Top 10 Fantasy Books - My old Goodreads List (Youtube)

 I take a look at my old top 10 Fantasy book list (really 12 since I couldn't narrow it down to 10). It's more of an attempt to use new programs (to me) so bear with me on this one. I at least learned a lot about this process so I will try to do better on the next one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FosEU7yaq0o&t=70s

Please subscribe and don't forget to tell me how terrible these videos are in the comments. Thanks!

Review - Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin

As the old saying goes: "Show, don't tell...until you're rich and famous and everyone will buy up any old crap you throw out there when you should be writing some other book everyone has been waiting for years to read." 

I was really excited to get a copy of Dangerous Women, the anthology edited by GRRM and the late, great Gardner Dozois, and that excitement was mostly due to GRRM's own contribution, The Princess and the Queen. Being the fanboy I am, I skipped all the other stories and dove right into Martin's novella. Only 26 pages of pure exposition later and I couldn't go further. I was bored out of my mind.

That novella makes up a healthy amount of the latter half of Fire & Blood: 300 Years Before A Game of Thrones (A Targaryen History) (A Song of Ice and Fire). I had a feeling it might, so I threw and Audible credit at this, knowing that there was little likelihood of me getting through this with my eyeballs doing the reading.

I wouldn't have made it through without Audible, that's for sure. It's just so boring.

So I'm a huge fan, I've been around since the Grrrumblers were making a stink about A Dance with Dragons coming out and I even agreed with Neal Gaiman at the time who stated the famous, "George RR Martin is not your bitch" phrase. I'm finding that less my opinion now and it's switched to Brian McClellan's well-argued point that we fans are owed something.

It's not this though.

It's boring. And that's not to say it's not interesting at times. I think a true fan has got to read this. There's great history and I was even entertained from time to time, but if you thought there was a large cast of characters before, this book puts them all to shame....and they're all named something along the line of Aemon, Aegon, Daemon, etc. It's hard to keep track, but then I realized, it doesn't even matter all that much (that could also be from the audio reading, it's much harder to keep straight).

And this gets me to my initial point. It's all tell, no show. It's written from the perspective of a maester so it's literally a history book. We don't get to know characters (maybe that stinker Mushroom a bit), just deeds and events. Then more events and some deeds. No stakes, no beautiful writing we've come to love from GRRM. And then it's just depressing too, which was expected I guess, but let's just say there's lots of death, backstabbing, and incest. None of which is made more entertaining than a history book would.

2.5 out of 5 Stars (recommended for die-hards)

[BLOG UPDATE: Not sure if I'm officially back, just had the passing fancy to post a couple reviews in the next little bit. I've been relatively active on Goodreads with reviews here and there if you want to find me. I stopped taking review copies and, to be honest, it's been the greatest thing. It's very freeing.]

eBook Deals

Found some great deals I couldn't resist. Sorry for the spotty posting. We're slowly getting back on schedule here.

[$1.99] Songs of Love and Death, edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
[$1.99] Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card
[$2.99] Unfettered, edited by Shawn Speakman - You better believe I bought this.
[$2.99] The Dark Thorn by Shawn Speakman
[$2.99] Shadow's Son by Jon Sprunk
[$2.99] 11/22/63 by Stephen King - Just finished this one and it's really good though on the unnecessary long side.

eBook Deals - Sanderson, Gaiman, Martin, Beaulieu, Cameron

I haven't read any of Brandon Sanderson's novellas for the Infinity Blade game on iPhone, but I've played the first game and it's pretty fun until everything gets ridiculously pricy. They've always been $2.99, but I just saw they are reduced at the moment so of course I'm jumping on it. Anyone know how good they are?

