Tag Archives: book launch

Stormdancer launch

Posted on by

If you want the video without the talky text, go to the Stormdancer playlist.  Otherwise, read on and the individual videos are embedded at appropriate points in the text.

Stormdancer cover

Last night I was on twitter, planning a quiet evening in playing Guild Wars 2, when Jay Kristoff mentioned the launch of his new novel Stormdancer, a Japanese steampunk novel that Patrick Rothfuss has recommended.  Here’s the book trailer.

I remembered seeing something about that launch but it wasn’t in my Facebook calendar or in my Outlook calendar – whew! Ok, I haven’t committed to attending, maybe I was thinking of another launch and I wasn’t invited to this one.  I sent Jay a ‘Goodluck’ and a ‘guiltless wave’, then Braiden Asciak told me it was at Dymocks on Collins Street and I should come.

It was 6:10 pm.  The launch was at 7pm.  I live about an hour from the city on a good day, whether that is getting the minion to drive and park or catch public transport.  I was not ready to go out: no make-up, in jeans and a hoodie.  Even then I guess I was pretty decent for slopping around at home because I wasn’t wearing revolting but comfortable trackies.  I looked at myself in the mirror, cringed, then thought of covering the launch and putting it up on YouTube.

I would be behind the camera, not in front of it.  Yes!  I’ll go!

We were out the door in a couple of minutes.  The minion drove to Caulfield where we were planning to catch the train into the city: this was a bad move.  We wasted about 10 minutes driving up and down the car park and the street looking for a parking space then walking back to the train station, only to discover that Hawks and Magpies fans all had the same idea.

When I got on the train, two dickheads were sitting sideways in their seats so their feet and knees were about 10 to 15 cm apart across the aisle (that’s 4 to 6 inches for those not yet living in the 21st Century).  When I walked between them, I tripped over their feet and nearly fell, catching my balance just in the nick of time.  The minion was carrying my camera, so all was good.

When we got to Richmond the football fans poured out of the train taking close to five minutes to get clear, while I’m looking at my watch, cursing the football.  Or my lateness.  Or something. Just wanting to bang my head against something, possibly the train window.

Eventually we arrived at Flinders St Station, where we bustled off the train and down the stairs, only to find that Bloody Metro (their full and correct name, I swear! >.>)  had blocked off the exit.  I had to find the stairs to platform one and exit from that platform…  Getting even more stressed…

We arrived at 7:20 pm for an event that was due to start at 7pm.  People were standing around, talking and laughing, drinking and eating.  I think this was the best spread I have ever seen at any launch or opening: wine and Japanese beer, catering from Pie Face and a few other places.

Once we found a familiar face – Braiden – we learnt that the speeches hadn’t started.  Yay!  I got my camera ready for a quick set up, and looked around trying to spot familiar faces while chatting to Braiden and the minion.

I saw a few faces that looked familiar but I couldn’t place them.  Later I realised that maybe I’ve seen them at Swordcraft events.  I haven’t been back to Swordcraft yet, but I’m planning to do a video (hopefully with camcorder and not a DSLR, fingers crossed for new job very soon) and showcase their awesomeness.

I spotted Nathan from Of Science and Swords, and even pointed him out to the minion.  It was so funny, I recognised the face (not the usual way round) and I’m pointing at Nate, describing his tee shirt so the minion would know which in the group I’m pointing at, and the guys around Nate are clearly picking up on these signals, looking at me uncertainly then looking back at Nate, not really knowing how to react and Nate was oblivious!!!  Later he walked nearby and I waved and called out, only to see him walk up to Amanda and chat.  I gave up.  I figured I’d get to him eventually, and couldn’t believe that there was someone out there more oblivious than me.  When he finally saw me much later, his eyebrows went up, his mouth dropped open, he looked so surprised, it was really funny.

After being told that the guys from Of Science and Swords were there for the launch, I was straining looking around for other people I knew.  I saw a ranga whose hair had a life of its own, and thought that might have been Avi, but no: the guy was too short, even if his beard was strikingly similar.

When the launch time came, Jay broke protocol.  He leapt up on to the stage and started talking without an introduction.  The first bit of the video of Jay’s speech is wobbly while I get the tripod set up in record time: it is all Jay’s fault.  Just for the record.  This time the minion didn’t take the tripod out of the car or anything!

Jay’s speech was serious and funny; I think the best part is where Jay – possibly accidentally – sets the audience to laughter and comments when he says he’ll thank his wife properly later.

