At Road's End by Zoe Saadia

Zoe Saadia already had my heart with her last historical fiction about Pre-Columbian Native Americans. Now she's out done herself with At Road's End, and I'm more in love with her writing than ever before.

At Road's End is so many things. It's a skillful romance where there are so many things coming between the two players. Differing cultures, having homes far away from each other and having very different outlooks on life.

It's a great book about the life of the different populations of Native Americans. This is a walk around there world where the characters are people, not the caricatures that we're used to seeing on documentaries and in the media.

One thing that I love that Saadia does, is that she makes the main character an outsider, but an outsider that is Other to us as well. We learn about him, and the others, through their reaction to what they're seeing. This way there's a lot more showing and a lot less telling.

I also love the way that the history flows with the book. This is not the sort of historical novel that is full of block of explanatory text. There's enough story and writing to grease everything along so it reads smooth.

Love it. Two thumbs and two big toes up. Read it!!!

Giveaway for Deluge by S. B. Sebrick!

S. B. Sebrick already impressed me with his debut novel Decoy, a fast paced assassin novel. (I have this thing for assassin tales, ok? They're like thieves but more awesome.)

So, I am honored to have the opportunity to host a Give-Away for his next book in the Assassin Rising series, Deluge.
The description is as follows,

The city of Shaylis still lives, the traitor Melshek is slain, but the Destroyer walks freely upon the earth.

Kaltor’s newly awoken link to his brother causes more problems than it solves, bringing five years of dampened doubt and fear crashing down on his mind. Suspicion between his parents tests the bonds of his family’s loyalty. Mysterious deaths and demonic dreams haunt their path as they attempt to cut off the Destroyer before she reaches civilization.

Their efforts against the Destroyer collide upon the walls of the capital city, Levarion. Here the fate of king and realm will be decided in a relentless battle of both mind and steel as the Abyssian’s full power and her new champion are finally revealed.

I'll be giving away 5 copies! To enter, simply comment on this post and you will be randomly selected for a e-book version of the book on the 31st of this book

You can only enter once, so don't spam please please. :)

Turquoise Jaguar by Catherine Mintz

Turquoise Jaguar by Catherine Mintz is a historical science fiction mystery. Well, I think it might be a mystery, I'm not sure I ever really figured out what was going on.
I have mixed feelings about this book. It's well written and when I was reading it I never wanted to stop, even if I had important things to do. But when I wasn't reading it I couldn't really think of anything to draw me in. When I think back on the plot I'm... confused.
A lot of things happened that, now that I've come to the end, didn't really have any purpose. On the other hand, a lot of the things that didn't make any sense now make tons of sense.
So I guess, it's extremely readable, has an interesting concept, and takes place in a culture that will be new to a lot of readers. That's the good part. On the other hand, it has little dialogue, is often complicated for the sake of being complicated, and you'll be well past halfway before you realize what everything is about.

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

Wow, is Zoo City a great book. It takes place in Present Day Joburg but with a bit of odd phenomenon dashed in. Like it says on the back of the book, some people, namely criminals and murderers, have a spirit animal that hangs out with them all the time and a talent.

It is, of course, a sort of urban fantasy, in that it happens in an urban environment and happens to be fantasy. If I had my druthers I'd call it investigative fantasy. Is that a thing? Well, it's a thing now.

The book plays with how being visibly a murder would affect society, used for both oppression and fame. How the "animalled" are both shunned and exoticized. How people like Zinzi, our protagonist, both loathes and uses all these things on her journey.

There's so much to this book that I love but there's one thing that I didn't like. Well, that I am wary of. It's very current and topical. It's a now book, so it talks about Britney Spears and Michael Jackson and android phones and phishing scams. All that makes it very relevant and fun to read. It makes the book immersive.

It also makes me wonder if it'll be a book anyone gives a shit about in 10 years.

Ah well, it's worth a read now at least.

The Winner!

Guess who won the book?

Jessica ( frellathon ), who also has an awesome blog over at Jess Resides Here.

To everyone else, thank you for playing. And for reading my poop story.

In February there will be another giveaway. A signed copy of... something by Robin Hobb. If you like her, feel free to suggest which book you think I should get signed!