[REVIEW] City of Glass – Cassandra Clare

Cassandra Clare
City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, Book 3)
Simon & Schuster Margaret K. McElderry (US & CA: 24th March 2009); Walker (AU: 1st April 2009; UK: 6th July 2009)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA)

The Nephilim are due for a final showdown with an evil Shadowhunter purist in Cassandra Clare’s final installment of the Mortal Instruments trilogy, City of Glass.

No more futzing around in New York. To stop Valentine Morgenstern from further evil, the Nephilim have to go to Idris – in particular the city of Alicante. Once the main cast is through the portal, all hands are on deck. So where is the third Mortal Instrument? Will Alec Lightwood officially come out? And will Clary Fray’s and Jace Wayland’s parentage be clarified?

I can’t remember much of City of Bones, and City of Ashes is very much a trilogy middle book (linking the first to the third), but City of Glass clearly stands above its predecessors. Though still feeling somewhat long, new characters are introduced, others return, and someone dies. Loose ends are tied up (a little too neatly), and while I’m not completely in love with this trilogy, it at least feels somewhat original. Idris is richly imagined, and Simon Lewis is one of my favourite vampires in fiction. (Not hard, because most of them are annoyingly emo – or, to paraphrase South Park, “douchebag vampire wannabe boners”.)

The author’s next work will be a steampunk prequel to this series, The Infernal Devices – stay tuned.

New UK Pre-Order Link

Carrie Ryan: The Dead-Tossed Waves (18 Mar 2010)

[COVER ART] Vanished (UK) – Kat Richardson; 2 New US Pre-Order Links

Kat Richardson’s Vanished (UK). Original

Rachel Caine: Fade Out (3 Nov 2009)
Megan Hart: Pleasure and Purpose (1 Sep 2009); No Greater Pleasure (6 Oct 2009)

Tez in the City, Part II

Saturday
-Chatted, signed, photographed with Susan Grant, Liz Maverick, Keri Arthur & Tracey O’hara.

-Liz’s The Shadow Runners is set in Australia in 2176. Not Victoria, but nevertheless I think she was chuffed to be here. And to see for herself if Australia is closer to becoming a penal colony again

-Tracey’s Night’s Cold Kiss cover art was revealed, but I’ll wait for her to share it with you first. Go bother her

-Melanie Milburne‘s surgeon husband sometimes phones her for a chat whilst he’s performing surgery. Who says men can’t multi-task? Melanie also had a trophy on her signing table – I’ll have to check award results.

-Amy Andrews has an agent, but looks after her own Mills & Boon business. Her agent deals with Amy’s other works.

-If you’d like to know the mating habits of marine animals and other mammals, consult Lexxie Couper.

-Jess Dee has a fabulous South African accent. It’s like the Oz one, only classier. And charming. Makes you want to hug the world. In short: fab.

Sunday
-Chat and photos with Liz, Sue, Kez, Jordana Ryan, Lexxie, Jess, MaryJanice Davidson & Anthony Alongi, and Dianna Love. Didn’t chat with Sherrilyn Kenyon, but had a photo.

-Skipped out early to head to the State Library of Victoria for a free session with Justine Larbalestier & Simmone Howell. Free cupcakes – the icing was so tasty!

-In times past and present, they’ve made up their own slang. Consult Simmone about the verb “rod”, and Justine the noun “spoff”.

-Scott Westerfeld is tall.

Flickr

Tez in the City, Part I

Busy weekend. Here’s the non-authorly part.

On Saturday morning, in a wind that totally effed up my hair, I went to Gosch’s Paddock for Melbourne Victory’s open training session. The Grand Final is on this coming Saturday in Melbourne. If you can’t be there in person, be sure to find it on TV. Internationals, ask your favourite pub or sports bar to screen it.

From Costa Rica, José Luis López Ramírez.

Also from Costa Rica, Carlos Hernández Valverde.

And from Brazil, Ney Fabiano de Oliveira.

Though because this is Australia, their names are commonly shorter than the ones above from Wikipedia

Flickr

New Pre-Order

Added to Most Wanted:

Rachel Vincent’s My Soul to Take: Buy (US) Buy (CA)

May I Borrow Your Knowledge, Please?

I figure that if I have you smart people around, I may as well use you

Saturday 21st February, 10AM-11:15AM. Melbourne Victory are having an open training session (and it’s free to come look-see) at Gosch’s Paddock. According to Google, it’s on the corner of Swan and Punt. (Hands up if you want to make a “punt” joke ) And according to Metlink Melbourne, Richmond Station is also on the corner of Swan and Punt. It’s a big intersection, though. So I’m not exactly sure whereabouts Gosch’s Paddock is. Anyone know how to get there, or even want to come along?

If I do decide to attend, I’ll have a few hours afterward to kill in the city, because I don’t have to be at the Jasper Hotel until 3PM. So I’m looking for somewhere indoors, quiet, clean, cool with a nice bathroom and somewhere I can get free water. My budget may only be $10 for a fast food lunch. I was thinking maybe the State Library, but I don’t think I’d fit in with the literary crowd – I tend to think in LOLcat-speak. (oh hai! ur kweery sux. kthxbai!)

Also, if a venue has lots of comfy chairs and couches, that’ll be awesome. So if you know of a suitable place I can chill out in for free, let me know. I’m not all that familiar with the city except for certain landmarks.