Afterwards the speeches, people mingled and chatted some more, queuing to get Jay to sign their books.

Just before my camera battery died, I got this.  Apparently this guy, Andrew Glouftis, played poker with Jay.  The stakes: if Andrew won, Stormdancer would be dedicated to him.  If Jay won, Andrew had to wear a copy of the book all night.

Before the night was over but sadly after my camera batteries died (I did mention that I wasn’t planning to come, right?) I chatted to Jay and got his autograph on my review copy of Stormdancer plus the kiddies picture book that was a freebie for attendees!  Apparently the picture book was a baby gift for his editor, and they had a limited run printed for the launch.  It’s so cute.

Stormdancer

As Dymocks closed up, everyone migrated to the Robot Bar, a little Japanese sushi bar off Flinders Lane that serves delicous warm sake.  Braiden, the minion and I tagged along and checked out the place.  Braiden, who had a few cameras on him and no issues with dead batteries, took photos.  Braiden took one great shot of this mobile with lots of robots casting shadows on the wall behind; hopefully he’ll post to his website later.

Braiden also told me about this.

Once I get organised, I will have a giveaway of autographed Stormdancer bookmarks.  Soon.

Books Received

Posted on by

 

Map of the Sky cover

A couple of days ago I received Map of the Sky, a paperback that is possibly worthy of the ‘doorstopper’ epithet.  It’s an appealing steampunk cover with predominantly cold hues except for the orange item upon which the protagonist focuses, which also lends him a touch of warmth.  The protagonist is probably a photoshopped figure but placed well on the page, dominating without being the focus.  The focus is the orange object placed very close to the penultimate focus of 1/3 from the edges.  The title, being silver, both blends with the background colour but stands out.  I think the background is actually my favourite aspect of this cover.  While the background does what backgrounds are supposed to do – support the image, leading the eye to the focal points – it is a somewhat impressionist representation of lamp posts and city buildings at night.  The novel is a reasonable weight for its size and yet comfortably falls open to read the text next to the gutter even in the centre of the book, although my preference would be for wider spacing for the gutter.  The text is a little small but it’s well laid out, much nicer than a mass market paperback.

Palma’s previous book, Map of Time, was a New York Times and international bestseller.

Black Mausoleum cover

The Black Mausoleum is a – dare I say it? – it’s a pretty cover.  Ok, I’m about to run from the lynch mob, but hear me out.  The background sky and clouds are soft, blue sky with white and puffy grey clouds of fairy floss.  My copy has a pretty border around the edge.  When I first looked I didn’t ‘see’ the image, just the colours, and I expected a girls’ fantasy.  A second look, focusing on the image of the warrior and dragon, make it clear this is intended to be a unisex novel.  There isn’t much detail in the human figure although he’s positioned to catch the eye and he’s the darkest portion of the cover so you can’t miss him.  The dragon is kind of softly coloured although very spiky.  Not my favourite interpretation of a dragon: this guy is clearly meant to be a vicious predator with his hundreds of spikes, wicked beak, teeth intended for rending, arms like a human with lethal claws for hands.  Careful examination of the dragon and I wonder if Deas’ dragon is too lethal, but then I have yet to read any of his books.

Although Mausoleum is a trade, there is no space wasted in the layout of the text; I suspect the book might be a surprisingly long read.  The text is close to the gutter, so I’m concerned about cracking the spine: now all Jim Butcher fans will call me a wuss.  I’m sure the careful and determined reader can read Mausoleum without damage, and the guys I was chatting to at Stormdancer‘s launch tonight would laugh and tell me it’s ok to demolish a book as long as you read and enjoy it!

Brent Weeks and Joe Abercrombie recommended Mausoleum.

Books & DVDs received

Posted on by

books received 3 September 2012

Today’s epic loot.

The Raid cover

Billed as an action movie, The Raid looks like a real ‘guy movie’.  I enjoy some action movies – Die Hard, Underworld – but this looks really hard core.

The Invisible Man cover

Here’s a golden oldie: the Invisible Man from the mid-70s, starring David McCallum (‘Duckie’ from NCIS) as the invisible man himself!  When I first saw this series of the Invisible Man advertised, I hoped it was the Neil Morrissey version, but this could be even better.  I have a very vague memory of this from when I was a kid: I’m not sure if I was allowed to watch it, but I remember at least seeing ads for the show.  I’m looking forward to watching this.

crime traveller cover

Crime Traveller is a BBC TV time travel series.  You had me at BBC.  Throw in time travel and Kochanski (Chloe Annett from Red Dwarf) as a lead, and I’m glued to the couch.  Seriously.  Where’s the popcorn?

