New Booksies

Deadline by Mira Grant

Countdown by Mira Grant

Talisman of El by Alecia Stone

Beneath a Rising Moon by Keri Arthur

Time for another post of new books I’ve acquired recently.

When I finished reading Rogue Gadda, I unlocked buying a new book in my read-three-buy-one scheme. The book I bought was Deadline by Mira Grant. Then I bought her novella, Countdown, because I wanted to test something about how ebooks worked and because we can’t work out how novellas fit into the buying restrictions (I’ve been counting them as books read when I’ve received them for review, but I had yet to buy one to test the restriction. We’re still not sure).

Then I received Talisman of El by Alecia Stone for review from the publisher on Netgalley. I remember this book catching my eye close to it’s release date (May) but I didn’t request it at the time because I was too busy, I think.

Finally, also via Netgalley, I received Keri Armstrong’s new book, Beneath a Rising Moon. I enjoyed Full Moon Rising (which is from a different series, don’t let the moon references confuse you) so I’m looking forward to reading this one too. (Even if it isn’t set in Melbourne.)

New booksies

vN by Madeline Ashby

The Corpse Rat King by Lee Battersby

Besieged by Rowena Cory Daniells

My Australian buying spree meant that books read in Australia or on the plane didn’t count towards the read three buy one restriction. So I have to finish one more book before I can buy more. However! I was lucky enough to receive three books for review in the meantime.

From Angry Robot on NetGalley:

• vN by Madeline Ashby - about sentient self-replicating robots (the vN stands for von Neumann machine). I’ve made a start and am enjoying it so far


• The Corpse Rat King by Lee Battersby - Out at the end of August, this is the first novel from a prolific Australian writer of short fiction. I’ve enjoyed some of his stories, so I look forward to reading his first novel

And then from the wonderful Rowena Cory Daniells I received her latest novel, Besieged. I absolutely loved her last trilogy, King Rolen’s Kin so I am very excited to read this. I expect to be unable to put it down and then pine that I have to wait for books 2 and 3 to reach me. Stay tuned for a review in the near future.

Short Stories

"In The Tide" by Linda Nagata

“In The Tide” by Linda Nagata

An interesting story about rogue nanobots, Saturn and genetically engineered humans. Set in a space faring world still confined to the solar system, it was nice to see some hard SF eschewing interstellar travel. You can download it free from Smashwords.

"Loss Leader" by Simon Haynes

“Loss Leader” by Simon Haynes

A story which originally appeared in an early edition of ASIM (which makes me feel like I should’ve read it before, but apparently I missed that issue). What happens when a company spends piles of money on a spaceship filled with cryogenically frozen settlers that the settlers aren’t keen on boarding? You treat the mission as a loss leader, of course. A bleakly amusing tale. You can download it free from Smashwords.

"The Rebelliousness of Trassi Udang"

“The Rebelliousness of Trassi Udang” by Patty Jansen

This is a slightly dark and sinister story set on a space station with a large Indonesian population. In the background there is war, in the foreground minor rebellion. A well drawn world and a great read. You can download it for free from Smashwords.

"Fed" by Mira Grant

“Fed” by Mira Grant


This isn’t strictly speaking a short story but an alternate ending to Mira Grant’s novel Feed. It’s how things would have played out if one event near the end had happened differently. If you’ve read Feed you can probably guess which event. It’s understandably a little rougher than the finished novel (and somewhat lacking in characterisation where points of view have changed from the original), but still harrowing. You can read or download it (PDF link hidden at the bottom) on this Orbit page.

New Booksies (13)

The Dark Griffin by K J Taylor

The Griffin's Flight by K J Taylor

The Griffin's War by K J Taylor

Showtime by Narrelle M Harris

The Female Man by Joanna Russ

The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf

These are the last of the books I’m allowing myself to buy in Australia. Obviously I’d always like more, but weight limits are starting to be relevant (also, the whole not being made of money thing…)

First up, I visited the new Embiggen Books shop in Melbourne, which is where a Twelfth Planet Press event took place during Craftinomicon. It was a bit meta because I ended up browsing the bookshop while listening to a podcast recorded IN the book shop. Anyway, of the TPP books the had remaining, Showtime by Narrelle Harris was the one I found which I didn’t already have. So that was nice. I’ve already reviewed it, too.

Then I decided to by the K J Taylor trilogy about griffins, The Fallen Moon series. Because I could (just) and because I’ve been hearing good things and she’s Australian and female and those traits tend to bode well for my enjoyment.

