Can't Wait Wednesday #191 - Robots Vs. Fairies

Can't Wait Wednesday is a new weekly meme hosted here to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they're books that have yet to be released as well. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. 
 
This week's choice is -

Robots Vs. Fairies - ed. Navah Wolfe & Dominik Parisien

ISBN - 9781481462365

Publisher - Saga Press

Release date - January 9th, 2018

Find - Goodreads | Book Depository | Wordery

A unique anthology of all-new stories that challenges authors to throw down the gauntlet in an epic genre battle and demands an answer to the age-old question: Who is more awesome - robots or fairies?

Rampaging robots! Tricksy fairies! Facing off for the first time in an epic genre death match!

People love pitting two awesome things against each other. Robots vs. Fairies is an anthology that pitches genre against genre, science fiction against fantasy, through an epic battle of two icons.

On one side, robots continue to be the classic sci-fi phenomenon in literature and media, from Asimov to WALL-E, from Philip K. Dick to Terminator. On the other, fairies are the beloved icons and unquestionable rulers of fantastic fiction, from Tinkerbell to Tam Lin, from True Blood to Once Upon a Time. Both have proven to be infinitely fun, flexible, and challenging. But when you pit them against each other, which side will triumph as the greatest genre symbol of all time?

There can only be one… or can there?

Way back at the beginning of 2016, I did a Wow feature on the previous anthology to this, The Starlit Wood, and could have passed out with sheer joy over most of the authors featured. I still don't have a copy of it because how expensive it is!!! Even on Kindle... And now there's a new anthology to drool over! And the authors this time? Just as good, if not better. Christmas is coming, and my birthday, so both are going on the 'you must buy me these books' list. In the meantime, have a look at the authors writing about rampaging robots and tricksy fairies.

Mary Robinette Kowal 

Ken Liu  

Jonathan Maberry 

Seanan McGuire  

Annalee Newitz 

Tim Pratt 

John Scalzi

Lavie Tidhar 

Catherynne M. Valente

Alyssa Wong 

Madeline Ashby

Lila Bowen

Jeffrey Ford,

Sarah Gailey

Max Gladstone

Maria Dahvana Headley

Jim C. Hines

Kat Howard 

Can't Wait Wednesday #190 - The Crow Garden

Can't Wait Wednesday is a new weekly meme hosted here to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they're books that have yet to be released as well. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. 
 
This week's choice is -

The Crow Garden - Alison Littlewood

ISBN - 9781786485250

Publisher - Quercus

Release date - October 5th, 2017

Find - Goodreads | Book Depository

Susan Hill meets Alfred Hitchcock in Alison Littlewood's latest chiller: mad-doctor Nathaniel is obsessed with the beautiful Mrs Harleston - but is she truly delusional? Or is she hiding secrets that should never be uncovered...? 

Haunted by his father's suicide, Nathaniel Kerner walks away from the highly prestigious life of a consultant to become a mad-doctor. He takes up a position at Crakethorne Asylum, but the proprietor is more interested in phrenology and his growing collection of skulls than the patients' minds. Nathaniel's only interesting case is Mrs Victoria Harleston: her husband accuses her of hysteria and delusions - but she accuses him of hiding secrets far more terrible. Nathaniel is increasingly obsessed with Victoria, but when he has her mesmerised, there are unexpected results: Victoria starts hearing voices, the way she used to - her grandmother always claimed they came from beyond the grave - but it also unleashes her own powers of mesmerism and a desperate need to escape. 

Increasingly besotted, Nathaniel finds himself caught up in a world of seances and stage mesmerism in his bid to find Victoria and save her. But constantly hanging over him is this warning: that doctors are apt to catch the diseases with which they are surrounded - whether of the body or the mind.

Alison Littlewood has joined my list of favorite authors thanks to her previous five novels and some fantastic short stories. The Crow Garden sounds as beautifully creepy as usual so can't wait to get started on it, hopefully in time for my October Horror/Halloween shenanigans!

Can't Wait Wednesday #189 - The Glass Town Game

Can't Wait Wednesday is a new weekly meme hosted here to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they're books that have yet to be released as well. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. 
 
