Cover Reveal: Persistence of Vision by Liesel Hill

"In a world where collective hives are enslaving the population and individuals have been hunted to the verge of extinction, Maggie Harper, and independent 21st Century woman, must find the strength to preserve the freedom of the future, but without the aid of her memories.

After experiencing a traumatic time loss, Maggie is plagued by a barrage of images she can't explain. When she's attacked by a creep with a spider's web tattoo, she is saved by Marcus, a man she's never met, but somehow remembers. He tells her that both he and her creepy attacker are from a future in which individuals are being murdered by collectives, and Marcus is part of the rebellion. The collectives have acquired time travel and they plan to enslave the human race throughout all of history. The flashes Maggie has been seeing are echoes of lost memories, and the information buried deep within them is instrumental in defeating the collective hives.

In order to preserve the individuality of mankind, Maggie must try to re-discover stolen memories, re-kindle friendships she has no recollection of, and wade through her feelings for the mysterious Marcus, all while dodging the tattooed assassins the collectives keep sending her way.

If Maggie can't fill the holes in her memory and find the answers to stop the collectives, the world both in her time and in all ages past and future will be doomed to enslavement in the grey, mediocre collectives. As the danger swirls around her and the collectives close in, Maggie realizes she must make a choice: stand out or fade away..."

Futuristic! Dystopia! Time traveling! Gah! Too much awesome stuff! My head's exploding!

Where do I even begin? This book definitely sounds like something I would read; not only does it sound original (Hives? Must find out more!), but I also expect that it'll be full of adventure, which is what I think a lot of fiction is lacking these days. It's categorized as New Adult, meaning it reads like a YA novel but features slightly older characters. 

And yet another gorgeous cover. Very dark, very mysterious, very eye-catching. Especially the spiderweb design on that dude's face. 

I wish I had that on my face. (Haha, just kidding.) 

Persistence of Vision is slated for release before the end of the year, so make sure you keep an eye out for it! 

While you're at it, check out author Liesel K. Hill here:

Blog: Musings on Fantasia : musingsonfantasia.blogspot.com

Goodreads Author page:http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6517902.Liesel_K_Hill

Twitter account: twitter.com/lkhillbooks

Pinterest: pinterest.com/greenajah33

Goodreads Book page:  http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15982000-persistence-of-vision 

Happy reading, booknerds! ^.^

Review: Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Seraphina (Seraphina #1)
Author: Rachel Hartman
Released: July 10, 2012
Genre: YA fantasy
Pages: 467 (hardcover)

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers

"Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty's anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.

Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen's Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life."

EPIC. FANTASY. DRAGONS. Awesome!

Fans of epic fantasy: looking for the story that can compare to the fantastical worlds of say, Graceling or Eragon?. This is it, booknerds. This is that book that meets your high demands of:

• dragons
• a medieval/Renaissance setting
• long and foreign-sounding names 
• enough historical background to fill a textbook
• a trillion bajillion characters
• royal/political intrigue

I had you at the dragons, didn't I?

Seraphina takes place in that oh-so-familiar medieval fantasy world, yet manages to be both deeply original and interesting. But the dragons of this world have a unique twist: they are highly intelligent. In this world, dragons are the leaders of mathematical and scientific advances.  However, their rational, mechanical minds are completely incapable of understanding human emotion and art. At the beginning of our story, the dragons and humans have been bound by a peace treaty with the kingdom of Goredd for 40 years. Dragons have been taking form as humans in order to walk among the people and study their perplexing ways, but an intense hatred for dragons still lives among humans. Meanwhile, Seraphina Dombegh is a seemingly impossible monstrosity: half-human, half dragon. After spending a lifetime hiding her secret, she joins the royal court as a musician and gets herself wrapped in a draconion/royal murder mystery, along with the curious Prince Kiggs. As the political plots thicken, Seraphina is dragged into a situation where the two sides she belongs to, the dragons and the humans, are pitted against each other. 

The setting of this book is absolutely fabulous. I'm pretty much blown away at Rachel Hartman's world-building in her debut (DEBUT!) novel. The kingdom of Goredd and the surrounding kingdoms of this fictional world come to life as if they actually exist, because the amount of detail put into this book is amazing. Fictional neighbourhoods, religions, holidays and cultures all pop out of the book as if they're coming into existence right before our eyes. 

Same with the mythology; the dragonlore is fresh and unique and fleshed out. Instead of being the animalistic beasts they usually are, these dragons are logical, highly intelligent, and to be honest, a heck of a lot more interesting than their counterparts. The other characters are similarly unique: Princess Glisselda is giggly but regal, Orma is an imperfect (but improving) father figure, and Kiggs is sharp and highly likable. 

