Monthly ArchiveNovember 2006
Book &Information 25 Nov 2006 11:39 pm
…In Death
Another book which I have not read, but which has only a tidbit of an interesting story behind it.
Innocent In Death is the lastest in the Eve Dallas series by J.D. Robb. I haven’t started this series yet. I do know however that it is a series read by both men and women. This is fairly unique among books that can be technically classified in the romance genre. An interesting point is that the author, J.D. Robb, is none other than our very own, Nora Roberts!
The way I view the “double-name” is this way. When Nora Roberts started out, she did a LOT of romance. She decided to spice it up but did not want her notoriety as a romance novelist to be the only reason why people read her books. There are more technical reasons, dealing with the industry, but honestly, I prefer my reasoning. It is more of a down to earth reason. “The release of the 12 th book in the series, Betrayal in Death, saw a promotion with the tag line “You’ve been betrayed†which acknowledged that J.D. Robb is indeed Nora Roberts.” So…Enter, J.D. Robb.
The idea of psuedonyms are common among authors. Jayne Ann Krentz is also Jayne Ann Castle and Amanda Quick. Stephen King is also Richard Bachman. So part of the reason, as with so many things, are rules within your industry, but it is nice to be appreciated for your work quality, instead of just your reputation.
This is the story. I have a friend who is going through a hard time. Home life is tough and those jerks at her work just do NOT appreciate her. She is mulling her way through it (and I know will come out a better person). I wanted to cheer her up, so I asked her if she had read the new Robb book. She usually is right on top of things with buying the new books, but I knew she was trying to save money, and often, new hardcovers are what you wait on. She said she hadn’t even known there was a new “In Death” and would love to borrow mine.
I double checked with my boss who had the advance to make sure my friend could keep it. The funny one-liner is that when I said, and “she hadn’t even known there was a new one” my boss, oh so humorously replied, “of course she didn’t, the book isnt out yet, its an ADVANCE.”
I felt oh so very cool right then.
So that is my funny Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb story. I hope you enjoyed it, and Innocent in Death will be available this coming February from your local independent bookshop!
Related items
Book &Information 24 Nov 2006 09:00 am
Black Tattoo
Here is another young-adult fantasy novel. The Black Tattoo by Sam Enthoven.
I have yet to read this book, but this is not a review post. It is another “stuff about the book” post. Part of the book’s coolness is the actual cover. It opens up to a full size poster. But when it is folded up as the cover, it isnt bulky, or annoying, it is just a perfect idea.
Secondly, we recieved a letter “from” Sam to us booksellers. He tells us that he has been “chasing [his] dream of becoming a published children’s author for almost ten years now. Up until last September [he] was supporting myself (instant noodles-style, at least!) by working as a part-time bookseller at Blackwell’s bookshop in London.”
It is a very interesting letter. The book itself came out in October, and I know that in my bookshop, even without us pushing it, it has been selling really well. I am excited to read about the “demonic possession, flying kung fu, monsters, more monsters, VOMITING BTS, and the end of the universe.” How could you NOT be excited for that? So It is available now, and go out and grab one for yourself!
Here is an excerpt I took from the amazon page:
Excerpted from The Black Tattoo by Sam Enthoven. Copyright © 2006. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
From where Jack was standing, he could see the back of Charlie’s neck. Weird black shapes were appearing under his friend’s skin. Needle-sharp points of some inky-black substance were trickling up from under the collar of Charlie’s T-shirt, widening into curved slivers of pure liquid darkness as they crawled up around his throat. Now the shapes were creeping down out of Charlie’s sleeves: sliding past his elbows and down his forearms with an oil-dark, liquid eagerness.
Jack recognized the shapes: the curves, the hooks, the spikes. He’d seen them that morning, on Charlie’s back—
It was the black tattoo.
It was moving.
Related items
Book 15 Nov 2006 07:49 pm
Poison, Magic, Fire
Let’s return to fantasy, shall we?
