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  • Books, Grimm, New

    Looking Forward To:

    03.10.12 | Permalink | Comment?

    Clockwork Princess, Cassandra Clare. The third (and we think final, although Cassandra Clare has pulled a fast one on us before) in the Infernal Devices trilogy, to be published in March next year. Who is the clockwork princess? Is “Tessa” too obvious an answer – it’s her on the cover we think. They’re not giving much away. The Infernal Devices Facebook Page may be the place to go for news.

    One Shot Kill, Robert Muchamore. This is the sixth book in the Henderson’s Boys series (January 2013). “Spring, 1943. The war is turning against Germany, but Hitler isn’t giving up. In a secret bunker deep in occupied France, scientists are hard at work on Hitler’s latest deadly weapon: code name FZG-76. Back in England Henderson’s boys will need to undergo advanced sniper training if they have any chance of infiltrating the bunker. Parachuting into occupied France, they track down a secret dossier filled with invaluable material and uncover the meaning of the enigmatic code.” (goodreads.com)

    Beautiful Redemption, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. This is the final book in the Beautiful Creatures series (October/November). “Ethan Wate has spent most of his life longing to escape the stiflingly small Southern town of Gatlin. He never thought he would meet the girl of his dreams, Lena Duchannes, who unveiled a secretive, powerful, and cursed side of Gatlin, hidden in plain sight. And he never could have expected that he would be forced to leave behind everyone and everything he cares about. So when Ethan awakes after the chilling events of the Eighteenth Moon, he has only one goal: to find a way to return to Lena and the ones he loves. Back in Gatlin, Lena is making her own bargains for Ethan’s return, vowing to do whatever it takes — even if that means trusting old enemies or risking the lives of the family and friends Ethan left to protect. Worlds apart, Ethan and Lena must once again work together to rewrite their fate” (amazon.com)


  • Books, Grimm, Horror, New

    Looking forward to:

    19.09.12 | Permalink | Comment?

    More stuff! Including more zombies.

    Zom-B, Darren Shan (September/October). This is the start of a new series by the horror master. I have read that there’s rather a lot of blood and stuff, so if you’ve got a cast-iron stomach you might love this. “Zom-B is a radical new series about a zombie apocalypse, told in the first person by one of its victims. The series combines classic Shan action with a fiendishly twisting plot and hard-hitting and thought-provoking moral questions dealing with racism, abuse of power and more. This is challenging material, which will captivate existing Shan fans and bring in many new ones. As Darren says, “It’s a big, sprawling, vicious tale…a grisly piece of escapism, and a barbed look at the world in which we live. Each book in the series is short, fast-paced and bloody. A high body-count is guaranteed!” (goodreads.com)

    Flesh & Bone, Jonathan Maberry (September/October). The third in a trilogy (maybe?) that started with Rot & Ruin. “In the Rot & Ruin… everything wants to kill you” (goodreads.com). Everything means escaped zoo and circus animals, and a new breed of zombie, who are faster and smarter. How is it possible then for Chong and his friends to survive? Tom better have trained them well. Plus we do like the rather disturbing cover.

    Iron Legends, Julie Kagawa (September/October). If you’ve been reading Julie Kagawa’s Iron Fey series, then you might like to read these three novellas in one volume (called ‘Winter’s Passage’, ‘Summer’s Crossing’ and ‘Iron’s Prophecy’).


  • Books, Grimm, New

    Looking forward to:

    14.09.12 | Permalink | Comment?

    The horror of birds, zombies, and negotiating the criminal underworld in a bleak, futuristic New York.

    Because it is my blood, Gabrielle Zevin (October) – The sequel to All These Things I’ve Done. “Since her release from Liberty Children’s Facility, Anya Balanchine is determined to follow the straight and narrow. Unfortunately, her criminal record is making it hard for her to do that. No high school wants her with a gun possession charge on her rap sheet. Plus, all the people in her life have moved on: Natty has skipped two grades at Holy Trinity, Scarlet and Gable seem closer than ever, and even Win is in a new relationship.But when old friends return demanding that certain debts be paid, Anya is thrown right back into the criminal world that she had been determined to escape. It’s a journey that will take her across the ocean and straight into the heart of the birthplace of chocolate where her resolve – and her heart – will be tested as never before.” (goodreads.com)

    Adaptation, Malinda Lo (October) – Birds! Birds are flying into planes and cars, causing horrific crashes and devastation on a vast scale. The US government fears terrorism, grounding all flights and enforcing curfews. Reese and her friend are making their way back from Arizona to San Francisco when all this happens. Their car flips (bird strike) and Reese wakes up in a military hospital and what seems to be a whole new world. When she finally makes it to San Francisco she gets the sense that something’s really off (and that’s not just the sense that someone or something is following her). Can Reese find out what’s going on?

