This is a Book Post: Last Succubus Novel and VA Spinoff Series News + Mockingjay Thoughts
This past week had several important and noteworthy book-related events for me, namely 1) finishing Mockingjay at last, and then 2) finally seeing some exciting news about the plots and release dates of the final book in the Georgina Kincaid series (one of my all-time faves) AND about the forthcoming VA spinoff series (which I've been dying to know about since finishing The Last Sacrifice last December)!
First, let's talk about the Richelle Mead-related stuff, beginning with the VA spinoff news...(which I took the liberty of finally getting myself an Adrian/Rose icon for, since I now have the space and a D/R icon just isn't appropriate for this post! ;)):
Cover:
Rose's story might have wrapped up in the Vampire Academy series, but there's still lots more to tell about the other characters from that world. This spin-off series centers around Sydney the Alchemist, as well as Jill, Eddie, and everyone's favorite heartbroken hero from the last series. More details coming later this year!
Bloodlines is the first novel in this new series (and also the name of the series) and will be released on August 23. It is available for pre-order from most major booksellers.
Source
Adrian! ;_; My poor bb....I must say, I'm kind of surprised and disappointed that it's going to be focused on Sydney, who is not exactly my favorite, when I was so sure it'd be about Jill--whose story I find more intriguing atm, and whose story would allow us to more easily see what's happening in the new Royal Court under Lissa, and more importantly to me rn, allow us access to Adrian and getting that story some resolution--he needs it! (In fact, I kind of wish the spin-off could have been from his perspective, I'd love to get into his head like we did Jacob's in Breaking Dawn, but oh well).
I'm kind of glad we do have this though, it made finishing The Last Sacrifice a bit less painful, knowing I'd see Adrian and the others again, that Adrian would have another series in which to find the happiness he deserves. I wonder if it will be with Jill, I kind of hope so, better her (when they have kind of a connection already, although very brotherly perhaps on his side so far), than some random Mary Sue (unless he ends up with Sydney? That would be weird and unexpected...:s). At least I can rest assure he won't "imprint" on the impossible love child of Rose and Dimitri for his happily-ever-after, unlike with *some* books/authors...;) Richelle Mead >>> Stephenie Meyer Take #357. But yeah, yay for something to be excited about this summer!
And then, after squeeing about having that summer blockbuster book to look forward to, I suddenly notice that the final Georgina Kincaid novel, apparently called Succubus Revealed, is coming out exactly one week later on August 30!!! (Or who knows, maybe it will come out earlier than that, with this series they often do show up early in bookstores). \o/ <333 I can't even...it's going to sure be a summer (or rather, month?) of Richelle Mead! :p I kind of wish that these two big summer releases were spaced out a little further apart in the summer, but on the other hand I'm going to have more free time in August than earlier to read them, so maybe it's just as well...I'll have to read the first one pretty fast to make sure I'm done in time for the GK novel! ;)
The book description for the GK book is also now on the website and quite interesting...
Cover:
Georgina Kincaid has had an eternity to figure out the opposite sex, but sometimes they still surprise her. Take Seth Mortensen. The man has risked his soul to become Georgina's boyfriend. Still, with Lucifer for a boss, Georgina can't just hang up her killer heels and settle down to domestic bliss. In fact, she's being forced to transfer operations...to Las Vegas.
The City of Sin is a dream gig for a succubus, but Georgina's allies are suspicious. Why are the powers-that-be so eager to get her away from Seattle--and from Seth? Georgina is one of Hell's most valuable assets, but if there's any way out of the succubus business she plans to take it--no matter how much roadkill she leaves behind. She just hopes the casualties won’t include the one man she’s risking everything for...
Oh man, shit is going down...although nooo I don't want her to leave Seattle and the bookstore and all her friends and Jerome and Carter! ;_; Hope they'll still show up enough. I am really excited about this one though, how it's going to be resolved, whether my theories will prove to be correct. We better get a happy ending of Human!Georgina and Seth together at last and having free sex and babies and a mortgage and all that jazz, just saying...I'm hoping that the VA series resolution on the romance front will be an indicator to how it will all end here. Except I won't be as upset about Roman as I was about Adrian...