P.S. I will have a camera in tow for the day, and will try to capture photographic evidence of a brothel near Richmond Station. It has a sign out the front saying “Enter at Rear”. Double-entendres make the world a funnier place.

P.P.S. Funnier still is the New Zealander accent. My Australian one just isn’t comical enough.

[REVIEW] Spell Hunter (Knife) – R. J. Anderson

R. J. Anderson
Spell Hunter (also published as Knife)
HarperCollins (US: 28th April 2009; CA: 15th April 2009); Hachette Orchard (UK: 8th January 2009)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA)

The faery Queen’s Hunter fights for the best of both species, faery and human, in R. J. Anderson’s Spell Hunter (also published as Knife).

Go Outside, kill animals, and bring them back to the Oakenwyld to be used as food and fur blankets. But ever since Knife saw a human for the first time, she’s wanted to know more. Injured in battle, Knife is nursed back to health by Paul McCormick, a human who’s also benefiting from Knife’s company.

If the faeries knew more about humans, their ideas and technology, maybe the Oakenfolk wouldn’t be dying out. But the Queen forbids them to make contact with humans, and Knife investigates why, with the help of some secret diaries, faery allies…and Paul.

This novel charmed the pants off me, quite surprising as I’m usually not keen on faeries and/or magic in my reading. Though rather chaste, the novel’s references to suicide and drug overdose may not be suitable for some children, but for older readers they provide a refreshingly mature – and realistic – viewpoint.

The friendship between Knife and Paul, how they help each other’s creativity and deal with their worlds (both separate and together), is a key point, and might break through your emotional barrier as it did mine.

[REVIEW] Men of the Otherworld – Kelley Armstrong

Kelley Armstrong
Men of the Otherworld (Anthology)
Random House (US & CA: 27th January 2009); Hachette Orbit (UK & AU: 5th February 2009)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA)

Families in the American Pack have deadly agendas in Kelley Armstrong’s collection of werewolf tales, Men of the Otherworld.

Out of the two novellas and two short stories here, I’d already read three in previous incarnations, when they were available free on the author’s website. Now they can only be found in this anthology, with the proceeds going to World Literacy of Canada.

“Ascension” is a fine short, focusing on Jeremy Danvers’s birth. The racist, unlikable Malcolm Danvers manages to attract a quiet Japanese lass, but she has a definite plan to keep the resulting baby from his father.

Though Malcolm is a character you’ll want dead, or at the very least slapped, he at least has somewhat of a unique voice. I’ve read the Otherworld novels and short stories – Clay Danvers, Lucas Cortez and Jeremy all have very similar voices. And when these are written in first person, it becomes even more obvious. The same with the female characters, though when we first met Jaime Vegas as a secondary character, she at least seemed to be drunken and clumsy. But once she starred in her own novel, her distinguishing characteristics faded. I love these books’ intriguing plots, but the characters aren’t quite standing out as different from one another.

“Savage” traces Clay’s back story – how he was bitten, and became Jeremy’s “son”. I still don’t understand why Clay wanted to become a werewolf, and why Malcolm bit him instead of just killing him. It’s kind of tedious.

“Ascension” tells of how Jeremy became Alpha. There’s a lot of political faff, bitchiness, and killing people to raise your own status – and that’s just Malcolm, let alone his followers. This has a more engaging plot than “Savage”, but still seems to plod along.

Then there’s a new short story, “Kitsunegari”, where we learn the mysterious origins of Jeremy’s ancestors. It deals with paranormal beings I hadn’t heard of before, so yay for something new and interesting. But see above for character notes. I preferred Jeremy and Jaime when they were both single. Now a lot of scenes end with a saucy sentence, and closed-door shagging. Gets old fast.

Whilst World Literacy of Canada is a worthy organisation, I still wouldn’t recommend paying hardcover price for this anthology. Luckily for those in the UK and Australia, this is being released first as a paperback. Those in the US and Canada will have to buy the hardcover now, or wait months for a paperback.

I still very much plan to follow any and all of Kelley Armstrong’s works, but reading the Otherworld series (adult, not the YA’s Darkest Powers) doesn’t seem to enthuse me as much as it once did. I’ve become far too picky in my old age…

South Park: “The Ungroundable”

There are so many quotable quotes from South Park‘s “The Ungroundable”. Here are my favourites, as found here:

Goth 1: So all of a sudden you Justin and Britney wannabes think it’s cool to dress like us?
Vampir: We dress the way our souls feel, to express the darkness per se.

Steven: What keeps a family together, Butters?
Butters: A well-organised pantry.

Butters: You can’t ground me! For I am neither living nor dead! How can thy ground that which is…ungroundable?

Cartman: Well, Mom, apparently Butters is gay, finds me very attractive and, confused about his sexual identity, puked up all over my floor.

Goth 1: Let us make it abundantly clear: if you hate life, truly hate the sun, and need to smoke and drink coffee, you are Goth. If, however, you like dressing in black ’cause it’s “fun,” enjoy putting sparkles on your cheeks and following the occult while avoiding things that are bad for your health, then you are most likely a douchebag vampire wannabe boner.

Am now awaiting Season 13 to hit Australian free-to-air TV…