    Alice in Zombieland, Gena Showalter (October also) – the first in the White Rabbit Chronicles series. Alice is in a car crash that claims the lives of her whole family (it wasn’t birds). This is tragic, but to make matters truly worse she wakes up in a world populated by zombies: the monsters her father was warning her about. Now she must become a zombie-slayer in order to survive, and also learn how to trust (and get along with) bad boy Cole.


  • Books, Grimm, New

    Looking forward to:

    05.09.12 | Permalink | Comment?

    Anything from David Levithan. And this one sounds like Quantum Leap (as Stephanie points out), the cool TV series from the early 1990s (see the IMDB profile here; we’ve also got it on box set DVD ($8 for three weeks) here).

    Every Day, by David Levithan (September). A novel about love and messing with the time-space continuum (or something like that). “Every morning, A wakes in a different person’s body, a different person’s life. There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere. It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with – day in, day out, day after day.” (goodreads.com)

    At Entertainment Weekly’s website there is an exclusive video of several authors taking turns narrating A’s story. You can see if you recognise anybody here.


  • Library Serf, News

    Some Miscellaneous News

    31.08.12 | Permalink | Comment?

    In time for the weekend.

    Mermaids. Some people think that “mermaids are the new vampire”. We’re not sure (they said that about angels and werewolves and things), but here are a couple of articles that elaborate:

    • - io9 on upcoming Mermaid novels
    • - The Independent, taking up io9’s idea and running with it in music and fashion.

    (Here are the mermaid books we’ve got in the library at the moment)

    Movie castings. We hear that Magnus Bane has been cast and will be played by Godfrey Gao. This has been met with cheers from various parts of the virtual world, including Cassandra Clare’s blog (she says he’s the hottest man in the world), and others interested in casting multi-cultural characters, for example thinkprogress. On a similar subject, Finnick Odair was unveiled as Sam Claflin earlier this month (Entertainment Weekly talks about it here).

    The Mortal Instruments on Facebook. Relatedly, the Facebook page for the City of Bones movie was launched on the 23rd of August. It promises photos (”production stills of the Mortal Instruments talent and crew”), so you can like it and keep up with the MI news.

    Neil Gaiman: advance advance notification. Neil Gaiman announced earlier this month that his new novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, is due to be published in the middle of next year. So you’ve got about a year to speculate!


  • Books, Fantasy, Grimm, Horror, New

    Looking forward to:

    29.08.12 | Permalink | Comment?

    This week, some paranormal, horror and historical fantasy series.

    Carnival of Souls, Melissa Marr (September) – This is the new novel by the author of the Wicked Lovely series, and it has an interactive website.

    “In a city of daimons, rigid class lines separate the powerful from the power-hungry. And at the heart of The City is the Carnival of Souls, where both murder and pleasure are offered up for sale. Once in a generation, the carnival hosts a deadly competition that allows every daimon a chance to join the ruling elite. Without the competition, Aya and Kaleb would both face bleak futures – if for different reasons. For each of them, fighting to the death is the only way to try to live.

    “All Mallory knows of The City is that her father – and every other witch there – fled it for a life in exile in the human world. Instead of a typical teenage life full of friends and maybe even a little romance, Mallory scans quiet streets for threats, hides herself away, and trains to be lethal. She knows it’s only a matter of time until a daimon finds her and her father, so she readies herself for the inevitable. While Mallory possesses little knowledge of The City, every inhabitant of The City knows of her. There are plans for Mallory, and soon she, too, will be drawn into the decadence and danger that is the Carnival of Souls.” (goodreads.com)

    You can read a sample here (PDF, 5.8MB)

    Souls in Exile and King of Lanka, David Hair – The third and fourth in the Return of Ravana series (the first book, Pyre of Queens, won a New Zealand book award recently).