This week's choice is -

The Glass Town Game - Catherynne M Valente

ISBN - 9781481476966

Publisher - Margaret K McElderry Books

Release date - September 5th, 2017

Find - Goodreads | Book Depository

Charlotte and Emily must enter a fantasy world that they invented in order to rescue their siblings in this adventurous and fiercely intelligent novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making.

Inside a small Yorkshire parsonage, Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne Brontë have invented a game called Glass Town, where their toy soldiers fight Napoleon and no one dies. This make-believe land helps the four escape from a harsh reality: Charlotte and Emily are being sent away to a dangerous boarding school, a school they might not return from. But on this Beastliest Day, the day Anne and Branwell walk their sisters to the train station, something incredible happens: the train whisks them all away to a real Glass Town, and the children trade the moors for a wonderland all their own.

This is their Glass Town, exactly like they envisioned it…almost. They certainly never gave Napoleon a fire-breathing porcelain rooster instead of a horse. And their soldiers can die; wars are fought over the potion that raises the dead, a potion Anne would very much like to bring back to England. But when Anne and Branwell are kidnapped, Charlotte and Emily must find a way to save their siblings. Can two English girls stand against Napoleon’s armies, especially now that he has a new weapon from the real world? And if he escapes Glass Town, will England ever be safe again?

Together the Brontë siblings must battle with a world of their own creation if they are to make it back to England alive in this magical celebration of authorship, creativity, and classic literature from award-winning author Catherynne M. Valente.

If you're a fan of Catherynne Valente, the Brontes, Tales of Glass Town, Angria & Gondal or all three then this is a no-brainer really. I grew up reading the Brontes and my love for Catherynne Valente's work is no secret so this book is at the top of my wishlist!

Can't Wait Wednesday #188 - Paris Adrift

Can't Wait Wednesday is a new weekly meme hosted here to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they're books that have yet to be released as well. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. 
 
This week's choice is -

Paris Adrift - E. J. Swift

Publisher - Solaris

Release date - February 2018

Find - Goodreads

It is the near future and humanity is on the brink of destruction. The only way it can be saved is if the course of history is forcibly altered. In the twenty-first century, misfit student Hallie Lane packs up her troubled life in England and takes the first train to Paris, where she falls in with the eclectic expat community as a bartender at the notorious Millie’s.

Here she finds a new family and an attraction to the enigmatic Leon. But Millie’s is not all that it seems: inside, there's a time portal in the keg room with an inescapable hold on her. As if that's not strange enough, she receives garbled warnings from a bizarre creature and keeps meeting a mysterious woman claiming to be a time agent.

Soon, she is navigating through the city’s turbulent past and future – from the wild years after the French Revolution, through the horrors of the Nazi occupation, and to a grim near future of her own making. But with only Leon to guide her in this fractured world, it soon becomes apparent that she is an unwitting pawn in a much bigger plan and the key to humanity's future lies in her hands.

I stumbled across this one the other day on the Tor website where they announced its publication. Needless to say, my eye was drawn straight to the fabulous cover art by Joey Hi-Fi. I have no idea if this is the final cover but I absolutely adore it and the synopsis of the book just makes me want to read it even more.

Can't Wait Wednesday #187 - The Hollow Girl

Can't Wait Wednesday is a new weekly meme hosted here to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they're books that have yet to be released as well. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. 
 
This week's choice is -

The Hollow Girl - Hillary Monahan

ISBN - 9781524701864

Publisher - Delacorte Press

Release date - October 10th, 2017

Find - Goodreads | Book Depository

Five boys attacked her.
Now they must repay her with their blood and flesh.

Bethan is the apprentice to a green healer named Drina in a clan of Welsh Romanies. Her life is happy and ordered and modest, as required by Roma custom, except for one thing: Silas, the son of the chieftain, has been secretly harassing her.

One night, Silas and his friends brutally assault Bethan and a half-Roma friend, Martyn. As empty and hopeless as she feels from the attack, she asks Drina to bring Martyn back from death’s door. “There is always a price for this kind of magic,” Drina warns. The way to save him is gruesome. Bethan must collect grisly pieces to fuel the spell: an ear, some hair, an eye, a nose, and fingers.

