Bastard Reaction: A Shot in the Dark by K.A. Stewart

A Devil in the Details was K.A. Stewart's debut novel last year in 2010, first in the Jesse James Dawson series; a very promising start to her career. I was a bit skeptical when I decided to read the book as the blurb and description didn't sound too appealing, but after a couple of chapters I could tell that this series would quickly become one of my favorites in the genre.

Let's forget plot for the time being, that can be hit or miss. The current main draw to the series is the compelling first person narrating voice Stewart has created, in many regards similar to that of Harry Dresden. And how many times haven't we stumbled upon people looking for something similar to Dresden? Well I finally found a series that I could endorse for fans of Dresden, particularly to those that enjoy that narrating voice. Keep in mind that I'm strictly recommending this on the merits of that aspect, nothing to do with plot, characters, setting, magic, etc. In Jesse James Dawson you'll find a honorable character, full of wisecracks and humor remarks, and also a flawed character which in many ways Dresden also is. And yes, he gets beat up quite badly on his way to kick just a little bit of ass.

In all, Stewart has created one of the best male first person narrators in the Urban Fantasy scene in my opinion, to the point that I thought the book was written by a man. Not because men are better writers than women, but because of how easy it felt to identify with the character me having two balls and a stick. It was a testament to how well the author wrote a character of the opposite sex, which is not an easy task.

Plenty of action, plenty of humor, a stable loving family, and a good mystery with its twists was a recipe for a successful novel.

A Shot in the Dark was released earlier this summer, and sequel to A Devil in the Details. Let me get this out of the way, did not enjoy it as much as the first one, but still very much enjoyed. It has more to do with my tastes more than anything. The second books was a bit more of a horror book in a secluded cabin scenario, which in all I'm not a fan of those. But that aside, everything that I enjoyed in the first one, was present in this one. The world keeps expanding and more dimensions get revealed.

With that said, the author needs to be commended for shaking things up and writing something slightly different from the first, keeping the world fresh and exciting. A bit slow in the beginning but once the action starts in this one it doesn't stop until the very last page. So in all, I really can't complain much about the secluded cabin scenario because it delivered many cool action scenes and those are most welcomed.

K.A. Stewart is an author to watch out for and very much looking forward to the next Jesse James Dawson installment. For a more comprehensive review, look for Mihir's in FBC (which I haven't read yet, but I stand by my statement).

Where to buy:
A Devil in the Details Mass Paperback in The Book Depository
A Shot in the Dark Mass Paperback in The Book Depository

You can get more info on the author and series from K.A. Stewarts Blog.

And as always, you can come and discuss the series over with me at SFFWorld forums.

Bastard Superpower, Kate Daniels Followup

Just here to provide you with unquestionable evidence of my superpowers. As such, I'm taking full blame for those fans that feel they got screwed over by the delay of Kate Daniels; which they shouldn't be.

Let me know if all of this is in my head, and am simply delusional. One can never tell. But, I promise to try and control myself just in case.

No Kate Daniels Next Year?

I'm a huge fan of the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews, second only to Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files as my favorite Urban Fantasy series.

A bit of bad news for Kate Daniels fans, there will be no new book in the series until February 2013. There will be though a spin-off featuring Andrea next year instead, which should alleviate some of the pain. Also, it has been confirmed that Kate and Curran will indeed appear in the spin-off. Story wise, the spin-off takes place between Magic Slays and the next Kate Daniels book.

For myself, the Andrea-Raphael story-line hasn't been of much interest to me. But I have to admit that I'm quite curious on what the authors have planned for the spin-off, so a bit excited for that.

Anyways, you can read the full details in Ilona Andrews' blog. And please, don't give them too much shit since they seem like very awesome people.

For those Urban Fantasy fans who haven't tried this series yet, well you should be ashamed of yourselves. And if you did and didn't like the first book, then read the second one, it's much better, trust me.

Bastard Reaction: Secrets of the Sands by Leona Wisoker

Secrets of the Sands is Leona Wisoker's debut novel, first of the Children of the Desert series. Book came out last year in 2010, and it's published by Mercury Retrograde Press. Secrets of the Sands was one of my favorite reads last year, and if there's one book out there that I think should be read, or at least tried, by more people it's this one.

The most important aspect of this book is that it was quite evident that Leona Wisoker is a very talented and skillful writer. But don't take my word for it since where it really matters, I don't know shit about writing. Yet, when you stumble upon a skillful writer you can just tell they're good. The second most important thing of this book is that once you're done with it, you can tell that a lot of care has been put into it's creation. The paperback felt of high quality, and at the end of the novel the author includes a bunch of extra material to enrich the world building.