Two things to start off with.
One, in my Tower of Shadows post I referred to a problem in fantasy writing. Too much romance. A lot of fantasy these days seems more romance fantasy, that just straight fantasy. It makes you wonder where all the strong heroines are, the ones that don’t put their man first… Here is one however. Yelena, in both books, takes her life very seriously, and does not make her decisions based on her libido, but on her strong intelligence and what is best for her in the long run.
Two, Ingram, which is the largest book distributor out there, is where my shop orders the majority of our books from. The book may originally come direct from the publisher, but almost all re-orders are through Ingram. That said, they put out a catalog, called “Advance” of books that are coming out in the coming months. It is mostly books that are not directly available through the mainstream pubs, or ones that we simply order directly through Ingram. The science fiction/fantasy/romance editions, sometimes do me in. Other times, I find true gems. Poison Study is one such gem.
Now, lets get back to my post topic. Maria V. Snyder has written a trilogy. Two books have been released, and the third will be coming out March of 2008. Her books are Poison Study and Magic Study with the the finale to the trilogy being Fire Study.
Poison Study is the first book. It follows a woman named Yelena as she becomes the official food taster for the leader of her country. This book was amazing. She becomes friends with the greatest of people, and becomes very close with her “jailer” Valek.
From the SF Reviews.net review
Yelena is an impressively realized character, mostly in that Snyder has her reacting to her circumstances in a way I found believable. In every instance Yelena makes choices, as well as careless mistakes, that I think a real person actually in that situation would make. At no time does Snyder fall into the trap of turning her into some superhero, even when we learn that Yelena, in her youth, developed quite a skill as an acrobat. I can see lesser writers using that as a launching pad for all manner of improbable wire-fu silliness. But even the scene in which Yelena thwarts some pursuers by traveling treetop to treetop never smacks of implausibility.
Further on in this review, there is a reference to a slight lack in backstory (which is usually a big problem in almost all fantasy, either too much or not enough), but it also says that you get so involved, that you really don’t notice.
Additionally, PW said of Poison study, “This is one of those rare books that will keep readers dreaming after they’ve read it.” Thats the truth! Spoken by one who knows!
On to #2.
Okay, Magic Study follows Yelena on her quest to find her family, and to master her magic. She is still an incredibly strong character, and her magical powers (which she does not understand) are explored more fully in the magic-friendly Sitia (as opposed to the magic-hating Ixia). There was a stronger emphasis on her romance with Valek, but it was dealt with so well! He is a beacon of strength for Yelena, one for her to draw from, but they both have responsibilities that they take very seriously. Another intresting point is that Luna-Books and Mira Books are her publishers and Luna especially is well-known for their strong heroine characters, which Yelena certainly fits.
Additionally, this book has mind talking with horses, and yeah, you cannot get better than that.. Spoken by someone who has a horse that likes to get annoyed by every little thing, being able to talk to your horse, yeah that would be great.
This book kept me up until 1:00 am, at which point I emailed Maria to say “you are wonderful, great, etc etc, and please write more NOW.” And THEN I went back to bed, and read random sections over again, just because I wanted to. She actually responded to my email, which made me all kinds of happy, and she is just the nicest lady. A real pleasure to chat with.
So, Poison Study is available in paperback, and will be released in a new TRADE paperback (with a new cover) in March of 2007. Magic Study is still only available in hardcover. Fire Study (#3) will be released in march of 2008.
I must say that making me wait another YEAR AND A HALF for book three is just cruel. I am going to have to see if I can finegle an advance from one of our reps as we get closer.
Go out and grab a copy of Poison Study (it is available in the $6.99 mass market size paperback) from your local independent bookseller and try it out! Let me know what you think!
