See Part One here.

Again, rights to a Night Angel movie have been bought by Cam Gigandet, Brent Weeks blogged about it, and this is a forum thread on Weeks’ website regarding possible castings for a movie.

I stand by my castings, as listed in Part One, for these characters: Jarl, Solon, and the GodKing.

For the rest, I’ve made some changes and/or this is my first attempt at casting.

I confess, the recently-concluded first season of HBO’s Game of Thrones–an adaptation of one of my favorite book series–was a great opportunity to see a slew of new and familiar faces in a fantasy setting, so the cast provided a lot of inspiration.

SPOILER WARNING: There are a few spoilers throughout, so I recommend having read the entire trilogy beforehand.

DURZO BLINT

Iain Glen (Ser Jorah Mormont in Game of Thrones)

I think he’s a little too good looking for Durzo, but he has an AMAZING voice that I think IS perfect for Durzo. And he’s an amazing actor.

KYLAR STERN

I still maintain that an unknown would be the best casting, since no popular characters will be associated with this person. Kylar deserves to be Kylar, if you know what I’m saying. BUT there is an actor in a minor role on Game of Thrones who seems like he could play the part: he has blue eyes and black hair, and could easily play the part of a lord, but more importantly he looks like he could play the part of a ninja as well. (FYI: I can’t find out how tall he is. Since Kylar is supposed to not be particularly tall and whatnot. He looks average?)

Joe Dempsie (Gendry in Game of Thrones)

ELENE CROMWELL

Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones)

She has stunning eyes (not brown, granted), would still be striking even with scars, and did a brilliant job as Dany in Game of Thrones. I think she could pull off Elene’s sweetness, combined with her occasional holier-than-thou attitude.

LOGAN GYRE

Liam Hemsworth (Gale in the upcoming The Hunger Games movie)

I was adamant about Chris Hemsworth for this part, but he is too old. Luckily, he has a younger brother! I’m unfamiliar with Liam’s acting abilities, but I think he completely looks the part.

MOMMA K

Carla Gugino (most recently in Mr. Popper’s Penguins)

I initially suggested Monica Bellucci, but I think she’s a little too old and she doesn’t look quite right. I think Gugino is a good actress, and totally sultry to boot.

DORIAN

Sharlto Copley (Murdock in new A Team; Wikus from District 9)

This guy is an AMAZING actor and could pull off Dorian’s descent into madness. He might be a little old, though (it’s hard to say–the GodKing is supposed to be around sixty years old, if not more, and Dorian is one of his older children).

HU GIBBET

Paul Bettany (most recently the Priest in Priest)

More than one person suggested him as Hu instead in the comments to the last post, and I have to agree.

JENINE GUNDER/GYRE

Jennifer Lawrence (most recently Raven/Mystique in X-Men:First Class; will be Katniss in the upcoming The Hunger Games)

I think she exudes an innocent sort of sexuality, which I associate with Jeni. And she seems to be a talented actress (I liked her in First Class; haven’t seen Winter’s Bone).

LANTANO GARUWASHI

Ewan McGregor (Oh, come on…you must be familiar with his most well-known role(s)…)

He’s ginger, he’s about middle-aged, he’s Scottish (Ceurans are suggested as being Scottish in manner of speech), and he has experience playing a samurai-like character.

ULYSSANDRA

Maisie Williams (Arya Stark in Game of Thrones)

She might be too old by the time any NAT movie is made, but she’s a great young actress with experience working in the realm of fantasy. AND she has an eye for detail (when it came time for her to learn fight choreography, she was the one who reminded the producers and writers that Arya is actually left-handed).

LILLY

Katie Dickie (Lysa Arryn in Game of Thrones)

Totally looks the part and seems to be a good actress.

FEIR COUSAT

Jason Momoa (Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones; Conan in the upcoming remake)

Honestly, I can’t remember what Feir is supposed to look like exactly (is he from the same country as Solon?), but this guy is HUGE and he did a great job as Khal Drogo, even though he totally talks like a bro in real life. And he could totally wield a large and powerful sword (everyone say it with me: IN BED!).

