The Art of destruction review

hello Whovians the Doctor brought me back, thankfully a mere day after we left, though technically it's been several for me and the Doctor, welllll...anyway. today I give to you a review of  The Art of Destruction by Stephen Cole

The Art Of Destruction

Stephen Cole

The TARDIS lands in 22nd century Africa in the shadow of a dormant volcano. Agri-teams are growing new foodstuffs in the baking soil to help feed the world's starving millions - but the Doctor and Rose have detected an alien signal somewhere close by. When a nightmare force starts surging along the dark volcanic tunnels, the Doctor realizes an ancient trap has been sprung. But who was it meant for? And what is the secret of the eerie statues that stand at the heart of the volcano? Dragged into a centuries-old conflict, Rose and the Doctor are soon elevating survival to an art form - as ancient, alien hands practice arts of destruction all around them...

alright so we're all accustom to watching the doctor in his many regenerations running across our TV screens but not many are used to him running across the pages having his legendary adventures with his different companions by his side protecting the earth from the unseen dangers that lurk above us in the stars this certain adventure takes place years into our future that involves gold, Africans and of course aliens. the moment the TARDIS lands in the fields of Africa in the distant future I found myself pulled in and running along side The Doctor and Rose as they try to piece together what is happening. It is very rare to find a TV show that translates well from the screen to the page as well as this book has and I can't wait to get my hands on the next Doctor Who book I can get my hands on. I loved this book and I would suggest it to all of you Whovians that also love a good book and with this little review that I fear has become rambling (not unlike those of a certain Time Lord) I bid you ado those of you who love Doctor Who in the words of the great Time Lord allons-y

The Kings Dragon review

And book review time, what? don't look at me like that, the Doctor did say there would be book reviews...anyway it's about him...though he probably shouldn't read it seeing which regen he's in. 

anyway this book stars two of my fave companions of all time Amy and Rory. Now then on to the review of Una McCormack's The King's Dragon.

The King's Dragon 

‘They called it Enamour. It turned minds, sold merchandise, and swayed elections. And it did its job far too well...’ In the city-state of Geath, the King lives in a golden hall, and the people want for nothing. Everyone is happy and everyone is rich. Or so it seems. When the Doctor, Amy and Rory look beneath the surface, they discover a city of secrets. In dark corners, strange creatures are stirring. At the heart of the hall, a great metal dragon oozes gold. Then the Herald appears, demanding the return of her treasure... And next come the gunships. The battle for possession of the treasure has begun, and only the Doctor and his friends can save the people of the city from being destroyed in the crossfire of an ancient civil war. But will the King surrender his new-found wealth? Or will he fight to keep it...?

This book follows Amy Rory and the Doctor into a world encased in gold. It was wonderful rendition of the eleventh Doctor and his companions that had me laughing along with Pond and worrying along with Rory. And going through the crazy antics right along with the Doctor. This story takes you through all the usual waves off an adventure with the Doctor from being locked up to threats of exile “Hey nothing wrong with a spot of exile. Not a bad way of life” the doctor said. “save the odd star whale” Said Amy “fight the odd vampire” said Rory. The Doctor turned on them “technically speaking they weren’t vampires….. Do I look like Buffy?” Things like this are what have you laughing like there’s no tomorrow and I can say that this book made me want to do this many times. I would recommend this book to any Whovian that also enjoys reading a good fast paced book.

I’m a science fiction writer, particularly of tie-in novels based on Doctor Who and Star Trek. I’m also lecturer in creative writing at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. I used to be a sociologist, but I’m all right now. I wrote fiction as a child but exam preparation and essay writing meant I had pretty much given up by my teens. My magnum opus in this period (written when I was an 11-year-old schoolgirl) was an epic scribbled into a school exercise book, about an apocalyptic battle between Good and Evil, in which Good (yes, Good) is ably assisted by an 11-year-old schoolgirl. Looking back, I detect the unmistakeable influence of Susan Cooper‘s Dark is Rising sequence, and the Guardian Trilogy of stories during Davison-era Doctor Who. In my mid-twenties I began producing fanfiction based on budget 1970s BBC space opera Blake’s 7. In the late 90s, a friend handed me his Star Trek: Deep Space Nine videos, ignoring my shrieks that “I didn’t like Star Trek” and insisting, “You’ll like this.” How right he was. I devoured the show in a matter of weeks, started churning out fanfiction at a great pace, publishing on the new-fangled InterWebs that were so popular at the time. This turned out to be a good move: someone recommended my writing to the editor of the Star Trek range at Pocket Books, and he emailed to ask if I’d like to pitch some stories. One benefit of email is that you have time to compose a measured reply, rather than yelp, “Oh god yes!” down the phone at someone you’re eager to impress. Since then, I’ve written three Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novels, two Doctor Who novels, and numerous short stories. My short story, “Sea Change”, was selected to appear in Gardner Dozois’ Year’s Best Science Fiction anthology in 2008. (Several other of my short stories have received honourable mentions in those anthologies.) My current projects include a space opera about girls with guns, and a pseudo-historical political thriller set in a counterfactual post-Roman Britain. I spend most of my free time reading and watching TV. I love the writing of Ursula Le Guin, JRR Tolkien, TS Eliot, Rosemary Sutcliff, Emma Goldman, Lois McMaster Bujold, Sylvia Engdahl, Lucy M. Boston, and Tove Jansson. Current favourite TV shows include new Doctor Who (which I’m convinced has been written just for me), and Grange Hill (the early years). I travel through life in a rackety space-time house in Cambridge, England, with my companion of many years, Matthew. We have no cats and several Daleks.

