10 in 2020

Blogmas 2019

It’s time to make a new list! As I write this, I’m on track to complete my 10 in 2019, and unless something goes horribly wrong, I should do so. That means it’s new-list time!

Technically this is still my blogmas, as I posted that I’d be doing it through early January, so get ready to keep seeing me pop into your feed for the next week or two.

Anyways, these are the top ten books I want to read in 2020. They will (mostly) align to my Fantasy Bingo, in the hopes that I get them done early this year and not racing the clock at the last minute, so wish me luck:

  1. The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter
  2. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
  3. Pestilence by Laura Thalassa
  4. The Scar by China Mieville
  5. Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
  6. The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemison
  7. Heaven’s Devil by William C. Dietz
  8. That Time I Was Reincarnated by a Slime vol 1 by Fuse
  9. The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams
  10. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

And that’s it! I think I have a good mix in there – light novels, sci-fis, fantasies, and even a classic. The classic is intimidating me honestly, but that’s why I chose it.

Lemme know what your top reads for 2020 are! Happy reading!

Top 5 books I wanna read before the end of the year

Copy of Top 5 Wednesday Banner

https://i.imgur.com/XS0XVS1.gifWhat a wordy title. Happy Hump Day!

Today’s topic is what I said above, and I’m going to try to pick different books than I did in the recent topic ‘books I want to read before the end of summer‘. So think of these as ones I wanna read after those are done.

If you’d like to participate in Top 5 Wednesday, you can do so here.

5. Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas

Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4)

I am behind on this series. I’m not a huge fan of the main character, but I did enjoy the world expansion that occurred in book three, so I’m hoping this book will focus on that. I’ve heard that this one is polarizing, but I don’t know why. I somehow haven’t been spoiled, so if you spoil me I’m gonna come after you with the wrath of a thousand suns and give you such a scolding.

4. The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.

This one sounds so interesting to me, though I’ve had friends both love and hate it. I’ve liked what I read of Stephenson so far, so I’m hoping this one will be good as well. The synopsis makes it sound like a weird crossover between sci-fi and fantasy and I’m all here for it.

3. Dragon Wing by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

Dragon Wing (The Death Gate Cycle, #1)

I picked this entire series up off the clearance shelf of my old college bookstore. I had never heard of it, but at the time I was in a huge 90s fantasy kick, so I kinda just grabbed it without thinking too much on it (and it came out the year I was born, holy cow, this is a Fantasy Bingo tile now!!! I’M EVEN MORE PUMPED FOR IT.)

2. The Edge of the World by Kevin J Anderson

The Edge of the World (Terra Incognita, #1)

Out of all the books on this list, this one has been on my TBR the longest – I got this as a Christmas gift back when I was a teenager, so I’ve had it for ten or so years now. My interest has never waivered, I just.. haven’t gotten to it. You know how it is.

1. Caliban’s War by James S. A. Corey

Caliban's War (The Expanse, #2)

Considering that Leviathan Wakes, the first book in this series, was one of my favorite books two years ago and I still haven’t picked this one up, it makes me wonder what I’m doing. I think the eighth(?!) book in this series was just released, so I have a lot of catching up to do. If I get through this one this year though, I’ll be content.


And that’s it! These are… basically the remaining books on my 10 in 2018 list haven’t already been read, aren’t being currently read, and weren’t mentioned on my summer reads post. 😛 I gotta stick to my guns, man. If you plan on reading any of these, do let me know. Happy reading!

Top 5 hidden gems in fantasy and sci-fi

Top 5 Wednesday

Guess what day it is! I’ve been having some health issues the past few weeks, so my posts have slowed down. But! As of now, I’m just waiting on test results, so I have a bit of time. 😀 So why not make a post.

Today’s topic is top five hidden gems in your favorite genre. And guess who’s miss fantasy pants with a sci-fi hat. And so there’s some level of what is considered hidden, I’m going to choose books with less than 12,000 reviews on goodreads. I’d say that’s pretty fair.

If you’d like to participate in TFW, you can do so here.


The Egg by Andy Weir

The Egg11768 ratings

Can you tell that I picked ‘12000’ so I could include this, hawhaw. I feel like while this is generally known in the sci-fi community (this is the same guy who wrote The Martian) it’s far less read. It’s a short story and honestly I don’t want to say anything else about it. I feel you should go into it blind.

This story I think Weir has actually posted up online, so a quick google should find it for you. It’s really good.