[$0.99] Infinity Blade: Awakening (Infinity Blade #1) by Brandon Sanderson (novella set in Infinity Blade world)
[$0.99] Infinity Blade: Redemption (Infinity Blade #2)by Brandon Sanderson (novella set in Infinity Blade world)
[$1.99] Stardust by Neil Gaiman
[$2.99] A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire #5) by George R.R. Martin
[$2.99] The Winds of Khalakovo (Lays of Anuskay #1) by Bradley P. Beaulieu
[$2.99] The Red Knight (Traitor Son #1) by Miles Cameron

Giveaway Winner! Dangerous Women, edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois

I know I promised a giveaway winner on Friday, but the fact that I finally got a job and started this last week made that ... difficult. Now that I've caught my breath, our giveaway winner for Dangerous Women, edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois is:

Mark Cooper from Ohio

Congrats to Mark and thanks to all who entered. We had record numbers for this pretty stellar anthology. If Mark doesn't respond in the next 24 hours I'll draw a new one, but don't get your hopes up. :)

Giveaway - Dangerous Women, Edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois (With Stories from Joe Abercrombie, Brandon Sanderson, Jim Butcher, Martin Himself, and Plenty More!)

I'm very excited to bring this giveaway to you today, this is one of the biggest releases of the year with some of the greats of the fantasy genre and other genres as well. Dangerous Women [US] [UK] is exactly what the title says, it's an anthology with stories about dangerous women across multiple genres with some of the best authors writing today. This is one of the books I've been looking forward to all year and I'm happy to offer it to you, via the nice folks at Tor, as a giveaway.

But first, here's the lineup:

The Dangerous Women anthology contains following stories:
- Introduction by Gardner Dozois
- “Some Desperado” by Joe Abercrombie - A Red Country story
- “My Heart is Either Broken” by Megan Abbott
- “Nora’s Song” by Cecelia Holland
- “The Hands That Are Not There” by Melinda Snodgrass
- “Bombshells” by Jim Butcher - A Harry Dresden story
- “Raisa Stepanova” by Carrie Vaughn
- “Wrestling Jesus” by Joe R. Lansdale
- “Neighbors” by Megan Lindholm
- “I Know How to Pick ’Em” by Lawrence Block
- “Shadows For Silence in the Forests of Hell” by Brandon Sanderson
- “A Queen in Exile” by Sharon Kay Penman
- “The Girl in the Mirror” by Lev Grossman - A Magicians story
- “Second Arabesque, Very Slowly” by Nancy Kress
- “City Lazarus” by Diana Rowland
- “Virgins” by Diana Gabaldon - An Outlander story
- “Hell Hath No Fury” by Sherilynn Kenyon
- “Pronouncing Doom” by S.M. Stirling - An Emberverse story
- “Name the Beast” by Sam Sykes
- “Caretakers” by Pat Cadigan
- “Lies My Mother Told Me” by Caroline Spector - A Wild Cards story
- “The Princess and the Queen” by George R.R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire story

As you can see, we get stories from great authors like Brandon Sanderson, Joe Abercrombie, Jim Butcher, and even a George R.R. Martin novella from A Song of Ice and Fire. One of the big ones I've been looking forward to is Lev Grossman's story about Brakebills from his trilogy, The Magicians.

But wait, there's more.

No, actually that was it. Sorry, I started feeling like an infomercial for a sec. My excitement has turned into a sales pitch, doh! Well, suffice it to say, I'm really looking forward to reading just about everything in this anthology, but for now I've already jumped into Martin's The Princess and the Queen, because yeah.

The Giveaway!

If you are interested in getting your hands on Dangerous Women, then follow the exceedingly simple instructions below:

E-mail me your name and address at onlythebestsff@[removethis]gmail.com, with "Definitely Not Femme Fatales" as the subject of the email (or at least something that lets me know what the email is about). This goes without saying, but double emails get you disqualified.

Snarky comments increase your chances of winning by getting you bonus entries for future giveaways. This is US Only (sorry!) as long as delivery doesn't require the mounting of an expedition into remote wilderness.

eBook Deals - Weeks, Gaiman, Card, McClellan, Cornwell, Sanderson, Butcher, Martin, Jordan

I thought I was keeping my spending under control, until the last couple weeks. These deals are insane. I hate them. So much that I can't stop buying everything that ever went on sale. And of course I have to pass them on to you. Does that mean I hate you?