When you run with the Doctor, it feels like it'll never end, but however hard you try you can't run forever. Everybody knows that everybody dies and nobody knows it like the Doctor, but I do think that all the skies of all the worlds might just turn dark if he ever, for one moment, accepts it. Everybody knows that everybody dies, but not every day. Not today. Some days are special. Some days are so, so blessed. Some days, nobody dies at all. Now and then, every once in a very long while, every day in a million days, when the wind stands fair and the Doctor comes to call, everybody lives.~River Song

Wisdom of the Bookworms, 

© 2013 Micheyla Bartotto, All Rights Reserved. No part of this article may be used without the express permission of the author. DISCLOSURE STATEMENT -- All books reviewed on this site have been received via purchase, lending, or given to me by an author or publisher. No reviews are purchased.

Behemoth 

 By Scott Westerfeld 

The behemoth is the fiercest creature in the British navy. It can swallow enemy battleships with one bite. The Darwinists will need it, now that they are at war with the Clanker Powers. Deryn is a girl posing as a boy in the British Air Service, and Alek is the heir to an empire posing as a commoner. Finally together aboard the airship Leviathan, they hope to bring the war to a halt. But when disaster strikes the Leviathan's peacekeeping mission, they find themselves alone and hunted in enemy territory. Alek and Deryn will need great skill, new allies, and brave hearts to face what’s ahead.

 I picked up Behemoth under a strong recommendation from a friend, I had read the first book several months before, and had thoroughly enjoyed it, so I had high hopes when I cracked the cover of this book, hopes that were met, and surpassed easily, I felt that Scott kept a strong grasp on the characters that he introduced me to in the first book, and made them grow seamlessly. Making me fall even more in love with Alek and Deryn all over again. I was drawn into the world of this book, and found myself having issues letting go, and honestly that is one sure sign of a good book, it sinks it’s giant Clanker claws into you and won’t let go, no matter how much you beg, and to be honest I’m not sure I would want it to. I would recommend this book to any steampunk bookworms, and hell even to some nonsteampunk bookworms.



Scott Westerfeld is a New York Times bestselling American-born author of YA sci-fi literature. He was born in the Texas and now lives in Sydney and New York City. In 2001, Westerfeld married fellow author Justine Larbalestier. His book Evolution's Darling was a New York Times Notable Book, and won a Special Citation for the 2000 Philip K. Dick Award. So Yesterday won a Victorian Premier's Award and Midnighters 1: The Secret Hour won an Aurealis Award. Peeps and Uglies were both named as Best Books for Young Adults 2006 by the
American Library Association.


It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live ~ J.K. RowlingWisdom of the Bookworms, Micheyla
 © 2013 Micheyla Bartotto, All Rights Reserved. No part of this article may be used without the express permission of the author. DISCLOSURE STATEMENT -- All books reviewed on this site have been received via purchase, lending, or given to me by an author or publisher. No reviews are purchased.

