The Black Prism by Brent Weeks [website]
Release: August 26, 2010
Published: Orbit, Hardcover
ISBN: 9781841499031
Blurb: Gavin Guile is the Prism, the most powerful man in the world. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserves a tenuous peace. But Prisms never last, and Guile knows exactly how long he has left to live: Five years to achieve five impossible goals.
But when Guile discovers he has a son, born in a far kingdom after the war that put him in power, he must decide how much he’s willing to pay to protect a secret that could tear his world apart.
My Thoughts: Weeks’ Shadow Trilogy, though well-written, was, sadly, something I just couldn’t connect to as a reader. However, I read the first chapters posted on the publisher’s website and I was enraptured. I’ve already ordered this book, and B&N at least is already shipping. I can’t wait to receive it! By the way, I got Green on the quiz. I always seem to get Green, for some reason.
Take The Black Prism quiz. Or buy the book: Amazon
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson [website]
Release: August 31, 2010
Published: Tor, Hardcover
ISBN: 9780765326355
Blurb: It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.
One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable. [Read more at GoodReads.]
My Thoughts: Sanderson’s magic systems alone are reason enough to read everything he’s ever written. I’m buying this book sight-unseen* (I haven’t even read the sample chapters. It’d be torture!), and I’m 100% confident that it’ll be great. That’s how much faith I have in this author.
*I also won an ARC of this book from Tor via Twitter. I hope it gets here before Dragon*Con, as I’d love to get my copy signed!
Pre-order the book: Amazon
Married with Zombies by Jesse Petersen [website]
Release: September 1, 2010
Published: Orbit, Mass market
ISBN: 9780316102865
Blurb: A heartwarming tale of terror in the middle of the zombie apocalypse.
Meet Sarah and David.
Once upon a time they met and fell in love. But now they’re on the verge of divorce and going to couples’ counseling. On a routine trip to their counselor, they notice a few odd things – the lack of cars on the highway, the missing security guard, and the fact that their counselor, Dr. Kelly, is ripping out her previous client’s throat.
Now, Sarah and David are fighting for survival in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. But, just because there are zombies, doesn’t mean your other problems go away. If the zombies don’t eat their brains, they might just kill each other.
My Thoughts: Just a couple of months ago, I was bewailing the fact that married couples are rare in urban fantasies. Now I seem to have gotten my wish. It warms my heart to think of a husband-and-wife team beheading zombies together. Everyone say, “Awwwww!” I know that’s just what my husband and I would be doing during the Zombiepocalypse. I’ll be shambling off to pick up this one as soon as it’s released!
Pre-order the book: Amazon
Blameless by Gail Carriger [website]
Release: September 1, 2010
Published: Orbit, Mass market
ISBN: 9780316074155
Blurb: {Beware: This blurb contains spoilers for book 2!}
Quitting her husband’s house and moving back in with her horrible family, Lady Maccon becomes the scandal of the London season.
Queen Victoria dismisses her from the Shadow Council, and the only person who can explain anything, Lord Akeldama, unexpectedly leaves town. To top it all off, Alexia is attacked by homicidal mechanical ladybugs, indicating, as only ladybugs can, the fact that all of London’s vampires are now very much interested in seeing Alexia quite thoroughly dead.
While Lord Maccon elects to get progressively more inebriated and Professor Lyall desperately tries to hold the Woolsey werewolf pack together, Alexia flees England for Italy in search of the mysterious Templars. Only they know enough about the preternatural to explain her increasingly inconvenient condition, but they may be worse than the vampires — and they’re armed with pesto.
My Thoughts: Carriger effectively hooked me with the end of book #2. And I returned the favor by getting a friend addicted to the series, too. Luckily for my friend, she just finished Changeless last week. I’ve been chomping at the bit for Blameless for months. I’m so glad we’re finally getting close to the release date!
Pre-order the book: Amazon
