I’m so excited to be starting the new year with books I’ve been meaning to read for a long time now! I am planning on taking a more definite course of what I truly think will appeal to me to review on my blog and all starts here with the books that follow.
Before we start, I’m hosting a book giveaway for Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter. If you’d like to know more about it and to find out how to participate click on the following link: End of the Year Giveaway!
I will be presenting the books in the reading (and reviewing) order I am planning to get to them, so here we go:
The Emperor’s Blades by Brian Staveley
What a better way to kick off the new year by starting a new fantasy series and for that I’ve chosen the Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne trilogy by Brian Staveley. First of all, I love the Tor fantasy hardcovers. Second of all, this is the debut of Staveley and has actually received a 4.16 star rating on Goodreads which is quite impressive. And lastly, I’ve heard this series is more focused on the political aspect of fantasy which is intriguing. Book synopsis:
The circle is closing. The stakes are high. And old truths will live again . . .
The Emperor has been murdered, leaving the Annurian Empire in turmoil. Now his progeny must bury their grief and prepare to unmask a conspiracy.
His son Valyn, training for the empire’s deadliest fighting force, hears the news an ocean away. He expected a challenge, but after several ‘accidents’ and a dying soldier’s warning, he realizes his life is also in danger. Yet before Valyn can take action, he must survive the mercenaries’ brutal final initiation.
Meanwhile, the Emperor’s daughter, Minister Adare, hunts her father’s murderer in the capital itself. Court politics can be fatal, but she needs justice. And Kaden, heir to an empire, studies in a remote monastery. Here, the Blank God’s disciples teach their harsh ways – which Kaden must master to unlock their ancient powers. When an imperial delegation arrives, he’s learnt enough to perceive evil intent. But will this keep him alive, as long-hidden powers make their move?
BookDepository: The Emperor’s Blades
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
When I read the Goldfinch in the summer of 2016 I was completely immersed into Donna Tartt’s rich and beautiful prose. This year I am planning on visiting both of her previous works, The Little Friend and The Secret History, starting with the former which seems to be the least favourite book of hers on Goodreads. Starting with what seems to be the “not-so-good” to finish with “the best”. Book synopsis:
The setting is Alexandria, Mississippi, where one Mother’s Day a little boy named Robin Cleve Dufresnes was found hanging from a tree in his parents’ yard. Twelve years later Robin’s murder is still unsolved and his family remains devastated. So it is that Robin’s sister Harriet – unnervingly bright, insufferably determined, and unduly influenced by the fiction of Kipling and Robert Louis Stevenson–sets out to unmask his killer. Aided only by her worshipful friend Hely, Harriet crosses her town’s rigid lines of race and caste and burrows deep into her family’s history of loss.
BookDepository: The Little Friend
Mira Grant, also known as Seanan McGuire, has recently gained in popularity after releasing her novella Every Heart A Doorway. Parasite is the first book in the Parasitology horror trilogy and was nominated back in 2013 for the Goodreads Choice Awards in the horror genre. I love anything that has to do with diseases or viruses that spread and bring the apocalypse so I am very excited to be starting this series and getting to read my first Mira Grant book. Book synopsis:
A decade in the future, humanity thrives in the absence of sickness and disease.
We owe our good health to a humble parasite – a genetically engineered tapeworm developed by the pioneering SymboGen Corporation. When implanted, the tapeworm protects us from illness, boosts our immune system – even secretes designer drugs. It’s been successful beyond the scientists’ wildest dreams. Now, years on, almost every human being has a SymboGen tapeworm living within them.
But these parasites are getting restless. They want their own lives…and will do anything to get them.
In January I am also determined to conquer a classic and this disturbing, famous story of Lolita is my pick. I find it very interesting how sick and twisted readers seem to find this novel and I think I’m going to enjoy reading it. Plus, did I tell you that I have started a Penguin Modern Classics collection? Book synopsis:
Humbert Humbert – scholar, aesthete and romantic – has fallen completely and utterly in love with Lolita Haze, his landlady’s gum-snapping, silky skinned twelve-year-old daughter. Reluctantly agreeing to marry Mrs Haze just to be close to Lolita, Humbert suffers greatly in the pursuit of romance; but when Lo herself starts looking for attention elsewhere, he will carry her off on a desperate cross-country misadventure, all in the name of Love. Hilarious, flamboyant, heart-breaking and full of ingenious word play, Lolita is an immaculate, unforgettable masterpiece of obsession, delusion and lust.
The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin and Ken Liu (Translator)
In January I will also be starting a science fiction series that was published back in 2006 but was only recently translated by the brilliant SFF author Ken Liu. I’m not going to have time to read more books of the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy but I cannot wait to start reading it! Book synopsis:
Set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.
BookDepository: The Three Body Problem
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
There are many aspects of this novel that make it so intriguing for me. For one, it holds the winning title for the Man Booker Prize of 2013 along with many other nominations for literary awards. It is a historical mystery story taking place in New Zealand in the 19th century. It is quite a chunky book. And the organisation of the novel resembles the phases of the moon’s cycle; from full moon to tiny moon, this book starts with a really long chapter and the chapters then keep getting smaller and smaller until we reach the end of the mystery with a very small, tiny ending chapter. Cool, right? I don’t think I will be able to finish this epic story before February comes but I will at least start reading it. Book synopsis:
It is 1866, and young Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On the stormy night of his arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of twelve local men who have met in secret to discuss a series of unexplained events: A wealthy man has vanished, a prostitute has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery: a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely ornate as the night sky.
BookDepository: The Luminaries
The Providence of Fire by Brian Staveley
And finally, somewhere in the end of the month I will be picking up the second novel in the Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne series. I am really bad at remembering details of what happened in books after I finish them so I try to read sequels and to continue with series relatively fast. Book synopsis:
The conspiracy to destroy the ruling family of the Annurian Empire is far from over.
Having learned the identity of her father’s assassin, Adare flees the Dawn Palace in search of allies to challenge the coup against her family. Few trust her, but when she is believed to be touched by Intarra, patron goddess of the empire, the people rally to help her retake the capital city. As armies prepare to clash, the threat of invasion from barbarian hordes compels the rival forces to unite against their common enemy.
Unknown to Adare, her brother Valyn, renegade member of the empire’s most elite fighting force, has allied with the invading nomads. The terrible choices each of them has made may make war between them inevitable.
Between Valyn and Adare is their brother Kaden, rightful heir to the Unhewn Throne, who has infiltrated the Annurian capital with the help of two strange companions. The knowledge they possess of the secret history that shapes these events could save Annur or destroy it.
BookDepository: The Providence of Fire
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