Yolanda Sfetsos’s WITHER

Yolanda Sfetsos
Wither (Recast, Book 1)
Samhain (8th December 2009)
Wrangling is in Colt Marshall’s blood. He was known across the galaxy for his skill at roping horses and cattle, but found that the woman he loved wasn’t so easy to tie down. Now a mysterious client has him wrangling a man who may or may not be fully human. Colt doesn’t know and doesn’t care, as long as he gets paid. Until his pursuit of the escaped captive lands him on his former lover’s planet…and her request for help threatens to crack the armour around his heart. With Colt’s unexpected arrival, Brynn Wright’s problems could be solved…or multiplied a thousandfold. She doesn’t expect him to understand why she left him, but she sure could use his help ridding her planet of the feral creatures terrorising her town every night. It doesn’t help that he looks just as good as she remembers. Or that even after five years, their mutual lust is very much alive. Their desire rivals the heat of the planet’s skin-peeling sun, stripping away layers of secrets to expose the truth. And a secret that could be their death sentence…Warning: This book contains a space cowboy with an attitude, a female sheriff with a kick-ass past, an AI dressed like a deputy, feral creatures, and a planet scorched by its proximity to the sun – but still not as hot as the cowboy and sheriff are for each other.

[COVER ART] Blood Law – Jeannie Holmes

Cover for Jeannie Holmes’s Blood Law. Thought there really should be respect my authoritah somewhere on that badge

[REVIEW] Prism – Faye Kellerman & Aliza Kellerman

Faye Kellerman & Aliza Kellerman
Prism
HarperCollins (CA: 15th June 2009; US: 23rd June 2009; AU: 1st October 2009)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)

On the road for a school excursion to the Carlsbad Caverns, one teacher and three teens in their van crash. The teens manage to escape, and seek shelter in a small cave when it begins to rain. But inside, they fall into nothingness…but awaken in their beds as if the whole thing never happened. In fact, their school trip is still a week away. But the world isn’t the same now: there’s no medical care. If someone gets sick or badly injured, it’s pretty much a death sentence. Kaida Hutchenson doesn’t want her new friend Joy to die, and so she must track down some forbidden research whilst also pay a spill dealer for something that could save Joy’s life. But now all of their lives are at risk of being murdered.

If you’ve never read a parallel universe novel before, here’s a great place to start. The characters may be cardboard cut-outs, but the social conscience is a winner, and this could be an ideal wake-up call for teens to stand up and start caring for their own health, and the well-being of others. Though a bit dragging in parts, it’s a killer premise.

[COVER ART] Yolanda Sfetsos’s CHRISTMAS DAY OF THE DEAD, & BOUNDLESS

The covers for Yolanda Sfetsos’s upcoming stories (after Faithless and Careless) with Damnation Books. The Boundless cover is hella creepy, exactly the kind of cover that a demon story should have – mega kudos to the artist for that!

[REVIEW] Three Days to Dead – Kelly Meding

Kelly Meding
Three Days to Dead (Dreg City, Book 1)
Random House Dell (US & CA: 24th November 2009)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA)

Evy Stone regains consciousness in a different body in the morgue. But this new life has a time limit: three days. Before the clock runs out, she has to find out to whom her new body belonged, how Evy herself died, and all the events that led up to this countdown. Extending her lifetime would be nice, too.

My attention waned whilst reading this, likely my own eejit brain’s fault. Though if I could find fault with the novel…It’s an awesome premise, but the execution of it isn’t quite right. A Hunter as a lead character. Number of different paranormal species. (Remind me to explain my crackpot “kitchen sink” theory someday.) Workplace romance. Dreg City nowhere near as interesting as First Break.

And First Break is fabulous, with a freaky, original journey to get there. And another kind of transportation in the novel is pretty awesome, too, because of the way it came about – thanks to the author’s intriguing world-building and plotting.

So if your attention span is better than mine (and undoubtedly it is), you should enjoy this more than I did. I’ll be cursing my brain in the corner.

[COVER ART] Katherine Allred’s CLOSE CONTACT & Kylie Chan’s EARTH TO HELL (AU)

Cover for Katherine Allred’s Close Contact, and the Australian cover for Kylie Chan’s Earth to Hell.

[REVIEW] Frostbitten – Kelley Armstrong

Kelley Armstrong
Frostbitten (Otherworld, Book 10)
Random House (US & CA: 29th September 2009); Hachette Orbit (UK: 1st October 2009; AU: November 2009)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)

Elena Michaels and the American Pack know that recent emigrant Reese Williams is being framed by his allies. Running from Elena makes it hard to tell him, so she follows the Antipodean to Alaska, a state no stranger to wolves…and perhaps not to werewolves and other beasties, either. Soon Elena discovers traces of new scents – other breeds of animal. But tracking down who’s responsible for the missing girls, the dead Pack member, and who knows what else requires more than one wolfy investigator. It’s time to call in the Pack.

Elena and Clay Danvers are on this mission without their three-year-old twins, who are with their grandfather and his lady friend. And these are no ordinary kids – they jump out of a second-storey window and escape with nary a scratch. This examplifies why I generally don’t connect with mothers as lead characters – because the kids are always precocious. No child is average; they’re super-smart and physically gifted, too. Is there wish fulfillment going on? Of course no parent wants to admit that their kid is kind of stupid, but in fiction stupid children don’t exist…well, they don’t if their parents are the protags.

Also, no one in this series really seems to have a full-time paying career. Elena sometimes writes for Canadian Press. Clay sometimes gives anthropology lectures. Jeremy sometimes does art. Jaime sometimes tours. Really, Hope Adams seems to be the only person with an everyday job that she actually does. How the others can afford to keep a roof over their heads, bills paid and food on the table is beyond my tiny comprehension. Supernaturals are loaded? Well, bugger me.

