Blog – Page 61 – Lyndsey Hall

Six sequels I’m dying to read!

Hi folks, I thought I’d give you all a little look-see at which book series I’m loving right now and which sequels I can’t wait to read. I’m going to cheat a little bit today, some of these books are yet to be released, some are recent releases, and some are years old, I just haven’t managed to squeeze them into my busy schedule yet.

Let me know if you’ve read any of these and what you thought!

Escaping from Houdini by Kerri Maniscalco

Stalking Jack the Ripper Kerri Maniscalco

How beautiful do those covers look together? I’m not usually a huge fan of people on covers, but these are just gorgeous. I especially like the cityscapes that are blended in, as a big part of these stories is the location they’re set in (London, Romania and a luxury cruise liner to America!). I just finished the audio book of Hunting Prince Dracula a couple of weeks ago and loved it even more than Stalking Jack the Ripper, so I’m really excited for Escaping from Houdini’s release this month! I’ve preordered it using my September Audible credit so I can download it as soon as it goes live.

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas

Probably my favourite series of all time (after Harry Potter, of course) and soon to be a TV series! I’m just about to finish reading the paperback of Tower of Dawn, which has been a new experience after listening to the audio books of the previous five books – I normally get through these in a week or two, but it’s taken months thanks to a new baby stealing all my reading time! Thank the gods I’m back to work and can listen to the audio book on my commute when Kingdom of Ash is released next month.

Now I Rise & Bright We Burn by Kiersten White

I still can’t believe I haven’t read Now I Rise! At least now Bright We Burn is out I can read both in quick succession instead of dying from the long wait. I listened to the audio book of And I Darken (and loved it!), and for some reason book two never appeared on Audible. I waited and waited, but I guess I’m going to have to get my hands on the paperbacks of these two. I’ll have to hit up the mobile library next time it comes around!

(Do you have mobile libraries in other countries? It’s basically a minibus full of books that drives around rural villages. You can order books like a normal library. They’re pretty great when you live out in the sticks, but might only come once a month depending where you live.)

Half Lost by Sally Green

Half Bad was such an unexpected joy of a book, I’d never heard of it until a friend who works for Waterstones gave it to me just after it was released, but I was hooked immediately. Green’s got such a captivating way of writing, she throws you straight into Nathan’s head and you barely get a chance to catch your breath until you’ve finished the whole book. I read Half Wild a couple of years ago, and I’ve just never gotten round to Half Lost (clearly putting off ending the series and saying goodbye to Nathan and Gabriel!).

Fire & Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

Graceling was the best YA fantasy I’d read in about a year, and has cemented its position as one of my all time favourites. The story is just so well crafted, with beautifully detailed world-building and fully-formed characters. The whole concept of Graces is fascinating, like natural talents and affinities taken to the nth degree, and I can’t wait to find out more about them in the two companion books, Fire and Bitterblue. They follow different characters in the same fictional world, with some of the cast of Graceling popping up as cameos, and Bitterblue obviously focusing on one of the secondary characters from book one. If you haven’t read Graceling yet, I’d definitely recommend it, I jumped on the bandwagon late, but now I’m practically driving it!

Lord of Shadows & Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare

I’ve been obsessed with all things Shadowhunter since I first read City of Bones about 8 years ago, quickly ordering and devouring all the available sequels, and then The Infernal Devices, and stalking the filming of the Mortal Instruments movie with Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower. I actually enjoyed the film and was really disappointed when it didn’t do that well, so I was thrilled when they decided to turn it into a TV series. Now Shadowhunters is coming to an end and I’m left with the book series again. Not that I’m complaining, I’ve got Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy and Lord of Shadows sitting on my shelf just waiting to be read, and Queen of Air and Darkness will soon be out in the world. Then there’s the fourth series Clare is planning, The Last Hours, and I cannot wait to hear about Will and Tessa’s descendants! So it’s not like I’m struggling for content over here.

And that is a very non-exhaustive list of the sequels I’m desperate to read and plan to jump headlong into as soon as I get a spare moment (babies, amirite?). Which series are you loving right now and can’t wait to get your hands on the next book?

Lyndsey

Speculation, speculation, speculation

Good morning (or evening depending on which hemisphere you’re in), and welcome back to my blog. Today I thought I’d delve into my favourite genre of fiction, and one many people don’t fully understand or perhaps haven’t even heard of – speculative fiction.

Broadly speaking, speculative fiction deals with what might be, or what could have been, and encompasses a wide range of genres including science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural and dystopian, as well as alternate histories.

