eBook Deals - Posey, Gaiman, Abercrombie, Kadrey, Chu, Scalzi, Grossman, Bester, Schwab,

I don't know what's going on lately, but there are a ton of great books on sale right now in the US.

[$0.99] Three (Legends of the Dustwalker #1) by Jay Posey

[$1.99] The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
[$1.99] Half a King (Shattered Sea #1) by Joe Abercrombie
[$1.99] The Getaway God by Richard Kadrey
[$1.99] The Lives of Tao (Lives of Tao #1) by Wesley Chu
[$1.99] Outlander (Outlander #1) by Diana Gabaldon

[$2.99] The Human Division (Old Man's War #5) by John Scalzi
[$2.99] The Magicians (Magicians #1) by Lev Grossman - I can't recommend this enough!
[$2.99] Virtual Unrealities, short fiction by Alfred Bester
[$2.99] Vicious by V.E. Schwab
[$2.99] Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi

Review - The Last Colony (Old Man's War #3) by John Scalzi

I think John Scalzi is a fun author to read, one you can always go back to knowing you'll have an entertaining read. He's got smart, compassionate characters you can root for, fast-paced plots, and you always know you won't have to think too hard. I love to be challenged in my reading, but I don't want to be challenged with every single book I read. Thus, authors like John Scalzi make for the perfect break in your complex readings.

The Last Colony [US] [UK] is the final Old Man's War universe novel with John Perry and Jane Sagan. At least until the next one comes out right. I haven't read Zoe's Tale, but I assume it's predominately her (I'm good at making inferences from my reading aren't I?), at least I know it's her perspective of the events in The Last Colony. 

Here, John and Jane have been living the life on the planet of Huckleberry. Low key is the word and they couldn't be happier, maybe. Then, they're offered the chance to head a new colony that really needs them. Of course they agree and soon find out that things are not quite as expected. The good ol' Colonial Union isn't the most forthcoming with information about just about anything and they find themselves in lots of trouble (another 'of course' belongs here too). 

Scalzi's tight plotting keep things moving nicely and the mysteries keep the pages moving as well. The actual intent behind the colony is slowly revealed and not once did it lose me in believability (unlike Redshirts I might add). This was a great conclusion to John and Jane's story although the surprises in the first book, Old Man's War, just can't be beat for me. 

3.5 out of 5 stars (recommended)

Old Man's War Universe: (read in red)
1) Old Man's War (review - if you can call it that)
2) The Ghost Brigades (review)
3) The Last Colony
4) Zoe's Tale
5) The Human Division (2013 release)

Novellas:
The Sagan Diary
Questions for a Soldier
After the Coup

Review - The Ghost Brigades (Old Man's War #2) by John Scalzi

Warning: Spoilers for Old Man's War (review) book one in the Old Man's War sequence.

A secret is discovered and war is looming. Former enemies are allied against the Colonial Union and it's up to the Special Forces, the Ghost Brigades, to stop them. They only take the dirtiest jobs and this is no exception.

The Ghost Brigades [US] [UK] deals almost exclusively with the Special Forces who have been nicknamed the Ghost Brigades on account of their entire Forces using the bodies of people who did not enter the military, but for whom a clone body was created, for new consciences.

Two things stand out right away. One, there's no first-person narrative here and two, John Perry (our protagonist from OMW) is nowhere in sight. In fact, he's mentioned in passing about once or twice, but that's it.

Other than that, The Ghost Brigades is a typical Scalzi effort - a fast pace, some witty (and non-witty) banter, and cool concepts that keep the pages turning.

The Ghost Brigades is definitely a step down from Old Man's War. OMW really hit the spot when I read it a number of years ago, the surprise at what these elderly folks were getting themselves into when they signed up for the military at the end of their lives was a great one and the action was non-stop for the rest of the book.

Here, things felt a little more forced, even though I had a good time reading from start to finish. I enjoyed it, but there were a few things that niggled where that didn't happen before (one instance is the "why don't we go up in the trees" plan if you can call it that). I'll admit it's been a few years (and a few kids) so it could also very much be me.