Being Elmo cover

It’s been a year of losses with lots of big names – the Count and the Amazing Mumford included – passing away.  I’m looking forward to a change of pace, a celebration of a living muppeteer who is so good-looking – and so big – he surprised me as a man behind the scenes. Kevin Clash is the man behind Elmo.  He’s also been a puppetteer in Labyrinth and Jim Henson’s Dinosaurs, voicing Baby Sinclair, Grandma Ethyl and Howard Handupme.  I’m looking forward to this inspirational heart-warmer.

Tekwar cover

Tekwar is written and starring William Shatner.  I just about rofled when I saw Shatner’s novels in the library many years ago.  I suspect this will be a good comedy *shifty eyes*  IMDB has it listed as 6.5 stars, the same rating as The Expendables, so…

falling to ash cover

Falling to Ash is the first in a new series about Moth, a newly made vampire.  It’s billed as being about family ties, vampires, zombies, dangerous relationships and the ultimate crime.  I get a YA vibe from this book, especially with Moth being aged 18.  YA is often a great read, interesting and challenging without being exhausting or excessively long.

I find the cover both off-putting and intriguing.  At first glance I saw sepia tones and moth wings but when my eyes attempted to look at the girl, I kept being directed off the page to the right due to the character’s face being offset.  Breaking all the compositional rules like this could be a brilliant move, hinting at what is (hopefully) to come in the novel, but it could also backfire by directing people’s gaze to the book located to the right of this one.  Moths are underrated metamorphic symbols; let’s hope this book lives up to its potential.

the edge of nowhere cover

The Edge of Nowhere is a YA fantasy novel, billed as ‘genre-bending’ possibly because the author has previously been awarded for psychological suspense and mystery.  I’m guessing Edge of Nowhere has that kind of structure with the fantasy twist being the protagonist has some form of telepathic power.  I think fantasy needs more elements from other genres to be memorable so ‘genre-bending’ is a necessity.

Dirty Streets of Heaven cover

Many, many years ago when I couldn’t afford books but I desperately wanted to read Tad Williams’ Otherland series, I scraped together enough dough to buy the first in the series.  I was a fragile flower back in those days and found the blood’n'guts of the first chapter or two overwhelming.  I lent the book to a friend and asked him to tell me if it stayed that bloody all the way through; of course the friend enjoyed the book and I never got it back.  Now I’m not such a fragile flower – I loved Abercrombie’s The Heroes, for example – and yet I still haven’t read any Tad Williams.  (Honesty is the best policy, even if it does impinge on any credibility I may have _sigh_).   Now I have my very own Tad Williams review copy, puffed by no less than Patrick Rothfuss.  This book is MINE!!!

Books received

Posted on by

books received

Today’s schwag was collected from the post office by the minion while I was at the Melbourne Writers Festival, selling tickets in the Box Office and waving to Michael Pryor (author), Dorothy Tonkins (publicist from Random House) and Thomas Bull (local SFF personality).  *wave*

lord of lies cover

Out now.
Lord of Lies is part two of a duology by Sam Bowring.  If you’re curious about who Sam is and about his books, I recently interviewed Sam.  The characters in part one were evolving, so I’m curious to see where he takes them.

defiance cover

To be released 11 September 2012
Defiance by C.J. Redwine looks, at first glance, like a paranormal romance but according to the media release is actually YA fantasy/dystopia and part of a series.  It’s aimed at fans of Trudi Canavan, Christopher Paolini and Kristin Cashore, ages 14 and up.

Blinding Knife cover

To be released 11 September 2012
The Blinding Knife is part two in the Lightbringer series.  I read Brent Weeks’ debut novel a few years back: it was the paper equivalent of a comic book movie.  Back then I said I’d be interested in reading Weeks’ novels when he’d developed his writing more, because I enjoyed his style but I picked holes in that first story (he jumped, from a tower, out over the rocks into the water, and he doesn’t have superpowers?!)  Weeks is a best-selling author in Australia so either his audience doesn’t care (who doesn’t enjoy a fun romp?) or his writing has improved as I expected it would.  Or both.