Ralph and the Pixie by G. S. Monks

1 rating

Hey, that rating is me! This story, when I first came across it about a decade ago, was published on fictionpress. I really liked it then, and a couple years ago I gave it a shout out on my blog. Appaaaaarently, the author had since published it into a book and his publicist found my mention! The author contacted me and sent me a copy in exchange for writing an amazon review, which I did. 😀 It was so neat! The story was something I read over and over when I was a teenager online and reading it as a physical copy was the most awesome thing. This is a portal fantasy following Ralph, a human, and Malina, a pixie, as they try to navigate both the human and fae worlds. I really enjoyed this one and think it deserves waaaaay more attention. Read it, people.

Immortal Rain by Kaori Ozaki

Immortal Rain, Vol. 11388 ratings

This is a neato fantasy that has the feel of Trigun, if you’ve ever read that. It follows a 14 year old girl as she sets off to hunt the bounty that her grandfather could never catch: a 624 year-old immortal known as The Methuselah. It’s super, super good.

 

 

The Demon Ororon by Mikuzi Hakase and Tomoko Kamimoto

The Demon Ororon, Vol. 1 (The Demon Ororon, #1)433 ratings

This is a short and sweet manga series following Ororon, the prince of demons and Chiaki, an impure angel. It has an interesting cast of characters and is a rather quick read for a manga – only four volumes. I feel like more people need to read this one – it’s just so lovely. 😀

 

The Deepgate Codex by Alan Campbell

Scar Night (Deepgate Codex, #1)Iron Angel (Deepgate Codex, #2)God of Clocks (Deepgate Codex, #3)

3513 ratings for the first book

Yep, highlighting a whole trilogy here – this is one of my favorite series of all time and I’m always talking about it. I really feel like more people need to read it. READ IT PLEASE. It follows a cast of characters, including a renegade angel, an angel boy, and a man with a ship tied to his back in a city suspended by chains over a seemingly endless abyss. It’s. So. Fantastic. It’s gritty, full of anti-heroes and gray characters, and it’s steampunk! It’s so fantastic, READ IT.


And that’s all for today! Happy reading!

 

 

14 by Peter Clines | Blabber

14 Blabber

1414 by Peter Clines
469 pages
Science Fiction
Read Aug 10 – Aug 19, 2017

This book is really weird.

I’m talking… really weird. But it’s weird in the ‘what in the world is going on’ kind of way, not the ‘I can’t follow this’ kind of way. It was easy to follow along with what was happening, but everything was happening was just so bizarre.

I really enjoyed it!

14 opens on the main character Nate, who’s looking for somewhere new to live. After receiving a recommendation about the Kavach House, a historical apartment building, he moves in. Shortly after doing so, he starts noticing little oddities about his apartment. You know, the usual: padlocked doors on random apartments, bright green cockroaches, a landlord that is weirdly protective of the building… Then he notices other oddities in neighboring apartments. And things just keep getting weirder and weirder from there.

Having read another book by Peter Clines that I knew was somewhat related to this book (The Fold) I kind of knew what I was getting into writing-style wise, character-development-wise and so on, so nothing in either of those categories really appalled me or blew me away. Clines isn’t a purple-prose writer, but he’s a pretty good one I think. He’s able to construct chapters in a way so that the last sentence makes you go ‘Damn it’ and flip the page to the next chapter. His books are really hard to put down.

That, combined with just the morbidly fascinating development of the plot had me reading this book at every available moment – I was on honeymoon when I picked this thing up, so that’s telling you something. Honey, want to get dinner now? Hold on, lemme finish this chapter! Sweetie, wanna hop off the cruise boat and tour the town? Hold on, two more sentences on this page! My husband was very understanding though, thankfully. (And now as I’m writing this, he’s picked up the book and read nearly a third of it last night – unheard of for him, haha).

To be fair, the reviews for this book are mixed. Most of the negative ones mention the pacing. The pacing is indeed a bit slow at the beginning. The weird stuff isn’t super in your face, it’s more little things that you read and go ‘huh’… they eventually delve into ‘wtf’ level weird things, but yes, the pacing is a bit slow. It’s well worth the wait though, in my opinion.

In addition, I always find it strange and somewhat forced when a romantic subplot is forced into a book that is definitely nowhere even close to romance. There’s one in here and at times it’s a bit ‘ehh’ to read. It’s minor though, so it shouldn’t ruin your entire read of the book.

Aside from the pacing and the awkward romance, I really have nothing negative to say about this book – it’s exciting, unnerving, wtf-y, and the ending I think is pretty solid. Considering all the weird, seemingly unrelated stuff that happens in the apartment, I think the author did a rather good job of relating and wrapping it all up nicely. It was refreshing.

