Free e-Book: 3 More Free E-Books From Suvudu

This month, Suvudu Free Library is giving away 3 more e-books: Star Wars: Lost Tribe Of The Sith: Precipice by John Jackson Miller Magic Kingdom For Sale... Sold! by Terry Brooks For Love Of Mother - Not by Alan Dean Foster You can download these e-books on Suvudu Free Book Library.

Speed, Speed the Cable by Kage Baker

Subterranean Press are giving away Kage Baker's novelette called Speed, Speed the Cable (PDF file). It's a 24-page short novel and I really like the way that it's presented. I think the background image and the font are spot on for the genre.

Speed, Speed the Cable is a sneak peak at the world that Kage Baker's created in The Women of Nell Gywynne's, which is a historical fantasy/steampunk novel. If you're interested in reading about it, Gasping For The Wind has a review of the book posted not so long ago.

Happy Reading!

Quote Of The Day

"Remember this: To have may be taken from you, to have had never." - from Legend by David Gemmell

Book Review: The Fall Of Ossard by Colin Taber

In The Fall Of Ossard, Colin Taber tells the story of Juvela Van Leuwin, granddaughter of a woman burnt at the stake for being a witch, by the Inquisitor Anton, member of the Church of Baimiopia’s Expeditia Puritanica. The burning was 20 twenty years ago and it was a milestone in Ossard’s history. Since then, Ossard has grown wealthy by its merchant princes. However now the city is troubled by another problem: Child abductions... The children simply vanish without a trace and without any witnesses... And it’s just the beginning...

Don't Judge A Book By It But...

The first time I looked at the cover of The Fall Of Ossard, it gave me the impression that something dark and sinister was happening in this city. With a close look, one can see a burning tower. It reminds me of one of my favorite movies: The Crow.

About The Book

I didn’t know Colin Taber before I decided to read The Fall Of Ossard. Now I’m glad that I gave it a try. The three adjectives on its cover capture the spirit of the book pretty well: “Bold... Innovative... Brave...” The book is easy to read and captivating. The very beginning of the story, the burning of Juvela’s grandmother, promises a fast-paced book. And it keeps its word. With the introduction of Juvela, the story slows down but to gather momentum with each turning page.

Colin Taber’s style in his book reminded me of Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name Of The Wind, partly because the story was told in a first-person narrative mode. And the fact that Ossard is the main setting of the story and the world’s connection with its deities reminded me of Brendon Sanderson’s Elantris.

In The Fall Of Ossard, the author paints the picture of a world where the boundary between humanity and divinity is very thin and flexible. It is a world where gods can choose to answer the prayers with their blessings. It is a world where gods can be mean and vicious; they can have their own agenda and use their followers in a multitude ways. This book is a window opened to a world forged by the goddess Life and her husband Death. Yet now they’re waging a divine war, a war that promises doom for all.

The magic system that the author uses has a satisfying complexity. Even though we don’t explicitly get explained all the nitty-gritty details of spellcasting, we know that there are three different branches of magic that exist according to the power source of the caster: Mind (forbidden Sisterhood), Soul (priesthoods of the faiths) and Heart (Cabals of Mages). I’m guessing that we will discover more about magic in the following books.

One of the aspects of the book that I loved is the existence of the world’s mythology. The reader is introduced to some of the deities along the way. However the mention of a few other names, such as the Gorgoyle God of Gorloth promises more to come. Furthermore, there are some places mentioned that aren’t part of the story yet. For example, I wonder if we’ll ever know more about Bar-Mor, the mountain city of the giants.

If you’re a fan of maps in fantasy books, you’ll be satisfied to know that Colin Taber did a good job with the maps too. They include Ossard and the world around the city.

All in all, it's an amazing book. Colin Taber raises the bar very high in his debut novel, The Fall Of Ossard, which is the first of a trilogy. The second book promises a lot to come in many aspects. It will probably be published towards the end of the year. The author said that the remaining books were pretty much complete, so hopefully, there shouldn’t be any delays. I, for one, am looking forward to reading them. I can’t wait to hear the rest of the story...

