adulti

TOR Publishing and its gripping covers

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Every time TOR newsletter lands in my inbox, it’s a given I’ll have candy for my eyes. This month is no exception with these beautiful and original covers and very interesting plots. I don’t know you but I have, at least, two new authors to read now. 😉

drowning-eyes

TOR Publishing | 9780765387684
$ 3.00 | 144 pages

The Drowning Eyes by Emily Foster

READ an EXCERPT | Amazon

When the Dragon Ships began to tear through the trade lanes and ravage coastal towns, the hopes of the arichipelago turned to the Windspeakers on Tash. The solemn weather-shapers with their eyes of stone can steal the breeze from raiders’ sails and save the islands from their wrath. But the Windspeakers’ magic has been stolen, and only their young apprentice Shina can bring their power back and save her people.
Tazir has seen more than her share of storms and pirates in her many years as captain, and she’s not much interested in getting involved in the affairs of Windspeakers and Dragon Ships. Shina’s caught her eye, but that might not be enough to convince the grizzled sailor to risk her ship, her crew, and her neck.

PRAISE FOR THE DROWNING EYES
“The Drowning Eyes is a magic- and wind-filled adventure, peopled with excellent and strong characters. The story made me want to sail the coastline on a boat of my own and see if I could call up a storm. In Emily Foster’s debut novella, apprentice Windspeaker Shina must return her people’s power to them before the Dragon Ships destroy everything . . . unless Shina destroys it by accident first. So vividly rendered, you’ll be tempted to wash the salt-spray from your clothing after reading The Drowning Eyes.” – Fran Wilde, author of Updraft

9780765387776-Patchwerk

TOR Publishing | 9780765387776
$ 3.00 ebook | 138 pages

Patchwerk by David Tallerman

READ an EXCERPT | AMAZON

Fleeing the city of New York on the TransContinental atmospheric transport vehicle, Dran Florrian is traveling with Palimpsest—the ultimate proof of a lifetime of scientific theorizing.
When a rogue organization attempts to steal the device, however, Dran takes drastic action.
But his invention threatens to destroy the very fabric of this and all other possible universes, unless Dran—or someone very much like him—can shut down the machine and reverse the process.

Praise for Patchwerk
“Tallerman (the Tales of Easie Damasco comic fantasy series) deftly pulls his characters through multiple quick changes in identity, location, and possible futures, always keeping the plot and action unbroken so the dizzying shifts never become confusing. He throws open a surreal and suspenseful hall of science fiction mirrors, and readers will enjoy watching Florrian smash through them all.” — Publishers Weekly

9780765387783-Lustlocked

TOR Publishing | 9780765387783
$ 3.00 ebook | 244 pages

Lustlocked by Matt Wallace

Sin du Jour #2 | READ an EXCERPT | Amazon

The staff of New York’s premier supernatural catering company, has their work cut out for them in this outrageous follow-up to Envy of Angels.
Love is in the air at Sin du Jour.
The Goblin King (yes, that one) and his Queen are celebrating the marriage of their son to his human bride. Naturally the celebrations will be legendary.
But when desire and magic mix, the results can be unpredictable.
Our heroes are going to need more than passion for the job to survive the catering event of the decade!

Praise for Sin du Jour:
“Funny and demented . . . I’ll read anything this guy writes.”
— Chuck Wendig, author of Blackbirds and Zer0es, on Envy of Angels

“No one makes me think, ‘Dammit, I should have thought of that!’ like Matt Wallace. The Sin du Jour series is something I read with equal amounts of envy and delight.”
— Mur Lafferty, Campbell Award winning author of The Shambling Guide to New York City

REVIEW | Jennifer Foehner WELLS: Fluency (Confluence #1)

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Fulency by Jennifer Foehner Wells is an interesting sci-fi that tells a very realistic scenario
of what could happen if a ship was discovered around Earth space…

Fluency (Confluence #1) by Jennifer Foehner Wells
Rating: ★★★½☆
READ an EXCERPT HERE
Editore Blue Bedlam Books
ISBN 9780990479819
B00L3U9OCG
Pagine 376
Prezzo € 12.48 paperback
€ 4.49 kindle
Uscita 25th june 2014
Acquista Amazon | MondadoriStore
Recensioni Goodreads

