Between Two Thorns by Emma Newman

Back in November of 2011, I hosted a short story by Emma Newman, Knotty Secrets, which takes place in the Split Worlds. The Split Worlds started out as a project where Emma would write a short story every week for a year and a day, and various bloggers (like me!) hosted these stories. Each of the stories takes place in the Split Worlds, a fantasy world where magic exists in forms of magical beings and acts. Between Two Thorns is the first novel of the Split Worlds, which comes out in the UK on March 7th and the US on February 26th. If you think you’ll be behind because you haven’t read the stories, don’t fear! They are merely fun back story for the world. The novel will completely stand alone; it is in no way necessary to have the knowledge the stories give you. However, if you’re interested in checking out the stories, I would recommend a few of my favorites to start with.

• The Good Client
• The Wishing Book
• Separation

Between Two Thorns is a 400 page urban fantasy. To give you an idea of the story, enjoy the novel’s blurb:

Something is wrong in Aquae Sulis, Bath’s secret mirror city. The new season is starting and the Master of Ceremonies is missing. Max, an Arbiter of the Split Worlds Treaty, is assigned with the task of finding him with no one to help but a dislocated soul and a mad sorcerer. There is a witness but his memories have been bound by magical chains only the enemy can break. A rebellious woman trying to escape her family may prove to be the ally Max needs. But can she be trusted? And why does she want give up eternal youth and the
life of privilege she’s been born into?

————-

Pre-order a copy of Between Two Thorns for a chance to win a great prize!
 Pre-order a copy of Between Two Thorns and you’ll be entered into a prize draw. If you win, you’ll have a character named after you in “All Is Fair” – the third Split Worlds novel (released October 2013) – and a special mention at the end of the book.

How to Enter
Pre-order a copy of the book from your favourite retailer (if you pre-order from Forbidden Planet you’ll get a signed copy).

If you order from Forbidden Planet or robottradingcompany.com (for ebooks) you don’t need to do anything else – Angry Robot will take care of your entry for you. If you pre-order from anywhere else you’ll need to email a copy of your order confirmation to: thorns@angryrobotbooks.com and they’ll assign a number to you.

Where to Pre-order

• Forbidden Planet (signed paperback) http://forbiddenplanet.com/97907-between-two-thorns/

• Angry Robot Trading company – for DRM-free ebook http://www.robottradingcompany.com/between-two-thorns-emma-newman.html
• Amazon (paperback)

1. UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/Between-Two-Thorns-Split-World/dp/0857663194/
2. US http://www.amazon.com/Between-Two-Thorns-Emma-Newman/dp/0857663208/

• The Book depository (Worldwide free postage)

1. UK Edition http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Between-Two-Thorns-Emma-Newman/9780857663191
2. US Edition (bigger) http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Between-Two-Thorns-Emma-Newman/9780857663207

There are two UK launches and an international one using the magic of telephone conferencing. All the details are here: http://www.enewman.co.uk/real-world-adventures/between-two-thorns-launches-prizes-and-parties

————-

Order your copy of Between Two Thorns today, and join the fun that is the Split Worlds!

31 Day Book List Wrap-up

I would like to finish off my list of favorites and whatnot that I started last year, because I got super busy with friends and family at the end of December and never had a chance to think about this or update my blog. Feel free to comment with your own favorites, or adapt the list for a month of your own favorites!

Day 15 – Favorite male character: Kvothe from The Kingkiller Chronicles (Patrick Rothfuss). He is a tragic, musically talented, mystical dude who rocks.

Day 16 – Favorite female character: Vin from the Mistborn series (Brandon Sanderson). She starts off with extreme issues of self-doubt and poverty and whatnot, and ends up a kickass character who I loved to read about.

Day 17 – Favorite quote from your favorite book:
“Then I played the song that hides in the center of me. That wordless music that moves through the secret places in my heart. I played it carefully, strumming it slow and low into the dark stillness of the night. I would like to say it is a happy song, that it is sweet and bright, but it is not.” It is from The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss; the quote encapsulates everything I think Kvothe represents. I love it.

Day 18 – A book that disappointed you: City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare. I really enjoyed every one of her books until I read that one. It disheartened me.

Day 19 – Favorite book turned into a movie: Probably Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. It’s actually the reason I bought and read the novel. The movie was really moving, and Elijah Wood did a great job as JSF.

Day 20 – Favorite romance book: I don’t really read romance novels… I guess Memoirs of a Geisha was sort of a romance? That one was really good.

Day 21 – Favorite book from your childhood: Shel Silverstein’s poetry books. I have them all and love them dearly.

