Hey, guys! Sorry this took a while; real life and work got in the way. o_O
Anyhoo, so here’s what the List Randomizer coughed up after I inputted all the entries to TGWR’s Giveaway #2!
Congratulations, Naezel! You win this:
Naezel: Please wait for further instructions via your Twitter account. 
Everyone: Do keep visiting and watch out for the next giveaway! 
Title: “The Thief (The Queen’s Thief #1)”
Author: Megan Whalen Turner
Read Date: 16 April 2012
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Review Preview: Nothing is as it seems. (Boy, does that sound like a tagline for a movie.)
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“I can steal anything.”
After Gen’s bragging lands him in the king’s prison, the chances of escape look slim. Then the king’s scholar, the magus, needs the thief’s skill for a seemingly impossible task – to steal a hidden treasure from another land.
To the magus, Gen is just a tool. But Gen is a trickster and a survivor with a plan of his own.
I expected something different from The Thief, you know, something like a mini Ocean’s Eleven adventure in a fantasy world.
Well, the book isn’t like that at all. Most of it is about Gen’s journey to find the story’s McGuffin (a stone called Hamaithes’ Gift), and while it wasn’t boring, there wasn’t much going on either. The journey seems to be more about introducing the characters and their motivations. The good stuff happens in the last quarter of the book, with the grand heist (which, on hindsight, wasn’t as grand as it sounds, but it sure was suspenseful) and the almighty plot twist that will make you question just how well you were paying attention from the start.
I like the little origin myths that were woven into the story as part of the party’s campfire conversations. It made the mythology a little richer, although the mythology itself felt like it was created and used as an afterthought to give credence to the origin and reputation of Hamaithes’ Gift.
The story is narrated from protagonist Gen’s first-person perspective. He is likable enough, but he can be properly annoying when he needs to be. The other members of the party–the Magus, his apprentices Ambiades and Sophos, and Pol the bodyguard–are also interesting enough, but not entirely memorable until we find out who they really are, and sometimes not even then. The Magus, in particular, is too ambiguous as a character; sometimes he’s like a mentor figure, and sometimes he’s a little villainous.
Speaking of villains, it doesn’t seem to me that this story had a proper one. There were people who were after our heroes at one point or another, but no one that poses an ultimate and immediate threat. There was no big obstacle to overcome, there was only that almighty plot twist. Maybe that is the book’s conceit, which, I have to admit, is consistent with the theme of “the thief”–it wasn’t meant to be epic–and I can appreciate and understand that even though I want more from the story. Nevertheless, it’s refreshing to read a clean and simple, character-driven fantasy without over-complicated magic systems and standard-issue non-human characters.
I would still like to continue reading the series because Gen and the Magus told us about different lands and people that we never got to see, and I want to see them. I have hope that the pay-off that I was waiting for in The Thief will be somewhere in the next 3 books.
I’m happy to join other bloggers in unveiling the book trailer and excerpt for Kate Evangelista’s Taste, which will be published next month by Crescent Moon Press! Go, Filipino authors!
At Barinkoff Academy, there’s only one rule: no students on campus after curfew. Phoenix McKay soon finds out why when she is left behind at sunset. A group calling themselves night students threaten to taste her flesh until she is saved by a mysterious, alluring boy. With his pale skin, dark eyes, and mesmerizing voice, Demitri is both irresistible and impenetrable. He warns her to stay away from his dangerous world of flesh eaters. Unfortunately, the gorgeous and playful Luka has other plans.
When Phoenix is caught between her physical and her emotional attraction, she becomes the keeper of a deadly secret that will rock the foundations of an ancient civilization living beneath Barinkoff Academy. Phoenix doesn’t realize until it is too late that the closer she gets to both Demitri and Luka the more she is plunging them all into a centuries old feud.
↣ Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive excerpt from Maggie Stiefvater’s upcoming The Raven Boys (click!), and boy, was it creepy. It definitely piqued my interest.
↣ The Casual Vacancy is the title of J.K. Rowling’s much-talked about adult novel, which is scheduled for a September 27th publication.
When Barry Fairweather dies unexpectedly in his early forties, the little town of Pagford is left in shock. Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war. Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems. And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?
It sounds so pleasantly different from Harry Potter, and seems to be the kind of story that will match JKR’s writing style very well. I’m really looking forward to this book.
↣ Lastly, my story on Lauren Oliver and her visit to Manila is now up at GMA News Online (click!)
QUEZON CITY, Metro Manila (April 13, 2012) – The first volume of the anthology Philippine Speculative Fiction, which was first released in 2005 and paved the way for a unique literary movement in the Philippines, is now available as an eBook on Amazon and Flipreads. Series editor Dean Francis Alfar has partnered with Flipside Publishing to make the first four anthologies in the series available. The two books complement the speculative fiction eBooks in Flipside Publishing’s lineup.
“Speculative Fiction opens the trapdoor of the imagination beneath our feet,” says Dean Francis Alfar, on why the genre is important. “As we fall to new worlds, familiar or far-flung, we open our eyes and minds to new ways of seeing and thinking. Throughout human history, the ability to imagine has driven us forward.”
Stories from the Philippine Speculative Fiction series have been included in the Honorable Mentions list from The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror edited by Ellen Datlow and Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant, while the individual anthologies have been praised by World Fantasy Award-winning author Jeffrey Ford and SF writer Nancy Jane Moore.
Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 1 is now available on Amazon for $0.99 and Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 2 for $3.99. The next two volumes will eventually be released in May. The eBooks are also available at http://www.flipreads.com for P80 and P195 respectively.
Other speculative fiction titles that Flipside Publishing has published include Lower Myths by Eliza Victoria, Alternative Alamat edited by Paolo Chikiamco, Geek Tragedies by Carljoe Javier, News of the Shaman by Karl De Mesa, and Ghosts of Infinity edited by Lara Saguisag & April Yap.
About Flipside Publishing Services Inc.
Flipside Publishing Services Inc., sister company of Flipside Digital Content, is involved in leading-edge conversion, production, and publishing of eBooks. Over 100 eBooks are available for the Amazon Kindle, Apple iTunes, and B&N Nook.
I doubt it’s still Wednesday anywhere else in the world, so my usual “I come from the future” excuse won’t work today. The truth is, this really is just a late post because, unfortunately, there is still procrastination in the future. 
Deadlocked (Sookie Stackhouse #12)
by: Charlaine HarrisWith Felipe de Castro, the Vampire King of Louisiana (and Arkansas and Nevada), in town, it’s the worst possible time for a body to show up in Eric Northman’s front yard—especially the body of a woman whose blood he just drank.
Now, it’s up to Sookie and Bill, the official Area Five investigator, to solve the murder. Sookie thinks that, at least this time, the dead girl’s fate has nothing to do with her. But she is wrong. She has an enemy, one far more devious than she would ever suspect, who’s out to make Sookie’s world come crashing down.
Publication Date: 1 May 2012
Dead Reckoning left me hanging, so it’s a relief to know this book will be out in less than a month.
Charlaine Harris has an excerpt of chapter 2 up on her website (click!), and if my math and logic are any good, I’d say the “devious enemy” being referred to in the synopsis is probably werewolf/Sam’s GF/Alcide’s enforcer Jannalyn Hopper. Sorry, Sookie, it really is difficult being the most desirable woman in the supernatural community.
It will be intriguing to see how Sookie and Bill will work together to solve the murder in question. I still can’t forget what happened in the last season of True Blood, where Sookie essentially went all Team Switzerland on us Eric/Sookie shippers. Then again, Sookie is in a different place now when it comes to the books. Just don’t give me a Sookie/Bill reunion, please!
