What's a girl to do? She's been pretending to be a boy so she could serve on the Darwinist British Airship Leviathan. And poor Daryn is scrambling to keep her secret, but things keep getting in the way!  One, most notably, being the escaped prince of Austria-Hungary who is aboard and is struggling to keep his own secrets.

Between the two of them, well, mayhem ensues. Look out Istanbul, you're in their crosshairs.

Another great read from Scott Westerfeld!  4 1/2 out of 5 stars

Quotes

'Gravity was something something you could beat: all it took was hydrogen, hot air, or even a bit of rope. But being a girl was a miserable, never-ending struggle.' - Behemoth - Scott Westerfeld

LOL.I know the feeling...

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - N.K. Jemisin - Review

            4 1/2 of 5 stars

Yiene, whose mother abdicated her claim to the throne, is suddenly recalled to the capital by her grandfather and informed he's naming her heir. Yiene, knowing he already has two heirs designated - her cousins - is immediately suspicious. And well she should be. For from the moment she arrives she finds herself embroiled in palace intrigue.

Bad enough that the humans are plotting and jockeying for positions of power, but so are the bound gods the king and his family have control over. Yiene finds herself allying with one god, and incredibly sexually aroused by the most dangerous of them.

She's horrified at how everyone is treated, but mostly at how the gods are treated.  The gods, defeated in a War with the God of Itempas, are bound forever and enslaved,  to be used and abused by Yiene's family. But they've got a plan to end their slavery and she discovers she's at the center of that plan.

It's hard to review this book, as the plots are intricate and spoilers would result, so I'll stick with the basics rather than the plot.

Characterization is wonderful. Description is wonderful. The book gripped me from almost the first page and I found myself drawn in and swept up in Yeine's discovery of the horrors of the capital city Sky, the confusion Yiene feels as she discovers the city's secrets, the gods' secrets and the horrors her family have and still are perpetrating.

Can she survive this place?  Does she even want to?

A wonderfully exciting and memorable book.

Read for The Women of Fantasy Challenge  

Yay. Book two for the year finished. Well worth reading and I'll have to read the rest of the Quartet now.

Review:  (posted at LibraryThing)

What a fun yarn! Good storytelling, great characterizations and an interesting world.

I initially had some issues with POV changes that seemed too abrupt and happened more often than I'd like and I also found transitions from current events to stream-of-consciousness flashbacks a bit jarring at a few points, but otherwise I enjoyed it very much..

I liked the cultural reactionary themes, particularly with respect to humans altering their bodies for differing environments and lifestyles. I can sooooo see that happening.

Also,she explores the militarization of space controversy which again I can see as a major issue if we ever do decide to come up with the resources to explore beyond our planet, especially where one powerful country might try to take control of the project for its own political and militaristic agenda.

There were some interesting twists that complicated the storyline and I found myself rooting for most of the main characters.

Highly recommended for those interested in space exploration and the issues surrounding the Earth's political climate with regard to expenditure of scarce resources for such a challenge.(  )

Current Reading

I've set aside Dust - not certain why I'm not grokking it.  Mostly appears to be that I'm not actually emotionally invested in the main characters.

Therefore, at the moment I'm reading Starfarers Quartet, an Early Review Book I received through Library Thing's Early Reviewer program. I'll do a review on Book One, Starfarers once I'm finished.  Not sure when I'll get to the rest of the quartet and want to do the book justice.

Ebook purchases so far this year:

My TBR list is completely out of control!

 

1. Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton

2. The Looking Glass Wars - Frank Beddor

3. Best Served Cold - Joe Abercrombie

4. Whitechapel Gods - S.M. Peters

5. Islands in the Sea of time - S.M. Stirling

6. Classic Mystery Collection - which includes all of Conan Doyle's Holmes material plus a lot of other classic mysteries like those by Wilkie Collins

Points in Time and Space

I'm still working, albiet slowly, on my 2010 NaNoWriMo novel, Points in Time and Space. It's a Steampunky mystery.  

Just published Chapter 16 of it here.  

I've got quite a bit more written but am attempting to revise things and fix inconsistencies and such. NaNpWriMo is fun and all, but when you are writing like mad, man you can write yourself into corners or just simply forget something you tried to set up earlier!

Currently slogging through Dust by Elizabeth Bear. Unsure why this is such a difficult read.

The book is well written, and the setting is interesting and quite different but... Perhaps because I'm not really making any sort of connection with the characters.

I keep thinking of abandoning the book, but ... We'll see!

Anti-heroes abound in The Blade Itself . But then, when the world is a place full of violence, where the Inquisition is used to torture anyone into confessing to anything, what exactly is a 'hero' anyway?

Joe Abercrombie creates a bloody and violent world, sadly, a totally believable one. Magic is there, but understated and not well understood. The privileged use and abuse the masses, and are astonished when revolution raises its head.

The characters are all flawed, and worn down and scarred by their lives, all but one self-centered privileged fellow who, despite himself, seems about to finally open his eyes to see what is going on around him. He won't like it.

Reminiscent of George RR Martin's series, A Song of Ice and Fire, you just never know who will step up or who will fall apart. Nor, are you likely to know exactly what is going on any time soon.

Highly recommended. (  )

Happy New Year!  And a year of reading and writing commences.

Writing: Time to get back to writing and finishing my NaNoWriMo novel: Points in Time  and Space

Reading:  I've begun The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie for a TIOLI challenge on LibraryThing.com