Bookcover Spotlight #43

This is the next book in the Immortals by Jordanna Max Brodsky.

Discount Armageddon

Discount Armageddon is a book I've wanted to read for a while, mainly due to the cover and the premise. The idea of supernatural creatures living among us has always appealed to me, and with wanting to try more urban fantasy this seemed like a good place to start. So I gave this one a try and I'm glad I did. Verity Price is a ballroom dancer and a cryptozoologist- someone who studies cryptids or supernatural beings. She does the former because she loves it and the latter because it's the family business. They broke off from a group called The Covenant years ago and live on the west coast, but Verity is in Manhattan auditioning for dance competitions and patrolling the night in her off hours.

Verity practices free running and uses it to run the rooftops of Manhattan, and she also works at a strip club populated by cryptids. She knows most of the cryptid population but when women start disappearing in the city and a Covenant hunter shows up, she knows something's up. Dominic De Luca is the hunter and doesn't take to Verity at first- his order considers her family traitors, but when they have to join forces of course the sparks fly.

I liked Verity and Dominic a lot- he's kind of the straight man to her snark. She's attracted to him even though she thinks she can kick his ass, and their relationship is a lot of fun. They constantly have weapons hidden on their person and it's fun seeing them try to outmaneuver the other. Plus the side character Sarah is awesome- she's a cryptid telepath who is also Ver's cousin, and her powers come in handy several times. I'd like to see more of her. And I have to mention the mice- yes Ver has a mouse population in her apartment, but these mice worship her as their priestess and are constantly dragging her into their religious observations. Hilarious.

The book started a little bit slow for me and it took a little while for it to build up steam. I liked the cryptids living in Manhattan angle but there were almost too many- with something like this I think less is more. Still there was a nice range of creatures- we get nagas, gorgons and harpies, among others. Also the tone is pretty snarky throughout, so if you like that you'll love this, but if you like your narrative a little more serious it may wear on you after a while. Just depends what kind of urban fantasy you like I guess.

I liked it- not perfect, but intriguing enough I'll definitely continue with the series.

The 100 3x09

After a few weeks off we have the return of The 100. About time too, after that cliffhanger end we had last time. This show is out of hand. That's all I'm going to say- totally out of hand. But we'll get there... first things first. 

Clarke and Murphy are hanging out in Polis when the conclave to choose Lexa's successor begins. Titus shows up and tries to get them to sneak out, to honor his pledge to Lexa, but Clarke says no she wants to see Aden. She wants to be sure Aden wins the conclave. She talks to Aden and asks if he will still protect her people if he's selected- and he tells her they all will. Lexa made all the novitiates promise to protect Clarke and her people. See? Lexa rocked ass.

Then... Roan shows up, along with Ontari who promptly attacks Clarke. Titus stops her and Roan tells her to stand down, but she threatens Clarke. We then switch over to Lincoln and Kane in lock up, and Linc is keeping his peoples' spirits up. Then Pike comes and announces they will all die, and Lincoln asks him not to hold them accountable. Bellamy backs him up, and Pike agrees to only kill Kane, Sinclair and Lincoln. Gee, nice guy- thanks for the favor. 

Bellamy and Monty come to see Harper and Nate and they disable the listening devices that were planted on them. Bellamy says they're ready to help free Kane and the others, but they need someone on the outside to hand them off to. Nate and Harper don't trust them, so Bellamy tells them to have Octavia meet him at the dropship. Octavia shows and promptly puts Bell to sleep with someone she sticks in his neck. Okaaaay. Clarke meanwhile asks Titus if Lexa is really in the AI chip , and he says of course she is. Clarke is worried about Ontari winning, but Titus says the spirit of Lexa will choose Aden. then the victory horn sounds and they rush to see what's happening. Oh not much, other than Ontari just BEHEADED Aden and all the other novitiates. WTAF?

Like I said, this show is our of hand. But there's more. Bellamy wakes up and is with Octavia and Indra. Octavia plans to rescue Lincoln and the others and Bellamy wants to help, but she doesn't trust him. Nate and Bryan have a moment and Nate confirms that Bryan planted the bug -he says Bryan has to choose between him and Pike. Kane is allowed to meet with Abby (there she is!) and she says she won't allow this to happen, but he asks her not to do anything. Roan shows Clarke how to get away and says his debt to Lexa is paid- but instead of leaving she goes back for the Flame. 

It's execution time. Pike is taking the prisoners away and Harper shows up. "Package is on the move," she comms to Octavia- but Monty's mom overhears. Damn it! Monty is stricken as she tips off Pike, and Bryan and Gillmer are left on the door. Meanwhile Clarke gets the Flame but Titus tries to stop her. They argue and Clarke realizes there is one more novitiate, who ran away and Lexa protected. Ontari shows up and Titus sends her off with Murphy, and gives the AI chip to Clarke to take to Luna, who is the last novitiate. He helps Clarke get out and tells her she is the guardian of the Flame now. 

Pike is sweeping Arkadia but can't find Octavia, and the prisoners have given him the slip, at least for now. Octavia hid them in the hideaway she used on the Ark (hello call out to season one!) and Abby and Nate show up to help. Harper comms Octavia but Monty and his mom hear as they are monitoring communications. Monty tells the guards the escapees are heading for the main gate (they're not) to give them a chance and him and his mom are on opposing sides now. Pike puts the camp on lockdown and the escapees are about to get out but Abby says she's staying. Kane kisses her (aww.. what do we call this, Kanby?) and then the bad stuff happens. Pike announces that the other Grounder prisoners will die if they don't turn themselves in, so Lincoln gives himself up. 