Finally, quite by chance, I stumbled upon The Female Man by Joanna Russ in a second hand bookshop in the sticks of southern NSW. After all the mentions on Galactic Suburbia, I couldn’t not by it. I don’t think I have room for it in my luggage, though, so I don’t expect to be reading it too soon (on the other hand, I already have the Extra Ordinary People collection by Russ waiting for me on the other side of the world, so I won’t be completely deprived).

Finally, I found a copy of The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina in a new local indie bookshop, which was cool. It’s a recent release so I wasn’t sure if I would be able to find it (and it’s not by a giant publisher, which makes it all the harder to get overseas/in ebook). So I’m looking forward to reading that soon, possibly trying to finish it before I leave, but we’ll see how that pans out.

And that’s it! Soon it’s back to my regularly scheduled read-three-buy-one programming, so I’m not sure when I’ll next be posting about new booksies :-/ Would that I could always buy all the books. Alas.

New Booksies (12)

American Science Fiction

172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad

The Long Earth by Pratchett and Baxter

A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix

The Gene Thieves by Maria Quinn

Hindsight by AA Bell

Rogue Gadda by Nicole Murphy

From Netgalley I got American Science Fiction: Five Classic Novels 1956-58 which includes:

• Robert Heinlein / Double Star
• Alfred Bester / The Stars My Destination
• James Blish / A Case of Conscience
• Algis Budrys / Who?
• Fritz Leiber / The Big Time

From Kmart, because cheap, I bought two YA SF books:

• 172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstand (which was originally published in Norway. The original title is Darlah - 172 timar på månen which is almost the same as the English title just with Darlah, the name of the moon base, appended at the start. I’ve already reviewed it here.)
• A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix because he is Australian and I haven’t got around to reading any of his books yet.

And then my order with Dymocks came in and I picked up three shiny books by Australian women and then also the new Pratchett/Baxter book because it was on sale.

• The Gene Thieves by Maria Quinn (I haven’t heard many good things about it but it is Australian and science fiction, a rare beast, so I thought I’d give it a go)
• Hindsight by AA Bell (the sequel to Diamond Eyes so I can have them both looking pretty on my shelf together)
• Rogue Gadda by Nicole Murphy (the last book in the Dream of Asarlai trilogy, see my reviews for book 1 and book 2)
• The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter (obviously, this is the one not by an Australian woman. Mainly I’m hoping the Pratchett element will overcome Baxer’s usual lack of characterisation. Or that it just reads like a Pratchett book with extra science in it)

New Booksies (11)

Hal Junior: The Missing Case by Haynes

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

Aussie books!

Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson

I am back in Australia for a bit and, as promised, I am starting to amass a pile of Aussie books. Whoo!

First up, I bought the second Hal Junior book, The Missing Case by Simon Haynes just before I left because, well, that was when it was released, but shh, it totally counts as being bought here. I mean, it’s an ebook, so, er, something.

Then I bought City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare, because I needed something easy to read to get through the jet-lag (two red-eye flights in a row: not recommended). I’ve actually been reading Existence by David Brin (expect the review up soonish) but it’s not that kind of book that works well when you’re tired or quickly in a few sittings so it’s been slow progress.

Then I bought a small pile of Aussie-authored books in a real life Australian bookshop (Dymocks). From left to right in the photo:

• Diamond Eyes by AA Bell. I’ve also ordered in the sequel, Hindsight, which wasn’t in store.
• Winter Be My Shield by Jo Spurrier of which I received and ARC and have already read and reviewed it. But I wanted to buy a paper copy because I enjoyed it and want to own the whole set in pretty on my shelf.
• Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan.

Hubby bought the boxed set of the Mistborn trilogy which we happened upon in QBD. Partly because he likes the series (originally he read them from the library) and partly due to my encouragement so I could read books 2 and 3 (review of book 1 here). And they’re included here because, as I’ve mentioned previously, all our books revolve around me ;-p

Finally, Beyond Binary, an anthology of genderqueer stories, was waiting for me in Australia when I arrived. I won it from a Galactic Suburbia Twitter competition a month or two ago. Also my cover is slightly different because it is an ARC.

Yay books!

New Booksies (10)

Liar's Game by Kait Gamble

The Ravenous Dead by Natasha Hoar

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

Poltergeeks by Sean Cummings

The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Clarke

The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

From Carina Press on Netgalley: Liar’s Game by Kait Gamble, a SF romance novella and The Ravenous Dead by Natasha Hoar a dark urban fantasy novella.

Bought City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare as my achievement unlocked book and already reviewed it.