People who looked at this item also looked at…
Related items
Book 14 Nov 2006 08:27 am
Alexandria Link
At long last, a non-fantasy book! The Alexandria Link is Steve Berry’s newest book in his Cotton Malone series. This is my first book by Berry and it makes me sad I have not read his stuff in order. Side note, his first book is The Amber Room. That said, The Alexandria Link is fabulous. It does make references to his previous adventures, which, again, I have not read. In the first twenty minutes of reading his book, I whizzed through over thirty pages. It just sucks you in. It reads similar to Dan Brown’s stuff, in that you want to sit and read it and ignore everyone and every thing, but this book has the excitement of dealing with the lost library of Alexandria.
From the Kirkus reviews on the Barnes and Noble site.
European billionaires, Israelis, Saudis and Americans shoot it out in an international search for ancient manuscripts that could drastically alter the map of the Middle East. Having rested up from their great labors, the cast of The Templar Legacy (2006) faces new perils as they are thrown headlong into yet another there’s-been-a-huge-misunderstanding religious mystery. The ceaseless action begins with the kidnapping of the teenage son of former American secret-agent-turned-bookseller Cotton Malone, whose understandably panicked ex-wife has jetted to Copenhagen, where he now lives. There is the usual warning to keep the police out of it, but Malone has enough sense to enlist the help of his elderly but capable billionaire pal Henrik Thorvaldsen after shadowy evil-doers torch the bookstore as a warning. The kidnapper is Dominick Sabre, murderous right-hand man of elderly but malevolent billionaire Alfred Hermann, current big cheese in the Order of the Golden Fleece, a cabal of super-rich European moguls with a taste for world-scenario management. Thorvaldsen, a Jew, is also in the Order, giving him access to Hermann’s plotting, which has to do with the possibility that much of the great library at Alexandria was shifted offsite before its destruction. Amid the ancient papyri and scrolls may be some early Old Testaments that point to serious geographic misunderstandings over the millennia, mistakes that would undermine the claims of the world’s three monotheistic religions. Given a deadline-or the kid dies-to find his old pal George Haddad, who holds the clues to the location of the library, Malone jets to London, ex-wife in tow, in time to see Haddad assassinated, which forces him into anuneasy alliance with the treacherous Sabre. In the U.S., meanwhile, Malone’s former boss uncovers involvement at the Highest Level. The president’s life is in danger. Fast action and wild plotting largely mask lackluster prose in Berry’s latest what-if thriller.
Not really… the best of reviews, but still, it is a good time and I cannot wait to read further.
The point of this post is not the actual book itself however. It is the promotional tools used for it. I have taken a picture of my advance (which incidentally will not be the final cover I don’t think) and with the promo scroll.
It is a scroll that is on the softest fabric/paper and includes a tiny blurb on the book as well as the release date (which is wrong). It is just such an interesting idea, especially since “back in the day,” scrolls were used during the time of the Library of Alexandria.
If you like authors like Dan Brown, I think you will like Steve Berry. It really is fast paced, but still, has a factual base. Please keep in mind, it IS fiction however. The Library of Alexandria did burn down and there is not one man out there who holds the key to all of its information.
Release date is either February 6, 2007 OR January 30, 2007. Either way, start looking at the end of January!
Related items
Book 13 Nov 2006 07:44 pm
Tower of Shadows
Here is another fantasy title. Tower of Shadows is by Drew Bowling. This is a first novel for Drew. He started writing this book while in high school, and he is now a college sophomore. The back of the reader’s copy describes the book as “following in the footsteps of his literary heroes- Terry Brooks, Anne McCaffrey and Orson Scott Card” which made this book Extra-desireable to me.
This is my actual copy here! (Isn’t that fun?)
Anyways, the story was really interesting. It started off really strong with a prelude. Then it goes to “current time” and alternates between a few different characters. Drew was very clear with each of the characters and their situations and the only problem I had was that all of a sudden, I was really far into the book! He connected all of the characters quite well.
