I’ve always been drawn to badass female protagonists in fantasy, but the femme fatale has a special place in my heart, and none more so than spies and assassins. Their weapons are a mix of daggers and subterfuge, poison, and seduction. They often straddle the line between cold-hearted villainess and righteous freedom fighter, and that complex morality can make for intriguing internal struggles that coincide nicely with their goal of dismantling corruption, which is not always black and white. Additionally, the aforementioned seduction means that they get to be unapologetically sexual (but only on their terms!). All of this went into Lily’s character.
Technically two books (Trickster’s Choiceand Trickster’s Queen), this duet follows Alianne, daughter of the heroine Alanna and spymaster George, who is kidnapped by pirates and sold as a slave to an outcast royal family. The trickster god enlists/coerces her to aid the family’s plot to reseize their throne, which has Aly working as a spy against her homeland. All of Pierce’s books are fantastic, and the Tortall series shaped me as both a reader and writer of fantasy. It was interesting to move away from the heroism and adventure of the earlier books in this universe to a more morally gray protagonist with spy and assassin training who is secretly working for a god. Also, her love interest is a crow turned human, and it works surprisingly well.
When you gamble with kingdoms, all bets are off. Legends are born in this thrilling and New York Times bestselling spy saga from the fantasy author who is legend herself: Tamora Pierce.
Aly is from a family known for great deeds. She is the daughter of Alanna, the famed knight and King’s Champion of Tortall. But even though she is bold and brave, like her mother, her true talents lie on her father’s side, in the art of spying.
When Aly is captured by pirates and sold as a slave to an exiled royal family in the faraway Copper Isles,…
I grew up on fairy tales and folklore in the Appalachian Mountains. Stories of adventure and dusty fairy tale books in my grandmother’s attic were my entertainment. The library trips we took “into town” added to my reading. I discovered that the step from fairy tales to classics wasn’t as wide as folks argue. Years later, when I went off to college, I became an English major, then a graduate student, and then started teaching literature at college. From childhood to adulthood, magic and fiction were my life... which led to selling a book of my own. Over the last 17 years, I’ve been writing fantasy.
I gave a quote for the cover of the first printing of it, in fact. Fifteen years later, it still remains a book that can carry me away to a world where magic is not a gift but a challenge to overcome.
Kristen had a fresh idea here, but it still folded into my love of adventure and magic and finding out who we are inside.
That’s a story that will always get my attention, and the writing in this one is also lush enough to make me want to pause and re-read lines.
Discover the Graceling Realm in this unforgettable, award-winning novel from bestselling author Kristin Cashore.
A New York Times bestseller ALA Best Book for Young Adults Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature Winner Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal,Booklist, and BCCB Best Book of the Year
"Rageful, exhilarating, wistful in turns" (The New York Times Book Review) with "a knee weakening romance" (LA Times). Graceling is a thrilling, action-packed fantasy adventure that will resonate deeply with anyone trying to find their way in the world.
Graceling tells the story of the vulnerable-yet-strong Katsa, who is smart and beautiful and lives in the…
By now you are probably wondering why the author of a dark and violent tale set in the Zombie Apocalypse is recommending humorous books. The answer lies within the five elements of survival: Shelter, Fire, Food, Water, and Mindset. A positive mindset can get you through a lot of dark and dangerous times, and being able to find the funny in the darkness will help you maintain that mindset (especially if you are injured or scared).
This is the sort of book I wish existed when I was a teenager. No hoity-toity “interpretation of what the author meant” required here, just childish, immature drivel. The first time I read this masterpiece I laughed so hard I nearly vomited. I had to keep closing the cover just so I could stop laughing long enough to catch my breath. Be warned, a warped sense of humor is a prerequisite for reading this gem.
A lot of you have been saying that I don’t know anything about REAL ninjas. But that’s a bunch of bull crap! You dummies don’t know anything. And maybe YOU should get a life. I bet a lot of you have never even seen a girl naked! You idiots believe that ninjas had some “code of honor.” Yeah right! If by “code of honor,” you mean “code to flip out and go nuts for absolutely no reason at all even if it means that people might think you are totally insane or sweet,” then you are right.…
I’m a Black woman who writes stories that will give readers an insight into areas of corporate and governmental politics, with a touch of reality, suspense, humor, and romance. Oh, let me add…a touch of fantasy. At times, I will mix the genres simply because that is where the story takes me. Writing is a passion; messaging is a responsibility (I aim to intrigue you!), and humor is my way of balancing the intense topic. I have a degree in Organizational Management, 30 years of working in state agencies, and a vivid imagination to share. I'm enjoying the second chapter of my life by doing what I love…writing stories that entice your mind.