She gives the boys who assaulted her a chance to come forward and apologize. And when they don’t, she knows exactly where to collect her ingredients to save Martyn.


It's coming up to that time of year when the books that sound good for Halloween reading start appearing. I was a big fan of Mary, Monahan's retelling of the Bloody Mary story, and I liked The Awesome, released under the name Eva Darrows, so am really looking forward to reading The Hollow Girl.

Can't Wait Wednesday #185 - The Waking Land

Can't Wait Wednesday is a new weekly meme hosted here to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they're books that have yet to be released as well. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. 
 
This week's choice is -

The Waking Land - Callie Bates

ISBN - 9781473638723

Publisher - Hodder & Stoughton

Release date - June 27th, 2017

Find - Goodreads | Book Depository

It's been fourteen years since King Antoine took Elanna hostage. Fourteen years since her father's rebellion failed. Fourteen years spent being raised by the man who condemned her people to misery. A man she's come to love as a father.

Now 20, Elanna is about to be taken prisoner once again... but this time by her father's mysterious right-hand man.

Her father wants to reignite his rebellion, this time using Elanna as figurehead. He will tell his followers she is the legendary Wildegarde reborn, a sorceress who could make the very earth tremble.

But what no one knows is that magic really does flow through Elanna's veins. Now she must decide which side she's on, and whether she'll use her powers for mercy... or revenge.

A bold and gorgeous fantasy featuring a brilliant heroine on the cusp of womanhood, The Waking Land is the first of a trilogy that will delight fans of The Red Queen, Six of Crows, and Court of Thorns and Roses.

I was initially drawn to this because of the striking US cover and then I saw this oh so pretty UK cover. Then I read the author's description of her inspiration - neolithic monuments, land stewardship, royal hostages, and poisonous fungi. Sold! I'm ignoring the bit that says 'for fans of...' because that way lies disappointment!

 

Can't Wait Wednesday #184 - Girls Made Of Glass & Snow

Can't Wait Wednesday is a new weekly meme hosted here to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they're books that have yet to be released as well. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
This week's choice is -

Girls Made Of Glass and Snow - Melissa Bashardoust 

ISBN - 9781250077738

Publisher - Flatiron Books

Release date - September 5th, 2017

Find - Goodreads | Book Depository

Frozen meets The Bloody Chamber in this feminist fantasy reimagining of the Snow White fairytale

At sixteen, Mina's mother is dead, her magician father is vicious, and her silent heart has never beat with love for anyone - has never beat at all, in fact, but she’d always thought that fact normal. She never guessed that her father cut out her heart and replaced it with one of glass. When she moves to Whitespring Castle and sees its king for the first time, Mina forms a plan: win the king’s heart with her beauty, become queen, and finally know love. The only catch is that she’ll have to become a stepmother.

Fifteen-year-old Lynet looks just like her late mother, and one day she discovers why: a magician created her out of snow in the dead queen’s image, at her father’s order. But despite being the dead queen made flesh, Lynet would rather be like her fierce and regal stepmother, Mina. She gets her wish when her father makes Lynet queen of the southern territories, displacing Mina. Now Mina is starting to look at Lynet with something like hatred, and Lynet must decide what to do - and who to be - to win back the only mother she’s ever known…or else defeat her once and for all.

Entwining the stories of both Lynet and Mina in the past and present, Girls Made of Snow and Glass traces the relationship of two young women doomed to be rivals from the start. Only one can win all, while the other must lose everything - unless both can find a way to reshape themselves and their story.

I was sold on this book as soon as I saw 'feminist fantasy reimagining of Snow White' but what makes me less enthusiastic is the reference to The Bloody Chamber. Being a huge fan of Angela Carter and her work makes me nervous to read Girls Of Glass And Snow, as well as excited. Here's hoping it lands on the good side of the comparison! 

Can't Wait Wednesday #183 - A Skinful Of Shadows

Can't Wait Wednesday is a new weekly meme hosted here to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they're books that have yet to be released as well. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

This week's choice is -

A Skinful Of Shadows - Frances Hardinge

ISBN - 9781509837540 (UK) or 9781419725722 (US)

Publisher - PanMacmillan (UK) Amulet (US)

Release date - 21st September (UK) 10th October (US)

Find - Goodreads | Book Depository 

A Skinful of Shadows is a dark YA historical fantasy set in the early part of the English Civil War. 

