Ubalblog

[  Mood: Cool ]

Tanya Huff has produced the next gripping installment in the saga of Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr. Assumed dead, Kerr wakes up in an underground prison camp. The problem is that the enemy has never taken prisoners before. Kerr quickly realizes she must escape the prison before the malaize that has affected those who arrived before her.

Leading a ragtag band of marines, Kerr must find a way out of the prison. In doing so, she encounters a group of enemy combatents who are also trying to escape the prison. Kerr and her group must work with the enemy in order to escape their mutual prison.

Author Huff has produced another wonderful look at the life of the non-coms in a large military force. Kerr is a tough, believable professional soldier who is good at her job and takes it personally when she fails. This book is not to be missed, both for the Tanya Huff fan as well as the fan of military SF.

Go get this!

[  Mood: Happy ]
[  Currently: Listening to CBC Radio ]

Aza is an ugly duckling in a kingdom full of beautiful people. Even though she is able to sing like a lark, she is harshly treated by those outside her adopted family. Yup, she is an orphan who was left in the room of an inn. Luckily for her, the innkeepers adopted her and raised her as their own.

So Aza works in her parents’ inn, hoping not to be noticed by the customers. If she is seen, rude commemts usually follow. Yet despite this, Aza is asked by a duchess to act as her companion at the king’s wedding. There, Aza finds herself thrust into a world of palace integue where her secret talent is both valued and cursed. Through it she befriends a handsome prince and runs afoul of the Queen.

Author Gail Carson Levine has created a lovely adaptation of Snow White, with interesting twists and turns. The world she has built, full of music, is enchanting. (There is even a tie in to Ella Enchanted with the return of the "good" fairy Lucinda.) Aza must grow as a yong woman in order to overcome the challenges that are thrown in her way.

This is a great book for the junior to intermediate set. Heck, it’s fun for adults too. It will be in an upcoming, What to Read After Harry. Go get it!

[  Mood: Confused ]
[ Currently: Breastfeeding my son – Situation Normal ]
Wow – it’s been awhile.

Between editing a podcast all week and getting a stomach virus on Staurday, I haven’t been very active at all.

Now the boy is sick.

Thank God we both have a doctor’s appointment this morning. It was supposd to be for the flu shot, but now we will be discussing baby vomit.

Fun!

[  Mood: Amused ]
Read this artcle on EOnline. He is so one of us.

Quickly, invite the man to your local con.

Alan Benett is the playwright famous for The Madness of King George III. In this new novella, he turns his attention to another British monarch, the reigning Queen Elizabeth.

While out walking the corgies, Elizabeth stumbles across a mobile library. She borrows a book out of a sense of duty, but very quickly finds herself immersed in the world of literature. The Queen finds herself ignoring duty in order to find time to read.

This was a lovely piece of fiction. The examination of the addiction to reading and how books change a person was so worth the time. The fact that the person happens to be the Queen is an added bonus. In fact, it was easy to see myself in her given my addiction to reading.

Go get this.

Simon Kirby-Jones is a gay, Southern vampire who moves to Britain. Once there, the biographer by day and mystery and romance novelist by night, finds murder in his new village. The body of the bossy and very nosy postmistress is found in her home. Twenty-four hours earlier this same postmistress revealed that she posessed a play with all the scandelous gossip of the village thinly veiled.

And so Simon begins to investigate, trying to find out who had killed the nosy woman.

The vampires in this world are of the cuddly variety. A pill taken a few times a day means that drinking humans blood is no longer necessary. Rather, those vampires who insist on continuing to hunt humans are "dealt with" by their bretheren.

A fair mystery with supernatural elements.

[  Mood: Sleepy ]

[  Mood: Happy ]
President Elect Barak Obama.

Wecome back to the community of nations America. We’ve missed you.

Off to weap with joy.

[  Mood: Sick ]
[  Currently: Watching The Colbert Report ]
This seventh book of the Queen Betsy series finds Betsy trying to figure out why the group of fiends she has given shelter to is trying to kill her. She is also being haunted by the ghost of her wicked stepmother. Finally, Nick the cop and boyfriend of her best friend, Jessica, has asked her to help on a series of murder cases. Too bad he hates her guts.

This series is normally a light diversion, sort of Janet Evanovich meets Kim Harrison, it is not going to change your life but it is a fun way to spend a few hours. This story, though, takes a darker turn at the end, which is quite out of step with the tone of the rest of the series. Time will tell if this is temporary or if author MaryJanice Davidson is pulling a Laurel K. Hamilton and changing the tone of the series in mid-stream. And given the disasteroous reults of that choice, I hope this is just a one book blip.

[  Mood: Happy ]
[ Currently: Waiting for Trick or Treaters ]
WOW!!!!! Jim Butcher delivers another solid entry in his Dresden Files series that had me stying up way too late to finish it.

This tenth book finds Harry having to pay back a favour to Mab, Queen of Darkness. She wants him to rescue Johnny Marcone, who has gone missing.

The page turning mission pulls in the Summer Court, the Denarians, the Knights of the Cross, Thomas, Mouse, Bob, the Archive, Kincade, Marcone’s thugs and even Mister the Cat. Harry also learns more about the Black Council.

Butcher is one of the few authors who keeps his series fresh and isn’t afraid to kill off or permamently maim major characters

Can’t wait for number eleven.