Many Covers Monday: Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

Today we're looking at some of the many different covers of Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines and choosing a winner! Some are rejackets and others are foreign language covers.

 

The great traction city London has been skulking in the hills to avoid the bigger, faster, hungrier cities loose in the Great Hunting Ground. But now, the sinister plans of Lord Mayor Mangus Crome can finally unfold.
Thaddeus Valentine, London's Head Historian and adored famous archaeologist, and his lovely daughter, Katherine, are down in The Gut when the young assassin with the black scarf strikes toward his heart, saved by the quick intervention of Tom, a lowly third-class apprentice. Racing after the fleeing girl, Tom suddenly glimpses her hideous face: scarred from forehead to jaw, nose a smashed stump, a single eye glaring back at him. "Look at what your Valentine did to me!" she screams. "Ask him! Ask him what he did to Hester Shaw!" And with that she jumps down the waste chute to her death. Minutes later Tom finds himself tumbling down the same chute and stranded in the Out-Country, a sea of mud scored by the huge caterpillar tracks of cities like the one now steaming off over the horizon.

Book Depository ¦ Amazon UK/US ¦ Goodreads

Left: UK

Likes: The artwork is just gorgeous, and the font really compliments it well. The cover overall is very eye catching.

Dislikes: Honestly, nothing.

Right: US

Likes: I love the Steampunk look of this cover and the giant creepy eye is so cool. Again, the font really compliments this cover.

Dislikes: If you zoom in, the scientist looks really photoshopped in and it's kinda weird.

Left: UK (possibly US too)

Likes: Well, it's eye catching.

Dislikes: I think loving this cover depends on the person and for me, the video game doesn't work. I think I would like it a lot more if it wasn't for that strange Alien creature. And maybe if the fonts didn't look like they were 'lifted' from other video games.

Right: US

Likes: It's a really arty cover and there's a lot of detail.

Dislikes: It's arty but also really busy and my eyes feel like they're trying to work out what to look at. My eyes are more drawn to the bright yellow font rather than the lovely art.

Left: Turkish

Likes: It's so cool! I like that he's facing one way and the text the other.

Dislikes: Anyone notice that he's wearing two pairs of goggles?

Right: UK

Likes: The background! There's a cleverly hidden map in the background. The font on Mortal Engines is pretty clever too.

Dislikes: I'm really not sure about the bright colour scheme, it makes it look a bit middle grade.

 Left: Portuguese

Likes: The hot balloon makes me think of adventure, so I would be likely to pick this book up.

Dislikes: Aside from the hot air balloon, there's not much else to look at.

Right: Italian

Likes: Fire is always eye catching. And I really like ouroboros(es?). 

Dislikes: It's a blatant rip off of the Hunger Games movie poster and if you drag this image into Google images, it will suggest that poster as a similar image.

 Left: German

Likes: I like vintage covers, and this one is cute.

Dislikes: It looks like a vintage cover, on a modern book.

Right: German

Likes: The city is awesome, reminds me of Mont St Michel in France. Add this to all the balloons flying around and I really want to read this story.

Dislikes: I guess the cover is a little dark.

Winner

I would love to see this cover on my shelf and if there are sequels with covers that match this, I'll definitely be buying it.

International Giveaway: Strange Chemistry Books

We all received the seriously sucky news last week that Strange Chemisty, the book publisher known for it's unique titles and amazing covers, has been shut down. Apart from being seriously pissed, I wanted to do everything I could in support for the publisher.

I'm offering these three books to anyone (who wins) who's in a country BookDepository ship to. They tell me they ship internationally, so if they lie.. kick 'em for me. I'm not here this week (30th - 4th), so I'm relying on you guys to spread the word about the giveaway for me. Please help?

The Assassin's Curse ¦ Katya's World ¦ Pantomime

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Stacking The Shelves (27/06/2014)

Hosted by Tynga's Reviews

Books Acquired This Week

I found some great books this week! Glimpse is a book that I was approved for on NetGalley - the day after they had archived it. I left my address in the notes and explained why I couldn't review and they sent me a review copy, which I was really surprised by. 

I'm happily swapping on ReadItSwapIt still and if you're in the UK you should definitely join me - I grabbed myself a copy of Going Vintage there and I'm waiting on two others.

Waterstones has some new books in this week - The Bunker Diary and Never Ending, I grabbed those immediately. Never Ending is signed! 

I love visiting my local pound shop - you'd be amazed where books appear. I got both Silverhorse and Gullstruck Island at the bottom for £1 each (about $1.70). Brand new!

I got a copy of the UK edition of Teardrop, which is my favourite of the Teardrop covers. It's a plain silver cover - with a teardrop on it.

And I received a review request for THIS. I was so excited when I read about it because it has 350 STICKERS. I know it's going to be at least a week before I write a review of this as I'll be too busy playing with it.

Books Read This Week (21st - 27th)

Bit of a weird week this week as I never really planned to read these books, it just sort of happened. 

I was planning for a Strange Chemistry week but I only got The Assassin's Curse and Katya's World read and reviewed out of the four I had planned. Assassin's Curse was amazing, I'm really looking forward to the sequel. Katya's World I enjoyed but I have mixed feelings towards. I've ordered both of their sequels.

Beware The Wild was really good. It's a really creepy, unique read. If you're a Francis Hardinge fan I highly recommend it. Wintergirls will stick with me, I couldn't stop reading. I'm going to have to find everything Laurie has written and eat it all now.

Dancing To This Week

I've had this stuck in my head ALL WEEK I swear.

And finally... I'm going down to London on Monday so I'll be AWOL all week. I may be on Twitter but I'm restricted to my iPod. Posts are scheduled though! I'm planning to visit many bookshops and bring back as many books as I can.

(I heard that there's a Waterstones that has EIGHT FLOORS of books too)

Vickie x

Review of Katya's World by Jonathan L. Howard

Format: Paperback
Genres: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Adventure
Pages: 339
Publisher: Strange Chemistry
Release Date: 06/11/2012
Find The Author: Website ¦ Twitter
Book Depository ¦ Amazon UK/US ¦ Goodreads

The distant and unloved colony world of Russalka has no land, only the raging sea. No clear skies, only the endless storm clouds. Beneath the waves, the people live in pressurised environments and take what they need from the boundless ocean. It is a hard life, but it is theirs and they fought a war against Earth to protect it. But wars leave wounds that never quite heal, and secrets that never quite lie silent.

Katya Kuriakova doesn’t care much about ancient history like that, though. She is making her first submarine voyage as crew; the first nice, simple journey of what she expects to be a nice, simple career.

There is nothing nice and simple about the deep black waters of Russalka, however; soon she will encounter pirates and war criminals, see death and tragedy at first hand, and realise that her world’s future lies on the narrowest of knife edges. For in the crushing depths lies a sleeping monster, an abomination of unknown origin, and when it wakes, it will seek out and kill every single person on the planet.

Katya's World is a true sci-fi, with futuristic worlds at war, undersea battles, lot of technology and even a Leviathan. I really enjoyed this action packed read but at times it fell a bit flat for me, I grew bored even in the midst of battle and I had trouble connecting with the main character.

I loved the story as a whole - girl starts her new job with her uncle, expecting her first day to be a simple one. But in the first of many twists, the vehicle is selected by a new officer looking to prove himself and they are ordered to take a prisoner to the prisons. This is the start of an adventure that eventually spirals into full scale war, and the first time we me Kane - who of course is the prisoner.

I really liked Kane. He had that complicated character thing going on and he was easily the most interesting character in the whole book. He's funny, sarcastic and brave (when he wants to be) but also selfish and vague. I found myself wanting to stick with him throughout the story. Katya on the other hand, I didn't really connect with until I got right to the very last pages. She's a little stereotypical - young girl trying to prove herself. However, the book did go with the annoying habit of having Katya in the way, all of the time. It didn't seem realistic to me that so many people would just trust the thoughts of a 15-16 year old and let her go wherever she pleased.

There were a lot of things in this book that didn't feel realistic to me though and Katya was a small part. The story favoured a lot of twists, characters with ulterior motives, sudden plot twists, big reveals. There was just too much of it and I rolled my eyes on more than one occasion. It got to the point where you could easily guess that if you hadn't seen a character die, they probably weren't dead. 

I also had issues with the world building. It was vast and grand and well thought out sure, but I found myself wondering about the little details. This entire world is underwater and I wanted to know how on Russalka they managed to make their clothes, food, dyes for the clothes, submarines - where did they find the metal? and even coffee was mentioned. All these little details and no explanation was rather frustrating.

Romance? No. The book felt like there was something missing throughout and I think that I'm so used to reading romantic sub-plots in every book I come across, I just expect it now. So I was a little surprised when there wasn't even a whiff and a little sad too, I really love Kane. That said,  romance would have got in the way of the story, so it worked well for this book not to have any. 

Overall, this book did read like the author's first novel, which it wasn't. However it was an enjoyable read and I've already purchased the sequel to find out what happens next, despite my issues with the story! I would have like a little romance but as long as Kane's back in the next book, I'm happy.

Review of The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke

Format: Paperback
Genres: Fantasy, Magic, Romance
Pages: 298
Publisher: Strange Chemistry
Release Date: 02/10/2012
Find The Author: Website ¦ Twitter
Book Depository ¦ Amazon UK/US ¦ Goodreads

Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when her parents try to marry her off to another pirate clan. But that only prompts the scorned clan to send an assassin after her. When Ananna faces him down one night, armed with magic she doesn't really know how to use, she accidentally activates a curse binding them together.