The Demon Code cover

To be released 11 September 2012
 The Demon Code is spruiked as a conspiracy-thriller but from the blurb I’m thinking it probably has elements of urban fantasy, or at least fantasy.  Adam Blake, the author, is apparently an internationally bestselling novelist writing under a pseudonym but they’re not saying who it is; revealing his other identity is a double-edged sword.  The publisher says this will appeal to fans of Clive Cussler and Andy McDermot.

Books received

Posted on by

books received

I received a couple of books last week but with all the dramas in my life, I forgot to post them.  Then hubby came home bearing not one, not two, but four parcels of books today (one in each parcel), reminding me that I’m behind.  So here is the round-up of books received since last time.

Force unleashed 2 cover

This beautiful but lonely hardcover is going to require companions; I may have casually mentioned my need – one or thrice – for matching books; the minion is waiting for his next paycheck.

Whenever I read a hardcover, I put the dustjacket safely to one side beforehand to prevent unsightly dings and tears, while I gently nurse my precious, my precious…  And that’s when the book isn’t autographed.

Force unleashed 2 cover

I bought a limited, signed edition of a book the minion wanted to read once; he has now swiped my kindle for some strange reason…

Alveridgea cover

Alveridgea is beautiful.  Hardcover, gold embossed lettering, faux embossed corners, with a richly coloured central picture inset and raised up.  I haven’t read the book yet, but it’s appearance leads me to hope it will be one of those treasured volumes that is lovingly perused again and again.  The pages are not your normal paper colour, but are slightly yellow.  Exquisite greyscale pencil drawings and sepia pseudo-photos are scattered throughout.  Ornate lettering marks the opening of each chapter.  Contrasting typeface highlights the occasional poem or insertion.   The only thing missing is that wonderful ‘old book’ smell.

total recall cover

No self-respecting SF fan would admit to being ignorant of the fact that Total Recall is out in the cinema.  I’m just waiting for the minion’s next contract to arrive, then I’m scraping my pennies together for a trip to the cinema (cinema is a luxury dole bludgers like us can’t afford).  I’ve never actually read Total Recall before, nor, indeed, most of Philip K Dick’s stories.  This will be an education.  The print size for this collection of short stories is small but dark, contrasting well with the page, and the cover falls open easily.  Using the CCTV lent to me by Vision Australia, I anticipate little difficulty reading the book (note: I’m vision impaired aka blind as a bat).

Tiger's destiny cover

This is the fourth and, I believe, final book in the tiger series by Colleen Houck.  Jade Hounsell has been reviewing this series, and I’m hoping she has time to do this pretty romance novel justice.  The cover stands out among paranormal romance novels with its focus on a dynamic predatory bird rather than a pretty girl; the colours are dynamic and vibrant.  The print is on the small side.

Bitter Seeds cover

I’m not sure if I recall seeing this book before it arrived.  Bitter Seeds has recommendations from George R.R. Martin on the front cover and Cory Doctorow on the back cover, so you’re not prying this one out of my cold dead hands.

the Red Knight cover

This arrived as an uncorrected manuscript proof and it’s a brick, surprisingly heavy.  I like the cover as it’s striking and unusual even though my personal preference would be for a better tonal range in the featured characters.  A debut fantasy novel, this one comes from ‘the team who launched Joe Abercrombie, Patrick Rothfuss, Scott Lynch and Elspeth Cooper‘ and is recommended for Abercrombie’s and George R.R. Martin’s readers.  The media sheet spruiks the author as a re-enactor and weapons specialist, so I hope the fight scenes will be realistic.  It’s been months since I read Dance with Dragons and even longer since I read The Heroes; I think I need me a fix.

Can someone please make a 26 hour day and 8 day week?  With the extry time just for me to read?

Nightfall: a horror review by Liz Vinton

Posted on by

nightfall cover

REVIEW OF NIGHTFALL

by Elizabeth Vinton

It must be said that I have read Nightfall with some anticipation after having heard of it’s interesting premise and the high praise for Will Elliott’s first novel The Pilo Family Circus (which I have not yet read, but certainly plan to).

Nightfall is a strange novel. Good strange. Comparable, I believe, to Clive Barker’s style of fantastical horror (think Books of Blood) – not as intimidatingly dark, but with similar bizarre elements, characters, landscapes and events.

It dances between light fantasy and grotesque horror, the novel’s actual governing genre very hard to pin down. Dark Fantasy may in the end be the best description, but that can mislead those who have difficulty reading stories that contain horror elements, especially if they are graphic in nature.

And the horror can be very intense and stomach churning when it does appear.