Day 22 – Favorite book you own: Everything is Illuminated (Jonathan Safran Foer), just for the fun cover and language.

Day 23 – A book you wanted to read for a long time but still haven’t: Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Day 24 – A book that you wish more people have read: Any books from the Abhorsen trilogy. I have found very few people who have read it. Which to me is odd, because it is one of my favorite series ever. I suppose if I had to pick one book from it, I would pick Sabriel, because that’s sort of the starting point in the series.

Day 25 – A character who you can relate to the most: Lirael (Lirael by Garth Nix). She was who I empathized with when I was younger. Quiet, self-reliant, felt like an outcast, felt unskilled where others excelled. She worked in the Library and her best friend was a talking dog. She was everything I needed in a fictional character for a long time.

Day 26 – A book that changed your opinion about something: Hero of Ages (Brandon Sanderson). It gave me hope and made me stop being such a nihilist.

Day 27 – The most surprising plot twist or ending: Because I feel I shouldn’t go with Fight Club, I will pick The Lottery (Shirley Jackson). Admittedly, it is only a short story, but the ending was haunting when paired with the apparently serene small-town vibe the beginning of the story puts off.

Day 28 – Favorite title: The Perks of Being A Wallflower. It just appeals to me.

Day 29 – Favorite book cover: Doodling by Jonathon Gould. The cover is dark and bright at the same time, and it really drew me to the novella.

Day 30 – A book everyone hated but you liked: Perhaps Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy. I read this for a women’s lit. class and really enjoyed it. I ended up doing my final project on it… and I don’t know how much my classmates enjoyed it, but it definitely wasn’t nearly as much as I did.

Day 31 – Your favorite book of all time: This is a really, really, really hard choice. It changes every time I read a new book. What I’m reading is usually my favorite. I can’t pick just one! I literally cannot pick a book. I might have to say The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett, because I just finished it and it was brilliant. If you want to learn about the book, check out the goodreads description, at least until I put my review up!

 

Happy Birthday to my Blog!

October marks the one year anniversary of what is now known as the Realm of Reviews. I recently have been slacking a bit on the review side of things. I have been stuck on the same books for so long that reading almost started losing its appeal. I have been trudging through Clash of Kings; I’ve also been trying to finish Mercury Rising on my Kindle, The Once and Future King, and have been reading aloud The Hobbit with a special someone. I also started Ten Big Ones (Janet Evanovich) but haven’t really got anywhere with it.

Instead of reading lately, I’ve been playing video games — a friend lent me Knights of Amalur: Reckoning, I bought Lord of the Rings: War in the North, I got Borderlands 2, and have still occasionally been playing Halo Reach. As for PC, I recently bought Knights of the Old Republic for $2, so I’ve been replaying that as well — and it is a LONG game! Along with gaming, I’ve been trying to catch up on some anime. I’ve been watching some Bleach — I am very early on in the series — and quite a bit of Naruto. As for other shows, I caught up on The Walking Dead to watch the season premiere, and my buddy lent me Game of Thrones season one so I will be watching that for a while, and perhaps reviewing the series when I finish it.

Aside from all these distractions, my roommate suggested a while back that I pick up a new book to help me get back into reading. I read Fight Club and was immediately reminded why I love reading. After Fight Club, I started Skyship Academy: Crimson Rising by Nick James, and it is fantastic. I hope to have the review up within the next week or two (once the book is finished). After that, Clash of Kings will be the next book to tackle. I only have about 200 pages left, so hopefully it won’t take too long. After that, along with slowly finishing the other already-started books, I think I will start my Wheel of Time (Robert Jordan) read-through. Since I am now in possession of the first six books, I think that is the best plan of action. Along with free reading, I will also be reading Meditations by Aurelius for a humanities course, A Raisin in the Sun for a theater course, and some assorted drama pieces for my critical reading/writing course.

Looking back at one year of writing reviews — about 54 of them — I realize how much my reviewing and understanding of writing has changed. I hope, by looking through my old reviews, anyone could agree. In the next year of reviews I plan to grow even more. Now, I am even writing some of my own stuff — short stories and the like. I hope to have another year of fun reading and writing ahead of me. I would recommend starting a blog (reading, writing, or otherwise) to everyone; it is incredibly satisfying. One of the most rewarding things about blogging about the books I have read is being able to look back on the impression each book left on me. Sometimes I find it hard to recall certain emotions or thoughts I had about a book, so it has been really nice to be able to reread my thoughts on them. This is especially true when I want to read a sequel to a book, but don’t want to reread the original book first (ex: Pearl Wars, and the sequel I’m reading now, Crimson Rising). It has been an excellent year blogging, and I truly hope to keep blogging for a good long while.

