Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books we are adding to our shelves, whether they be physical or digital. This includes books bought (my wife would say I buy too many), borrowed (a rare occurrence), and received for review (which I’m trying to reign in).
New Acquisitions: Paperback Treasures
I found a used bookstore this week that I’d never been to before – and, more importantly, hadn’t already picked over . . . several times. Three of these were finds from my want-list while the other three were new discoveries:
Polgara the Sorceress is one of the few Eddings books I’ve yet to read; The Fire’s Stone is an out-of-print Tanya Huff classic that I rediscovered through its ebook release; Song in the Silence and Mother, Ocean, Daughter Sea are two of those new discoveries that put new authors (Kerner and Marcellas) on my reading list; while Black Trillium and Blood Trillium are the first two books of a multi-author saga – Bradley, Norton, and May – that I wasn’t ready for back in my high school days, but which I’m excited about now.
I almost picked up a copy of The Queens of Innis Lear when I saw it (in fact, I picked it up and put it back down several times, the last time being while in line), but decided to pass on the used hardcover and order myself a new trade paperback to add to my Tessa Gratton shelf. My other purchase isn’t fantasy, but still very much in keeping with the female-led theme – Brad Thor’s side-story about a top-secret, all-female program called The Athena Project, consisting of four of Delta Squad’s best and brightest women.
Not content with used bookstore purchases, I also had an Amazon order arrive this week, bringing with it trade paperbacks of The Stone in the Skull by Elizabeth Bear and Soul of the World by David Mealing; Bane and Shadow, the second in Jon Skovron’s Empire of Storms trilogy (the first of which had 2 strong female protagonists and a rather gruesome magical gender transformation); Trouble Waters, the first book of Sharon Shinn’s Elemental Blessings saga; and Did You Say Chicks?!, the only book of the Baen series that seems still in print, with stories from the likes of Elizabeth Moon, Sarah Zettel, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, Barbara Hambly, and more.
New Acquisitions: Digital Purchases
No new Digital Purchases this week, but I think the physical copies more than made up for it.
Review Titles
I did a pretty good job of resisting the Siren’s call of Review Titles this week, but did have a surprise paperback arrive in the mail, with the author remaking it’s the first one he’s seen in Canada, which is kind of cool.
Smoke in the Glass
by Chris Humphreys
Publication Date: May 6, 2019
A thrilling new dark fantasy series about immortality, war and survival, from the bestselling historical author Chris (CC) Humphries
A world of immortals living among humans. Anyone may be immortal, but there is no way to know until you die. If you are one of the very lucky few, you will live an endless life of pleasure and power, considered to be a god. Only decapitation and the rapid separation of body and head for a few days can kill an immortal.
In the southlands, a common soldier dies and is reborn, and is inducted into the world of the immortals. But the Empire has become decadent, and what he discovers there will shock him.
In the dry lands of the west, one man has set himself up as the sun god. But there is a prophecy that he will be killed by his son – and so all of his male children are killed at birth. Until his most recent wife bears a child who is nether male nor female, and is determined to protect them from sacrifice.
In the cold north, the immortal Luck – clever, tricksy, clubfooted – harbours suspicions that many of the immortals have been killed. When he intervenes in an attack on one of his fellows, he realises something new. Someone is hunting the Gods.
For there is a fourth land. They know of the other three. And they are planning their attack.
Our three heroes – damaged soldier, protective mother, clever cripple – must find a way to unite their different lands, and defend against this new enemy.
