The Fireside

My final read of 2013...just in time! Read for another Wheel of Time  review.

Here is my long-promised review of Catching Fire .

Believe it or not, it's Christmas Eve! That means there's only one more sleep 'til Christmas. The only thing on my to-do list is to wrap the gifts, which I do every year on Christmas Eve. The rest is eating and drinking!  But I must say, the past few weeks have been hectic. Or have felt so in my head, anyway. I will be moving in Jan, so I'm 'living' at two places at once at the moment until the big move day. Therefore, my brain has been thinking of two different locations when placing / finding stuff. Not that big a move - about moving a bedroom, sans-furniture.  I'm usually able to finish my shopping by December. But this year the shift from Nov. to Dec. happened quickly. And I had more gifts to buy. I've made a vow that will keep me from gettin' flustered, grumpy, and short-tempered (as I may have been. It's due to the crowds, mostly. Not to sound like a Scrooge, but sometimes that people are slow, or can't decide where to walk.). ...

I have some great and unexpected news! It seems that on some websites you can pre-order the first few Tales of Dunk and Egg. Currently, the book is titled A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms . There is no official artwork for the cover or release date yet, but I have the ISBN numbers which are key for searching for it. These are for the hardback edition.  BANTAM / US ISBN-10: 0345533488 ISBN-13: 978-0345533487 HARPER VOYAGER / UK ISBN 13: 9780007507672  ISBN 10: 0007507674 I don't keep track of 'foreign editions', sadly. I will be sure to update you with official word, but this is something!  These tales take place about 100 years before A Game of Thrones , Book One of A Song of Ice and Fire begins. For the '(fake) history buffs' you get an even further view into the past, as well as the roots and beginnings. So far, it doesn't feel as 'integral' as The Hobbit does Lord of the Rings but they will definitely be enjoyable if you...

The birth of my love of fantasy? It's been a bit between posts, I know. The holidays are arriving a bit faster than usual, and I'm going for most of them, so busy busy! Even though I'm off work. My next 'planned' post is my review of Catching Fire (and it will happen!) but I wanted to tell my tale about fantasy.

The next movie for me to review is Disney's newest (and one of their best!), Frozen. I'm working my way backwards from The Hobbit (Part 2) so after this review will be Catching Fire .

I saw a few movies lately - Catching Fire, Frozen and The Hobbit (Part 2) . Here is my review of The Hobbit , the rest will follow later.

Brandon Sanderson has completed Words of Radiance, the second book in his Stormlight  series. It will be released on March 4  in hardback, ebook, and audio editions.  For those who missed my posts on social media in the wee hours of the morning last week, I have finished the final draft of Words of Radiance , second volume in the Stormlight Archive. We turned the manuscript in to Tor, and they printed the thing off and showed how big it is in this blog post  here . They also released one of the  interludes on their site for free, as a preview. Enjoy! A sample was also posted, which I have re-posted below: “Lift,” by Brandon Sanderson, is an interlude chapter from his upcoming novel, but new readers or those afraid of spoilers need not fear; it introduces a new character and a new land entirely removed from the plot of  The Way of Kings , and stands very well on its own. Lift, a young thief who augments her skills with some mag...

Courtesy of Mugglenet.com and the Guardian, I have some news to report as a 'repost'.

What follows is Brandon Sanderson's own account of completing the Wheel of Time series. He published a series of blog posts on his site, here they are collected into one.

    The winner of the Goodreads Choice Awards have been announced.     Go here to see the winners: https://www.goodreads.com/ choiceawards/best-books-2013   Congrats to winners and nominees all! I may not have read all the books, but I am sure you are all deserving and there are no losers here. Who knows, maybe someday some of my work may get nominated. Speaking of which.....

I announced not long ago about The Widow's House, Daniel Abraham's fourth book in the Dagger and Coin series. Happy to report I was able to pre-order it through my national bookstore (saw it listed on other sites, but do support your bookstores, too!). In North America / Canada, on day of launch it will release as trade paperback and ebook. Here is the ordering info for the trade paperback: ISBN-10: 031620398X ISBN-13: 978-0316203982 The books in the series so far are: The Dragon's Path, The King's Blood, The Tyrant's Law, The Widow's House, and one more to follow. The Widow's House will release August 5. 

Winter is here. For me, aside from (occasionally) nice winter weather it also means a change in the beer season.   There are three worth noting, however, in the winter stouts are in 'season' whereas in the summer it's usually blondes.        Anyway, Beau's has 'collected' their 4 best of the year and released it in a mix pack. They are Screamin' Beaver, Doc's Feet Dubbel, Burnt Rock and Rudulphous VI . Go here for more info and beer detail : https://www.beaus.ca/beer/ best_of_beaus       Not quite seasonal beers like the Oktoberfest mix set, this is more of a 'year end' event. But their seasonal, Bogwater , is out now: https://www.beaus.ca/beer/ seasonal/bog_water   A reminder that you can buy Beau's online through their site here, part of the BYBO program : http://www.beaus.ca/store/beer       Finally, there's the Mill St Seasonal Sampler . You get : Organic La...

What follows is my review of Wheel of Time book 8.....