The List: 1

I was inspired by Samtaztic’s post on the books she is looking forward to reading this year and decided to create something similar of my own except I haven’t limited it to just books. This isn’t of course an exhaustive list and doesn’t cover some of the excellent things coming out in the latter half of this year.

Rogue Descendants by Jenna Black.

Publisher: Pocket Books

Release Date: 30/04/2013

No longer the leader of the Olympians, Konstantin has now gone into hiding. Konstantin is vulnerable, and Anderson believes now is the perfect time to destroy his nemesis. He orders private eye Nikki Glass to use her powers to locate Konstantin, and she balks at the idea until a series of attacks leads her to believe that Konstantin is gunning for her and Anderson instead of remaining safely in hiding. Nikki’s search is complicated by Cyrus – Konstantin’s son and the new leader of the Olympians – who threatens retribution should his father be killed. The complications mount up as Nikki begins to suspect that Konstantin might not be behind the attacks after all. The only person who hates Konstantin more than Anderson does is Anderson’s estranged wife, Emma, who has joined the Olympians. And Nikki knows Emma would be more than happy if Anderson and his people embroil themselves in an all-out war against the Olympians – a war they cannot hope to win. As Nikki tries to figure out who the true enemy is, she deals with her tumultuous relationship with Jamaal, who struggles to control his death magic. But being loved by a descendant of a death goddess is the least of Nikki’s worries….

The first book in the series was the first I read which made me fall in love with Urban Fantasy. The audiobook version had the most wonderful narrator and I am hoping so much that there is an audiobook of Rogue Descendents released too. I can’t wait to find out what happens next to Nikki (who I love as a main female protagonist) and the other characters.

THE TIGER. THE TIGER

Hunted by Kevin Hearn.

Publishers: Del Ray.

Release Date: 25/06/2013

For a two-thousand-year-old Druid, Atticus O’Sullivan is a pretty fast runner. Good thing, because he’s being chased by not one but two goddesses of the hunt – Artemis and Diana – for messing with one of their own. Dodging their slings and arrows, Atticus, Granuaile, and his wolfhound Oberon are making a mad dash across modern-day Europe to seek help from a friend of the Tuatha Dé Danann. His usual magical option of shifting planes is blocked, so instead of playing hide-and-seek, the game plan is . . . run like hell.

Crashing the pantheon marathon is the Norse god Loki. Killing Atticus is the only loose end he needs to tie up before unleashing Ragnarok – AKA the Apocalypse. Atticus and Granuaile have to outfox the Olympians and contain the god of mischief if they want to go on living – and still have a world to live in.

With this series not only is it the plot and characters I love but the style of writing Hearne uses. It’s funny – LOLingly funny. Atticus and Oberon (his pet dog) along with Granuaile are such funny characters – sarcastic, rambling, and Atticus is always full of internal monologues which actually delight me.

The sexiest Druid ever

Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch.

Publishers: Gollancz

Release Date: 20/06/2013

No synopsis has been released yet (boo)

Each and every single book in this series is a love letter to London, a glorious love letter which doesn’t leave out the interesting stuff, the true stuff. Another Urban fantasy series which has helped me to regain some faith in the genre since this is nothing like a YA title – forever is the arbitrary concept it should be and people swear!

These are some of the best front covers ever

Blandings. BBC 1. Staring on the 13/01/2013

Based on the books by P. G. Wodehouse.

Synopsis of episode 1:

Period comedy based on the stories by PG Wodehouse, in which Timothy Spall stars as the amiable but befuddled Lord Emsworth – known to his friends as Clarence – who struggles to keep his dysfunctional family in order, with Jennifer Saunders as his indomitable sister Connie. Clarence tries to win the Fattest Pig contest. The problem is, his porker isn’t eating, and the last thing he needs is for his fiendish rival Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe to take the prize. Meanwhile, Connie demands he put a stop to his niece Angela’s love affair with an ex-cowboy. Mark Williams and Robert Bathurst co-star.

I cannot say/squeal/gush enough about how excepted I am too see this. Wodehouse’s books are some of the best things ever written and he a comic genius yet adaptations are thin on the ground. In fact this is the largest adaptation of its kind since Jeeves & Wooster aired in the 90s starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry (which is a work of pure magic let me tell you). Frankly, this Sunday can’t come fast enough.

EEEEK!! There is the perfect cast!

Star Trek into Darkness. Directed by J. J. Abrams

Release Date: 17/05/2013

After being called back home, the crew of the Enterprise find a seemingly unstoppable force which has attacked Starfleet and left the planet in chaos. Captain Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise are tasked with leading the deadly manhunt to capture the party responsible and settle an old score.

