Book: A Circle of Souls

Genre: Suspense/Thriller

Julia Rating: 7

Comments:  Mr. Grandhi provided me with a review copy of his debut novel, A Circle of Souls.

This book involves several different characters and different points of view.  It’s about the investigation of a young girls kidnapping and subsequent murder.  An FBI agent is investigating the case and she, along with her police counterparts, is completely stumped.  In comes Peter, a young psychiatrist working to help a child with sleepwalking and nightmares.  The child has become a threat to herself while sleeping and Peter needs to solve the case.

One really wonderful thing that Preetham Grandhi does in this book is describe culture and backstory of the child in detail. However, Peter and pretty much all the other characters fell a little flat for me and I had a hard time staying interested while reading this book.

That said, there is a great twist ending, which I always love. I really thought I had everything all worked out by the middle, but at the end I found I was wrong.

I reason I gave this book a “7″ is because while I had a hard time getting through the first half of the book, the last half  was really well written and enjoyable.  So, if you’re okay with having a slow and slightly disjointed beginning, this book has a great ending.

Author: Mur Lafferty

Genre: Fantasy

Julia Rating: 10

Comments: Mur Lafferty is one of those podcasting divas who has been doing podiobooks, podcasts and more. She has a whole “Murverse” with all her wonderful work.

Heaven – Season One is the first of the Heaven Series. This is basically a story about two close friends who die and go to heaven. They discover that heaven is far larger and different than anyone ever imagined.

This book has a ton of mythology, which I absolutely love. There is also unrequited love and a very sweet friendship in this one. Because of the religious aspect (it is called “Heaven” after all), some people might get offended, but I think if you take everything as fantasy-based, there’s nothing inherently offensive in this podiobook.

So, check it out and let me know what you think!

Basically, Ed Hamilton points out that teens are reading more fiction now that video and television are so insanely accessible. I would also add that since books are now being made into movies that are actually decent (read, movies that duplicate the book in a visual form), books are more popular amongst younger audiences that want a deeper understanding of the world shown to them in an hour and a half. A book gives a much more thorough experience and points up things that can’t be shown in the time slot a movie has.

Mr. Hamilton also notes that while there are games and such on the Internet, ultimately interaction on the web requires literacy (though perhaps no spelling chops).

Another thing I’d like to point out is that the Internet provides a space where more people can connect with their favorite authors. For example, I follow Neil Gaiman’s blog and I’m friends with Pseudonymous Bosch and Jess Haines on Facebook. Sure, this is a superficial connection, but it allows the reader to explore more once the book is finished.

Another great example of this is a book I just finished (and will soon be reviewing) Personal Effects: Dark Art by J.C. Hutchins and Jordan Weisman. These brilliant authors made a book that is not only an awesome read, but is interactive both through websites made specifically for the book and even phone numbers you can call. To me, that’s truly merging the world of the web savvy with the engrossed reader.

Anyway, I think all in all a great point is being made here. While TV dies a slow death, books continue to live on and are even becoming more and more popular.  Victory is ours!

Book: This Book Is Not Good For You

Genre: Young Adult/Humorous

Julia Rating: 10

Comments: I know this is a young adult book, but a friend of mine bought it for me for Christmas and it’s got a chocolate bar on the cover, so that got me reading it pretty much immediately.  It’s actually the third book in the Secret Series, but it’s perfectly readable on its own.

It’s a story about a girl and her friends who are all a part of a secret society called the Terces Society. They are fighting evil alchemists who have their own society (aka the Midnight Sun) that are looking for the Secret the Terces Society was built to protect. The current plot of these evil fiends has to do with obtaining a magical tuning fork from the days of the ancient Aztecs. This fork can make food taste like anything else the consumer has ever eaten, including anything the person’s ancestors have eaten. The alchemists hope they can get the Secret by using this tuning fork in their maniacal scheme.

I really love how playful the author is in his (or her) writing style.  They effortlessly move from story narration to stream of consciousness and back while remaining interesting, funny and easy to read.  Also, there are a lot of cute footnotes and interesting facts jammed into this book – including great chocolate info which is always a plus for me.