[$1.79] The Way of Shadows (Night Angel #1) by Brent Weeks - I still have fond memories of this series years later.

[$1.99] Stardust by Neil Gaiman - My review.
[$1.99] Ender's Game (Ender #1) by Orson Scott Card
[$1.99] Promise of Blood (Powder Mages #1) by Brian McClellan - My review.
[$1.99] Death of Kings (Saxon Stories #6) by Bernard Cornwell - Not fantasy, but it does have a GRRM quote on the cover.

[$2.49] Steelheart (Reckoners #1) by Brandon Sanderson
[$2.49] The Blinding Knife (Lightbringer #2) by Brent Weeks
[$2.49] Cold Days (Dresden Files #14) by Jim Butcher

[$2.99] The Way of Kings (Stormlight Archive #1) by Brandon Sanderson - My review.
[$2.99] A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire #5) by George R.R. Martin

[$4.29] A Memory of Light (Wheel of Time #14) by Robert Jordan

[$9.99 or $1.99 a piece] All 5 Books of A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin (usually around $27)

eBook Deals - McClellan, Hough, Martin, Card, King

Two posts in a day? I'm just as surprised as you. I guess this is a good day for this particular book to go on sale in memory of John F. Kennedy's tragic death 50 years ago. Stephen King's 11/22/63 is the deal of the day today. Also, there's an unexpected discount on A Dance with Dragons, the fifth book in A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R. R. Martin. I guess the mass market paperback barely came out and they're pretty much giving copies away now.

[$1.99] Promise of Blood (Powder Mages #1) by Brian McClellan - A 2013 release and still on sale.
[$1.99] The Darwin Elevator (Dire Earth Cycle #1) by Jason M. Hough
[$2.99] A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire #5) by George R.R. Martin
[$3.99] Ender's Game (Ender #1) by Orson Scott Card

Today Only:
[$2.99] 11/22/63 by Stephen King

eBook Deals - Reid, McClellan, Hobb, Card, Martin

Sorry for the absolutely crap-tastic blogging lately. There's been a pretty constant state of influx in my life at the moment and I blog best under routine. Don't worry, I saved you from poor humor by holding back a terrible joke. And another one. You're welcome.

I have a handful of reviews I need to write up and I just keep digging myself a deeper hole. It does not help that I just got an iPhone 5 after my iPhone 3. Going from 10 minutes to start a game of Words with Friends to instant gratification has hampered many things to say the least. :)

[$0.99] Year Zero by Rob Reid
[$1.99] Promise of Blood (Powder Mage #1) by Brian McClellan - Still on sale, still worth every penny.
[$1.99] Dragon Keeper (Rain Wilds Chronicles #1) by Robin Hobb
[$3.98] Ender's Game (Ender #1) by Orson Scott Card
[$4.99] A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire #4) by George R.R. Martin

eBook Deals - Jernigan, Russell, Williams, Boyett, McClellan, Pratchett, Hobb, Barron, Hickman, Gladstone, Hill, Martin, Gibson, Aldiss, Cobley

SfSignal.com ran their usual huge post of ebook deals a few days ago and it really makes finding deals easy. I'd highly recommend you check it out. Here's my condensed list of those titles that interest me:

[$0.99] The Bottom of the Sea (short stories) by Zachary Jernigan
[$0.99] The One Kingdom (Swan's War #1) by Sean Russell
[$0.99] The Isle of Battle (Swan's War #2) by Sean Russell
[$0.99] The Shadow Roads (Swan's War #3) by Sean Russell 

[$1.38] The Emperor's Knife (Tower and Knife #1) by Mazarkis Williams
[$1.48] Elegy Beach by Stephen R. Boyett - The sequel to Ariel.

