Returning to the Fading Lands with his Celierian truemate, Rain discovers a dissension among the most powerful members of his own council. As the Eld plot their next deadly strike, Ellysetta struggles to master her powerful magic and discover how to save the tairen, while Rain confronts open challenge to his rule and prepares to lead the Fey army to war.

Since her earliest memories, Ellysetta Baristani has feared magic, even as she has been inexorably drawn to all things Fey, especially the poetry and legends of Rain Tairen Soul. Now claimed as Rain’s truemate and no longer able to deny her own magic, Ellysetta is swept into the very center of a struggle filled with the magic and darkness she has always feared. The High Mage of Eld wants to capture her. The most murderous dahl’reisen who ever lived wants her dead. And her enemies will corrupt even the people she loves most in their quest to claim her magic for themselves.

Long ago, in the magical holocaust known as the Mage Wars, the immortal Fey and their allies fought to defeat the grasping evil of the Elden Mages and their dark-gifted supporters. During those wars, in a fit of grief-induced madness caused by the death of his mate, Fey shapeshifter Rain Tairen Soul nearly destroyed the world in a blaze of tairen fire.

Now, a thousand years later, the fierce Fey king must fight to save his race from the brink of extinction and once again stop the evil rising in the homeland of his enemies, the Eld. The key to his success lies in the mortal city of Celieria, where the Mage Wars began, and with a young woman whose soul sings to him in ways no woman’s ever has, whose presence reawakens the primal fury of the tairen within his soul, and whose vast, untapped power can either save or destroy him and his people.

Alianne is the sixteen-year old daughter of Tortall's legendary lady knight, Alanna the Lioness. Her mother isn't the only legend in Aly's life--from her adopted aunt Daine, a demi-goddess and mage, to her godfather, the king of Tortall, Aly lives among legends and wonders.  She takes them in stride.  What she cannot accept is the fact that her parents refuse to allow her the career she's been raised to by her father, that of a spy (Mom says, "not another spy in the family;" Dad says, "not my little girl!").  Aly's had enough.  If her parents won't let her be a spy, then at least she means to have some fun.  She gets more than she expected when she sails straight into a pirate fleet.  The pirates capture her and sell her as a slave to the noble Balitang family in the Copper Isles.


TRICKSTER'S CHOICE is the story of Aly, the daughter of the legendary Lady Knight Alanna. Trying to escape her mother's expectations that she find meaningful work outside of spying and code breaking, Aly sails away...read review here.

It's a few years after rebel Tally Youngblood took down the uglies/pretties/specials regime. Without those strict roles and rules, the world is in a complete cultural renaissance. "Tech-heads" flaunt their latest gadgets, "kickers" spread gossip and trends, and "surge monkeys" are hooked on extreme plastic surgery. And it's all monitored on a bazillion different cameras. The world is like a gigantic game of American Idol. Whoever is getting the most buzz gets the most votes. Popularity rules.

As if being fifteen doesn't suck enough, Aya Fuse's rank of 451,369 is so low, she's a total nobody. An extra. But Aya doesn't care; she just wants to lie low with her drone, Moggle. And maybe kick a good story for herself.

Then Aya meets a clique of girls who pull crazy tricks, yet are deeply secretive of it. Aya wants desperately to kick their story, to show everyone how intensely cool the Sly Girls are. But doing so would propel her out of extra-land and into the world of fame, celebrity...and extreme danger. A world she's not prepared for.


A few years have passed since Tally Youngblood destroyed the establishment based on pretties, uglies and specials. Now popularity runs the world. Popularity means power. Each citizen is ranked by how much she or he is talked about. Cameras record everything as they vie to be the person with the most buzz...read review here.

"Special Circumstances":

The words have sent chills down Tally's spine since her days as a repellent, rebellious ugly. Back then Specials were a sinister rumor -- frighteningly beautiful, dangerously strong, breathtakingly fast. Ordinary pretties might live their whole lives without meeting a Special. But Tally's never been ordinary.

And now she's been turned into one of them: a superamped fighting machine, engineered to keep the uglies down and the pretties stupid.

The strength, the speed, and the clarity and focus of her thinking feel better than anything Tally can remember. Most of the time. One tiny corner of her heart still remembers something more.

 Still, it's easy to tune that out -- until Tally's offered a chance to stamp out the rebels of the New Smoke permanently. It all comes down to one last choice: listen to that tiny, faint heartbeat, or carry out the mission she's programmed to complete. Either way, Tally's world will never be the same.



