Keep Your Eyes Open

Raiding Bookshelves exciting 2011 releases #1

Mastiff - Tamora Pierce

Release date: Nov 2011

“Beka and her friends will face their greatest and most important challenge ever when the young heir to the kingdom vanishes. They will be sent out of Corus on a trail that appears and disappears, following a twisting road throughout Tortall. It will be her greatest Hunt—if she can survive the very powerful people who do not want her to succeed in her goal.”

Mastiff will be the final instalment of the Beka Cooper trilogy. It will follow Beka, one of the Provost Guard’s ‘Dogs’ as she goes on her biggest adventure yet. Pierce fans will recognise Beka as the ancestor of a beloved character from her Alanna legends. I think the cover might be a green and will again feature Beka on the hunt.

The release date has been tossed around a lot and Mastiff was originally going to be released last year. Fingers crossed that it isn’t delayed again!

Crossed - Ally Condie
Release date: Nov 2011

Like Crossed's ‘NOT FINAL’ cover, no summary has been released. Crossed is the second book of a trilogy beginning with Matched (see my review). While I had my doubts about Matched I am hoping Crossed smooth out all the problems and bring out all the potential hidden under Matched’s passionless action.

I’m looking forward to another amazing cover too.

The Measure of Magic - Terry Brooks
Release date: August 2011

The Measure of Magic will be the sequel to Bearers of the Blackstaff (see review here). In BotBS the protective wall around the Valley has fallen and a Troll army is seeking war with its inhabitants. The people of the Valley are split between wanting to take action and awaiting the return of Hawk, their saviour.

MoM will be the 23rd novel in Brooks’ Shannara saga, and will sit, chronologically, at around #8 in the order of things.

Click here for Terry Brooks recommended reading order

One of Our Thursdays is Missing - Jasper Fforde
Release date: 8 March 2011

It is a time of unrest in the Bookworld. Only the diplomatic skills of ace literary detective Thursday Next can avert a devastating genre war. But a week before the Peace Talks, Thursday vanishes. Has she simply returned home to the Realworld or is this something more sinister?
But all is not yet lost. Living at the quiet end of Speculative fiction is the written Thursday Next, who is attempting to keep her own small four-book series both respectful to her illustrious namesake and far from the grim spectre of being remaindered.

Despite her desire to stay away from the spotlight, written Thursday is asked by Jurisfiction to investigate a novel that has suffered an in-read breakup and deposited a narrative debris-field halfway across the Bookworld. It’s not quite so straightforward: Someone has ground the ISBN numbers from the wreckage, and all of a sudden the mysterious Men in Plaid want her dead.
As the hunt for answers takes her from the Council of Genres to Fan-Fiction and from Comedy to Vanity publishing, written Thursday realises that Real Thursday had been investigating a plot fiendish enough to be killed for. But who is responsible? Only a trip up the Mighty Metaphoric river and a visit to the hideously frightening Realworld can provide the answers.
With her clockwork butler Sprockett and her Designated Love Interest Whitby Jett, Thursday has to get to grips with her inability to match up to her Namesake’s talent, and prove herself to the one person she respects more than anyone else: The real her…

- Jasper Fforde’s summary

The latest instalment in Fforde’s fantastic Thursday Next series. Unfortunately, I am about 6 books behind (I’ve only read the Eyre Affair) but I am stocking up on the books as I find them and look forward to getting my hands on this one!

That’s it for now! Keep your eyes peeled for these fantastic series and I’ll catch you next time.
Get comfy and get reading!