Carpe librum!
March has barely begun, and I'm already beside myself with book glee. March is here, and it promises to be tremendous: more fabulous than the March Hare's tea party, more fraught than Roman conspiracies, more exciting than some of my best beloveds' birthdays.
Okay, maybe not more fraught than the conspiracy that ended in Julius Caesar's assassination in the Senate. That was serious business.
And, well, I am incredibly excited to wish my husband and best friend amazing natal days, complete with gifts.
But! Definitely more fabulous than the March Hare's tea party, even if only by a tiny bit.
Er, let's move on to the crowing over books!
Late Eclipses, the fourth book in Seanan McGuire's October Daye series was released today. I may have said this before, but it bears repeating: in a world of urban fantasy that had worn me down and left me apathetic as a reader, Seanan McGuire has revitalized my interest in the genre. Her stories are enthralling, and she just keeps getting better with each one told - at this rate, her work's eventually going to be a controlled substance, prescribed for such ailments as "being alive and having a predisposition toward the appreciation of fantasy in literature." Everyone will want a scrip, but beware: whole days will be lost! You just won't mind and, in fact, will immediately begin looking for the next hit. Side effects may include an increased knowledge of Faerie kind, strangely intense coffee cravings, and an increased appreciation for wry humor.
It's even Andy-approved! Simply peer to the right, where my bemused-looking husband gives it the ole thumbs-up for the camera.
But what is this one about, I hear you cry? Let's go to the back cover text:
Two years ago, October "Toby" Daye believed she could leave the world of Faerie behind. She was wrong. Now she finds herself in the service of Duke Sylvester Torquill, sharing an apartment with her Fetch, and maintaining an odd truce with Tybalt, the local King of Cats. It's a delicate balance-one that's shattered when she learns that an old friend is in dire trouble. Lily, Lady of the Tea Gardens, has been struck down by a mysterious, seemingly impossible illness, leaving her fiefdom undefended.
Struggling to find a way to save Lily and her subjects, Toby must confront her own past as an enemy she thought was gone forever raises her head once more: Oleander de Merelands, one of the two people responsible for her fourteen-year exile. But if Oleander's back, what's her game? Where is she hiding? And what part does Toby's mother, Amandine, have to play?
Time is growing short and the stakes are getting higher. For the Queen of the Mists has her own agenda, and there are more players in this game than Toby can guess. With everything on the line, she will have to take the ultimate risk to save herself and the people she loves most-because if she can't find the missing pieces of the puzzle in time, Toby will be forced to make the one choice she thought she'd never have to face again...
Oh, yes, my friends. At the risk of putting you all off by quoting Bad Boys 2, "shit just got real."
You should be able to find Late Eclipses wherever books are sold, although I've linked to the Amazon listing here. I certainly recommend it and all the preceding volumes: Rosemary and Rue, A Local Habitation, and An Artificial Night.
Feel free to pick up some snazzy graphics at Seanan McGuire's website, where her friend Tara O'Shea has created some stunning wallpapers and icons. This includes the one below:
I'd explain the meaning of this image and why it gets me, but that would constitute spoilers. Just read Late Eclipses.
I can't speak as extensively on the next two books, not having read them yet, but they both provoke me to eagerness by the strength of their premises:
Carolyn Turgeon's Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale is, as Publishers Weekly puts it, a "surprisingly dark retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's 'The Little Mermaid,' two women pine for the affections of a prince: mermaid Lenia, who pulls Prince Christopher from the sea, and Margrethe, the princess of the rival kingdom, who witnesses the rescue from the convent where she hides from the war raging between their two kingdoms. Lenia, who falls instantly in love with the prince, sacrifices the sea, her voice, and her health to be with him on dry land. Meanwhile, Margrethe believes that marrying the prince would unite their kingdoms, but when she arrives to arrange it, she finds him already enraptured with Lenia. While he remains unaware that the girl he loves is also the mermaid who saved him, Margrethe recognizes her rival immediately and puts into motion a plan to send the ailing mermaid back to the sea and save her own ravaged kingdom. Turgeon has done a superb job of creating compelling characters and conflict from a story already familiar to readers."
I am all in when it comes to a "surprisingly dark" retelling of HCA's "The Little Mermaid," especially considering that tale was in no way light and fluffy in the original. It's no secret that I was disappointed with Turgeon's Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story, but that was a matter of my fundamental disagreement with a narrative choice rather than whether it was captivatingly done. I'm hoping that Mermaid won't share the same issues.
After Hours: Tales from the Ur-Bar is a new MMPB anthology edited by Joshua Palmatier and Patricia Bray. It promises such names asSeanan McGuire, Ian Tregillis, Anton Strout, Laura Anne Gilman, and plenty more excellent contributors. Even without the participation of so many authors I appreciate, I would be fascinated by this premise:
Science fiction and fantasy readers have long shown an affinity for a good "bar story". Now some of today's most inventive scriveners have decided to tell their own tall tales-- from an alewife's attempt to transfer the gods' curse to Gilgamesh, to Odin's decision to introduce Vikings to the Ur-Bar, from the Holy Roman Emperor's barroom bargain, to a demon hunter who may just have met his match in the ultimate magic bar, to a bouncer who discovers you should never let anyone in after hours in a world terrorized by zombies.
Pure. Delight. These are tales of the Ur-Bar. The original, archetypal gathering place for the indulgence in spirits and building of community. Color me interested.
And there are still such brilliant gems to come this month! Saundra Mitchell's The Vespertine! The Lynne M. Thomas-edited Whedonistas: A Celebration of the Worlds of Joss Whedon by the Women Who Love Them. And, most fantastically, Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente!
