Category: Books

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Heartless: The Parasol Protectorate by Gail Carriger

Among the books I brought with me outer Space, there is Heartless: The Parasol Protectorate: Book 4 by British author Gail Carriger.

Lady Alexia Maccon, soulless, is at it again, only this time the trouble is not her fault. When a mad ghost threatens the queen, Alexia is on the case, following a trail that leads her deep into her husband’s past. Top that off with a sister who has joined the suffragette movement (shocking!), Madame Lefoux’s latest mechanical invention, and a plague of zombie porcupines and Alexia barely has time to remember she happens to be eight months pregnant. Will Alexia manage to determine who is trying to kill Queen Victoria before it is too late? Is it the vampires again or is there a traitor lurking about in wolf’s clothing? And what, exactly, has taken up residence in Lord Akeldama’s second best closet?

Alexia is witty, she has a strong character. Author Gail Carriger knows how to entertain with this paranormal Steampunk Britain series of sci-fi or vampire books.

No wonder why it’s subtitled: ‘A novel of vampires, werewolves and teapots’. The first book of the series, Soulless, won the ALA’s Alex Award and a manga version was even released in March 2012.

I would like to tell you more about this series and the other ones but you really have to read those books to know. Here is the list:

– The Parasol Protectorate Series: Soulless (1) & Changeless (2) & Blameless (3) & Heartless (4) & Timeless (5)

– The Finishing School Series: first book Etiquette & Espionage due out Feb. 2013 with three others to follow.

– The Parasol Protectorate Abroad Series: first book Prudence due out Fall 2013

And of course, visit her website for more information!

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‘Fahrenheit 451’ author Ray Bradbury dead

Ray Douglas Bradbury was an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer and he died in Los Angeles, California, on June 5, 2012, at the age of 91.

Bradbury’s bio on his official site introduces him very well:

Ray Bradbury is one of those rare individuals whose writing has changed the way people think. His more than five hundred published works — short stories, novels, plays, screenplays, television scripts, and verse — exemplify the American imagination at its most creative.

Once read, his words are never forgotten. His best-known and most beloved books, THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, THE ILLUSTRATED MAN, FAHRENHEIT 451 and SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, are masterworks that readers carry with them over a lifetime. His timeless, constant appeal to audiences young and old has proven him to be one of the truly classic authors of the 20th Century — and the 21st.

 On Mashable, Chris Taylor wrote a great piece about Bradbury and Fahrenheit 451:

The most important thing to know about Fahrenheit 451 is that it is explicitly not about government censorship. (Bradbury was so firm on this point he once walked out of a UCLA class when his students tried to insist it was so.)

The firemen aren’t burning books on the orders of some shadowy Big Brother. They’re doing it, protagonist Guy Montag is told, because society as a whole turned away from the scary cacophony of knowledge, from the terror of differing opinions and the burden of having to choose between them, from deep and troubling thoughts.

We turned away from literature and towards vapid reality television and radio shows, the book says. We spurned any kind of poetry (Montag’s wife Millie slams Matthew Arnold’s classic Dover Beach as depressing and “disgusting”) and preferred to listen to the noise of our cars as they speed across the landscape at 100 mph.

Even when Guy wants to read his stolen books, he can’t, because the ubiquitous ads drown out his thoughts.

Any of this starting to sound familiar?

Yes, indeed!

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The Steampunk Bible by J.VanderMeer, S.J.Chambers

On my first day, I posted about The Chap Mag. Among the many books I took with me, there is The Steampunk Bible by Jeff VanderMeer and S. J. Chambers. If you ever wondered what is Steampunk about, this is the book you need to buy. For everyone else, this book lives up to its name.

The photography and art are great, and the book is an excellent overview of Steampunk filled with interesting information introducing different aspects of the Steampunk culture like music, movies and books.

The presentation on Amazon:

Steampunk—a grafting of Victorian aesthetic and punk rock attitude onto various forms of science-fiction culture—is a phenomenon that has come to influence film, literature, art, music, fashion, and more. The Steampunk Bible is the first compendium about the movement, tracing its roots in the works of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells through its most recent expression in movies such as Sherlock Holmes. Its adherents celebrate the inventor as an artist and hero, re-envisioning and crafting retro technologies including antiquated airships and robots. A burgeoning DIY community has brought a distinctive Victorian-fantasy style to their crafts and art. Steampunk evokes a sense of adventure and discovery, and embraces extinct technologies as a way of talking about the future. This ultimate manual will appeal to aficionados and novices alike as author Jeff VanderMeer takes the reader on a wild ride through the clockwork corridors of Steampunk history.

Note that the complete title is: The Steampunk Bible : An Illustrated Guide to the World of Imaginary Airships, Corsets and Goggles, Mad Scientists, and Strange Literature. You’d better write it down.