Aug 5, 2011
Posted by Lisa on Aug 5, 2011 in Authors | 0 comments
Leslie Banks (L.A Banks) died on on Tuesday 2nd August 2011 after a long battle with cancer.
While I’ve yet to read any of her books, the reviews I’ve seen of her work has always been positive and I do have her entire Vampire Huntress Legends series in my To-Read pile. I would like to extend my sympathies to Leslie’s family and friends at this time.
On her official website it states that that a memorial service will be held for Leslie on Saturday 13th August, 11am at Holy Apostles and the Mediator Episopal Church in Philadelphia (full details on her site)
Jul 18, 2010
Posted by Lisa on Jul 18, 2010 in Authors, Reviews | 1 comment
Blurb
For centuries, vampires walked the earth undetected, feasting on humans in keeping with their ancient traditions, but now 21st century technology has left them open to detection . . .
To establish order, the Vampire Federation is born, policed by special agents like vampire Alexandra Bishop, authorised to hunt down those who violate the new code.
But rebel vampire Gabriel Stone doesn’t play by the rules and declares war against the Federation, throwing Alex and her team into turmoil.
Oblivious to the chaos in the vampire world, human Detective Inspector Joel Solomon is drawn into an unlikely alliance with Alex when he investigates a series gruesome corpses drained of their blood.
Together they are plunged into a war of good versus evil, taking them from the streets of London to the mountains of Transylvania in a battle that threatens to destroy them all. ..
I have to point out before reviewing this book that I have a huge love of vampires, the vampire mythology and most (but not all) vampire films/books. I also love the urban fantasy genre, where I find most books seem to be written by women, which seems to lead to a big focus on the romance side of things in the main part.
Uprising by Scott Mariani upon first reading the blurb sounds like it’s going to be the atypical urban fantasy novel but from the first page it becomes obvious it’s not. With Scott’s novel, vampires have rediscovered their bite. They’re not dwelling in forlorn despair over a lost love or a passion that shouldn’t be. They are dangerous, deadly and vicious.
Scott has developed an intricate tale, bringing vampires into the 21st century without removing their fangs in the process. Humans are viewed as a foodsource, not as something to be lusted after and the two groups of vampires we are introduced to hold this in common even though they have developed two completely separate ways of continuing their existence.
This story is not a book that lovers of Twilight and vampires that sparkle will enjoy as it makes no bones about the fact that beneath the veneer vampires are not human and do not see things in the same way, although Scott does add an element of romance, but even that comes with an added twist.
If you enjoy a book with bite (excuse the pun) then settle yourself in for an excellent read with characters that jump off the pages and a social system that has been well-developed and thought out with a lot of interesting twists.
Not only has Scott given bite back to the vampire genre, he’s also made an interesting twist on the case of a cross being deadly to vampires. I’m not going to ruin the story by going into detail, but I will say it’s very well done and definitely worth picking up a copy of Uprising to read.
I’m looking forward to reading the second book in the series!
Book Details:-
- Paperback: 480 pages
- Publisher: Avon (10 Jun 2010)
- ISBN-10: 1847562124
- ISBN-13: 978-1847562128
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 12.6 x 4 cm
Jun 15, 2010
Posted by Lisa on Jun 15, 2010 in Authors | 0 comments
Urban Fantasy is a subgenre of Fantasy, where the stories are based in contemporary real-world urban settings instead of traditional fantasy settings of mythical cities/worlds/lands. Below is a list of authors who are popular in this genre.
Cat Adams
C.T. Adams
Ilona Andrews
Jennifer Armintrout
Kelley Armstrong
Keri Arthur
Jenna Black
Francesca Lia Block
Patricia Briggs
Emma Bull
Jim Butcher
Rachel Caine
Jonathan Carroll
Mike Carey
Karen Chance
Cathy Clamp
Cassandra Clare
Shirley Damsgaard
Sylvia J. Day
Carole Nelson Douglas
Jeaniene Frost
Neil Gaiman
Laura Anne Gilman
Simon R. Green
Justin Gustainis
Laurell K. Hamilton
Charlaine Harris
Kim Harrison
J.C. Hutchins
Chris Lester
Charles de Lint
Sergey Lukyanenko
China Mieville
C.E. Murphy
Tim Powers
Tim Pratt
Kat Richardson
Rick Riordan
Matt Ruff
Jeanne C. Stein
Rachel Vincent
Terri Windling
This list is by no means complete so if I have missed off any you feel should be included, please let me know.
May 31, 2010
Posted by Lisa on May 31, 2010 in Authors, Musing | 1 comment
I have found over the last few months that there are quite a few authors who use Twitter, both to just make random tweets (like the rest of us mere mortals) and also to keep their fans up to date with their goings on. So I thought I’d share the twitter names of the ones I’ve discovered so far. If you know of any others that aren’t listed, please let me know via the comments and I’ll add them to this list. I hope all you book lovers out there find this useful!
(more…)
May 31, 2010
Posted by Lisa on May 31, 2010 in Authors, Reviews | 0 comments
Blurb
Raven Whitney is a psychic who has used her gift to help the police track down a serial killer. Now she is determined to escape the glare of recent publicity for the peace and quiet of the Carpathian Mountains. Despite her own emotional fatigue, Raven finds herself connecting psychically to another wounded individual somewhere close by. Prince Mikhail Dubrinsky is the leader of his people but, as his ancient Carpathian race grows ever closer to extinction, he is close to giving in to the heavy weight of loneliness and despair. Then a female voice enters his mind and tries to console him. Intrigued, Mikhail becomes obsessed with finding this unusual human female. From the moment their minds touch, Raven and Mikhail form a connection. But there are those who incorrectly view all Carpathians as vampires, and are determined to give their extinction a helping hand.
The concept of this particular series of stories, from what I could gather from this book, is that the male “Carpathians” (or vampires to the rest of us – they drink blood, are immortal, etc, which to me constitutes vampiric behaviour) need to find their life-mate or consign themselves to becoming some kind of monster – I think losing any kind of emotional feeling and, by all accounts, only seeing in black and white.
When I first started to read this book, I was sure it was set in the 19th century, and it was only when a computer was mentioned in passing that I realised this wasn’t the case. The novel has a very old-world feel, making me think of Bram Stoker”s Dracula (not so much in the fact that this is going to be a classic novel, but the style of writing). While Christine Feehan is, obviously, a very good writer – she has an excellent way of wording things so that you can actually visualise what she’s describing – I found this story to be quite boring. At times I paused to wonder what exactly the point in the novel was, but since I felt the same about Sherrilyn Kenyon”s first Dark Hunter book and am now a huge fan of the novels, I persevered. This isn”t the best book out there and is, in a lot of places, extremely boring to the point of making me want to cast it aside. The characters didn’t really grab me and suck me in to their world. And the whole relationship between Raven and Mikhail was too quick and accepted to be believable.
I do have the rest of the books in my To Read and Review pile and I”m hoping that, like the Dark Hunter series, they become better the more she writes.
