Monday's Beginnings (66)

How are you faring in reading at the beginning of this week?  Are you starting a new book or finishing one up?

Well, here we are again at the beginning of another week.  I don't know about the rest of you but I got nowhere near what I was hoping to get done in reading over this long weekend.  I was hoping to have more time at home as I usually have around Thanksgiving.  But, we got caught up in the family visiting and special sales at the stores.  Yep, I was one of those crazy people to be out on Black Friday.  I usually get home before lunch, nap, then have the rest of the afternoon to relax.  But this year, with finishing the house and getting ready to move in this coming weekend, we had lots of things we had to purchase.  Nice thing is just about all of it was on sale, a wonderful sale price, and saved us loads of money. :)

So I am working on finishing up Blood Lite II: Overbite.

I did get through Geist by Philippa Ballantine.  If you would like to read the review, CLICK HERE.  I also had a wonderful post today from Philippa Ballantine:  What Came First - the chicken or the egg - World Building or Character Building.  Great post!  Would you like to check it out?  CLICK HERE.

Robyn from The Bookoholic Zone and I have chats going on for Caitlin Kittredge books for the Black London series.  The first book, Street Magic, discussion is already under way.  CLICK HERE to visit and chat with us.

My WANT list...once again I have added 9 books!  Oh this list is amazing.  I don't know what I'm going to do.  It seems to be that I have to flip a 200 sided coin to figure out which book I am going to get next. :)  I love it!

For my up coming week... I don't think I'm going to get much reading done. I will be packing the whole house Thursday and Friday. Moving all over the weekend. Then unpacking Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday I will be returning back to work. I am hoping to be all settled in. Hoping...
Books Received Last Week:

For Review:

The Mason brothers had always been close, but until the day ex-Navy officer Mike discovered he was actually an angel, they had no idea just how close.


This paranormal/urban fantasy novel brings readers along on the Mason brothers' shared journey of discovery, because where one brother goes, the other two follow, sometimes kicking and screaming. Not everything is heavenly for these three men tossed into strange new circumstances without an instruction manual, and being an angel isn't as easy as it sounds. But along with the thorns there are roses, and for the suddenly-immortal Mason brothers, the journey is only beginning.

Purchased:

Robyn and I will be doing a chat on this book starting in the New Year.  Stay toned for the schedule later this month.

Seattle. One minute you're drinking a vanilla breve, the next, some creepy old dude is breathing on you, turning you into a zombie. And that's just for starters. Now, the recently deceased Amanda Feral is trying to make her way through Seattle's undead scene with style (mortuary-grade makeup, six-inch stilettos, Balenciaga handbag on sale) while satisfying her craving for human flesh (Don't judge. And no, not like chicken.) and decent vodkatinis.

Making her way through a dangerous world of cloud-doped bloodsuckers, reapers, horny and horned devils, werewolves, celebrities, and PR-obsessed shapeshifters--not to mention an extremely hot bartender named Ricardo--isn't easy. And the minute one of Amanda's undead friends disappears after texting the word, "help" (The undead--so dramatic!) she knows the afterlife is about to get really ugly.


Something sinister is at hand. Someone or something is hellbent on turning Seattle's undead underworld into a place of true terror. And this time, Amanda may meet a fate a lot worse than death...

I will admit I'm a Feist Fan. :) So I had to get this book as I really want to get back into the world he has created here.  Now I have to find the time to read it.

In the start of this new epic adventure, the RiftWar is done, but a fearsome army of trolls and renegade humans has risen. A traitor who rejects the brutality of his warlike kind casts his lot with the human targets of the aggressors.

So, how are you faring this week?  Does it look like a good reading week?

Here's to you having a great week in words and pages.

Author Guest Post:

I'm excited to introduce you all to Philippa Ballantine, the author of the wonderful new release of Geist the first book in A Book of the Order.  I enjoyed reading this book.  Review HERE, if you missed it.

Philippa has a wonderful post for us today; I do hope you all enjoy, say hello, and take a moment to check out Philippa's site (link at bottom of post) as she has a wonderful site and other wonderful sounding books she has written.

Chicken or the Egg- which came first world building or character building?

For fantasy writers in the creation of a world is a task that they can’t ignore. If you want to play with magic in the epic or high fantasy genre, there isn’t really a choice but to build a world for your characters to play in.

There are two camps when it come to world building: those that create the world first and then drop the characters in, and those that create the character first and let the world evolve around them. I fall into the latter portion of writers.

I know there are a lot of us out there that spend a great deal of time world building. In fact some of them spend so long world building that the writing is almost secondary. They fill reams of paper (both real and virtual) on the history, the cultures, the landscape of their world.

I enjoy a well constructed world as much as the next person, but to me it is always about character.