Some of the banter, as I mentioned above, was also a bit awkward this time instead of remotely funny. There's a part toward the end where they "don't" talk about secretive matters that just made my eyes roll. Too many eye rolls begins to make those stars start shedding.

Although it sounds bad, I really did enjoy The Ghost Brigades and I'm looking forward to The Last Colony. It's fun and exciting and hard to put down even, there were just some parts that put this below OMW even though the rest of the book was on par.

3.5 out of 5 Stars (recommended)

Note: I make fun of a quote on the back of this book that really makes no sense here.

Old Man's War Universe (Read in red)
1) Old Man's War (review - if you can call it that)
2) The Ghost Brigades
3) The Last Colony
Zoe's Tale
The Human Division

Novellas
The Sagan Diary ($2.99)
Questions for a Soldier ($0.99)
After the Coup ($0.99)

(revisited) Review - Old Man's War (OMW #1) by John Scalzi

I read Old Man's War [US] [UK] a number of years ago, back in 2008 or 9 and I just now jumped back into the world with The Ghost Brigades. Before that period of time, I'd considered myself a fantasy/science fiction fan and I thought I was actually relatively well-read in the genre. I'd read Tolkien, Feist, Eddings, Card, Herbert, and a bunch more.

In 2008, I had a bit of a rude awakening when I started to become active (okay that's putting it lightly, "obsessive" is the word we want) in the genre and in online forums. I scoured "best of," "top 10," and even "top 100" lists and started a list of books that I found consistently on just about every list. Sffworld.com had (and still does) a great thread where everyone on the forum posted their top 10 favorite books so I did the same - I wrote down the books that commonly popped (almost wrote pooped :)) up.

Suddenly I was terribly underread and I wanted to read everything immediately. As some of you may have already discovered, it's not only an uphill battle, but just about impossible to read EVERYTHING there is (check out this article, it will make you feel better).

So my solution was to read one book of just about every series I could get my hands on just to get a feel and to be able to better participate in online discussions. In a way this solution backfired on me, since I now have about a million books to read and I've started so many series that I now have to reread books to figure out what's going on. But it also let me find out about some great authors who I wouldn't have tried otherwise.

I'm sure I would have read Scalzi eventually, but Old Man's War was one of these. Four years later, I finally got to the sequel and I plan on reading The Last Colony soon in preparation for The Human Division.

Anyway, this was a long way to introduce the short review I put up for Old Man's War on Goodreads all those years ago:

This book was quite the page-turner. It was really enjoyable, great premise, loved the ideas. I wasn't a huge fan of the cussing and that's why I put this book on my "Liked, not loved" shelf. It just didn't make sense to me. These are 75-year-olds. I just thought it wasn't very believable, but that's probably just me. Other than that, this was a very entertaining, quick-paced and fun book.

Hopefully my reviews have improved a bit, but probably not. I obviously hadn't heard of Sh*t My Dad Says at the time either.

4 out of 5 Stars (highly recommended)

Old Man's War Universe (Read in red)

1) Old Man's War 

2) The Ghost Brigades

3) The Last Colony

Zoe's Tale

The Human Division

Novellas

The Sagan Diary ($2.99)

Questions for a Soldier ($0.99)

After the Coup ($0.99)

A Book Haul From Two Johns

I just got my copy of The Human Division by John Scalzi, so of course that means I'll be posting the weekly episodes here from this point forward. If you're wondering what I'm referring to, The Human Division has been serialized - each "episode" or chapter comes out every week through April (Here's the schedule). At the end of that time, it will be published as the book you can see above. (Also, if it's unclear that I'm joking about posting the episodes, I'm joking.)

I think the claim is funny that it's a new and innovative format that's being "experiment[ed]" with. Because books have never been serialized ever...not even Scalzi's own first two novels, oh wait. I guess I have to give them that it's not a thing that's done as often anymore, so I guess it's an experiment to see if it still works, which I'm sure it will. Scalzi's just a fun author no matter how you read him.

