Book Beginnings and The Friday 56, August 8, 2014

I'm linking up with Rose City Reader for Book Beginnings and Freda's Voice for Page 56.

 Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Pick the closest book on your book stack and

Come Join us!

The Beginning:

"My drink tasted like Martian goat piss; goats never completely acclimated to the terraformed red planet, something about not having the optimal mix of methane and ammonia."

Page 56 or 20% on my Kindle:

"You're not falling in love with your headshrinker, are you?"

Both of there are from Nexus by Nicolas Wilson.  Nexus is a Science Fiction book I got from Goodreads.  I am about 26% finished and still have mixed feelings.  It is primarily dialog and very smart***ed dialog to boot.  So far that is doing more to put me off than to catch me.  I just got to the place where a blue skinned alien showed up on the ship and that part has caught me so I will let you know how I feel after I finish reading.

In the Devil’s Nebula (The Phoenix Adventures #2) by Anna Hackett

Science Fiction Romance

What Goodreads says:

He lost it all.

His career, his woman, his sanity.

Two years ago, on a deadly mission to the lawless Devil’s Nebula, Commander Zayn Phoenix’s life imploded. Now the former Strike Wing pilot fills his days with dangerous adventures alongside his treasure hunter brothers.

But his nights are another story: haunted by nightmares of one unforgivable act.

Until an assassin lures him into a hunt. A hunt for her freedom from the Assassin’s Guild. A hunt for a derringer used in an ancient and infamous assassination—of old Earth president, Abraham Lincoln.

Zayn is compelled to join the perilous adventure with Ria Dante that will take them straight into the heart of the Devil’s Nebula, but not for money, fame or treasure.

He joins because Ria has the face of the woman he left for dead in the Nebula years before.

There is some science In the Devil’s Nebula but it is mostly a good adventure story set in the future and filled with romance.  Once again the Phoenix bothers are off on a treasure hunt but someone keeps getting to the treasure before them. 

Ria Dante needs their help and beating them to the treasure is how she gets their attention.  It was easy to see that Zayn and Ria would become a couple.  It was harder to see how they would make it work long term.

Much of the world building, character development and back-story is in the first book of the series, At Star’s End (click here for review).  As a result In the Devil's Nebula starts by dropping in on Zayn speeding through a ventilation shaft and continues the action almost non-stop.  Zayn’s troubled past is fleshed out bringing him to life.  Ria is a mystery from the beginning but I suspected that she was not what she seemed.  That mystery leads to an exciting finish.  There is another new character.  Watch for Lastite Lala, a 15 year old bomb maker who joins the crew.  Of course both of Zayn’s brothers and Eso are there to lend a hand.

Once again we met that other mystery woman, Darc. She makes a brief appearance and then disappears again.  The tension between she and Niklas is still there but we still do not have their story.

In the Devil’s Nebula is a fun read with a lot of romance set in a Science Fiction Universe. Just don’t look for that much science in the fiction part.

You can read In the Devil’s Nebula as a stand-along but there are things you will miss in the story if you have not read At Star’s End first.

Anna Hackett published In the Devil's Nebula in 2014.

Artemis Awakening (Artemis Awakened #1) by Jane Lindskold

Science Fiction

From Goodreads:

Artemis Awakening is the start of a new series by New York Times bestseller Jane Lindskold. The distant world Artemis is a pleasure planet created out of bare rock by a technologically advanced human empire that provided its richest citizens with a veritable Eden to play in. All tech was concealed and the animals (and the humans brought to live there) were bioengineered to help the guests enjoy their stay…but there was always the possibility of danger so that visitors could brag that they had “bested” the environment.

The Empire was shattered in a horrific war; centuries later humanity has lost much of the advanced technology and Artemis is a fable told to children. Until young archeologist Griffin Dane finds intriguing hints that send him on a quest to find the lost world. Stranded on Artemis after crashing his ship, he encounters the Huntress Adara and her psych-linked companion, the puma Sand Shadow. Their journey with her will lead Dane to discover the planet’s secrets…and perhaps provide a key to give unimagined power back to mankind.