    Souls in Exile: “Bollywood actress Sunita Ashoka’s reality show Swayamvara Live has ended in bloodshed and disaster. Vikram, Amanjit and Rasita are on the run, accused of the actress’ murder. Exiled like the heroes of the Ramayana, they are seemingly beset by the same perils, especially when Vikram encounters an unlikely temptress. Then another tragedy, also foretold in the Ramayana, forces Vikram into the open. But there is hope: Amanjit’s skills as a warrior are returning, Rasita is beginning to remember her own past lives, and Deepika is awakening to powers undreamt. But the Enemy, Ravindra, has also found allies─the nightmarish Rakshasa army. Memories and legends are coming alive all over India, from the bloodied sands of Ullal and the fortress of Jhansi to secret places in Mumbai, Pushkar and Varanasi. The fight to the finish has begun…” (goodreads.com)

    King of Lanka: “There is no escape from destiny . . . is there? For four teenagers trapped in its story-cycle, the Ramayana is not just a tale. It is their fate! In every life they have ever lived, Vikram, Amanjit, Rasita and Deepika have been persecuted and killed by Ravindra, who aspires to the throne of Ravana the Demon-King. Now Rasita is a captive of Ravindra, and demonic beings thought to be mythical are rallying to him. His triumph seems inevitable. Vikram and Amanjit must rescue her, though in every past life, Vikram has died at Ravindra’s hands. This time, failure is not an option. This time if Ravindra wins, it will be forever. Age-old mysteries must be uncovered and forgotten powers regained, as the quest to free Rasita and end the tyranny of Ravindra moves toward the final, heart-stopping climax and a finale that is as startling as it is electrifying.” (goodreads.com – thanks goodreads!)

    City of Swords, Mary Hoffman (September) – this is the sixth book in the Stravaganza series, in which Stravagantes travel in space and time between modern day London (Islington, to be exact) and Renaissance-era Talia (a fictitious country a bit like Italy). “Desperately unhappy, Laura has resorted to secretly self-harming. But Laura is a Stravagante, somebody who can travel in time and space. When she finds her talisman, a small silver dagger, she stravagates with it to sixteenth-century Fortezza, a town similar to Lucca in Italy, where she meets her Stravagante, who is a swordsmith. But Laura also meets the charming and attractive Ludo, and falls for him. Their love for each other is tested when Ludo lays claim to the crown of Fortezza, and Laura finds herself fighting on the side of the Stravaganti opposing him.” (goodreads.com)

    You can read an extract here.


  • Books, Grimm, New

    Looking forward to:

    22.08.12 | Permalink | Comment?

    Starling, Leslie Livingston (the first in a new series; September). Mason Starling is a champion fencer (did you see any fencing in the London Olympics? We here at the teen blog thought it was exciting (except for the hair adjustment stoppages)) at Gosforth Academy. It’s one thing to be a fencer in staged competition, quite another to be running for your life from frightening creatures that have been unleashed on your campus in the middle of a storm. Lucky then that her path collides with the Fennrys Wolf (from Wondrous Strange), who remembers only his name. Together they will begin to uncover the truth of his past, and hers, and how they are connected to the strangeness that surrounds them.

    The Diviners, Libba Bray (September). Again, the first in a new series. After Going Bovine and Beauty Queens, Libba Bray returns to a storyline a bit more like that of A Great and Terrible Beauty. “Evie O’Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City–and she is pos-i-toot-ly thrilled. New York is the city of speakeasies, shopping, and movie palaces! Soon enough, Evie is running with glamorous Ziegfield girls and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is Evie has to live with her Uncle Will, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult–also known as ‘The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies.’ When a rash of occult-based murders comes to light, Evie and her uncle are right in the thick of the investigation. And through it all, Evie has a secret: a mysterious power that could help catch the killer–if he doesn’t catch her first.” (goodreads.com)

    This has a very cool trailer which I can’t embed but you can see right here.

    Such Wicked Intent, Kenneth Oppel (September again!). This is the sequel to His Dark Endeavour. “When does obsession become madness? Tragedy has forced sixteen-year-old Victor Frankenstein to swear off alchemy forever. He burns the Dark Library. He vows he will never dabble in the dark sciences again—just as he vows he will no longer covet Elizabeth, his brother’s betrothed. If only these things were not so tempting. When he and Elizabeth discover a portal into the spirit world, they cannot resist. Together with Victor’s twin, Konrad, and their friend Henry, the four venture into a place of infinite possibilities where power and passion reign. But as they search for the knowledge to raise the dead, they unknowingly unlock a darkness from which they may never return.” (goodreads.com)


  • Books, Grimm, New, Sci Fi

    Looking Forward To:

    01.08.12 | Permalink | Comment?

    The Rise of Nine, Pittacus Lore (August/September). This is the third in the Lorien Legacies series (the first being I Am Number Four, which also became a movie). You can read a short extract here. The Rise of Nine begins with Six as narrator, and things are going not too well for the Lorien survivors, although the awesome Nine may yet save the day?