THE WOLF

Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn. Duh.)

I think he can be the intimidating figure that the Wolf is required to be. If you have seen him as Lucifer in The Prophecy (1995), you know this to be true.

ROTH URSUUL

Richard Madden (Robb Stark in Game of Thrones)

Some say he’s too good looking to be Roth…I guess I don’t find him that attractive…? But, regardless, he’s a good actor and has the brooding face of a villain.

VIRIDIANA SOVARI

Elena Satine (Christine in Just Go With It)

Lucifer Hills suggested this in the comments, and I actually agree. I had put Lily Cole, but she didn’t seem quite right to me. No idea if Ms. Satine is a good actress, but she’s damn sexy AND a natural ginger! (I think.)

A Word About Game of Thrones: I know I used quite a few actors from the show. Game of Thrones is largely considered a success by critics, book fans and new fans alike (and was renewed for a second season almost immediately, unlike Starz’s Camelot). I, a longtime fan of the book series, was actually a little disappointed with the show at first. But as it went on, I realized that it was really fricken awesome. And from the beginning I thought most of the castings were dead on. To me, GoT‘s success represents doors opening all across TV for fantasy book adaptations. Already fantasy adaptations were common in movies (not always successful, of course), but it was a huge step forward for HBO to invest large amounts of money into a TV series. TV series, to me, seem like the best venue for fantasy adaptations, because often in movies the story and/or world must be cropped to the point of confusion. WIth GoT‘s success, I hope/pray/believe that more risks will be taken towards adapting fantasy books into TV series. And I really, really want this to happen for the Night Angel trilogy.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO COMMENTED ON THE FIRST POST! And to everyone who may comment on this post.

Just under a month away now, SDCC will take place from July 21st to 24th at the San Diego Convention Center. All tickets are sold out and have been since February 5th, the day that ticket sales finally went live. (Four day badge resales sold out within an hour on June 24th. Single day badge resales have yet to go live.) Pretty soon SDCC is going to be a dynastic event—if you don’t buy your tickets for next year’s Con at the current Con, you won’t be going. (Well, until some people die and whatnot.)

This is my third year going, and I intend to go every year until I die or the Con dies (guess which’ll come first).

This brief guide contains some advice that’s common sense, as well as other tidbits that first-year Congoers might not have considered (I definitely didn’t back in 2009). This guide is also slanted towards people who are attending the Con on a budget.

And this is a slightly less crowded part of the Exhibition Hall!

AHEAD OF TIME

1. Leave early. I’m pretty sure this applies no matter where you’re coming from. We live roughly 11 hours from San Diego, and we leave around 3 AM the day before the Con so that we avoid most traffic, and have time to pick up our badges from the satellite location in Mission Valley and get settled in. The trolley fills up quick on the days of the Con—for the first few hours of the day, it will be PACKED after the first two stops (Qualcomm Stadium and Fashion Valley). If you’re planning on driving and parking nearby (you can buy parking permits now), something I’ve never wanted to deal with, the sheer amount of traffic (pedestrian and motorized) is madness. Also, if there’s any panel or signing that you want to get to in the morning, there’s probably going to be a line—and if it’s something really popular, the line will start forming well before 5 AM. (Last but not least: if you take the trolley, don’t pay for it. You’re packed in like clowns in a clown car, and they don’t bother to check for tickets.)
2. Book your hotel way ahead of time. The year before if possible, but no later than six months before unless you don’t care about saving money. All hotels/motels/haystacks within walking distance of the Con will be ridiculously overpriced, so cheaper stays can be found at Mission Valley or farther out. (SDCC now has bus service to some hotels in Mission Valley—there’s a list on their website—but even if there’s no bus service, you can always get a hotel that’s close to either the Fashion Valley or Qualcomm Stadium trolley stops.) And make sure to get one with a mini fridge at least, but also a microwave if possible. Following this point…
3. Stop at a grocery store once you get into San Diego. Obviously, this doesn’t apply if you live in the city or surrounding areas. But if you’re coming from out of town, you can save a lot of money if you get a hotel room with a fridge and/or microwave. That way, breakfast can be kept in the room (this saves time AND money), the lunch that you bring with you doesn’t have to be packing peanuts (see below), and you can even save on dinner (Cup o’ Noodles FTW).
4. Check nearby places of business for cool events. For example, there’s usually a zombie walk on Friday or Saturday, Persons of Note often do signings at nearby bookstores, etc.
5. Bring friends! Not only is SDCC more fun with a group of friends—it increases the odds you won’t have to wander off by yourself to see the things you want—but it saves on travel (if carpooling) and hotel/motel costs, too.