The protagonist of the novel, Aden Keenan, begins his journey by becoming aware of the fact that he is dead by his own hand, and is lying quite uncomfortably in a bathtub in an unfamiliar house. This realisation whilst being a matter of a very grim nature, has moments of touching comedy, spiralling into a comical, and gruesome encounter with the first citizens of the odd world he has entered.

Despite not knowing very much about Aden, especially his past ‘live’ self , you find yourself liking him, and in fact quite a few of the darker characters are endearing in their own way also.

The world that opens up before Aden is epic in scale, and stunning in its description. Various buildings and landscapes are characters in their own right, greatly adding to the atmosphere.

The video gamer in me did find her-self early on picturing the story in game format, a desire developing to wander around the towns and peek in the windows of the houses not explored by Aden.

The plot of the story launches into something both painful and beautiful, and for some people, very personal too. I did not find the resolution all that surprising, but some may and so I am reluctant to elaborate on Aden’s discoveries about himself and the world his death led him to. It is important that the reader travels along with Aden for the story to be fully felt – and I mean felt.

I can say that amongst the comic book style bad guys, good guys and amoral guys there is intense pathos, which left me wondering about the author and experiences he or someone close to him have had. This story felt in the end like a cathartic purge, maybe it wasn’t intended as such.

I think one of the highest compliments you can pay a story is wanting more of it – more of the world, learning more of its history, of the main players in its development, of the towns and townsfolk.

The novel felt almost like a reasonably complex index of places, people and events of a much larger story, well beyond Aden’s experiences. I found some of the details on aspects of the story a bit sparse for my liking. Considering what takes place due to his existence, perhaps this is styled deliberately and any more detail would detract from ultimately what the story is about.

In the end it was a strange but enjoyable experience to read.  I believe readers who try it will find this too, as long as you are prepared to go along with a novel that swaps genres (sometimes from chapter to chapter, an aspect I really loved), and don’t mind finding many questions left very much unanswered.

Each reader will be left haunted by a different aspect of it.

Nightfall is an imaginative and moving novel. Although I felt it was missing some further descriptions/information that would help the reader immerse more fully into the world, it definitely grows on you over time once you have read it, and I can see myself re-reading it in the future to explore elements of the story further.

Witch Hunts

Posted on by

Witch Hunts

Witch Hunts launch, a graphic novel by author Rocky Wood and artist Greg Chapman, was launched today at Notions Unlimited Bookshop in Chelsea, south-east Melbourne.

Chuck McKenzie, owner manager of Notions, launched Witch Hunts on behalf of Rocky: his speech is below.

UPDATE: Rocky’s speech as read by Chuck is as follows (reprinted with permission):

Thanks everyone for coming. I’m sorry that the impact of Motor Neurone Disease means I can no longer speak publicly, so I get to rest while this is read for me!

‘Witch Hunts’ is a book with an interesting start in life. A couple of years ago McFarland, a fine niche publisher in the US who specialize in non-fiction, and I were talking about a Stephen King book, which ultimately came out last year – ‘Stephen King: A Literary Companion’ and won the Bram Stoker Award, so I am pretty proud of that.

McFarland asked me if I would write a graphic novel – to which my response was something like I don’t write fiction and I can’t draw, so why would you ask me? They said they liked my factual style and thought there was a niche for fact based graphic novels. So, against my qualms I talked the fine Maine artist Glenn Chadbourne into illustrating a book that re-imagines what happened to the greats of 19th Century horror – Shelley, Poe and Stoker among them in ‘Horrors!’, which garnered an Award nomination or two. All that proves is as a writer you can and should challenge yourself, and I now find myself writing Award nomination fiction after 35 years as a professional non-fiction writer.

When McFarland asked for another graphic novel I wanted very much to promote some Australian talent. Asking around the Australian horror community one name kept coming up – Greg Chapman and once I saw his work and understood his work ethic he was an easy choice. I am glad Greg can join us today for this signing – you will see in the book he is a fine illustrator, with great attention to historic detail, as well as bringing out the true horror that is the awful period in our history when we humiliated, tortured, burned and hanged women (and some men) for reasons that had almost nothing to do with so-called witchcraft. But of course you have to read the book to learn all about that! Greg is also a fine writer – an unusual combination, and his growing body of work promises a very interesting career in horror. And he was a joy to work with – nothing was ever too much trouble – and if you know Lisa Morton and I, we are nothing if not perfectionists.

