Mogsy's Book Haul - For Review, Purchased, and Goodies From Balticon

I'm putting up an impromptu Book Haul post this week -- a few review books came in and I also made several purchases, most of which came from Balticon which took place over Memorial Day weekend.

Flight of the Golden Harpy - harpies! An underrated and underused creature of fantasy for sure. That was enough pique my interest in this book, my thanks to Tor for a copy of this ARC.

The Boost - another review book from Tor, this techno-sociological novel sounds fascinating and seems my kind of sci-fi novel, not to mention a nice change of pace from my usual reads.

Cibola Burn - speaking of sci-fi, I was ecstatic to receive this for review from Orbit! I love The Expanse series and have been gobbling each book as they come out, and I'm so pumped for book four.

The Three - easily one of my top books of 2014, as you can see from my review here. The Three was released earlier this month and obviously I just had to have a beautiful hard cover copy to call my own.

This year was my first Balticon, and my first convention in years, actually. There hasn't been much con action since a year or so before my daughter was born, so this was a great event for the entire family, being the perfect size and a very friendly and intimate environment. I got to meet a bunch of writers and get my books signed, from authors Brandon Sanderson (who was the Guest of Honor -- and like the nicest guy ever), Jon Sprunk, Tom Doyle, Jo Walton, and others. 2013 Compton Crook Award winner of last year's Balticon Myke Cole also signed my Shadow Ops trilogy and EVEN MY BABY. My daughter was surprisingly calm considering someone was scribbling on her knee, actually. Two years old and showing an affinity towards authors already, that's my girl.

Here are a couple cool new acquisitions from the con I wanted to feature:

Among Others - I have a copy of My Real Children by Jo Walton that I have to get to, but I couldn't resist also picking up a copy of the award winning Among Others to get signed as well. Ms. Walton told me she wasn't too fond of the cover to this, but I think the color's actually quite eye-catching.

Firstborn/Defending Elysium - at one of the autograph sessions for Brandon Sanderson, the vendor still had about a dozen or so of these convention-exclusion tête-bêche hardcover editions featuring the two short stories previously released online. So excited that I was able to snag a copy!

And yes, we actually have a few books from the digital pile:

The Mirror Empire - this book is so drool-worthy! Ideally, I had wanted to read Kameron Hurley's Bel Dame Apocrypha series first before even thinking about hitting up this book, but dammit, I have the willpower of a bendy straw! I caved and requested this from NetGalley.

The Bullet-Catcher's Daughter - looks like it's Angry Robot week! Another one of their books I'm really looking forward to, which I also got via NetGalley. This one just sounds so cool!

Skin Game - Dresden Files audiobook. Enough said. I love the audio versions of this series, not least because of narrator James Marsters. The voice of James Marsters IS Harry Dresden, and there is absolutely no doubt about that in my mind.

Mogsy's Book Haul

My library saw some interesting new arrivals in the last couple weeks, as usual starting with the physical pile:

The Girl with All the Gifts - my excitement to read this book has grown by leaps and bounds ever since it first piqued my interest. Finding out that it's a straight-up horror only made me want to read it more. My thanks to Orbit for the review copy, The Girl with All the Gifts is on my high-priority list.

Nebula Awards Showcase 2014 - these volumes have been published annually since the 1960s, reprinting the winning and nominated stories in the Nebula Awards as voted on by the members of the SFWA. I'm so out of the loop when it comes to short stories, it's nice to have this anthology to know which ones have been getting all the buzz and attention lately at the Nebulas. My thanks to Pyr.

Resurrection - another title from Pyr, Resurrection is the third installment of the young adult Blood of the Lamb trilogy, which I knew very little about when I first received this book. It looks quite interesting, so I might look into starting with the first book!

Shattering the Ley - this one has been on my highly anticipated list for a while! Already I have seen comparisons to Rothfuss and Sanderson's Mistborn, and while I'll withhold judgment on that until I read it for myself, I gotta admit it does give me a little thrill to hear that. With thanks to DAW.

Prince of Fools - since I'm writing up this post earlier in the week, by the time you are reading this sentence I hope to be already well into this book! Very excited to read this bad boy! With thanks to Ace Books.

Half A King - fortune smiled upon me this month and I was able to score an ARC of Half A King from the Early Reviewers program from LibraryThing. I've seen a lot of great reviews for this book already, it's gonna be hell holding off for a few more weeks to nom nom nom this!


