Tag: the handmaid’s tale

Top Picks: 5 Stellar Sci-Fi and Fantastical Fantasy Picks

Each week, Bookstr gives you a look at some of the best novels in a particular genre for your continued reading list.

Today, we’ll be recommending five Sci-Fi and Fantasy novels that you have to get on board reading or else you might be unprepared to deal with technological villains, menacing zombies, or the horrors of a tyrannical government.

 

 

5-Testaments by Margret Atwood

 

Margaret Atwood

Image Via Encylopedia Britannica

 

How could we forget about Margret Atwood? A total boss, she’s the woman behind this Tweet.

 

Queen of Twitter

THIS IS HOW YOU TWEET J K / Image Via Reddit

 

And she’s brought us a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, Testaments.

 

The Testaments: The Sequel to The Handmaid's Tale by [Atwood, Margaret]

Image Via Amazon

 

Set fifteen years after the events of the previous book, the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, but the lives of three different women are about to converge.

Two have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order. The testimonies of these two young women come together thanks to a third voice belonging to a woman who wields power through the ruthless accumulation and deployment of secrets.

Released September 10th, this book has made headway and continues to stay in the public consciousness. Read it now!…Or be left behind.

 

 

4-Treason of Thorns by Laura E Weymouth

 

Laura E Weymouth

Image Via Goodreads

 

Laura E Weymouth’s debut YA fantasy, The Light Between Worlds, was published to critical acclaim on October 23, 2018 and this year she’s given us another September 10th release: A Treason of Thorns.

 

A Treason of Thorns by [Weymouth, Laura E.]
Image Via Amazon

We follow Violet Sterling, a woman who once lived in the Burleigh House. One of the six great houses in England, Burleigh’s magic kept both the countryside and Violet happy until one fateful day when Violet’s father destroyed everything.

Seven years later, Violet has lived in exile with an overwhelming desire to return home. Now she must return home, grief-stricken, her very soul tearing itself apart, telling her that soon the magic that once made her so happy now threatens to destroy the countryside.

Gripping and utterly unique, we agree with Kirkus Reviews when they summed up this book with one word: “Spellbinding”.

 

3-A Trick of Light by Stan Lee and Kat Rosenfield

 

Stan lee and Kat Rosenfield

Image Via Variety

 

Stan “The Man” Lee needs no introduction. You know him, you’ve seen him, he lives on in all our hearts, but before he passed on he teamed up with supremely talented Kat Rosenfield, author of Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone. Together, they’ve given us this wonderful book.

 

A Trick of Light: Stan Lee's Alliances (Stan Lee’s Alliances) by [Lee, Stan, Rosenfield, Kat]
Image Via Amazon

The first installment in the Alliances series, A Trick of Light follows Nia, a 17-year-old genius hacker. Lonely beyond belief, Nia spends her days in a hologram classroom to learn everything about the world, a place she is forever separately from.

Then one day, everything changes. First, nerdy Cameron gets struck by lightning while filming a new video for his Youtube channel. Waking up in a hospital, he realizes that he has changed and he is able to connect to every electronic device.

From here, he soon meets Nia in an online game and they quickly become friends. But then they cross paths with OPTIC who wants their skill set for their own evil plans. Can they stop him and the galactic threat they poses?

Want to read this exciting, gripping, gut-punching story? It came out September 17th and has exceeded our expectations so much we here at Bookstr have to smile and say, “Excelsior!” to Stan and Kat.

 

 

2-The Bone House by Emily Lloyd Jones

 

Emily Lloyd Jones

Image Via Twitter

 

Author of The Hearts We Sold and Murder on the Disoriented Express, Emily Lloyd Jones brought us a new release last September 24th.

 

The Bone Houses by [Lloyd-Jones, Emily]

Image Via Amazon

 

Since the death of their parents, seventeen-year-old Aderyn “Ryn” and her siblings have been scraping by as gravediggers in the remote village of Colbren. But things get hairy when she learns first hand that sometimes the dead don’t always stay dead.

Legend says that these risen corpses, known as “bone houses”, are the result of a decades-old curse, but when Ellis, an apprentice mapmaker with a mysterious past, arrives in town, the bone houses attack with new ferocity.

Together, Ellis and Ryn embark on a journey that will take them into the heart of the mountains, to search for buried secrets, but some things are meant to stay buried.

Kirkus Reivews, as well us at Bookstr, promises that this is “[a] stand-alone dark fantasy that readers will want to sink their teeth into”

 

1-There Will Come a Darkness by Katy Rose Pool

 

Katy Rose Pool

Image Via Twitter

 

This Katy Rose Pool’s debut novel, and thank heavens she’s got more in store for us!

 

There Will Come a Darkness (The Age of Darkness Book 1) by [Pool, Katy Rose]

Image Via Amazon

 

For generations, the Seven Prophets guided humanity using their visions of the future. Then, a hundred years ago, they vanished. But they left behind one final prophecy, foretelling of an Age of Darkness and the birth of a new Prophet who could be the world’s salvation . . . or the cause of its destruction.

Now five souls are set on a collision course:

A prince exiled from his kingdom.

