BREAKING DAWN Trailer

I know a lot of you probably are not Twilight fan, but I am, and soo looking forward to Breaking Dawn! :)

Movie Release Date: 2 August 2011

IN THE MAIL: SATI

I would like to thank Theresa of Fantasy & SciFi Lovin' News & Reviews for hosting a giveaway which made it possible for me to win a copy of Sati by Christopher Pike!

Sati by Christopher Pike

About Sati:

I once knew this girl who thought she was God. She didn’t give sight to the blind or raise the dead. She didn’t even teach anything, not really, and she never told me anything I probably didn’t already know.
On the other hand, she didn’t expect to be worshipped, nor did she ask for money. Given her high opinion of herself, some might call that a miracle.
I don’t know, maybe she was God. Her name was Sati and she had blonde hair and blue eyes.

For all who meet her, Sati will change everything. Sati may change everything for you.

Source: Info in the About Sati was taken from the author's website at http://christopherpikefanclub.com/2011/03/29/sati-the-season-of-passage-released-today/ on 05/06/2011.

WW28: BLAZE OF MEMORY

WW28
A chance to showcase your favourite!

• First you grab our Wicked Wednesday pic.
• Then you grab a book. Turn to page 28. Take the first sentence. And then you post it in your site with a link back to WW28.
• Come back to Cherry Mischievous - WW28 and give us the url of your post (in a comment at a WW28 post) so that other WW28 readers can find your WW28 offering.

WW28 book offering : Blaze Of Memory by Nalini Singh

Page 28, 1st Sentence:

It's not that I have anything against Catherine and Arif.

Sometimes we get the most lousy lines in WW28 that don't make a lot of sense, but I've just started reading this book so can't give you a better sentence than that yet... but this a PsyChangeling book and all of the books in that series are good so far...

About Blaze Of Memory:

Nalini Singh returns to the Psy/Changeling world and its “breathtaking blend of passion, adventure, and the paranormal”* as a woman without a past becomes the pawn of a man who controls her future…

Dev Santos discovers her unconscious and battered, with no memory of who she is. All she knows is that she’s dangerous. Charged with protecting his people’s most vulnerable secrets, Dev is duty-bound to eliminate all threats. It’s a task he’s never hesitated to complete…until he finds himself drawn to a woman who might yet prove the enemy’s most insidious weapon.

Stripped of her memories by a shadowy oppressor, and programmed to carry out cold-blooded murder, Katya Haas is fighting desperately for her sanity itself. Her only hope is Dev. But how can she expect to gain the trust of a man who could very well be her next target? For in this game, one must die…

Source: Info in the About Blaze Of Memory was taken from the author's website at http://www.nalinisingh.com/blaze.php on 05/06/2011.

Review: SILVER BORNE

Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs

Book 5 of the Mercy Thompson series

Genre: adult urban fantasy

About Silver Borne:

When mechanic and shapeshifter Mercy Thompson attempts to return a powerful Fae book she'd previously borrowed in an act of desperation, she finds the bookstore locked up and closed down. It seems the book contains secret knowledge-and the Fae will do just about anything to keep it out of the wrong hands. And if that doesn't take enough of Mercy's attention, her friend Samuel is struggling with his wolf side-leaving Mercy to cover for him, lest his own father declare Sam's life forfeit. All in all, Mercy has had better days. And if she isn't careful, she might not have many more to live...

Source: Info in the About Silver Borne was taken from the GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6587387 on 27/05/2011.

My Thoughts:

The story telling quality is masterful as per usual with Patricia Briggs. Simply compelling! I also like the way the story veered off from being too dark like the previous books were. And I liked that! Liked that a lot! It didn't detract from the quality of the story or book whatsoever, it just makes it a whole lot less disturbing for us readers, and for me in particular, and I prefer it like that. This being the 5th book in the series, I've said most of what I can say about this book in my review of the previous books. The world building and character development is simply wonderful! Keep in mind that my assessment might no longer be objective. Being a long-time Mercy Thompson fan, I am admittedly biased. I love this series and this book did not disappoint! Pace? I inhaled this book overnight, so I would say the pace is pretty fast.

A salient point in this book is Sam the Wolf's appearance. Although this is not the center stage of this story, it did occupy a relatively big part of the stage. I'm not going to say much about it or I will be giving out spoilers... however I imagine Sam as this big white wolf pic here. I think it fits Sam very well.

Overall this is another brilliant installment to the Mercy Thompson series and I would give it a 5 out of 5!

Empirical evaluation:
Story Telling Quality = 5
World Building = 5
Character Development = 5
Writing Style = 5
Plot = 4.5
Pace = 5
Story Itself = 4.5
Ending = 5

Overall Rating 5 out of 5 cherries


Books In This Series:
Click on the cover image to go to my review or the GoodReads page of the book for more info.