And the new additions to the digital library:

The Line - Audible did a really cool sale last week featuring great books that are "flying under the radar" and after seeing Tammy from Books Bones & Buffy rave about this and talk about how much she's looking forward to the sequel, I snatched this audiobook up for just a few bucks!

Monument 14 - something that caught my eye last week when I saw a link to it from Twitter. Short YA novel, looked interesting, and the ebook and audiobook bundle was a great deal. Sold!

The Boy with the Porcelain Blade - I've wanted to read this one for a while, it just hasn't been released stateside yet. But strangely enough, the audiobook version was available at Audible US. Last I saw, it wasn't supposed to be available until next year, and I don't know if it's a mistake or they just decided to release the audio version early, but it made no difference to me -- I had a coupon burning in my pocket and grabbed this one while I could.

All Those Vanished Engines - I've been doing pretty well keeping my NetGalley pile in check and also managed to chisel it down some this month, so I accepted this widget from Tor which I thought looked worth checking out.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow - my first eARC from Penguin's First to Read program. I'm very wary about cyberpunk these days; it's a subgenre that can be hit or miss with me, but I'm totally willing and eager to give this a shot!

Mogsy's Book Haul

This fortnight's haul features a pretty eclectic mix, starting with the physical pile:

House of the Rising Sun - I remember the ARC of this book catching my eye a few times, but it just always seemed to pass me by. I'm actually kinda glad this one showed up unsolicited from Orbit because I'll definitely check it out now.

Dark Eden - really looking forward to this! Won my copy from a giveaway and I've been seeing some excellent reviews of it around. The cover also has this really cool holograph chrome-y effect, it's pretty spiffy.

Earth Girl - requested after receiving the sequel Earth Star a couple weeks ago, because I've heard amazing things about these two books and figured I should start from the beginning. The YA fiction I've read from Pyr have all been fantastic and unique, setting itself apart from the mainstream -- which is exactly what I need right now. I'm reading this at the moment and counting on it to get me out of my YA slump.

The Silk Map - be sure to check out my review of this book that went up earlier this week, and enter the giveaway! My thanks to Pyr again.

The Voices - received for review from Pan Macmillan. It sounds like it involves a haunted house, with strange knocking sounds and voices coming out of a baby monitor etc. Just all around creepiness. I'll be reading this one the next time I'm in the mood for a horror novel.

The Tough Guide of Fantasyland - you've probably noticed the new Tough Traveling feature around here on Thursdays, and this is the book that inspired it. Nathan's right -- somebody at the publisher is probably scratching their head at the uptick of sales on this book as of late, because I know for a fact I'm not the only one who has picked it up since these posts!

The digital pile...

Aftermath - in my last book haul I mentioned I picked up the audiobook of The Remaining. I ended up listening to it all in a single day last week while carrying out an epic day of spring cleaning. Afterwards I went and grabbed the sequel because I had such a good time with the first book and all of these books are only like $2-4 each!

Neverland's Library - I don't often do anthologies, but have you seen the author list? Mark Lawrence, R.S. Belcher, Marie Brennan, Teresa Frohock, Brian Staveley, Miles Cameron, J.M. Martin, Mercedes M. Yardley, Jeff Salyards and a whole lot more but I'm going to run out of room if I list them all. This book began as a crowd funded project but is now being released by the awesome Ragnarok Publications. It's a HUGE collection and just for $5 too, I had to grab this.

No Return - this has been on my wishlist for a while! Bought it earlier this week when it was a Kindle daily deal and went for the audiobook with the Whispersync bundle discount too. Can't wait to read/listen.

The Shadow Master - clearly, my self-imposed ban from Netgalley has not been going so well. Blame Angry Robot for publishing such amazing looking books. I really tried, but in the end I just couldn't resist requesting this one.

Mogsy's Book Haul

Wolfhound Century - I'm actually not sure how this book has slipped my interest for so long, but it wasn't until the recent release of the sequel that I finally started looking at the reviews and damn it just sounds so interesting. So excited that I won book one in a giveaway!

World of Trouble - The Last Policeman series is simply awesome and totally underrated. It's about a policeman who is determined to do his job to the very last second even as a killer asteroid is hurtling towards earth threatening to destroy all life in just a few months. I received the ARC of this third and last book of the trilogy from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program and something tells me it's going to be explosive.

