Every year, I always look forward to Frenzy Presents hosted by HCC Frenzy at the HarperCollins Toronto office. I don’t have a lot of bookish friends in my area so when you have a day dedicated to inviting a bunch of book bloggers, feeding them A+ snacks, and talking to them about upcoming releases? It’s like going to the bookstore with an infinite credit card. (Ok, I actually don’t know what that feels like but I can imagine)

I honestly don’t know where half the year has gone, but it’s that time of the year where Fall Releases are APPROACHING and I’m excited to tell you all about them. This batch in particular feels like there’s something for everyone so without further ado, here’s a list of upcoming books you can cozy up with a blanket as summer draws to a close:

Hey you know what are great? LIBRARIES. Books for free? Amazing. Spaces to read? Amazing. Media beyond just books, like DVDs and CDs and magazines? Amazing. LIBRARIES ARE AMAZING. And they have amazing people who work there to spread the love of books, so basically it’s a heaven on earth. I am so sorry for my copious use of the word “amazing”.

AAAAnyway, I’ve recently read a few books which heavily feature libraries in them and that got me thinking! How do libraries in literature compare to modern day/real life libraries? Okay, so we have the obvious point – a lot of what I read is fantasy, so clearly real life libraries don’t deal with anything magical. But what are the ideas behind literary libraries? The functions, the themes, etc. Do they match up with how we think of real life libraries? So I’m just gonna talk about a handful of books (that I happen to love) that feature libraries, and then discuss my thoughts a little bit!

If you’ve been reading my posts until now, then you might know I love the Red Rising series (by Pierce Brown). If you didn’t know or are new to the blog then here it is: I LOVE THE RED RISING SERIES!!!! It’s an epic science fiction series that is about a dystopian society that has class hierarchies described by color, with Golds being the top of society. Each color has a type of job that they’re allowed to do, and everything is very restrictive – you can’t marry outside your class (each color is genetically modified, some with special enhancements but also so that you can’t conceive children outside of your own color). Anyway it’s brilliant and brutal and gut-wrenching and you all gotta read it.

The fifth book in the series was released at the end of July, and Pierce went on tour to promote it. I am lucky to live close to New York City, so I was able to attend his even there on the 7th at the Barnes and Noble Union Square.

I wanted to share with you my experience of the event and meeting Pierce! I’ve included a lot of the stuff I could remember from Pierce’s discussion and Q&A session which will hopefully those of you who wanted to see him but couldn’t will enjoy 🙂 Sorry in advance, this is kind of a long one! But it’s worth it 🙂

P.S. There may be slight spoilers for the original trilogy + Iron Gold! But most of it is pretty tame.

From an Aurora Award-winning author comes a new fantasy epic in which one mage must stand against a Deathless Goddess who controls all magic.

Only in Tananen do people worship a single deity: the Deathless Goddess. Only in this small, forbidden realm are there those haunted by words of no language known to woman or man. The words are Her Gift, and they summon magic.

Mage scribes learn to write Her words as intentions: spells to make beasts or plants, designed to any purpose. If an intention is flawed, what the mage creates is a gossamer: a magical creature as wild and free as it is costly for the mage.

For Her Gift comes at a steep price. Each successful intention ages a mage until they dare no more. But her magic demands to be used; the Deathless Goddess will take her fee, and mages will die.

To end this terrible toll, the greatest mage in Tananen vows to find and destroy Her. He has yet to learn She is all that protects Tananen from what waits outside. And all that keeps magic alive.

When I saw the synopsis of this book I was IMMEDIATELY drawn in. I mean, magic through writing in a secret language? Magic that has a cost that is literally your life force? Rebelling against the system to kill a goddess?? I mean this is basically the best premise, what more could you ask for?

How far would you go to change humanity's fate?

Jared Cartwright has spent the last two years delving into the twisted, scarred wastelands of an earth ravaged by nuclear war. The rich and powerful have taken to the oceans and skies on floating utopias, escaping destruction and leaving the rest of humanity to fend off the mutated creatures that roam the earth.

To face his new reality, Jared must become an apex predator if he hopes to survive. He must evolve beyond human limitations to confront those that left mankind to die.

Jared's quest takes a new turn when he discovers dragons are real.

I received a free copy of the audiobook from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

I haven’t read much LitRPG, so when the opportunity came to review the audiobook Radioactive Evolution I was looking forward to it. I know how narration can make or break a book for people and I’m happy to report that the narrators did a great job with this one. I didn’t have trouble understanding what was being said and the narration fit well with the story. Radioactive Evolution feels like a video game and I loved watching the story unfold through the eyes of our main characters, Jared (human) and Scarlet (dragon).

What I enjoyed most about this book was the idea of the characters being able to level up after fighting enemies and gaining nanotechnology that allows them to divvy it up to increase strength, mental capacity, or regeneration. I also found Jared and Scarlet’s relationship quite interesting, since they have a special bond. And can I just say… for someone who’s read about dragons in books multiple times, I loved how massive Scarlet was. Imagine Godzilla and just, wow. That’s terrifying and brilliant all at once.

Some things didn’t work as well for me though. While Jared and Scarlet’s relationship was explained, I sometimes found their interactions a bit overdone. I also found a lot of things explained in general. I know this is part of the worldbuilding and sharing the knowledge with readers, but I would have loved more show than tell for parts of the book. Another thing I struggled with was the pacing. Even though things were happening one after another, I found that I just wasn’t as engaged in the story. It wasn’t bad per se, but I didn’t have the urge to keep going when a chapter ended. This is just my experience and preference of course and I can see other readers having no problem with things I mentioned.

Overall Radioactive Evolution opened my eyes to the fascinating world of LitRPG. It was fun and interesting and I think gamers will particularly love it!