Sci Fi and Fantasy

Two More YA Cybils

2 Comments / 2012, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Feminism, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

How come all of the books from the Cybils shortlist that I wanted to read on audio are just now coming available, all at once? Gah.  We’re almost ODing on audio books… and poor TW, one of the books is one she had already read. Oops. She was a good sport and listened to The Girl of Fire and Thorns anyway and only gave away one spoiler. She also provided some info that was not really accurate, so a spoiler that could have been a spoiler wasn’t a spoiler after all. Heh.

I liked the book but it did get a little frustrating listening to Elisa go on and on about her looks, how fat she was, how beautiful and confident and capable everyone else was, blah blah blah. It took her an awful long time to grow up and beyond her weight. And really, I’m not sure she ever completely managed it. So that was depressing. Hopefully, if there’s a second book, the author can do away with all of that and just let Elisa enjoy her food and let us enjoy the story.

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I started Misfit on Saturday and finished it on Sunday. Yay for me for finally finishing a book (I started two others last week and tossed them in the library bag to take back – I just could not read either of them. That’s a lot of book quitting for me!) It was an easy book to read, enjoy and finish – and then wonder how long it will take for a sequel. Surely it’s going to be a series, there are Three more Dukes of Hell to deal with…

I loved Jael. I really loved everything about her.  A good strong female heroine who didn’t need to spend time worrying over what she looked like or how much she weighed or how popular she was. Breath of fresh air. Really. 

(PS. The Cover of the book on Amazon is a lot better than the cover of my library copy.)

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Above

2012, Books in Bed, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

Above was a very odd, creepy bit of YA fantasy. At least I hope it was fantasy because did I mention it was odd and creepy?  What are the differences between the beasts, the freaks, the homeless, and the mentally ill – and can they find SAFE/sanctuary/home – together?  And can they get it back, or create it again (better? differently?) once SAFE is breached? Fascinating. Very, very fascinating plot, characters, prose.

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Red Glove

2012, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

When we started listening to Red Glove, it took a few chapters for me to remember what happened in White Cat and who all of the characters were. Once I settled into the story, I started wondering whether this was a trilogy or a longer series. It IS a trilogy and this might be the best “second book” ever – I sure liked it more than White Cat and now I’m really excited to read Black Heart.  Poor Cassle. And what the heck is going to happen to his mother, because that’s one heck of a job she pulled on the Governor…

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Team Human

2012, Books in Bed, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I put off reading Team Human for a long time because I am not a Justine Labalastier fan. I don’t hate her I just don’t love her and sometimes she makes me grumbly. But it was on the shelf and I wasn’t finding anything else that I thought I could focus on so… Team Human it was.

And it was fantastic.

I loved it. I loved every character. I loved the relationships between the characters. I was tempted to start right back over at the beginning and read again. I hope there’s a sequel. I want to know more about Kit and Mel. I want to know more about Kit’s mom. And how he came to be on that doorstep. (So I want a sequel and a prequel? Or something?) What happens to Toby and the soccer player? Anna and her mom? Francis and Cathy?

Let’s see them all go to college … well not some of the moms. But you know what I mean.

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Cottage at Glass Beach

2012, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

I thought The Cottage at Glass Beach was going to be a summer chick lit type read. It was a little more fantasy and myth than I expected. Selkies and such. I liked it, though I had a hard time caring about any of the characters for the first 50 or so pages – but by the end, I liked them all. I’d rather have read the story of the generation before Nora’s – that seems like the more interesting one. Maeve & Maire… sisters. Much more interesting than the only child Nora with daughters of her own…

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Breadcrumbs

2012, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

We listened to Breadcrumbs on audio and I liked it more than TW did. She found it a little tired – retelling of fairy tales. So yea, been there, done that, but I still liked it. I liked Hazel. It was a little slow, particularly for audio, but I definitely enjoyed it.

Good Cybils middle grade fantasy. Not the best but worthy of the shortlist for sure.

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Two Cybils — Middle Grade SciFi & Fantasy

2012, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Cybil Challenge, Favorites, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

We’ve been listening for Icefall for months. It started a little slow for me but by the end of the first disk, I was hooked. I loved Solveig and Hake. And  Alric. And Munnin. I loved the storytelling, too. And I hope there really will be a sequel. I’d like to find out what happens with Solveig and Hake next.

Tuesdays at the Castle is a book I’ve probably checked out three times and never managed to read – once it was lost for the entire check out time in Elly’s room. I don’t know why I kept putting off reading it, I loved the castle and the children – particularly Celia, obviously.

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Shadow of Night

2012, Books in Bed, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Book two, Shadow of Night, was long. Very long. I don’t care that it wasn’t physically longer than Discovery of Witches – it was still LONGER. Packed with words, people, experiences, foreshadowing. Which is what second books often do. They’re the glue that connects the first and last book and they are quite often a very sticky mess of words. And Shadow of Night was that. A sticky mess of words. Sometimes brilliant, sometimes plodding, sometimes confusing.

I didn’t dislike anything about the book, except for Matthew who I only barely liked in the 21st century and liked even less in the 16th. And, I do still have issues with Diana, whose backbone comes and goes more often than her Firedrake.

I’m hopeful that we plodded through England, France, England, Prague, England for good reason – and in the final book, everything will come together and we’ll understand why it took so long for the story to move along in book two.

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Alif the Unseen

1 Comment / 2012, Books in Bed, Favorites, Fiction, Sci Fi and Fantasy /

Oh look, another book recommended by Sassymonkey. I can’t remember what she said about Alif the Unseen – something about there being a lot of interest in it. So, I reserved it. It arrived and TW started to read it. She didn’t get far before she put it down and said she wasn’t going to read it. I was surprised by this. Math, Science, Religion, Myth – seems like her thing.  I decided to give it a try, though I didn’t have much hope.

It started slowly but… once the State came for Alif, it picked up and from there, I never even considered putting it down. Brilliant storytelling. The science. The tech. Fabulous. And, written by a woman. That just made it all the better.

(I don’t really understand the Harry Potter comparisons being made by reviewers. There is no comparison.)

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This Is Not a Test

1 Comment / 2012, Books in Bed, Sci Fi and Fantasy, Young Adult /

I was nervous about reading This Is Not a Test – because, it’s Courtney Summers and she makes me crazy. So crazy that I swore I’d never read another one of her books. I’m not very good at sticking to my guns when it comes to YA. In case you hadn’t noticed.

Thankfully, she stepped into the world of zombies and all was right with the world. Well not really, but all was not so horribly wrong, either. Which is weird since zombies took over the world and people died and stuff. But that, believe it or not, was better than what I expected after Some Girls Are and Cracked Up To Be. Heh.

Good zombie, YA trouble book. I liked it. A lot of bad stuff happened and she did a very good job of making her screwed up characters screw up in ways that made sense to me. I hope she sticks with fantasy. Heh.

Also – Tina T – super damn brilliant.

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