As to the other John, I'm extremely excited about this one:

Front Cover

John Marco took a break for a little while, partially on purpose and partially because his editor didn't read his manuscript for a couple years. I'm very excited to see him back in the game. This book continues the story of the Bronze Knight, which began in the trilogy, The Eyes of God, The Devil's Armor, and The Sword of Angels.

Marco's work in progress at the moment is blowing my mind with awesome too. It's titled The Bloody Chorus, which already has me sold, but you gotta read some of the description and the six sentences he posted. It's brilliant, I can tell already. Like I said, I'm very happy he's back.

Free on Audible! The Human Division, Episode 1: The B-Team by John Scalzi

I just got this news in my inbox and thought I'd better share, especially since the first thing I did was go to Audible and download this. Sorry, you guys came second, but that shows how much I'm looking forward to this.

To download The Human Division, Episode 1: The B-Team by John Scalzi:

NEWS FROM AUDIBLE  

"The Human Division," John Scalzi's eagerly awaited return to the "Old Man's War" universe, is available at Audible beginning today, January 15. Even more exciting, the first installment of this innovative "episodic narrative" will be available free via Audible's Facebook page. Episodes 2-13 are available for pre-order and will be released weekly, for $.99 each, through April; fans who choose to pre-order all 12 remaining episodes will automatically receive a new installment of "The Human Division" in their Audible library each Tuesday through April 9. For more information see here: http://bit.ly/HumanDivisionFREE. 

Here is a sample of the audiobook:



As a quick update, I'm back into bar studying mode, which means posting will be sporadic at best. I mentioned this in passing a couple weeks ago, but I didn't pass the first time and that means I get to study for 10 hours a day for a couple months and take a test that only lasts 3 days...again! The California bar has a 55% pass rate, but this time I'll get it. :) I have a few reviews almost ready to go up, one of those completed and sent to sffaudio.com, which I'll link to here.

Looking Forward to 2013 - Most Anticipated Books

I've been working on this list for a couple months now and it's just about right to publish to the blog. I may have to update it a few more times, but the following are the books, released in 2013, I plan on reading this upcoming year or at least plan on making an attempt to get to. As you'll see, I still have a few books to read to get to all the new releases this year.

I've placed them by the month (and even the exact date when available), but this in no way means I'll be reviewing them in that same month. I figured it was as good a way as any to put things together, plus people may want to refer back to this (myself included) for those release dates (US only).

Jan:

Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, A Memory of Light (WoT #14) (Jan. 8) [US] [UK]

Myke Cole, Fortress Frontier (Shadow Ops #2) (Jan. 29) [US] [UK]

Feb:

Marie Brennan, A Natural History of Dragons (Feb. 5) [US] [UK]
Robert V. S. Redick, The Night of the Swarm (Chathrad Voyages #4) (Feb. 5) [US] [UK]
Robert Jackson Bennett, American Elsewhere (Feb. 12) [US] [UK]
Peter V. Brett, The Daylight War (Demon Cycle #3) (Feb. 12) [US] [UK]

March:
Orson Scott Card, The Gate Thief (Mithermages #2) (Mar. 19) [US] [UK]

April:

John Marco, The Forever Knight (Lukien #4) (Apr. 2) [US] [UK]
John Scalzi, The Human Division (Apr. 2) [US] [UK]
Brian McClellan, Promise of Blood (Apr. 16) [US] [UK]

May:

Westley Chu, The Lives of Tao (May 2) [US] [UK]
Brandon Sanderson, The Rithmatist (May 14) [US] [UK]
Ian C. Esslemont, Blood and Bone (Malazan Empire #5) (May 21) [US] [UK] - Available now in the UK.

