Happy New Year!

I hope you’ll have a 2010 as you wish to be and better than 2009. May the new year bring you health, joy and the fulfillment of all your wishes. And may you have an amazing journey through the 365 days of 2010.

Happy New Year!

Dark Wolf's Awards for 2009

My 2009 top consists in a vast majority of titles released this year since I focused more on the new releases. I also included this year 4 more classifications for some of the reading aspects I enjoy the most in a book.

Top 10 of my 2009 favorite readings:

1. “The Angel’s Game” by Carlos Ruiz Zafón - I can’t honestly say that I enjoyed more “The Angel’s Game” than “The Shadow of the Wind”, but the fact that reading it with high expectations set by “The Shadow of the Wind” and all of them being fulfilled didn’t came as a surprise must have a role in my opinion. For certain though “The Angel’s Game” is the best book I read this year and the way Carlos Ruiz Zafón plays with emotions and the way he crafts his stories made me fall in love with his works. I just wonder what Carlos Ruiz Zafón has in store for me next?

2. “Gunpowder” by Joe Hill - Like I said it is impossible not to compare Joe Hill’s works with those of his father, but with pieces such as “Gunpowder” Hill proves that has his own path to follow and new and wonderful things to bring in the world of literature.

3. “Hater” by David Moody - “Hater” offered me from the first setting an exhilarating and thrilling reading. David Moody creates such a realistic scenario and a believable story that I believe that his novel can give reasons for nightmares.

4. “Twelve” by Jasper Kent - It is hard for me to set “Twelve” in a particular category, because the novel is an original one and its characteristics and setting can satisfy the readers of different genres. But it is easy for me to say that Jasper Kent proves great talent and imagination and its debut is an excellent and powerful one.

5. “Fall of Thanes” by Brian Ruckley - “Fall of Thanes” offered me a conclusion of “The Godless World” trilogy that it wasn’t expected by me, but which satisfied me in the fullest and which makes the waiting for a trilogy to unfold its events until the end worthwhile. From the first steps taken in my journey through “The Godless World” trilogy and until the last step of that journey I loved Brian Ruckley’s series.

6. “Warbreaker” by Brandon Sanderson - Wonderful world-building, with very interesting magic, political and theological system. And with voices like that of Brandon Sanderson I am certain that I will bath in titles from my favorite genre for a long time. Review to follow soon.

7. “Nights of Villjamur” by Mark Charan Newton - I was caught in the spell of “Nights of Villjamur” but the end of the novel didn’t bring my release and I was left wondering about the outcome of its story. Mark Charan Newton shows in his novel a great potential, for him as a writer and for his fantasy series, “Legends of the Red Sun”, and I believe that he can sit without question in the hall of the new names of epic fantasy writers and bring his contribution to a great new generation of such authors.

8. “The Riyria Revelations” by Michael J. Sullivan (“The Crown Conspiracy”, “Avempartha” and “Nyphron Rising”) - Michael J. Sullivan is not a surprise for me anymore, but an author that already established his place within the fantasy genre. “Nyphron Rising”, like Sullivan’s previous novels, offers an adventurous tale and a captivating story, returning to the roots and values of the classical fantasy.

9. “Yellow Blue Tibia” by Adam Roberts - The novel of Adam Roberts is garnished with action scenes, a steady and quick pace, very good humor and a unique love story, but above all “Yellow Blue Tibia” is one novel I wished it didn’t end.

10. “The Company” by K.J. Parker - I believe that K.J. Parker’s “The Company” is not the usual fantasy novel and will not appeal to every reader. I enjoyed quite a lot “The Company” for the great in-depth characterization and for its psychological aspects which brought me through the slow moving pace to the end of the story, an end which same as the novel will not appeal to every reader.