[$1.99] Promise of Blood (Powder Mage #1) by Brian McClellan - OTBSFF Review.
[$1.99] Snuff (Discworld #843 ... or 39) by Terry Pratchett
[$1.99] Dragon Keeper (Rain Wilds Chronicles #1) by Robin Hobb
[$1.99] The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All by Laird Barron

[$2.99] Wayne of Gotham by Tracy Hickman
[$2.99] Three Parts Dead (Craft #1) by Max Gladstone
[$2.99] Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
[$2.99] Wild Cards II: Aces High, edited by George R.R. Martin
[$2.99] Wild Cards: Inside Straight, edited by George R.R. Martin

[$2.24] Stealing Light (Shoal Sequence #1) by Gary Gibson
[$3.03] Nova War (Shoal Sequence #2) by Gary Gibson

[$3.82] Helliconia Summer by Brian W. Aldiss

Today Only:
[$1.99] Seads of Earth by Michael Cobley - OTBSFF review.

Game of Thrones Season 3 Promo

I think anyone who's read the books, whether before the HBO Game of Thrones series started or since, has been wondering how book three, A Storm of Swords, would look on screen. This is definitely the season to watch. March 31, 2013 is when it all goes down.

(short story) Review - Sandkings by George R.R. Martin

While studying for the bar (you're not the only one sick of hearing about this, believe me), I've had the hardest time focusing on one single book, especially if that book is over a couple hundred pages. My mind's just gone and I'm getting really worried it's not coming back.

Luckily, I have a couple short story collections and whatnot and short stories have been the perfect size for my overwhelmed and overstressed brain. You may have noticed a couple short story reviews in the last month or so and I don't see that abating for at least another month.

Sandkings is a collection of short stories from George R.R. Martin in the 80s. I plan on reading them all, but so far I've only read the title story, Sandkings, which is the last story in this book. I'm telling you, I really can't focus.

I actually found this copy in a used bookstore while hanging out in SLC with the amazing Sarah from Bookworm Blues, her husband, and little rascal, Fiona. She was nice enough to let me buy it ... after a knock-down drag-out Michael Jackson's Bad style fight, which she won.

Sandkings

Reasons you should NOT read Sandkings by George R.R. Martin:

- if you don't like short stories
- if you don't like science fiction
- if you don't like elements of horror
- if you don't like tiny 6-legged creatures
- if the thought of tiny 6-legged creatures crawling around gives you the creeps and makes you imagine things are crawling all over you when you really know nothing is
- if you HATE amazingly creative ideas
- if you CAN'T STAND a book that won't let you put it down
- if it DRIVES YOU NUTS that some people are just that much more gifted than you (or anyone else)

Sandkings is easily the best short story I've ever read and one I would put ahead of most full-length novels. Not only could I not stop reading until the end (only about 50 pages anyway), but I already want to reread it and I NEVER want to reread anything at least not this soon.

I was absolutely in love with the ideas presented. So much so that I was giddy while reading, I just couldn't wait to see what was next.

I know this is a tough book to get your hands on, but DO IT, it's so worth it if only for this short story. AMAZING!

5 out of 5 Stars (Theft might even be allowed, it's that good)

Here's the Goodreads summary if you're wondering what it's actually about:

"When Simon Kress returned to his home planet of Baldur from an offworld business trip, he was amused to find that his tank of Earth piranhas had cannibalized themselves into extinction, and of the two exotic animals that roamed his estate, only one remained. Now, in search of some new pets to satisfy his cruel pursuit of amusement, Simon finds a new shop in the city where he is intrigued by a new lifeform he has never heard of before ... a collection of multi-colored sandkings. The curator explains that the insect-like animals, no larger than Simon's fingernails, are not insects, but animals with a highly-evolved hive intelligence capable of staging wars between the different colors, and even religion--in the form of worship of their owner."

Note on finding a copy: Sandkings can be found in this short story collection (which is semi-difficult to find) as well as in Dreamsongs Volume I and probably a few other anthologies like The Weird by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

And one more thing...Will GRRM Keep Up With HBO?