*Deep breath* IloveStarTreksomuchthatwhenIseeanythingtodowithitIinternallycombustbecauseitisStarTrekandallIwanttodoislivelongandprosperalsowhatisStarWars *exhale*

Can. Not. Wait.

Hyperventilating

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Directed by Peter Jackson.

Release Date: 13/12/2013

The Dwarfs, Bilbo and Gandalf have successfully escaped the misty mountains, but Bilbo has gained the one ring. They all continue their journey to get their gold back off the Dragon, Smaug.

Hello Smaug! And most importantly, hello Kili!

Doesn’t give much away does this?

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman.

Publisher: Harper Collins

Release date: 18/06/2013

The Ocean At The End of the Lane is a novel about memory and magic and survival, about the power of stories and the darkness inside each of us.

It began for our narrator forty years ago when he was seven: the lodger stole the family’s car and committed suicide in it, stirring up ancient powers best left undisturbed.  Creatures from beyond the world are on the loose, and it will take everything our narrator has just to stay alive: there is primal horror here, and a menace unleashed — within his family, and from the forces that have gathered to destroy it. 

His only defence is three women, on a ramshackle farm at the end of the lane. The youngest of them claims that her duck pond is an ocean. The oldest can remember the Big Bang.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a fable that reshapes modern fantasy: moving, terrifying and elegiac — as pure as a dream, as delicate as a butterfly’s wing, as dangerous as a knife in the dark.

This book is on the list because there is no way I would miss it, yet if it had been written by almost anyone else I probably would have. I loved Good Omens and expected some of Gaiman’s other works to be similar. They weren’t and from the blurb I know this one won’t be either but I love Gaiman’s style of writing. I hope the narrator for the audiobook is a good one.

I love this cover

A Spear of Summer Grass by Deanna Raybourn

Publishers: MIRA

Release Date: 23/04/2013

Paris, 1923 The daughter of a scandalous mother, Delilah Drummond is already notorious, even amongst Paris society. But her latest scandal is big enough to make even her oft-married mother blanch. Delilah is exiled to Kenya and her favorite stepfather’s savannah manor house until gossip subsides. Fairlight is the crumbling, sun-bleached skeleton of a faded African dream, a world where dissolute expats are bolstered by gin and jazz records, cigarettes and safaris. As mistress of this wasted estate, Delilah falls into the decadent pleasures of society.  Against the frivolity of her peers, Ryder White stands in sharp contrast. As foreign to Delilah as Africa, Ryder becomes her guide to the complex beauty of this unknown world. Giraffes, buffalo, lions and elephants roam the shores of Lake Wanyama amid swirls of red dust. Here, life is lush and teeming-yet fleeting and often cheap.  Amidst the wonders-and dangers-of Africa, Delilah awakes to a land out of all proportion: extremes of heat, darkness, beauty and joy that cut to her very heart. Only when this sacred place is profaned by bloodshed does Delilah discover what is truly worth fighting for-and what she can no longer live without.

I have to admit I didn’t enjoy The Dead Travel Fast as much as I did (and do) the Julia Grey novels. Of course it didn’t help that the plot didn’t interest me at all (I have been over Vampires for about a decade) but the blurb of this stand alone novel has peaked my interest no end. Plus, I love East Africa and Raybourn is magic with descriptions (she doesn’t believe adjective are evil) and I can’t wait to read her descriptions of Paris and Africa.

Again, I love this cover

The Goddess Chronicle by Natsuo Kirino.

Publisher: Canongate

Release Date: 03/01/2012

In a place like no other, on an island in the shape of a tear drop, two sisters are born into a family of the oracle. Kamikuu, with creamy skin and almond eyes, is admired far and wide; Namima, small but headstrong, learns to live in her sister’s shadow. On her sixth birthday, Kamikuu is presented with a feast of sea-serpent egg soup, sashimi and salted fish, and a string of pure pearls. Kamikuu has been chosen as the next Oracle, while Namima is shocked to discover she must serve the goddess of darkness. So begins an adventure that will take Namima from her first experience of love to the darkness of the underworld. But what happens when she returns to the island for revenge? Natsuo Kirino, the queen of Japanese crime fiction, turns her hand to an exquisitely dark tale based on the Japanese myth of Izanami and Izanagi. A fantastical, fabulous tour-de-force, it is a tale as old as the earth about ferocious love and bitter revenge.

The Canongate Myths series is one of the best things ever to come out of any publishing house. I absolutely love the stories they have chosen and this one sounds truly incredible.

A resunding yes to this cover

Image Credit: Rogue Descendants

Image Credit: Hunted

Image Credit: Broken Homes

Image Credit: Blandings

Image Credit: Star Trek into Darkness

Image Credit: The Desolation of Smaug

Image Credit: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Image Credit: A Spear fo Summer Grass

Image Credit: The Goddess Chronicle