Up and Coming: April

I always used to pride myself as being organised and top of things when it came to the blog.

The last month has taught me it has been circumstances allowing that to happen.

I’m more organised for sure: I even have a spreadsheet of posts and my twitter schedule. That’s never happened before. I’m reading more; a commute means guaranteed reading time.

I haven’t seemed to have managed to get the posts done, though. My weekends are frantically catching up on reviews before I forget how I feel or writing content before the dates pass me by. I hate it is turning something I love into a chore.

But I’ve got a plan! I’m a firm believer that if something is frustrating you: change it. I have a new way of managing my time that should help me balance things more. It should let me indulge in everything I love, not just blogging.

Film reviews are going to be dramatically cut. As mentioned previously, I’m not watching enough. With this new plan, I’ll be watching even less as I will be utilising my evenings rather than crashing in a heap.

The new plan might not work any better than the old one: I’m a sucker for making plans and schedules and to-do lists, then getting far too carried away and actually needing another ten hours in the day to achieve it and getting stressed when I can’t.

We shall see.

While I try and figure out what I’m doing, here’s what I’ve got planned for this month:

Eden’s Revenge by Barry Kirwan:

After eighteen years, the quarantine that has protected humanity’s survivors on the planet Esperia is about to end. Mankind won’t stand a chance without external help. Yet in the middle of a galactic war, who is concerned about one small planet when worlds fall every day? 

Eden’s Revenge is the heart-stopping third episode in the Eden Saga.

Me: I’m so excited about continuing this series. It’s really swept me up in regards to the world-building (or, rather, universe!) and the way the characters are developing. There’s no telling where humanity is going to end up next and I’m looking forward to the next instalment.

 

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence:

I was born for killing – the gods made me to ruin.

At the Convent of Sweet Mercy young girls are raised to be killers. In a few the old bloods show, gifting talents rarely seen since the tribes beached their ships on Abeth. Sweet Mercy hones its novices’ skills to deadly effect: it takes ten years to educate a Red Sister in the ways of blade and fist.

But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don’t truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls as a bloodstained child of eight, falsely accused of murder: guilty of worse.

Stolen from the shadow of the noose, Nona is sought by powerful enemies, and for good reason. Despite the security and isolation of the convent her secret and violent past will find her out. Beneath a dying sun that shines upon a crumbling empire, Nona Grey must come to terms with her demons and learn to become a deadly assassin if she is to survive…

Me: I’ve gone through a Mark Lawrence spree over the last few months, all because I was building up to this title. This is the one that I’m excited for; it’s been my most anticipated book from my netgalley list for a while. Fingers crossed it doesn’t disappoint.

 

The Planetsider by G,J Ogden

Several generations after ‘The Fall’, the scattered clusters of civilisation that grew in its wake live in ignorance of the past. No-one wants to know what caused such devastation or why. No-one, except Ethan.

Ethan used to believe in the guardians; mysterious lights in the sky that, according to folklore, protect the survivors, so long as you believe in them. But the death of his parents shattered his faith and forged within him a hunger to know more. One night, a light grows brighter in the sky and crashes to the planet’s surface. Ethan then embarks on a heartbreaking journey in which harrowing discoveries unveil the secrets of the past, and place him at the centre of a deadly conflict.

Powerful, thought-provoking and emotionally absorbing, The Planetsider is a gripping, post-apocalyptic thriller that will keep you hooked until the very end.

Me: There has to be a blog tour of some description in here, right? Well, this is it for this month. I can’t remember much about Planetsider from when I signed up for the tour, but it looked good and took my interest.

 

City of Shards by Steve Rogers:

In the Wormpile district, gangs rule the streets, unwashed urchins assail each other with minor magic, and the people boil under the sway of a monstrous god. Deep within those decaying alleyways, the boy Larin shouts his tourette-like outbursts at random, explosions that have turned him into a pariah throughout the neighborhood. And while he’s protected from the gangs by his drug-addicted uncle Akul—a warrior with a mysterious past and the emotional range of granite—none of that will restore his social life. 

But soon, Larin finds he has bigger problems. For the source of his outbursts is the malevolent being Haraf, Lord of Demons, enemy to the Six-Legged Gods. Now that priests of the Six-Legged Gods have begun creeping through the Wormpile, masking their terrifying agenda with calls for social justice, it’s only a matter of time before things spiral out of control. As Larin and his uncle find themselves surrounded by enemies, their only hope is to join forces with a perpetually drunk warrior-priestess and a high-born wizardress, who must hold her nose to work with the street-rabble she despises. And Larin will either follow his master Haraf, or watch his city plunge into a far more insidious darkness—one so great, it will turn mankind’s soul to ash. 

Me: This is the one where I throw magic and demons and fantastical lands together and really hope I enjoy the outcome. I requested this too late to get it read by the publication date (I might have even requested it after that had passed…) so I’m trying to slot it in ASAP.

 

So there’s my main books for the month. I’m hoping to slip a few more reviews in instead of some films as the month progresses, but we shall just have to wait and see.

What have you got planned for this month? What are you reading now?

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