October 2011 Releases

Finished with September 2011 Releases? Here are October 2011 Releases. To see future dates, check Reading Wishlist.

January Through June 2011 Reads – Star Ratings

Books I read in January through June this year. Separated into star ratings, then listed by order in which I read them. All up at GoodReads. Some reviews here on my WordPress. Does not include books that I didn’t finish, because I’ve deleted them from my catalogue, and likely my memory.

Let me know if you decide to read or not to read them, based on my ratings. Because yes, I am that egocentric 😉

5 STARS: Rage (Jackie Morse Kessler), American Vampire (Jennifer Armintrout), Project 17 (Laurie Faria Stolarz), The Gathering (Kelley Armstrong), The Repossession Mambo/Repo Men (Eric Garcia), Moongazer (Marianne Mancusi), Wither (Lauren DeStefano), Girl Hero (Carrie Jones)

4 STARS: Outside In (Maria V. Snyder), Stocking Full of Coal (Amanda Feral), The Walled Garden (Michele Lang), The Shadow Runners (Liz Maverick), The Vespertine (Saundra Mitchell), Linger (Maggie Stiefvater), Dark Life (Kat Falls), Demonized (Naomi Clark), The Reckoning (Kelley Armstrong), Midnight Alley (Rachel Caine), Feast of Fools (Rachel Caine), Lord of Misrule (Rachel Caine), Carpe Corpus (Rachel Caine), Fade Out (Rachel Caine), Coming Home (P. D. Martin), Kiss of Death (Rachel Caine), XVI (Julia Karr), Ghost Town (Rachel Caine), The Girl in the Steel Corset (Kady Cross), Matched (Ally Condie), Uninvited (Amanda Marrone), The Bradbury Report (Steven Polansky), Uninvited (Justine Musk), Exile (Rebecca Lim), Helper12 (Jack Blaine), Darkness Becomes Her (Kelly Keaton)

3 STARS: Jealousy (Lili St. Crow), Among the Betrayed (Margaret Peterson Haddix), Among the Barons (Margaret Peterson Haddix), Becoming (Kelley Armstrong), Shadow Days (Andrea Cremer), Day of Fire (Kathleen Nance), Dreaming Anastasia (Joy Preble), Things Bogans Like, Beyond Heaving Bosoms (Sarah Wendell & Candy Tan), Fugitives (Alexander Gordon Smith), The Power of Two (Patti O’Shea), Coming Undone (Lauren Dane), In the Arms of Stone Angels (Jordan Dane), The Iron Witch (Karen Mahoney), Damaged (Yolanda Sfetsos), Falling Freestyle (Vivian Arend), Jeweled (Anya Bast), Thyla (Kate Gordon), It Takes a Village Idiot and I Married One (Alex Borstein & Cherry Chevapravatdumrong), Burn Bright (Marianne de Pierres), A Touch Mortal (Leah Clifford), Night and Chaos (Naomi Clark), Savage Transformation (Lexxie Couper), The Official Illustrated Guide (Stephenie Meyer), Exit Strategy (Kelley Armstrong), Made to Be Broken (Kelley Armstrong), You Are So Undead to Me (Stacey Jay), Hereafter (Tara Hudson), Relentless (Lauren Dane), The Scarlet Empress (Susan Grant), Close Encounters (Katherine Allred), Perfect Cover (Jennifer Lynn Barnes), Killer Spirit (Jennifer Lynn Barnes), West End (Laura Van Wormer), Moon Sworn (Keri Arthur)

2 STARS: Defiance (Lili St. Crow)

[REVIEW] Burn Bright – Marianne de Pierres

Marianne de Pierres
Burn Bright (Night Creatures, Book 1)
Random House (AU: 1st March 2011)

Retra lives in Grave as part of the Seal community, a patriarchal society where technology is shunned – minus the obedience strip implanted in Retra’s thigh when her older brother Joel flew the coop. (Yes, Joel has a nice normal name, but because Retra is the protag she has a super-special name – which is changed later to another super-special name.)

Retra practises enduring pain, and then she’s off on a barge to Ixion, a land (island?) of freedom without rules, to where Joel has fled. The basic story is to find Joel, which is done within the first 150 pages. The rest involves Retra nearly dying, but is saved by being bonded to a gang leader who sucks her thigh wound. Enlightenment is an orgasmic experience of sorts, and upon regaining consciousness, Retra renames herself Naif. (Remember what I said about protags having super-special names?) Now people want to own or kill her, and not just people but also the Night Creatures… Okay, I don’t get what goes on.

Ixion is open to those of a certain age-bracket, and its new residents don’t have to pay for anything: food, clothing, accommodation, public transport, club entrance fees. WHY NOT? When characters don’t ask my questions, are we just supposed to read and not think? That should be easy, considering I’m an eejit whose brain hurts when pondering. I can’t really connect with any of the characters, though I like Dark Eve, who doesn’t get enough page-time. Burn Bright explores the world, without a concrete storyline. We already know there’re another two books coming in the series, so maybe the plot comes later, but even within series I expect each book to have a self-contained story, and not just night-in-the-life vignettes.