AT THE CON

1. Shoes, shoes, shoes, really comfortable shoes. This can’t be stressed enough. Unless you’re planning on cosplaying—and I recommend bringing a bag with a change of clothes or, at least, shoes—wear your most comfortable shoes, because sitting is a rare event.
2. Bring a backpack. Or some other kind of bag that’s comfortable to tote around. You are guaranteed to come away with a bagful of swag, even if you don’t pay one dirty cent for souvenirs. Is much of this free swag brochures and coupons and shitty one page comics? Absolutely. But it will seem precious at the time. If you get tired of carrying it, there are secure places to check your bag for about $2. And following this…
3. Bring your own food. (And drinks.) Food purchasable inside the convention center is, like any food at a convention, really crappy and really expensive. They don’t check your bags upon entry, so it’s no problem to bring your own in. (If you’re rich and money isn’t an issue for you, you’ll still have to wait in ridiculously long lines for food, and it still tastes like crap.) Thinking you’ll leave the Con and buy something nice? Think again, unless you don’t mind sacrificing a significant amount of time from your actual enjoyment of the Con—all food places within walking distance will be just as busy.
4. Bring a poster tube. If you don’t intend to buy posters, this might be worth leaving at home. However, some of that free swag will be posters, and some of them are actually pretty cool.
5. Bring a camera. Most phones have cameras now, so I suppose this is kind of a moot point. But there are many awesome things to see at SDCC—badass cosplay and Persons of Note, etc.—and having a real camera is worth it.
6. Bring entertainment. Book, comic book, Nook, Kindle, iPad, iPod, iPhone, smartphone, Nintendo DS, PSP, ball in a cup…whatever it is, bring it. You will mostly likely need it at some point. This is related to…
7. Standing in line. If there is even one thing you care about seeing at the Con, you will be doing this. The lines will almost always be worse than you think/hope/pray/foolishly believe they will be.
8. Bring cash. As much as you dare. There are lines for the ATMs, too. (That’s not a joke. I wish it was.) Even if you go in swearing you aren’t going to buy anything, you will buy anything.
9. Have a plan. Following the likelihood of you standing in line, look over the schedule beforehand so that you know what events you want to attend. Some are going to conflict with each other, so you’ll have to make Sophie’s choice and pick your favorite. SDCC now has an online app that allows you to select events you want to attend from the schedule, thus building your own. Additionally, know which Persons of Note will be there so that you know what memorabilia to bring to get signed. Also, familiarize yourself with a map of the convention center.
10. Bring sunscreen. I know you think you’re going to be inside all day. I did, too. Some of the lines might force you outside.
11. If you’re going to ask questions during a panel…write them down beforehand. And have at least two, because odds are that someone in front of you will ask the same question. Also, sit as close to the middle aisle as possible, because there will be a mad dash for the microphone once question time is announced, and you’ll probably crush someone’s grandma.
12. If a certain panel is really important to you, try to get into the room at least one panel earlier than the one you’re attending. They DO NOT clear the rooms between panels, so if you want a good seat, you need to be in the room before the panel you care about starts so you can move to a better seat when the people who want to leave clear out.

Have I scared you off?

