Month: July 2013

General · reading · science fiction · Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesday: Eye of the World

Sonia Lal20 Comments

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Why am I reading this book? I explain here.

My teaser:

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades into myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist.  The wind was not the beginning.  There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time.  But it was a beginning.

– Eye of the World by Robert Jordon

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reading

Restarting A Series

Sonia Lal11 Comments

Back in high school, I discovered the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordon. I am not sure which book I read first. Maybe the second, maybe the third. I don’t remember.

A lot of them were already out. I got books from the library and that means you can’t always choose to read the first one first. No, I read the first one that was available. I didn’t mind. I read – still read! – a lot of series out-of-order.  I got good at piecing together back events.

Anyway, I went looking for the books I hadn’t read. I found them, I devoured them. But then the books started getting slow. The year wasn’t over yet.

I am pretty sure I reread the third one a couple of times instead of the newer one. (I don’t remember why. Maybe to remember why I loved this series.) Than I went back to the newer book and decided to skip all the scenes I didn’t want to read. (I did this for English class. It didn’t affect my grade.)

All I remember is that Rand felt like a minor character. Rand, the one who I’d thought was the main character. The character I was reading for. (I deeply disliked the shift in POV. Deeply disliked.)

The next book? I didn’t finish it. Even the Rand scenes seemed slow and pointless. I didn’t even pretend to finish it, by reading only half the scenes. I haven’t picked up another Wheel of Time since.

The Wheel of Time series is the first one I’ve given up; that book is the first book when I realized I didn’t have to force myself to finish. (This was a revelation to me.)

But the Wheel of Time series is finished. I want to complete it. From what I’ve heard, the later books got better. So maybe I gave up too soon.

I don’t remember anything I read before, so I am starting with the first book. Hopefully I will finish the series this time.

flash friday · science fiction · Writing

Friday Flash: Clouds

Sonia Lal33 Comments

I used this image prompt from Rochelle Wisoff-Fields blog! It inspired me!

She touched the window with gentle fingers. Transparent-clouds wafted around them. Fluid-clouds would be under them, she knew. Perhaps heat-clouds would be beneath those. She prayed so.

Her people desperately needed a home.

The ship descended smoothly past the transparent-clouds to land on odd, white-colored stones. She stepped out. The pilot and her general-sister followed, weapons out.

Soldiers. They did insist on an aggressive protocol. But she could hardly demure. Perhaps it was even the course of wisdom. Hard to say.

The fluid-clouds were blue and lapped at her feet. This place was crowded with native animals. Some had four legs, some had two legs. Some had no legs.

And some, she saw, shocked, held a long, slender length of some material, perhaps metal, attached to the throat of other animals. 

If the they could work metal . . . That wasn’t in the briefing. She hadn’t expected that. With any luck, they would prove to be primitive.

If they weren’t . . . She wasn’t going to think about that. That was a worry for another day.

fantasy · reading

Ruined for Most Prose

Sonia Lal8 Comments

On Sunday I finished reading River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay.

On Monday I tried to start another book.

I only managed a few pages. The new book’s prose couldn’t compete with Guy Gavriel Kay’s prose. I found I couldn’t read it, couldn’t focus on the story beyond the words.

I don’t want to name the author, because, truthfully, she’s not a bad writer. I’ve read her other books. I’ve enjoyed her books before and never had a problem with her prose. It’s as good as most other writers out there. It works.

But it can’t compare with the prose in River of Stars. It just can’t. The prose is poetic, vivid and clear. It is a pleasure to read and it works on many, many levels. I hadn’t quite realized how much I enjoyed the prose until I started something else.

It is difficult to go from poetry to plainness.

I have never ever reacted like this before. (I think I waited a while when I read my last Guy Gavriel Kay book before going on to read something else.) It’s amazing.

I’m amazed. I feel like I may be ruined for most other prose. I am not sure what else I can read – who else I can read! – that will be as good.

General · reading · science fiction · Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesday: Replica

Sonia Lal28 Comments

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!  

My teaser:

“Shouldn’t you be off talking to important dignitaries instead of flirting?” Nadia asked Nate.

Nate frowned, but at least he stopped looking down Jewel’s dress. “I believe that’s my father’s job. I’m the ne’er-do-well son, remember?”

– Replica by Jenna Black.

flash friday

Friday Flash: Engagement

Sonia Lal14 Comments
”No!”

”I shan’t allow it. It is terrible. It is a pox on your soul.”

”Just listen. Please just listen. The good sister is going too.  I’ll obey every rule. I’ll never leave sight of the guards. Please. And… the Prince will be there. It will be my only chance to see him before-”

”No. God forbid he should find out he has such a willful bride. I have been entirely too lax as your brother and lord. There will be no more trips.”

reading

Expecting a First Book to Begin a Series

Sonia Lal7 Comments

I read a description today and assume there will be a second book. That it is a series.

It’s a YA dystopian book, one Acid by Emma Pass. (Yes, I haven’t read enough of those yet.  LOL)

I’ve looked at Fantastic Fiction, at Goodreads, at Amazon and the author’s own website. There is nothing to indicate anywhere that it is indeed part of a series.

But the book description (from the author’s website):

ACID – the most brutal police force in history.
They rule with an iron fist.
They see everything. They know everything.
They locked me away for life.

My crime?
They say I murdered my parents.
I was fifteen years old.

My name is Jenna Strong.

It feels like it should be a series, you know? From this description, I expect a series, maybe a couple of series.

One that unravels the murder when Jenna is fifteen, maybe another one down the road that explores the revolution that takes down Acid, possible from the POV of another character.

Maybe an open-ended series, maybe not. It could go either way and there is no telling from this description.

I haven’t read the book, those are just assumptions I am making from the description.

But I am not finding anything that states there will be a second book. I wonder if my expectations are being shaped not from this description, but from other YA dystopian books that are series.

I still – still! – cannot quite convince myself this book isn’t part of a series.

fantasy · flash friday

Friday Flash: The Goglet

Sonia Lal20 Comments

Helen provided a prompt: write a 100 word story using the words cylinder, goglet and liberate.

I managed to use all three words, but I am afraid I could not quite figure out how to turn it into a 100 word story. 😦

The goglet took shape under her careful, gnarled fingers. The thick cylinder of clay grew in the pottery wheel. Its long, sensuous curves would attract drinkers like spilled honey drew vermin.

Her daughter decorated it with a fine black glaze. Frolicking shepherdesses, lonesome maids, wide open petals. It was enough to rivet any man’s gaze.

They placed it in the shop. Many men stopped and stared. They encouraged special orders from them.

The particular man walked into the shop again. They were quite happy to sell it to him.

He drank the liberating wine from it. He slept deeply that night and did not wake.

His paramour was delighted. She slipped into the night, taking the goglet with her, to give to her brother. He did not wake the next night either.

General · reading · Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesday: Throne of the Crescent Moon

Sonia Lal10 Comments

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

As for why I am reading this book, I explain here.

My teaser:

Nine days. Beneficent God, I beg you, let this be the day I die.

– Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed