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Brent Weeks’ next novel: Black Prism

Dear God, I’m  a total sucker for pretty covers, especially one featuring a roguish man with a dagger.

I sort of liked Weeks’ Night Angel trilogy, even if it had annoyingly saintly protagonists who have a rather chaste view of love (cough). Weeks’ next book sounds intriguing, but for the life of me, I can’t figure out what the story is all about except that (according to his publisher Orbit, anyway) the character is the most powerful guy in the world. Brent Weeks says on his blog:

“It’s set in a new world. Think more 1500 Mediterrean Sea, rudimentary fire arms and magic together. Woot. But don’t worry, it’s not a pirates-and-their-peg-legged-mateys book. Cross my heart. But there are awesome characters, lots of action, much cooler magic this time out, secrets, lies, betrayal, and butt-kicking.”

Okay, cool. Looks like a fun, if not typical, fantasy yarn. Release date still undetermined, but word is that it could be an August release.

Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher

For some reason, I could never get into Butcher’s more popular Harry Dresden series. But if he writes those books as well as he wrote Codex, I’m in.

What attracted you to this book?
The magic system. I’ve always had a thing for elemental magic. The concept of a people (the Alerans) being able to “bond” with the elements of earth, fire, water and air was fascinating.

What do you think of the story?
To be honest, Butcher tale isn’t anything new. It’s the standard “farm boy finds himself through an adventure” tale that I’ve read/watched in a dozen fantasy books (Wheel of Time!) and films (Star Wars).

So we have a boy – Tavi – who is an oddity of sorts. He is “fury-less”, unable to bond with an element. Therefore, unlike his fellow Alerans, he has to rely on his wits most of the time. One day, while going after some wandering sheep, he ends up trapped in a violent fury storm (where the elements literally rip you to shreds) and encounters a slave girl – who isn’t really a slave girl at all – called Amara who’s actually a Cursor (a kind of spy).

Apparently, the Marat are planning an attack, aided by rebels, and Amara is there to stop it. Tavi ends up holding the key to the empire’s salvation (of course!).

Describe Alera.
It’s a Roman-esque world with legionnaires, togas and with people named Gaius and all.

Flaws?
Well, towards the end, the book became a Battle of Helm’s Deep clone. I was both amused and a little annoyed. But it is not bad at all – in fact, Butcher writes action scenes very well, and the book is just one big action scene after another – but I kept having flashbacks to Aragorn storming the orcs!

And this is probably not Butcher’s fault, but I kept imagining the Marat as the blue Na’vi folks from Avatar. What with the whole ‘native American-esque’ thing they have going there…

Also, we didn’t really get to know Tavi very deeply in this story. And then there’s the whole thing with the Marats that seemed so … convenient. But hey, we have five more books after this one to find out more about our fury-less hero…

What did you like?
How Butcher just doesn’t let up on the action. I felt exhausted just reading it – the characters are plunged from one drama after another. It sucks to be them.

On the whole, I did enjoy Furies of Calderon, even if I was sometimes annoyed with its flaws and clichéd plots. Butcher is a great yarn spinner, that’s for sure.

Rating: B-

Promote thyself: Popculture vulture online

Most reporters – writers, for that matter – are content to remain incognito and hide behind their bylines. Most of us are solitary, private creatures, content to tap out our novel/article/short story on our laptop in some secret loft somewhere. Publicising ourselves just isn’t really in our  nature.

But I recently took a course about social media which changed my long-standing belief that I should hide behind my byline. It’s just prudent, in our social-media obsessed world, to promote thyself. And it’s even more vital for journalists now to engage the Internet – especially when newspapers are now facing the biggest shakeup in their history. Even my BFF who’s doing an MSc in Creating Writing in Scotland is being told to blog, and she, a long reluctant blogger, has set up webspace at last.

So, here I go: Introducing my column, Popculture Vulture. It’s an occasional column (too occasional, sometimes – my apologies) about TV, film and other popculture stuff.

I always have a blast writing them, so I hope you have a blast reading them too.

/ end plug.

Wow. That felt weird.

This is going to get some getting used to.

BookXcess – new store opens!

Today, BookXcess opened its new store. It’s bigger, better and filled with even more cheap books.

For those new to the store – it’s located in Amcorp Mall, PJ.

The reason why it’s beloved by Klang Valley (and beyond) book lovers is because the books there are always cheaper than normal bookstores; you can get books as low as RM9.90, and we’re not talking about old, dusty copies here. You get brand new books for Rm17.90 a lot of times!

The new store is four times bigger than the old store, and is located just two stores away from the old lot.

Here is the new store in its full glory:

Just how big is it? How about this:

Or this?

When I visited the store during lunch time, they were still some empty shelves. The magazine section is not fully stocked yet – apparently they’re moving their magazine store up into that corner – and there were a few rows of empty shelves waiting for books.

Fantasy lovers would be happy to see the Fantasy section.

Though I wish there was more variety … but I’m a greedy book consumer and also a particularly fussy fantasy reader so … it’s tough to please me . Lots of Terry Pratchett books though. Somebody must like him a lot. Maybe Eyeris managed to convince Book Xcess to bring the books in or something! (He says No, when I saw him at the store.) Oh, if you spy books by Jeniffer Fallon, do buy them – especially if you’re into fantasy politcal intrigue. She’s top notch, and I blazed through her Lion of Senet series while  sitting cross-legged on the floor during my 23-hour flight to Los Angeles. Good times.

I also saw a number of beautiful picture books for kids, a young adult section (lots of Garth Nix books) and an extensive range of chick lit books. If you’re into Dan Brown and Danielle Steele, their books are going for RM9.90. Grab ‘em quick.

Happily, I bought about six books, including a cook book, something I swore I’ll never buy again. But that monster is about 2kg heavy and only RM35! And it’s a step-by-step picture thing, perfect for cooking dummies like me.

Why DRM sucks

If you’re into eBooks, you’d be pretty familiar with this term: DRM aka Digital Rights Management. This is the software that enables publishers to “protect” their intellectual content and although there’s a kind of logic to it, most eBook users hate it. Not only do I not get to backup my digital eBook which has the same price as a physical book, I have to go through a lot of heck just to download said book.

Let me illustrate why with this picture I found at MobileReads forum

I so relate.

eBooks are awesome! Until the ebook reader breaks down

My Sony Pocket Reader nearly gave me a heart attack yesterday. I uploaded a couple of novels into my new, trusty Reader (alas, my old classic PRS505 broke when it fell to the hard, marble floor. sob) and then … it went wonky.

The screen kept saying “Reading book…”, and then it switched to the menu page, only to return to the “reading book” page. Over and over again. It refused to restart when I pressed a pin into the tiny reset hole, and it wouldn’t switch off at all.

Fortunately, I found my answer in the MobileReads forum. Phew. My Reader is back to normal again. Looks like, despite it’s 500MB space and ability to hold almost 500 books, the Reader just ends up slowing down and freezing up after I upload more than 80 books into the Reader. So much for technology!

The whole heart-stopping moment got me thinking about how reliable “dead tree” books are. It’ll never malfunction, the data it holds will not suddenly crash one day without warning, and it’s always, well, there. Books even survive a good soak in the rain (even if the pages are all crumpled up) and the data in the book will probably be there after a hundred years or more (if stored properly). I do hope they make the same eBook Reader batteries 100 years from now…

That’s why I shudder at the thought of owning a purely eBook library. I mean, I do love eBooks and all, but I doubt it has the same kind of reliability as dead tree books. That’s why my favourite books (which I reread again and again) are dead tree copies and those which I read and forget are in my Reader.

Star Trek Enterprise: Last Full Measure

Still going through a “nostalgic for all things Star Trek Enterprise” phase, so have been reading one Enterprise novel after another.

Story: Set in the third season of the series, we see the crew grappling with a near-impossible mission: Find and stop the perpetrators of a devastating attack on Earth which killed 7 million people.

We see Archer putting aside his idealistic view of the universe and using less-than-ethical ways to achieve his mission. We also see how the MACOs, the elite military unit which joined the ship in the third season, first interacted with the crew. It wasn’t easy for both sides.

What stood out? I didn’t like the third season of Enterprise at first, thinking that it was an overbearing way to illustrate 9/11 in the Trek universe. But after rewatching the season, I realised that it was a stellar season not because of the plot, but because it placed the characters in a high pressure situation, and they developed wonderfully. Of all the Trek series’, Enterprise characters seemed more real to me.

What surprised you? That the MACO’s were painted in an especially harsh light. I understand how the crew – especially Malcolm Reed – may be suspicious of the MACOS in the first few months, but my beef was that they weren’t behaving in a very professional manner. Both the Starfleet crew and MACO wore  their hostility on their sleeves, something we didn’t see at all in the series.

Even Archer, to my surprise, wasn’t a fan of the MACOs, sometimes showing his displeasure quite openly. That’s odd as Archer – in the TV series – was the one who insisted that the MACOs be brought on board in the first place.

What didn’t work: Some Amazon reviewers complained that Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels imposed their views of the Iraq war on the story. At first I thought it was a very odd criticism and dismissed it as rants from extreme right-wing readers, but now I have to agree with them.

There was a very clumsy attempt at torture by Archer in the book, and it just seemed really out of character for me, eventhough Archer did nearly suffocate a prisoner in an airlock in one episode. The scene seemed over the top and Archer seemed more like a bully. And then the subsequent argument for and against torture between Archer and Reed…? Again, it felt forced.

The mission also seemed pointless … but I supposed they can’t really write a  game-changing tale in the long-running arc of the third season.

But did you enjoy it? Yes, I did, but only because I was especially nostalgic for the characters. But I could see how some readers would be frustrated by the OOC-ness of the characters.

Rating: C+

Taboo by Jess Michaels

There’s a time and season for everything, and I guess I’m in the season for romance.

When I picked up Jess Michaels’ Taboo, I wasn’t expecting much. I’ve accepted that most romance novels are formulaic to a painful degree, and I was just looking for a nice diversion.

The story: Cassandra Mannings and Nathan Manning, the Earl of Blackhearth, has a past. And that’s Past, with a capital P. Nathan’s pretty bitter about what happened to their young, innocent romance, while Cassandra just wants to forget it all.

During their years apart, Cassandra has made a name for herself as a tailor of repute to the ladies of the ton; she has also become a mistress to several noblemen — something which irks Nathan to no end.

Which is why he threatens to ruin her success unless she complies with his demands….

What caught your attention? The cover. Okay, that’s half the truth. (Tis a nice cover, no? Those “men ravishing half naked ladies” covers are such turn offs.) It was also the fact that Cassandra was a seasoned mistress. I was getting tired of young, innocent, naive heroines who had to be “taught” by their beaus. Cassandra sounded like someone with a backbone, and the fact that she’s “experienced” puts her on a more equal footing with Nathan in that department.

Is it hot? Oh yeah. Cili padi hot.

What surprised you about the novel? Y’know, I was still expecting a pretty generic read, and in many ways Taboo is quite fairy tale-ish and eye roll-inducing, and some parts just too convenient and pat.

However, I was surprised by the genuine chemistry between Cassandra and Nathan. I was actually interested in finding out what f**ked up their relationship so many years ago.  What actually happened between the two in the past is pretty standard stuff, however – you’ve probably read it in some romance book somewhere – but I enjoyed the interaction between the two.  It was real, heart-felt and they had great chemistry.

Criticisms: Too short, and the overly saccharine ending … I don’t know, I just expected something different. Something a little more cynical, perhaps.

Rating: B+

Slave Hunters (Chuno)

I have moved! For Korean dramas, movies and other Asian goodies, visit my new blog Drama Bento: http://www.dramabento.com

Read the Chuno review at the new blog.