February reading and reviews and TSS negative review

Cold and snowy morning in Quebec, time to post a little update.

During this year first month, I posted three reviews for fantasy novels I read that were released prior to 2010. Today, I finished reading The Crown Conspiracy by Michael J. Sullivan and yesterday my listening to the audiobook of Midwinter by Matthew Sturges was concluded. Having said that, it means that I now have three reviews to write (with the addition of The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks). I hope to have all of them posted in the two following weeks.

Following this, for my listening pleasure while I walk to work, I'll try A Darkness Forged in Fire by Chris Evans and I will start reading The Stormcaller by Tom Lloyd. This brings me to my next subject, the books of February.

Last month, no books caught my attention and in February, there were three. One of them can only be on my 'To read' list since it's the fourth book of the Shadow of the Apt series by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Salute the Dark, and I still haven't read the first three. Soon I hope. Here's the blurb :

The vampiric sorcerer Uctebri has at last got his hands on the Shadow Box and can finally begin his dark ritual - a ritual that the Wasp-kinden Emperor believes will grant him immortality - but Uctebri has his own plans both for the Emperor and the Empire.

The massed Wasp armies are on the march, and the spymaster Stenwold must see which of his allies will stand now that the war has finally arrived. This time the Empire will not stop until a black and gold flag waves over Stenwold's own home city of Collegium.

Tisamon the Weaponsmaster is faced with a terrible choice: a path that could lead him to abandon his friends and his daughter, to face degradation and loss, but that might possibly bring him before the Wasp Emperor with a blade in his hand - but is he being driven by Mantis-kinden honour, or manipulated by something more sinister?

Next on my watch list will be my first 2010 released novel. With some great reviews from fellow bloggers so far, N.K Jemisin debut novel The Hundred-Thousand Kingdoms could live up to it's 'not so exaggerated' hype. The blurb you say? Here you go:

Yeine Darr is an outcast from the barbarian north. But when her mother dies under mysterious circumstances, she is summoned to the majestic city of Sky - a palace above the clouds where gods' and mortals' lives are intertwined. There, to her shock, Yeine is named one of the potential heirs to the king. But the throne of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is not easily won, and Yeine is thrust into a vicious power struggle with a pair of cousins she never knew she had. As she fights for her life, she draws ever closer to the secrets of her mother's death and her family's bloody history. But it's not just mortals who have secrets worth hiding and Yeine will learn how perilous the world can be when love and hate - and gods and mortals - are bound inseparably.

In conclusion, an aside about a novel that made much noise last week, at least from Niallalot (N.R. Alexander) at The Speculative Scotsman. There was tremendous hype for The Left Hand of God by Paul Hoffman, and then Niallalot posted a negative review of the book (here). No problem there aside from a few comments about readers that mentioned they were not going to bother with the book after reading his review (myself included). The reviewer was not really surprised by the power of a negative review but by looking at the reaction about the comments from author Sam Sykes and other readers, he thought that he ought to clarify the situation. I think this is completely understandable, although maybe stretched a bit too far.


I do not know anybody who would read a criticism of a book and be influenced by it without taking account of the opinion of the critic in comparison with his. At least, as Sam Sykes states, (and if I understood correctly) it would be a shame. Sometimes, a negative review can even have the contrary effect, i.e. give the desire to certain readers to buy the book because by judging the criteria which made the critic dislike the book, they would find out that it is in disagreement with what they seek in a book. For my part, after reading the review of Niallalot, I knew that this book would probably not be to my taste. I believe that I share several interests with the critic about what I'm looking for in a fantasy novel. Moreover, this is invaluable to have reviewers who are able to explain in details what they don't like about a book and who stand by their belief.

Being able to avoid a poor book according to what I perceived in a review and be able to read one of the numerous and excellent novels which are available is a necessity. So again, thanks Mr. Alexander.

You can read the follow-up and Niallalot take about the situation on The Speculative Scotsman here.

The Fires of Heaven ebook cover art

The fourth cover art for the ebook release of The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan was just unveiled by Tor.com. It depicts Moraine and I have to admit that I love it! Great artwork. The artist behind this work is Dan Dos Santos.

Find out more about the creation of this cover art (there's even several sketches) at Tor.com.

You can see the first three ebook covers here :

The Eye of the World
The Great Hunt
The Dragon Reborn

Round of covers

Some new cover art were released to the world since the start of the year, so here's a little round-up to catch-up.

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Stephen Deas posted yesterday on his website the cover art (by Paul Young) for his upcoming new series, The Thief-Taker's Apprentice. The infamous hooded figure is back, but this time he's not alone, he's with another hooded figure. Well it seems everyone is into those nowadays. Stephen is joking about that on this post about the cover. Click the pic for a very high quality image.

To continue with Mr. Deas, here is the cover for the US release of The Adamantine Palace (my review here). The book is now available. Even though I liked the UK cover a lot, I find this one to be quite gorgeous too.

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Next on the spotlight is Celia Friedman cover art for the upcoming mass market paperback release of Wings of Wrath (august in the UK). It's in the vein of the first book of the Magister series, Feast of Souls. Orbit posted about the cover art here. Not bad.

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The following cover was graciously offered to us by Mihai at Dark Wolf's Fantasy reviews (here). It's the international french cover art for King's Dragon by Kate Elliot (Le Dragon du Roi), illustrated by Didier Graffet. It's the kind of good old fantasy art with a knight in an almost impossible to wear kick ass looking armor. It's cool (even thought it's not really "artistic" and original) and reminds me of the cover for Zrozeni Zimy (Winterbirth - Brian Ruckley), one of the covers I liked the most last year (my Bests of 2009).

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Finally for now, another cover (the bottom left one in the following pic) for The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V.S. Redick was unveiled and posted in the blogosphere by Mad Hatter (here). This time it's a mass market paperback edition and here are the different covers so far (I prefer the top left) :

Tonight

Finishing everything you read and new poll about extracts

My last poll is over. The question was "Do you finish all the books you read?"

It seems that a majority of fantasy readers are putting some books aside. The question could be pushed even further by asking why do you put them down. The answer would probably be an overwhelming majority of "because the book is bad or simply not to my taste" but I could be mistaken. In my case, even though it didn't happen often, in every case of abandon it was because the book was not to my linking and rarely because its awful. I even finished the whole Sword of Truth series even though I found the books were very bad since half of the series. I had to know how this ended even if it a was only a big disappointment (although this could be explained by a lack of reading material at the time). I never put aside a novel for any other reason such as "it may not be the best time to read this". I think that if I ever do that, I probably won't ever return to it.

So the results of that last poll were 58% for those who don't finish all the books they read and 41% for those you finish them all. I was surprised to find out that there was this much people finishing them all. Maybe they usually pick up the right books for them. I admit that over the years and with the help of a plethora of great blogs full of useful information, my choices have become more successful.

What is your point of view on this?

On to the next topic. I recently posted about some extracts or excerpts from authors on their website (or even from fellow bloggers). I haven't read many extracts before going into a novel but it could be useful. I remember that with at least two Malazan novels, I read the prologue on the web prior to the release of the book and my anticipation grew but I already had pre-ordered the book. I think that if we could compare movies to books, a trailer could probably be kind of a synopsis for a novel and if I continue with that line of thought, a book extract would be like a 5 minute opening.

Thus, I think that excerpts are really useful and I intend to read more of them in the future. It can be a great tool beside the bloggers review. A nicely chosen extract can create a good hype. Enough of my opinion :

Do you read extracts before buying a book?