I meant to add this to the last post, but, what the hey. Here's another tidbit:

Will Martin Keep Up with Game of Thrones?: SFFWorld has a nice discussion about whether George RR Martin will be able to keep up with the writing of A Song of Ice and Fire as the HBO TV show unfolds. Survey says - Nope.

From Werthead: "we will see the end of ASoIaF on screen potentially years before GRRM produces the final novel."

Can't say I'm a big fan of that, but I think we can be almost guaranteed of its occurrence. Then again, opportunities like the show don't happen all the time, so you have to take advantage where you can. Maybe the final season or so will just have poor ratings - I don't think I could watch it before knowing the ending through paper.

Game of Thrones - You Win or You Die

This is awesome! Benioff, Weiss, Kit Harington, Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage and more talk about the show, the books, the politics and for some reason, even though they're just retreading the usual (but just the first half), it seems more exciting this time. :D

Review - The Ice Dragon by George R.R. Martin

Warning: I was in a funky mood when I wrote this. Keep that in mind please. :)

I always have high expectations when reading George R.R. Martin. He really did it to himself, have you read A Game of Thrones? So going into The Ice Dragon [US] [UK] [Kindle], GRRM's children's tale, I still had nothing but the highest and happiest of attitudes until I was completely disappointed...in nothing at all. :D

Okay, I've learned from the cases I've been reading in law school that in order to have a successful argument, all you have to do is act like you're going to decide one way, but then go the exact opposite. Did it work? (No, I'm not simplifying it at all, why would you say that?)

The plot is simple, yet extremely subtle as we've come to expect from Martin. Adara is a winter child who's not only physically cold, but distant from her family as well. She was not only born in winter, but was the reason for her mother's death and her father has had a difficult time with that.

Adara loves the winter and counts the days until it comes back. She stays out longer than anyone else and can even hold the ice lizards for long periods of time without hurting them like other children end up doing.

Soon the eponymous Ice Dragon enters the picture, visiting Adara at times during the winter, even letting her ride. You see, ice dragons are not only rare, but it is known that ice dragons never let anyone ride them. Other, smaller dragons are used by people, especially for war as we see in this story.

Without going into too much more detail, the land is filled with war and it is creeping toward Adara and her family, but her father belongs with the land as is important for many in the medieval-type society.

While we follow Adara closely, the land and the environment were probably my favorite part of the story. It's filled with hard-working farmers and dragons are commonplace. I would really love to read more of this world Martin's created, possibly outside of a children's tale.

But on that note, I would read more children's tales as well at this caliber. Although, I don't quite know if I'd categorize The Ice Dragon as a children's tale. About 99% was for children, but there was a section about split-heads and relatively gruesome scenes for children.

In the end, I highly enjoyed The Ice Dragon and would recommend it, especially at this time of year...or maybe not, GRRM does such a good job with atmosphere I was actually colder while reading it. Maybe wait till summer. Then again, you're probably hot enough. And you wonder how I get all the ladies. :)

4 out of 5 Stars (Loved it)

Note on the eBook: This is an illustrated novel and I can't say they're done justice on the Kindle Touch at least (or anything with eInk). Mostly you can see them fine, but there are still quite a few that are hard to make out and all of them are at least somewhat difficult to view.

Happy Valentine's Day - Game of Thrones Style

Hodor's is probably my favorite. Check out io9 for more. Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day.

Only the Best of 2011 - End of the Year Wrap-Up and Top 10

It's that time of year, I've always wondered why we do best of lists before the year's even over, I mean, there's still time to finish books. I also fully realize the end of a year is a time for reflection and the new year is a time for new beginnings. At least awards for books occur in the following year, they know what they're doing.


Top 5 (2011 Releases)

5. Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
4. Shadow's Lure by Jon Sprunk
3. The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer
2. Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan



1. Heaven's Needle by Liane Merciel

It's really sad there won't be any more books in the Ithelas series as the publisher has discontinued it. I still say it's worth a read along with the first book, The River Kings' Road.


Honorable Mentions

I could pretty much place these in my top 5, it was THAT hard of a decision.


