The Soul Mirror (Collegia Magica #2) by Carol Berg

The Soul Mirror by Carol Berg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Carol Berg kept me up all night reading her all-too engrossing book! I love the intrigue and the setting of this series, and I have always liked the main character since she first appeared near the end of book one. There is   twisted deviousness and devious twists, betrayal, redemption and love in this story of magic and blood.


Looking forward very much to the next book, which I am guessing will feature my favorite chevalier and one wronged and bitter brother.


View all my reviews

link to previous post

Truthseeker promo at Bitten By Books!

C.E. Murphy interview and a chance to win cool prizes!
I am really excited about her new series; almost as excited as I am to read the next book in The Walker Papers.

Cold Magic by Kate Elliott

Cold Magic by Kate Elliott

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Ever think about the good press the Romans STILL get, even today? That was the offhand comment that so luckily got me a chance to read an advanced copy of Kate Elliott's fantastic new novel, Cold Magic.

It's 1837 England in an ice-locked world where the Romans were battled to a standstill by the Phoenicians, and over time Europe had dissolved into small principalities. The real power resides in the Cold Mages, the magically gifted descendants of West African refugees and Celtic druids. But the Industrial Revolution is at hand, emphasis on "Revolution."

Catherine and Beatrice, or Cat and Bee, as they call each other, are devoted and inseparable cousins. They are genteel, if somewhat impoverished, young Phoenician ladies attending academy lectures on aerostatics on the all-girls balcony while teasing each other about the cute guy in the main hall. They keep secrets, but never from each other, and they can face anything together. Until Cat is suddenly taken away and finds herself first a prisoner, then a fugitive, in a terrible race to save herself and Bee from factions that are using them as battle pieces in an ugly conflict about to spark.

I love this book. It's about magic, romance, friendship, family, and loyalty, and history turned on it's head. It's about "Lies The Romans Told" and the Napoleon that might have been. I stayed up until 1 am to find out what happens, and now I am going back over alt-history details and looking them up on the web. And checking the map on the front against modern maps thinking "why is it named that ... oh, clever!" It's a great story set in a rich, fascinating world and I hope everyone gets a chance to read it when it hits the bookstore shelves in September.

View all my reviews >>

Dance of the Assassins by Herve Jubert

Dance of the Assassins by Herve Jubert


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed this. Jubert writes with a fine sense of the absurd that never overwhelms the underlying story. It's set in a future where crime has been rendered almost obsolete by DNA tracers, and witches are on the unofficial payroll of the CID. A murder is discovered in one of the theme-park historic cities, where tracers are banned, and unlikely partners Roberta Morgenstein and rookie rich kid Clement Martineau are on the case.

Morgenstein is a joy to read about.

She was somewhere between forty-five and fifty-five, with a good life behind her, a life full of excellent meals, delicious liqueurs, and marshmallows. Not enough exercise. Well, none at all, except what came naturally. Roberta's love of comfort and a certain preference for making as little effort as possible had done nothing for her figure. Still, she'd come to terms with it.

What an unlikely heroine! But she moves through the story with dead-pan panache, competently foiling satan-worshipping villains and patiently fishing her puppy-like partner out of trouble while never passing up a shopping opportunity.

View all my reviews >>

Discovering Amelia Peabody

I read the first Amelia Peabody mystery last night, Crocodile on the Sandbank.
Simply delightful. I think when I came to this part, on page 7 ...

    After an interval he came bounding back with his eyes gleaming. Nothing delights these gentry so much as misfortune; I was therefore not surprised when he reported that the "turisti" were gathered around a young English lady who had fallen down dead upon the ground.
    "How do you know that she is English?" I inquired.

... I realized that I had fallen in love with Ms. Peabody.

On The Edge by Ilona Andrews Promo Party!

I read this a few days ago and I  love it so much I  am actually going to re-read it, something I rarely do.

And what's even cooler is that they are doing a contest with a chance to win a Sony e-Reader and other cool stuff! (Stuff!)

Elfland and Demon's Lexicon

Two more wonderful reads, lumped together because I read them one after the other, but coincidentally they do share an underlying theme.