    If you haven’t already discovered this on the catalogue, and you’ve been hanging out for the next instalment in the series, reserve it now!


  • Books, Grimm, Horror, New

    Waiting on Wednesday

    25.07.12 | Permalink | Comment?

    Today’s selection of soon-to-be-published books is brought to you mostly by the colour red. Reserve them now!

    Girl of Nightmares, Kendare Blake (August/September). This is the sequel to Anna Dressed in Blood. “It’s been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost-hunter Cas Lowood can’t move on.

    “His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live–not walk around half dead. He knows they’re right, but in Cas’s eyes, no living girl he meets can compare to the dead girl he fell in love with.

    “Now he’s seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he’s asleep and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong… these aren’t just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears.

    “Cas doesn’t know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn’t deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it’s time for him to return the favor.” (goodreads.com)

    Unspoken, Sarah Rees Brennan (September). The first of the Lynburn Legacy books. Kami is the strange girl in town – town being Sorry-in-the-Vale in England – with her reputation for being a bit odd thanks to her imaginary friend. Kami’s not too worried about it; she has real friends too now, and has learned to incorporate the voice inside her head into her busy, not too weird life.

    Then the Lynburns return to occupy the mansion that overlooks the town - including the Lynburn twins, Jared and Ash. One of the twins, particularly, resonates with Kami (why does she feel like she knows him?) as does her need to solve the mysteries of Sorry-in-the-Vale, like who is responsible for what goes on in the woods? Also, is her mother keeping a secret? What’s become of her imaginary friend?

    Rebel Heart, Moira Young (October). This is the much anticipated (by me anyway) sequel to Blood Red Road. “Nothing is certain and no one is safe in the second book in the highly praised Dust Lands trilogy, which MTV’s Hollywood Crush blog called ‘better than The Hunger Games.’ It seemed so simple: defeat the Tonton, rescue her kidnapped brother, Lugh, and then order would be restored to Saba’s world. Simplicity, however, has proved to be elusive. Now, Saba and her family travel west, headed for a better life and a longed-for reunion with Jack. But the fight for Lugh’s freedom has unleashed a new power in the dust lands, and a formidable new enemy is on the rise.” (goodreads.com)

    Days of Blood and Starlight, Laini Taylor (November). “In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Karou must come to terms with who and what she is, and how far she’ll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, mysteries and secrets, new characters and old favorites, Days of Blood and Starlight brings the richness, color and intensity of the first book to a brand new canvas.” (amazon.com)

    Daughter of Smoke and Bone was one of our favourites from last year – the review is here.

    Also: Quintana of Charyn by Melina Marchetta – the conclusion to the Lumatere chronicles – should be available in September.


  • Books, Grimm, New

    Waiting on Wednesday

    18.07.12 | Permalink | Comment?

    This week: the beginning of a new supernatural series and the end of another. Reserve yours today!

    The Raven Boys, Maggie Stiefvater (September). This book is the beginning of a new series which has been receiving a lot of attention (the next big thing). That being said, I very much enjoyed The Scorpio Races (flesh-eating horses).

    Blue Sargent is the daughter of the town pyschic and has been told all her life that if she kisses her true love he will die (is this just a parently ploy? Would you risk it?). Blue’s not too cut up about this, sensibly staying away from the boys who go to Aglionby (the local exclusive academy) also known as the Raven Boys. (The Raven Boys are trouble.) But then on St Mark’s Eve, when she and her mother see the spirits of those who will die within the next twelve months, Blue sees Gansey (Raven Boy). Gansey and his friends are on a quest to discover the burial place of Owain Glendower, a legendary Welsh noble people say has been sleeping for centuries, waiting to grant his waker a favour.

    A supernatural mystery/thriller! Note to Blue: don’t kiss Gansey in the next twelve months. Just in case!

    Finale, Becca Fitzpatrick (October). The end of Hush, Hush! “Fates unfurl in the gripping conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Hush, Hush saga. Nora is more certain than ever that she is in love with Patch. Fallen Angel or no, he is the one for her. Her heritage and destiny may mean that they will always be enemies, but there is no turning her back on him. And yet their biggest challenge lies ahead. Can their love survive a seemingly insurmountable divide? The lines are drawn, but it’s unclear which sides have been taken. And in the end, will there be enough trust left to rebuild what has been broken?” (goodreads.com)


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