I watched Arrival a couple of weeks back and loved it so much, I really want to check out the short story it was based on, Story of Your Life. It appears in Ted Chiang’s Stories of Your Life and Others anthology, alongside 7 other short stories.

stories_of_your_life_and_others

Here’s the description from Amazon:

From a soaring Babylonian tower that connects a flat Earth with the firmament above, to a world where angelic visitations are a wondrous and terrifying part of everyday life; from a neural modification that eliminates the appeal of physical beauty, to an alien language that challenges our very perception of time and reality. . . Chiang’s rigorously imagined fantasia invites us to question our understanding of the universe and our place in it.

You can get Stories of Your Life and Others on Amazon for £6.99.

Yay, a new Chronicles of Ixia book! I was pretty surprised when they announced this book; after the first trilogy with Yelena and Valek (the Study trilogy), I wasn’t expecting Maria V Snyder would revisit this world. We then got the Glass series and now Shadow Study, which is part of the new Soulfinder series.

I loved this world Snyder has created, so I’m curious to see what will happen this time around!

shadowstudy

Here’s the description from Amazon:

When Yelena was a poison taster, her life was simpler. She survived to become a vital part of the balance of power between rival countries Ixia and Sitia.

Now she uses her magic to keep the peace in both lands—and protect her relationship with Valek.

Suddenly, though, dissent is rising. And Valek’s job—and his life—are in danger.

As Yelena tries to uncover her enemies, she faces a new challenge: her magic is blocked. And now she must find a way to keep not only herself but all that she holds dear alive.

Shadow Study is available from Amazon.co.uk for £5.59 and from Amazon.com for $7.59.

Yay, another InCryptid story is out! This fourth book features Alexander Price again, cryptozoologist and brother to the main character from the first two books, Verity. This time he’s off to Australia to help with an infestation of werewolves (as you do).

pocket_apocalypse

I love the look of this! I’ve really enjoyed all the past books, so can’t wait to see what happens next. We’ve now gotten two books with Verity, two with Alexander… I wonder: will we be introduced to someone else next? Will it go back to Verity? Or will it feature someone we already know?

Here’s the description from Amazon:

Endangered, adjective: Threatened with extinction or immediate harm.

Australia, noun: A good place to become endangered.

Alexander Price has survived gorgons, basilisks, and his own family – no small feat, considering that his family includes two telepaths, a reanimated corpse, and a colony of talking, pantheistic mice. Still, he’s starting to feel like he’s got the hang of things…at least until his girlfriend, Shelby Tanner, shows up asking pointed questions about werewolves and the state of his passport. From there, it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump to Australia, a continent filled with new challenges, new dangers, and yes, rival cryptozoologists who don’t like their “visiting expert” very much.

Australia is a cryptozoologist’s dream, filled with unique species and unique challenges. Unfortunately, it’s also filled with Shelby’s family, who aren’t delighted by the length of her stay in America. And then there are the werewolves to consider: infected killing machines who would like nothing more than to claim the continent as their own. The continent which currently includes Alex.

Survival is hard enough when you’re on familiar ground. Alex Price is very far from home, but there’s one thing he knows for sure: he’s not going down without a fight.

Pocket Apocalypse is available for £5.28 on Amazon.co.uk and for $7.99 on Amazon.com.

Long time readers here will know I’m a huge fan of Mira Grant/Seanan McGuire’s books, so obviously I’m curious to the next part of her Parisitology series, Symbiont. I really enjoyed the first book Parasite (although I thought the ending of that one was a bit predictable). Grant does some great world building, giving us a near future that seems possible, yet slightly weird.

symbiont_mira_grant

Here’s the description from Amazon:

The SymboGen-designed parasites were created to relieve humanity of disease and sickness. But the implants in the majority of the world’s population began attacking their hosts, turning them into a ravenous horde.

Now those who do not appear to be afflicted are being gathered for quarantine as panic spreads, but Sal and her companions must discover how the parasites are taking over their hosts, what their eventual goal is and how they can be stopped.

It’s available for £6.29 from Amazon.co.uk and $14.11 from Amazon.com.

Ever since I found out that Brandon Sanderson would finish Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, I’ve been curious to see how his own series are. I still haven’t gotten around to actually finishing the Wheel of Time, mainly cause it feels like I need to start completely at the beginning (again).

I had already read one standalone novel from Sanderson, Elantris, but turns out it’s not completely a standalone… It’s part of an epic 36 book series, all set in the universe of Cosmere. Each book/series he writes is set on a unique world, but that world is set in the same Cosmere universe. All of the books share a single creation myth, a single cosmology and are connected by an overarching story.

Wow.

After hearing that I knew I had to get my hands on his series Mistborn…

mistborn

If that’s not enough to convince you, here’s the description of the first book:

A thousand years ago evil came to the land and has ruled with an iron hand ever since. The sun shines fitfully under clouds of ash that float down endlessly from the constant eruption of volcanoes. A dark lord rules through the aristocratic families and ordinary folk are condemned to lives in servitude, sold as goods, labouring in the ash fields.

But now a troublemaker has arrived and there is rumour of revolt. A revolt that depends on criminal that no-one can trust and a young girl who must master Allomancy – the magic that lies in all metals.