Overall, a good choice if you’re looking for something to keep you flipping pages. I really enjoyed it and if you pick it up, let me know if you do, too. :”D

Rating: 4/5 stars

Top 5 sci-fi and fantasy novels on my TBR

Top 5 Wednesday

Image result for hump day wop wop

Happy Camel Day 😀 This week’s topic are sci-fi and fantasy books I haven’t actually read yet. So for simplicity’s sake, I’m going to go with books that I haven’t read yet that I already own. None of this ‘Gonna ignore the 200 unread books I own to add more to my list’ stuff. Gonna try to focus on the books I have. Money dollars, people. I’m not made of them.

If you’d like to join t5w, here is the link to do so. Synopsis for all books will be linked in the titles.


5 – A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin

A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire, #5)I’m one of those late-on-the-bandwagon people with this series. Didn’t start reading it until I think season 3 of the show had already come out. At that point, I was sick of getting spoilers about things I didn’t even understand. So I decided to read the books so I’d understand the spoilers so I’d understand the plot. So I have this last one left and then I’ll be waiting for Winds of Winter along with everyone else. I think I’m going to tackle this one on audiobook. I read the second one in physical copy but that was a struggle. The other ones were all listened to. As much as I dislike the narrator I have a copy of, it’ll still be better for me and move the process along. And then I can continue the tv show.

4 – Caliban’s War by James S. A. Corey

Caliban's War (Expanse, #2)Book one in this series, Leviathan Wakes, was among my favorite books of last year. I ended up going out to the bookstore immediately after finishing it and paying list price for this baby because I needed it…. and then I read 50 pages and got distracted by another book. I’m a bad fan. D:

I’d really like to catch up on this series though, especially since i started watching the show and it’s going to eclipse book one soon. Gotta do it, gotta do it.

 

3 – Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson

Gardens of the Moon (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, #1)Book one out of ten in Eriksons The Malazan Book of the Fallen series, this one is on the list because when I was in Malaysia, a neato friend recommended it to me and I bought it. She also bought Leviathan Wakes at my recommendation… and she has since binged that entire series. I have yet to even start this one. :”D So it’s made the list because aside from wanting to read it as is, there’s a good amount of reader’s guilt stuck to it, haha.

I’ll get to it, Shep-y. I promise. :”D

 

2 – Elantris by Brandon Sanderson

Elantris (Elantris, #1)This was in my most recent haul. I bought it because I’ve had the mistborn trilogy sitting on my shelves forever, but I heard that if I’m going to read Sanderson’s later works, which I want to, I need to read his earliest ones first. If I don’t, I won’t like them when I got back and read them after reading the later ones…. so I figured, this is his first book, so I’m starting with it. And after, then I’ll pick up the mistborn trilogy.

If I’m incorrect in my assumption, feel free to correct me.

 

1 – The Broken Eye by Brent Weeks

The Broken Eye (Lightbringer, #3)This is the third book in Weeks’ Lightbringer series, which I am unendingly obsessed about. The only reason why I haven’t started this book already is that I’m currently reading a few others and I know if I start this one, those will fall to the wayside. I’m in the middle of a buddy read which I’m already behind on, so I don’t want to make that any worse, haha. Once Mad Ship and The Traitor Baru Cormorant are finished though, you bet your butt I’m reading this book. I can already taste it.

 

 

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And that’s it! :”D Happy reading!

Top 5 Wednesday: Books I Want to Finally Read in 2017 – Blogmas 12/7

Top 5 Wednesday

Hello, it’s Wednesday again. :”D Blogmas for me is going pretty well. I had a small slip-up yesterday and forgot to post, but I’ve since made it up and am now posting today’s thing.

I blame a presentation, a research paper and code documentation all being due on the same day. So pbtbt.

This week’s topic is books I finally want to get to in the next year. And instead of being a butt head and just saying ‘All of them’, I’m going to try to pick out some really-hopefuls. This will likely appear on my 17 in 2017 list I have planned to come out after Christmas, too.

If you’re planning on reading any of these, let me know! We can do a buddy read. 😀


5. A Dance With Dragons by George RR Martin

A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire, #5)I need to hop on that ‘CAN’T WAIT FOR BOOK SIX’ train with everyone else. I’m afraid of reading this one, though. I’ve heard it’ll kill me. D: Weirdly, this is the one series that I’ve managed to avoid getting spoiled for, for anything. I don’t know how it’s happened but I’m gonna roll with it.

