be the voice of Temeraire?
annathepiper: (Good Book)
Late, but here! These being my remarks for the third book in [livejournal.com profile] naominovik's Temeraire series, Black Powder War.

Picoreview: Has a definite "middle of a series" flavor about it--not unlike trying to read one of the Aubrey-Maturins. It reads a lot more like a series of unrelated episodes than one big plot. But as with Patrick O'Brian, if you think about it as one big ongoing story, that makes it less jarring! Plus, there's lots more goodness here with Novik's dragons, interesting glimpses into how more cultures besides Britain treat their dragons, and some new and entertaining characters both human and draconic.

Meanwhile, Novik has posted that she has contracted with Del Rey for three more books, though they will be coming more slowly now, one per year. Yay! And in the same post, she links to a short story she has put on her site! It's cute--and shows how Temeraire leads an effort among the dragons to see if they can get at some tasty snacks sheep.

And as if the Patrick-O'Brian-y flavor of Novik's books isn't already strong enough, apparently it goes both ways! Also in the same post, she mentions that someone commented to her that they'd watched Master and Commander for the very first time, and found themselves thinking in the opening minutes of the movie, "But where would they put the dragon?" HEE!

But anyway, on to the spoilers... )
annathepiper: (Good Book)
Godt-DAMMIT, I love me some Laurence and Temeraire! Picoreview: Just when he's barely gotten accustomed to having Temeraire as his dragon, Captain William Laurence is called upon to give him up when a delegation from China comes calling to Britain, demanding that he be returned to his rightful home. I found certain events in the ending a trifle weak and convenient, but the development of Temeraire as a character--and Novik's upping the ante on dragons as sentients in their own right--more than makes up for that. Absolutely required reading for those who loved His Majesty's Dragon, and an excellent whetting of the appetite for the forthcoming Black Powder War!

(crossposted between my journal and [livejournal.com profile] temeraire_fans)

Let fly the Spoilers, Captain Riley! )
annathepiper: (Good Book)
[livejournal.com profile] naominovik's His Majesty's Dragon is, I am thrilled to report, the best damned book I've read so far this year. I plowed through the rest of this on the way home tonight, and was delighted to discover that the rest of the book held up to the promise of the initial stretch.

"Patrick O'Brian with dragons" is a very apt bite-sized summary of the overall feel of this story. So is "Master and Commander Meets Dragonriders of Pern"--a juxtaposition which might make some cringe, but by gods, it works. Especially because unlike McCaffrey's dragons (love them as I did throughout so much of my childhood and adulthood), Novik's dragons are People.

Go read this book. RIGHT NOW.

Spoilers on the wing back here... )

May 2025

S M T W T F S
    123
45678 9 10
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627 2829 3031

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 1st, 2025 02:16 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios