No Swooning here…

Last week my office had free book day.  Now on free book day, the different imprints in the building put their extra books into bins, and those books are laid out in a conference room for the employees to grab.  It’s great.

One of the books I grabbed was called Swoon.

I’d seen the title and been intrigued, but never got around to buying it.  First person narrative is my favorite, when it’s done right, and Nina Malkin writes it well—a narrator with a totally unique personality that jumps off the page from the very first sentence.

Dice is from the Upper West Side—she’s edgy, bold, with plenty of quotable comments.  And it’s a great concept.  Dice’s cousin Pen is possessed by the ghost of Sinclair Youngblood Powers, a man killed unjustly in colonial America.  Dice is somewhat psychic, and her abilities allow her to see Sin’s presence as no one else can.  By grabbing her cousin’s hand, she can see him, talk to him, make him flesh.  She falls in love with him when he only exists as a spirit living in her cousin Pen, but the story really begins when he becomes corporeal.

Romantic, right?

Only somewhat.

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These mages are making me thirsty

I thought it would be pretty simple to review Lev Grossman’s The Magicians.

I mean, it’s a simple pitch: An excellent read that – while based in fantasy – ANYONE can enjoy because the magic shares the spotlight with well, life. If you’ve ever had to face the real world and finding yourself, you can relate to this story. Plus, there’s tons of boozing and illicit activities by mages, and who doesn’t love that? However, twenty or thirty pages in, it feels hauntingly familiar to Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia. Some people don’t really care for that. I guess my problem is, how do I get you to read this book?

Here’s a start: I never really liked Chronicles of Narnia, and I may never read a Potter novel, but The Magicians is easily my favorite book of the year (so far!).

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Hunger Pangs

I had this really, really clever first line planned out for my reviews of Suzanne Collins’ awesome books, Hunger Games and the soon-to-be released sequel, Catching Fire – I laid in bed after finishing both and thought it up – but unfortunately I still believe in heaven, so I’m not going to use it. Score one for morality.

Poor taste jokes aside, if you’re looking for something definitely worth your time reading, this is it.

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Cures for a book hangover anyone?

The amount of books I have been knocking back at work lately, I’m amazed I can make it home afterwards.

My own personal Dune reread is over, and I’ve now entered the unfamiliar area of the saga (God Emperor, Heretics and Chapterhouse: Dune), though I am taking time in-between to complete the Twilight saga… if you really want to call it a saga. In their own respective ways, each series is a lot for me to take in and not feel a certain way when it’s over. I could equate the experience to doing a shot of prison-made booze and chasing it with a shot of grey goose vodka to wash the aftertaste out of my mouth.

Guess which one’s the prison booze?

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The Nymphos of Rocky Flats

“I don’t like what Operation Iraqi Freedom has done to me. I went to the war a soldier; I came back a vampire.” From the opening line I knew Mario Acevedo’s The Nymphos of Rocky Flats was going to be fun. I was right. The hero of our tale is one Felix Gomez, formally an infantryman and human, now he is an undead private investigator. Nymphos is about exactly what you think it is. An outbreak of nymphomania on a government base in Rocky Flats leads the assistant manager to call in Felix to investigate. What he uncovers is a giant conspiracy involving the government, Roswell, and a group of crazed European vampire hunters. Also it’s a lot of fun.

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My Swordhand is Singing…or not

Tomas and his son Peter are woodcutters.  They live as nomads, wandering through Romania, always living on the fringes of village life.  When Tomas finally decides to settle in Chust, Peter enjoys the stability, brief though it may be, and the chance to get to know the draper’s daughter, Agnes.  It’s a chance to get away from his father’s orders—chop wood, don’t touch the long, thin, box under the bed.  But winter’s coming, and as Tomas continues to drink more and work less, it falls upon Peter to provide his small family.

Peter’s always looked with amusement on the superstitious practices of the villagers.  And, thanks to his father, he doesn’t understand the reasons behind them.  But when Peter meets a hostage, one of the living dead, he will need all his father’s secrets to survive…

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