Reflections of a Wandering Mind – By Meghan Robbins

From time to time I like to wander away from the usual fantasy books that I read, and so my ‘travels’ found me browsing through Netgalley looking for something different.

Reflections of a Wandering MInd is a book of poetry – and it’s all about how we feel when we grow up. Sadly when I received this book it was almost impossible to read it in the format it was presented to me in which was kindle. How poetry is presented on a page is very important, and I found it almost impossible to work with. Still, I read it.

Some of the poems were wonderful. They resonated with me and growing up, thoughts and ideas that I had at one time. A lot of moments spent trying to figure ourselves out, figure out where we fit in the world and how our friends influence everything. It felt like there was quite a bit of repetition in subjects between the poems, and some were more like jumbled thoughts running together than poems, but that is often how ‘art’ works. One meaning to the writer, and another to the reader.

I think the book was a great starter, and wonder if the author has written anything more. It was quite a short read, but it didn’t make the words any less powerful.

2/5 stars

Review: The Companions by R.A. Salvatore

As a disclaimer I was given a review ebook copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I grew up reading about the adventures of Drizzt and all of his friends. They were probably some of my first fantasy genre books, and then over time I fell out of love with the writing style of R.A. Salvatore, and I stopped reading his work. I think The Companions was the perfect book to read to get re-acquainted with all of the characters, their histories, and the world in general.

If you’ve never read any of the Drizzt books before you may think that this book isn’t for you – but not so. I think the explanations are pretty clear even for a new reader and you don’t feel as though you’re dropped into a world without knowing what is going on. It may even entice a few people to read some of the older books so that you can see how the characters used to be portrayed.

*slight spoiler*

Things start out easily enough, Catti-brie, Regis, and Wulfgar are sent back once more to help out Drizzt in a time of need. The story follows them as they are reincarnated as younger versions of themselves (way younger, they actually start out as infants) and then grow up in their “new” lives until they are of the appropriate age to help. You follow each character through their new trials, tribulations and amazing adventures, while they are conscience of the fact that they’ve been reincarnated – I found this a particularly neat aspect of the book. Lots of people get reincarnated but how many times are they aware of it without some branch knocking them on the head and restoring their memories and the like.

Because of this unique perspective there was tons of humor interspersed throughout and it reminded me so much of R.A. Salvatore’s earlier writing style that I couldn’t help but fall in love with the book. I’m not going to give too much more away, but I highly recommend people check it out when the book releases August 6th 2013.

A Literary Treasure Hunt

One thing I always love to hear about is initiatives to get people reading books. With all of the social media out there it’s pretty easy to forget that there are entire worlds forged by gifted crafters, and I would hate for people to miss out on that.

So tonight my attention was drawn to this literary treasure hunt taking place in Sudbury Ontario (and I couldn’t help but wish we had some sort of program like this taking place here in Ottawa) thanks to a post on CBC Books. Basically the library is releasing 100 books “into the wild” in the hopes that people find them, read them, review them, and re-release them for others to find. You can map where you found the book, and even leave details on where you’re going to leave the book so someone else can find it. The folks involved go on to say later in the article that technology is changing and that with it libraries also have to change. They mention specifically that libraries have a responsibility to get information out to people, and that they want to “bring these services to you” instead of you having to go to the library in the traditional sense.

I think this forward thinking is great and while it may seem like it’s not enough you have to keep in mind that if it encourages just a small handful of people to either read a new book, or visit their local library, or talk about it to someone else then the program has succeeded. Whether it is cost or time effective isn’t for me to decide, but I’m glad there are still people out there trying these things and inspiring people to read.

Books I’m Most Excited about in 2013

We all have our favorite types of entertainment, be they movies, a TV series, or books. I will be the first to admit that my patience is pretty much zip when it comes to waiting for a new book to read from a favorite author, and I know the authors must (at times) feel a bit pressured by their fans to put out the next publication. They’ll release when they’re ready, and I’m OK with that. So what am I most looking forward to this year?

The republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch is probably at the top of that list and yes, I’m impatient. I devoured the first two books in the Gentleman Bastard series and can hardly believe that there’s already a schedule up for seven total books. These books are comforting and familiar, an epic battle and good ‘ol fashioned fantasy with a twist of some Oceans 11 in there to keep it all up to date and relevant. I can’t wait.

Next on my looking forward to list has got to be Emperor of Thorns, also a third book in a series. This one is by Mark Lawrence, and while an initial glance at the book may put it out of my comfort zone, I just could not help but fall in love with the writing style. The characters are dark, the entire book is incredibly messed up – but in such a good way and written so well that it was one of those page turners that only come along maybe once or twice a year for me (and I do a lot of reading, so that is saying something). Highly recommended if you’ve never read the first two books.

Blood of Dragons by Robin Hobb actually already released back in April of this year, but it was one I had been looking forward to for quite some time – although the book did fall short of my expectations it was still a great series, and I’m glad I stuck with it. It’s a traditional fantasy book with dragons and memorable characters (even though some of them are quite annoying).

My final book is The Daylight War by Beter V. Brett – and this book also released in February of this year but I haven’t found the time to get to it quite yet. It’s also another “3rd” in a series, what’s up with that? 2013 is apparently the year of the threes. Again this is a series with really memorable characters (for me at least) and fantastic world building, two key elements in any book that I enjoy a huge amount.

There are (of course) other books releasing that I’m looking forward to – however these books are not releasing in 2013 and so I’ve left them off of my list. They include books like The Doors of Stone by Patrick Rothfuss, and The Winds of Winter by George R.R. Martin (no release date yet, but estimating somewhere around 2015). At least it gives me something to look forward to though! What books are you most looking forward to? Let me know in comments!

The Humble eBook Bundle II (thoughts)

Who doesn’t like a great deal on books, especially when the funds are going towards charity? I first heard of the Humble Bundle through their video game sales, but quickly fell in love with the ebook bundle that they started putting out. The sale is simple. You can make a donation for any amount that you want, and you’ll get four books. If you donate above the minimum amount, you’ll get two extra books on top of it. It supports charity and you get to decide how much money goes where. The books are DRM-free and come in multiple formats, so you don’t have to worry if you’ve got a kindle or an ipad etc.

The books in their second bundle include:

The Last Unicorn – By Peter Beagle
Just A Geek – By Wil Wheaton
Little Brother – By Cory Doctorow
Boneshaker – By Cherie Priest
Spin – By Robert Charles Wilson
Shards of Honor – By Lois McMaster Bujold

A fantastic collection of fantasy, science fiction, steampunk, and a little humor. I’ll be honest, since I’m not exactly a huge fan of science fiction I probably wouldn’t have given these books a chance, but a good deal will always win me over – and who knows, my reading taste is constantly shifting (hence the nomadic part of this blog) and there’s nothing stopping me from becoming a huge fan of the genre. I don’t personally see it happening anytime soon, but there’s always that ONE book out there that just completely wins you over that you never expected.

Being more of a fantasy reader of course I have read The Last Unicorn, and highly recommend it for those who haven’t read it yet. I’ve always been far more enthralled with reading books than watching movies, and that really holds true in this case.

The sale is on for another 9 days so if you’ve been sitting on the ledge about it keep in mind the money goes towards a great cause and you really can’t go wrong getting so many books at that price.