Veil of the Deserters - earlier this month I read and enjoyed Scourge of the Betrayer and was delighted when I got offered the exciting opportunity to review an ARC of the sequel. My thanks to Night Shade Books and Jeff Salyards! I loved the first book and I've heard the second is even better, so I'm super psyched.

Thief's Magic - thus far the only Trudi Canavan book that I have under my belt is the first book of her Black Magician trilogy, and I know she has at least one other trilogy and a few other works that are based in that world. At first, I thought that was the case with Thief's Magic as well, but apparently it's a completely new start to a new story, and so I couldn't resist checking it out. My thanks to Orbit Books!

The Shadow Throne - last but not least, I am over the moon about this ARC of the sequel to The Thousand Names. Even though it's not releasing for a few months yet, I couldn't help it, I dug in right away.

Half a King - I actually got this from Netgalley last week along with what seems like half the spec fic blogosphere, but I'd prepared my last book haul post early in preparation for a weekend trip so it didn't make it in. Something tells me it's going to be my last eARC from NG for a while, at least until I finish reviewing some of my current requests. I just really couldn't resist this one though.

The Remaining and Malice - this week I also have audiobooks in the digital pile. I got some Audible coupon codes a few days ago, so what did I do? Decided to put them towards a couple Orbit audiobooks, of course.

Dragon Age: The Masked Empire - so is anyone else excited about Dragon Age: Inquisition? Earlier this week the October release date was announced along with a sweet new gameplay trailer. The original plan was to read this one right before DA:I to get myself pumped up, but I'll probably crack before then. Regardless, I probably could have waited to buy this book, but I was still soaring rather high on the news and grabbed the Kindle version to go with the others. It's the first DA novel not written by David Gaider, but Patrick Weekes is an awesome writer too.

Mogsy's Book Haul

This is the problem with waiting every two weeks to do a Book Haul post; sometimes a lot of books come in and the shelves just explode...

Murder -  I was so excited when I first found out there was going to be a follow-up to Sarah Pinborough's Mayhem! I couldn't wait and already read and devoured this yummy novel, so keep an eye out for the review in the coming days. My thanks to Jo Fletcher Books.

Earth Star - this is the sequel to Earth Girl, which I've heard such awesome things about. I'm curious about this series, since I'm always on the lookout for YA that's a little different. Thanks Pyr Books!

Gemsigns - I'd originally feared it lost, but after spending nearly two months in transit, the physical review copy finally made it across the Atlantic and rose triumphant from the deep dark depths of customs to make it safely into my hands! Good thing too, because I'm really looking forward to it.

Return of the Discontinued Man - I hadn't heard much about this series, but the cover on this ARC looks amazing. I learned it's the fifth installment of the Burton & Swinburne books, so maybe I'll check it out.

Silver Mirrors - coming out at the end of this month is the sequel to Bronze Gods which has been on my TBR forever. It's also on my book list for this spring! So I'll definitely be reading both soon.

The Ophelia Prophecy - this book had me at "interspecies love". Wonderful to see a science fiction romance! My thanks to Tabitha at NotYetRead for passing along her ARC copy so I can experience the brilliance of this book for myself!

The Forbidden Library - I purchased this for myself on the release date earlier this week. One downside of having the ARC copy is that the illustrations aren't always in them yet! With this finished copy I can finally see all the pictures in them in their full glory, and I will also be setting this one aside for my daughter to give her when she is older. I loved this book! Check out my review if you haven't yet, as well as an interview with the author.

Lords and Ladies - I was at a book sale and saw this lovely hardcover of Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies for $2! For a used copy that was originally published in the 90s, it was in surprisingly great shape. I just couldn't resist adding it to my library, because 1) Pratchett and 2) it was such a beautiful book.

A couple weeks I also binged at BookOutlet. I know, I know, I said I was going to stay far far away from that place. But I fell off the wagon, okay? A support group doesn't seem to help. In fact, it's become somewhat of a tradition here at The BiblioSanctum for me and my co-blogger Wendy to blame each other whenever we forget our self-imposed bans and splurge at that evil (wonderful!) place. But anyway, here's the books I ended up with. Hey, I'd say I showed extraordinary self-restraint.

But it's still your fault, Wendy.

 All Seeing Eye - The Troupe - Queen of Kings - Reviver - London Falling

And now the digital pile...