Description:

"Cafad Scratha, a powerful desert lord with a persecution complex, believes everyone is lying to him. When his obsession collides with the king's efforts to rebuild the shattered realm, the orphaned street-thief Idisio and the king's emissary Alyea become pawns in their multilayered game. The secret world into which Idisio and Alyea are drawn will not only change their lives: it will change them."

I don't know if the offer is still there, but when I bought the paperback, it came with an option to "buy" a free electronic copy of the novel, so that should interest some.

Don't have much more to say at the moment since I read it last year and the details are quite fuzzy, but here's a better detailed review by Fantasy Book Critic which should be more useful. In all, the book should have something for everyone a bit of action, a bit of romance, some political intrigue, magic, mystery, suspense. And while the plot itself might not work for everyone, I think I can almost guarantee that at the very least you will go away thinking that you read something well crafted in some manner.

By the way, the cover art above was done by Michael Sullivan (if not mistaken), who has become quite the interesting success story with his own writing. Haven't read him yet, but many have done so, so also worth the look.

The sequel to Secrets of the Sands came out earlier this year, titled Guardians of the Desert, but I haven't read it yet. Here's the cover:


Where to buy:
Secret of the Sands Paperback on The Book Depository
Guardians of the Desert on The Book Depository

You can get more info on Leona Wisoker's website.

Here's the SFFWorld discussion thread:
http://www.sffworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25998

Bastard Reaction: Poison Sleep by T.A. Pratt

About five months ago I read the Blood Engines by T.A. Pratt, first in the Marla Mason series. Don't remember well the details, but overall I enjoyed the read even though the book didn't grab me as it could have.

I just finished Poison Sleep, the second in the Marla Mason series, and I was thoroughly entertained by it. Can't tell why Poison Sleep worked for me more than Blood Engines, but it did. Full disclosure, I've never been a big fan of 3rd person narrative and multiple POV when I read Urban Fantasy. It simply hasn't worked that well for me, and this series is written from that perspective. Regardless, Poison Sleep hit all the right spots I was looking for.

The book is filled with what I call "what the fuck" magic, as in anything goes and weird magic (and shit) abounds. It's fast moving with some amusing dialogue and quite humorous at times. The key to reading the series is just to sit back and enjoy the ride, and not take it too seriously. Really like Marla Mason as a character, she's quite badass and has her own set of morals and priorities; she's a law (or government as she mentions in Poison Sleep) unto herself. Another thing I liked is that you're constantly switching on who you're rooting for, majorly because of the different POV and there's a lot of gray area to work with. There's no shortage of fun characters either.

My main complaint is that I felt like there wasn't a good exposition of Marla's magic in this book, something that I thought worked very well in Blood Engines. She was more of a hack and slash chick this time around. Another is that due to the nature of multiple POV, some of the twists that occur throughout the novel were spoiled.

Other than that, Poison Sleep was a very enjoyable book for me, and will certainly keep reading the series. As for whom to recommend the book to, I think non Urban Fantasy readers might find the book more approachable than what is usually out there in the paranormal spectrum, and one series I think is comparable in the nature of magic and tone of the books is Simon R. Green's Nightside series, which I know many have been entertained with.

Oh, and the cover is quite nice and very fitting.

Where to buy:
Poison Sleep Mass Paperback on The Book Depository

You can get more info in the Tim Pratt's website and on a site dedicated to Marla Mason.

Bastard Promotion: The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer

Rock climbing and magic, seems like a winner combination to me. The Whitefire Crossing is the debut novel by Courtney Schafer, first in The Shattered Sigil series. She's a rock climber herself, so quite curious on how it'll come about in this fantasy novel.

I haven't read the book myself, but I certainly plan to get it in the near future. A couple of reviewers whose opinion I've trusted (Robert from FBC and Justin from Staffer's Musings), have given some high praises for this debut, so I thought it was worthwhile to help a new author get a bit of freebie promotion. I very much like the book, looks pretty sweet.

Book is published by Night Shade Books. Not sure about the publishing date as it was supposed to come out mid August, but it seems like online sites already have it in stock. There's already a planned sequel with the title The Tainted City which looks to be published at some point next year.

 The Whitefire Crossing description:

"Dev is a smuggler with the perfect cover. He's in high demand as a guide for the caravans that carry legitimate goods from the city of Ninavel into the country of Alathia. The route through the Whitefire Mountains is treacherous, and Dev is one of the few climbers who knows how to cross them safely. With his skill and connections, it's easy enough to slip contraband charms from Ninavel - where any magic is fair game, no matter how dark - into Alathia, where most magic is outlawed.

