Happy Mother's Day to any Mom (or should say Mum) from the UK who is reading this. For any Mom in the US or Canada you have to wait until May! I had a productive reading week and I am quite chuffed with myself. So what did I read?
If you read my WIR last week you will know that I read River Road by Suzanne Johnson, which I quite enjoyed. I also had book 3 - Elysian Fields and DJ's face seemed to follow me around the room saying 'read me....read me'. I couldn't resist so I started it Sunday morning and finished Sunday evening. What a result! In this instalment a serial killer called The Axeman is loose in New Orleans and killing a path towards DJ. A powerful necromancer is in control of this undead maniac and is determined to take out DJ. If this wasn't enough her friend and potential love interest Jake, the loup garou, is having problems controlling his wolf and Quince Randolph, her best friend's boyfriend, is getting a little too close for comfort. DJ is not short of hunky heroes however, as she has both the undead pirate Jean Lafitte and the former sentinel Alex Warin who are more than willing to save her bacon...and boy does she need their help. This series really improves and I enjoy each book more than the previous. There are only a few weeks between the events in books 2 and 3 but DJ continues to mature as she realises the consequences of her actions. This plot has a number of threads including The Axeman, her romantic entanglements and her elven heritage. There is a lot happening in this book with DJ travelling both to Jean Lafitte's home in The Beyond and to the elven home world. More is also explained about the 'undead' such as Jean Lafitte which I appreciated. I couldn't figure out from the previous books what they were as the term 'undead' makes me think of zombies rather than the corporeal dead. The only problem with reading so many books of one series close together is that when you have finally read the last book to be released it seems AGES for the next one to come out. Now I have to wait another year to find out what trouble DJ gets into next.
Book two on my reading list was Dream London by Tony Ballantyne. I can say with certainty that Dream London is by far the most surreal book I have ever read. The only way I can describe it is if Alice took acid before she jumped down the rabbit hole. It is strange with a capital 'S'. Dream London is changing and Captain James Wedderburn has been reluctantly recruited to find out why. During the night the geography of the city changes while at the same time the fortunes of its inhabitants change just as quickly. No one knows who is in control but Captain James is going to find out no matter what it takes. This book reminded me a little bit of the movie Dark City but it was much, much darker and much, much more odd. For starters, James owned a brothel and didn't feel too guilty about feeding his 'girls' candy flavoured drugs to make them feel what their clients felt. James' career wasn't an oddity though as sex and prostitution was the norm in Dream London. Its not until nearly the end of the book that we find out why and you almost wish you didn't know. Hats off to Ballantyne as he has one prolific imagination. Not only can he convey the weird and wonderful, he can do it for over 600 pages. This book requires some significant investment in time, tolerance for the morally inept and lots and lots of swearing. This is an excellent book but you really have to be in the right frame of mind to read it. I am glad that I paced myself over a few weeks to read it rather than rushing through.
The final book I finished (just a few hours before I wrote this) was Silver Mirrors by A.A. Aguirre. This was a special one of surprise from The Qwill and I am super lucky to get this ARC. I hate to disappoint but I can't say too much about this book as I will be writing a full review. Keep your eye on the blog for this to be posted to find out what I thought of the second book of the Apparatus Infernum series.
As I write this I am watching the Ender's Game movie which you may know is also a book by Orson Scott Card. I can't say I am enjoying it that much despite liking kids' movies and YA fiction. I watched Catching Fire, the movie version of the book by Suzanne Collins, when I was writing my last WIR and enjoyed it a lot more. I guess some books makes better movies ....or are better cast. Thoughts?
Well that is it for me this week. I hope you have a great week ahead and Happy Reading.
As I write this I am watching the Ender's Game movie which you may know is also a book by Orson Scott Card. I can't say I am enjoying it that much despite liking kids' movies and YA fiction. I watched Catching Fire, the movie version of the book by Suzanne Collins, when I was writing my last WIR and enjoyed it a lot more. I guess some books makes better movies ....or are better cast. Thoughts?
Well that is it for me this week. I hope you have a great week ahead and Happy Reading.
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