For example I had a concept for my book Geist, about a powerful female character, bought up in an isolated community, which made her both a little arrogant and entirely socially inept.

The second fact I determined was that I wanted it to be in a world where the paranormal was an everyday and accepted fact.

Yes, for me it is definitely chicken (the character) and then the egg (the world) very close afterwards. To my mind you have to have a good chicken for people to empathise and enter the world through.

The world falls into place around the character. It grows from the challenges and dangers I want to give them to deal with. I fill it in with details—but not too many—of what I have read about in history, and places I have seen in my travels.

World building should be subtle, and so integral to the story that it is seamless. I remember reading a story that—no joke—talked about the geology of the landscape that the characters were passing through. That didn’t exactly lend itself to my enjoyment of the story—in fact it bored me. Such things seem very indulgent and self-serving—like it is more important to show off the work that the author has put into his world building than moving the story forward.

To me, such efforts are about as useful as a tailor flipping the suit they have created inside-out to show how amazing their seams are. We don’t care about that sort of work—we only want it to be a great fit.

For example the runes that the Deacons use in Geist are an important part of the world. They are the only weapons that work against paranormal creatures, but I did not want to dump a whole lot of information on the reader from a great height. So each of the ten runes of Dominion are gradually revealed throughout the book as they are used by the main character, Sorcha Faris. Only later in the book do I explicitly give a laundry list of them. It’s not just about holding back on the dreaded info dump, but also to give the reader a sense of discovery as they go along—and a feeling of an accomplishment as they unravel the story.

A little mystery is not the worst thing to have in your world after all.

We should experience the world through the eyes of the character, and it should only reveal itself in that way. It should never hit us in the face.

So for me it will always be character first, and then the world evolving around them; a world that will challenge them and bring out the best—and worst—in their personality. That is what I find truly interesting—and hopefully my readers do too!

Philippa Ballantine is a fantasy writer hailing from Wellington, New Zealand. In the coming year she will have three books hitting the real and virtual shelves. The first of which a supernatural fantasy, Geist is available now from Ace books. Find out more at booksoftheorder.com and pjballantine.com

Blog Book Chat (6)...Street Magic

Street Magic

By Caitlin Kittredge

Our chat is starting with the first book in the Black London Series.

I am a little bit of a slacker this past week, Sorry! :(  I kind of got caught up in the holiday mood and visiting with family.  So I am a little behind in posting this link to our chat.

I do hope you all click this link to Robyn's Blog, The Bookoholic Zone, to Chat on Street Magic.  This is a great first book for the series...  CLICK HERE to go to chat.

Thank you and look forward to chatting with you all.

Book Review: Geist

Geist

By:  Philippa Ballantine

Publisher:  Ace

Publish Date:  November 2010

Format:  Paperback 294pgs, Pocket book size

Genre:  Fantasy

Series:  1st book in A Book of the Order

Recommendation:  Yes. Yes! Wonderful fantasy depth and could be loved by Urban Fantasy lovers too.

Book Synopsis:
Between the living and the dead is the Order of the Deacons, protectors of the Empire, guardians against possession, sentinels enlisted to ward off malevolent hauntings by the geists...

Among the most powerful of the Order is Sorcha Faris, now thrust into a partnership with the novice Deacon Merrick Chambers.  They have been dispatched to the isolated village of Ulrich to aid a Priory besieged by a surge of violent geist activity.  With them is Raed Rossin, Pretender to the throne that Sorcha is sworn to protect, and bearer of a terrible curse.

But what greets them in the strange settlement is something far more predatory and more horrifying than any mere haunting.  And as she uncovers a tradition of twisted rituals passed down through the dark reaches of history, Sorcha will be forced to reconsider everything she thinks she knows.  Even if she makes it out of Ulrich alive, what in the hell is she returning to?

First Sentence:
It was good weather for a riot.

My Review and Summary:
Sorcha is a deacon, with the ability of an Active in the Order, who are to protect the people against attacks and riots of geists.  Geists are a ghost type enemy from the Otherside which possess people to attack others.  Vermillion is to be one of the safest cities against geists as it's surrounded by water and geists can't cross water.  But geists still find a way here...  Every Active is paired with a Sensitive to create a great working team with their own special powers to defeat the different geists.  Sorcha is paired with Kolya, her husband.  After a horrible attack on Kolya, Sorcha realizes she observed some new actions of the geist.  The Arch Abbot calls on Sorcha after using the rune  only to be used in extreme dire need, to talk with her.  But Arch Abbot tells Sorcha she is going on an important mission in an area with escalated geist activity, with a new Sensitive - Deacon Merrich Chambers - who is fresh out of the academy.  Sorcha is not thrilled about breaking in a fresh Sensitive on such a dangerous mission, but takes on the orders.  What Sorcha doesn't realize is Merrick has his dark secrets too, both as a Sensitive and personal.  But will they both be able to keep their secrets buried from each other through the bond they have as a team?  Everything Sorcha believes just might get twisted and she might have to do what she doesn't want.