Speculative fiction has been around for centuries, but it’s still often dismissed as ‘genre fiction’. Genre fiction is also known as ‘popular fiction’, and tends to refer to plot-driven books written to fit a particular genre and attract readers who are already familiar with and fans of that specific genre. It’s most common in crime, fantasy, romance, sci-fi, horror and westerns.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with genre fiction, it serves to provide readers with content they want to read, entertainment and escapism, and that’s no bad thing. It’s more or less the opposite of literary fiction, which tends to be less easy to pigeonhole as one genre or another, and provides a means to better understand the real world via direct references, rather than using metaphors and allegories. Some high-brow literary fiction fans turn their nose up at genre fiction, but it boasts just as many brilliant authors (think Stephen King, Neil Gaiman and George R.R. Martin) and just as many, if not more sales.

But, not all speculative fiction falls into the category of genre fiction.

Let’s have a look at a few examples of speculative fiction novels and how they fit into the genre:

Science Fiction

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for decades, you’ve definitely heard of Jurassic Park, whether that’s due to the blockbuster movies or Michael Crichton’s original novel. The basic premise is “what if dinosaurs could be scientifically engineered today?” and the results are, well, catastrophic to say the least. But the science is credible, Crichton has really put some thought into his story, and that makes the books even scarier and more gripping.

Fantasy

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone JK Rowling Lyndsey's Book Blog

Another one you’ve undoubtedly come across, again possibly because of the movies, but the source material is much deeper and more detailed than the on-screen version. Rowling started with the question “what if magic was real?” and really ran with it, imagining every possible creature, spell and magical object and combining them in an elegant allegory about good and evil.

Horror

MARY: The Summoning by Hillary Monahan

We’ve all heard some version of the Blood Mary story, you might even have played the game as a teenager, saying her name into the mirror, scaring yourselves silly for a good laugh. Monahan’s dark YA novel asks “what if the legend of Bloody Mary was real?”. Who was Mary, and why is she out for revenge against teenage girls?

Dystopian

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Dystopian novels often look at a potential, but far-fetched future, focusing on the current day issues we face and asking, ‘what’s the absolute worst case scenario if we continue down this road?’. Atwood’s popular novel has recently been adapted into a brilliantly close-to-the-bone TV series, updated to reflect today’s reality (the original novel was published almost thirty years ago in 1985). The question Atwood focused on is “what if religious fundamentalists took control of the country?”, and her conclusion is equally credible and horrifying.

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

Written in 1948, Orwell’s novel speculated about a communist future for Britain, setting the story in 1984 (he literally just swapped the digits round to get his time period) and getting so many things scarily right. Whilst he might be partly to blame for Big Brother, his vision of a future dominated by television and surveillance/visibility is shockingly prescient.

Alternate History

And I Darken by Kiersten White

White’s YA historical fantasy novel asks the question, “what if Vlad the Impaler had been female?”, and how would the gender swap impact on the legend we all know? The story highlights the inequalities between men and women in the Ottoman Empire, and imagines what would have happened if a bold, empowered woman like Lada had been the daughter of the Wallachian king.

Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin

Probably one of the most interesting ‘what ifs’ possible: “what if the Nazis had won World War Two?”. Graudin’s novel has Hitler surviving and the combined powers of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan winning the war. With some fantastical elements thrown in, this is a fascinating glimpse of what might have been if the Allies had lost and Nazism survived.

Supernatural

The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare

If you haven’t read the books or seen the 2013 movie with Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower, you might have seen the TV series Shadowhunters with Katherine McNamara and Dominic Sherwood. With the sheer number of supernatural creatures involved, and the vastness of Clare’s fictional world, spanning both space and time over the three series so far (with a fourth in the pipeline I believe), the question The Mortal Instruments centres around is, “what if all the myths and legends were true?”. Mixing urban fantasy with classic supernatural elements, Clare looks at the possibilities in a world where demons, angels, vampires, werewolves, faeries, warlocks, and everything in between, exist.

Speculative fiction isn’t reserved for these genres, if your story looks at what could be, what might have been, or what would happen if, then it might just be a piece of speculative fiction.

Lyndsey

Ten books I’d combine to make an even better one!

Hi folks, I’m linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl this week for Top Ten Tuesday! This week’s topic is ‘books you’d mash together (pick two books you think would make an epic story if combined)’.