Good. We don’t want you there anyway.

That’s not to say that I’ll never post here again, but I can’t guarantee that it’ll be about books. However, I can almost definitely guarantee it will be fantasy- or nerd-related. For example, I still plan to share my experiences at San Diego Comic Con this year, for my own personal records if nothing else (this will be my 3rd time attending).

Uh, yeah. I don’t have a lot of followers or people especially concerned about my book blogging besides myself. This isn’t why I’m giving it a rest, although I can’t say that if I had a dedicated and/or larger following I would still be giving it a rest.

Suffice to say that I was excited about reviewing books for my own reasons when I started, and I stayed excited on and off for the next year or so. But over time, the excitement wore off and, frankly, I don’t enjoy it that much. It’s put pressure on my book reading, and I don’t like that. I realize this is my own fault, but I’ve begun to feel like I can’t take the time to reread old favorites (something I truly, truly love to do…maybe I’ll add a pic of some of my Wheel of Time books…those that still manage to be in one piece, that is, since I’ve had to buy a few new copies of ones that fell apart)…uh, where was I…? Oh, right. I’m so busy, I feel like if I get the time to read something besides school texts, it ought to be a newer fantasy book, or at least something new to me so I can review it.

Also, I’m just plain sick of reviewing. If you check out my review index, you’ll notice that I didn’t even review that many books over the time I’ve been doing it. That’s how much I don’t particularly enjoy it. Also, I don’t like the way I write my reviews. There’s no reason I can’t improve or shouldn’t strive to be better, and I would if I really cared about it. I do think part of the reason my writing is lackluster for my reviews is that I don’t enjoy it.

So, that being said,

Goodbye, Adios, Adieu, Smell Ya Later, etc. etc.,

Maischeph

P.S. I still love being part of this community via Twitter and others’ book blogs, and I won’t be abandoning any of that.

P.P.S. I’m on a mini-vacation and I’m reading Pat Rothfuss’ Wise Man’s Fear…so far I love it, and I am THRILLED that I won’t be reviewing it when I finish reading it!

P.P.P.S. I’m going to Oats’ book signing tonight! YAY! So excited. I might share on here if something interesting happens.

Today’s Remember Whensday is short, because I want to remember how easy my homework was in elementary school. And how short the books were.

Remember this? 128 pages. It was so nice.

I do not want to look at the screenplay, chunks of psychology texts, and chapter in a proposal writing book that I have to read between classes today. And instead of writing anything intelligent about them, I’d love to just make a diorama with some clay animals and construction paper foliage. Simple. Beautiful. Timeless.

My diorama proposal for an abnormal psychology text: A box with cotton balls on the walls and a lollipop stick person wrapped in a toilet paper straitjacket.

So let’s all take a minute to mourn how easy homework used to be (although, of course,  at the time it seemed so brutally dreary compared to all that playing we had to do).

Wheeeeee!

REMEMBER WHENSDAY! Every other Wednesday, I reminisce about good ole books from years ago. Occasionally I may use this to review a book that’s new to me, but was published on/before 1995.

<< UPDATE: Sadly, Mr. Jacques passed away of a heart attack on February 5th, 2011. Rest in Peace, Mr. Jacques. You are missed, but your books will be beloved for many years to come. >>

I suppose this isn’t exactly a “Remember when…” since Mr. Jacques is still alive and writing at age 71, with another Redwall book–The Rogue Crew–releasinges May 3rd, 2011.

The Rogue Crew, US cover

I have extremely fond memories of the Redwall books. I remember the exact book and year when they stopped holding my interest: Triss, 2002. Beginning of freshman year in high school. And I don’t believe this was because Mr. Jacques writing changed and somehow became less interesting. I was Growing Up.

Blah blah, how sad, (almost) everybody does it. And, frankly, I’m sure people read the Redwall books as adults. For me there was a fundamental change in my interests, and I no longer connected to the animal-focused stories. It was extremely sad (I insist!); I read all of the previous Redwall books excessively, looked forward to every new one that was released, and loved many of the characters like they were my very own imaginary friends. (Triss is Book 15. Wow.)

