Top 10 Spooky Reads/Books for October

I thought I'd put together some of my favorite creepy-type reads in another Top 10 list, because I clearly can't help myself. The video was posted earlier this month, but somehow didn't get to posting here until the end ... but at least I made it! I'll pat myself on the back for anything!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqJwi3M25Wc

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Centering the Shelf - August 26, 2021 - Weekly Update

I like doing these weekly updates, essentially a reading vlog, to keep a record of what I'm thinking about each week and my progress, even though slow sometimes, for reading. Featuring Terry Pratchett, Jim Butcher, Will Wight, What We Do in the Shadows and MORE!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQDCeOqblzY&t=331s

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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)

Review - Summer Knight (Dresden Files 4) by Jim Butcher

Jim Butcher's Summer Knight [US] [UK] [Kindle] is the fourth book in Jim Butcher's much-loved Dresden Files. I realize I'm a bit behind, but I have good reasons for this...well, maybe...

I read the first 3 a couple years ago, all back to back and I really enjoyed them at the time...the only problem was the repetition. I was getting a bit tired of hearing the same reasoning behind everything Harry does. It made sense at first...then it made less sense the more volumes I kept reading with the same descriptions.

Maybe I'm too used to the opposite in Steven Erikson, but I had to take a bit of a break. One thing's for sure, you can wait as long as you need to pick up another volume of the Dresden Files.

Well, volume one, Storm Front, deals with magicians; volume two, Fool Moon, deals with warewolves; volume three - demons. So, what then does Summer Knight deal with? Faeries. (Obviously this isn't a perfect summary)

There are two main faeries, summer and winter, and they're not friends. The summer knight, an officer in the summer court of faeries, is found dead and Harry Dresden is called in to investigate.

Of course nothing is as it seems and through Harry's cynical sense of humor and constant battery (in which Harry is beat to a pulp on numerous occasions...as per usual), we have ourselves one fun story. The cards keep getting stacked against Harry, especially now that the Red Court is after him after the fiasco in Grave Peril (Book 3) and his own wizard's White Council has their own problems with him as well.

This was a hard book to put down, especially for the first and last hundred pages. The middle was a little slow, especially since Harry still has no clue what he's doing, but overall it's a quick read. As of this point, Summer Knight has been my favorite in the Dresden Files, but I don't think I'd be saying this if I'd have read it directly after Grave Peril.

Why Read The Dresden Files?

Harry Dresden is a hard character not to like. He gets knocked down and he always gets back up. He tries to do what's right no matter the situation and no matter who gets hurt...and he's just an all around fun guy to be around.

Add to that a well-planned and realized magic system and it's one great series...as long as you take it in stride.

4 out of 5 Stars

2011 in Review - The Halfway Point, plus my Top 5

At the beginning of the year, I put up some goals I wanted to have accomplished by the end of the year and while I tend to get sucked up in the newest thing, I'd like to take the time to review my progress. I hope I'm doing well. :D

Read 60 books in 2011 - This goal means I need to be reading about 5 books a month. I was doing so well until finals hit. I'm not too far off, but at 27 books read this year, I'm down a few book but this is an uphill battle now.

Read at least two of these authors (Tad Williams, Stephen R. Donaldson, Glen Cook) - Okay, so this one's kind of working out surprisingly well. I'm reading Songs of the Dying Earth right now and Tad Williams and Glen Cook have written stories in it. I really hope I don't have to cop out on this one, but at least I'll have this goal accomplished ... through a technicality. I still want to read their actual novels.

Read one of these books by Melanie Rawn (The Golden Key, Stronghold) - Not even close on this one. Luckily, I still have 6 months.

Read at least one of these trilogies (Coldfire, Rai Kirah) - Also not even close. I'm very much looking forward to them though.

Read further in the Dark Tower series - Score! I've definitely finished this goal. I copped out in the making of this goal by only requiring one book, but I've actually read two (The Drawing of the Three and The Wastelands).

Read further in the Dresden Files - Again, not even close. I haven't even read the one for this cop out goal. Anyway, I still see this happening.