And omg whoever comes up with the cheesy and totally ridic and irrelevant taglines for these book covers ought to be shot, they're even worse than the Animorphs ones were back in the day, lol...I'm glad that they've never had a repeat of the embarrassment that was #2's cover, which basically couldn't be shown in public decently...:p
Also I must as always take a moment to pimp both of these series, but especially the Georgina Kincaid series, starting with Succubus Blues, (since fewer people I know read it, lol), to anyone who loves supernatural/urban paranormal stuff...they are SO entertaining and funny/witty (the best of Secret Diary of a Call Girl or Buffy, what have you in terms of biting wit), but also have a fascinating supernatural verse and memorable cast of characters (which for instance an OCD Martha Stewart-wannabe vampire and an Archdemon boss who is a secret John Cusack fan and drinking buddies with the area's Archangel that he used to know before he fell from grace and became a demon and all--such a cute bromance, lol), and some really compelling drama and well-written romance all at the same time. I don't know if I've ever enjoyed a book series as much as I've enjoyed reading many of the books in this one.
And then there's Mockingjay...O_o Big Spoilers Ahoy!
Wow...certainly a pretty depressing ending in bits, but at the same time a happy/hopeful one! I think on the whole I liked it and found it to be satisfying (the ending more so than the rest of the book, which was kind of slow and boring at parts, hence me taking so much longer to read this one than the previous two). It's always been a story of violence and cruelty and horror and war, and thus this ending was only fitting, appropriate, true to the series as a whole. I'm really sorry Prim had to die (and Finnick), especially when the whole series basically begins with her trying to protect her sister (and then she and Gale in the end fail at this...;_;), but it was necessary for the thing with Coin to happen, and definitely served a purpose. I'm also a little sorry that Gale turned out the way he did, since I did love his friendship/close bond with Katniss (and liked him well enough earlier--I was never a hater, as I now realize many in the fandom are), but for once I wasn't overly fussed/invested in the love triangle and was leaning towards Peeta anyway (when normally I'd probably be stanning Gale, the dark broody loser in love, lol). It makes me sad that Katniss will probably never see Gale again, that their bond is now broken, but I'm glad that it didn't end with Katniss breaking Gale's heart or anything though (he broke his own heart). Likewise I'm SO glad that Peeta survived (I mean it seemed logical, but you never know with this series so I had been worried!) and that he and Katniss were able to end up together and find some peace and contentment. I also loved that they were able to move back to District 12 and were gradually rebuilding it, it seemed fitting and right.
In any case though, I definitely didn't see the Coin thing and such coming, so it was nice getting a surprise twist at the end as well! But yeah, overall while I actually think on the whole that this book wasn't as good as the other two (I certainly didn't find myself as gripped as I did with the last two, I found it even boring in places, too much fighting and prep and such), the end was pretty fantastic and right and a satisfying conclusion to the series. I also applaud the way Collins makes an effort to realistically depict PTSD/trauma from war with Katniss...
Also, having now dipped into the fandom a bit since finishing MJ, I have to disagree with those saying that she didn't choose either way--while obviously circumstances intervened to a degree (making Gale no longer an option, but through his own folly), she says herself in the end that "I know this would have happened anyway. That what I need to survive is not Gale's fire, kindled with rage and hatred. I have plenty of fire myself. What I need is the dandelion in spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that." (453)
The above passage and others really brought to my attention that these books are not only really just gripping well-plotted bestsellers, they are really beautifully written at times as well, and filled with some nice metaphors and symbols. Two other quotes that I found particularly beautiful/loved/jumped out at me were:
- I'm searching for something to hang on to, some sign of the girl and boy who met by chance in the woods five years ago and became inseparable. I'm wondering what would have happened to them if the Hunger Games had not reaped the girl. If she would have fallen in love with the boy, married him even. And sometime in the future, when the brothers and sisters had been raised up, escaped with him into the woods and left 12 behind forever. Would they have been happy, out in the wild, or would the dark, twisted sadness between them have grown up even without the Capitol's help? (427)
^ I love the bittersweet tone of it, the way it laments what could have been...again, I did like Katniss/Gale to a degree early on, even if I preferred K/P, and I think this passage highlights that lost potential, the other road that could have been taken.