To break the spell, Ananna and the assassin must complete three impossible tasks--all while grappling with evil wizards, floating islands, haughty manticores, runaway nobility, strange magic... and the growing romantic tension between them.

I'm going to dive right in and say that this is the exact type of fantasy I've been waiting for since I read Poison Study a good four years ago. It has everything I wanted - pirates, assassins, adventure, quests and a couple that I completely and utterly wanted together so much it hurt. The description is clever, because while there is some romantic tension, there is actually no kissing. Yet?

The story just threw me right in, when Ananna (who I kept wanting to call Anarra) is about to get married off to some guy who's only interested in a new ship his father will give him. Being the most perfect main character ever, she quickly nicks a camel and ditches him. I mean you would right? She always seems to go from one bad situation to worse one and picks up a fair share of enemies along the way.

I really did love the romance or rather the lack of it. I mean, I didn't enjoy that there wasn't much of any but I like the slow burn romances rather than the seeing someone and declaring your undying love to them, which just isn't realistic. Ananna and Naji are two people thrown together which very different lives and they clash a lot because of this. But at the same time you can see how much they care about each other in their actions.

One thing I really liked about this was that although it's a fantasy novel, I had no trouble picturing the scorching deserts or islands or pirate ships, because they're all elements taken from our own world. I prefer these, much easier than trying to imagine a gigantic glass castle or something. Although the desert scenes made me uncomfortable thirsty.

My only regret with this story is that I didn't buy the sequel and spin off before I'd read it - I now have to wait over a week to find out what happens! The story did end on a seriously good cliffhanger and I desperately need to find out what happens next.

Many Covers Moday: Just Listen

Do you want to hear my awesome excuses for forgetting to post Many Covers Monday last week? Go on, you know want to.

I went to see this movie and I completely forgot due to the INSANE AMOUNT OF AWESOME.

It was everything I was hoping for and more, so much action and flying and green smoke stuff and THE RAVEN and humour! So much humour! I wasn't expecting to laugh throughout most of it but I did.

And then cried a little at the end.

Let's get on with the point of this post...

Today we're looking at some of the many different covers of Sarah Dessen's Just Listen and choosing a winner! Some are rejackets and others are foreign language covers.

Last year, Annabel was "the girl who has everything" — at least that's the part she played in the television commercial for Kopf's Department Store.
This year, she's the girl who has nothing: no best friend because mean-but-exciting Sophie dropped her, no peace at home since her older sister became anorexic, and no one to sit with at lunch. Until she meets Owen Armstrong.
Tall, dark, and music-obsessed, Owen is a reformed bad boy with a commitment to truth-telling. With Owen's help, maybe Annabel can face what happened the night she and Sophie stopped being friends.

Book Depository ¦ Amazon UK/US ¦ Goodreads

Left: US

Likes: Everything is simple, clean.

Dislikes: SARAH DESSEN is kinda screaming at me.

Right: US

Likes: The same, everything is simple, clean. Love the font on Just too.

Dislikes: Whatever that fake looking plastic MP3 is in her pocket.

Left: Spanish

Likes: Everything! The font is lovely and the rainbow stripes are so pretty.

Dislikes: Erm, that book company label at the bottom?

Right: UK

Likes: It's unique and definitely eye catching. Actually I really like the girl's eye. I presume I like her other one too unless she's some sort of mutant. Or a burn victim. Or got on the wrong end of Captain Hook's... hook.

Dislikes: It looks like a book about being a hippie in the 60's. I mean look at the flowers, guitars, the font. I'm probably in the minority but I really dislike this cover.

Left: Portuguese

Likes: The font! I like that it changes between the wall thing, it's a neat idea. (Did I just say neat?)

Dislikes: This cover is freaking creepy and why is she staring at me like that stop please.

Right: Russian

Likes: It's very summery!

Dislikes: Take a deep breath ladies, gentlemen and others, and smell the early 2000's. You can easily picture this girl being Christina Aguilera.

Left: German

Likes: The font layout is quite cool.

Dislikes: I'm looking at a girl's ass. 

Right: Swirls! Birds! Very cute. 

Dislikes: The cover itself feels like there's something missing but that's pretty minor when I spotted the strange creature at the top right. It looks like a girl with the head of a... donkey? cat? I'm unsure. Very, very creepy.

 Left: French

Likes: The lilypads look like hearts! Love the font too, I think it's handwritten.

Dislikes: I would have no idea what the book was about.

Right: Dutch
Likes: It's so cool looking! I immediately want to know the girl's story.

Dislikes: I think the big smeary lipstick font is a bit too much.

Winner

I would definitely buy this if I saw it - if only it wasn't Spanish! I'm tempted on decorating my house in rainbow stripes now.