Jun:
Ofir Touche Gafla, The World of the End (Jun. 25) [Goodreads]

Aug:

Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns (Broken Empire #3) (Aug. 1) [US] [UK]
Michael J. Sullivan, The Crown Tower (Riyria Chronicles #1) (Aug. 3) [US] [UK]

Sep:
Michael J. Sullivan, The Rose and Thorn (Riyria Chronicles #2) [US] [UK]

TBD:
Courtney Schafer, The Labyrinth of Flame (Shattered Sigil #3) 
Scott Lynch, The Republic of Thieves (Gentlemen Bastards #3)

Not Counting On:
Patrick Rothfuss, The Doors of Stone (Kingkiller Chronicle #3)
George R.R. Martin, The Winds of Winter (ASoIaF #6) 
Brandon Sanderson, Highprince of War (Stormlight Archive #2) [Title not final]

Non-2013 Release Date Books: (i.e., Books I need to read to catch up)
The Lukien Trilogy by John Marco (The Eyes of God, The Devil's Armor, The Sword of Angels)
The Chathrad Voyages by Robert V.S. Redick (The Red Wolf Conspiracy, The Ruling Sea, The River of Shadows)
The Wheel of Time (A Crown of Swords, Path of Daggers, Winter's Heart, Crossroads of Twilight, Knife of Dreams, The Gathering Storm, Towers of Midnight)
Malazan Empire (Stonewielder and Orb, Sceptre, Throne)
Riyria Revelations (Heir of Novron)

35 in total. 19 new releases. I read about 50 to 60 a year, so this is going to take up the bulk of my reading and this is only through September.

EDIT: There are a few books being released that I probably should have put on this list (Daniel Abraham's Tyrant's Law, Neil Gaiman's Ocean at the End of the Lane, S.A. Corey's Abbadon's Gate), but the ones listed are what I think I actually have a chance of reading this year.

EDIT Feb. 8: Updated some dates for The Daylight War and The Lives of Tao.

eBook Deals, or Books I Bought Recently - Wurts, Del Toro, Scalzi

Wow, Amazon really thinks we're in the mood to buy things for some reason. :) For the moment, they've discounted a really great and criminally under-read series, The Wars of Light and Shadow. I was lucky enough to welcome the author herself to the blog and explain the series here.

[$0.99] The Curse of the Mistwraith (Wars of Light and Shadow #1) by Janny Wurts - In my review, I called this the most frustratingly amazing book I've ever read. See why.
[$1.99] The Ships of Merior (Wars of Light and Shadow #2) by Janny Wurts
[$3.79] Warhost of Vastmark (Wars of Light and Shadow #3) by Janny Wurts
[$1.99] The Strain (Strain Trilogy #1) by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan

EDIT: The Wurts books are also available for you Nookers (that's what you like to be called right? :D) Curse [$0.99], Ships [$1.99], Warhost [$3.99]

Today Only:
[$2.99] Old Man's War (Old Man's War #1) by John Scalzi - I read this before I started blogging and it's highly recommended. Don't expect hard science or anything, but it has a great story, humor, and it's extremely hard to put down.
[$2.99] Legend by Marie Wu - All I know is it's YA and has a pretty fancy cover.

eBook Deals, or Books I Bought Recently

Lots of good deals right now, possibly getting ready for the shopping Holiday season.

-[$1.99] A Series of Unfortunate Events #1: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
-[$2.99] Seven Princes (Books of the Shaper #1) by John R. Fultz  - Orbit Drop book, but reviews are mixed at best.
-[$2.99] The First Confessor by Terry Goodkind - I mostly liked the first, who knows, I might read the rest.
-[$2.99] Imager (Imager Portfolio #1) by L.E. Modesitt Jr.
-[$1.99] The Serpent Sea (Raksura #2) by Martha Wells
-[$0.99] The B-Team (The Human Division #1) by John Scalzi - This is the first in Scalzi's new serial novel that will be released from January to April of next year and later released as a whole in a published novel. The rest of the episdoes can be pre-ordered here.
-[FREE] The Man Who Was Thursday, a nightmare by G.K. Chesterton - This is just a wonderful (and very short) book I'd read a while ago that I looked up and which (of course) is free-ninety-nine.