And of course, this was my favorite line in the book:
- "You love me. Real or not real?"
I tell him, "Real." (453)
It's just so succinct and perfect, I can't even...during all the "real or not real" stuff earlier I had no idea it'd be used in the end for her long-delayed love confession, but it works so well, I can't imagine a better way for it to have happened! <3333 This could have been a great place to end the book, although I loved the epilogue as well. So yeah, while this is definitely my least favorite of the trilogy overall (I think The Hunger Games is still my favorite), I did love the ending at least...and several places in the ending (especially the encounter with Buttercup or when she's gradually healing at the end doing the book and such) I actually cried, which is always a good sign for me! (Since I don't do it all the time, though I find I do cry more often at books than TV shows, for whatever reason).
I remember reading a F!S a while back (when I still read them, lol) that claimed THG was just like Animorphs--which is a ridiculous claim, but I admit that with this comparison on the mind as I finished this book, I did see several parallels between both series in terms of events, themes, moral quandaries, gritty realism, etc--all of which just show why both series are memorable and a cut above the average YA series:
First of all, both series show children at war (in Animorphs the main characters are only 13 or so when it all begins, and end the series at about 16), placed in traumatic and violent situations that force them to grow up too fast, and which leave them scarred, especially the reluctant leader figures of Jake and Katniss respectively. Neither Jake nor Katniss asked for the responsibility, neither really wanted to lead or inspire others, but others forced it on them, seeing qualities within them that they do not see in themselves. And both are utterly destroyed by their respective wars/the events of their series, left as shells of their former selves--in both cases the authors had the balls to realistically depict trauma/PTSD/depression. Both Suzanne Collins and K.A. Applegate also both had the guts to depict real moral dilemmas and shades of gray in the actions of the protagonists, and to raise interesting philosophical issues about war, such as what kind of violence or killing is or is not justified in the course of winning. When I was reading the debates about whether or not they would give the people in the military mountain fortress a chance to escape, I actually recalled the similar debate among the Animorphs when they were considering blowing up the Yeerk Pool near the end--and like the rebels, they decided to at least give the enemy a chance to escape by giving them a 5 minute warning before the bomb exploded. Likewise one could compare Gale's bomb and the unnecessary deaths that it entailed with Jake giving the order to empty the Yeerk Pool on the enemy command ship and instantly kill millions of defenseless Yeerks merely to cause a distraction--it contributed to winning the war, but at what cost? One could also compare this rather morally gray action with Katniss' disturbing vote in favor of hosting a new Hunger Games with the government leaders' children...
Furthermore, in both series the protagonist (Jake and Katniss) is really drawn into the fight/storyline by the need to help/save their beloved sibling (in the case of Jake when he realizes that his elder brother is infested by a Yeerk, which gives him the impetus to fight the Invasion in order to save him someday). And both Jake and Katniss tragically fail in this important objective in the very end, to their and the readers' anguish (especially in the case of Jake since he is the one who makes the decision to actually kill his brother in order to protect the world from the ambitious Yeerk possessing him). Both authors had the guts to kill off MAJOR characters in a way that highlights the senselessness of war and made the respective wars more realistic; in the Animorphs finale Rachel dies on a suicide mission that mostly fails anyway, while in the THG finale you have Finnick and Prim's deaths to no real purpose, and Cinna's horrible death previously. In short, both series feature mature and interesting reflections on the nature of war and humanity, which make them great YA reading. Also, I think that that the controversial Animorphs series ending probably prepared me to deal with and accept the THG ending better, especially since the Animorphs' ending is actually still more tragic and utterly depressing than the THG one, lol...;)
Speaking of The Hunger Games, while I was going to reserve judgment on the movie even with the questionable actors cast in the male roles (I only know JH from playing the evil douchey Steve in the Cirque du Freak movie, hard to imagine Peeta from that role, lol), the new spoilers about the script and what has been changed are making me begin to actually think this movie will be terrible, the script sounds in parts like a badly written fanfic...:/ Anyone else see them?
