Recommendations from Karin for May 2014.

In order to bring some more variety to my blog, I have asked some of my bookish friends to tell about the books they have in the past month, and to give us a recommendation. Today’s post is made by Karin from Austria.

Karin:

I have read 11 books this month and I found a shiny new author - well at least she’s new to me. 6 of the books I’ve read are by Lindsay Buroker, and I’d like to recommend:

Encrypted



Decrypted



The Emperor’s Edge (books 1-3): there are more, but I didn’t get to read them – yet.




All these books play in a unique world: I would call it “light steampunk” if there is such a thing. There are definite elements of fantasy and “The Emperor’s Edge” is very light on romance. There is always hope that the spunky heroine Amaranthe and the remote and stand-offish assassin Sicarius form a relationship. But I haven’t got that far.
But mostly these books – all of them – grabbed me and never let go. They are a thrill ride, you turn a page and another critical situation springs up. You just have to know how this situation is solved and before you know it you are in the middle of another adventure.
I think I even liked “Encrypted” and “Decrypted” with Tikaya, the philologist – neither graceful nor a warrior, and Prisoner Five – also known as Rias (once Tikaya’s country’s greatest enemy) even a touch better than “The Emperor’s Edge”. But I will still read the rest of this series, as I just have to know how the story ends.

And now I would like to ask you a question: have you come across books where you dislike the name of the hero or the heroine? It happened to me again with “Amaranthe”. Who on earth would name one’s daughter after a cereal (hopefully I’m not offending anyone out there?!) I couldn’t help it, but it took me some time to stop snickering whenever her name was mentioned – and her being the heroine, it’s mentioned a lot.
I didn’t have this problem with the other persons as their names just sound foreign to me and I was able to pronounce them quite easily.
And then I have read books where the characters have Gaelic or Celtic names. I have to ask Mr Google for a decent pronunciation.
I mean I understand that “Joe, the ruthless and fearless vampire leader of yore” would sound a tad ridiculous. I expect a somewhat rare name, but please: I would so like to be able to keep the name in mind and not wonder every time I read it how to pronounce it.
I once read a book with a heroine named “Jaxon” (I won’t mention the writer’s name, although I’m sure many of you will recognize it). I liked the book a lot, but I kept seeing a town in Texas or some big boxer in my mind’s eye. Jaxon, the heroine, was small, beautiful and of course well endowed – so no resemblance to a boxer or a city.

I could go on with this list but of course I won’t do that, I wouldn’t want to bore you to death. But still: do you have a similar problem or am I the only one?

These recommendations are out a bit early this month as we’ll be spending the time around the 25th of May in Berlin, talking to fabulous authors, enjoying the company of people who understand when I keep talking about some fictional character for a lot of time, and generally we are going to have a good time.
So, I hope you enjoy your reading time as much as I do – ridiculous names not withstanding.


Aurian: Thanks for the recommendation Karin! This is a new author to me, and one I will definitely check out. And I am so with you on the ridiculous names some authors use for their characters. Although the one you mention has no association for me, there are plenty of others. I think I know a heroine named Jaxon, but it does not have any associations for me either, though it does sound more male than female.

How about you reader, do you know Lindsay Buroker?

© 2014 Reviews by Aurian