What's the Deal With... This Quote, It's Just So Bad

I was going through my books, as I'm want to do every now and then (alas, I'm just a kid with his toys), and I came across my copy of The Ghost Brigades, the sequel to Old Man's War by John Scalzi. Sadly, I still have yet to read it, but I couldn't help but laugh at this quote on the back of the book...

Says the Dallas Morning News:

"If Stephen King were to try his hand at science fiction, he'd be lucky to be half as entertaining as John Scalzi."

Wow, where to begin?

First off, "If" Stephen King wrote science fiction? I'm pretty sure I could make a compelling argument that ALL he writes is some type of science fiction, but at least we can agree on The Running Man, The Long Walk, The Dark Tower, THE STAND, even The Tommyknockers and I haven't even touched his short stories. I'm sure plenty have a much stricter definition of science fiction than I do, but even so, something of King's would probably fit.

Wikipedia, bastion of wisdom that it is, literally says, "Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction!, and fantasy." (emphasis and exclamation mark added)

Sadly, if you know anything at all about science fiction, you immediately discern that the Dallas Morning News knows nothing about it. Whoever wrote it went, "well, I know Stephen King writes lots of stuff..." ...and that's about the extent to which this person thought through this comparison.

I'm not quite sure what they're going for either, but I think it's that Scalzi is a pretty hilarious writer and entertaining in a comical way, which Stephen King does not attempt to be at least as far as I've experienced...so that doesn't quite fit either. They're like night and day comparisons here.

I'm also sure that whoever included the quote on the back of the book thought, "well the quote does positively compare the author to Stephen King, so that obligates us to put it on the book."

This reminds me I need to read more Scalzi, but probably not for any possible connection to Stephen King. :)

eBook Deals, or Books I Bought Recently

I keep finding deals so I'll keep posting them. This reminds me I need to run a giveaway since people have been buying a lot more through these links lately.

-The Cloud Roads (Books of Raksura #1) by Martha Wells [$1.99]
-Sliding Void (short story) by Stephen Hunt [FREE]
-The Hundredth Kill (short story) by John Marco [FREE] - My review here.
-The Marriage of Sticks by Jonathan Carroll [$2.99] - Author of The Land of Laughs, which I've been meaning to read for a while.
-Subterranean Scalzi Super Bundle by John Scalzi [$7.99] - Includes God Engines ($4.99 alone), The Sagan Diary ($2.99 alone), and a few short stories ($0.99 each alone).


DISCLAIMER: I don't always buy them (like the title says), but usually I do.

Review - An Election by John Scalzi

I always know that when I read Scalzi I'll be entertained. Whether it's his science fiction, his blog (whatever), and now his short fiction.

An Election [Kindle - 99 cents] is a humorous story of a guy, David, who decides to run for city counsel. It just so happens no human has been a representative for the third district in 44 years, not to mention no human has even run for the position in 36.

David's husband, James, attempts to talk him out of it, but to no avail.

Most of the fun is found in the different aliens Scalzi's created, from a gelatinous blob who speaks in bubbles, to, well, let's just say there's suckers. David goes door-to-door meeting them and runs against them.

The running-mates, of course, are all aliens (if you can call them that at this point in the future), one of whom's only platform is that people should be able to eat each other's pets. Yep, the only stance.

I had fun, but I think I was expecting it to be funnier really. Still good, but not my favorite from Scalzi. It was still worth the $0.99 I paid, even though it was only about 15 or so pages (I think, my kindle skipped about 3-5% each page turn). Recommended.

3 out of 5 Stars

Two Imaginary Discussions With Tor...

...make for great blogging.

I don't know what was in the water this week, but if you haven't already checked out these two posts, one a review, one a commentary on a book cover, you really should do yourself a favor:


Staffer's Musings Reviews Shadow Prowler: You may remember Alec's review of this gem. He had similar feelings as I recall.


Stomping on Yeti Talks Scalzi's New Cover: The book Redshirts gets a lame cover while they taunt us with actually decent ones.