More 1001 books to get excited about!

My next book on my 1001 list is (19) Poison Study by Maria.V.Snyder. This is what I have written about it on review site, Dooyoo....

"It's not often that I get this excited about a new fantasy series but I can honestly say, with my hand on my heart, that Poison Study is a brilliant start to what looks like will be a series to remember! Although I am probably some way behind, I have only just discovered this author and, from the strength of Poison Study, I can honestly say that in Snyder I may have found at last an equal to my favourite fantasy author, Robin Hobb!

Poison starts much like Hobb's Assassin books with a young girl being held prisoner in the castle dungeons for the crime of murder. As the next to face the noose, she is given a choice; either she goes to the executioner or she becomes the next food taster for the Commander....a job that has its obvious perils as she will have to be trained to reecognise a whole host of different poisons in order to detect their presence in the Commander's food!

The decision seems like a no-brainer but, with the father of the man she murdered very influential in the Castle Court, Yelena soon finds herself facing death and danger at every turn; not just when she tastes the Commander's meals! With plenty of people only too glad to see her dead, her new life becomes a constant challenge...not least when she comes to the realisation that she is far more than she appears to be with a latent and hidden ability to do magic; yet another thing that endangers her life because magic is banned in all Ixia and is only practiced over the border in Sitia!

Everything about this first novel screams Robin Hobb! We have the mentor, Valek, who takes the place of Chade in the Assassin books and the whole training to be a spy that closely resembles the training that Fitz had to undergo in Hobb's novels. The way that Yelena has to fear constantly for her life and becomes embroiled in political espionage and intrigue is likewise similar but that is not to do this book any disservice as this is a very different series! It quickly becomes apparent that this trilogy is going in a different direction to the Assassin novels and I only make the comparison to emphasise how greatly impressed I was with this debut fantasy novel!

There is very little wrong here and I, for one, could find no faults other than it is a little short! That is no bad thing however, as too many fantasy novels try too too hard to become great epics and it is nice to find a book for once that contents itself with the story it has to tell and that is it!

I bought this for £1 from my local Sainsburys but it is available for an equally low price from Amazon online. It has been around for a while as this was first published in 2005 and there are two other volumes that follow this entitled Magic and Fire Study. And you can bet your bottom dollar that I will be picking those up as soon as I can lay my hands on them!

If you like Robin Hobb and think that other authors just can't compete then check this series out! You will not be disappointed!"

If the rest of the series is as good as this, then I will edit the list to include the whole trilogy rather than just this book but I thought it important that this got a mention straight away as it has been a long time since I last got this excited about a series and anyone who knows how much I love Robin Hobb will know that I do not make the comparison lightly!

 

Reach for the sky!

At the minute, Emilie has this obsession with Toy Story and watches each of the first two films at least once a day so last week we took her to the cinema to see Toy Story 3! It was her first cinema experience and I think she loved it though she was a bit restless and kept getting up and moving around and didn't want to sit on a seat on her own as, in the Dereham cinema, they still have those seats that flip back up! Yes, no modern cinema for us Dereham folk ~ they even still tear off the ticket stub which was something Mrs.Sparky had never seen before showing the difference between our generations! It was actually quite nostalgic for me and certainly made the whole experience more personal. And yes, Toy Story 3 is AMAZING and easily the most emotional of the trilogy. Andy is going to college so there are lots of heart-wrenching moments as he prepares to give up the toys he has grown up and played with all these years, leaving Woody, Buzz and the rest of the gang facing an uncertain future!

Work at the minute is becoming a right drag! I find myself very low on tolerance at mo and very close to losing my temper quite a bit at the minute! I do not know why but it all feels pretty shitty right now and I am really not enjoying it at all. I know it will pass and that this is just a phase I go through every so often but that doesn't make it any easier!

Tuesday when I mentioned I was looking forward to Daddy Day on Wednesday, my one day with Emilie all to my own whilst Mrs.Sparky is at work, one of the girls who is also a mum said "And you're looking forward to that?" I think she finds being a mum a bit of a strain and harder work than she thought it would be but I was like "Hell yeah!" That is the only time, apart from holidays, when Emilie is all mine to myself and I love those days to bits and cherish every moment of them!! Emilie is my little girl and I love her to bits and would not change the days I get her to myself for the world!!!!

Finally, I just wanted to add another couple of books to my 1001 list. Firstly the kids book, (17) Lost And Found by Oliver Jeffers. It is the tale of a young boy who wakes up to find a penquin on his door and becomes determined to help him find his way home but when he gets to the North Pole, he discovers that the penquin was not lost, he was just lonely! It is a lovely illustrated book that is very simple but magical nonetheless! Emilie loves it, though it is out of favour at bedtime at mo, and loves to sit there reading it and looking at the pictures! There is also an animated movie narrated by Jim Broadbent but, whilst this is still good, it loses a tiny bit of the magic of the booK. It is easily the best of all the books we read at bedtime and that is why it makes the list!

The next entry is (18) The Grail Quest books by Bernard Cornwell about an English archer called Thomas of Hookton who sets off to fight the French when he discovers his father was once the guardian of an ancient secret, the location of The Holy Grail, and that foreig mercenaries working for the French are determined to lay their hands on the treasure. It is a gripping historical tale full of medieval blood and gore and highly detailed battle scenes based on real historical events. Though the story itself is fictional, the real backdrop of the action makes this trilogy a compelling read and these are easily the best novels of Cornwell's I have read; far better than the Sharpe novels that, whilst good, are no match for these!

Right that's about it right now...till next time.....

TO INFINITY.....AND BEYOND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!