last reads

Emperor of the Eight Islands by Lian Hearn Publishing information: Paperback; 272 pages Publisher: FSG Originals; 26 April 2016 ISBN: 9780374536312 Series: Tale of Shikanoko #1 Copy: Provided by publisher Reviewer: Tyson Amazon Synopsis: "In the opening pages of the action-packed Book One of Lian Hearn's epic Tale of Shikanoko series--all of which will be published in 2016--a future lord is dispossessed of his birthright by a scheming uncle, a mountain sorcerer imbues a mask with the spirit of a great stag for a lost young man, a stubborn father forces his son to give up his wife to his older brother, and a powerful priest meddles in the succession to the Lotus Throne, the child who is the rightful heir to the emperor barely escaping the capital in the arms of his sister. And that is just the beginning. As destiny weaves its rich tapestry, a compelling drama plays out against a background of wild forests, elegant castles, hidden temples, and savage battlefields. This is the me...

Writing Arctic Disaster: Authorship and Exploration by Adriana Craciun Cambridge: Cambridge UP, $120 (hardcover); $70 (Kindle) Reviewed by Russell A. Potter In the wake of the renewed interest in the history of the Franklin expedition and those who searched for it, we are beginning to see two different  -- yet complementary -- phenomena: First, a fresh effort to better understand what went wrong, and with it why the search still inspires such passionate feeling; and second, an emerging body of scholarship that points the way to a more critical consideration of the larger mythos of Franklin, and of Arctic exploration generally. Adriana Craciun's Writing Arctic Disaster is, as it were, the flagship of this second fleet, gathering together recent scholarly work and using it as the foundation for a reconsideration of the old myths and counter-myths that have, at times, trapped scholarly perspectives in an icy tomb just as unchanging and sterile as the graves of Franklin's men on B...

Waybound , the Second Book of Ore novel by Cam Baity and   Benny Zelkowicz, is now in stores and will entertain middle grade readers and adult speculative fiction fans alike. In honor of their latest release, here is some trivia about the two authors along with more information about the books. Fast Facts about Cam Baity -Cam was born in Texas --- during a heat wave, naturally! -Cam wrote his first book when he was in the second grade. A wombat was the leading character! -Cam studied animation at two places: The School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, and at Calarts. -Cam won an Emmy for his work on  Robot Chicken . Fast Facts about Benny -At Oberlin College, Benny studied the brains of African knifefish! -Benny later turned his attention to animation, particularly stop-motion, clay, and sand animation. -Benny's award-winning film,  The ErlKing , was screened at Sundance, Annecy, and The New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center.  -Benny provided the v...

Grendel by John Gardner Publishing information: Paperback; 174 pages Publisher: Random House Vintage Books; 2 June 2010 ISNB: 9780679723110 Standalone Copy: Out of Pocket Reviewer: Tyson Amazon Barnes and Noble Synopsis: "The first and most terrifying monster in English literature, from the great early epic Beowulf, tells his side of the story in a book William Gass called "one of the finest of our contemporary fictions." I really dig these books that tell the story of mythological creatures from their prospective. Gospel of Loki was excellent and know we have John Gardner's Grendel. It tells the story of Grendel before he meets Beowulf. Grendel is depicted as a mischievous creature who isn't so much as evil but more bored and inquisitive. He lives at home (or a cave) with his mother and she doesn't really pay much attention to him and so he strikes out on his own and discovers man. He learns of their stories and their boasts and like to take them down a peg ...

The Killing Floor by Lee Child Publishing Information: Paperback; 561 pages Publisher: Jove; 30 Oct 2012 Series: Jack Reacher #1 ISBN: 9780515153651 Copy: Out of pocket Reviewer: Tyson Amazon Synopsis: "Ex-military policeman Jack Reacher is a drifter. He’s just passing through Margrave, Georgia, and in less than an hour, he’s arrested for murder. Not much of a welcome. All Reacher knows is that he didn’t kill anybody. At least not here. Not lately. But he doesn’t stand a chance of convincing anyone. Not in Margrave, Georgia. Not a chance in hell." While most people are familiar with Tom Cruise's recent role as Jack Reacher, the story that takes place during the film is not based on the first book in the series. The Killing Floor is the first book that sets up the Jack Reacher universe. When the story begins, Jack has just stepped off a bus in Georgia and decided to get a little bit of breakfast when the police show up and arrest him for murder. With a fairly tight alibi i...

Zer0es by Chuck Wendig Publishing information: Hardback; 432 pages Publisher: Harper Voyager; 18 August 2015 ISBN: 978-0062351555 Series: Zer0es #1 Copy: Provided by publisher Reviewer: Tyson Amazon Synopsis: "An exhilarating thrill-ride through the underbelly of cyber espionage in the vein of David Ignatius’s The Director and the television series Leverage, CSI: Cyber, and Person of Interest, which follows five iconoclastic hackers who are coerced into serving the U.S. government. An Anonymous-style rabble rouser, an Arab spring hactivist, a black-hat hacker, an old-school cipherpunk, and an online troll are each offered a choice: go to prison or help protect the United States, putting their brains and skills to work for the government for one year. But being a white-hat doesn’t always mean you work for the good guys. The would-be cyberspies discover that behind the scenes lurks a sinister NSA program, an artificial intelligence code-named Typhon, that has origins and an evolutio...