A quick note on Lisa – she originally came on board to support me if my health failed and contribute her own take on the witch hunt phenomenon – well, she delivered in spades (or is it broomsticks?). The chapter on King James alone is worth the price of admission. Lisa is my Vice President at the Horror Writers Association, perhaps the hardest working colleague I have ever had in any endeavour and a fine writer, one whose mainstream breakthrough can’t be that far away. Not to mention she is THE world’s expert on Halloween!

So, again thank you all for coming, to Chuck for throwing this extravaganza, and to Greg for flying all the way from sunny Rockhampton to the depths of a Melbourne winter!

UPDATE:  Talie Helene read and reviewed Witch Hunts here.  Spoiler: she loved it.

Charlaine Harris

Posted on by

Charlaine Harris

Months ago I heard Charlaine Harris was heading to Australia for a book tour and convention.  As soon as I heard this, I contacted the lovely people at Hachette, asking if I could please have an interview.  I was referred to Hub Productions for an interview: it seems there are technical contracty-type things that happen when people are flown over for these conventions.

Hub Productions’ publicist asked me to email her some interview questions to which she sent me a reply from her iPhone on Friday afternoon, in between Charlaine’s many other commitments.  This is why Charlaine’s interview is so brief and isn’t available in audio.

Late last week I received an email from Jaki, a manager at Hachette Australia, Charlaine’s publisher.  This email was titled ‘Top Secret’ and included an invitation to a breakfast with Charlaine Harris this morning.  I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone about it until today.  You can imagine how hard that was!  Hubby knew, but I kept my lips zipped and refrained from even dropping hints about what was happening.

A small group of people gathered in the foyer of the Hotel Lindrum where we were welcomed in to the back bar by a senior manager from Hachette Australia (I think her name was Mary but I don’t have a great memory for names).  I also met Jaki Arthur, one of Hachette’s publicity managers, and another staff member whose name escapes me.  (Business cards are really good for situations like this: I can ‘remember’ names!  Gah!)

The back bar was a cosy room off the foyer with a bar full of essential coffee and tea making facilities, yummy pastries, a welcoming fire – probably gas but the flames looked real – and displays of Charlaine’s books.

It seemed most attendees were from Melbourne bookshops: places like Readers Feast, Dymocks, Mary Martins, Readings and Slow Glass Books.  Amanda Wrangles, author of books and Marianne de Pierres’ websites’ contributor, was also very visible although I managed to photograph her hair more often than her face.  A few faces were vaguely familiar but I’m not good with faces (funny that!).  Everyone was friendly.  It seemed that there was a pause in the beginning while people took a breath and looked around.  Then everyone worked the room, talking Charlaine Harris, True Blood and books in general.

Not long after I’d managed to finish my first coffee or two, Charlaine Harris arrived.  Charlaine was very personable, pro-actively working to put people at ease.  I chatted briefly with Charlaine before she did the rounds of the entire room, talking to everyone individually.  Charlaine strikes me as being a successful person with her feet on the ground; she hasn’t lost touch with the ‘average’ person.

While Charlaine did the rounds, Hachette staff gave out copies of Deadlocked, the latest and second-last instalment of the Sookie Stackhouse series, writing our names on post-its so Charlaine could be sure to spell them correctly.  I took my review copies with me to be signed and wasn’t sure of the protocol, so I asked if Charlaine would mind signing my review books to me and the new book for a competition winner.  She was very obliging.  Charlaine chatted with people while she autographed books, and then posed for photos with many fans.

Inevitably the conversation came around to Hachette’s display of Charlaine’s True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse series.  A number of people commented on how pretty the series looks and how it makes a nice display on a bookshelf, something too often overlooked in book design.  I love the artefact and collecting matching sets.  Spines that stand together like this are a bonus, although I wouldn’t want too many sets exactly like this.  Apparently the story behind this book design is that Hachette were re-releasing the series, the artwork from the TV series wasn’t available in time, so this is the end result.

Sookie Stackhouse series

I finished reading Deadlocked on the weekend, just in time to meet Charlaine.  Deadlocked is the second-last in the Sookie Stackhouse series:  Charlaine is starting to wrap up many of her characters’ story lines in preparation for the final book.  While many fans may be disappointed that the series is ending, I’m a firm believer in leaving fans wanting more.  Furthermore, the foreshadowing in Deadlocked leads me to expect a good finish to the series.  Grab this now: get your chocolate-equivalent fix (blood-equivalent?) in preparation for the grand finale.

NOTE: None of my Charlaine Harris posts – nor any other posts – are sponsored.  

Return to home page