And lol, since beginning this post I now see that the next Sookie Stackhouse novel is also coming out soon at the beginning of May and has a description out? O_o Just book news galore this week...
First, let's talk about the Richelle Mead-related stuff, beginning with the VA spinoff news...(which I took the liberty of finally getting myself an Adrian/Rose icon for, since I now have the space and a D/R icon just isn't appropriate for this post! ;)):
Cover:
Rose's story might have wrapped up in the Vampire Academy series, but there's still lots more to tell about the other characters from that world. This spin-off series centers around Sydney the Alchemist, as well as Jill, Eddie, and everyone's favorite heartbroken hero from the last series. More details coming later this year!
Bloodlines is the first novel in this new series (and also the name of the series) and will be released on August 23. It is available for pre-order from most major booksellers.
Source
Adrian! ;_; My poor bb....I must say, I'm kind of surprised and disappointed that it's going to be focused on Sydney, who is not exactly my favorite, when I was so sure it'd be about Jill--whose story I find more intriguing atm, and whose story would allow us to more easily see what's happening in the new Royal Court under Lissa, and more importantly to me rn, allow us access to Adrian and getting that story some resolution--he needs it! (In fact, I kind of wish the spin-off could have been from his perspective, I'd love to get into his head like we did Jacob's in Breaking Dawn, but oh well).
I'm kind of glad we do have this though, it made finishing The Last Sacrifice a bit less painful, knowing I'd see Adrian and the others again, that Adrian would have another series in which to find the happiness he deserves. I wonder if it will be with Jill, I kind of hope so, better her (when they have kind of a connection already, although very brotherly perhaps on his side so far), than some random Mary Sue (unless he ends up with Sydney? That would be weird and unexpected...:s). At least I can rest assure he won't "imprint" on the impossible love child of Rose and Dimitri for his happily-ever-after, unlike with *some* books/authors...;) Richelle Mead >>> Stephenie Meyer Take #357. But yeah, yay for something to be excited about this summer!
And then, after squeeing about having that summer blockbuster book to look forward to, I suddenly notice that the final Georgina Kincaid novel, apparently called Succubus Revealed, is coming out exactly one week later on August 30!!! (Or who knows, maybe it will come out earlier than that, with this series they often do show up early in bookstores). \o/ <333 I can't even...it's going to sure be a summer (or rather, month?) of Richelle Mead! :p I kind of wish that these two big summer releases were spaced out a little further apart in the summer, but on the other hand I'm going to have more free time in August than earlier to read them, so maybe it's just as well...I'll have to read the first one pretty fast to make sure I'm done in time for the GK novel! ;)
The book description for the GK book is also now on the website and quite interesting...
Cover:
Georgina Kincaid has had an eternity to figure out the opposite sex, but sometimes they still surprise her. Take Seth Mortensen. The man has risked his soul to become Georgina's boyfriend. Still, with Lucifer for a boss, Georgina can't just hang up her killer heels and settle down to domestic bliss. In fact, she's being forced to transfer operations...to Las Vegas.
The City of Sin is a dream gig for a succubus, but Georgina's allies are suspicious. Why are the powers-that-be so eager to get her away from Seattle--and from Seth? Georgina is one of Hell's most valuable assets, but if there's any way out of the succubus business she plans to take it--no matter how much roadkill she leaves behind. She just hopes the casualties won’t include the one man she’s risking everything for...
Oh man, shit is going down...although nooo I don't want her to leave Seattle and the bookstore and all her friends and Jerome and Carter! ;_; Hope they'll still show up enough. I am really excited about this one though, how it's going to be resolved, whether my theories will prove to be correct. We better get a happy ending of Human!Georgina and Seth together at last and having free sex and babies and a mortgage and all that jazz, just saying...I'm hoping that the VA series resolution on the romance front will be an indicator to how it will all end here. Except I won't be as upset about Roman as I was about Adrian...