Ontari is bathing for her purification ritual and spars verbally with Murphy a bit (I don't get why he would be allowed to attend her), but then someone comes and she gets out of the tub, catches Murphy looking at her, and smirks. Murph and Ontari? Hey now. The someone though is Roan and he has Titus. They argue about the Flame and Titus throws himself on Roan's dagger (so he can't give up Clarke?). Ontari tells Roan to announce her ascension even though they don't have the Flame- and she orders Roan to find Clarke. 

Kane and the rest escape, but Octavia wakes up and sees... Lincoln's execution. Seriously? Way to manufacture drama people. Like I said, out of hand. Linc will be missed though, and this totally guts Octavia. No wonder Twitter blew up Thursday night (I didn't see it til Friday). And in all seriousness it was powerfully done. Octavia will kill Pike I have no doubt- but what will this do to Bellamy and O's relationship? Granted it was not in the best place before this, but now- one can certainly argue that without Bellamy being such an ass none of this might have happened. Will she blame Bell? And where is Luna? 

Let's Talk About Time Travel

Let's talk about time travel. It's a great time to be reading if you're a time travel fan. With the explosion of YA titles and science fiction fandom hotter than ever there's a lot of time travel out there. For this post though I want to focus on time travel on the small screen. There are two shows right now that I think really do a great job of exploring time travel- Continuum and 12 Monkeys. 



Continuum is on Netflix and is about Kiera who goes back in time when a group called Liber8 are sent back prior to their execution. The future is controlled by corporations and Liber8 wants to destroy that future- they're on a suicide mission with no plans to go back. The show has some great action sequences, two great leads and good writing. All the paradoxes and twists you would expect from a time travel story are here, and Kiera has to make some tough choices. Plus the Liber8 are fascinating, especially Jasmine Garza who is a one woman wrecking crew- she is awesome in every episode she's in.  



12 Monkeys is even twistier than Continuum, if that's possible. Cole comes back to the present to stop a virus that wipes out most of the population. Unlike Continuum, he goes back and forth between the present and 2043. The time jumps take a toll on the body and Cole will die eventually from the stress. His partner in crime (literally) is Cassie, a virologist who is important in the fight against the virus. There's a lot of great tension and writing in this show as well, and add to that a simmering attraction between Cole and Cassie and you have a winner. 

Cover Characteristics #22

Cover Characteristics is a meme by Sugar and Snark- every week a characteristic is selected and we post 5 books with that week's theme.  

This week's pick- ?  

This week there is no topic so I'm just doing a freebie. My topic - Steampunk. I've always liked the idea of steampunk and clockwork fantasy but finding books that I like in that category is a little tougher. I've read a handful though and will probably try more at some point. 

I like the idea of a fantasy world with steampunk elements- airships, strange cities, maybe clockwork automatons- moreso than alternate history where it's like Paris in the 1890's but with goggles and stuff. I would rather have an all new world with those elements but that's just me. Do you like steampunk- and if so would you rather have a fantasy world or an alt history ?    



This is actually a cover for Halestorm CD. I like the steampunk elements.   

  

This one's okay, not bad. I like the airship (dirigible?) and the clockwork or gear elements. 



This one's not bad, i like the sense that they're surrounded and it's kinda dark. You can't really tell it's steampunk (other than the goggles) but according to Goodreads it is. 



Don't know much about this one but I kinda like it. The cat is interesting along with her weapon, but not crazy about the background. 



This looks like a middle grade but I like this cover. She looks like screw this I'm killing something and I like the sword, the lamp and the night scene.  



Nice! This is my favorite definitely. Cool dress, love the green and she appears to be holding some kind of jewel or charm- whatever it is, it's giving off magic looks like. 



This one's alright, looks very generically steampunk



This one's nice too, I like her goggles and the green and it looks like she's inside a ship or something. All the covers in this series are pretty good. 



I read the first book in this series but have not read this one. I've seen it in the store though and the cover does look nice, it's just not my favorite. I never saw many reviews of these but the first one was okay. They're YA. 


I kinda like the style of these covers but this one is not my favorite. I do like that she's in a kind of gallery though, apparently.  

Maybe my second favorite. I like that they're underwater (I think) and she seems to be steering, plus there's a porthole type thing going on back there. I like it. 



This one is an anthology and I kinda like her costume with the bracers and the whole thing. Plus it looks Victorian in the background.  

Sunday Post #136

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

This week it's been sunny and nice (well sorta) but definitely better than last week. I started one book, am still reading another, and The 100 is back so that's always a good thing. And I won a $5 Amazon gift card at On Starships and Dragonwings.  

I read Discount Armageddon this week and my thoughts on that will be up on Thursday. I also posted a flash fiction story this week- you can read that here. That was a lot of fun to write. The image that inspired the story can be found here (I'm including this because I had the wrong image linked up for a while on Thursday). I enjoyed doing it and may have to do another soon. 

Tuesday I'll be talking about time travel and on Wednesday I'll be recapping The 100 (this weeks episode got a lot of buzz on Twitter). 




PULP COVER OF THE WEEK:



NEW ARRIVAL/ UPCOMING REVIEWS:


BOOKISH LINKS

Random Redheaded Ramblings reviews Zootopia. 

Melissa Lee's Many Reads reviews the first Nancy Drew book. 

Hidden Staircase talks about The Lost Art of the Road Trip. 

Forever Amber talks about The Best thing About Being a Full Time Blogger

Bookcover Spotlight #42

This cover works for me on a lot of levels- the hand skimming the water, the bridge in the background with the lights, even the purplish clouds. And the way the title seems distorted by the water- I just think this is a very effective cover.