Remember that Book Reviewers Meme that started at Grasping for the Wind and viraled out? Well, The Crotchety Old Fan is going through all of those links and posting a review of the blogs. He has completed the task and he created a page where you can see all of his reviews.
Interviews:
- Yasmine Galenorn, author of Night Huntress (Sisters of the Moon #), by Anya Bast
- Anya Bast, author of Witch Heart (Elemental Witches #3), by Yasmine Galenorn
- Michelle Hauf, author of the Bewitch the Dark series, by Vampire Wire CONTEST ALERT – a lucky commentator will win the complete set of Bewitch the Dark. Contest ends Saturday night.
Justin Gustainis is guest blogging over at Jeri Smith-Ready’s blog. He’s talking about the future of urban fantasy and there’s a giveaway as well. His new novel, Evil Ways, is up for grabs and the contest is open until Jan 9th.
Best Fantasy Stories has a Top 100 Fantasy Stories of 2008 and their list is pretty impressive. Instead of listing out 100 novels/stories, they’ve actually separated it by categories within Fantasy. Side note – it looks like this list doesn’t include books only published in 2008, but what they’ve read in 2008. Also, some books are in multiple categories.
In the paranormal world, you get a lot of stories about vampires, shapeshifters and witches, but there isn’t that much about the one supernatrual creature that a lot of people don’t necessary automatically fear – the gargoyle (at least I don’t – they are the natural protectors). So when I hear about a story involving gargoyles, it catches my attention. Which means I’ve found a new series – Les Gargouillen – by Vickie Taylor. The third novel, Legacy of Stone, will be out sometime this year, however there are still the first two novels – Carved in Stone and Flesh and Stone – to read and have already been added to the TBR list.
I’m not one to get too involved in TV shows anymore, but after reading this list of upcoming 2009 shows, that might change. The one that caught my attention was Merlin, a BBC series that’s being rebroadcast in the US. Other than the fact that it is Merlin, what really caught my attention was who was playing King Uther – Anthony Stewart Head.
Carrie Vaughn is giving us her opinion (or at least the first part of it) on why Urban Fantasy is so popular right now.
Margaret Carter is guest blogging over at Paranormality about Sex and the Sympathetic Vampire. CONTEST ALERT – There is an e-copy of Shadow of the Beast up for grabs, so head on over and check it out.
CONTEST ALERT – Patricia’s Vampire Notes has announced it’s January contest. She’s giving away a copy of Night Rising by Chris Marie Green, which is the first novel in her Vampire Babylon series.
Hadn’t heard about the Les Gargouillen series – will need to check that out. Another excellent urban fantasy series featuring gargoyles is C.E. Murphy’s Negotiator Trilogy. Have seen the Merlin shows and Stewart character is a real bastard.. The show is entertaining but don’t look for any historical accuracy. As always thanks for the links!
It’s Anthony Stewart HEAD.
Isn’t that what I said?
Taylor’s gargoyle books are *wonderful* – quite easy to recommend when I was a bookseller. A couple other paranormal plot-driven series with strong characters also suggestion-worthy are 1) the Sazi series by CT Adams & Cathy Clamp, and 2) Lynn Viehl’s Darkyn series.