Artemis Awakening is an interesting start to a new series by Jane Lindskold.  I love the premise.  The Empire created Artemis as a pleasure planet.  The location was know to only a few and when the Empire went to war the location was lost. Now after over 500 years one man, Griffin Dane, has re-discovered the location.

Worldbuilding:  Lindskold got that right from the beginning.  From the very first pages I knew that the humans and some animals were changed and that Artemis was a created world made for the pleasure of a select few.  As the story progressed more facts about Artemis were woven into the story making the world more and more complex.

Characters:  The story started out very character driven.   I had a very good sense of  Griffin and Adara.  They started out as the main characters but the focus changed as the story progressed.  It became more action driven and the focus expanded to include Terrell and the Old One Who Is Young as additional main characters.  There are numerous side characters who are part of the action.  Some like Bruin are fleshed out but others are not.  My favorite character is Sand Shadow, Adara's enhanced puma.  She is such a cat.

Plot:    Griffin is stranded and wants a way to go home.  He thinks the Old One Who Is Young might have he information he needs to call for help.  When they discover the Old One is not what he seems a rescue mission becomes the focus of the book.  This is where it becomes more action driven than character driven.  Look for the planet to have some surprises for both the reader and the characters.  One problem is solved but another is left for the next book in the series.

Writing:  This is my first time to read a book by Lindskold and her writing impressed me.  Everything flows without any interruptions.  I was hooked from page one.  While I was surprised at how the focus changed it was handled in a very smooth manner.  Everything is set up for additional adventures on Artemis.

I went to Lindskold’s web site and saw where Artemis Invaded has been turned into Tor.  I assume that is book #2. There was not a release date mentioned.

Tor released Artemis Awakening by Jane Lindskold in 2014.

Tabula Rasa (Gaius Petreius Ruso #6) by Ruth Downie

Historical Mystery

What Goodreads says:

The medicus Ruso and his wife Tilla are back in the borderlands of Britannia, this time helping to tend the builders of Hadrian's Great Wall. Having been forced to move off their land, the Britons are distinctly on edge and are still smarting from the failure of a recent rebellion that claimed many lives.

Then Ruso's recently arrived clerk, Candidus, goes missing. A native boy thinks he sees a body being hidden inside the wall's half-finished stonework, and a worrying rumor begins to spread. When the soldiers ransack the nearby farms looking for Candidus, Tilla's tentative friendship with a local family turns to anger and disappointment. It's clear that the sacred rites to bless her marriage to Ruso will have to wait. Tensions only increase when Branan, the family's youngest son, also vanishes. He was last seen in the company of a lone and unidentified soldier who claimed he was taking the boy to see Tilla.

As Ruso and Tilla try to solve the mystery of the two disappearances - while at the same time struggling to keep the peace between the Britons and the Romans - an intricate scheme involving slavery, changed identities, and fur trappers emerges, and it becomes imperative that Ruso find Branan before it's too late.

I always love visiting Britannia and seeing Ruso and Tilla again.  From the first they have seemed an usual couple.  When we first met Ruso he was a young curmudgeon, always unhappy.  Tilla on the other hand tried to make the best of everything.  Now six books later they are still settling into their marriage and still are a great couple to follow.  Ruso is happy to be away from his family and Tilla is still looking for some connection to hers. 

You can see from the blurb that there is a lot going on in Tabula Rasa.  The plot brings in some new characters as well as visiting with some old favorites.  Look for new possibilities and maybe a new setting for the next book and an important new character who only makes an appearance at the end of this book.

Once again Ruth Downie has mixed the Roman history in Britain with that of the native’s of Britannia and come up with a great story filled with information about a little known period of history.  Mixed in with that are two mysteries for Tilla and Ruso to solve.  I loved hearing what has happened to Ruso and Tilla but now I will have a long wait until the next book comes out.

While Tabula Rasa is book 6 in the series it can work as a stand-along.  However it is much better if you have read the first books in the series.

