Fandom Mashup #1

Fandom Mashups

Fandom Mashups is an original feature hosted by Lunar Rainbows Reviews. Every week she proposes a fictional scenario and then we build our own dream team of five characters from five different fandoms to complete the task. 

You've Stumbled Onto The One Ring (What the hell Frodo? You had ONE job) And Now You Need To Take It To Mt. Doom To Destroy It. Who Do You Chose As Your Own Fellowship Of The Ring? 

THOR

So Thor can fly right? Cool- I'll just have him fly my ass to Mt. Doom. Easy-peasy. And if any pesky Nazgul show up he can unleash the lightning baby!

SILVER SURFER

Another badass flying character! The Surfer has the Power Cosmic so if Thor can't take care of the Nazgul, Surfie sure can. In fact with him we wouldn't really need anyone else, but that's no fun, so let's continue.

KATNISS

We need an archer! Yeah I know Legolas but screw him, we need some women on this team. Katniss will light em up with some flaming arrows and we'll all sleep better knowing she's there.

ARYA STARK

Arya has been all over the Riverlands for like two books so she's no stranger to wilderness travel. She'd fit right in, plus she knows to stick em with the pointy end if there's trouble.

MARA JADE

The Force is strong with this one. So in case everyone else is asleep at the switch, we have assassin/ Jedi Mara Jade on the case to keep the baddies at bay. With her lightsaber and Force abilities I'm not too worried. 

Sunday Post #156

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

Well the Olympics are done and I think all told it was a pretty good Games. Yeah Rio had problems but everyone seems to have survived and there were some thrilling moments. I read more this week than last although the Olympics still took up most of my time. But I'm doing okay on reviews so all is good. 

This week I'm taking a break from Top Ten Tuesday to post a Tagline feature- I've seen a few of these over the last few years but I haven't seen an active one lately, and I love a good tagline. Sharing them is fun, so Tuesday will begin my Tagline Tuesday feature, which will be semi- regular. I'll also have my thoughts on Time Siege. Oh and I saw that Sci-Fi Month is returning this November. 


  



This cracked me up. 



And I'm listening to... 

NEW ARRIVAL/ UPCOMING REVIEWS:

Bookcover Spotlight #62

The thing I like about this cover is the retro styling- I mean check out that spaceship style. Doesn't that scream retro scifi? And it's all festooned with vines, the landscape looks lush- this is clearly a Venus of the old pulp stories.  

The Originals

The Originals by Cat Patrick is about 3 girls who are identical triplets... or at least they were. Lizzie, Ella and Betsey take turns going to school, and everyone else thinks they are the same person- Elizabeth Best. In actuality, the girls are clones- raised by their mother and hidden, so that the outside world thinks there is just a single mother and her daughter. The story is told from the perspective of Lizzie, and everything is going normally for the girls until Lizzie starts to fall for Sean Kelly, the guy in her Creative Writing class.

Things get complicated when Sean asks Lizzie to lunch. The girls aren't allowed to date but with Lizzie and Ella both having guys they're interested in they begin to push back. Lizzie finds her budding relationship with Sean in jeopardy and decides to take matters into her own hands. On top of that, she begins to suspect their mother is not what she seems- or has secrets to hide. When clues begin to emerge that there is more to their mother than meets the eye, they resolve to find out the truth and take their life back.

I liked this story a lot, it was compulsively readable. The plot seemed pretty farfetched- I mean, how would this ever work?- but I was pleasantly surprised. How would something like this work? What happens when one girl falls for a guy, and the other two see him? And what exactly is the deal with their mother that she would put them through this? I wanted to know the answer to that. While I suspect most seventeen year old girls in this situation would have rebelled or pushed back long ago, or at least been less tolerant of their mother, the story seemed pretty realistic, and I enjoyed reading about the high school situations they found themselves in. The girls each have distinct personalities, and Sean adds a nice touch to the story.

I liked the three sisters and their dynamic- they can feel each others' distress, there is almost a telepathic connection between them- but the science fiction elements are pretty much limited to that. The story is mainly a coming of age story with a twist. The premise may seen a little silly but it's played straight and the writing makes it fun and compelling. I really liked how events come together and it gets a little tense at the end- but the ending is well done and touching. 

Waiting on Wednesday

I've been wanting to try a Paula Stokes book for a while, and this one has been on my radar since I saw that cover. Plus the blurb has me curious. This has a VR angle that frankly reminds me of the movie Strange Days a bit, and the author has stated that the movie was an influence, even though the story is quite different. Can't wait for this one.

Technically this came out yesterday but since I don't have it yet I'm still waiting for it. It will probably be one of my next few reads.

Top Ten Book Set On Other Planets

 

 Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week a new Top Ten list will be posted. Everyone is welcome to join. Link back to The Broke and the Bookish so everyone can check out other bloggers' lists. It's a fun way to get to know fellow bloggers.

This week's topic is Ten Books with X Setting 

I'm going with Top Ten Books Set on Other Planets

I always like otherwordly art so this was a fun topic. A lot of these are older cover illustrations done by Michael Whelan. He's long been my favorite cover artist and he's done a ton of SF/F covers over the years. So here are books set on other worlds. And while some of these are favorites of mine, I picked these solely on the basis of the covers.  

 

 

I've included several of the John Carter of Mars books mainly for the cover art, although the first three are a pretty good story. 

 

This is the fourth book where John Carter's daughter takes center stage. 

 

The highlight of this one is a living chess match - and there are even rules for the game in the back of the book (it differs from chess). 

 

The last book of the series, not very good, but a distinctive cover.  

 

One of my favorite books. Interesting fact: there are a lot of similarities to A Song of Ice and Fire. Seasons last for fifteen years, there is an impending winter as the story opens, there's a barbarian migration (the wildlings?) and an eerie threat from the north- snowghouls- are coming south with the barbarians. Sound familiar? 

 

This is a book about a lost colony and I haven't read it but the cover art got my attention. Once I saw the full version of the art I was impressed.  

 

I haven't read this one yet but it's on my TBR. I think the cover scene is set on a space station.  

 

The Pern books have been hit or miss for me but this one is cover love.  

 

An anthology of stories about Venus as depicted in the pulp days- a hot, humid planet teeming with life, or alternatively a water or swamp world inhabited by dinosaurs or strange aquatic beings. 

Another example of Venus teeming with life. 

I haven't read this series yet but I plan to- I love generation ship type stories and I understand in this one they reach the planet, so I'm curious. 

This was a fun book set on a water planet.