Next Week: Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

Review of The Miseducation Of Cameron Post by Emily Danforth

Format: Paperback
Genres: contemporary, summer, lgbt,
Pages: 480
Publisher: Balzer and Bray
Release Date: 28/05/2013
Find The Author: Website ¦ Twitter
Book Depository ¦ Amazon UK/US ¦ Goodreads

When Cameron Post's parents die suddenly in a car crash, her shocking first thought is relief. Relief they'll never know that, hours earlier, she had been kissing a girl.

But that relief doesn't last, and Cam is soon forced to move in with her conservative aunt Ruth and her well-intentioned but hopelessly old-fashioned grandmother. She knows that from this point on, her life will forever be different. Survival in Miles City, Montana, means blending in and leaving well enough alone (as her grandmother might say), and Cam becomes an expert at both.

Then Coley Taylor moves to town. Beautiful, pickup-driving Coley is a perfect cowgirl with the perfect boyfriend to match. She and Cam forge an unexpected and intense friendship--one that seems to leave room for something more to emerge. But just as that starts to seem like a real possibility, ultrareligious Aunt Ruth takes drastic action to "fix" her niece, bringing Cam face-to-face with the cost of denying her true self--even if she's not exactly sure who that is.

I'd seen this book in Waterstones over and over and never picked it up until one day when I went on a book binge and grabbed a copy. I've always been fascinated with the idea of 'degaying camps' in America but the only other time I'd seen anything about it was when I watched that cheerleader movie. You know the one. It's an amazing movie and everyone should see it. This however, was not anywhere near an amazing book for me.

My main problem with it was the sheer length of the thing. I figured 480 pages wouldn't be so bad, I'd read The Program in a couple of hours before now and that was 405. However, I didn't account for the layout - this book has small writing and a lot of it on each page, making the book even more tedious than it already was. The story itself isn't really that great either.

The way this story is written is a strange one. The rest of the year isn't really mentioned and therefore there are long drawn out descriptions of what she did each summer.Boy are they drawn out. Two summers could take up 100 pages, easy. Strangely though her only character development happened during the summer, so there was a strange effect of her only existing during summer.

The good stuff, the camp that I was waiting for for what felt like forever didn't actually start until around page 260. No, I'm not kidding. Her parents deaths only take up a small portion of the book before they're forgotten so you have to sit page after page, hearing her talk about smoking pot and thinking about Coley. However, the story did pick up a little when she got there but not enough to keep my interest.

Romance. I waited for romance. I hungered for romance. I even drooled a little in the hope that romance would happen. It. Never. Did. I think this was a big mistake because having a good romance in a story can really help keep things moving. There were two important girls in this: Irene, who discovered dinosaur bones, left for a posh school and was never heard of again and Coley, who was never interested due to probably being a supposed bisexual and after the camp thing just ignored Cameron. 

There were a lot of characters who should have had a say towards the end and there was so much I wanted to happen that could have happened, had the descriptions not been so drawn out. Irene's and Coley's stories felt unfinished and the story itself ended in a really strange place. 

Stacking The Shelves (21/06/2014)

Hosted by Tynga's Reviews

Books Bought This Week

I finally got a copy of Since You've Been Gone! I have read this so if you leave an "enjoy your new books" comment I will frown at you. I also took some photos of the amazing dust jacket too.

Books Read This Week (Sat 14th - Fri 20th)

Nowhere by Jon Robinson (4/5)
Anywhere by Jon Robinson (4/5)
The Miseducation Of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth (2/5)
The Moment Collector by Jodi Lynn Anderson (3/5)

Sadly, no stellar reads this week. Nowhere and Anywhere were really good books but they were a little let down by the writing. I spent most of the week reading the 480 page tome that was The Miseducation Of Cameron Post, only to want to chuck it out of the window in despair when I reached the final page. And The Moment Collector was just weird.

ReadItSwapIt

If you're in the UK you might have heard of ReadItSwapIt and if not, you want to go visit it immediately. It's a simple site where you list books, people can request books of yours they want if you want one of theirs too, you swap. Cute right? I added these this week:

If you want any of them, go request! I'm posting on Wednesday.

Dancing To This Week

Not so much dancing to as 'rocking slowly to, in a state of distress'. Yes, it was the emotional Game of Thrones finale this week but you'll hear no spoilers from me. (I can't wait for the next season though)

Next Week

Sadly, Angry Robot closed down it's imprints Strange Chemistry and Exhibition H this week, cancelling all it's upcoming titles. I only read 2 of their books but I loved them, so to celebrate this unique publisher (with some seriously gorgeous covers), next week is Strange Chemistry week here. Look out for reviews and a giveaway!

(Many Covers Monday will continue as planned)

Vickie x