Added Goal:

Finish the Malazan Book of the Fallen series - I probably should have put this in the original goals list, but I guess it was such a given, I didn't even think about it. I only have two more to go, so here's to finishing this epic series!

That means I have at least 9 books to read to finish up my non-numerical goals and 33 to read anyway (which should hopefully include those 9). This seems easy, but I'm a pretty moody reader as I think I've mentioned before. I have to read something when the mood strikes perfectly and then it's smooth sailing.

Top 5 in 2011 (so far)

5. I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells

4. The Drawing of the Three (Dark Tower II) by Stephen King

3. The Waste Lands (Dark Tower III) by Stephen King

2. Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay

1. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

One caveat: I started my reread of The Wheel of Time this year and I'm not counting this series in any "Best of" lists. It's just not fair. Let it be known - The Wheel of Time is one of my favorite series.

My Top 5 was a really hard list to make. There have been some great reads this year including Shadow's Lure, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, River Kings' Road, Shatnerquake (How did anyone beat this?), and so many more.

Review: Storm Front, by Jim Butcher

     Storm Front (2000), by Jim Butcher is the first book of the Dresden Files series, and is published by ROC. With the blockbuster sales of Jim Butcher's recent printing of Turn Coat (2009), I decided to start the series and see what all the fuss was about.

The Setup

     Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is a wizard and paranormal consultant extraordinaire. Surrounded by colorful characters Dresden is drawn into a murder investigation that will either see him dead, or see a dark wizard brought to justice. 

     Filled with demons and faeries, the urban fantasy world that Butcher creates is remarkably straightforward and convincing. The strong hand of fate pushes Dresden into the heart of a complex murder investigation involving vampires, mob bosses, call-girls, and even a talking skull. With a strong helping of both magic and desperation, Harry Dresden makes for a colorful character in a series that promises to be as entertaining as it is humorous.

My Take in Brief

     Storm Front boasts a colorful cast of magic, monsters, villains and detectives. What originality it lacks by borrowing from generally accepted stereotypes of vampires and other assorted urban fantasy characters, it more than makes up for in tempo and plot. This a hugely entertaining read, easily polished off in a day or a few evenings; it won't last longer than that because it really draws you in.
     If I were to try and find something to criticize about Butcher's work, and try hard I would have to, it would have to be the few deus ex elements that tend to drive the plot. I can accept my fair share of luck and chance encounters, but Dresden seems to have won the lottery in that respect.
     This is a light and breezy read that is sure to entertain, but lacks the depth and complexity of a finer bodied fantasy. Those experienced science fiction and fantasy readers among you who choose to read this will come out feeling like you do after reading a Harry Potter novel; you will be happy and entertained but know deep down that you have somehow betrayed the true masters you are accustomed to reading. This feeling will not however, prevent you from reading the rest of the series.

Highlights

• Dresden is hilarious and yet profound.
• A host of endearing characters.
• A great plot and a wonderful tempo.
• Simple, concise, and eloquent prose. 
• All the Urban Fantasy creatures you can imagine.
• Acts of desperation and convincing action sequences.

Lowlights

• Somewhat stereotypical characters.
• Dresden has a little too much luck.
• A certain lack of situational detail, or maybe Chicago really is just bleak.
• A general young adult feeling that might put some of you off.  

Your Take

     Like most popular series, Storm Front has its detractors and supporters. The sales numbers speak for themselves though, as the book that started the Dresden Files is wildly popular and will invariably suck you into reading the ten other installments. Did you get the same used feeling that I did after reading this? Not that its a bad thing, sometimes its good to be used...

Ratings and Links

Amazon: 4/5

B&N: 4.3/5

My Rating: 3.25/5

A more comprehensive review of Storm Front at Wertzone.

The semi-official Jim Butcher website. 

Piqued Your Interest?

     If you are looking for a fun and quick read from a trusted author in an ongoing series, then Storm Front is the place to start. If you know that you'll like it, then consider saving some money by buying the omnibus of the first three books, Wizard for Hire.