But smuggling a few charms is one thing; smuggling a person through the warded Alathian border is near suicidal. Having made a promise to a dying friend, Dev is forced to take on a singularly dangerous cargo: Kiran. A young apprentice on the run from one of the most powerful mages in Ninavel, Kiran is desperate enough to pay a fortune to sneak into a country where discovery means certain execution - and he'll do whatever it takes to prevent Dev from finding out the terrible truth behind his getaway.

Yet Kiran isn't the only one harboring a deadly secret. Caught up in a web of subterfuge and dark magic, Dev and Kiran must find a way to trust each other - or face not only their own destruction, but that of the entire city of Ninavel."

http://www.courtneyschafer.com/whitefirecrossing.html

Here are some samples of the book:
Short Excerpt
First 6 chapters on PDF

You can order The Whitefire Crossing from The Book Depository or whatever your online bookstore of preference is.

More info on Courtney Schafer's site:
http://www.courtneyschafer.com

Anyone read it yet or plans on reading it?

Where and How to Buy Your Books

I don't know about you guys, but I'm always in the hunt to buy books as affordable as possible. I'm only familiar with US stores (online), so this won't apply much for people in Europe for example. Over the last couple of months I've been doing most of my buying online from Borders, and since they're practically dead now, I'm on the hunt for a new online store. Don't know which to use yet, but I seem to be leaning towards Books-A-Million. Still trying to familiarize myself with them.

Over the past couple of years I've been using Bookdepository as my go-to seller, but starting late last year the price increased quite a bit in some cases so I started looking for other stores to find cheaper books. Pre-Orders on mass paperbacks are still well priced, $5.99 or $5.39 with a 10% coupon. I still buy quite a bit from them, but not at the rate I used to.

Everywhere I go around the net you'll see people claiming that no one can beat Amazon prices, and that's simply not true. Initially it might seem true because their sell price, the one they show all customers, is usually among the lowest, if not the lowest. So for convenience sake and for those that don't want to do a bit of work to find best prices, Amazon seemingly seems to have them.

One of my biggest regrets recently is that I came very late to learn how to work the system; the usage of good coupons in combination with memberships and cash back websites. And this has been particularly true for me in the last couple of months with Borders. I barely became a Rewards Members Plus two months ago, and it cost me $20. Waste of money right? Well no, I also got $10 worth of Bonus Bucks just for signing up, and then saved a lot of money throughout the next two months re-organizing my pre-orders, plus I got another $5 worth in Borders Bucks. So I more than covered the membership charge. I was buying mass paperbacks in the range of $4.23-$5.15 in a consistent basis, find me a retail store who could match that.

Anyways, let's get on with the program, some hints and tips:

1. Shipping Policies:

If you live in continental US you probably won't have anything to worry about, but if you live in one of the US territories/protectorates (Puerto Rico) or in a state outside the continent (Hawaii and Alaska) then you have to pay attention.

Amazon, for example, will ship a book in the US for $3.00, but if you live in Puerto Rico, Hawaii, or Alaska they'll charge you $5.00 for the shipment, which is criminal particularly when USPS considers some of these destinations as domestic which is the same shipping rate as any other state. I don't know about you, but I'm not a fan of my money being stolen because of crappy policies. At least they offer Free Super Saver Shipping to Hawaii and Alaska for orders of $25+, but other destinations are still screwed.

Barnes & Noble has a similar problem. Their non-membership is a good one, even through all states and some US territories, which includes $25+ purchase with free-shipping. The problem comes when you become a member. They offer free Express Shipping to members with no minimum purchase to continental states (excluding Alaska). They still offer free-shipping to Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, but only if you order $25+ worth. So that left me scratching my head, why become a member then? You'll be getting the same service as a non-member pretty much if you don't live in the continental US. And the major problem here comes when you want to use coupons, but more on that later.

Bookdepository has free-shipping throughout the world, so it's a matter of studying which countries are excluded. No need to go into detail.

Books-A-Million has the same thing for members and non-members, buy $25+ and get free-shipping, which includes Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and Alaska (I still need some confirmation though). Not much of a benefit here, but the way their coupon system works it becomes a bit of a non-issue.

2. Cash Back Websites:

Still don't know how legit these websites are, but they seem so to me. You basically subscribe to these websites, click on a link to the online store you want to buy from which will open a new window. In that new window you place an order and you'll get a cash back on that order. You can get anywhere between 3%-8% cash back on your order.

I'm still not very familiar with this system, as I recently became a member of one of them to test it out, so don't hold me to it. I'm an Ebates member at the moment, and in August 15 they should Paypal me a certain amount of my accumulated cash back, so I'll know more on that date. But keep it mind, do your own investigation.

Worth noting though, that none of the cash back services I've seen offer Amazon or Bookdepository as store. Let me know if you know of one.