Oh, and I just have to say Charlaine Harris does excellent work when it comes to her characters. Even though I watched True Blood before getting into any of the Sookie books, I can still un-imagine Anna as Sookie, Stephen as Bill, and Alex as Eric because the book characters are very vivid. And that’s saying something considering Alexander Skarsgård’s compelling portrayal of Eric.
I hope that Harris will use this book to start wrapping up any loose ends going into Book 13, which is the alleged last book. While I love the series, it really does have to end some time, and this conflict with King Felipe de Castro of Several States, and the revelations in the Faery world are all good set-ups for the finale. Sookie’s journey has been a very long one, and she deserves her peace and happiness.
Honorable Mention for Waiting on Wednesday : Darth Vader and Son by Jeffrey Brown! Super cute and super sweet! Coming April 18th.
Title: Infinity Blade: Awakening
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Read Date: 11 April 2012
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Review Preview: Short and sweet!
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Trained from birth in swordplay and combat, a young knight named Siris has journeyed to the Dark Citadel with a single purpose: fight through the army of Titans to face the tyrannical God King in one-on-one combat. This was his father’s sacred mission, and his father’s before him, going back countless generations in an effort to free their people from enslavement. But when Siris somehow succeeds where all those from his bloodline previously have failed, he finds himself cast into a much larger world, filled with warriors and thieves, ancient feuds and shifting alliances, Deathless immortals and would-be kings. His quest for freedom will take him on an epic journey in search of the mythical figure known as the Worker of Secrets—the one being in the world who can unravel the secrets of the Infinity Blade.
Based on the bestselling video game from ChAIR Entertainment and Epic Games, this all-new adventure from acclaimed fantasy author Brandon Sanderson digs deeper into the fantastical world of Infinity Blade, a world of mystery and intrigue where magic and technology are indistinguishable, and even life and death are not what they seem.
Like he did in Mistborn, Branderson explores the concept of deities, their (im)mortality, and their place in a society whose traditions revolve around these entities in Infinity Blade: Awakening; it’s something that he does well.
I like the little plot twists that he managed to include even if this is just a novella, and of course, I love the dry humor. I also like that there are familiar fantasy creatures (trolls, golems–probably a holdover from the game) and that they are used in an interesting way.
Siris is not as compelling a character as Brandon’s other heroes, but he makes enough of an impression to at least carry the story. Same goes for Isa and even the God King. I’m not going to complain about this too much because there was little room to explore the characters in such a short story anyway.
I’m not sure how much of the magic system in play here is Brandon’s and how much is from the Infinity Blade game, but it works. I love how the basic concepts of our modern technology were integrated with fantasy tropes to create a rather entertaining system from a reader’s point of view, but one that also feels organic to the world of the novella. Looks like someone took Niven’s Law (“Any sufficiently rigorously defined magic is indistinguishable from technology.”) to heart.
“Ring of Transportation,” the helpful voice said, “fifteenth generation, running service pack six. Please enter the password for activation.”
“Damn you!” Siris sputtered.
“Incorrect password.”
I can imagine all of it working nicely in the context of the video game, too.
It’s a pity this is just a companion piece to the game because I really want to see more of this world.
I’m back from Holy Week Semi-Hibernation!
Aside from participation in the usual religious ceremonies, my holiday also included a Korean drama marathon (The charming Sungkyunkwan Scandal and The-Show-That-Made-Me-Cry-For-1.5-Hours-Straight The Moon That Embraces The Sun ) and, unfortunately, much procrastinating on writing assignments.
While I was on that self-imposed internet blackout, these happened:
➳ Writer-producer-director Chris Weitz, otherwise known to me as the director who made a problematic Twilight book at least watchable (i.e. New Moon ), will soon add “author” to his résumé. Little, Brown and Company won the rights to publish Weitz’s The Young World, the first in an “epic, post-apocalyptic trilogy” set in a New York where only teenagers remained alive. [Source: click!]