1. The Raven Boys X One of Us is Lying

Can’t you just see it? Blue, Gansey and the gang involved in a totally non-supernatural murder and a bunch of normal high school drama? I see Gansey as Bronwyn, Blue as Addy (at the end rather than the beginning), Ronan as Nate, Adam as Cooper and Noah as Simon (of course!). In fact, now I think about it the similarities between these two groups of characters are huge! It would be even more fun to combine the two groups and see how the dynamics changed.

2. Six of Crows X Throne of Glass

I reckon Kaz could give Celaena/Aelin a run for her money in the mad scheme area. Somehow their plans always seem to come together in the end, even if things go horribly wrong somewhere in the middle. They also both have a band of misfits and outcasts for friends, with a variety of talents and abilities, who are loyal to the death. I think they’d start out as enemies and wind up friends (with a bit of healthy rivalry thrown in).

3. Red Rising X Cinder

Something about these two just fits together for me, like they could be going on concurrently in the same universe – Cinder is what’s remaining of Earth, and Red Rising is just one of many new colonies across the galaxy. The sci-fi elements feel like pieces of a jigsaw that would fit neatly together, and I think Cinder and Darrow are a match made in heaven.

4. Stalking Jack the Ripper X The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue

Wouldn’t Audrey Rose and Felicity just be the best of friends? They could go on adventures together, share tips on medical procedures, and generally show the boys how it’s done. I love single-minded and bold female characters, and these two are even better as they’re so ahead of their time and incongruous to the historical setting, yet so believably written. Thomas and Monty would probably be firm friends too, they share the same cheeky sense of humour.

5. The Bone Season X Clockwork Angel: The Infernal Devices

Both of these novels give me a strong steampunk vibe, despite the fact they’re set around 200 years apart. I can imagine Will, Jem and Tessa living in the same world as Paige and Warden, just a couple of centuries earlier, can’t you?

6. Strange the Dreamer X The Sin Eater’s Daughter

Strange the Dreamer and The Sin Eater’s Daughter are both full of gorgeous imagery, strange new mythologies and selfless, heroic characters – and they’re two of my absolute favourite books/series in the world! The gods and magical goings-on in Taylor’s novel would absolute fit with the world of fairytales-come-to-life created by Salisbury. In fact, I might need these two to collaborate on something now…

7. Flawed X Delirium

In Oliver’s beautifully written trilogy, love is forbidden and everyone undergoes a lobotomy (delightfully named ‘the Cure’) at age 18 to prevent them from developing feelings. In Ahern’s YA debut, Flawed, moral and ethical mistakes have been outlawed and those who commit errors of judgement are labelled ‘Flawed’ and branded with an F on the related part of their body, whether that’s their head, chest, hand or even tongue. I can totally see these two regimes coinciding, and as dystopians go they’re two of the most credible I’ve read. Scary.

8. The Hunger Games X The Maze Runner

The similarities between Panem and WICKED are massive – both think it’s totally cool to send a group of kids into a man-made arena with engineered monsters, and a strong possibility they’ll all die. The main difference is that one is doing it because of a (man-made) virus that broke out and almost wiped out humankind, and the other because war broke out and almost wiped out humankind…(how is killing more people the answer?? Who knows.) I definitely think The Maze Runner could learn a thing or two from The Hunger Games, particularly in the fashion stakes.

9. Fallen X Hush, Hush

Ah, two of my favourite teenage reads. Actually I was probably in my early twenties, but same thing. Aside from the similarly beautiful covers, both stories centre around a girl who falls in love with a fallen angel, who are both your typical brooding YA males, with a divine twist. I loved the strong family and best friend bonds Nora has in Hush, Hush, but I am a sucker for a boarding school setting, so a combination of these two books would be the ultimate angel story for me.

10. Nevernight X Prince of Thorns

I can’t think of two more stabby and sassy characters than Mia Corvere and Jorg Ancrath. Both went through a terrible, bloody and traumatising experience as young children, forcing them to become the badass assassins they are today. Mia’s story is set in a fantasy world resembling ancient Rome, complete with gladiators, whereas Jorg’s setting is suggested to be the future of our planet, centuries after some event, the likes of that which killed off the dinosaurs, has destroyed everything we currently know and returned civilisation to the Dark Ages. They’re both incredibly detailed and well-drawn settings, providing the perfect stage for our murderous little friends to perform on. I wonder what Mr Kindly would make of Jorg?

There you have it, ten pairs of books that would combine to make an epic tome of the absolute best kind! Which two books would you create a mash up of if you could?

Lyndsey