The books are available on Amazon.co.uk for ~£24.

I just got this book delivered yesterday and it looks great! Seanan McGuire is one of my favourite writers and it’s always fun seeing what she comes up with.

sparrow hill road

Here’s the description from Amazon:

Everyone knows the urban legend about the girl who asks for a ride home; the one who turns out to have been dead all along. But where did she come from? Who was she? And how did she die? She’s been called a lot of things: the Phantom Prom Day, the Girl in the Diner, and the Spirit of Sparrow Hill Road. Around here, we call her Rose.

Rose Marshall was sixteen years old in 1952, pretty as a picture, and in the wrong place at the wrong time. A drive along Sparrow Hill Road turned into a fight for her life—a fight she was destined to lose. Her story could have ended there, but a lucky break and a well-timed ride home set her on a different path. She’s been running down the ghostroads ever since, one more casualty who never made it home.

A lot of people have said a lot of things about her; she’s been called everything from angel to devil, from ghost story to myth to something more. They whisper her name everywhere from Michigan to Maine, from Wyoming to Washington…but no one knows what really happened that long-ago night at the top of Sparrow Hill.

Not until now.

Sparrow Hill Road is available from Amazon.co.uk for £9.49.

Yay, a new series from Anne Bishop! The Black Jewels remains one of my favourite series, so I can’t wait to see what this new trilogy brings.

Written In Red

Here’s the description from Amazon:

As a cassandra sangue, or blood prophet, Meg Corbyn can see the future when her skin is cut—a gift that feels more like a curse. Meg’s Controller keeps her enslaved so he can have full access to her visions. But when she escapes, the only safe place Meg can hide is at the Lakeside Courtyard—a business district operated by the Others.

Shape-shifter Simon Wolfgard is reluctant to hire the stranger who inquires about the Human Liaison job. First, he senses she’s keeping a secret, and second, she doesn’t smell like human prey. Yet a stronger instinct propels him to give Meg the job. And when he learns the truth about Meg and that she’s wanted by the government, he’ll have to decide if she’s worth the fight between humans and the Others that will surely follow.

Written In Red by Anne Bishop is available on Amazon.co.uk for £4.81 and on Amazon.com for $7.19.

I’ve not been doing that great in my 52 Books Challenge this year; we’re a full two months in and I’ve only 5 books so far! I just bought this book though from Philippa Ballantine called Hunter and Fox and it looks like a lot of fun.

Hunter and Fox

I read Ballantine’s Books of The Order series last year and loved what she did there. She’s a great storyteller and worldbuilder, and I’m interested to see how she fares with another series. I’ve had a couple of times in the past where you love one specific series from an author and just can’t get into any other things they write. The description of this series bodes well though:

In a world that is in constant shifting, where mountains can change to plains and then to lakes, Talyn is the Hunter for the Caisah, and a wreck of a once-proud person. She has lost her people, the Vaerli, and her soul working for the man who destroyed her people. All unknowing, she carries within her a Kindred, a chaos creature from the center of the earth that wants to help bring the Vaerli back to power. However, she has lost the ability to communicate with it. Little does the Hunter know that salvation is looking for her, and it wears the face of gentleness and strength.

Finn is a teller of tales who carries his own dreadful secret. He sets out to find answers to his path but ends up in the city of Perilous and Fair where he meets Talyn. He knows the danger and yet is drawn to her. Their fates are bound together.

Meanwhile, the Hunter’s lost brother Byre is searching for his own solution to the terrible curse placed on the Vaerli. He sets forth on a treacherous journey of his own, which will intersect in the most unlikely place with that of Talyn and Finn. The ramifications of this encounter will be felt by all the people in Conhaero, from the lost Vaerli to the Caisah on his throne.

Hunter and Fox by Philippa Ballantine is available on Amazon.co.uk for £4.43 and on Amazon.com for $16.16.

This sounds great! Alternate realities + steam punk + magic == awesomeness! Plus look at the cover:

17572625

Pretty! Here’s the description from Amazon:

In this epic new work, the award-winning Kenyon creates an alternate 19th century with two warring continents on an alternate earth: the scientific Anglica (England) and magical Bharata (India). Emboldened by her grandfather’s final whispered secret of a magical lotus, Tori Harding, a young Victorian woman and aspiring botanist, must journey to Bharata, with its magics, intrigues and ghosts, to claim her fate. There she will face a choice between two suitors and two irreconcilable realms.

In a magic-infused world of silver tigers, demon birds and enduring gods, as a great native mutiny sweeps up the continent, Tori will find the thing she most desires, less perfect than she had hoped and stranger than she could have dreamed.

A Thousand Perfect Things by Kay Kenyon is available for £10.43 on Amazon.co.uk.

It was initially the cover of this booked that grabbed my eye, but then I read the premise: Cinderella as an assassin! This sounds like it could be a fun read:

throne-of-glass

Here’s the description from Amazon:

Meet Celaena Sardothien.

Beautiful. Deadly. Destined for greatness.

In the dark, filthy salt mines of Endovier, an eighteen-year-old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake. She got caught.

Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament – fighting the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. Live or die, Celaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. But will her assassin’s heart be melted?

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas is available for £3.85 on Amazon.co.uk and $8.99 on Amazon.com.