Fleur Philips - Crumble - A Review

about the book:
Eighteen-year-old Sarah McKnight has a secret. She's in love with David Brooks. Sarah is white. David is black. But Sarah's not the only one keeping secrets in the close-knit community of Kalispell, Montana. Her father George, who owns a local gun shop and proudly drives a truck with a Confederate flag bumper sticker, hides his own complicated past. When he discovers Sarah's relationship, George decides to share his feelings with Alex Mackey-a lonely classmate of Sarah's whom George has taken under his wing. As Alex embraces the power of George's dark hatred, the hopes and dreams of young lives hang in the balance. In just a few short months, Sarah and David will graduate from high school and leave Kalispell for a new life together in Los Angeles. Maybe in California, they can stop hiding their love-and the other secret they share...something George McKnight-and Alex Mackey-will never accept.

the review:
This book was a hard hitting story, that touched on almost every controversial subject you can think of, and Fleur does it in such a way that it wasn’t obvious, she told you without shoving it down your throat. I loved the book, and was drawn in by the story line, and became invested with the characters. Each page packed it’s own punch, though I won’t tell what kind, I guess you’ll just have to read it *wink* As a teen I felt like a lot of these issues were very valid in society today. This book had a very sound premise, and stuck with it. I’ll admit that a few times during it I was thrown through some loops at what happened, I was very invested in the story of the book and was felt with the empty feeling when I finished it, you know that feeling when you finish a good book and you’re not really sure what to do with yourself? Well that is the feeling I was left with when I closed Crumble. Fleur really wrote an awesome book, that I recommend to any teen reader who is looking for a book to shake up their world.

and a video that I thought went pretty good with the book

Surfacing the Rim by Venessa Kimball

Surfacing the Rim

Venessa Kimball 

About the book:
Reality has been set askew... Jesca Gershon-Sera s life changed forever in the first installment of the Piercing the Fold series. She discovered that she was not an average college student from Marietta, Georgia. Rather, she had a purpose as a Dobrian guardian to protect our world and its humanity. Evolving into an illusion... In Surfacing the Rim: Book 2, the battle between good and evil continues between the Dobrian and Sondian fellowships. The salvation of our world s existence beyond the impending galactic intersection lays in the hands of a Dobrian team of guardians, including Jesca and her father, Ezra Kahn. The Sondian fellowship s inhumane corruption of our world is spreading like wildfire, redrawing lines between allies and enemies. Where bonds are deepened... Jesca continues to strengthen her relationship with Ezra while her physical attraction to Nate Sera, a fellow Dobrian, intensifies. Adopted son of Sondian Samson Crest, Xander Crest has to come to terms with the corrupt Sondian fellowship he has been aiding unknowingly and forms an alliance with the Dobrian fellowship and the one person he did not want to leave behind in Piercing the Fold: Book 1. And choices must be made. Jesca s fortitude is put to the test when she must make crucial decisions in battle and in love. Jesca and the Dobrian guardian team must stop the chaos the Sondians intend to draw into our world from another galaxy. All the while, Jesca must choose between the predestined link that she shares with Nate and the unresolved attraction she holds for Xander. With unexpected twists and turns, Jesca will face a battle of epic proportions in this pre-apocalyptic installment of Piercing the Fold. Will Jesca have enough courage to surface the rim of this reality?

The review:
Like book one this book caught me by the mouth and drug me in, where I sat buried deep in the suspenseful second book of Piercing the Fold series. If anything this book was even better than the first, leaving my head reeling with each twist and turn, and causing me to almost cry out in anguish when I reached the cliffhanger at the end. Surfacing the Rim left me with so many questions, #1 being where is book three, and the rest, well I can only say one thing about those, Spoilers. Wink wink. I love Venessa’s characters and how from the moment you meet them you dread anything bad happening to them, I also love the dynamic between her main characters. It’s not often that you find a book that makes the two guys vying for the Heroine’s eye, actually get along, I found this a very refreshing turn on the love triangle, not having the guys trying to kill each other. On that note, while it seems a lot of people go for the good boy in this, by the end of the book, I’ve decided that I am firmly on “Team Xander” and don’t foresee that changing any time soon. I can’t wait for book three, and really I’m left speechless. This book was so wonderfully written, and usually I don’t rate a book by stars, but if I had to rate this one it would be five stars!

book preview:

Peircing the Fold Book 1 by Vanessa Kimball

Piercing the fold Book 1
Venessa Kimball
about the book

Jesca Gershon-Sera has an average life on the surface. She is a sophmore in college, has a loving family, and holds a part time job at a local bookstore with her best friend. Her life is pretty normal. Except, under the surface she feels like she is losing her mind. Reoccurring nightmares have plagued Jesca for most of her childhood. She thought nothing of them, until they began intensifying and finding their way into her waking hours. Voices, vivid images and supernatural abilities in her nightmares are beginning to seep into her reality. Ezra Kahn is one of her college professors. Lately, Ezra happens to be everywhere she is; like he is watching her. Along with the slight fear that her professor is stalking her, Jesca fears that she won't be able to handle much more of the insanity that is blurring her reality. On a chance encounter, Jesca confides in Ezra about the crazy happenings. Jesca thought that he would think her to be insane or a freak. But, to Jesca's surprise, Ezra Kahn reveals that she is not a lunatic and that all of the insanity is very real. Instantly, Jesca's reality is set askew. Ezra reveals that he has been sent to help her. He tells her she is experiencing these events in her life because of her inherited purpose to protect humanity from inconceivable catastrophe. Jesca's roller coaster begins here! Boasting piercing suspense, pre-apocalyptic adventure, consuming romance, and "reality-based" spirituality and science fiction, Piercing the Fold: Book 1 will pull the reader in for the ride and won't let go!

the review. 

 Venessa Kimball's Piercing the fold caught my attention from the first chapter ah hell it caught it from the prologue and I am not ashamed to admit that Venessa pulled me into a world I never could have imagined on my own, and though I admit that I’m not a huge fan of science. I loved the way that Venessa mixed it in, and really I now really can’t wait to read book two. I mean it even held my attention when I usually watch Doctor Who! I also loved the way that she made it that Jesca’s feelings for Nate didn’t pull anything from the story, it wasn’t the main objective to say hey this girl is attracted to this boy, it was more subtle. Like I was actually pleased by the fact that it didn’t take the center stage, like so many other book that I’ve read. There are so many things that Venessa did in this book that lead into wanting to read the next book, because you are left with just enough unanswered questions that you’ll be very intent on reading the next book. I can’t wait until I can dive into this story again in book two.

Perks Of Being A Wallflower

about the book: Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor. This haunting novel about the dilemma of passivity vs. passion has become a modern classic. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is the story of what it’s like to grow up in high school. More intimate than a diary, Charlie’s letters are singular and unique, hilarious and devastating. We may not know where he lives or to whom he is writing. All we know is the world he shares. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it puts him on a strange course through uncharted territory. The world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas and new friends. The world of sex, drugs, and music—when all one requires to feel infinite is that perfect song on that perfect drive. Through Charlie, Stephen Chbosky has created a deeply affecting story, a powerful novel that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller coaster days known as growing up.

the Review: I will most likely not be the first to admit that I mostly wanted to read this because it was a movie with Emma Watson in it, and it helped that it was one of the books chosen to be read in my book club. But even though I picked it up because the movie had Emma in it I never would have expected it to hit me so hard, the story is powerful and holds so many meanings that it could make your head spin, it shows the real life of many teens throughout America perhaps even the world. Charlie was a quiet boy that to put it simply had a lot of issues, issues that he couldn't talk to anyone about. But still he found a way to make friends that saw him for who he was and excepted him for it. The kind of friends that we all really want.
this book hit me right where it counts it hit me in the heart I felt what Charlie was feeling when he wrote the letters in the book, and I felt it when he said that they were infinite, because no matter what we are all infinite in our own ways. I loved this book and I would suggest it to anyone no matter your age and whether or not you like to read, because it's a wonderfully written story and I feel that it will truly be infinite
    Movie Preview:                            
                                 

the Giver Lois Lowry 

About the book: Jonas‘s world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear of pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the community. When Jonas turns 12 he is singled out to receive special training from the Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now. It is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.

 The review: When I first picked up this book I did the one thing you are told to most certainly not to do I looked at the cover. So to be frank my hopes were not high. To say that this book soared above and beyond what I hoped it would be an understatement. Because the moment I dipped my toe into this world that Lois Lowry created I was hooked. It is my belief that every individual who picks up this book will leave with different feelings, and different ideas about what really happened at the end from the moment that Jonas appeared on the page I was finding myself experiencing what the whole thing was like from his point of view. I felt every feeling that Jonas was feeling I found myself imagining myself in this world that Lowry built I felt the hardships that the people in the community didn‘t even know they were going through. I found myself thinking of what it must be like to live in a world where every thing is done for you, sure it sounds ideal when you‘re being asked to do work around the house or having to get a job, but is it really worth giving up every choice and possibility? Without possibility what are you left with? The sameness no color no light no snow nothing, but different shades of grey. That is the message that I got from this book but like I said before I believe that this is one of those books were you could find a million different meanings within if only you care to look. So it is my message to you that you should go out and pick up that book that you would normally just walk by in the store or the Library and never think twice about. Pick it up, you never know it might turn out to be one of the greatest books you read, you might just find that it’s filled with amazing adventures and profound messages.