Danya Podrova is minor, but his surname confuses me. If the Ukrainian naming system is anything like its Russian counterpart, his surname should be Podrov – without the A. If he had a sister, she’d be Podrova, but not a man. I may be wrong, but if I’m right, this mistake has passed over quite a few heads on the way to publication. Who’s the right person to contact to see about getting this changed in a future edition?

Frostbitten is definitely the best of the latter Otherworld novels released. The witches/sorcerors/demons books have never really grabbed me the way the werewolf ones have. And considering that the last Otherworld book I read was the disappointing Men of the Otherworld anthology, Frostbitten is the perfect book to re-engage readers who may have fallen off the wagon. Not only that, but the new species of animal featured here are bloody fascinating, and there are some fantastic new characters, too. Reese is Australian, and is keeping his past a secret. He’s a buff, blond, twenty-year-old who looks like a surfie and has a name to match. (Generally, his name should be spelled Rhys, the Welsh way, but you know what surfers and bogans and whatnot are like with their spelling…) And we meet another Canadian – Morgan Walsh is a Newfie. Also cool is news of a Russian Pack, and expect to see Noah Albright return.

And protag Elena is awesome. Okay, so I question her taste in men, because Clay’s always pissed me off, but other than that, she’s pretty darn cool. She’s Canadian, and so provides a refreshing viewpoint, though she spends most of her time in the US. However, sometimes it seems as if Canadians are looked down upon by their more popular neighbours: One advantage to being a Canadian journalist is that Americans don’t expect you to know the rules. Nah, I think journalism’s pretty the same internationally, except in some censored countries. Also, you know this is the US when Elena purchases a weapon, and… the leftist humanitarian in me was appalled, while the warrior in me, heading into battle, was happy that she didn’t need to fill out paperwork and wait six weeks for a license. Turns out she didn’t need the weapon after all, but like that’s ever stopped anybody purchasing one…

Cover Art Survey

This survey came via one of the loops I’m on. Thought I may as well share my answers with you, too.

I’ll give you my demographics, too, so you can see where I’m coming from, and perhaps why my opinions are what they are.

23 years old, Celtic-Australian female in suburban Victoria. Am a reader, not an author. Not really into romance as a genre – I prefer it as a subplot rather than the main event.

1. What kind of covers do you like? I prefer photography, or illustration that looks close enough to resemble photography. I’m easily distracted by pretty colours, swirly things, prisms throwing rainbows, pretty cityscapes, gorgeous international architecture, etc.

2. How much detail should be on them? Maybe three things maximum on the front cover – character, setting and symbol. I’m happy to have a very detailed setting, but would prefer more anonymous character models.

3. Do you prefer characters or symbols, and why? Symbols. Would rather see something ABOUT the character, rather than the character his/herself. So pretty much symbols win by default

4. What don’t you like on covers? I’m so over mantitty and clinch covers, and arse/boobs shots. I guess when you’re exposed to something so much, you become desensitised, and that’s pretty much the stage I’m in.

5. What would you prefer in digital artwork? Characters, or something to do with the story? Character faces are fine, but see my above note about T&A/naked torsos. So I guess I would prefer something to do with the story, but surely there’s room on the cover for both character and something that fits the story.

6. Links to covers you do like, both digital and ‘normal’. http://judyyork.com/collections/Fantasy3/imgs/5.jpg This is my favourite cover of all time, done by Judy York for Marianne Mancusi’s Razor Girl. Love the colours, love the setting, love the look of the character – of course, you need great writing to inspire a great cover commissioned just for the book. Think it has elements of both digital and normal. http://www.stygiandarkness.com/store/images/L_a_flash_of_hex.jpg This is Timothy Lantz’s cover for Jes Battis’s A Flash of Hex. This is illustrated, I think, but may also have digital elements. I love the smoke, the colours and the glowing things. http://samhainpublishing.com/graphics/1316.jpg And as for straight digital art, I recently found this gem by Kanaxa for Nicole Kimberling’s Happy Snak. It’s got the right balance of character, setting, and swirly colours. The font is also a good match for the genre.

[REVIEW] Evil Cats – Elia Anie

Elia Anie
Evil Cats
Hachette Headline (UK: 3rd September 2009; AU: November 2009)
Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)

A growing trend in novelty books are those whose contents were originally distributed in regular installments on the Internet. But whilst I Can Has Cheezburger relies on photographs, Elia Anie’s Evil Cats: When Fluffy Cats Get Mean is illustrated, with virtually no text.

In real life, the most evil cats get is basically trying to usurp your place in the household – they couldn’t be arsed doing anything more strenuous. The felines in this book, however, have a wide array of weapons at their dispense, as well as an immature sense of humour. Like the lion alpha in South Park’s zoo whose comedy only went as far as “pull the thorn from my paw”, these evil cats fart a lot, and wizz on stuff. But there’re cleverer things in here – some drawings so intelligent that a few completely went over my head. (Not that it’s difficult to stupefy me…)

While it’s a nice little way to spend twenty minutes, the Australian RRP of $19.99 seems enormous. Make it $10, and more consumers will be likely to purchase it. But by all means, borrow it from the library, or have it on your coffee table for guests to flick through.

[COVER ART] Cheyenne McCray’s WEREWOLVES NOT ALLOWED & Kat Falls’s DARK LIFE

Updated cover art for Cheyenne McCray’s Werewolves Not Allowed. US cover art for Kat Falls’s Dark Life.