The brother to one of the characters is tne nemesis, creator of the evil that is about to be unleashed, etc. I was not as scared of him as I think I should have been. Part of this is that I read really fast and sometimes miss important bits. Another part is the concept of redemption. The brother has a good idea behind his evil acts, so I ended up feeling more sorry for him than scared of him. All the way through the end, the characters surprised you and made you proud at the same time. It was a pleasure to read, and I’d recommend it to anyone. Plus, it even pirates AND dragons, and how can you go wrong with that?
Another fault with alot of fantasy is that it is basically fantasy-romance. Tower of Shadows however had no romance, and even though I am addicted to romance novels, it is a pleasure to read fantasy without the romance factor.
According to Library Thing the release date is December 12th, 2006, though my advance says January 2007 release. That site also refers to Tower of Shadows as “Tower of Shadows: Book One of the Tides of Fate Trilogy.” It does fit that it would be a series, as almost all fantasy is anyways.
Promotion for the book was done online (check out Jive magazine for their little promo), and then Drew was scheduled to be at the San Diego Comic Con (that was this past July) but should also be at the New York Comic Con (Feb 24-27, 2007).
Its a good book, and if you support him, then there will be more! Check it out, this coming December!
Related items
Information 12 Nov 2006 06:56 pm
Book Mooooooooch
There are plenty of sites out there that are useful for the “sharing books” idea. This article came to mind after reading the Publishers Weekly article on the topic. The concept of Freecycle but just for books appealed to me. I tried the local Cheshire Kat trading site, but I just did not keep up with it. Recently, I stumbled across Book Mooch which is set up in such a way that I seem to be drawn to it. I just keep wandering around finding books and adding them in. As you can see from a sample bookshelf in my own bedroom, I read an eclectic variety of books, and any one of them could be mooched!
They have two systems for adding books. One is to enter the title, ISBN, or author. Another way is to enter multiple titles at once. If you have the book on hand, then you can just flip it over and enter in multiple ISBN’s. It makes it very easy to add 2, 3, 4, or even more books at a time.
Another aspect that I like is the nice factor. I have only dealt with two people so far (I am a newbie) but both were very nice! One, after an email apologizing for my lateness in sending out a book, replied in about 4.7 seconds saying, basically, “no worries!”
One aspect that I do not like about this international site is that not everyone chooses to send their books to other countries. If you want a book, but say it is only available in Australia, but that user will only send to other Aussies… You are just out-of-luck.
Regardless of all that, you can find so many books, and even though you have to wait for your points to build up as you send out books that people mooch from you, eventually you get to mooch too!
Remember that you do get fractions of a point for every book you add (to help you get started). I have found that if you add some pretty generic titles, you will get a better footing for giving away books. Not that I am doing that of course. I am the only moocher on all by 2 of my books (being The Bourne identity and Princess Diaries: In the Spotlight).
If you like to read, I would recommend grabbing your “must read these books now” booklist and stop over at bookmooch.com… or any of the others listed in that PW article, and just browse around. A little effort could have you on the pathway to a LOT of fun!
Related items
Book 09 Nov 2006 07:46 pm
Twilight and New Moon
This is actually an interesting story.
My boss gave me an advance of a “young adult vamp novel” and described it as just up my alley. However, this advance was the sequel to a book I had not read. It didn’t look like anything special, so I went on reading something else. Then one day, I had this book, and decided, since I didn’t have anything else to read, why not give it a shot. The book was New Moon by Stephenie Meyer. It started out a little confusing, since I did not know the characters. A little backstory. Bella is the new girl in Forks, Oregon. She falls in love with Edward, and he falls in love with her. You would think it was a “happily ever after” situation, barring of course, the fact that he is a vampire.
So I am sitting and reading….And then.
I WAS BLOWN AWAY.
I was literally shocked speechless by her writing. I do not want to spoil it for anyone, especially those people who read book 1 (Twilight) first. Shortly into
And yes I do get the humor of being shocked speechless while reading a book, but trust me. AMAZING.
