ARC Review: Scent of Magic by Maria V. Snyder

Website | Goodreads
Publication Date: December 18th, 2012
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
ISBN: 0778314189
Age Group: Young/New Adult
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy
Source: Provided by the publisher through NetGalley
Lootability: ****
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Hunted, Killed—Survived?
As the last Healer in the Fifteen Realms, Avry of Kazan is in a unique position: in the minds of her friends and foes alike, she no longer exists. Despite her need to prevent the megalomanical King Tohon from winning control of the Realms, Avry is also determined to find her sister and repair their estrangement. And she must do it alone, as Kerrick, her partner and sole confident, returns to Alga to summon his country into battle.
Though she should be in hiding, Avry will do whatever she can to support Tohon’s opponents. Including infiltrating a holy army, evading magic sniffers, teaching forest skills to soldiers and figuring out how to stop Tohon’s most horrible creations yet; an army of the walking dead—human and animal alike and nearly impossible to defeat.
War is coming and Avry is alone. Unless she figures out how to do the impossible ... again.

About the book – beware, spoilers from Touch of Power

Scent of Magic is the second book in Maria V. Snyder’s  Healer series. Avry, the last healer in the Fifteen Realms, was kidnapped and forced into service in order to save Prince Rynn – except, somewhere along the way Avry and her kidnappers formed a comradery and Avry volunteered her healing powers in an effort to save her world.

ARC Review: Renegade by J.A Souders

Website | Goodreads
Publication Date: November 13th 2012
Publisher: Tor Teen
ISBN: 0765332450
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction / Dystopian
Source: Provided by the Tor Teen
Lootability: ***
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Since the age of three, sixteen-year-old Evelyn Winters has been trained to be Daughter of the People in the underwater utopia known as Elysium. Selected from hundreds of children for her ideal genes, all her life she’s thought that everything was perfect; her world. Her people. The Law.
But when Gavin Hunter, a Surface Dweller, accidentally stumbles into their secluded little world, she’s forced to come to a startling realization: everything she knows is a lie. 
Her memories have been altered. 
Her mind and body aren’t under her own control. 
And the person she knows as Mother is a monster.
Together with Gavin she plans her escape, only to learn that her own mind is a ticking time bomb... and Mother has one last secret that will destroy them all

About the Book Renegade is the troubling story of Evie, Daughter of the People, as her world crumbles around her. Evie lives in Elysium, an underwater Utopia where a lucky few were chosen to escape from the violence and destruction of the Surface World. She is the adopted daughter of Mother, the revered wise woman who rescued the people of Elysium and now rules over them. She governs who may Couple (marry and breed), allocates designations (jobs) and keeps the city running, with a nearly perfect genetic population. "My life is just about perfect."

Guest Post: Virginia Chandler

The Maze of the Arthuriad... 

I suppose it could be said that indeed all my roads to Arthur have led to my novel, The Green Knight's Apprentice. I read Malory when I was very young and my first reading left me with very vivid images that haunt me still: white stags, headless damsels, horns hanging from tree limbs, and giants. Oh yes, I had the usual sword in the stone, lady of the lake, and Holy Grail images, too, I assure you.

But what really, really grabbed my imagination were the more gruesome and dark images, I do confess. Once I discovered Robin Hood and the medieval poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, I realized that I felt a very deep calling to the Wild forest, the deep forest, the Wood that holds the Deep Mysteries and where the Wild Hunt is run. I saw the Sidhe elements in the Arthuriad, and I felt the deep rhythm of Robin Hood, the Green Knight...the Hooded Man. I am passionate about the Arthuriad, and I have spent my entire life seeking the Round Table, the Holy Grail, and the Wisdom of Merlin. But my root, or at least one of my deepest roots, lies within the wild forest of the Lord of the Forest and his Court.

The Green Knight's Apprentice was first called The Winter King's Dance, and it was, and still is, intended to be tale of Gawain's year and a day in training as the Green Knight. We follow Sir Gawain through the eyes of his Steward and friend, Rhowbyn, who is a Bard from Orkney. We travel with Gawain and Rhowbyn through the Wheel of the Year and experience the magickal training of each man by observing the Sabbats with songs, chants, battles, and festivals.

If this novel attempts to "do" anything, it is to tell the story of what happened to Sir Gawain after the three strokes of the Green Knight's axe and before he returns to Camelot. The reader's experience, and mine as the writer, is through Rhowbyn the Bard because Rhowbyn is our guide and expert. The reader has the same questions as Gawain, and both learn the answers through Rhowbyn's narration and experiences. Rhowbyn's questions are usually answered by Lady Morgan and some other Arthurian Wise Ones: Mabon, Bors, Lady Birtilak, Ganeida, to name a few.

The roots of The Green Knight's Apprentice do go to some obscure chapters of the Arthuriad. I include Arthur's sons, Amr and Llachau, in my tale, and the Welsh figure of Mabon is quite integral to Rhowbyn's personal mysteries. Merlin's Tower makes a few appearances, but it is the deep roots and tall windows that we experience, not the expected innards of a wizard's tower like potions, scrolls, and candles. The novel has eight chapters that are set the Sabbats, with a prologue and epilogue that serve to turn the Wheel, so to speak, of the tale. It is my hope that once the last page is read, the reader will already realize that the tale, in fact, never stops. There will always be another Green Knight and his Apprentice.

Why did I feel compelled to write this particular story? Where does Virginia Chandler reside within it? When I was a child, I always imagined myself as a participant somehow in the tales that captured my heart. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was no different. I knew that Gawain had experienced so much more during this adventure, and so I spent many years visualizing those "missing pages". That is my part in the tale; sharing those missing pages with those who wish to read them.