Midnight Thief - from Netgalley, I've been waiting for this one a long time. I received the prequel novella Poison Dance from the author last year and it made me very excited for Midnight Thief!

Night Terrors - another Netgalley ARC, I've never actually read anything from Tim Waggoner but I've heard he's quite good. And look at that creeptastic cover! Hope no one here is afraid of clowns...

Assault or Attrition - Blake Northcott does it again! The Kickstarter-backed Arena Mode was so successful that she crowdfunded the sequel as well and it also reached its goal lightning quick. The e-versions were ready first and I was sent them recently.

Black Dog - for a while now, I've been waffling on whether or not I should get this book. But then I saw it as a US Kindle teen daily deal earlier this week and that made the decision for me! I love seeing Angry Robot/Strange Chemistry titles as daily deals, let's hope they keep coming.

Mogsy's Book Haul

Operation Shield - it was a great fortnight for books! Kicking of the list is Operation Shield from Pyr, the newest Cassandra Kresnov novel. I read the previous book 23 Years on Fire last year when it came to me unsolicited and that was how I discovered this wonderful series (and even though it was book #4 I was able to enjoy it without having to catch up with the ones that came before, double score!) so I'm looking forward to continue.

The Tropic of Serpents - I am loving these Lady Trent books because they have everything that makes an awesome series: an intelligent and strong female protagonist with true conviction, the passion for science and natural history, and of course dragons! I've been admiring the beautiful illustrations in all their glory in this hard copy, my deepest gratitude to Tor Books. Be sure to keep an eye out for my review, which should be coming right up.

The Goblin Emperor - this arrived from Tor last week as well, and I thought it was great! Be sure to see more of my thoughts in my recent review.

The Oversight - this ARC arrived unexpectedly from Orbit, and boy am I glad. At the time of this writing, I am just over three-quarters of the way through this book and I'm enjoying the hell out of it! I've been chasing my next five star read for a while now, and don't want to jinx anything but this might be it.

Hollow World - until now I've only had the copies of this book from Michael J. Sullivan's Kickstarter campaign. The book was released by publisher Tachyon last week though, several weeks ahead of the official date. This was such a wonderful book and I've been dying to share my thoughts on it for so long, and at long last my review finally went up this week. The coolest thing? I was thrilled to see I got blurbed in this print edition!

The Crimson Campaign - it was a great week for the digital pile as well, kicking off with an eARC of book two of The Power Mage trilogy by Brian McClellan.

The Three - OMG OMG OMG I couldn't believe it when I won an e-copy of this from a giveaway held by Little Brown. I'm positively itching to dig right in.

Soulwoven - this is another book that first began life as a Kickstarter campaign. I received an e-copy for review this week from author Jeff Seymour, who apparently was quite a fan of MMO games as well! Hooray for gamer writers!

Gemsigns - a copy of this book that was supposed to arrive with my print edition of the sequel Binary still hasn't turned up yet, and I fear it may be lost (it's so heartbreaking when that happens) but Jo Fletcher Books has kindly helped out by providing me with a digital copy for now and I couldn't be more grateful!

Damoren - I always get excited whenever I get a new book to review from Ragnarok Publications. They are still new but already they've put out so many good titles I've enjoyed, and this debut from Seth Skorkowsky had me at "Exorcise" and "Demons".

Mogsy's Book Haul

Defenders - kicking off this week's stack of books is this title from Will McIntosh, whose Love Minus Eighty was one of the best books I read last year. You can imagine my excitement and gratitude when I received this ARC, so my big thanks to Orbit Books!

The Unquiet House - Jo Fletcher Books publishes some great horror, and this one by Alison Littlewood caught my eye. She is also the author of Path of Needles, which I will be reading very soon as well.

Binary - I was so excited because JFB also sent over this one and the first book Gemsigns, though Binary has arrived first. I want to start this series so badly! But alas, I'm still waiting for book one to show up. Until then, this one is on my shelf, sitting there...just taunting me. ARRGH.