…And then I couldn’t contain myself and bought the third book, City of Glass, on credit (so now I have to read another four books, not counting City of Glass, before I can buy more. On the bright side, the read-three-buy-one restriction isn’t going to be enforced while I’m visiting Australia in a couple of weeks so expect to see a PILE OF AUSSIE BOOKS here soon. I’m excited.

Ahem. And then I got two books from Strange Chemistry (the soon-to-be-launched YA imprint of Angry Robot) which I am super excited to read. Poltergeeks by Sean Cummings and The Assassin’s Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke. How awesome are the covers? The links go to the blurbs and I have to say, The Assassin’s Curse in particular seems to tick many boxes of awesome (pirates! assassins! hilarious curses!). Here’s hoping they don’t disappoint.

And finally, my pre-order for The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead (second Bloodlines book, the series set in the same world as Vampire Academy) dropped just this morning. Yay. (And for the record, pre-orders pre-book buying restrictions don’t count as bought books, also yay.)

On a aesthetic note, I like how my books almost all happened in pairs this week. Symmetry is nice.

New Booksies (9)

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

Dearly, Beloved by Lia Habel

When You Wish Upon a Rat

Another small haul this time.

I bought on, erm, read-three-buy-two credit: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. I have already read and reviewed it. It totally didn’t count as cheating though because hubby allowed it; we were in a shop and needed to make up some spending to get a loyalty stamp. Yes. It’s a perfectly good excuse. As things stand now, I need to read two more books before I can buy another (and right now, it’s a toss up between the next Mortal Instruments book and the next Mistborn book).

From Netgalley I received Dearly, Beloved by Lia Habel. The ARC has a boring place-holder cover so instead of posting that I’ve put what I think is the US cover up there. I haven’t read a zombie romance before or, thinking about it, any books with sympathetic zombies, so this should be interesting.

Also from Netgalley I received When You Wish Upon a Rat by Aussie author Maureen Mccarthy. It’s actually for the US release of the book. The Australian edition was called Careful What You Wish For and because I couldn’t find a non-thumbnail version of the US cover (it’s not out until September), I’ve included the Aussie one in the images above. See thumbnail on the right for a preview of the US cover.

Australian Women Writers Fantasy/Miscellaneous Challenge - Round Up 2

I have read my second ten books for my fantasy/misc genre Aussie Women Writers Challenge (as distinct to the SF specific one) which means, it’s time to post a little about them. Genre-wise, this was another mixed bunch.

First, the list:

1. Secret Ones by Nicole Murphy (review)
2. Power Unbound by Nicole Murphy (review)
3. Ember and Ash by Pamela Freeman (review)
4. Mercy by Rebecca Lim (review)
5. Shift by Em Bailey (review)
6. Destiny of the Light by Louise Cousack (review)
7. The Dark Divide by Jennifer Fallon (review)
8. Winter Be My Shield by Jo Spurrier (review)
9. Slights by Kaaron Warren (review)
10. Suited by Jo Anderton

First there was paranormal romance in the form of Nicole Murphy’s first two Dream of Asarlai trilogy books. Fun reads and I look forward to getting my hands on the third book in a few weeks.

Then there was quite a bit of big fat fantasy (aka BFF; I don’t want to use more loaded terms like “high fantasy” or “traditional fantasy”): Ember and Ash by Pamela Anderson, which went on to win an Aurealis, Destiny of the Light by Louise Cusack, set mostly in a world with no animals, The Dark Divide by Jennier Fallon, which is a little bit different since parts of it are set at the turn of the real world millennium but then none of these fantasy books are generic, and Winter Be My Shield by Jo Spurrier, a debut fantasy from Voyager which will be out in about a week — watch for the review on the weekend but review spoiler: I loved it.

Then two YA books: Shift by Em Bailey (interview link) which is one of my favourite books of the year, and Mercy by Rebecca Lim, about an angel skipping through different people’s bodies. They were quite different to each other and both felt different to the many US-authored YA books I’ve read this year.

Slights by Kaaron Warren is the only horror book I’ve read this year or, now that I come to think about it, in a while. (Since The Intruders by Michael Marshall book, probably.) Anyway, it’s one that’s stuck with me quite strongly.

And finally, there’s Suited by Jo Anderton which isn’t out for about a month so no review yet. I could’ve lumped it in with the BFFs but it’s a little bit steampunky in it’s setting so it gets it’s own subgenre of fantasy. It’s the conclusion to Debris and well worth the wait.

So, what have you guys been reading?