 

 

4. The Kiss of Deception by Mary E Pearson.

The Kiss of Deception (The Remnant Chronicles, #1)This is the book that inspired me to make my blog, honestly. I heard about it from booktube originally, wanted to read it, and thought of all the other books I’ve read and still want to read. And I knew that video making wasn’t for me, so here I am. :”D And I still haven’t read this damn book, despite owning it for a month or so now.

 

 

3. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)(sneak peak into my next haul, I suppose). I’ve always liked fantasy but it’s also always been a bit daunting to me. Robin Hobb though helped clear that up and now I look at a huge-ass fantasy book with hunger instead of intimidation. :”D Mostly.

 

 

 

2. Caliban’s War by James S. A. Corey

Caliban's War (Expanse, #2)This is the second book in the Expanse series, the first being Leviathan Wakes. This series man. I’m in love with it. I finished the first one and immediately went to the store and bought the second one… and then I didn’t read it. :”D Well, that’s a lie. I read about 80 pages and then got distracted by another book and it fell to the wayside. I want to read it though, so I can read the rest of them. THIS SERIES IS SO GOOD, YO.

 

 

1. The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

The Traitor Baru CormorantYet another story of ‘bought it with intention of reading it right away and then didn’t’. When I started making this list, this book didn’t even float into my mind, honestly. But when I was looking through my goodreads list of books I own (which I highly recommend making one of those, by the way. And a list of books you’ve currently leant out) it stuck out to me and my brain went WHY HAVEN’T YOU READ THAT YET READ IT NOW DAMMIT.

So it’s number one on my list. :”D I wanna read it. Gimme gimme. I think the thing that strikes me the most about it and what draws me to it is look at the cover. It looks like a sci-fi, feels like a sci-fi. But! It’s a fantasy. And I dig it. I’m looking forward to it. :”D


And that’s it! Like I said, I’m totally open to buddy reads, just let me know you’d like to goo over a book with me.

Happy reading! :”D

Book Review: Hyperion by Dan Simmons

Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #1)Hyperion by Dan Simmons

Audiobook
Science Fiction
21ish hours

This review might mention events in passing, but nothing will directly be spoiled.

—-

Listening to this book felt like sitting around a campfire, hearing stories from friends and family… friends and family who hate each other and are very explicit about their sex lives.

All the archetypes were even there. The father who kept telling everyone to hush because his baby was sleeping even though she shouldn’t have been out that late in the first place, the surly uncle who refuses to participate but is still a bit of a control freak, the cousin who always looks just a bit too pale, the ‘firecracker’ sister going through her ‘everything offends me’ phase, the grandpa who just nods and smiles but it still revered as the head of the family, the brother who’s been working out and keeps subtly flexing to show off his muscles, and the drunk neighbor who just showed up when he saw a party in the next yard.

Yet for some reason, I still enjoyed this book for the most part. It’s saving grace is its setting. The world of Hyperion is absolutely fascinating, and I would read one hundred books of goofy characterization of it meant I could read more about this world. I’m smitten.

Hyperion opens upon the beginning of a pilgrimage of these seven characters to the world of Hyperion. They’re to travel there to locate the Shrike, a being with unknown origins and unsettling power, to win its favor and ask it for assistance. Each one of these seven have different motivations and desires and these are revealed throughout the story. And that’s basically what this book is: these characters’ stories. Rarely does the narrative find itself upon the actual pilgrimage but more often it’s neck-deep in one of these characters’ tales. So if you’re going into this book expecting a lot of plot momentum and action, you’ll be sorely disappointed.

This book is a study of the planet Hyperion. Each one of the stories told within this book tie the character telling it to the planet in some way even though it may not be fully evident at first. None of the stories seem outwardly related to each other and it honestly felt like I was reading a bunch of short stories set in the same universe instead of a novel. Sure there were small ties, but no story built upon the previous one. And this world, man. This world is bizarre. It’s fascinating. The Shrike creature that dwells there is foreboding and unsettling and intoxicating. I couldn’t get enough.

Each story increased my love for the planet, even if the individual story didn’t happen to tickle my fancy. Because there were definitely a few that I found ridiculous. Tedious, even. This book was an interesting experience for me – in it, I found some of the best writing I’ve ever read, and some of the worst. Oh my gosh, some of this writing was awful. More than a couple times, I’d finish listening to a scene or even just a line and I’d have some kind of outburst – I’ve laughed hysterically at the absurdity, I’ve yelled at the stupidity. It was a roller coaster. And still, I was fascinated and I couldn’t stop. I read through scenes of these characters telling each other very explicitly what they were doing with another person in their story – details that one normally wouldn’t tell to the closest of friends, let alone a group of people you’d just met. It’s like they had no filter.

