Second paragraph of third chapter:Around him, rockbuds smoldered. Moss-dried from the summer heat and long days between storms this time of year-flared up in waves, setting the rockbud shells alight. Flamespren danced among them. And, like a spren himself, Dalinar charged through the smoke, trusting in his padded armor and thick boots to protect ( Read more... )

Second paragraph of third chapter: In her cabin, Shallan read by the glow of a goblet of spheres, wearing her nightgown. Her cramped chamber lacked a true porthole and had just a thin slit of a window running across the top of the outside wall. The only sound she could hear was the water lapping against the hull. Tonight, the ship did not have a ( Read more... )

Second paragraph of third chapter: But expectations were like fine pottery. The harder you held them, the more likely they were to crack.
Apart from the sampler submitted as part of this year’s Hugo packet, I think the only works by Sanderson that I had previously read were his Hugo-winning novella The Emperor’s Soul, which I voted for back in the ( Read more... )

Last year I had read at least one book in all but one of the series on the final ballot in this category. This year all but one of them were completely new to me. In three of those five cases I decided to just read the first volume, for another I picked the volume with the highest rating on Goodreads and LibraryThing, and for the fifth the author ( Read more... )

Rather than wait for the Hugo voters' pack this year, I have acquired the written fiction nominees as far as possible, and this has meant getting to the novellas first. Unusually, four of the five works shortlisted in this category were published as standalone volumes, which will boost my book count for this month.

( 5) San Diego 2014 by Mira Grant; 4) After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress; 3) The Stars Do Not Lie by Jay Lake; 2) On a Red Station, Drifting by Aliette de Bodard; 1) The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson )