Halloween Reading

Happy Halloween! Have you done or are you doing anything special for Halloween? We don't go crazy at home but we still decorate a little bit and we do carve one or two pumpkins. Just to welcome trick-or-treating kids and to create some atmosphere (You can see my prize-winning pumpkin on the left :) ).

Back to the books! I've recently received a few books that suit perfectly this time of the year (except maybe the last one, but I included it in the below list as I think I'm going to like it very much):

The End of The Line
edited by Jonathan Oliver

Paperback: 374 pages
Publisher: Solaris (1 Nov 2010)
ISBN-10: 1907519327
ISBN-13: 978-1907519321

New horror stories set on and around the Underground
In deep tunnels something stirs, borne on a warm breath of wind, reeking of diesel and blood. The spaces between stations hold secrets too terrible for the upper world to comprehend and the steel lines sing with the songs of the dead.

The End of The Line collects some of the very best in new horror writing in an themed anthology of stories set on, and around, the Underground, the Metro and other places deep below. This collection of 19 new stories includes thoughtful, disturbing and terrifying tales by Ramsey Campbell, Christopher Fowler, Mark Morris, Pat Cadigan, Adam Nevill and Michael Marshall Smith amongst many others.

Best of Tomes of the Dead
edited by Jonathan Oliver
featuring Matthew Smith, Al Ewing & Rebecca Levene

Paperback: 671 pages
Publisher: Abaddon (11 Nov 2010)
ISBN-10: 1907519343
ISBN-13: 978-1907519345

A Collection of Three Terrifying Zombie Tales

The Zombie Apocalypse Starts Here...

The masters of flesh-munchingly, gut-wrenchingly, eyeball-poppingly great zombie fiction bring you three of the best books from the first years of the critically-acclaimed Tomes of the Dead line.

The Words of Their Roaring
In a London overrun by the zombie hordes, former thief Gabe O'Connell's loyalty to his employer Harry Flowers is challenged when a routine job goes south and he uncovers the full extent of the gang lord's plans for the city.

I, Zombie
John Doe has been dead for then years. If the price is right, he'll kill for you, steal for you, or save your life for you. There's no mystery you can't hire him to solve... except for the secret behind his own existence. A secret that could end all life on Earth.

Anno Mortis
Beautiful and deadly, the gladiator Boda is brought to Rome in the reign of Caligula, where she uncovers a plot to breach the barrier between life and death. For all that she hates her captors and their decadent city, she may be the empire's only hope.

The Pan Book of Horror Stories
selected by Herbert van Thal

Paperback: 300 pages
Publisher: Pan (1 Oct 2010)
ISBN-10: 0330518682
ISBN-13: 978-0330518680

Fifty years ago Pan launched a series of books that were to delight and disgust - sometimes even on the same page – readers for thirty years. From classics in the genre to scraping-the-barrel nastiness, the Pan Books of Horror had them all and they continue to be a major influence in published anthologies to the present day.

We're delighted, therefore, to announce the reissue of the very first Pan Book of Horror. Specially selected for Pan, here are 22 terrifying tales of horror by such famous authors as Peter Fleming, C. S. Forester, Bram Stoker, Angus Wilson, Noel Langley, Jack Finney and L. P. Hartley.

Stories of the uncanny jostle with tales of the macabre. Stories of subtle beastliness---like Rasberry Jam; of sickening horror---like The Fly or His Beautiful Hands; and of utter chilling terror---like The Horror of the Museum!

The perfect bedside book---for those with nerves of steel!

Pax Britannia: The Ulysses Quicksilver Omnibus
by Jonathan Green

Paperback: 734 pages
Publisher: Abaddon (11 Nov 2010)
ISBN-10: 190751936X
ISBN-13: 978-1907519369

Action and adventure in a new age of steam.

Join Ulysses Quicksilver - dandy, adventurer and agent of the crown - as he battles the enemies of the Empire in this collection of rip-roaring steampunk adventures. This action-packed tome brings you three sensational tales...

This omnibus collects together the first three Ulysses Quicksilver novels: Unnatural History, Leviathan Rising and Human Nature.

Book Review: The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Title: The Way of Kings
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Paperback: 1008 pages
Publisher: Tor Books - 31 Aug 2010 (US), Gollancz - 30 Dec 2010 (UK)
ISBN 10: 0765326353
ISBN 13: 978-0765326355
Series: Book 1 of The Stormlight Archive

"Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.

One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.


Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.

Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar’s niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan’s motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.

Speak again the ancient oaths,

Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before Destination.

and return to men the Shards they once bore.

The Knights Radiant must stand again."



Please find the rest of the review on Speculative Book Review...

Holidays

After 3 weeks of radio silence, I'm back. What happened? I went to San Francisco for work for a week. I go there every year to attend JavaOne (a big IT conference built around Java development platform). It all went well.

Then, I visited friends in Colorado for 10 days. This was my first time in Colorado and I was really looking forward to it. First I stayed with friends in Boulder. Then I went to Denver to stay with other friends for a few more days. What did I think of the place? I absolutely loved it.

The weather was amazing. We had 10 days of sunshine and blue sky. I'd love to see Colorado in winter, though, with all the snow and skiing. The people looked very much into outdoors activities.

We drove around the place a lot and while climbing the Rockies, we came across old mining equipment left from the mining era. I thought they looked cool, almost like out of a steampunk novel.

After coming back home for a few days, I left to attend the wedding celebration of some friends during a long weekend break. Now I'm tired but I had great time.

Well... Of course I did some reading during these busy times. I'm hoping to post my review of The Way of Kings on Monday.