ARCs on Deck this Monday

Just an update regarding the digital Advanced Reader's Copies I have at the moment.

The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke.  Release date 10/2/12

Just started this one, and so far, so good.  First person fantasy told from the point of view of Ananna of the Tanarau, a pirate girl evading a marriage arranged by her pirate parents. Not because she doesn't like her intended--he's not so bad...it's the whole idea of the thing.  She gives her young intended the slip and escapes into a bazaar on a camel...and the adventure begins!


Other digital ARCs in the hopper:

Katyas World by Jonathan L. Howard, release date 11/6/12
Science Fiction, main character is Katya Kuriakova, novice navigator for a space transport.  Not sure about the plot yet, but it involves the world named Rusalka, a water world.  What caught my interest is speculation about life on a water world, reminding me of seasteading and the real-world principality of Sealand.  What if mankind had to colonize a world with no dry land?

The Future We Left Behind by Mike A. Lancaster, release date 11/13/12
NetGalley blurb says, "What if we knew that the very way we live was about to be changed in an instant, and we could stop it? And what if everything we are sure we know is entirely wrong?" 

The Paladin Prophecy by Mark Frost, release date 9/25/12
Frost has an impressive list of superhero creds...in this new work, he introduces Will West.  From the NetGalley blurb:  "At his parents' insistence, [Will's] made sure to get mediocre grades and to stay in the middle of the pack on his cross-country team. Then Will slips up, accidentally scoring off the charts on a nationwide exam."  I sense a new super-hero in the making!

Ironskin by Tina Connelly, release date 10/2/12
A great war has left many victims scarred and cursed, doomed to wearing iron masks.  But what if an enigmatic artist had discovered a way for the victims to become beautiful again?  Would you take the risk?  How far will young Jane Eliot go to become whole again?

The Sweetest Dark by Shana Abe

The Sweetest Dark
by Shana Abe
Bantam Books
August 2012?  or April 2013 (Amazon.)

If you're a Libba Bray fan, keep an eye out for this one.

16 year old Victorian-era London orphan gets a chance to attend a remote, prestigious private academy for girls...and meets two very different boys along the way, both of whom are important to her journey toward understanding her own magic. 

Questions to think about: what if you learned that you could do something unusual and dangerous...would you dare to try?  What if you had to learn it anyway in order to save the ones you care about? 

Dark, gothic, rich in the telling.  Magic, historical setting, and romance all in one.  I particularly like that the main character, Eleanore Jones, is clearly in charge of her journey.  She definitely decides which steps she will take and acts on her own--no "blown along by events" or "pulled in a certain direction" action here.  She may be in unfamiliar territory, but she's there under her own power and makes leaps based on her own thoughts and feelings.  I appreciate that in a heroine...!

Good read for teens and adults who like teen fiction.

Thumbs up!

Shadowfell by Juliet Marillier

Shadowfell
Juliet Marillier
Knopf
Pub Date: September 11, 2012

Veteran writer Marillier begins a new series with Shadowfell, being released as children's fiction.  While the narrator's voice tilts toward children, the story is perfectly acceptable as teen or adult reading.  Good crossover novel.

What if you were an orphan hunted for a skill you were born with?  What if you had to stay on the run in order to survive?  What if you discovered you were being tested without knowing whether you would really measure up?  And what if you found a friend in the unlikliest of places?  Would you ever be able to trust that person?  And what if your skills could both save an entire land but harm the most fragile who live there? 

These are the questions faced by our narrator, Neryn, a young girl struggling to reach a far-off place named Shadowfell, a place rumored to help her kind.  It's a journey that keeps us moving through a rough, agrarian land followed by a bit of a cliffhanger ending that will leave the reader wondering how soon the sequel will follow.  Has a little bit of a "Snow White and the Huntsman" vibe.

A thumbs up read. 

(And a thank you to NetGalley for the digital ARC!)  NetGalley rocks!

Prodigy: A Legend Novel by Marie Lu

Prodigy
Marie Lu
Putnam
Pub Date: Jan. 2013




Picked up this ARC at the American Library Conference in Anaheim this past June.

If you liked Legend, Marie Lu's first book, Prodigy won't disappoint.  Same rockin' pace with the same alternating storylines between characters June and Day.

In this book, Lu plays with the concepts of good and evil with more depth.  People and nations all have elements of good and evil within them...is the evil you know safer than the evil you don't know?  Are our mortal enemies what they seem?  What if you had to save an enemy in order to save yourself?  In an age (and season) where we see our own politics so polarized, these are important ideas to think about.

A great read for:  teens, reluctant readers, gamers, and adults who read YA crossover fiction.

Highly recommend you read Legend first.

Verdict: Definitely watch for this one.  Could be movie fodder in the future.

Age of Miracles...A Retro Post

Here's the proto-post for this blog, originally posted on the Marin County Free Library site on Feb. 17, 2012.  Enjoy!

http://www.marinlibrary.org/all-things-social-media/books-blog/26346

Specibrarian Begins...

I read speculative fiction.  For fun, for escape, for novelty, for intrigue.  I've had the pleasure of guest lecturing at a couple of UCLA library school classes on the topic a few years back...and the history of speculative fiction goes back to the renaissance...maybe further.  At it's inception, speculative fiction is what storytellers used to wonder about that other land, that other culture.  What if we were there?  What are THEY like?   The whole idea that life is lived differently somewhere else intrigues us and makes for stories that surprise us.  And what started as stories about people living on the other side of the mountain or across the water has become stories about beings who live in another reality or across space.

As a professional librarian with the responsibility to build a quality collection for a voraciously reading public, I have the generous opportunity to see many forthcoming books as galleys (also known as advanced reader copies or ARCs.)  It's a pleasure to offer up a sneak peek of things to watch for.

My promise to you is to review pre-publication books which I
1) actually read all the way through and
2) liked in some way(s).

I may also list titles of galleys I'm looking at.  Since I work full time +, I may have perfectly good galleys that I just don't have time to read in any given month--so please don't take a lack of review as bad...it just may be unlucky timing.

D.