Fluency
Jennifer Foehner Wells

Confluence #1

NASA discovered the alien ship lurking in the asteroid belt in the 1960s. They kept the Target under intense surveillance for decades, letting the public believe they were exploring the solar system, while they worked feverishly to refine the technology needed to reach it.
The ship itself remained silent, drifting.
Dr. Jane Holloway is content documenting nearly-extinct languages and had never contemplated becoming an astronaut. But when NASA recruits her to join a team of military scientists for an expedition to the Target, it’s an adventure she can’t refuse.
The ship isn’t vacant, as they presumed.
A disembodied voice rumbles inside Jane’s head, “You are home.”
Jane fights the growing doubts of her colleagues as she attempts to decipher what the alien wants from her. As the derelict ship devolves into chaos and the crew gets cut off from their escape route, Jane must decide if she can trust the alien’s help to survive.

review

An interesting sci-fi that tells a very realistic scenario of what could happen if a ship was discovered around Earth space. In this book the author has recreated the mood of many sci-fi movies, fortunately without using the panic card where humans go on a rampage of fear. Instead she went with the adventurous feel of an exploratory group of people in a first contact mission. Yeah, obviously the government as its own ideas considering that they are sending a goup of people on an unknown “dead” alien ship…they are not prepared for what can happen once on board, even if the majority is military trained. They can only think about different possibilities and make plans accordingly… translated? a plan B is always a good idea. Still, as you can imagine, it doesn’t take much for things to get complicated.
The MCs are the truly interesting and original part of the book. Dr. Jane Holloway is a linguist who can learn quickly new languages and because of that is asked to join the expedition. The author doesn’t really explain how Jane’s abilieties came to be but it’s also true that in the world there are many things that can’t be explained (I don’t know if I like this but it’s a fact). I liked quite a lot the mental relationship between her and the alien creature. It’s a link that grows slowly but steadily during the book and makes possible for the reader to know Jane’s mind (and not only her actions) and the alien as well. However I have to say my favourite part was at the end, where the true adventure is starting. Infact, the rest of the story was a bit too slow…things seemed to go nowhere for a while. Now we have to wait for the next book in the series to discover if the promise of a great adventure in the space will come to fruition.

REVIEW | Naomi NOVIK: Uprooted

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Finally my review of Uprooted, a book written by Naomi Novik and published in may 2015 by Penguin Random House. Uprooted is a fantasy that takes its root from fairytales and spins a tale of magic and love.

Review Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Rating: ★★★★½
READ an EXCERPT HERE
Editore Penguin Random House
ISBN 9780804179034
B00KUQIU7O
Pagine 448
Prezzo $ 25.00 hardback
$ 12.99 kindle
Uscita 19th may 2015
Acquista LaFeltrinelli.it | Amazon
MondadoriStore | IBS.it
Recensioni Goodreads

Uprooted
Naomi Novik

“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.

But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.

Review Uprooted by Naomi Novik

He was a thing of books and alembics to me, library and laboratory.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik has that particular feel of an old tale told in front of the fireplace, surrounded by a warm, old and comfy blanket, with a cup of tea or chocolate at hand. It makes you imagine  a tale of adventures, foe, great feat and, maybe, an everlasting love. I don’t like to spoiler things for anyone and with this book it can happen easily. Thus I will not tell anything too specific about the story, you can already decide if it is intriguing or not by reading the plot and the excerpt. I will tell you only this…. Uprooted gave me all of what I listed above and even more. I’m sorry to be so late in speaking of this book because it was one of the best of 2015 for me but it’s not always so simple to put my thoughts on words after reading a book I liked so much.
It starts with a premise non truly original but then takes unespected turns because of the story behind. A story that the author keeps firmly secret till the end, when all is finally clear to the reader. Therefore it’s all revealed by degrees so as to truly appreciate the world Novik has invented. It was this author’s skill that made me appreciate the book more…it’s not really common to find an author that can keep the reader oblivious for the majority of a story, much less for an entire book! And we can’t forget about the MCs! Both the female and male MC are truly inspired. The opposite one of the other. Him, the Dragon. A gruff, rude, sophisticated, sociopathic know-it-all (yeah, I know but he is such a character XD). Her, the peasant. A common, ignorant, wild, unkempt young thing. It is obvious that the clash of wills soon makes any kind of fear Agnieszka could have ever felt pass quickly.
Before this book, I hadn’t read anything of this author but it’s sure now that she has gained a new follower.