Kate is an illegitimate daughter of the aristocratic Fellmotte family, and as such, she shares their unique hereditary gift: the capacity to be possessed by ghosts. Reluctant to accept her appointed destiny as vessel for a coterie of her ancestors, she escapes. As she flees the pursuing Fellmottes across war-torn England, she accumulates a motley crew of her own allies, including outcasts, misfits, criminals, and one extremely angry dead bear.

Excuse the CAPSLOCK and over-abundance of exclamation marks but OMG!!! A NEW FRANCES HARDINGE!!! HURRAH!!! This is the best news I've had so far this year and I cannot wait to get my hands on a copy!

Can't Wait Wednesday #182 - Black Bird of the Gallows

Can't Wait Wednesday is a new weekly meme hosted here to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they're books that have yet to be released as well. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
This week's choice is -

Black Bird Of The Gallows - Meg Kassel

ISBN - 9781633758148

Publisher - Entangled Publishing

Release date - September 5th, 2017

Find - Goodreads | Book Depository

Her love breaks his curse. But his love spells her death.

A simple but forgotten truth: Where harbingers of death appear, the morgues will soon be full.

Angie Dovage can tell the mysterious new boy next door is more than he appears, but she can’t imagine his presence signals a tragedy that will devastate her small town. But when a grotesque, otherworldly man tries to attack her and Reece comes to her rescue, everything changes.

Any minute, chaos could rain down on her town, on her family, on everyone she cares about. But that’s only half as dangerous as falling in love with a harbinger of death.

The blurb on the front cover says 'dark, twisty thrill ride' and I'm hoping it is. Mysterious boy next door books aren't usually my cup of tea but there's something about this one that appeals to me, and not just the cover!
 

Can't Wait Wednesday #181 - Odd & True

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a new weekly meme hosted here to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they're books that have yet to be released as well. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

This week's choice is -

Odd & True - Cat Winters

ISBN - 9781419723100

Publisher - Amulet Books

Release date - September 12th, 2017

Find - Goodreads | Book Depository

Trudchen grew up hearing Odette’s stories of their monster-slaying mother and a magician’s curse. But now that Tru’s older, she’s starting to wonder if her older sister’s tales were just comforting lies, especially because there’s nothing fantastic about her own life - permanently disabled and in constant pain from childhood polio.

In 1909, after a two-year absence, Od reappears with a suitcase supposedly full of weapons and a promise to rescue Tru from the monsters on their way to attack her. But it’s Od who seems haunted by something. And when the sisters’ search for their mother leads them to a face-off with the Leeds Devil, a nightmarish beast that’s wreaking havoc in the Mid-Atlantic states, Tru discovers the peculiar possibility that she and her sister - despite their dark pasts and ordinary appearances - might, indeed, have magic after all.

I've loved most of Cat Winters's previous books so am looking forward to this one quite a bit, especially as it features a disabled character. Roll on September!

Can't Wait Wednesday #180 - The Dark Intercept

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a new weekly meme hosted here to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally, they're books that have yet to be released as well. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
This week's choice is -

The Dark Intercept - Julia Keller 

ISBN - 9780765387622

Publisher - Tor Teen

Release date - November 7th, 2017

Find - Goodreads | Book Depository 

In a radiant world of endless summer, the Intercept keeps the peace. Violet Crowley, the sixteen-year-old daughter of New Earth’s Founding Father, has spent her life in comfort and safety. Her days are easy thanks to the Intercept, a crime-prevention device that monitors and provokes emotion. But when her long-time crush, Danny Mayhew, gets into a dangerous altercation on Old Earth, Violet launches a secret investigation to find out what he's hiding. An investigation that will lead her to question everything she's ever known about Danny, her father, and the power of the Intercept.

Besides loving the cover this sounds like it could be an intriguing mix of sci-fi and crime, not something you frequently find in YA! Looking forward to getting my hands on a copy and hoping it's as good as it sounds/looks.