June Reading List Poll

In January and February, I ran two highly successful polls where I asked all the readers of the blog to help me pick my reading list for the following months. The first one was for novels, the second one for comics. I managed to meet the reading goals for the first of those polls, but am still progressing through the second one, mostly because I’ve been traveling a bit too much of late, and reading time has generally been at a premium due to work and more time devoted to my writing.

However, I should be done with it by the end of this month, so keep an eye out for updates on that.

In the meantime, here’s my next reading poll, and this one is for novels once again. Hit the break to find out more.

NANP: The Difficulty of Names

Joining me today on Names: A New Perspective is Brian McClellan, author of the awesome Promise of Blood (review) and Orbit’s latest debut. The book releases tomorrow and I definitely recommend that you all check it out. Gunpowder fantasy plus end-of-the-world prophecies? I’m all for it! Reading the book was a blast and I’m looking forward to the sequel, The Crimson Campaign, when it comes out next year in February. The wait is simply too long! Here’s what Brian has to say on the topic of names.

Special Announcement: Iain M. Banks

About a couple hours or so, Orbit Books revealed a rather shocking piece of news (if that link doesn’t work, then try this): author Iain M. Banks has cancer and his next book, The Quarry, will be last book. The cancer is, unfortunately, in its late stages according to Iain, and therefore he has cancelled all public engagements for the rest of the year and will be spending time with family and friends.

I have to say that I applaud him for writing as heartfelt and moving letter as he did. It could not have been easy at all. I wish him a glorious time, what he has left of it, and hope that he discovers (and even rediscovers) as much happiness as he can.

But that’s not all.

NANP: The Name Game

Joining me today on Names: A New Perspective is Amanda Carlson, author of the fantastic urban fantasy debut from last year, Full Blooded (Review), the first in her Jessica McClain series. As another novel with a rather contemporary setting, at first it might appear that there can’t be much to talk about in this post relative to the idea behind the series, but Amanda does a good job of showing that is not so. The basics still apply, and I’m looking forward to seeing how she progresses on that front in the upcoming sequel Hot Blooded (due April). Here’s what she has to say.

51 Most Anticipated Releases For 2013

With regards reading, 2012 was a fantastic year for me. It was the year that I stepped out of my comfort zone and read in genres that I normally would not read, such as urban fantasy (involving angels, vampires, werewolves etc) and historical fiction. It was also the year that I read more than the traditional fantasy, and tie-in fantasy at that. My experiments seem to have mostly been successful as I’ve started to really like reading these kind of books.

My goal for this year is to continue on that same path and read as widely as I can. Which is why this massive list is so huge in scope, with tons of variety. I went through the catalogues for most of these publishers and picked out things I liked,and which caught my eye. Getting through the entire list this year will probably not happen, but then again, never say never!

Best of the Best Part 2

I last did something like this in July for the six months from January 1st all the way to June 30th. This list is for July 1st and all the way through to December 30th (the last day doesn’t count!). As I mentioned at the end of that list, this isn’t going to be regurgitation of my “Reading Awards” page, but something more varied. The list takes into account everything I’ve read in the last six months.

Let’s see what makes the cut and which comes close then!