And omg whoever comes up with the cheesy and totally ridic and irrelevant taglines for these book covers ought to be shot, they're even worse than the Animorphs ones were back in the day, lol...I'm glad that they've never had a repeat of the embarrassment that was #2's cover, which basically couldn't be shown in public decently...:p
Also I must as always take a moment to pimp both of these series, but especially the Georgina Kincaid series, starting with Succubus Blues, (since fewer people I know read it, lol), to anyone who loves supernatural/urban paranormal stuff...they are SO entertaining and funny/witty (the best of Secret Diary of a Call Girl or Buffy, what have you in terms of biting wit), but also have a fascinating supernatural verse and memorable cast of characters (which for instance an OCD Martha Stewart-wannabe vampire and an Archdemon boss who is a secret John Cusack fan and drinking buddies with the area's Archangel that he used to know before he fell from grace and became a demon and all--such a cute bromance, lol), and some really compelling drama and well-written romance all at the same time. I don't know if I've ever enjoyed a book series as much as I've enjoyed reading many of the books in this one.
And then there's Mockingjay...O_o Big Spoilers Ahoy!
Wow...certainly a pretty depressing ending in bits, but at the same time a happy/hopeful one! I think on the whole I liked it and found it to be satisfying (the ending more so than the rest of the book, which was kind of slow and boring at parts, hence me taking so much longer to read this one than the previous two). It's always been a story of violence and cruelty and horror and war, and thus this ending was only fitting, appropriate, true to the series as a whole. I'm really sorry Prim had to die (and Finnick), especially when the whole series basically begins with her trying to protect her sister (and then she and Gale in the end fail at this...;_;), but it was necessary for the thing with Coin to happen, and definitely served a purpose. I'm also a little sorry that Gale turned out the way he did, since I did love his friendship/close bond with Katniss (and liked him well enough earlier--I was never a hater, as I now realize many in the fandom are), but for once I wasn't overly fussed/invested in the love triangle and was leaning towards Peeta anyway (when normally I'd probably be stanning Gale, the dark broody loser in love, lol). It makes me sad that Katniss will probably never see Gale again, that their bond is now broken, but I'm glad that it didn't end with Katniss breaking Gale's heart or anything though (he broke his own heart). Likewise I'm SO glad that Peeta survived (I mean it seemed logical, but you never know with this series so I had been worried!) and that he and Katniss were able to end up together and find some peace and contentment. I also loved that they were able to move back to District 12 and were gradually rebuilding it, it seemed fitting and right.
In any case though, I definitely didn't see the Coin thing and such coming, so it was nice getting a surprise twist at the end as well! But yeah, overall while I actually think on the whole that this book wasn't as good as the other two (I certainly didn't find myself as gripped as I did with the last two, I found it even boring in places, too much fighting and prep and such), the end was pretty fantastic and right and a satisfying conclusion to the series. I also applaud the way Collins makes an effort to realistically depict PTSD/trauma from war with Katniss...
Also, having now dipped into the fandom a bit since finishing MJ, I have to disagree with those saying that she didn't choose either way--while obviously circumstances intervened to a degree (making Gale no longer an option, but through his own folly), she says herself in the end that "I know this would have happened anyway. That what I need to survive is not Gale's fire, kindled with rage and hatred. I have plenty of fire myself. What I need is the dandelion in spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that." (453)
The above passage and others really brought to my attention that these books are not only really just gripping well-plotted bestsellers, they are really beautifully written at times as well, and filled with some nice metaphors and symbols. Two other quotes that I found particularly beautiful/loved/jumped out at me were:
- I'm searching for something to hang on to, some sign of the girl and boy who met by chance in the woods five years ago and became inseparable. I'm wondering what would have happened to them if the Hunger Games had not reaped the girl. If she would have fallen in love with the boy, married him even. And sometime in the future, when the brothers and sisters had been raised up, escaped with him into the woods and left 12 behind forever. Would they have been happy, out in the wild, or would the dark, twisted sadness between them have grown up even without the Capitol's help? (427)
^ I love the bittersweet tone of it, the way it laments what could have been...again, I did like Katniss/Gale to a degree early on, even if I preferred K/P, and I think this passage highlights that lost potential, the other road that could have been taken.
And of course, this was my favorite line in the book:
- "You love me. Real or not real?"