AUTHENTICITY FACTOR

AUTHENTICITY FACTOR. How authentic is the story line? The world building? As a reader, I find that I am more able to connect with a scene, character and/or a made-up world if it feels real to me. If it has a convincing semblance of reality in it. I call this the AUTHENTICITY FACTOR (AF). For a world, scene, plot, character or story to be authentic to me, it also has to make sense. The more it makes sense the more it's AF rating goes up. Take for example, let's take a scene off the book Sparks by Laura Bickle. This extremely long-lived character explained to this human about the idiosyncracy of his three-headed friend. He says:

"After a few centuries, they tend to develop a personality of their own."

Developing a personality after a long time is a logical possible next step to me in a magical entity. I can connect with that a whole lot more than just saying, "they are like that just because it's magic". Okey, that might be acceptable, but the AF rating would be a whole lot higher if it makes more sense than "just magic" and leave it at that. Those kind of books which leaves it to "just because it's magic" may catch my reader's attention but tends not to keep it. While the ones where it made more sense, not only catches my attention, but also has a higher likelyhood of keeping it.

The more authentic the world, the scene, the plot, the character is, the more I can easily suspend disbelief. Now a few concepts in the literary world here overlaps, like the concept of suspension of disbelief overlaps the authenticity factor. I guess it is sometimes inevitable that some concepts in the literary world would overlap as they play in the same field, so to speak. However, there is also a distinctness between the concepts of suspension of disbelief and authenticity factor. One is about suspending reality and the latter is about having as much reality in it as possible. And that is as far as I'm going with it's differences as this post is actually about the authenticity factor. There is a whole lot more to that "overlapping concepts" but that's also a discussion for another time.

So, to the book readers out there, what is your opinion about the authenticity factor of a story?

WISHLIST: BONDS OF JUSTICE

WISHLIST:

Bonds Of Justice by Nalini Singh

Genre: urban fantasy romance

About Bonds Of Justice:

Return to the powerful, turbulent Psy/Changeling world created by the “amazingly talented”* Nalini Singh, as a human detective finds himself working the most unlikely of cases—in the dark heart of a Councilor’s domain…

Max Shannon is a good cop, one of the best in New York Enforcement. Born with a natural shield that protects him against Psy mental invasions, he knows he has little chance of advancement within the Psy-dominated power structure. The last case he expects to be assigned is that of a murderer targeting a Psy Councilor’s closest advisors. And the last woman he expects to compel him in the most sensual of ways is a Psy on the verge of a catastrophic mental fracture…

Sophia Russo is a Justice-Psy, cursed with the ability to retrieve memories from men and women so twisted even veteran cops keep their distance. Appointed as Max’s liaison with the Psy, she finds herself fascinated by this human, her frozen heart threatening to thaw with forbidden emotion. But, her mind filled with other people’s nightmares, other people’s evil, she’s standing on the border between sanity and a silken darkness that urges her to take justice into her own hands, to become judge, jury…and executioner…

Source: Info in the About Bonds Of Justice was taken from the author's website at http://www.nalinisingh.com/bonds.php on 02/06/2011.

WW28: THE BLADE ITSELF

WW28
A chance to showcase your favourite!

• First you grab our Wicked Wednesday pic.
• Then you grab a book. Turn to page 28. Take the first sentence. And then you post it in your site with a link back to WW28.
• Come back to Cherry Mischievous - WW28 and give us the url of your post (in a comment at a WW28 post) so that other WW28 readers can find your WW28 offering.

WW28 book offering : The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

Page 28, 1st Sentence:

It was a beautiful spring day in Adua, and the sun shone pleasantly through the branches of the aromatic cedar, casting a dappled shade on the players beneath.

Yes, the Joe Abercrombie is descriptive...

About The Blade Itself:

Logen Ninefingers, infamous barbarian, has finally run out of luck. Caught up in one feud too many, he’s on the verge of becoming a dead barbarian, leaving nothing behind but some bad songs, a few dead friends, and a lot of happy enemies.

Nobleman, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness, Captain Jezal dan Luthar has nothing more dangerous in mind than fleecing his friends as cards and dreaming of glory in the fencing circle. But war is brewing, and on the battlefields of the frozen North they fight by altogether bloodier rules.

Inquisitor Glokta, cripple turned torturer, would like nothing better than to see Jezal come home in a jar. But then Glokta hates everyone: cutting treason out of the Union one confession at a time leaves little room for friendships. His latest trail of corpses may lead him right to the rotten heart of government… if he can stay alive long enough to follow it.

Murderous conspiracies rise to the surface, old scores are ready to be settled, and the line between hero and villain is sharp enough to draw blood. Unpredictable, compelling, wickedly funny, and packed with unforgettable characters, The Blade Itself is fantasy with a real cutting edge.

Source: Info in the About The Blade Itself was taken from the author's website at http://www.joeabercrombie.com/books/the-blade-itself on 06/03/2011.