Wow, it’s been 20 days since I last blogged here! I’ve just been so busy lately and still have tons of stuff to write up for you all. I’ve been to the Future of Web Apps, Playful 2010, BoardGameCamp and lots of other events I really need to write about! I’m going to try to get back into my blogging rhythm, but with my trip to San Francisco less than two weeks away, I think it might only be getting busier for me!

Anyhow, let’s get back to the actual topic of this post: books! I’ve just started reading The Black Prism by Brent Weeks and so far it looks awesome. It’s set in a world where magic is formed out of light; most mages can only draft magic out of 1 colour from the colour spectrum (think: rainbows) and which colour they can draft determines the type of magic they can do. It’s an interesting concept and I always love reading about worlds that are built up so differently.

Here’s the description on Amazon:

Gavin Guile is the Prism, the most powerful man in the world. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace. But Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live: Five years to achieve five impossible goals. But when Guile discovers he has a son, born in a far kingdom after the war that put him in power, he must decide how much he’s willing to pay to protect a secret that could tear his world apart.

The only problem: it’s only out in hard cover right now and the paperback version only comes out in September next year! It’s only £8 on Amazon which isn’t too bad for a hardcover, but I still prefer reading paperback myself. Plus they take up so much less space!

I read the first part of this series two years ago, and have been waiting for the sequel ever since! The books feature an intriguing setup where magic is linked to life force. With each spell a witch does, they’re basically draining their own life force and giving up minutes, days, years of their life. Each witch must think carefully whether or not she wishes to use power and on what. Is a life worth saving if it means giving up a year of your own life?

The series is about Kamala, a young witch, who wants to join the group of sorcerers who can use unlimited magic. Nobody knows the secret to their powers, but Kamala is determined to be the first woman to join them.

If you haven’t read the first part yet (Feast of Souls), I can highly recommend it. If you have… go get the second one!

Wings of Wrath: The Magister Trilogy Book Two by Celia Friedman is available on Amazon.co.uk for £5.99 and on Amazon.com for $10.38.

I don’t tend to read that many young adult books, but this one looks like fun!

The description on Google Books:

Benevolence is not your typical princess. With her parents lost to assassins, Princess Ben ends up under the thumb of the conniving Queen Sophia. Starved and miserable, locked in the castle’s highest tower, Ben stumbles upon a mysterious enchanted room. So begins her secret education in the magical arts: mastering an obstinate flying broomstick, furtively emptying the castle pantries, setting her hair on fire . . . But Ben’s private adventures are soon overwhelmed by a mortal threat to her kingdom. Can Ben save the country and herself from foul tyranny?

Princess Ben by Catherine Murdock is available on Amazon.co.uk for £4.86 and on Amazon.com for $8.99.

I just received a review copy of this book! It looks awesome, and once I’ve finished the book I’m currently reading I’m so going to pick this one up.

The description on Amazon:

Shale is the lowest of the low-an outcast from a poor village in the heart of the desert. In the desert water is life, and currency, and Shale has none. But he has a secret. It’s the one thing that keeps him alive and may save all the cities of the Quartern in the days to come. If it doesn’t get him killed first…

Their civilization is at the brink of disaster. If Shale and Terelle can find a way to save themselves, they may just save them all. Water is life and the wells are running dry…

The Last Stormlord by Glenda Larke is available on Amazon.co.uk for £5.58 and on Amazon.com for $7.99.

I’ve only just started this book, but so far it’s pretty intriguing. I’m only on page 12, yet I’m already completely hooked!

Here’s the description:

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is about Yeine, a 19 year old girl, who wants nothing more than a normal life in her homeland of Darr. But her mother was of the powerful Arameri family, and when Yeine is summoned to the capital city of Sky a month after her mother’s death, she cannot refuse. Dakarta, her grandfather and the Arameri patriarch, pits her against her two cousins as a potential heir to the throne.

If you’re not convinced yet, you can read the first three chapters on the author’s website.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin is available on Amazon.co.uk for £5.58 and on Amazon.com for $10.07.

Ooh, this book sounds goooood: set in an alternate Renaissance Venice with vampires, werewolves, assassins and pirates!