Low Town by Daniel Polansky
Demon Squad: Resurrection by Tim Marquitz


What's Missing? (I stole this from The Speculative Scotsman)


Well, I decided to take my time with some of the biggies this year, you know, wait until there's a bit more progress in the series before I do my big reread... so A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin and Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss.


Oh, and remember The Unremembered (that was on purpose)? It was enjoyable, but not quite an end of the year best.


Top 10 (Published any year)

There wasn't really a big chance for the new kids on the block with some of the classics I read this year and I decided not to count the books from The Wheel of Time that I listened to because that's just not fair. I also didn't include any of the novellas that I snuck in the last few weeks.

10. The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer
9. I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells
8. Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan
7. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
6. The Waste Lands and The Drawing of the Three by Steven King (same series, same number, doesn't make sense I know)
5. Heaven's Needle by Liane Merciel
4. Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
3. Stardust by Neil Gaiman
2. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (Even got my wife to read it and she's loving it)


1. Songs of the Dying Earth Edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois


I'll have some posts about goals and how I did this year (sadly not all were met) probably sometime in the new year. Otherwise Happy Holidays and see ya in 2012!

It's News To Me #20

I had to post this bit of news immediately as Sub Press is giving Deadhouse Gates a new cover already. Plus, I started a new update feature if you're interested.

New cover art for Sub Press Deadhouse Gates: It's perty. Better than the last even.


Game of Thrones Pedicab: Now that's riding in style, Seven Kingdoms style.

Review - Songs of the Dying Earth Edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois (Part 3 of 3)

Part 1 of 3

Part 2 of 3

It took me about a month to get through this anthology, but only for lack of time not for lack of desire. As I mentioned before, and I can still say this after finishing, Songs of the Dying Earth is the best anthology I've ever had the pleasure of reading!

So let's get right into it:

The Return of the Fire Witch by Elizabeth Hand (3/5) Saloona Morn is all but forced by the fire witch to participate in her plan for revenge. There were some surprises, but overall the story wasn't extremely interesting. Good, but not great.

The Collegeum of Mauge by Byron Tetrick (5/5) This is another favorite in a The Name of the Wind sort of way. Drogo gets into a school for wizards, interrupting his search for his father.

Evillo the Uncunning by Tanith Lee (4.5/5) The self-named Evillo, encouraged by tales of Cugel, takes off on an adventure and picks up a magical talking snail. This was one of the more hilarious tales in the anthology. One great quote right at the beginning:

"...life is ever valuable and must be preserved - so that it may also be punished for the insolence of persisting."

The Guiding Nose of Ulfänt Banderöz by Dan Simmons (4.5/5) The longest story of the bunch (almost 70 pages), the first half is easily 5 stars, but my interest began to wane in the middle and then it picks up again. Still a great story about wizards and warriors, powerful demons (one that took centuries to tame), and a trip across the dying world.

Also, this has one of the best illustrations of the book, including a look at each of the different characters.

Frogskin Cap by Howard Waldrop (2.5 to 3/5) I wasn't too impressed with this story. There really wasn't much too it, but it makes up in it's length (about 9 pages).

A Night at the Tarn House by George R R Martin (5/5) This read like a breeze, of course. The atmosphere was dark, yet playful and really captured the essence of the entire anthology. Some unlucky (and not so unlucky) characters find out that the Tarn House may not in fact be better than braving the terrors in the night - despite the wearies of travel.

An Invocation of Curiosity by Neil Gaiman (5/5) The perfect conclusion to the collection. Gaiman looks at what happens when it's all over and takes this premise in a really unexpected way.

Now read Songs of the Dying Earth already, it's that good!

5 out of 5 Stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher

Happy Dance with Dragons Day!

Hope it was everything you ever wished it could be. :)


I don't yet own a copy, but I went by a bookstore today just to hold it in my hands. I think I'm gonna be one of those waiting till the end to re-read snobs (if I can hold off that long). :) It's been a long time coming and a good reason why I'm on this part of the interwebs.

Here's hoping Winds of Winter day comes soon after!