Triss

Even though I haven’t read a new Redwall book or re-read any of the oldies since 2002, I still remember my favorites: Martin the Warrior, Mossflower, Salamandastron, Marlfox. At some point I believe I had them organized into a list. I obsessively re-read most of them. I graduated to the Wheel of Time after Redwall (kind of a leap?) and obsessively re-read those, so I don’t remember as much as I’d like of the Redwall-verse. I was lucky enough to acquire the entire collection in paperback up to The Taggerung at a garage sale a few years back. At least my kid(s) can read them someday. (Note: I have no children at the moment. This is idle speculation about the future.)

I kind of wish they’d make one or two into movies. But they’d butcher them anyway, I’m sure. Still, a CG movie–since they apparently no longer make animated children’s movies–could be fun. Anyone else think so? Also, I’d love to hear what your favorites were, if you ever read them!

P.S. The way Mr. Jacques describes food on these books…absolutely mouthwatering. Always got hungry when I read about their feats. Yum. Now I need a snack.

Philip Pullman is the author of the truly fantastic His Dark Materials trilogy. It’s one of my favorite trilogies, if not THE favorite (really, it’s way too hard to choose).

This is the set I have.

Alas, I didn’t get to meet Mr. Pullman to get his signature, I just bought a signed hardcover of the first book at San Diego Comic-Con 2009. So this is a pretty lame post. But I like to speculate on meeting him…maybe if I ever go to England…. Or maybe he will actually come to SDCC some year since it’s pretty big and whatnot.

I’ve read this trilogy almost every year since I first read it at age 12. I didn’t get to it last year because of my education. Boo, education! But that’s about 10 re-reads now.

I actually quite liked the 2007 movie adaptation of The Golden Compass. I know it wasn’t perfect, but I think it was the best that it could be. It upset me so much that people either wrote it off as ‘Narnia, just not as good’ (saw this in a few Fandango reviews…so upsetting. And ignorant!) or else they responded to the ‘killing God’ controversy and the atheist ‘message.’ I got into an argument with my manager at the time, who is very Christian. I was trying to tell someone about the movie and that it deserved a chance, and he butted in with something to the effect of, “It’s not appropriate for kids. They just CGed it up, made it shiny so people will watch it. I’ve read the excerpt; they shouldn’t be showing it in movies.” I assume he was referring to the part in the third book where God is ‘killed.’ I personally believe that one can interpret this part of the book as either atheistic or as a symbol of God’s higher mystery, i.e., God wasn’t killed but rather the Biblical representation of him (yes, I realize that equates to killing God for Christians…but as far as I’m concerned the Bible is a load of horseshit…though I’m not an atheist. Judge me freely, even though it’s not your place to do so).

A poster of the "offending" movie.

So I shared a censored version of my thoughts with my manager. The “read an excerpt” part really incensed me, because he hadn’t even read the entire book yet had completely written off the movie as inappropriate…yet somehow expected that it shouldn’t have been made into a movie because it was offensive to people who follow the teachings of another Book, a Book that most of them haven’t read yet choose to judge others by. Aaaah, I get so mad about this it’s difficult for me to make myself clear. MmmMGGGFfGGGGFfdhdydyyd! Also, I first read the book when I was at the tender age where I could so easily lose my faith…in fact, this book buoyed my faith BUT NEVER MIND THAT because even though this should be up to the parents, IT SOMEHOW ITSN’T AND WE MUST ATTACK THE OFFENSIVE MOVIE FOR CORRUPTING OUR CHILDREN!

Stepping down now, I swear.

