WWW Wednesday: 9/27

It’s been such a hot minute since I’ve done this post, and how I’ve missed it. (It’s been nearly a month!) I always love telling everyone what I’m reading, what I just read, and end what I’m considering reading next.

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme that used to be hosted at A Daily Rhythm, but has been taken over by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words. Now, without further ado, let’s get into the 3 Ws!

The 3 Ws of WWW Wednesday:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?


The Thing I’m Currently Reading

Cursed by Marissa Meyer

Cursed by Marissa Meyer

CURRENT STATUS: 50%

CURRENT FEELS: 🤔 (meh, so-so, unsure)

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

New York Times-bestselling author Marissa Meyer concludes her young adult retelling of Rumpelstiltskin in this sequel!

Serilda and Gild attempt to break the curses that tether their spirits to Adalheid’s haunted castle before the Endless Moon, when the Erlking means to capture one of the seven gods and make a wish to return his lover, Perchta, from the underworld. But as the story progresses, it becomes clear he doesn’t want just one god – he wants to capture all seven, and force them to bring down the veil that keeps the Dark Ones separate from the land of the mortals. Serilda and Gild must try to thwart his plans, all while solving the mystery of Gild’s forgotten name, freeing his younger sister who is trapped inside Gravenstone Castle, and trying to protect their unborn child.

Romance, adventure, and Serilda’s journey to finding her power as a woman, a mother, and a partner make this a retelling that Meyer fans – old and new – will treasure.


The Thing I Most Recently Finished Reading

Sandymancer by David Edison

Sandymancer by David Edison

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

A wild girl with sand magic in her bones and a mad god who is trying to fix the world he broke come together in SANDYMANCER, a genre-warping mashup of weird fantasy and hard science fiction.

All Caralee Vinnet has ever known is dust. Her whole world is made up of the stuff; water is the most precious thing in the cosmos. A privileged few control what elements remain. But the world was not always a dust bowl and the green is not all lost.

Caralee has a secret—she can draw up power from the sand beneath her feet. But when she does… she winds up summoning a monster: The former god-king who broke the world 800 years ago and has stolen the body of her best friend.

Caralee will risk the whole world to take back what she’s lost. If her new companion doesn’t kill her first.

Sandymancer is what happens when Oz meets armageddon, with failed gods, lost magics, and murderous gigantic steel harpies. Caralee has always longed to see more of this broken world—but as she stumbles upon its secret roots, she may discover that their doomsday wasn’t quite what everyone thought.


The Thing I Might Read Next

The Chalice of the Gods by Rick Riordon

The Chalice of the Gods by Rick Riordon

(The first – and really unexpected – Percy Jackson book in thirteen years. Not a spin-off, or a new series that exists in the same universe, like Heroes of Olympus or Magnus Chase, but an actual book sux with the original trio that started it all! This series was huge for me growing up – of course I’m gonna read this book!)

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

The original heroes from The Lightning Thief are reunited for their biggest challenge yet: getting Percy to college when the gods are standing in his way.

After saving the world multiple times, Percy Jackson is hoping to have a normal senior year. Unfortunately, the gods aren’t quite done with him. Percy will have to fulfill three quests in order to get the necessary three letters of recommendation from Mount Olympus for college.

The first quest is to help Zeus’s cup-bearer retrieve his goblet before it falls into the wrong hands. Can Percy, Grover, and Annabeth find it in time?

Readers new to Percy Jackson and fans who have been awaiting this reunion for more than a decade will delight equally in this latest hilarious take on Greek mythology. 


What books are you guys currently reading? Have you read any of the ones on my list this week? What did you think of them, if you had? How do you feel about the book(s) you’re reading now?

Anyway, thank you to everyone for reading, and I hope that you have a fantastic day/night!

See ya ~Mar

Book Review: “Sandymancer” by David Edison

Sandymancer by David Edison

Sandymancer by David Edison

LENGTH: 368 pages

GENRES: Fantasy, Science Fiction, YA, Fiction

PUBLISHER: Tor Books

RELEASE DATE: 19 September 2023

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

A wild girl with sand magic in her bones and a mad god who is trying to fix the world he broke come together in SANDYMANCER, a genre-warping mashup of weird fantasy and hard science fiction.