Pseudonymous Bosch’s blog says that there will be an appearance by “The Imposter” (who I am going to assume is really the author in a Mission Impossible-esque disguise) at the 4th Annual Family Festival of Books on February 28, 2010 on the Chino Fairgrounds.  I will most likely be there.

Book: Hunted By The Others

Genre: Fantasy

Julia Rating: 10

Comments: Hunted by the Others is Jess Haines’ debut novel.   Jess sent me a copy of her wonderful book prior to release so that I could review it here, Yay!  (She also did a little brow waggle to get me off my lazy butt and get reviewing.)

One more note about the author before I get on with my review.   I have to say that it’s really wonderful to find new authors who have never been previously published that are as fully formed as Jess.  Often I see new authors who are good at one part of writing – like they’re really good at creating an awesome great plot, but the characters fall flat or their narration is great, but the dialog is awful.  I didn’t encounter any of those “growing pains” in Jess’s books, which really pleased me.

Okay, so Hunted By The Others is a story about a kick ass, female private detective named Shiarra Waynest who’s just trying to make ends meet in New York City – only her NYC includes vampires, werewolves and mages who have recently “come out of the closet”.  They have lived amongst us forever, they just never revealed themselves to us.  These are the Others.

Shiarra is hired by a coven to spy on a well-known vampire and possibly steal an item from him.  This is not her ideal working environment, but she figures she can always back out if she needs to.  Plus, the money is better than good.  However, the more she is entangled in the world of the Others, the more she is unable to escape.

This book explores magic, real vampires (as in the non-sparkly kind), werewolves, awesome mages and even touches on social issues like racism.

Hunted By The Others seems to have it all, humor (there are some seriously funny bits), action, drama, adventure, crazy human (and not-so-human) relationships and more.  I have been a little listless on the reading front lately, skipping from book to book, and I found that Jess’ book grabbed me and held me until I finished it.  So, if you like vampire novels, I recommend preordering Hunted By The Others.

PS: If you go to JessHaines.com, you can see her cool cover. For some reason GoDaddy upgraded wordpress to an evil version which makes all pictures look idiotic. I’m working on fixing that, but until then, don’t deprive yourself of cool cover art.

* February 7th:  It was really fun to hear Neil Gaiman talk.  He read bits from his books The Graveyard Book, Fragile Things (he read his poem “Instructions”) and Odd and the Frost Giants.  If you want to find out about what happened at Neil Gaiman’s lecture at UCLA, check out these two articles: 1 and 2.

For example, most book signings either have an author behind a table you walk up to, or have the author behind a podium doing a reading, then maybe some Q and A. 

The Tailgate is, of course, at a bar, so it’s a totally different atmosphere. It’s like you’re just hanging out with your friends, having an awesome time. Basically, that’s what the Tailgate is. You get to meet Scott, have a few drinks with him and the other fans (or junkies as Scott calls us) and just hang out. We got to hear a great teaser for Scott’s book Pandemic, his plans for The Rookie series (the next book is The Starter and the whole series is now YA – so get The Rookie for a teenager near you!) and more about his awesome podcasting series The Crypt .

On a more personal level, he regaled us with stories about snowmobiles, drunken KKK members, past jobs (garbage man, tech support, he’s done it all) and other great stuff.   We laughed, we drank, we took pictures, I got my iPod signed.  It was really cool.

Seriously, if you just want to have a great time with cool people, go to one of these Tailgate tours. The next two are in bookstores, but I’m sure they’ll still rock the house.  You can check it out, but I think they both end with a pub crawl, so if you go you’ll probably end up with a similar experience.  

While I was away, Hugo and Nebula Award winning author James Patrick Kelly sent me two – count ‘em – TWO of his wonderful books with his signature and a really awesome personal message in each. The books he sent are Think Like a Dinosaur: And Other Stories and Look Into the Sun.

I am so excited about these unexpected gifts from this awesome author!  Thanks Jim!

So… to help out this fantastic writer, I wanted to remind everyone that you can buy his wonderful Sci Fi novel Look Into the Sun directly from him and – to top that – he’ll sign it for you!! Just email him at Jim (@) JimKelly (dot) net.