Posts published in: 2012/12
The Hardest Part: James Maxey on Witchbreaker
Posted on 2012-12-28 at 01:51 by montsamu
I said about all I can say so far about Hillsborough, NC author James Maxey's latest novel, Witchbreaker, in my write-up for the book's Christmas Day release. Luckily for us, Maxey has a bit more to say about its writing. You might think that after his previous 5 fantasy novels from Solaris Books (The Dragon Age trilogy: Bitterwood, Dragonforge, and Dragonseed; and the first two books in the Dragon Apocalypse: Greatshadow and Hush) and his superhero novels Nobody Gets the Girl and Burn Baby Burn that he'd
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Release day: Witchbreaker by James Maxey
Posted on 2012-12-25 at 23:17 by montsamu
James Maxey's Dragon Apocalypse series has been a lot of fun so far -- and yet every time I say that I feel remiss in focusing on the fun, and not enough on how creative these books are. Shapeshifters, incredible and bizarre powers, awesome relics, and of course mountain-sized primal dragons. The series started with Greatshadow in January -- of 2012, just 11 months ago -- and introduced our narrator, Stagger, briefly, before killing him. And then allowing him to continue to narrate the book, as well as the
Read more...Posted in local-author-release-day | Tagged james maxey, witchbreaker
What to Do With That Gift Card, Part 1: Fantasy Reads for 2012
Posted on 2012-12-25 at 06:32 by angelablackwell
Here are some suggestions for what to spend your holiday gift cards on if you are a fantasy reader.
First, a couple of caveats: in order to pare down number of books we need to cover, we the reviewers are sticking primarily with authors or publishers from the southeastern part of the US, and we gave fantasy and science fiction titles for middle grades and teens their own post: /2012/12/20/exploding-spaceships-2012-guide-for-family-reading/ .
Starting off in book release date order, from January 2012, we
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The Exploding Spaceship's 2012 Guide for Family Reading
Posted on 2012-12-20 at 04:52 by angelablackwell
We get asked by many families at conventions if we have any recommendations for families to read together, so here are some suggestions from among the middle-grade and teen books released this year. For the middle grades, Rick Riordan books are always a good choice with the newer Heroes of Olympus and Kane Chronicles series being our favorites. 2012 saw the release of Book 3 of both series, The Mark of Athena and The Serpent’s Shadow. Riordan’s writing craft has improved since his Percy Jackson series, so
Posted in The Exploding Spaceship
Tonight! "Winter Tales" in Hillsborough!
Posted on 2012-12-13 at 16:31 by montsamu
This evening (Thursday, Dec 13) at 6 pm the Orange County Main Library in downtown Hillsborough will host the storytelling event of the winter season, "Winter Tales" [Facebook], featuring original stories, poetry, and songs composed for the event by five local authors. (Along with cookies and hot cider!)
"Join authors Mur Lafferty, Alex Granados, Gray Rinehart, Becca Gomez Farrell and James Maxey for an celebration of the holiday season with original stories, poetry, and song."
Read more... Posted in events | Tagged alex granados, becca gomez farrell, gray rinehart, james maxey, mur lafferty, winter tales
Raise money for the SFWA medical fund, send John Kessel to watch "The Hobbit"
Posted on 2012-12-12 at 17:44 by montsamu
Nebula Award winning author and NCSU professor John Kessel, who grew up enjoying picking up L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz books as they were published at the beginning of the last century and was of an, er, "advanced" age by the time Tolkien finally got to work, off-handedly quipped that "I know the world does not care, but nobody could pay me enough money to go see 'The Hobbit.' Well, maybe someone could, but nobody is going to." Well... Brent Winter suggested an eBay auction and Kij Johnson a Kickstarter
Read more...Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged john kessel, KesselHobbit, peter jackson, sfwa, the hobbit
The Exploding Spaceship: Reviews of Fire Season and Captain Vorpatril's Alliance
Posted on 2012-12-03 at 17:23 by angelablackwell
The Exploding Spaceship by Gerald and Angela Blackwell: Reviews of Fire Season and Captain Vorpatril's Alliance
Fire Season: A Star Kingdom Novel by David Weber and Jane Lindskold (hardcover release Oct 2012 Baen Books, ebook available at www.baenebooks.com)
Fire Season is the sequel to A Beautiful Friendship, the first young adult book in Weber’s Star Kingdom universe. The series chronicles the adventures of Stephanie Harrington, the teenage discoverer of the treecats of the planet Sphinx, and her
Read more...Posted in The Exploding Spaceship | Tagged captain vorpatril's alliance, david weber, fire season, jane lindskold, lois mcmaster bujold, the exploding spaceship
The Negative Zone #006: Literary Science Fiction Smackdown
Posted on 2012-12-02 at 02:43 by Wander Lane
The NEGATIVE ZONE #006: LITERARY SCIENCE FICTION SMACKDOWN
by Andrew Neal
Okay, okay, it’s not really a smackdown, but I thought that sounded better than “Reviews of a couple of books that are sort of thematically similar but also really different.”
As far as “literary science fiction,” I’m talking as much about the marketing and presentation of books as much as I am the content. These are science fiction novels which you’re more likely to find in the Fiction & Literature section of your library or
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