All Caralee Vinnet has ever known is dust. Her whole world is made up of the stuff; water is the most precious thing in the cosmos. A privileged few control what elements remain. But the world was not always a dust bowl and the green is not all lost.

Caralee has a secret—she can draw up power from the sand beneath her feet. But when she does… she winds up summoning a monster: The former god-king who broke the world 800 years ago and has stolen the body of her best friend.

Caralee will risk the whole world to take back what she’s lost. If her new companion doesn’t kill her first.

Sandymancer is what happens when Oz meets armageddon, with failed gods, lost magics, and murderous gigantic steel harpies. Caralee has always longed to see more of this broken world—but as she stumbles upon its secret roots, she may discover that their doomsday wasn’t quite what everyone thought.

My Review

Sandymancer was one of the new releases of this year’s third quarter that I was really looking forward to. And, ugh, again I just didn’t care for it. I don’t know what’s wrong with me – usually I’m interested in books I end up liking.

I honestly don’t know how much of a review this is gonna be, cuz I kind of came away from this novel not really feeling much of anything. I didn’t exactly hate it, but I didn’t really like it either.

So, I’m gonna just go straight into the review.

Pros

  • The premise ▼

I thought that the idea and the world building of Sandymancer was super interesting. Whenever past and present or present and future mix, you can get a bunch of interesting interactions between characters. And there were some of these – even if I think they could’ve been done better.

  • The world ▼

As I mentioned, I really liked the background and world building here. I especially liked the setting itself. It was so cool. Edison really did a good job bringing the world to life – I had no trouble visualizing the way it looked.

I also really loved the different biomes. The summary makes it seem like the only places the novel will be taking you is around a desert, but the characters actually go through a few kinds of different places.

Cons

  • Everything else ▼

I didn’t really like anything else about the novel. Not that it was necessarily bad or anything, I just didn’t care for anything else. The characters were okay, but I didn’t really have any feelings about them either way. And the narrative didn’t really match the third person limited perspective of the main character.

Another thing I didn’t like was the flashback chapters that appeared every two chapters. They seemed redundant and annoying, and basically everything that happens in them eventually comes to light during the journey in the present. The flashbacks really felt unnecessary, and I wish they weren’t there. They always took me out of the story’s flow.

I also found that there was too much for such a small SFF novel. The world building felt like it was for a tale much bigger than the one we got, and it makes me wonder if this was originally intended to be a duology or a trilogy or something. There were just so many concepts introduced.

The ending was also subpar. I didn’t like it. I also didn’t like the sequel bait that the author snuck in – even if such a thing might expand the world and warrant the extensive world building. I just don’t care about this world enough, I guess.

Final Thoughts

All in all, Sandymancer by David Edison is an okay book. It’s definitely not for everyone, me included, but those who enjoy weird and unique science-fantasy and such might be interested in giving it a shot.

Have you read this book? What did you think of it? Have you read any of the author’s other work?

As always, thank you for reading, and have a wonderful day/night!

See ya ~Mar


MY LINKS:


My Most Anticipated SFF Reads of 2023 | Months 7, 8, & 9 🐚☀️🍁

So, this post is a few days later than I’d planned, but once again, I was super busy this past week as well as ill. But I’m posting it today.

It’s quarter three of 2023 now, so it’s time to do that thing I’ve done every quarter again. I’m gonna go over the books that are coming out over the next three months that interest me the most.

This time I have five. For real this time. I’m genuinely interested in five different books releasing (or re-releasing) this quarter.

Without further ado, let’s be off!

Gods of the Wyrdwood by R.J. Barker

RELEASING: July 18th

NOTE: The physical copy has already been released, but the digital version hasn’t yet, so I’m listing it here on a technicality. 😆😅

Ours is a land of many gods, and we are a people with the ability to pick the worst of them.