I then went on to read
Additionally, there are more options for when you have read both and are dying for more. Steph’s own website has many goodies. She shows the different covers, gives you viewpoints from different characters, BUT… the most exciting “easter egg” of all is Midnight Sun. This is the first chapter of how Twilight would read, but if from Edward’s point of view. You think… hmmm is this really worth it? Oh YES my friends, YES YES YES!
And when you think, what more could there POSSIBLY be?
You can embrace fan fiction. This is where a fan (sometimes a fanatic) writes a piece of fiction, but based off of pre-existing characters. Think… un-official Star-Wars novels. Well.
A phenomenal person named “Alphie” decided to write her own Edward POV. Entitled “The Lion and the Lamb” it is Edward’s POV, but not counting Stephenie’s own first chapter. At the time of this article, there were 21 chapters, though people everywhere are eagerly awaiting more. Additionally, not only did Alphie get permission from Stephenie Meyer for this piece of work, she has gotten feedback and an inside view of
These are books that are already released.
Related items
Book 06 Nov 2006 07:16 pm
Full Moon Rising
Full Moon Rising is a paranormal romance by Keri Arthur. By paranormal romance, they mean it involves vampires and werewolves. Our heroine, Riley Jensen, is a half-breed of Werewolf and Vampire. This book sucked me in. I stayed up late to finish it, and was thrilled from the first words through the end.
This woman is a hilarious author. Even in the kinky sex scenes, Keri kept the writing fun and I would definitely say that she stayed away from the obvious and often cliche world of romance novels. Keri made the characters fun and sexy and confusing and their interactions were wonderful to read. This is however a romance novel. Part of Keri’s world is that werewolves go into “heat” at the full moon. The week before the full moon they basically need LOTS of sex and then the actual night of the full moon, they transform fully into wolves. This “heat” concept is definitely a large part of the romance part of the novel.
Australian author Arthur’s fast-paced fantasy-romance, the first in a new series, introduces part vampire, part werewolf Riley Jenson, who works for Melbourne’s Directorate of Other Races, as does her twin brother, Rhoan. When Rhoan goes missing, a naked yet powerful vampire, Quinn, appears on Riley’s doorstep and asks for her aid. Riley and Quinn team up to find Rhoan, investigate the mysterious deaths of Directorate agents and determine who’s been creating vampire and werewolf clones. Despite their mutual attraction, Quinn—once heartbroken by a werewolf lover—will never fully trust another werewolf, but that doesn’t stop him from helping Riley through the lust that engulfs werewolves in the days leading up to the full moon. Strong, smart and capable, Riley will remind many of Anita Blake, Laurell K. Hamilton’s kick-ass vampire hunter. While Arthur (Beneath a Rising Moon) occasionally loses control of her plot as she sets the stage for later books, and some romance readers may be put off by the lack of monogamy, fans of Anita Blake and Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse vampire series will be rewarded.
-Publishers Weekly
If you don’t enjoy romance novels, then you will definitely not enjoy this book. If you do enjoy them however, and don’t mind vamps and weres, then you should check it out!
Also, if you do like it, and become as addicted as I have become, have no fear! There are further adventures to be released in February (Kissing Sin), March (Tempting Evil), and April (Dangerous Games).
Related items
Information 06 Nov 2006 07:16 pm
The Purpose of Book Embargo
Welcome to BookEmbargo.com. This site is a collection of book reviews, mostly for books which have an embargo date. An embargo date, also known as a laydown date, is a specific date before which the book CANNOT be sold. Most people know about the laydown date concept because of the Harry Potter book series. Harry has also made popular the concept of being open at midnight, so as to sell the book “on” it’s laydown date.
So this website will relate to books, current and soon to be published, and will talk about some aspects of the book business. I work in an independent bookstore, so please keep that in mind when I discuss Amazon.com and super bookstores like Borders and Barnes & Noble.
Please also remember that while I will refer to pre-packaged marketing material, the opinions expressed on this site are my own, and while I welcome civilised discourse, it must be civilised!
That said, Enjoy!
Related items