Tally is now a Cutter, a new branch of Special Circumstances. The Cutters, led by Tally's longtime friend Shay, arrive at an uglies party looking for outsiders crashing the festivities to stir up trouble. Tally and the other Cutters are disguised as uglies, which causes Tally to feel nostalgic as she watches the poor uglies awkwardly interacting...read review here.

The book begins with Tally, the protagonist, as a Pretty debating what to wear to a bash. While attending the bash at which she is to be voted into the "Crims" clique, she is followed by someone who appears to be a "Special", a member of Special Circumstances, which brings back many memories for her.


Tally's story continues from the previous book, UGLIES, in this second installment of Scott Westerfeld's futuristic trilogy. Tally is now a pretty who lives only for good times. While attending a party at which she is to be voted into the Crims clique, she is followed by someone appearing to be a member of the ominous Special Circumstances team...read review here.

Uglies is a 2005 science fiction novel by Scott Westerfeld. Set in a future post-scarcity dystopian world in which everyone is turned "Pretty" by extreme cosmetic surgery upon reaching age 16. It tells the story of teenager Tally Youngblood who rebels against society's enforced conformity, after her new found friends Shay and David show her the downsides to becoming a "pretty". Written for young adults, Uglies deals with adolescent themes of change, both emotional and physical, and dealing with the revelation that "some of what you’re taught isn’t true, your parents are flawed human beings and the world isn’t constructed for your benefit."



Tally can’t wait to be a pretty.  Her best friend has already turned 16 and had the operation.  Against all the rules, Tally sneaks into New Pretty Town and visits him, promising to do nothing to risk remaining an ugly forever.  In that short summer, Tally meets Shay, another ugly who shares Tally’s birthday.  The two become fast friends, but Shay, disturbingly, does not want to be a pretty.  When Shay sneaks away just before their birthday, Tally is forced to go find her or never become a pretty; but after all that she discovers, does she really want to be one...read review here.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies -- "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains." So begins Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an expanded edition of the beloved Jane Austen novel featuring all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie mayhem. As our story opens, a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton—and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers—and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead. Can she vanquish the spawn of Satan? And overcome the social prejudices of the class-conscious landed gentry? Complete with romance, heartbreak, swordfights, cannibalism, and thousands of rotting corpses, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you'd actually want to read.

The novel, set in post- Spanish Civil War Barcelona, concerns a young boy, Daniel. Just after the war, Daniel's father takes him to the secret Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a huge library of old, forgotten titles lovingly preserved by a select few initiates. According to tradition, everyone initiated to this secret place is allowed to take one book from it, and must protect it for life.


The Shadow of the Wind is a dream date for those who love books. It starts, in 1945, with the introduction of the young narrator, Daniel, to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. Daniel’s father, a dealer of used and rare books in Barcelona, tells the young boy, “When a library disappears, or a bookshop closes down, when a book is consigned to oblivion, those of us who know this place, its guardians, make sure that it gets here.” In the Cemetery...read review here.

You're seventy-five years old, your wife is dead, and your life is winding down. What do you do next? If you're John Perry, the answer is simple: You join the military. The Colonial Defense Forces take Earth's senior citizens and retrofit them young, strong bodies -- and then throws them into the unending war humanity is waging against other civilizations up there among the stars. John Perry is in the middle of it all and learning fast to survive, because the alternatives -- for him and humanity -- are grim. And it's in the middle of this struggle for survival that Perry meets a woman who seems achingly familiar...


Old Man's War is a tremendous, confident SF debut for well-known blogger John Scalzi. Openly patterning itself after Starship Troopers, Old Man's War takes an exciting tale of alien conflict and dresses it up intelligently with such themes as individual identity, what makes one human, the significance of mortality, and the ethics of life extension. Economically told at just over 300 pages...read review here.

Kel fights to maintain the rigorous regimen of a page while confronting the prejudices that come with being a female in a man's world and coping with a crush on her closest friend, Neal.

Continuing after Alanna the Lady Knight...In the medieval and fantastic realm of Tortall, Keladry of Mindelan is the first girl to take advantage of the decree that permits females to train for knighthood. However, all is not well as the male-minded traditions of the Realm of Tortall take her on a probationary basis. She must prove herself before her teachers, her classmates, and sometimes...even her friends.


For ten years now the Kingdom of Tortall has allowed girls to train as pages and squires, but not one has stepped forward to do so. Then Keladry...read review here.