I've only used Fatwallet (barely) and Ebates so far (here's a non-referer Ebates link for those who care about such things). But I've yet gone through a cycle in which I got payment owed, so I don't know if they work. I suspect they do, and since I didn't have to enter much personal information or credit card numbers, the risk seems very low. So, nothing to lose at the moment by trying them. I think you only need to provide an email address to sign-up, but I might be mistaken. In two months I've accumulated about $40 dollars in cash backs among various sites (not all on books), so hopefully it does work.

Make sure you read the details and instructions of these sites well as any wrong step might prevent you from getting cash back on an order. In all, don't count on the cash back when placing your order, as it's fairly immaterial to your buying decision, but consider it a welcomed surprise when they do happen.

When I signed-up on Ebates I got an offer for a $10 B&N Gift Card, though they told me it'll take anywhere from 4-8 weeks after qualifying for it. I'm still waiting for it. But whatever, not going to lose any sleep over it at the moment.


3. Look for coupons and offers:

Very important, learn how to use coupons, how they work on a particular site, how frequent do they come about, how can you can combine them with shipping policies, etc.

Bookdepository often has 10% coupons about very often. Not easy to find, unless it's a big promotion, but some are posted in some forums around the net at any given time.

Barnes & Noble has decent coupons, many of them apply to purchase prices. Main problem is that you can only use one coupon per order, and most coupons that come about are for one item only. And here's where the shipping policy explained above comes to bite you in the ass if you're not in continental US. Since you can't get free-shipping without minimum amount of purchase, then the coupons don't come that handy, since you'll still be forced to buy books that might not be at a good price range just so that you can get to the $25 minimum. Another problem with B&N coupons is that they usually don't apply for pre-orders, which is a crappy policy if you ask me.

Books-A-Million has a weird coupon system. Most of their coupons come in the nature of $10 off a $50 order, or $20 off a $100 order. So depending on your spending habits, this could either be of great use or a hindrance  But with the right combination of books, you should be able to get some great pricing on your purchase, particularly when combined with their Club Membership discounts. The key here is to buy as closely to the $50 mark as you can and with as few books as possible. I would say an adequate target would be 5 total books with a mixture of hardcovers, mass paperbacks, and paperbacks.

Amazon, well I really haven't seen any coupons just those 4-for-3 promotions that don't seem that useful to me.

4. Memberships and Make a Plan

This is the real question isn't it? Which site should I pay $20 to become a member (well in Amazon's case you'd have to pay a lot more for Prime Membership, so I'm not going to bother)?

First thing to consider is how many books do you plan on buying in a year? If the answer is anywhere between "quite a bit" and "a lot" then you should really consider becoming a member of some store.

So how to chose? Well that really depends on the needs and benefits the membership brings you in combination with everything I've explained above. There's no one-size fits all here, so you'll have to make your mind for yourself.

Before deciding on a membership, you really have to make a bit of a plan and anticipate what you'll be buying. Learn your buying habits well. Have a look at catalogs and see what is going to be released throughout the year. If you make the correct decision, then you should be able to save quite a bit of money, and remember if you buy a membership make your you plan on buying from that store the majority of the time to make it worthwhile.

At the moment I'm leaning towards becoming a Books-A-Million member. If I did my math correctly, and using the right coupon and with the Club Discounts for being a member, right now I could save between $7-$8 in one order buying two mass paperbacks, one hardcover, and two paperbacks vs. what it would have cost me buying the mass paperbacks in Bookdepository and the rest from Amazon.

So I figure that 3 or 4 orders of this nature in a year and I would cover the membership charge, and the rest will be pure savings.

5. Used Books

You can find some good value with used bookstores. The downside is that authors don't see a penny from you buying used books, so I find it better practice to find cheap new books than buying used books when there's an opportunity. But the choices are still out there. Won't spend much time here since there's a lot of used book sellers out there, so you'll just have to look for yourself. At the moment I've found the best prices in Abebooks, so I say try to used that. Plus cash back websites do offer cash back for purchases through Abebooks.

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Well as you can see, you have options out there to get more value for your money. You'll end up either buying more books with your money or saving in what books you do decide to buy. It's all about doing a bit of work.  And I know it's a bit time consuming, but the benefits should be worth it.

This has been my experience so far buying online. If I'm mistaken in any of the details I've provided let me know so I can make the post more accurate, or if you have some pointers for myself I'll welcome them. Sorry for it being so long, I honestly mean to write a few short pointers and be done with it.

Hope you found the post helpful in some manner and you can start buying in a more affordable practice. For those looking for hints on eBooks, then you're looking in the wrong place since I don't know shit about the eBook system. Worth mentioning though that Books-A-Million seems to also work under the Nook system, so worth looking more information on for Nook owners.