So without some kind of focal point, the world of Ixion is basically just weird shiz for the sake of weird shiz. An acid trip of some sorts, but I’m sober and thus can’t appreciate its genius. A lot of world-building and vivid images, but no soul. The age level is young adult, but the genre itself is harder to determine. There are shades of dystopian, sci-fi, paranormal and cults, but overall it seems like the novel doesn’t know what it wants to be, and so I don’t, either.

Will I try Book 2, Angel Arias? Only if it’s gifted to me, or I borrow it from the library. I prefer to spend money on books with more than just abstract colourful shinies.

6 New Covers: Keri Arthur, Marianne de Pierres, Amy Garvey, M. J. Scott, Janni Lee Simner & Maria V. Snyder

March 2011 Releases

Done with February 2011 Releases. Here are March’s. To see future titles and dates, check out Reading Wishlist.

9 New Covers

Marianne de Pierres’ Parrish Plessis & Sentients of Orion Series

Also in store yesterday, I came across these futuristic and space opera (respectively) series…

Marianne de Pierres
Nylon Angel (Parrish Plessis, Book 1)
Hachette Orbit (UK: 15th January 2004); Penguin ROC (US: 5th July 2005)
Buy
In a world where the rich live behind the safety of a giant fortress wall and everyone else can go to hell, Parrish Plessis has learnt some useful survival tactics. Like don’t cross Jamon Hondo – unless you want to be dead by the morning. But heck, what’s a girl supposed to do when the one chance she may have of escaping from his grubby, stinking paws presents itself? Anyway, it’s hard to be a saint in a city, and Parrish Plessis is sick of doing what she’s told. Tonight, she’s going to take her chance. Because she can’t face tomorrow.

Marianne de Pierres
Code Noir (Parrish Plessis, Book 2)
Hachette Orbit (UK: 1st July 2004)
Buy
Jamon Mondo may be dead, but don’t think that makes Parrish Plessis’ life any less complicated. Sure, she’s got a shape-changing psycho off her back, but at what cost? The media have a price on her head so high that every scumbag from the Tert to Viva City Central is out to get a piece of her. The neighbouring ganglords are getting antsy for a share of the territory she just liberated. And Cabal Coomera reckon Parrish owes them a blood debt – one that can only be repaid by assassinating Loyl Daac, the only guy to ever majorly interest her. One thing’s for sure…Parrish is gonna need some bigger guns…

Marianne de Pierres
Crash Deluxe (Parrish Plessis, Book 3)
Hachette Orbit (UK: 2nd June 2005); Penguin ROC (US: 2nd October 2007)
Buy
Parrish Plessis, sometime coup leader, paid assassin and ex-bodyguard, is finding life tough. Betrayed by the enigmatic Loyl Daac, and still under blood debt to the deadly Cabal Coomera, Parrish is trying to hold together the little empire she’s inherited in the Tert, live up to the expectations of the many strays and waifs she’s accumulated, and attempt to flush the high-tech parasite from her system before she becomes something so much less than human. Not an ideal lifestyle, Parrish would be the first to admit, but she can make everything alright again if she can manage just one little task. Bring down the media. Just another day for Parrish Plessis…

Marianne de Pierres
Dark Space (Sentients of Orion, Book 1)
Hachette Orbit (UK: 3rd May 2007; AU: Jun 2007)
Buy
While drifting in space, lost, due to navigational failure, a mineral scout discovers God. When word gets out, academics from the studiums across Orion scramble to gain the Entity’s favour. However, not all the sentients of Orion hold this ‘god’ in awe – some, like the philosophers of Scolar and the Transhumans of Extropy are deeply suspicious. Onto the grand stage of inter-planetary academic politics, intellectual conceit and dubious theology walks Baronessa Mira Fedor. Her planet has been torn apart by the invasion of a race of giant tardigrades. Only the Orion League of Sentient Species can lend aid, but OLOSS are preoccupied with communicating with God. Mira, together with the larrikin, misogynist Jo-Jo Rasterovich, is left to her own resources to find help. In doing so she unmasks a galaxy-size intrigue. But will she live long enough to tell anyone…?

Marianne de Pierres
Chaos Space (Sentients of Orion, Book 2)
Hachette Orbit (UK: 6th November 2008; AU: November 2008)
Buy
Having fled the invasion on Araldis, Mira Fedor travels to the nearest Orion League planet seeking aid for her devastated world, but the authorities seem more interested in stealing her bio-ship, Insignia, than in rendering help. While Mira flees from world to world, Araldis burns. The more Mira uncovers, the more mysteries she finds: why is the initiate Tekton taking such extreme measures just to acquire a mineral alloy? Why do so many of the protagonists in this galaxy-wide drama have links to the Stain Wars? And what part does the Sole Entity – literally, God – have to play…?