Book Spotlight! 'The Sword of Albion' - Mark Chadbourn

If you live in the US then I think you'll have seen this already through Pyr... It's the UK's turn to get their hands on it now, I've enjoyed Mark's work in the past and I'm looking forward to my copy coming through the post. Here's the blurb...

1588: The London of Elizabeth I is rocked by news of a daring
raid on the Tower. The truth is known only to a select few: that, for twenty years, a legendary doomsday device, its power fabled
for millennia, has been kept secret and, until now, safe in the
Tower. But it has been stolen and Walsingham’s spies believe it
has been taken by the Enemy. This Enemy is not who we usually
think of as our traditional opponet. No, this Enemy has waged
a brutal war against mankind since time began, and with such a
weapon they might take terrible toll upon England’s green and
pleasant land...

And so it falls to Will Swyfte - swordsman, adventurer, scholar,
rake, and the greatest of Walsingham’s new breed of spy - to follow
a trail of murder and devilry that leads deep into the dark,
venomous world of the Faerie. As Philip of Spain prepares a
naval assault on England, Will is caught up in a race against time in pursuit of this fiendish device...

Like I said, I'm looking forward to getting my hands on this. Has anyone else read 'The Sword of Albion'? What did you think?

Book Spotlight! 'The Man with the Iron Heart' - Harry Turtledove (Del Rey Books)

Here's a book that I've been picking up, flicking through a few pages and then putting down for some weeks now. It got to the point where I knew that I wasn't going to continue with it but I thought I'd point it out to anyone who's into the whole 'Alternative History' thing...


What's it about?

What if V-E Day didn’t end World War II in Europe? What if, instead, the Allies had to face a potent, even fanatical, postwar Nazi resistance? Such a movement, based in the fabled Alpine Redoubt, was in fact a real threat, ultimately neutralized by Germany’s flagging resources and squabbling officials. But had SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, the notorious Man with the Iron Heart, not been assassinated in 1942, fate might have taken a different turn. We might likely have seen a German guerrilla war launched against the conquerors, presaging by more than half a century the protracted conflict with an unrelenting enemy that now engulfs the United States and its allies in Iraq. How might today’s clash of troops versus terrorists have played out in 1945?

In this imagined world, Nazi forces resort to unconventional warfare, using the quick and dirty tactics of terrorism–booby traps, time bombs, mortar and rocket strikes in the night, assassinations, even kamikaze-style suicide attacks–to overturn what seemed to be a decisive Allied victory. In November 1945, a truck bomb blows up the Nuremberg Palace of Justice, where high-ranking Nazi officials are about to stand trial for war crimes. None of the accused are there when the bomb goes off, but their judges, all of them present and accounted for, are annihilated. Worse acts of terrorism follow all over Europe.

Suddenly the Allies–especially the United States–must battle an invisible enemy and sacrifice countless lives in a long, seemingly pointless, unwinnable conflict. On the home front, patriotism corrodes, political fortunes are made and lost in the face of an antiwar backlash, and a once-proud country wonders how the righteous fight for freedom overseas has collapsed into a hopeless quagmire...


Who's the Author?

If you're reading a book where established history takes a sudden twist (Red Indians with Kalashnikov rifles or a World War Two suddenly interupted by an invasion of alien lizards) then the chances are that you're probably reading something written by Harry Turtledove. I don't know an awful lot about his stuff but a look in a few bookshops seems to suggest that he's pretty prolific with his writing...

So why aren't I reading this?

I did give this one a go but came away with the feeling that I needed to know a little more (ok, a lot more) about the period in question to actually appreciate how things had branched off.
The parallels with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were laid on a little thick as well and (from what I read) opinion appeared to come down very firmly in the 'war on terror is bad' camp. Maybe it is and maybe it isn't but I found myself resenting the lack of subtlety in the way Turtledove was getting his point across...
Not one that I'll be reading any further but figured it was worth a mention just in case it's your kind of thing... ;o)

Book Spotlight! 'Just One Bite' - Kimberly Raye (Del Rey Books)

Work is being a real pain right now, with an office move coming up in the next week, and reading time is getting more and more scarce. I don't have time to read some books, and there are also other books that I can't see myself reading at all, but one of the things I want to start doing on the blog is telling people what's out there as well as what I'm reading.
Fantasy Book Critic's 'Monthly Spotlights' are a superb resource, for those who don't know what is being released and when, while Larry's Book Porn offers an interesting look at cool books you may not have even known about...
My own 'Spotlight Thing' is going to be a little more humble than theirs, at least to begin with...



What's it all about?

Lil Marchette, vampire extraordinaire and owner of Manhattan’s hottest hook-up service, is an expert at matching up the lonely and desperate (and sometimes dead). And thanks to the popular local reality dating show Manhattan’s Most Wanted, Lil has plenty of fresh blood to add to the mix–including the biggest, baddest vampire in the Big Apple. Vinnie Balducci, Brooklyn representative for the Snipers of Otherworldly Beings, is making Lil an offer she can’t refuse: find him the perfect woman or she’s going to be swimming with the fishes.

But Lil may not be the only one taking the plunge. The three hunky demon Prince brothers are poking around Lil’s office–hot on the trail of a rogue spirit trying to escape the land down under (not Australia) by possessing some poor, clueless human soul. Then Lil makes a startling discovery: The oblivious human vessel is none other than her loyal assistant, Evie. Between saving Evie from eternal damnation and saving herself from Vinnie’s lethal ultimatum, Lil is sure to be in for the most hellish ride of her afterlife.

Who's the Author?

Kimberly Raye is the bestselling author of more than thirty novels, including Dead End Dating, Dead and Dateless, and Your Coffin or Mine? She’s been nominated for several Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Awards, as well as two RITA Awards. Her books have been featured in several major magazines, including Better Homes & Gardens and Glamour, and her novel Sometimes Naughty, Sometimes Nice was a Cosmopolitan magazine book club pick. She lives deep in the heart of Texas Hill Country with her husband and their young children.

Why aren't I reading this??

Not so long ago I did a themed 'Week of Love'where I read a whole load of 'Para-normal Romance' and 'Urban Fantasy'. I still have nightmares about this and can safely say that this sub-genre is not one for me. Any book where the vampire heroine is described as being "...a likeable mix of Bridget Jones, Carrie Bradshaw and Dracula" sets alarm bells ringing that I've learnt to pay close attention to!
It's just not my thing but it might be yours... :o)