Sorry I haven't been uploading for a while...okay, for a long while. But I just haven't been able to decide what to do. I have some crappy ebooks here, mixed in with some half-way good ones, as well as some really spectacular books. I haven't been able to decide whether I should upload them all since their just cluttering up my memory space (the crappy ones mostly). And true to my own fashion, if I don't really want to think about something, I relegate it to the back of my mind right next to the soon-to-be-forgotten pile. Hehe...it actually hasn't been all that hard to forget about this blog, what with school and everything. But since the semester's done now, I've decided to immerse myself in this once again (since I have nothing else to do) and upload all the books currently in my laptop. I'm still debating on others, like the Uglies series by Westefeld which I never particularly favored, and some romances (since I'm a romance fan) that aren't really SF or F. Oh well, I'm sure I'll be able to make up my mind in time.

Twelve-year-old Meggie’s father has a special gift: when he reads a book aloud, the characters actually come to life. Unfortunately, some books contain creepy villains and magical creatures! Inkheart is a rousing adventure full of chases, narrow escapes, and surprising twists.
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PUBLISHER: Voyager
FORMAT: Paperback
RELEASED: 02-Jun-2008
ISBN-10: 0732284538
ISBN-13: 9780732284534


The powerful conclusion to this compelling series ...

In Ethrea, Rhian sits upon a precarious throne. Defiant dukes who won′t accept her rule threaten the stability of her kingdom. Dexterity has been banished from court in disgrace. The blue-haired slave Zandakar, a man she thought was her friend, has been revealed as the son of a woman sworn to destroy her world. And Rhian′s husband, King Alasdair, is unsure of her love.

The trading nations refuse to believe Mijak is a threat, and promise reprisals if she dares protect her realm. Only Emperor Han of mysterious Tzhung-tzhungchai knows that the danger from Mijak is real.

But is he an ally, or an enemy in disguise? As she struggles to learn the truth and keep her embattled crown, the murderous warhost of Mijak advances ...
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***download here***

PUBLISHER: Voyager
FORMAT: Paperback
RELEASED: 01-Dec-2007
ISBN-10: 073228452X
ISBN-13: 9780732284527


The second fabulous story in the Godspeaker trilogy ...

The King of Ethrea is dying and his only surviving heir is the Princess Rhian, but if her enemies have their way the kingdom will not be ruled by a Queen.

Ethrea, a small island of strategic importance, is known for its ability to keep the secrets of its business partners. Now civil war threatens as men of ambition eye the empty throne, and the other nations are getting nervous ... and greedy.

If Rhian cannot secure the crown, others will descend and conquer her lands. A toymaker and a mysterious exile from Mijak may be her only hope ...
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Sidenote: For a moment, I thought I was reading another book entirely. You find yourself in another Kingdom with a different culture and outlook compared to the Empress of Majik. The worldbuilding of The Riven Kingdom is to be the complete opposite Majik. What it brought to mind was a carpenter tirelessly building a sturdy foundation block by block, until a shape is formed that can stand even the strongest of earthquakes. Karen Miller devotes an entire book to the imagination of a Kingdom wholly different from her first, in both it's people, their cultures, tradition, and most importantly...Religion.

PUBLISHER: Voyager
FORMAT: Paperback
RELEASED: 01-Jun-2007
ISBN-10: 0732284511
ISBN-13: 9780732284510




When a scrawny unwanted girl child is sold into slavery, a chain of events is set in motion that will have a profound impact on all the civilized world.
Hekat is taken in chains to Mijak′s largest city, home of the warlord Raklion. She is sold into his service and learns all she can about power - its wielding and its uses - as she fetches and carries and cleans and serves. She grows into a beautiful woman and through ambition and manipulation, Hekat becomes a powerful woman eventually taking over the rulership of Mijak ... and then she sets about making it the greatest Empire ever known.


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Sidenotes: This is the beginning to a great series. It's a fantasy setting of slavery, war, and magic set against the backdrop of a cruel God, absolute obedience, and the knowledge that ,...yes...God is All-knowing, All-powerful, and Unmerciful.

When a virulent epidemic strikes the Aerial Corps, Laurence and Temeraire must race to find the cure.
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Laurence and Temeraire travel to Istanbul for a priceless cargo of dragon eggs, but disaster threatens their mission.
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"I took a jaundiced view of "cute dragon" books until Novik won me over with her first novel. The combination of military history, sympathetic characters, and engaging style makes this series great, intelligent fun. This book, involving a perilous expedition from China to Turkey, climaxing at the siege of Danzig in 1807, is possibly the most exciting yet."
—The Times (UK)

Laurence and Temeraire face a long and terrible journey to Imperial China, where political intrigue may divide them forever.
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