Read on, fellow readers!

Book Buying

Recently, I went to the Goodwill in Cedar Falls and had a shopping spree… in the book section. I was just glancing through titles when I came upon the third book in the Wheel of Time series (Robert Jordan) in a hardback. I was excited, but a little sad that they didn’t have the second book, as I already purchased the first from amazon. To my delight… I found the second, fourth, and fifth in paperback. Not far from there, I found a few others in the series as well! After I finish the few books I have going right now — Clash of Kings, The Once and Future King, A Raisin in the Sun, Meditations (Aurelius) — I plan to start reading the Wheel of Time series. I’ve only heard good things, and due to the new book is coming out soon, I have a few friends (and see other blogs) doing read-throughs or rereads of the series that I plan to join.

Along with the many Wheel of Time books I bought, I also bought a couple Dean Koontz books (The House of Thunder, Tick Tock), Michael Crichton books (Congo and Jurassic Park — I have Lost World, but not Jurassic Park?! No more!)  The Inferno, which I have read parts of but never in its entirety, and a couple books for my three-year-old niece (a Clifford book, a good beginner Star Wars book and The Last Airbender: Aang’s Destiny, again, a beginner book).

While looking through the books, I had a thought… It’s sad to see so many books being let go to a Goodwill, where they aren’t loved anymore. BUT then I think about how I got 14 books for under $4, and then I don’t feel so bad. Do you get books at stores like Goodwill? I also enjoy looking through garage sale books, though most of them in my town are religious books, and I really don’t care to read those.

One of my favorite things about buying books secondhand are the things people leave in the books as bookmarks or what have you. In one book, there was a little laminated card about a religious golf club thing called Ascend which was interesting; in one book, there was a graduation party invitation; who knows what else I will find when I read through the Wheel of Time books I bought!

Finals Week

Hello there loyal followers! I haven’t had a chance to do a post recently, for many reasons. Excuses include: reading three books at once, being busy with Mass Effect 3 and Assassin’s Creed, and lastly FINALS. I’ve had projects, papers, and ‘studying’ galore the past two weeks, and therefore haven’t had much time to read (it’s a lazy excuse, since I made time to play video games). Luckily, starting today, I’m on break until April 30th, when we start our May term class (a three week, three-hour-a-day class).

This week, I was expected to turn in a paper about feng shui for my Asian cultures class, turn in a screen adaptation of a story or book of my choice — I chose the prologue and first chapter of The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss — for my film and literature class, and a creative project and researched rationale for said project for my British literature class. For that, we had to pick an author or story or something we focused on in class and do a project that had something to do with it. I chose to focus on “Love and Freindship” by Jane Austen. I wrote a series of letters to a male friend about interactions with two different female friends. It was a fun little study on how my attitude towards a friendship affects content of  interactions and conversations.

Along with all this, I was playing two games. I beat Mass Effect 3, and although the end was a little… brief… as you may have heard from the outcry from the online community, it was a good game. It was very fast paced and exciting. I still prefer Mass Effect 1, mostly because of the role-playing elements, but the gameplay in 3 was quite fun. I have also just started playing through the Assassin’s Creed games. I’m only a few hours into the first one, but it’s fun and I will probably end up spending a good amount of my break playing it. I will most likely also do another play through of Mass Effect 3, just for good measure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, as a sort of replacement for a review this week, I decided to do a preview of upcoming reviews. I am taking a graphic novel course for May term, and will probably review each of them here. We are planning to read both Maus I and II by Art Spiegelman, which I actually read last year, but never thought about reviewing. We are also reading Watchmen, which I didn’t realize… When I read Ghost World and 28 Days Later: The Aftermath, I also checked out Watchmen, and am about halfway through it. The other graphic novel that we plan to read is Black Hole by Charles Burns. Along with standalone graphic novels, we are looking at an anthology called Best American Comics 2011 which is attributed to editors Alison Bechdel, Jessica Abel, and Matt Madden and a book titled Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am, of course, still reading The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson. I am about halfway through, and it’s quite enjoyable so far. I’m hoping to finish it and The Hero of Ages over break, and have the reviews up soon. On a bit of a side note, after my final final today, I plan to stop in at the North American Review at UNI to let them know I am interested in a job (writer, editor, whatever they have). The NAR is the first literary journal to be published in the US and has a great reputation. When I attend UNI next year, I’m really hoping to be able to work there. Wish me luck!