Books I'm Looking Forward to this Year

io9 pulled together an fantastic list of all the new hotness in science fiction and fantasy that will be release in 2013. Here are the books I'm most interested in reading.

• The Gun Machine by Warren Ellis
• A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
• Homeland by Cory Doctorow
• The Demonologist: A Novel by Andrew Pyper
• Red Planet Blues by Robert J. Sawyer
• London Falling by Paul Cornell
• NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
• The Human Division by John Scalzi
• The Shambling Guide to NYC by Mur Lafferty
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
• The Long War by Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter
• Neptune's Brood by Charles Stross
• Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson
• The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi
• The Abominable by Dan Simmons
• Who Wacked Roger Rabbit? by Gary Wolf

What ones are you most looking forward to reading?

Books I've Read this Week

Okay, it's been a long time since I've done one of these. You take a couple of week break while on vacation and then the next thing you it is 2 months later.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern is a rocking good story which conjures up remembrances of Ray Bradbury stories I'd previously read. The novel centres around a contest between two young magicians named Celia and Marco. It is a very imaginative little romp as the two magicians compete against each other while falling in love.

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness was not what I was looking for after reading The Night Circus. It is another supernatural love story but it is not handled as deftly as The Night Circus and reading the two books back to back definitely cast A Discovery of Witches in a poor light. Seriously though, what do women see in vampires? When did they start becoming boyfriend/husband material? They are the undead people!

Book Review Catch Up: Behemoth

Behemoth is the sequel to previously reviewed Leviathan
by Scott Westerfeld.  It continues to follow the adventures of Midshipman Deryn Sharp and Aleksandar Ferdinand during an alternate universe World War I.

The book continues to show the integration of the Darwinists, gene-splicers, and Clankers, engineers, on the Leviathan.

I don't want to say too much about the plot of the book as it is the second in a planned trilogy.  Go back and read my review on the first book for more information and I'm sure you'll want to buy this book.

Friday Book Review: Odd and the Frost Giants

After a couple of disappointing reads I had to go with someone I can trust and so I turned to Neil Gaiman. I picked up his latest kids book Odd And The Frost Giants.

In it the titular Odd, his name means edge of a blade in old Norse, is a 12 year old boy with a gimpy leg. He lives with his mother, step-father and step siblings in a Norse village. Odd feels out of place in his step-father's house so he decides to leave home. On his journey he encounters three talking animals, a fox, bear and eagle who involve him in an epic adventure in which he will have to travel to Asgard, the home of the Norse gods and defeat the Frost Giants so that Spring will return to Midgard (Earth).

As this is a book targeted towards kids it weighs in at a mere 128 pages which makes it a quick, albeit enjoyable read. The moral of the story is quite excellent as it shows young children that regardless of the fact they are young/small/weak they can still make a difference. The juxtaposition of the young child's feeling of weakness is exacerbated by the fact that the villain is a giant. To resolve the conflict Odd has to rely on his wits instead of physical strength.

I really did enjoy this book and I rate it as a buy for folks with young kids. I have to work on my voices a bit more before I read it to Anna. I have a pretty good handle on the bear, eagle and frost giant but my fox sure needs some work.

Friday Book Review: Fables - Legends in Exile Vol. 1

Recently I've been on a bit of a Fables kick. I've re-read the first 10 volumes of Bill Willingham's amazing series over the past two weeks.

Fables centers around characters from fairy tales or folklore that have relocated in present day New York City. The reason for this move is that a tramatic battle has taken place between the Fables and the Adversary. This has caused much devastation in the Homelands and the Fables were forced to flee to the real world with as much as they could carry.

The identity of the Adversary is one of the main mysteries in the early books. Luckily there is a resolution to this plot thread in later books.

Fables has a huge cast of characters as it is able to draw from fairy tales all the world over. Many of them you will recognized instantly. Although some may be a bit different than the disneyfied versions you've seen in cartoons.

In the first volume Fables: Legends in Exile you are introduced to a number of key characters but chief among them are Snow White who is the deputy mayor of Fabletown and Bigby Wolf, the big bad wolf, who is also the town Sherrif.

Bigby is investigating the murder of Snow Whites sister, Rose Red, apparently by Jack. This is the Jack of many fairy tales like Jack and the Beanstalk or Jack and Jill or Jack Be Nimble. Jack is a thouroughly dispicable character who is unlikable yet entertaining all at the same time.

The first volume unfolds into a film noir type murder mystery and I have to give this book a solid buy rating. Subsequent volumes deal with different issues like politics, war and espionage all the while advancing the underlying story.

Special mention has to go to the artist of most of the Fables issues, Mark Buckingham, who does an amazing job with the art chores. No space is wasted and some of the most beautiful work he does are in the gutters. That being the space between the panels.

Also, James Jean's work on the covers are breathtaking. So much so they release a book of just his cover art: Fables Covers: The Art of James Jean Vol. 1.

Again I have to recommend you buy the first volume of this great series and please do try some of the later volumes which are just as enjoyable.

Friday Book Review: Horizon, The Sharing Knife Book 4

Lois McMaster Bujold is a great multiple award winning author who will be forever remembered for her Vorkosigan series. One of her most captivating features is her ability to write believable characters no matter if they are in a sci-fi or fantasy setting.

In the past four years she's penned the four books of the Sharing Knife series. Horizon is the fourth and final book in the series and really isn't intended as a jumping on point.

The series focuses on Dag, the Lakewalker, and Fawn, the farmer. Lakewalkers are a soldier/magician class that protect the Farmers from Malices (evil magical creatures). As is to be expected neither group really understands the other very well and this causes no end of problems and it makes the pairing of Dad and Fawn so odd.

The first two books are about Dag and Fawn coming together while the third and fourth are about their attempts to bring Lakewalkers and Farmers closer together. Interestingly enough this is the second book in a short period I've read where co-operation seems to be the way to solve problems over an every man for himself approach.

In this final book Bujold uses her deft hand with characterization to bring things to a satisfying conclusion. She ties up the dangling plot threads and you can chart the personal growth of many of the characters from book one to four. Once the story concludes you get the feeling that the characters lives will continue on even if we won't be privy to it.