I can appreciate an author who can inject humor into a story that is not traditionally a comedy. In Mind Bullet, we follow the life of an assassin who has the ability to kill with his mind and his artificial intelligence sidekick Bubbles (who frequently asks for a name change throughout the book). Make no mistake, there is plenty of fast-paced, action-packed scenes as Jonas tries to stay one step ahead of the ninjas (yes ninjas!) in between the funny appearances of Bubbles. The mixture of danger and humor is all-consuming as you go along for the ride. This story had me laughing while sitting on the edge of my seat.
A telekinetic assassin’s quest to avenge his parents’ murders triggers an all-out war between an eccentric cast of killers, from the New York Times bestselling author of INFINITE and THE DARK.
Jonas kills people…with his mind. He reaches out, focuses for a moment, and feels a snap of pain between his eyes. Then his target falls over dead, a hole in the center of their brains. The cause of death is unknown to all aside from Jonas, and his lone companion: Bubbles, a sarcastic AI with aspirations to be more human, or a serial killer. One of the two. Maybe…
I am a black belt martial artist and top ten bestselling children’s author with a life goal of ‘getting kids reading’. As an author, I practise what I term ‘method writing’. For my Young Samurai series, I trained in samurai swordsmanship, karate, ninjutsu, and earned my black belt in Zen Kyu Shin Taijutsu. This ensures my books are not only authentic but have the impact of a flying front kick. Hopefully, my stories will knock you out!
This historical biography reads like an adventure story. A brilliantly researched and wonderfully written book on William Adams, one of the few foreign samurai to have ever been bestowed such an honour. This figure is not only the starting point for my series (with William Adams re-imagined as a boy in Japan) but also the template for the most classic samurai novels of all time, Shogun by James Clavell. There is so much in this book by Giles Milton that I can’t recommend it highly enough!
In 1611 an astonishing letter arrived at the East India Trading Company in London after a tortuous seven-year journey. Englishman William Adams was one of only twenty-four survivors of a fleet of ships bound for Asia, and he had washed up in the forbidden land of Japan.
The traders were even more amazed to learn that, rather than be horrified by this strange country, Adams had fallen in love with the barbaric splendour of Japan - and decided to settle. He had forged a close friendship with the ruthless Shogun, taken a Japanese wife and sired a new, mixed-race family.…
I’m an autistic unapologetic writing nerd who has spent most of their life using fiction and pop culture to connect better with the world. It has always been the tool, escape, and comfort for me when I feel overwhelmed. As I bite my tongue to keep from monologuing, I always strive to share, introduce, or connect with my passions. Now I use that and my degree in psychology to try to craft worlds that people can feel emotional about in my writing and poetry.
Another Litrpg, Seth enters a Virtual Reality game set in a fantasy feudal Japan as the technology allows him to function better while recovering from an injury taken during a martial arts tournament. For me, the setting got me worked up. I spent a decade of my gaming life playing Legend of the Five Rings, a similarly feudal Japan-inspired game world. Clans, factions, betrayals, and samurai. It brought me back to my youth in a way that few pieces of media do.
How Often Do You Get a Second Chance in Life? Seth Kinnaman’s dream has always been to become the best fighter the world has ever seen. After spending his entire life training, he’s finally ready to test his skills in the biggest tournament on Earth where hundreds of the fiercest competitors vie for the supreme title.
In the semi-finals, Seth is getting the upper hand when his opponent uses an illegal blow to take him out. Upon waking up from a coma, Seth finds out he’s lost his sight. He’s become blind and he’s completely devastated. All his dreams are…
Like most geeks, I've always loved efficiency and productivity. Coming from a Windows-dominated world, the command line I was faced with in my CompSci degree was Initially mystifying, but over time I have come to see it as the most powerful human-computer interface out there. After spending years wresting with the command line at work, I decided to write a book on bash, and have blogged extensively on this and related topics. I also run live courses on bash and the command line for O'Reilly. There's nothing I enjoy more than opening people's eyes to the power of the shell!