Best cover artwork:

1. Raymond Swanland - “An Empire Unacquainted with Defeat” by Glen Cook (Night Shade Books)

2. Marc Simonetti - “Le Trône de Fer” by George R.R. Martin (J'ai Lu)

3. Kekai Kotaki - “The Great Hunt” by Robert Jordan (Tor Books)

4. Didier Graffet - “Jon Shannow” series by David Gemmell (Bragelonne)

5. Stephan Martiniere - “Desolation Road” by Ian McDonald (Pyr)

Best female character: Isabella Gispert (“The Angel’s Game” by Carlos Ruiz Zafón)

Best male character: Danny McCoyne (“Hater” by David Moody)

The fantastic city/nation/world I would love to visit: the Godless World (“Fall of Thanes” by Brian Ruckley)

Review of the 2009 reading year

The end of year is also a time of drawing a line and making a balance. I set a few reading goals at the beginning of the year and now is the time to take a look at them. There weren’t many of them achieved but despite of this I am quite pleased with this reading year. I know that I didn’t manage to read as many books as I would have liked but I was close to my average. I finished 48 books in 2009, counting here Brandon Sanderson’s “Warbreaker” too, from which I have only 20 pages left and it will be finished until the end of the year. From the 48 books, 45 were reviewed on my blog and for the other 3, T.A. Moore’s “The Even”, Marian Coman’s “Nopti albe, zile negre” (White nights, black days) and Julio Cortazar’s “Bestiario” (Bestiary), I am not certain if I will write one. It was a very good year since from the 48 books I read with only 4 of them I was dissapointed.

At the beginning of 2009 I had a list of titles I was looking forward to read and from the list of 18 titles I read 8 of them (with 4 titles from that list not published this year). The goal I failed to achieve at any level is the work on my Pile O’Shame. Unfortunately once again I neglected those books and I failed to start reading these series. However I have to seriously consider the series list for the reading goals of 2010, but this time with a strong self push from behind to really start reading them.

As for my blog, I know that in the last couple of months weren’t any posts about fantasy art, but due to some hectic time at work and some interviews that are still waiting for their answers, I didn’t manage to keep them posted. But this will certainly improve and the fantasy art posts will come back next year, in full force I hope. Also I have in plan a few interviews with some wonderful writers and hopefully those will be successfully made. But I’ll post about all my reading and blogging goals for the next year at the beginning of 2010.

Cover art & synopsis - "The Map of All Things" by Kevin J. Anderson

One of the novels I wanted to read this year and got neglected in the end is Kevin J. Anderson’s “The Edge of the World”. I hope that this situation will be corrected soon because the novel’s synopsis picked my curiosity, and still does. I also liked the cover of the novel, with the artwork made by Lee Gibbons. Next year Orbit Books will release the second novel in the Kevin J. Anderson’s series “Terra Incognita”, “The Map of All Things”, and the synopsis of the second novel also pushes me to start reading the series. I like the cover for this novel as well, even a bit more than the first one, and I love that the publisher keeps the line set with the cover artwork of “The Edge of the World”. I really like the design, especially the top image which promises great things within the novel.

After terrible atrocities by both sides, the religious war between Tierra and Uraba has spread and intensified, irreparably dividing the known world. What started as a series of skirmishes has erupted into a full-blown crusade.

Now that the Uraban leader, Soldan-Shah Omra, has captured the ruined city of Ishalem, his construction teams discover a priceless ancient map in an underground vault - a map that can guide brave explorers to the mysterious Key to Creation. Omra dispatches his adoptive son Saan to sail east across the uncharted Middlesea on a quest to find it.

In Tierra, Captain Criston Vora has built a grand new vessel, and sets out to explore the great unknown and find the fabled land of Terravitae. But Criston cannot forget his previous voyage that ended in shipwreck and disaster . . . and the loss of his beloved wife Adrea, who - unbeknownst to him - fights to survive against palace intrigues and constant threats against her life in far-off Uraba. For Adrea is now the wife of the soldan-shah and mother of his adopted son . . .