I truly enjoyed the journey through this haunting fantasy read.  I am one to love world creativity and it's one of many amazingly strong characteristic here.  Philippa does a wonderful job of creating a religious style order with the Deacons.  Although they may not be of the 'religious' beliefs you may think.  They are the ones who fight the geists to protect the world.  I enjoyed watching as this world revealed itself through this book; the ruins for Actives then the Sensitives, the history of the world, and the geists.  And still wonder on the mysteries of it all yet to come.

The characters are another wonderful strength here.  The characters stick to their personalities, but grow in more ways than I had expected, to show other sides I wouldn't have thought to show, making them three dimensional to me.  I enjoyed watching all the characters grow in wonderful leaps in this book.  And the characters secrets start to unfold.

The story Philippa has to tell here is captivating.  There are a few stories with in this book; learning of the characters, the history of the world, and the mystery of what is happening with the changes the geist are showing.  Then the mystery of where the corruption is or coming from.

I would think many who loves Fantasy would enjoy this book along with Urban Fantasy lovers as well.  This book touches on a few different genre, but has a depth to it to make you wonder where Philippa will go in the future and how deep does the venality go.

If you would like to visit Philippa's site and blog CLICK HERE.  Philippa has another series that sounds amazing as well.


I offered to read this book for review to the author, Philippa Ballantine.


This book qualifies for the Speculative Fiction Challenge, hosted by Book Chick City.

Teaser Tuesday (51)

Teaser Tuesday

is a weekly event

Sponsored by MizB of Should be Reading

Here's how it works:

Grab the book you are currently reading (anything at all)

Open the book to any random page.

Share 2 teaser sentences from anywhere on the page

Please Make Sure They Are Not Spoilers!

(Don't Give Too Much Away)

Just enough to pique our interests

This Week:

The Young Pretender had enough experience dealing with difficult people to know that giving them what they least expected often sucked the wind out of their sails.  It did indeed seem to work on this particular prickly Deacon.

Geist
By Philippa Ballantine
pg 87

Monday's Beginnings (65)

How are you faring in reading at the beginning of this week?  Are you starting a new book or finishing one up?

Well, again I have high hopes for the week.  I know its Thanksgiving week here in the US, but I don't do the cooking.  No, it's not really that I don't want to, but all our parents have the breakfasts, dinners, and such at their places.  So I get to do the traveling.  So I am hoping to read in the car. :)  Then I am taking Wednesday off of work to do some stuff with out house, so I'm hoping to get some reading done in the am after my son gets on the bus.  Hoping, as the husband will probably have something for me to do, but there is always hope.

I am working on a few books:  Geist by Philippa Ballantine, Blood Lite II Overbite by Kevin J. Anderson and I still have Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson in the wings here.  I will have Geist done this week and maybe work on Blook Lite II.

I did get some reviews up over the weekend.  If you would like to jump over to read them, click the name here in this list:
     Hell Fire  by Ann Aguirre
     Spellspam  by Alma Alexander

Just in the news here at My World...in words and pages:
   I will have a guest post by Philippa Ballantine on November 29th.  Please mark your calendars to remember to stop back by and check out the great post Philippa will be doing.  I have to say her book so far is rather amazing.  You all should look into it. :)
   Robyn from The Bookaholic Zone and I will be starting our chat on Caitlin Kittredge's three books of The Black London series.  Would you like to see the schedule we have planned?  CLICK HERE.  Hope to see you at the chats. :)

My WANT list... 11 books!! Wow. That is one the greatest weeks I've had in a long time.  Oh this poor list. ;) I really do love the selection I have here.

Books Received Last Week:

Well, can you believe I got NO books!?!?  I couldn't.  It's been a very long time since I've had a week where I didn't buy at least one book.  But, I will make up for it this week. :)  But, my book shelves could use a break from the addition for one week, I guess.

So, how are you faring this week?  Does it look like a good reading week?

Here's to you having a great week in words and pages.

Book Giveaway, Winner!

First thank you to every one who entered for the Signed copy of The Warded Man by Peter. V. Brett.

I went through and tallied up the entries for everyone who entered and had a total of 73 entries.  So I journeyed over to Random.org and entered the max number of 73.  Click the little button and got the winning number...

Now, I want to say before we get to the winner that I think everyone who entered would truly enjoy this book.  So I hope you all go get yourself a copy to enjoy. :)

The winner of a signed copy of The Warded Man is....

Number 16, who is....

Jennifer at Book Noise.

Jennifer keep an eye out. I'll be sending an email your way here in a few minutes. :)

Thank you again to everyone!