The Book of Lost Things, Foul Trouble and The Language Inside - okay, so a while ago Random House's young adult fiction community Random Buzzers was shut down, and I'm guessing this is where these three books that arrived totally randomly (har har) came from. They must have cleared out the old ARCs in their inventory, threw a bunch into envelops indiscriminately and sent them to their former users. The thing is, I'm not big on the contemporary YA genre (the only one I might have an interest at all in is the Mister Max book) so I'll likely not read these but I featured them anyway because I hate seeing books (especially ARCs -- even if they're old) go to waste. So, if you live in the US and are interested in any of these three books, leave me a comment or email me with a way to get in touch and I'll be happy to give these away to someone who wants them. Check out their descriptions if you need more info, and The Language Inside appears to be a book of poetry.

Now onwards to the digital pile:

Archetype - isn't it great when you add a book to your wishlist, and then days or weeks later it goes on sale? The Archetype ebook was $2.99 earlier this week (still is, I think) and it was on my list so when I saw it I jumped on it right away.

Nightmare Ink - an urban fantasy involving a tattoo shop and a killer tattoo, I just couldn't resist this eARC!

Deadly Curiosities - my NetGalley pile is in danger of overwhelming me again, but I am an admirer Gail Z. Martin's work and when I heard about an urban fantasy by her coming out from Solaris Books I knew I had to check it out.

Heaven's Queen - my ever growing NetGalley pile notwithstanding, I still just had to request this one. For obvious reasons.

The Ten Thousand Things - the second book to the Dead West series. You saw how much I enjoyed the first book, so I'm super excited to get the sequel! Thanks, Ragnarok Pub!

Apex Magazine #58 - after a very successful Apex blog tour coordinated by Andrea from the Little Red Reviewer back in February, I am now savvy to Apex Magazine and am very excited to read the March issue!

Mogsy's Book Haul

The beginning of every month always sees a ton of amazing new releases, so I may have picked up a couple of those this week...and then some. This week also saw more than the arrival of just books though, for my highly-anticipated package filled with The Iron Wolves-related goodies arrived from across the pond! Included in it is this really awesome shirt, a couple of signed photos and a bunch of bookmarks. My thanks to the author, Andy Remic!

The Copper Promise - another lovely from across the pond, this book was on my to-read list for the longest time and I finally got tired of holding my breath for a US release date. Being on the wrong side of the ocean be damned, I just went ahead and bought the book. Book Depository to the rescue! I look forward to tackling this one very soon.

Blood and Iron - this week's awesome is brought to you by Pyr Books. First up was this copy of Blood and Iron. I'd actually written a review for the ARC which went up earlier in the week, check it out! I like what the story did to set up the series.

Nebula Awards Showcase 2014 - up next we have this volume which collects and reprints the winning and nominated stories in the Nebula Awards. I'm not a big reader of anthologies, but I'm definitely not averse to them either. This looks like one that I'd happily dive into.

The Silk Map - this is the sequel to the first book The Scroll of Years featuring the much beloved couple Persimmon Gaunt and Imago Bone. I thoroughly enjoyed the first book, so I was really excited when this one came.

The Leopard - I am so excited about this one! Featured as one of our top anticipated SFF novels of 2014 written by women The Leopard isn't the first book written in the world of Marakand created by K.V. Johansen, but it is the beginning of a new series and can be enjoyed even if I haven't read her earlier work. I can't wait, and just look at that gorgeous cover art. Thanks, Pyr!

Second Star - kicking off the digital pile is this one I requested from NetGalley and I credit Tammy at Books, Bones & Buffy for putting Second Star on my radar (she is making a habit of loading books on my TBR!) I'm not generally into contemporary YA, but this is a sort of retelling of the Peter Pan story and I couldn't resist when I heard. I also heard it boasts a love triangle between Peter, Wendy and Hook and now I'm just too damn curious for my own good.

Omega Days - a review copy of this was actually offered to me, but I'm already quite loaded down for the month. Still, the premise looks really interesting and I'm in the mood for some zombies, so ultimately I decided to just buy this one on my own.

Written in Red - the sequel of this just came out, which was probably the reason for the Kindle price drop! Anne Bishop's The Others series been recommended to me many times by many people, so I jumped on this as soon as I saw.

The Tropic of Serpents - and now for the new releases, I adored Marie Brennan's A Natural History of Dragons when I read it last year so of course I had to pick up book two. I'm regretting not getting the physical book now though, since if it's anything like the first book it'll have some gorgeous illustrations in it as well. Regardless, this is pretty high on my list to read soon.