Bloombury published Tabula Rasa by Ruth Downie in 2014.

I received a ARC of Tabula Rasa from Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Musing Monday's August 4, 2014

TC is in the sun musing about the chipmunk she sees out the window.
Hopefully that is all she does.  So far this month she has presented me
 with two chipmunks - one alive and one dead but both in my bedroom.

Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week.…Musing Mondays is sponsored by Should Be Reading.

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it! 
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

Allthough there are a lot of Star Trek books out what I am musing about this time is the Star Trek movie Into the Darkness.  I have Amazon Fire and am a member of Amazon Prime and Into the Darkness is now free to watch.  I had not seen it so I downloaded it and watched.  Boy was I glad I had not put out the money to see this on the big screen.  I though it was awful.  More than once I started to turn it off but kept watching in case it got better.  It did not but now I know.  Star Trek movies just keep getting worse.

Oathbreaker (Kong Knud #2 or in English King Cnut #2) by Martin Jensen – Tara Chace (Translation)

Historical Mystery

From Goodreads:

Halfdan and his master, Winston the Illuminator, are guests in a monastery when they’re awakened in the middle of the night and asked to solve a crime. A monk praying in the church has been brutally murdered, and his severed hand offers the first clue of a motive. As they investigate who could have committed such a heinous atrocity—and why—Halfdan and Winston must negotiate bitter rivalries within the monastery’s hierarchy, a sensitive class structure, and the tension between the new laws King Cnut has sworn to uphold and the codes of honor that precede them. With peace in England on shaky ground and the king’s favor of paramount importance, Halfdan and Winston follow a precarious path toward answers that no one is sure they want.

Martin Jenson has chosen a time period I knew little about as the setting for his historical mystery series.  Oathbreaker is a translation from the Danish and Jenson uses 1018, a time when the Danes ruled England, as the setting for his mystery.  I do not know much about this time so as well as being a great mystery story it is also a history lesson. 

The story is based on an actual incident Jensen found when on a research trip to England.  From there he uses several historical sites.  Once again Halfdan and Winston are on a mission for King Cnut.  He needs to know if one of his men is really loyal.  On the journey they have to solve the murder of one of the monks in the church where they are staying.  That murder leads back to a broken oath, thus the title.

Oathbreaker has some interesting new characters that add to the spice in the story.  Once again Halfdan is at the center of everything and Winston helps guide the investigation. 

I really like this series.  Tara Chance did a great job with the translation and the story moves very smoothly.  I loved how actual history and places are shown.  It gives a very real feeling to both the characters and the setting. 

Amazon Crossing published Oathbreaker by Martin Jensen in 2014.

Stacking the Shelves, August 2, 2014

Books Stacked on My Shelves

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books I added to my shelves this week. They may it be physical or virtual. I include books I buy in a physical store or online, books I borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!  Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga at Tynga's Reviews.  Follow the link to see what others have on their 

shelves.

For Review:

It's In His Kiss by Jill Shalvis

Nexus by Nicolas Wilson

Slimy Underbelly by Kevin J. Anderson

Purchased:

A Daughter’s Place (Family Matters Book 1) by C.J. Carmichael

Broken Protocols 2 (Charmin Marvin Romantic Comedy Series) by Dale Mayer

Caterpillar: A Short Sci-Fi Story by Ashlyn Forge

Obsidian (A Lux Novel) by Jennifer Armentrout

Book Beginnings and The Friday 56, August 1, 2014

I'm linking up with Rose City Reader for Book Beginnings and Freda's Voice for Page 56.

 Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Pick the closest book on your book stack and

Come Join us!

The Beginning:

"It would be hard to argue with anyone who called me a failure."

Page 56 or 20% on my Kindle:

"I couldn't read his tone, it bothered me, but there was a complex assortment of emotions striving for supremacy, too many to be easily sorted."

From As Long As You Love Me by Ann Aguirre. I have read her fantasy series but this is the first time for one of her contemporary romances. I got the copy from Netgalley. The book will not be released until September 30. It does have an interesting start.