Hi, nice to meet you. I don’t like you – you could steal my chance at seeing the Shrike. Here, listen to me tell you how my penis felt when I boned this one chick. Also here’s some intimate details about her body that she probably would be mortified if she knew I told you.

It was so weird. And it wasn’t limited to just one gender – both were guilty. I mean, I suppose it wouldn’t have been so bad if there had been a good romantic element to the story, but there wasn’t. There was sex, and there was romance alluded, but not really any actual… romance. It made the ‘mood’ or whatever the hell it was feel very forced and awkward. So yeah, I’m going to try to block some of the more graphic scenes from my memory, thanks.

Obviously because of the above, I definitely developed favorite and least favorite stories while listening. Some characters were definitely more interesting and less infuriating than others, but I see why all of them were included. Except one. I’m still questioning that one. Stupidest story I’ve ever read. Not going to say who though, but bet you could guess after reading this. But the good stories were awesome and more than made up for the short-comings of the other ones. You’ll know the good ones when you read them. You’ll know them very quickly.

Anyways – overall Hyperion, the world not the book, has me head over heels. I’m going to read the second book just so I can experience the world more. Characters can come and go, but the planet, I love it.

Rating: 4/5 stars

November Book Haul – #3

Ignore what I said about my next book haul being after the holidays. Between a bookoutlet order and a trip to Half Price Books, I got these.

I’m not expecting to get many if any books at all this Christmas, so hopefully I’ll be able to read most of these before getting anymore. Anyways, onto the books:

IMG_2218IMG_2219

I’m not going to go into detail, but if you’d like to hear more about a book, just let me know. :”D Otherwise, titles are:

The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension and The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson

Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel

The Glass Sentence by SE Grove

The Time Traveler’s Almanac by a buttload of authors

My True Love Gave to Me by a buttload of other authors

Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

And that’s what I have acquired since my last haul. :”D Hopefully I’ll get to at least the Christmas ones before the new year. And the rest… well, hopefully soon after that.

Happy reading!

Book Review: The Martian by Andy Weir

The MartianThe Martian by Andy Weir

Let me start off by saying that when I was typing the author’s name, my brain decided originally to type ‘Weird’ instead of ‘Weir’. I think it was a Freudian slip, because I feel the author of this novel is just that – weird, in the best way possible. You have to be weird to come up with a book like this one. Like most people, I completely adored this book. I listened to it as an audio book while on road trips and it certainly made time fly.

I think if I would have read it as a physical book I still would have really liked it but the audio book just made it oh so much better. The narrator was perfect. He put into his words the wry humor that permeated the book. He made recognizable voices for each character and for a guy with a deeper voice, he managed to voice all the women characters rather well, too.

But enough about the narrator, on to the book itself: The Martian is set on Mars. It follows Mark Watney, who through a set of circumstances becomes stranded on the orange planet. He has to survive until a rescue plan becomes available.

Now there are two things that particularly stuck out to me in this book, which made me love it.

First, it was sciencey. And I’m talking really sciencey. When Watney had to create a breathable atmosphere for himself, the author went into the chemistry of it. When Watney had to figure out how to grow food, the physics and chemistry of that was explained too. If you know anything about basic chemistry, you’ll feel really smart reading this book because you’ll recognize the principles. If you don’t know anything about chemistry, you’ll enjoy it all the same because all the hard science is presented in a way that is entertaining, easy to understand, and funny. Which brings me to the second thing I loved about this book:

The humor. This book. is. hilarious. I was laughing out loud so many times throughout this book I couldn’t even count it. Mark Watney is a wonderful character. He takes the situation of being stranded on Mars and makes it hysterical. He’s so dry, so sarcastic, so quick-witted. He’s a lot of fun to read. You shouldn’t be laughing when someone keeps putting themselves in life-or-death situations, but… you do. You can’t help it. No oxygen? Hahahahaaa. Miscalculated a super crucial measurement that will keep the water in your eyes from boiling away? Stop it, I can’t breathe!

This book is wonderful. Go read it. Want sci-fi? Comedy? Reaaaaaad iiiiiiit. Unfortunately this is gonna be a short review, because I don’t have anything critical to say on this book. I loved every aspect of it. It’s definitely made it onto my all-time favorites list. I’m gonna shove it down all your throats for a long time to come. :”D

Rating: 5/5 stars
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