Deep breath. Sorry to get on my soapbox and head down Tangent Avenue. It’s a sensitive topic for me. And I dearly love these books. The sheer ignorance of it astounds me. But I do say I’m not a Twilight fan and have been known to rant in person to friends…but I try to limit myself because the fact of the matter is that I haven’t read the books or watched the movies (except, yes, for some excerpts and one or two scenes), so I don’t really have a leg to stand on if I want to rail against them. The only thing I can really say is that it’s not my thing (and it’s truly not…never really cared for books set in high school or ones with vampires…even the sexy Anne Rice ones).

So, to end: the His Dark Materials books are well worth checking out. Extremely mature and complex YA fantasy with a a bit of a steampunk touch.

Sorry to anyone who has been working on figuring out the titles, but I really appreciate your participation! I plan to host another giveaway that I’ll announce in late January/early February. This giveaway will be a limerick contest; I’ll accept fantasy/sci-fi-related limericks for the month of February, pick my top five, and open a vote on the top five limericks that will close the day before St. Patrick’s Day. More details on the actual rules and the prizes when I make the full announcement. (Also, I do expect this contest to have first through third place winners.)

So! To reveal the books from the header. Here’s the original photo:

A wooden cat. For no reason.

The winner, Lucia,  correctly guessed the book title and author name for each book. I will list them below since some still aren’t clear in the photo above:

A GAME OF THRONES by George R.R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire #1)

THE NAME OF THE WIND by Patrick Rothfuss (Kingkiller Chronicle #1) (My review here.)

THE WAY OF SHADOWS by Brent Weeks (Night Angel #1)

MAGIC’S PRICE by Mercedes Lackey (Last Herald-Mage #3)

THE DRAGON REBORN by Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time #3)

CHOKE by Chuck Palahniuk

THE GOLDEN COMPASS by Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials #1)

LUCK IN THE SHADOWS by Lynn Flewelling (Nightrunner Series #1)

The Name of the Wind is the only one that I reviewed on my blog, but all of the others are listed in some form or fashion on my ‘About’ page as they are all some of my most favoritest books.

I asked Lucia a couple of questions about her win:

1) How did you discover the answers?

Firstly, I tried to find out some names from the banner – that’s how I found e.g. Golden compass, Rothfuss, George R.R.Martin – just from the letters that I saw. The rest of the books was more difficult to identify and I spent some time just browsing random fantasy series on the Internet and looking for similar book covers. Luckily, I clicked on your ABOUT page and thought that maybe you had taken photo of your favourite books. So at the end I just searched the books via Google and tried to find some pictures in which I could see the books at the right angle – e.g.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4054/4333689661_dece47424a.jpg

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_2hN6VwzPAUg/S9HFMsip2rI/AAAAAAAAC4M/c1G62sPfHME/_DSC0035_thumb%5B7%5D.jpg

And then I sent you my answers

2) Have you read any of these books before, and if so which do you like best?

I’ve read just His Dark Materials and this series belongs to one of my favourites. But I’ve heard a lot about the rest of the books and I’m really looking forward to reading them

She also opted to change out Luck in the Shadows and Choke for the next two books in the Night Angel trilogy–an excellent choice, I think. Congrats to Lucia, and many thanks to everyone who participated or was in the process of participating! I hope you’ll all return for the limerick giveaway.

Schephful reading!

I read the Kindle edition.

Schephs: ********– 8 out of 10

Synopsis excerpt from Publishers Weekly via Amazon.com:

Young country witch Emily Edwards battles a horde of zombies and winds up with a mysterious magical stone embedded in her hand. Escorted by the academically-trained warlock Dreadnought Stanton…Emily reluctantly sets out to meet with warlocks from the Mirabilis Institute in hopes of getting the stone removed…. Clever techno-magical artifacts with steampunk flair, evil Aberrancies, and a unique tripartite magical system provide a colorful backdrop to the politics of the warlocks, the secrets of the stone, and the mystery of Emily’s past.

I freely admit that I’m feeling very lazy and not much for writing my own synopsis (which is generally what I try to do. Generally. Try. /cough Anyway).