I tell him, "Real." (453)
It's just so succinct and perfect, I can't even...during all the "real or not real" stuff earlier I had no idea it'd be used in the end for her long-delayed love confession, but it works so well, I can't imagine a better way for it to have happened! <3333 This could have been a great place to end the book, although I loved the epilogue as well. So yeah, while this is definitely my least favorite of the trilogy overall (I think The Hunger Games is still my favorite), I did love the ending at least...and several places in the ending (especially the encounter with Buttercup or when she's gradually healing at the end doing the book and such) I actually cried, which is always a good sign for me! (Since I don't do it all the time, though I find I do cry more often at books than TV shows, for whatever reason).
I remember reading a F!S a while back (when I still read them, lol) that claimed THG was just like Animorphs--which is a ridiculous claim, but I admit that with this comparison on the mind as I finished this book, I did see several parallels between both series in terms of events, themes, moral quandaries, gritty realism, etc--all of which just show why both series are memorable and a cut above the average YA series:
First of all, both series show children at war (in Animorphs the main characters are only 13 or so when it all begins, and end the series at about 16), placed in traumatic and violent situations that force them to grow up too fast, and which leave them scarred, especially the reluctant leader figures of Jake and Katniss respectively. Neither Jake nor Katniss asked for the responsibility, neither really wanted to lead or inspire others, but others forced it on them, seeing qualities within them that they do not see in themselves. And both are utterly destroyed by their respective wars/the events of their series, left as shells of their former selves--in both cases the authors had the balls to realistically depict trauma/PTSD/depression. Both Suzanne Collins and K.A. Applegate also both had the guts to depict real moral dilemmas and shades of gray in the actions of the protagonists, and to raise interesting philosophical issues about war, such as what kind of violence or killing is or is not justified in the course of winning. When I was reading the debates about whether or not they would give the people in the military mountain fortress a chance to escape, I actually recalled the similar debate among the Animorphs when they were considering blowing up the Yeerk Pool near the end--and like the rebels, they decided to at least give the enemy a chance to escape by giving them a 5 minute warning before the bomb exploded. Likewise one could compare Gale's bomb and the unnecessary deaths that it entailed with Jake giving the order to empty the Yeerk Pool on the enemy command ship and instantly kill millions of defenseless Yeerks merely to cause a distraction--it contributed to winning the war, but at what cost? One could also compare this rather morally gray action with Katniss' disturbing vote in favor of hosting a new Hunger Games with the government leaders' children...
Furthermore, in both series the protagonist (Jake and Katniss) is really drawn into the fight/storyline by the need to help/save their beloved sibling (in the case of Jake when he realizes that his elder brother is infested by a Yeerk, which gives him the impetus to fight the Invasion in order to save him someday). And both Jake and Katniss tragically fail in this important objective in the very end, to their and the readers' anguish (especially in the case of Jake since he is the one who makes the decision to actually kill his brother in order to protect the world from the ambitious Yeerk possessing him). Both authors had the guts to kill off MAJOR characters in a way that highlights the senselessness of war and made the respective wars more realistic; in the Animorphs finale Rachel dies on a suicide mission that mostly fails anyway, while in the THG finale you have Finnick and Prim's deaths to no real purpose, and Cinna's horrible death previously. In short, both series feature mature and interesting reflections on the nature of war and humanity, which make them great YA reading. Also, I think that that the controversial Animorphs series ending probably prepared me to deal with and accept the THG ending better, especially since the Animorphs' ending is actually still more tragic and utterly depressing than the THG one, lol...;)
Speaking of The Hunger Games, while I was going to reserve judgment on the movie even with the questionable actors cast in the male roles (I only know JH from playing the evil douchey Steve in the Cirque du Freak movie, hard to imagine Peeta from that role, lol), the new spoilers about the script and what has been changed are making me begin to actually think this movie will be terrible, the script sounds in parts like a badly written fanfic...:/ Anyone else see them?
And lol, since beginning this post I now see that the next Sookie Stackhouse novel is also coming out soon at the beginning of May and has a description out? O_o Just book news galore this week...