Elfland by Freda Warrington is a nice thick urban fantasy about faerie-like demi-mortal beings, Aetherials, some of whom live in our world as humans, although they really belong somewhere else (the Spiral). There is a Gatekeeper between worlds, and at the start of the book he tells the Aetherial community on earth that he's keeping the gate shut for their own good. So a generation of Aetherials grows up without connecting to their heritage. The story focuses on the Gatekeepers kids and the next door Aetherial kids, specially siblings Rose & Lucas. It's written as a family drama and a romance, and what I like best is that the Aetherial characters are written as deeply human. I specially recommend it for romantic readers.


The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan is a fast-paced adventure. Magicians get their power by sacrificing people to demons, and brothers Nick & Alan are on the run from magicians who are trying to get back a magical amulet from their insane ex-magician mother. The story is told from Nick's pov, and he cares only about Alan, because Alan is the one who raised him and looked after him. The trouble is Alan cares about everyone, including a brother and sister who come to them for help, and it's all up to Nick to save Alan from his chivalrous impulses. I really loved this book, because even though Nick is moody and angry and literally murderous, I feel such empathy for him. A very dark story written with lots of humor and wit.

Kate Elliott's Crossroads (Spirit Gate, Shadow Gate, Traitor's Gate)

I have fallen behind on logging all my reads, but I do try to keep up using goodreads. But I at least want to blog about really Wonderful Reads, and here is one from last week.

Traitor's Gate is the third book in the Crossroads series by Kate Elliott, one of my favorite authors, and it wraps up the first part of the saga. The first two books are Spirit Gate and Shadow Gate.

Hm, maybe I should show you what I wrote about each book after I read it:


Spirit Gate (August 2007)

What a big fat book! I love the old Asian feel of the worldbuilding. I admire how the book ends -- a big conflict resolved but so many questions left unanswered. The only downside is the wait 'til the next book

Shadow Gate (June 2008)
I've been meaning to post about Shadow Gate, which is book two in Kate Elliott's Crossroads series. This is a big fat book, rich is calories and flavor.

Consider the ingredients:

- Worldbuilding. Being Filipino, the asian and pacific islander influences in the cultures of the Qin & The Hundred are such a kick to me. The level of detail is wonderful; the feeling that this world really exists we're only seeing bits of it.

- Characters. Let me see if I can explain what I really like about the characters. They are all full of the prejudices of beliefs of their culture and upbringing, and they all consider their own worldviews to be perfectly valid. And that's how they are.

- Mastery. I don't know what else to call the storytelling. The choices she makes in the way she tells the story are just very good. Take for example, Cornflower's story. I usually dislike flashbacks, but I appreciated the choice here, since it allows some emotional distance from what would otherwise have been too painful.

Grand and bewilderingly big, like the construction of a Gothic cathedral -- that's what I think this series is like.

Traitors Gate (September 2009)
I've been busy and thus wary of starting this for fear I'd get sucked in and neglect all else. I was right! I started it yesterday and stayed up all night finishing it! Aui!

Another thing I was worried about was that I would have to refer to Books 1 & 2 to remember what was going on, but as soon as I read page one I was back in the flow. The characters do an initial info dump as they are reintroduced in a way that flows right with the story. Really well done.

In fact, I was a bit more than half-way through the book when I caught myself thinking that this whole trilogy is really a masterpiece of the epic fantasy form.

As to the ending, no WONDER the blurb on the front called it "surprising"*. One of those shocking things that nonetheless had a lot of warning. One might even call them red flags. I too, have perfect hindsight.
The most bittersweet wrap up ever.

I'm full of questions, of course (which the author graciously answered, and I will paraphrase her answers below to make them slightly less spoilery)

... spoilers ahoy ...
Is this the end of Mai & Anji's story as central characters? What about Shai, & Zubaidit? (Answer: Mai will be in the next book)
When did Kate Elliott know what was going to happen to Mai & Anji -- right at the start or did it surprise her too? Did it break her heart? I'm guessing it was planned; really an amazing way of driving home the point of the history Jothinin was retelling -- we didn't see until it was too late. (Answer: Very much planned)
What's the plan for the next books -- when & where will they be set? (Answer: "Crossroads 4 is supposed to take place 15 years later (snip big spoilers). It's not particularly epic. The follow up trilogy is meant to take place almost 60 years after the end of Traitors' Gate and is hugely epic."

*oops, actually, it says "extraordinary", but I somehow remembered it as "surprising". It's both, imo.


In conclusion, Kate Elliott writes three Big, Fat, DELICIOUS books that I heartily recommend to anyone with an appetite for a really wonderful read.
Go forth and DEVOUR them.