Okay, maybe not more fraught than the conspiracy that ended in Julius Caesar's assassination in the Senate. That was serious business.
And, well, I am incredibly excited to wish my husband and best friend amazing natal days, complete with gifts.
But! Definitely more fabulous than the March Hare's tea party, even if only by a tiny bit.
Er, let's move on to the crowing over books!
Late Eclipses, the fourth book in Seanan McGuire's October Daye series was released today. I may have said this before, but it bears repeating: in a world of urban fantasy that had worn me down and left me apathetic as a reader, Seanan McGuire has revitalized my interest in the genre. Her stories are enthralling, and she just keeps getting better with each one told - at this rate, her work's eventually going to be a controlled substance, prescribed for such ailments as "being alive and having a predisposition toward the appreciation of fantasy in literature." Everyone will want a scrip, but beware: whole days will be lost! You just won't mind and, in fact, will immediately begin looking for the next hit. Side effects may include an increased knowledge of Faerie kind, strangely intense coffee cravings, and an increased appreciation for wry humor.
It's even Andy-approved! Simply peer to the right, where my bemused-looking husband gives it the ole thumbs-up for the camera.
But what is this one about, I hear you cry? Let's go to the back cover text:
Two years ago, October "Toby" Daye believed she could leave the world of Faerie behind. She was wrong. Now she finds herself in the service of Duke Sylvester Torquill, sharing an apartment with her Fetch, and maintaining an odd truce with Tybalt, the local King of Cats. It's a delicate balance-one that's shattered when she learns that an old friend is in dire trouble. Lily, Lady of the Tea Gardens, has been struck down by a mysterious, seemingly impossible illness, leaving her fiefdom undefended.
Struggling to find a way to save Lily and her subjects, Toby must confront her own past as an enemy she thought was gone forever raises her head once more: Oleander de Merelands, one of the two people responsible for her fourteen-year exile. But if Oleander's back, what's her game? Where is she hiding? And what part does Toby's mother, Amandine, have to play?
Time is growing short and the stakes are getting higher. For the Queen of the Mists has her own agenda, and there are more players in this game than Toby can guess. With everything on the line, she will have to take the ultimate risk to save herself and the people she loves most-because if she can't find the missing pieces of the puzzle in time, Toby will be forced to make the one choice she thought she'd never have to face again...
Oh, yes, my friends. At the risk of putting you all off by quoting Bad Boys 2, "shit just got real."
You should be able to find Late Eclipses wherever books are sold, although I've linked to the Amazon listing here. I certainly recommend it and all the preceding volumes: Rosemary and Rue, A Local Habitation, and An Artificial Night.
Feel free to pick up some snazzy graphics at Seanan McGuire's website, where her friend Tara O'Shea has created some stunning wallpapers and icons. This includes the one below:
I'd explain the meaning of this image and why it gets me, but that would constitute spoilers. Just read Late Eclipses.
I can't speak as extensively on the next two books, not having read them yet, but they both provoke me to eagerness by the strength of their premises:
Carolyn Turgeon's Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale is, as Publishers Weekly puts it, a "surprisingly dark retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's 'The Little Mermaid,' two women pine for the affections of a prince: mermaid Lenia, who pulls Prince Christopher from the sea, and Margrethe, the princess of the rival kingdom, who witnesses the rescue from the convent where she hides from the war raging between their two kingdoms. Lenia, who falls instantly in love with the prince, sacrifices the sea, her voice, and her health to be with him on dry land. Meanwhile, Margrethe believes that marrying the prince would unite their kingdoms, but when she arrives to arrange it, she finds him already enraptured with Lenia. While he remains unaware that the girl he loves is also the mermaid who saved him, Margrethe recognizes her rival immediately and puts into motion a plan to send the ailing mermaid back to the sea and save her own ravaged kingdom. Turgeon has done a superb job of creating compelling characters and conflict from a story already familiar to readers."
I am all in when it comes to a "surprisingly dark" retelling of HCA's "The Little Mermaid," especially considering that tale was in no way light and fluffy in the original. It's no secret that I was disappointed with Turgeon's Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story, but that was a matter of my fundamental disagreement with a narrative choice rather than whether it was captivatingly done. I'm hoping that Mermaid won't share the same issues.
After Hours: Tales from the Ur-Bar is a new MMPB anthology edited by Joshua Palmatier and Patricia Bray. It promises such names asSeanan McGuire, Ian Tregillis, Anton Strout, Laura Anne Gilman, and plenty more excellent contributors. Even without the participation of so many authors I appreciate, I would be fascinated by this premise:
Science fiction and fantasy readers have long shown an affinity for a good "bar story". Now some of today's most inventive scriveners have decided to tell their own tall tales-- from an alewife's attempt to transfer the gods' curse to Gilgamesh, to Odin's decision to introduce Vikings to the Ur-Bar, from the Holy Roman Emperor's barroom bargain, to a demon hunter who may just have met his match in the ultimate magic bar, to a bouncer who discovers you should never let anyone in after hours in a world terrorized by zombies.
Pure. Delight. These are tales of the Ur-Bar. The original, archetypal gathering place for the indulgence in spirits and building of community. Color me interested.
And there are still such brilliant gems to come this month! Saundra Mitchell's The Vespertine! The Lynne M. Thomas-edited Whedonistas: A Celebration of the Worlds of Joss Whedon by the Women Who Love Them. And, most fantastically, Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente!