Anna Tan's Blog, page 8

#bookreview: Red Scholar's Wake | Aliette de Bodard

The Red Scholar's Wake by Aliette de Bodard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

SPACE PIRATES. That's all.

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Xich Si's scavenger ship is taken by pirates in the wake of the Red Scholar's death, and you know how it goes: she can never go home again. But will she be pressed into service as a bondsperson? Or will she be tortured to death as her business partner had been? What she doesn't expect is to be offered a marriage contract by Rice Fish, the ship itself and also the Red Scholar's widow. It's a marriage o...

14 days to the launch of #AbsolutionNovel!

I'm counting down the days until Absolution drops in your laps (e-readers)! 

While I was hoping for a stress-free, problem-free book launch for once (Amok faced delays because of Covid lockdowns; Hostage Prince was relatively drama-free but also extremely low-key), obviously that's not to be.

The hold-up this time is because, about a year ago, I applied for a literature grant...and we've been in the final stages of signing the agreement for about a month now! At any rate, we're working towards fin...

#bookreview: Amos the Amazing | Jorah Kai

Amos The Amazing by Jorah Kai
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amos the Amazing follows the adventures of twelve-year-old Amos as he chases the huli jing, a fox-spirit trickster, into Dreamland in an effort to recover the missing half of his soul and find a way to cure his ailing grandfather.

Set both in a future solarpunk Chongqing and a fantasy world of Kai's device, Amos the Amazing, in a nutshell, is a strange juxtaposition of many things. It is both futuristic - with fancy tech, robots and trips to th...

#coverreveal: Absolution!

If cursed is the hand that kills, then it wouldn’t matter if that same hand stole, would it?

Tulen feels doubly cursed, forced to serve the bratty princess of Impian as punishment for her crimes. When said princess embarks on a pilgrimage, Tulen grabs her only chance to offer a sacrifice at the holy city of Suci—and maybe, finally, feel clean again.

Sultan Mikal has set his face towards Suci—and certain death. Nothing about his Penance is clear, except the fact that if he...

#NetGalley #bookreview: Single Just Because: A Pilgrimage into Holy Aloneness | Bridget Gee

Single, Just Because: A Pilgrimage Into Holy Aloneness by Bridget Gee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Most Christian books on being single end up talking about how to be married. Or you find out at the end of it that the author, while writing about being single, is actually married...or about to be. Which, I mean, isn't their fault, but it kind of leaves you feeling a little let down because...reasons.

Bridget Gee is still blessedly single at the end of this book. And in her thirties. Which makes this boo...

Sign up for the Absolution Cover Reveal and Launch Tour!

Okayyyy so we're getting to part where Absolution is finally done!!! Things are coming together gradually!!!! And it's finished enough (I think) to start gathering people to help launch the book. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

If you loved Amok and The Tale of the Hostage Prince, or you haven't read any of them but you want to read the whole series now now now, here's where you can sign up to help me launch this big fat book!

(Link, if the embed is being wonky)

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#bookreview: Stranger Back Home | EL Haines

Stranger Back Homeby E.L. Haines

I honestly don't know what to think of Stranger Back Home.

If Sparrow were a real person, he'd be the type of person that I'd actively start avoiding within an hour of meeting him: an arrogant, insufferable, know-it-all. But since he's a fictional character and there were many positive reviews, I figured I'd give him a chance and read his story in small doses.

Anyway.

Sparrow receives a text message from his half-brother, who lives in the magical world of Telleron...

Dear Malaysian churches, here's how to pretend to be more creative than you really are

Look, the easiest way to be creative (when really, you're not), is to hire a creative. There are many hidden creatives in your church, most of them not doing anything because you do not ask them to. 

Ask them. Better still, pay them.

Whether you pay them or not, most Christian creatives will usually feel, uh, led enough to offer their time to you for free or at a severely discounted rate because, church, you know?

When that isn't an option for whatever vague reasons you tell yours...

#bookreview: Invisible boy: A Memoir of Self-Discovery | Harrison Mooney

Invisible Boy: A Memoir of Self-Discovery by Harrison Mooney
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Reading Invisible Boy is like refreshing my memory about the weird pentecostal days I grew up in, even though I'm on a whole different continent with vastly different racial and religious tensions.

The book is Mooney's memoir about growing up black in white fundamentalist Christian churches & schools in Canada, but many of the same pervasive and, honestly, skewed messages that festered in white North American chur...

#NetGalley #bookreview: Silver Under Nightfall | Rin Chupeco

Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco


Okay, I'll mark this one down to "not knowing what I was getting into". I basically went, "vampires, meh; but Rin Chupeco, ok lah, why not?"

Um so, probably disclaimers upfront because, uhhhhh. There are a lot of sexy times in this book (and not the fade-to-black kind), so if that is not for you, this book is not for you. Like really, really not.

Anyways!

Remy Pendergast is your typical pitiful downtrodden outcast who is discriminated against because of his pa...