It bears repeating: classic elements of steampunk (e.g., Victoriana, romance, machines, etc.) don’t generally fit my tastes. This book, however, suited me very well. Emily is a fantastic protagonist: relatable yet different, with a sharp personality that makes her interesting but not unbearable. I also enjoyed Dreadnought Stanton, insufferable know-it-all that he is. I actually thought this particular trait of his personality was an effective way of exposing the differences between Hobson’s alternaparallel historical world and our own. He’s a well-written character, so even though this may sound clunky it fits really well.

The world itself was peppered with many interesting yet fitting differences from our own, and included popular elements in new and sometimes funny ways. For example, there are zombies; they are employed as miners and controlled via a magical machine called a Corpse Switch. There’s also teleportation via a portal door that includes a piece of wood imbued with a portion of the spirit of a German Warlock who was trying to invent teleportation and accidentally got his spirit trapped in a piece of timber. (Deep breath.) I could list a few other things because I remember it all so vividly; if only real-world history lessons had struck me as this interesting back in high school!

As for the plot, it’s well-paced and kept me wondering what would happen next. However, the characters were engaging enough that despite the seemingly-predictable and straightforward beginning, I wanted to keep reading.  Unfortunately the plot did drag somewhat in the middle; it felt as though random difficulties were added to delay the characters’ ultimate goal just to make the story longer. The last third was spectacular, though: exciting, fast-paced, and appropriately dramatic.

Something else I really loved about this story was that even though there’s going to be a sequel (releasing April 2011), this story had a definite and satisfying ending (the characters’ stories, however, need more time). Of course some elements went unaddressed, but based on the epilogue the next book should cover all of these, and I well and truly look forward to book two.

<< GiVEAWAY CLOSED >> WE HAVE A WiNNER!!

It’s a new year! Hurray! Be excited!

And it’s a (sort of) new layout! I’m no graphic designer and I’m mostly incompetent with HTML, so my “new” layout involved changing the background color and adding an unoriginal header. Whoop whoop!

Still, I thought it’d be fun to have a giveaway to celebrate the new year and the new look.

However, this isn’t a good, old-fashioned “spread the word and get an entry” giveaway! Which means I might not have a lot of responses…but I can hope. /fingercrossing

THE TERMS:

OPEN TO RESIDENTS OF ANY COUNTRY THAT THE BOOK DEPOSITORY SHIPS TO! (Find the list here.)

Whoever is the first to correctly name all of the book titles and authors pictured in my header wins a brand new paperback copy of the book itself, or the first book in the series. I realize that in the actual header the endbooks are basically impossible to identify, so I have made a cropped header that will be used:

Most of these are well-known

FIRST HINT: Aside from the caption above, the first hint is that all books except one are part of a series.

I will release a hint every seven days that a winner has yet to succeed.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE: E-mail me your guesses at maischeph{at}gmail{dot}com with the subject ‘Header Giveaway’. The first person to e-mail the correct BOOK TITLE and AUTHOR NAME for every book will receive an e-mail telling them they’re the winner! I will also post a blog about it so everyone knows a winner has been chosen, and if the winner has a website or blog of some kind I will link to it in my post.

Even if you can’t figure out every book in the header, PLEASE send me what you have. I WILL allow updates to your guesses, as long as you send me another e-mail with the subject ‘Header Giveaway Update’. If it takes more than six weeks for someone to name all eight (8) books, I will choose a winner from the people who have guessed the most amount of books. Even if you don’t guess all the books, you’ll still win all eight of them!

PRIVACY: Your personal information will not be shared with anyone but myself, Molly Hunt, and will not be used to contact you in any way unless it relates to this giveaway.

THE PRiZES:

All eight (8) of the books from the header, of course! In brand new paperback form. Since many are part of a series, you will get the first book in that series, even if the actual book pictured isn’t the first book.

The best part is that since many of these books are so popular, I’ll allow the winner to replace two (2) books from the giveaway with two books of his/her choice! However, these books do have to be available in paperback.

If you have an eReader, I might be able to have some of the books sent to it; however, some will still have to be sent in paperback form.