FOCUS ON | Anna GIRALDO: Meet you on the other side

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Siamo finalmente nel nuovo anno e per iniziare bene partiamo con un autrice italiana che, dopo un po’ di silenzio, torna con un romanzo unico dedicato al mare e al surf. Non é un romanzo d’amore vero e proprio, come non é un romanzo di avventura o paranormale…o solo per ragazzi o adulti. É invece un po’ di tutto questo. É un romanzo di crescita, é un romanzo di vita. É un romanzo da assaporare e far proprio.
Come sua abitudine, Anna Giraldo ci porta in un viaggio alla scoperta di vite uniche e di luoghi che pur conosciuti si riscoprono con un occhio tutto nuovo.

Meet you on the other side Anna Giraldo
primo_cap
Rating: ★★★★½
Editore SELFPUBLISH
ISBN B019D64CPK
Pagine 240
Prezzo € 2.99 ebook
Uscita 15 dicembre 2015
Acquista Amazon
Recensioni Goodreads

Meet You on the Other Side
Anna Giraldo

www.annagiraldo.altervista.org

Eli ha perso suo padre Max in mare eppure non sa stare senza le onde.
Jay è un figlio sbagliato e pensa che l’oceano sia soltanto un ammasso di acqua fredda dal sapore sgradevole.
Deep è venuto per loro.

Meet you on the other side è l’ultimo verso di Just Breathe, una canzone dei Pearl Jam, e questo romanzo è stato scritto con la loro colonna sonora.
Il surf, i viaggi, il mare, sono il filo rosso che unisce un intreccio di passioni profonde, incontri mancati e incroci casuali, una storia di attraversamento della vita e del confine dell’essere che assume contorni fantastici e si vela di magia.

Estratto dal romanzo:
– È bello come stare qui?
– Certo, è bello. Come l’onda, ti prende e ti porta con sé, ti travolge, ti stringe nelle sue spire, ti sommerge, e non sai più farne a meno.
– Come la vita? Come svegliarsi al mattino e sentire che hai un corpo da nutrire, come respirare, Jay, è bello come respirare?
È bello come respirare? Chiusi gli occhi e cercai di riportare alla mente la sensazione che provavo quando, dopo essere stato disarcionato, riemergevo senza fiato e pieno di dolori per gli schiaffi presi dalle onde.
Ciò che avevo sentito facendo sesso somigliava più al trionfo di pochi istanti, sopra un’onda buona, ma troppo docile per dare tempo all’adrenalina di percorrerti tutto.
Forse per amore. Per amore, forse, avrebbe potuto essere bello come svegliarsi al mattino e sentire che hai un corpo da nutrire. Per amore avrebbe potuto essere come il sollievo quando finalmente si ritrova il pelo dell’acqua dopo il naufragio.
Non mi era mai accaduto per amore.
Si girò e mi guardò corrucciato. Fu un solo istante, poi riportò lo sguardo alla strada.
– Jay, se si chiama “fare l’amore”, come puoi farlo senza amore?
Un anno di Pearl Jam a tutto volume in auto, un anno di letture sul surf, un nuovo amore letterario, Tim Winton, e Porto, una città che mi ha preso il cuore. È una storia strana, quella della stesura di Meet you on the other side, fatta di lunghe attese, di sogni a occhi aperti e tanta voglia di andare via.
Ma, come dice Fernando Pessoa: “So perfettamente che esistono isole del Sud e grandi passioni cosmopolite… Sono sicuro che se tenessi il mondo in pugno lo scambierei con un biglietto per Rua dos Douradores”.

quote-meet-you-other-side-giraldo1