In 2001, when I was young and everything was possible I asked my CTO what Interactive Development Environment (IDE) I should use.
'vim' was the response, so I went away and learned it. To this day, I use vim by default for almost all my programming needs. The learning curve is very steep, but the rewards are great, not least because it's hard to find a platform that cannot run it.
This book reinforces the learning you can do elsewhere through walkthroughs and tips and lets you know what's possible, so that when you really need to do things like search and replace, or run a macro, you can look it up again and get it under your fingers.
Vim is a fast and efficient text editor that will make you a faster and more efficient developer. It's available on almost every OS, and if you master the techniques in this book, you'll never need another text editor. In more than 120 Vim tips, you'll quickly learn the editor's core functionality and tackle your trickiest editing and writing tasks. This beloved bestseller has been revised and updated to Vim 7.4 and includes two brand-new tips and five fully revised tips.A highly configurable, cross-platform text editor, Vim is a serious tool for programmers, web developers, and sysadmins who want to…
Like most geeks, I've always loved efficiency and productivity. Coming from a Windows-dominated world, the command line I was faced with in my CompSci degree was Initially mystifying, but over time I have come to see it as the most powerful human-computer interface out there. After spending years wresting with the command line at work, I decided to write a book on bash, and have blogged extensively on this and related topics. I also run live courses on bash and the command line for O'Reilly. There's nothing I enjoy more than opening people's eyes to the power of the shell!
For a few years, I had a copy of this book on my desk, and would flick through it in spare moments, gradually absorbing all the minutiae of grep's options in the hope they would be useful to me one day.
You can get some idea of the book's utility from the fact that I had to regularly buy a new copy because someone would 'borrow' it and not give it back.
"Grep Pocket Reference" is the first guide devoted to grep, the powerful utility program that helps you locate content in any file on a Unix or Linux system. Several applications use grep, from mail filtering and system log management to malware analysis and application development, and there are many other ways to use the utility. This pocket reference is ideal for system administrators, security professionals, developers, and others who want to learn more about grep and take new approaches with it.With "Grep Pocket Reference", you will: learn methods for filtering large files for specific content; acquire information not included in…
I’ve always been drawn to stories of good versus evil and watching a hero overcome a great struggle to beat a villain and win the day. I feel it’s innate in humans to want to hear such tales ever since the days gathered around the campfires thousands of years ago, and when it’s done well, it can be a story that inspires you in your own life. Hopefully, these novels can do the same for you!
I love a good hidden gem, and this book was recommended to me by a friend as a return gesture after I got him to watch Die Hard. This book mostly takes place within an office building in Midtown, following that theme, and is very inventive as the lead character finds himself suddenly plunged into the worst day of his life, with almost everyone he meets trying to kill him.
Some of the plot arguably gets a little bit shaky in places, but there is enough here to satisfy fans of the genre.
As a kid, I had a tough time finding books with characters who looked like me after moving from Taiwan to America. That’s usually bad for most kids. However, I was a hideously self-absorbed kid. Having to read about characters who didn’t look or live like me made my childhood infinitely richer. Since becoming an author, I’ve written books that draw from my heritage and lectured about East Asian storytelling at various universities and writing programs. I do this as a love letter to my own heritage but also as a thank you letter to America for sharing its culture with me. Here’s a bit of mine in return.
This book, the first in the rollicking The Tales of the Otori series, has been called “Shogun meets The Lord of the Rings.” The first book centers on a young man with some special abilities who is groomed to become an assassin due to one special talent — the ability to walk silently across a special floor composed of boards that chitter like birds when stepped on, which warlords sleep in the middle of as an alarm system. The series is one of the most gripping, wildly entertaining, and moving fantasies I’ve ever read. It is proof that it is possible for an artist to come to understand a culture deeply enough to honor its spirit, even if they weren’t born into that culture.
'The most compelling novel to have been published this year' - Amanda Craig, "Observer". In his palace at Inuyama, Lord Iida Sadamu, warlord of the Tohan clan, surveys his famous nightingale floor. Its surface sings at the tread of every human foot, and no assassin can cross it. But 16-year-old Otori Takeo, his family murdered by Iida's warriors, has the magical skills of the Tribe - preternatural hearing, invisibility, a second self - that enable him to enter the lair of the Tohan. He has love in his heart and death at his fingertips...The stunningly powerful bestseller, "Across the Nightingale…