Words of Radiance - so you might have heard Brandon Sanderson's Book 2 of The Stormlight Archive was released on Tuesday (Thursday in the UK). I already finished my review copy, but I'm weird in that when it comes to books I love, I enjoy having multiple copies in different formats. So earlier in the week I picked up the audiobook version of this as well and it is brilliant, the narrators did an amazing job. My review of Words of Radiance will be going live tomorrow so be sure to keep an eye out for that.

Mogsy's Book Haul

The Anxiety of Kalix the Werewolf - this week I'm stacking the shelves with a couple surprise arrivals and luck from February contests/giveaways. I was so happy to win this book by Martin Millar and I have Nathan from Review Barn to thank for hosting that giveaway! Review Barn has held some great giveaways, which speaking of, they're actually running one right now for The Barrow (a fantastic book!) which I encourage you to check out. 

The Well's End - scored a copy of this ARC courtesy of the publisher from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program! Seth Fishman is the agent of a couple of my favorite authors, so he definitely knows what good writing looks like. I'm so excited to read his first novel The Well's End which is YA and sounds right up my alley.

A Turn of Light - courtesy of DAW, this book came and I was surprised to see how thick it was. It will probably take a while for me read this, but from what I've seen others say about the story there's romance and dragons and it just seems like all around the kind of high fantasy I really enjoy. Looking forward to this one.

My Real Children and The Pilgrims - I was psyched to win these ARCs from a publisher sweepstakes, and I'm especially excited about My Real Children. I'm ashamed to admit I've never read Jo Walton before this, and this book looks like a great place to start.

Words of Radiance - total shocker when this big boy showed up outside my front door earlier this week, unsolicited but heck I'm not complainin'! A HUGE thanks to Tor Books! Needless to say I was speechless with excitement and dug into it right away. Release in just two days! I'd already preordered the book, the ebook, and the audiobook (yes, I love this series that much!) and I'm practically counting down the hours.

The digital pile:

The Forever Watch - just when I thought I was doing such a great job clearing out my NetGalley pile. I totally blame Pabkins at MyShelfConfessions for this one, but she sold the description of the book to me and I have to admit it sounded pretty amazing!

Those Poor, Poor Bastards - I wholeheartedly jumped on board to review this one. Ragnarok Publications has published quite a few gems I really like, and who could say no to a book with a title that awesome?

Mogsy's Book Haul

Among Thieves and Sworn in Steel - a long, long time ago...well, okay, it only feels like a long, long time ago, I read the excellent debut Among Thieves by Douglas Hulick. I've waited the last two years for the sequel Sworn in Steel, putting it on my anticipated lists for 2012 and 2013 only to be disappointed. But now it's FINALLY HERE!!! Words cannot describe how excited I am. I'll be writing a review for the book tour closer to release date, and was sent a package with both books by the publisher.

Night Owls - I'll also be doing a tour review of Night Owls next month. I've been seeing some great things about this fun looking urban fantasy already, so I'm really looking forward to it.

The Waking Engine - I wrote a review of this a couple weeks back, and even though the style of the writing and story isn't exactly my cup of tea, I think it's a really well written book and I'm not surprised at all at the praise it has gotten already since its release earlier this month. My thanks to Tor Books for this!

Night Broken - Mercy Thompson is one of my favorite urban fantasy series so I was pretty psyched when I received a review copy. I will be getting to this post haste after I finish off a couple more books in my Review Copy Cleanup reading list.

Stolen Crown - I'm a little surprised that I hadn't heard of this until recently, since according to Goodreads Stolen Crown is actually the 17th book in the long-running Mithgar series. I'll admit that was a little intimidating when asked to review this, but I told the publisher I would be willing to give it a shot! It certainly looks very interesting.

And now the digital pile, which is much lighter since I featured my NetGalley haul last week. 

Lineage - B.J. Keeton is a very cool gamer friend of mine, and he is working on a trilogy of books called the Technomage Archive. I've read and enjoyed the first book Birthright which he funded through a very successful Kickstarter, and he was awesome enough to send me a review copy of the second. I'm ready to dive in!

Chimera Vector - I was sent a complimentary copy of this awesome looking book by the author, who found me through Goodreads because of our mutual love of Myke Cole's Control Point!

vN - Angry Robot had a sale recently, bringing bunch of their ebooks down to $1.99. I'd read a lot of them already but not this one, and I've always been curious about it. How could I resist? For that price I picked up the ebook and the audiobook bundle.