Seraphina, on the other hand, I found hard to connect to at first. I don't really know what it was that made her seem so generic to me. Perhaps it was the fact that she is so similar to so many "strong" female YA characters: because she's so protective of her half-dragon self, she appears closed off and prickly and lonely. A very Katniss-like character (forgive me for the comparison) that feels a little overdone. BUT, as the book went on, Seraphina grew on me a lot and I found that her character definitely made sense for her predicament. I could empathize with her loneliness, plus, she's more likable once she begins making friends with Kiggs, Glisselda, Lars, etc. As this is going to be the first in a series, there's a lot of room for character growth, and hopefully by the end, Seraphina will be a little more sympathy-worthy but just as badass.

Rachel Hartman's debut novel is fantastically fantastical and wonderfully unique, and I'm sure that future books in the series will reveal an all-in-all epic and wonderfully crafted story. 

My Rating:

                    

4.5 Brains.

Recommended if:

-you are a fan of epic fantasy (comme moi!)

-you liked Graceling or similar books set in a medieval/Renaissance time
-you like a little bit of mystery
-you have a thing for dragon/monster/mythical creature mythology

P.S. School started. Less time to blog. Less time to read. More time to study. I is confuzzled and sad.

P.P.S. If you have read Seraphina already (ONLY IF YOU'VE READ IT!) and haven't checked out the Seraphina Wiki yet, do! It's pretty fantabulous. 

Review: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian

Warning: This review contains spoilers for the previous four books in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series.

Title: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian
Author: Rick Riordan
Released: May 5. 2009
Genre: fantasy, adventure
Pages: 381

Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Rating: 9 (Awesome!)

"All year the half-bloods have been preparing for battle against the Titans, knowing the odds of a victory are grim. Kronos’s army is stronger than ever, and with every god and half-blood he recruits, the evil Titan’s power only grows.


While the Olympians struggle to contain the rampaging monster Typhon, Kronos begins his advance on New York City, where Mount Olympus stands virtually unguarded. Now it’s up to Percy Jackson and an army of young demigods to stop the Lord of Time.


In this momentous final book in the New York Times best-selling series, the long-awaited prophecy surrounding Percy’s sixteenth birthday unfolds. And as the battle for Western civilization rages on the streets of Manhattan, Percy faces a terrifying suspicion that he may be fighting against his own fate."

The last installment in a series always makes me emotional. Like really emotional. Sometimes I start to tear up in the middle of the book, not even because of the story, but because of the knowledge that this will be the last time I share an adventure with the characters.

But I did not expect The Last Olympian to get me emotional. 

Don't get me wrong. I truly did enjoy the first four books in the Percy Jackson series; I loved the twists on Greek mythology, the sidesplitting humour, and the fast-paced, monster-filled adventures. Before The Last Olympian, I always thought, it's just a series I read for fun, right? No emotional attachment to the characters here.

But I don't think I ever realized how much I loved this series until I read the final book. And trust me, I got emotional.

The Last Olympian was truly a great finale for the Percy Jackson series. It's definitely my favourite book of the series, along with The Lightning Thief.

The problem I always had with the earlier Percy Jackson books was that the characters just felt sort of two-dimensional to me. It's especially common in middle-grade and children's novels, but it's not necessarily fatal to the books. A lot of the time, books for younger readers are plot and humour driven, so the story can still be fun to read, even if the characters are not as fleshed out as they could be. This is how I felt about the Percy Jackson books in the beginning. The original story lines and the hilarious dialogue always made up for the lack of character depth. 

As the series went on, this improved. And The Last Olympian definitely surprised me.
There was character development!  It was amazing! As Rick Riordan revealed the mysterious pasts of several characters, I found myself understanding and learning to love characters I had never liked before. Even Annabeth, who I had always thought of as a "meh" character, grew on me as Riordan revealed glimpses of her past. 

This novel is quite a bit darker than the previous ones, and that lead to the exploration of serious themes: death, betrayal, guilt. This only added to the development of the characters and the depth of the story itself.

Naturally, as the last book in a series about an impending God/Titan/Demigod war, the vast majority of the book is battle. Riordan also has dozens of loose ends to tie up, so there are a lot of flashback scenes. However, there is rarely a boring moment. Riordan's imagination, the fast-paced plot, and Percy's lasting humour add up to a fantastic finale for a fantastic series.

And now I have to get my hands on The Lost Hero ...