I've been in a bit of a tizzy. I had no sooner discovered the October Daye books and Katharine Kerr's new book -which I hope is a new series when I got an email newsletter from i09. The main article was a piece about Ben Aaronovitch and his Peter Grant books. The two things that caught me were that Aaronovitch has written for Doctor Who and that his Peter Grant books were compared to the Dresden books. The major differences being that Grant is a policeman not a consultant. If the Dresden and Toby Daye books are detective novels with magic than the Grant books are police procedurals with magic. They have the added attraction of being set in London - so even the police work has that exotic nature.
Peter Grant is a young policeman—the book starts with him at the point in the training where he and his classmates will be assigned to their units. He??? comes across a body under unusual circumstances and this brings him to the attention of DCI Thomas Nightshade who leads (wee, he is . . .) unit of the Met that deals with crimes involving magical and other uncanny circumstances. He is, in fact, a magician and by joining his unit Peter Grant becomes his apprentice.
I have such an appetite for this sort of book that I'm sure it will come as no surprise that I lapped it up and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm very happy to report that one of the MANY books that I received in the past week was the second book in the series so I am looking forward to getting started on that.
Yes, the beginning of March has brought a number of long expected books including the 4th book in the Toby Daye series which I finished yesterday: thoroughly enjoyed too, and thesecond book from Patrick Rothfuss. It is quite the tome and I have just started it. I also discovered Galen Beckett's The Magicians and Mrs. Quent—which was very entertaining—via Ravelry (the social networking site for Knitters and Crocheters).
It is like a combination of Austen and Bronte set in a world with magic. More Austen-y in tone but there is a middle section which cannot help but remind you of Jane Eyre. The second book came out last September so I am looking forward to continuing the
adventures of Mrs. Quent and her friends. The biggest news, however, is that George R.R. Martin announced the release date for the fifth book of The Song of Ice and Fire. July 12th is the date. Mark your calendars if you haven't already. I am incredibly excited about this and plan to start rereading ASAP. I hope to finish my A Game of Thrones reread in time for the premiere of the HBO series (April 17th.) If you are also anticipating this series - don't forget to tune in to HBO on April 3rd at 10 pm Eastern for a 15 minute Sneak Peek of the first episode. There is also a 30 minute "making of" show that is scheduled to air April 6th.
Link to "The Game Begins" trailer:
http://www.makinggameofthrones.com/production-diary/2011/3/4/the-game-begins-preview.html?cmpid=ABC587
Man, I cannot wait for A Dance with Dragons. I hope that he has a significant amount of material done for the next book too. ASOIAF is a series that I'm very glad I got in on 3 books in. I can't imagine how difficult it would have been to read "A Game of Thrones" when it first came out and to have been reading and waiting for each book thereafter. I had no idea: I thought that the wait between finishing A Storm of Swords and waiting for A Feast for Crows was long: ha! I came in on the end of that wait. It's been a long, long time. But at least this series moves. I gave up on the Wheel of Time because it really seemed to not move. And I don't recall the characters being nearly as interesting.
Next time: possibly the second Aaronovitch, more on Toby Daye and possibly an update on the new Rothfuss.Peter Grant's blog: http://westendblues.blogspot.com/Galen Beckett's website: http://www.galenbecket.com/gb/LatestNews/LatestNews.html
Ben Aaronovitch's blog:http://temporarilysignificant.blogspot.com/
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