It sounds a little too manufactured for my taste, to be honest. I can see where he wants to go with these teenagers who are left alone without adults and the comforts of life. I just hope it’s written well and that Weitz can bring something new to the post-apocalyptic YA sub-genre.
➳ As Lauren Oliver revealed when she visited last month, she’s writing her first adult novel. The Harper Collins website just revealed that the book will be titled Rooms, but offers no other details about the plot. (Duh.)
➳ One of my favorite authors, Brandon Sanderson, will release four shorts this year. I don’t know how he does it considering he’s working on other novels and is probably at the editing stage on A Memory of Light (Pub. Date: 13 January 2013). I think he’s a secret Mistborn and he must have found a previously unknown metal that can be burned to enhance writing efficiency. If so, I hope you can hear me, Brandon: will you be my Kelsier?
Heuristic Algorithm and Reasoning Response Engine (with Ethan Skarstedt) will appear in the John Joseph Adams-edited military science fiction anthology, Armored. Mecha fans will probably love this! If you click on the title link, you’ll find a short excerpt on his blog.
Legion , meanwhile, is a modern sci-fi-ish mystery/thriller that will be released as a novella and e-book.
Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell is included in an anthology called Dangerous Women, edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois.
The one that I’m most excited about is The Emperor’s Soul, which is set in the Branderson Cosmere (the core mythology will tie-in with the worlds of almost all of his adult fantasy novels). I love the premise of the story, and this promises to be another showcase of Brandon’s always-fresh-and-never-boring magic systems.
Shai is a Forger, a foreigner who can flawlessly copy and re-create any item by rewriting its history with skillful magic. Though condemned to death after trying to steal the emperor’s scepter, she is given one opportunity to save herself. Despite the fact that her skill as a Forger is considered an abomination by her captors, Shai will attempt to create a new soul for the emperor, who is almost dead from the attack of assassins.
Delving deeply into his life, she discovers Emperor Ashravan’s truest nature—and the opportunity to exploit it. Her only possible ally is one who is truly loyal to the emperor, but councilor Gaotona must overcome his prejudices to understand that her forgery is as much artistry as it is deception.
Skillfully deducing the machinations of her captors, Shai needs a perfect plan to escape. The fate of the kingdom lies in one impossible task. Is it possible to create a forgery of a soul so convincing that it is better than the soul itself?
➳ In other Branderson news, Writing Excuses is up for a Hugo this year and the Mistborn movie is moving forward!
They now have a working script for Mistborn that Brandon likes, and it’s being shopped around to studios along with this “mood trailer.”
Note: That wasn’t an official trailer; it’s cut from scenes from different movies that were put together to show studios what kind of film Mistborn is supposed to look and feel like.
I wish I had several million dollars to put into financing this film! (Actually, I wish I had several million dollars, PERIOD. )
➳ Mina V. Esguerra’s new book, That Kind of Guy–I mentioned this in my profile story about her–will be released this month! She’s hosting a giveaway on her site. Check it out: click!
➳ Lastly, if you are wondering why I never posted about The Hunger Games after seeing the movie, well…let’s just say I had so many things to say that I didn’t know where to start. I had a LONG conversation with my friend Frankie via the comments section of her blog post (click!), but I lapsed into procrastinating and lost a lot of the words that I wanted to write into the ether.
I eventually managed to put together a coherent review, which was published yesterday on GMA News Online: (click!) I’m sure it’s evident in the tone of the article that I had more to say about the movie, but I had a maximum word count to abide by and had to choose only the points that are most important to me.
I hope I can still make myself write a proper blog post about the movie, but re-capturing my train of thought despite extensive notes is going to be an uphill battle. After a marathon of 2 Korean historical dramas, I feel like my mind is stuck in another time and place where magical english subtitles appear when people speak.
I really should take Jae-Shin‘s advice, eh? Don’t procrastinate often; it will become a habit. Lesson learned! (I hope.)