Cahan du Nahare is known as the forester – a man who can navigate the dangerous Deepforest like no-one else. But once he was more. Once he belonged to the god of fire.

Udinny serves the goddess of the lost, a goddess of small things; when she ventures into the Deepforest to find a lost child, Cahan will be her guide. But in a land where territory is won and lost for uncaring gods, where temples of warrior monks pit one prophet against another – Cahan will need to choose the forest or the fire – and his choice will have consequences for his entire world.

Gods of the Wyrdwood is book one in an evocative new fantasy trilogy from RJ Barker, the British Fantasy Society Award-winning author of The Bone Ships and Age of Assassins.

Masters of Death: Revised Edition by Olivie Blake

RELEASING: August 8th

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six comes Masters of Death, a story about vampires, ghosts, and death itself.

*Now newly revised and edited with additional content, this hardcover edition will include new interior illustrations from Little Chmura and special illustrated endpapers from artist Polarts.*

There is a game that the immortals play.

There is only one rule: Don’t lose.

Viola Marek is a struggling real estate agent, and a vampire. But her biggest problem currently is that the house she needs to sell is haunted. The ghost haunting the mansion has been murdered, and until he can solve the mystery of how he died, he refuses to move on.

Fox D’Mora is a medium, and though he is also most-definitely a shameless fraud, he isn’t entirely without his uses―seeing as he’s actually the godson of Death.

When Viola seeks out Fox to help her with the ghost infestation, he becomes inextricably involved in a quest that neither he nor Vi expects (or wants). But with the help of an unruly poltergeist, a demonic personal trainer, a sharp-voiced angel, a love-stricken reaper, and a few mindfulness-practicing creatures, Vi and Fox soon discover the difference between a mysterious lost love and an annoying dead body isn’t nearly as distinct as they thought.

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

RELEASING: August 15th

From USA Today bestselling author T. Kingfisher, Thornhedge is the tale of a kind-hearted, toad-shaped heroine, a gentle knight, and a mission gone completely sideways.

There’s a princess trapped in a tower. This isn’t her story.

Meet Toadling. On the day of her birth, she was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. Once an adult though, the fae ask a favor of Toadling: return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Simple, right?

But nothing with fairies is ever simple.

Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering wall of brambles, where the thorns are as thick as your arm and as sharp as swords. He’s heard there’s a curse here that needs breaking, but it’s a curse Toadling will do anything to uphold…

City of Bones: Updated & Revised Edition by Martha Wells

RELEASING: September 5th

Before Martha Wells captured the hearts of MILLIONS with her Murderbot series, there was Khat, Sagai, and Elen, and a city risen out of death and decay…

The city of Charisat, a tiered monolith of the Ancients’ design, sits on the edge of the vast desert known as the Waste. Khat, a member of a humanoid race created by the Ancients to survive in the Waste, and Sagai, his human partner, are relic dealers working in the bottom tiers of society, trying to stay one step ahead of the Trade Inspectors.

When Khat is hired by the all-powerful Warders to find relics believed to be part of one of the Ancients’ arcane engines, he, and his party, begin unravelling the mysteries of an age-old technology.

This they expected.

They soon find themselves as the last line of defense between the suffering masses of Charisat and a fanatical cult, bent on unleashing an evil upon the city with an undying thirst for bone.

Sandymancer by David Edison

RELEASING: September 19th

A wild girl with sand magic in her bones and a mad god who is trying to fix the world he broke come together in SANDYMANCER, a genre-warping mashup of weird fantasy and hard science fiction.

All Caralee Vinnet has ever known is dust. Her whole world is made up of the stuff; water is the most precious thing in the cosmos. A privileged few control what elements remain. But the world was not always a dust bowl and the green is not all lost.

Caralee has a secret―she has magic in her bones and can draw up power from the sand beneath her feet to do her bidding. But when she does she winds up summoning a monster: the former god-king who broke the world 800 years ago and has stolen the body of her best friend.

Caralee will risk the whole world to take back what she’s lost. If her new companion doesn’t kill her first.

As always, thank you for reading, and have a wonderful day/night!

See ya ~Mar