(9/10)

Looks Like Jeff Long Got His Facts Right

My daily facts reported me something that made me think of Jeff Long's The Descent, which was an entertaining but "just-OK" book. The story had an enormous potential and IMHO failed to meet any significant height.

Anyway... In his book, Jeff Long sends a bunch of people very very deep in the earth, to the depths totally unknown by the humanity. Without giving too many spoilers, it suffices to say that those peoples' rhythm of life changes. Well, it turns out that this part was not fiction after all:

In the 60s, French geologist Michael Siffre spent 205 days in darkness in a cave, becoming the person who survived the longest unbroken period of time underground.

Apparently, he spent those 205 dark days in Midnight Cave, in Texas, as part of an experiment sponsored by NASA. The goal was to test whether the human body has a natural time clock. During most of the experiment, Siffre's body adhered to a 24-hour day. However, as the experiment neared its end, Siffre started to live 48 to 50-hour days. During these days, he was alert for 33 to 36 hours before sleeping for 12 to 15 days.

The sad part is that it took Michael Siffre five years to recover from the effects of this dark period. And during the experiment, he suffered from depression, thoughts of suicide, and panic attacks.

Picture of The Monday Morning

I decided to give it a shot and tried to picture The Monday Morning. A nice cup of coffee in the local coffee shop (where everybody knows my name :) ), the book I'm currently reading/reviewing and a nice little biscotti.

Unfortunately, this moment of peace lasted less than an hour and the realization dawned on me after the cup of coffee: The weekend was over... It was time to go to work...

In case you're wondering, I'm already halfway through The Fall Of Ossard. I like Colin Taber's style very much. The story has been great so far. A full review will follow as soon as I finish the book.

Blood Of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Gollancz (16 Oct 2008)
ISBN: 0575083182
Dimensions: 23 x 15.2 x 2.8 cm

In a world scarred by war, in a world where racial tension grows every day, in a world where political games are played at the expense of innocent people, in a world where all hope seems lost, a young girl shines like a light in a stormy coast. This is the story of young Ciri, the Witcher called Geralt of Rivia - the white wolf - and Yennefer the enchantress. Will they be able to protect Ciri? This task will prove difficult. Who can they trust? Who is friend, who is enemy?

Don’t Judge A Book By It, But…

I love Blood Of Elves’ cover. I find it reflects the spirit of the book and probably what’s more to come. I’m not sure whether those are daggers or short swords but when I first saw them, I thought about a pair of elven swords. The fact that the cover makes the book look like an old book enhances the feeling of reading something special.

About The Book

I had wanted to find some time to read Blood of Elves for a while. It generated some buzz on the online forums and I wanted to try out one of Sapkowski’s books. Recently it pushed itself up in my to-be-read pile and it landed on my lap a few days ago. So I decided to read it…

Blood of Elves is a Tolkienesque fantasy book, which, I believe, would please a young adult audience as much as a mature one. The book successfully contains the expected traits of such a world. For example, it is a world where many races such as elves, dwarves, gnomes and halflings live together.

Sapkowski’s style is very fluent and Blood Of Elves is a fast paced book. I must admit that the author’s style, or the fact that he dances among various styles, really surprised me in the beginning. The book contains enough descriptions to imagine and visualize the setting however the author doesn’t use much description during conversations. This creates a fast paced story but sometimes it forces the reader to deduce what’s happening around by what’s being said in the conversation as opposed to what’s being described as part of some description. And rarely, the author uses a more poetic and sharp style with a series of short sentences.

There isn’t much character development throughout the book. I thought the most intriguing protagonist was Yennefer the enchantress whose character was the best developed. Yennefer gets more focus during the second half of the story whereas the first half is mostly about Geralt, the mysterious protector of Ciri.

All in all I really enjoyed this book. Despite having had high expectations I wasn’t disappointed. Blood of Elves comes across as the opening book of a long series and it promises much better things to come. I’m just hoping that we’ll be able to read the English translations of the other books in the series soon.

(7/10)