Here’s the description:

In the depths of night, customs officers board a galley in a harbor and overpower its guards. In the hold they find oil and silver, and a naked boy chained to the bulkhead. Stunningly beautiful but half-starved, the boy has no name. The officers break the boy’s chains to rescue him, but he escapes…

Venice is at the height of its power. In theory Duke Marco commands. But Marco is a simpleton so his aunt and uncle rule in his stead. They command the seas, tax the colonies, and, like those in power before them, fear assassins better than their own…

In a side chapel, Marco’s fifteen-year old cousin prays for deliverance from her forced marriage. It is her bad fortune to be there when Mamluk pirates break in to steal a chalice, but it is the Mamluks’ good luck – they kidnap her…

In the gardens beside the chapel, Atilo, the Duke’s chief assassin, prepares to kill his latest victim. Having cut the man’s throat, he turns back, having heard a noise, and finds a boy crouched over the dying man, drinking blood from the wound. The speed with which the boy dodges a dagger and scales a wall stuns Atilo. And the assassin knows he has to find the boy…

Not to kill him, but because he’s finally found what he thought he would never find. Someone fit to be his apprentice…

The downside: you’ve got to wait for it till January 2011…

Zombies and bloggers! I like the setup for this series:

In 2014, two experimental viruses—a genetically engineered flu strain designed by Dr. Alexander Kellis, intended to act as a cure for the common cold, and a cancer-killing strain of Marburg, known as “Marburg Amberlee”—escaped the lab and combined to form a single airborne pathogen that swept around the world in a matter of days. It cured cancer. It stopped a thousand cold and flu viruses in their tracks.

It raised the dead.

Millions died in the chaos that followed. The summer of 2014 was dubbed “The Rising,” and only the lessons learned from a thousand zombie movies allowed mankind to survive. Even then, the world was changed forever. The mainstream media fell, Internet news acquired an undeniable new legitimacy, and the CDC rose to a new level of power.

Twenty years later, when Senator Peter Ryman of Wisconsin decides to take a team of bloggers along on his run for the White House, Georgia and Shaun Mason are quick to submit their application. They, along with their friend Georgette “Buffy” M. are selected, and view this as the chance to launch their careers to a whole new level… that is, if they can survive the campaign trail.

There’s a cool site with tons of info about the book with even campaign posters for the fictional elections. Really curious to see how this story is; mainstream media covering up the news stories with bloggers being the only ones willing to reveal information. And then get killed for it? At least that’s what I make up out of the snippets on the site.

Definitely going on my To-Read list! Feed is coming out in the UK on 3rd of June and is the first part of the Newsflesh trilogy by Mira Grant (Feed, Deadline, Blackout).

Ooh, this looks interesting! I still haven’t read any proper steam punk books, but those worlds look intriguing.

Here’s the description from Amazon:

At the start of the Civil War, a Russian mining company commissions a great machine to pave the way from Seattle to Alaska and speed up the gold rush that is beating a path to the frozen north. Inventor Leviticus Blue creates the machine, but on its first test run it malfunctions, decimating Seattle’s banking district and uncovering a vein of Blight Gas that turns everyone who breathes it into the living dead.

Sixteen years later Briar, Blue’s widow, lives in the poor neighborhood outside the wall that’s been built around the uninhabitable city. Life is tough with a ruined reputation, but she and her teenage son Ezekiel are surviving until Zeke impetuously decides that he must reclaim his father’s name from the clutches of history.

Boneshaker is available on Amazon.co.uk for £7.49 and on Amazon.com for $10.87.

Wow, these book covers are gorgeous:

They’re designed by Jim Tierney, an illustration student at the University of Arts in Philadelphia, as a Senior Thesis project. I wish I could buy these, they’d look so pretty in my bookshelves!

Via doubletakes

Lately I’ve been addicted to Castle, mainly because of the brilliant Nathan Fillion. I was delighted to discover that his in-show character’s latest book Heat Wave has actually been published!

Awesome! Must get my hands on this. It’s available on Amazon for $12.97 (US) or for £9.49 (UK).