The Map of All Things continues Kevin J Anderson's epic fantasy of sailing ships, crusading armies, sea monsters and enchanted islands.

Merry Christmas!

I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas! May you enjoy amazing holidays and have a wonderful Christmas. And may Santa be generous with you. Merry Christmas!

"The Kill Crew" by Joseph D'Lacey

"The Kill Crew"

by Joseph D'Lacey

Format: Paperback, 80 pages

Publisher: StoneGarden.net Publishing

Review copy received through the courtesy of the author, Joseph D'Lacey

Barricaded into a city block called The Station, two hundred souls have survived the apocalypse. So far. Was it a bomb? A biological attack? Phase one of an invasion? No one knows. The Long Silence has begun. After dark, thousands of the city's inhabitants - neither living nor dead - prowl the streets snatching survivors. The Station is under constant threat. Each day a lottery decides the seven members of The Kill Crew - a night shift of civilian soldiers. Their mission is simple: Extermination. Sheri Foley, a nobody in the days before the Long Silence, discovers she has the heart of a survivalist. She becomes one of the toughest members of The Kill Crew. But there are enemies inside the Station too. The evils of the old world persist and Sheri Foley must fight them all.

I make no secret that the debut novel of Joseph D’Lacey, “Meat”, didn’t sit well with me and failed to meet any of my expectations. Therefore I was rather reluctant to read his novella, “The Kill Crew”, but as anybody deserves a second chance I picked it up eventually for a reading.

Joseph D’Lacey’s “The Kill Crew” is a post-apocalyptic story and after turning the pages of the novella it is obvious that the author doesn’t do anything groundbreaking for this particular type of genre. His story isn’t new, an unknown event puts an end to the world as we know it and divides the survivors into two groups, the Stoppers and the Commuters. The Commuters, in a zombie-like state, try to turn the other survivors in a similar existence while the Stoppers try to fight and survive them. The story felt for me at this level very much like “I Am Legend” or “28 Days Later” with the exception that the Commuters don’t attack the other survivors with the specific goal to eat or kill them. Joseph D’Lacey’s story offers moments of tension and action, but it has its gaps. However, since the story is the background for the deeper levels of the novella and the gaps within the story are minor they didn’t represent a major obstacle for me.

“The Kill Crew” doesn’t excel when it comes to the story, but when it comes to the psychological and emotional aspects than the novella turns into something very different. Joseph D’Lacey focuses on three characters, with preponderance on Sheri Foley, following the trials they pass through on the psychological and emotional level and the challenges they face because of their new situation. He follows the human nature on its survival mode, the human capacity to adapt and to change, or not, to a new deadly situation. Sheri Foley, because the story is told in the first person and only rarely shifts from the main character perspective, struggles with emotions and none of them seem to be artificial, because they are present with reason and logic. The only thing that Joseph D’Lacey’s novella left me wondering is how such an event will affect me (not that I would like to find out).

“The Kill Crew” works on the affection level and this is what makes it stand out from the usual apocalyptic or zombie-like fiction. With it Joseph D’Lacey convinced me not to look with reluctance on his next work I’ll find.

Cover art - "John Shannow" by David Gemmell

I am convinced that the French readers are truly privileged. I’ve seen this year the excellent work made on the cover artworks of the titles that are published on the French market so I thought to end the year in the same tone. Next year Bragelonne will cuddle its readers with new amazing cover illustrations and it will start from January when the David Gemmell’s John Shannow novels, “Wolf in Shadow” (or “The Jerusalem Man”), “The Last Guardian” and “Bloodstone”, will be published, with the first two of them on their second French edition. I find the book covers of these Bragelonne editions are really amazing, powerful, with excellent color tones and suggestive illustrations. These excellent works are made by the French artist Didier Graffet and they left me in awe. I think that if it would be possible for me to have all the book editions I love for their cover artwork I would need a castle where to host my library. I should truly start to play more often at the lottery ;)