HOW TO GET AHEAD: Though tweeting about this post, or retweeting my tweets about it, or posting a blog about it, do not get you entries into the giveaway, I will give you points for it. One (1) point for tweeting about it, one (1) point for retweeting my tweets, two (2) points for following me on Twitter (if you already follow me, you get these points automatically), and three (3) points for blogging about it. These points can be used to buy hints. Each hint costs three (3) points, so no one should be able to buy more than two hints tops. But you can get the hints before I release them, and I may give you different hints than those I release each week on here. Once you have accumulated as many points as you choose, send me an e-mail at maischeph{at}gmail{dot}com with the subject ‘Header Giveaway Points’. This e-mail must contain relevant information that proves you deserve the points. Once verified, I’ll send you the hint(s).

And to anyone who chooses to share info about this giveaway just because, I really appreciate it! Thanks so much!

SO! I really hope people decide to participate, and that maybe–just maybe–it’s a little bit fun. Heck, if very few people participate, someone who only guesses two or three or four of the books might win them all!

Schephful reading to you all!

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t get in as much funtime reading this year as I wanted to, nor did I read as many recently-published novels as I wanted to. So my best-of list is comically short, and one of the books on the list wasn’t even published this last year. Still, it was the best book I read this year, and I continue to blab about it when possible.

Perhaps most unfortunately of all, I found myself disliking more books I read this year than I ever have in the past. I did a blog post about the increase in my critical response to funtime books (read it here) because I noted this change. Maybe it was because I reviewed more books, or maybe it’s because I’m an English major and I’ve finally reached a point where I can’t NOT overthink everything that I read. (For example, read my last sentence.)

Anyway, I’ll only briefly mention books published in 2010 that I read and disliked (5 schephs or less): The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin (review here), The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell (review here), and Naamah’s Curse by Jacqueline Carey (review here). There were also two books I read–or tried to read–in November that I Did Not Finish and therefore didn’t review: The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman and Passion Play by Beth Bernobich. I did get close to finishing both, so I hope to read the last hundred pages or so eventually and see if either’s ending changes my mind.

AND NOW, without further ado…

...Drumroll, please!

3. Zombies vs. Unicorns Anthology, edited by Justine Larbalestier and Holly Black

Overall I rated this an 8/10, and even though I didn’t like all the stories (review here), there were quite a few that were really excellent. Not to mention the editor vs. editor intros for each of the stories added a lighthearted tone that made it a very pleasurable read, an especially nice touch because some of the stories are very bleak.

2. Cold Magic by Kate Elliott

This was my first real experience with steampunk (I’ve also seen it labeled icepunk, but I’m not splitting hairs here), and I enjoyed it immensely. Normally I’d say the tenets of steampunk indicate that it’s “not my thing” (e.g., romance, Victoriana, machines), but this book made me give it a chance. Plus, it’s just a really great read: entertaining, exciting and exceptionally well-written with wonderful characters (review here).

One more time!

1. The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

It’s not at all shocking that this is my favorite of those published this year, since the Night Angel trilogy is one of my favorite trilogies. I maintain that Weeks has showed shown (God, you’d think I WAS RAISED IN A BARN) amazing depth in the type of fantasy he writes (review here), and his excellent action scenes and realistic characters hold true even in this new series. I highly anticipate the next book in the expected four-book Lightbringer series!

Last but not least, MY Book of the Year!

I had to make it my book of the year, because it wasn’t published this year. But it was definitely a favorite, and I foam at the mouth for the second book, out March 1st, 2011 from DAW.

Yes, that’s right.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Yep, I loved this book. L-O-V-E-D. Fantastic world, fantastic plot, fantastic characters. Read my review here for all the initial gushing.

So overall it was a pretty good year; even though I disliked more books than I expected, the ones I did like were SUPERB. I do have to make a New Year’s Resolution, though: to review at least 24 books next year, for an average of two books a month. Just modest enough for me.

Oh yeah, almost forgot:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!