A ruthless killer known as the Pale Hand.

A once-faithful leader torn between his duty and his heart.

A reckless gambler with the power to find anything or anyone.

And a dying girl on the verge of giving up.

In the words of Kirkus Reviews, this September 24th release is “[a] well-crafted, surprising, and gripping start to a new trilogy.”

 

 

 

Featured Images Via Nerd Daily, The Independent, and Amazon

Beloved Author Graeme Gibson Passes At 85

Canadian author and conservationist Graeme Gibson passed away on Wednesday, September 18th at the age of 85 due to dementia. The announcement was made by Gibson’s publisher, Penguin Random House Canada.

 

Image Via Georgia Straight

 

Gibson is known for writing experimental fiction novels such as Five Legs and Communion, both centering around the character Felix Oswald and his dark, twisted coming-of-age adventures. An avid bird watcher, Gibson also wrote collections based on his bird watching, his most well-known being The Bedside Book of Birds.

 

 

Gibson was the longtime partner of Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale and the recently released The Testaments. Even though he was suffering from dementia, he still joined Atwood on her book promotion tour.

In an interview with Time magazine, Atwood said that she wrote The Testaments while caring for Gibson.

 

Image Via Glob Intel

 

Are you sad to hear about Gibson’s death?

 

 

Featured Image Via CBC

 

 

Praise Be! ‘The Testaments’ Is Coming To Television

 

 

Releasing today, Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments continues the story of The Handmaid’s Tale with new characters exploring the world of Gilead for a new generation of readers. With rave reviews and a huge following thanks to the successful series on Hulu, the hype surrounding this new novel has reached new heights. For those fans who are anxious for an eventual adaptation, you don’t have to wait any longer.

 

Image Via Amazon

 

Hulu has confirmed that a series based on The Testaments is in the works, just as the series starts to prepare for it’s upcoming fourth season.

In addition to the new series, the showrunner of Handmaid’s has stated that the show will incorporate elements of The Testaments into the current show.

 

 

MGM, the production company for The Handmaid’s Tale, is more than ready to bring Atwood’s newest story to life:

 

“Margaret Atwood is a literary icon who continues to delight and challenge readers through her provocative and compelling prose. She has been an incredible creative partner and resource to MGM throughout the production of Handmaid’s and we look forward to working with her on the story’s exciting next chapter.”

 

Are you excited for an adaptation of The Testaments?

 

 

Featured Image Via Penguin Books

Amazon Sends Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Testaments’ Early by Mistake

Amazon preorders of Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments have been shipped out to readers ahead of schedule. By mistake.

A handful of reviews appeared on NPR, The Washington Post, and The New York Times yesterday even though there was supposed to be a strict embargo on the novel before its September 10th release date. And some readers are rushing to Twitter and Instagram to show off the copies they’ve received early.

 

 

 

According to BBC, Penguin Random House claims:

In the US a very small number of copies of Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments were distributed early due to a retailer error which has now been rectified.

We appreciate that readers have been waiting patiently, in some cases for more than thirty years, for the much-anticipated sequel to the bestselling The Handmaid’s Tale. In order to ensure our readers around the world receive their copies on the same day, our global publication date remains Tuesday 10th September.

The small number of copies received by these lucky readers total around eight-hundred.

Though some Atwood fans may be celebrating that they could get their hands on The Testaments early, many independent booksellers are frustrated that Amazon seems to have ignored the embargo. The fact that readers have received copies ahead of schedule from Amazon can drastically impact an independent bookstore’s bottom line, especially when they rely on the rush of first-day sales to drive their business.

 

 

Lexi Beach, one such bookseller whose “world is crumbling around [her] right now,” took to Twitter to vent about Amazon’s brazen disregard  of the embargo.

 

 

Unfortunately, Beach is kind of right. Amazon’s business model is much different from your average independent bookseller’s. The online-shopping behemoth can afford to take a lot of losses on titles like The Testaments in a strategy to grow their customer base. Independent stores, on the other hand, often rely on the buzz huge titles like Atwood’s generate to drive business to their stores. And given that Atwood’s sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale has been shortlisted for The Booker Prize and is already on many best-selling lists based on preorders alone, the fact that Amazon can shamelessly violate the embargo all booksellers had to sign is made even more disheartening and terrifying.

 

 

Paul Swydan, owner of Silver Unicorn Books, also took to Twitter to express his frustration:

 

 

Penguin Random House released a statement regarding the incident. However, they didn’t address Amazon by name, preferring to keep things vague.

 

 

Understandably, the independent booksellers Amazon continues to undercut are still angry and worried Amazon won’t be held accountable. After all, what can you actually do to affect the site that controls roughly 50% of book sales in the world. Even a publisher the size of Penguin Random House can’t really afford to tarnish their relationship with Amazon. Beach noted in another tweet that PRH could delay shipments of future releases to Amazon to prevent them from capitalizing on first-day sales. That’s the typical way smaller booksellers are disciplined, but who knows if PRH will or even can use those methods with Amazon.

 

 

Featured image via My Office Magazine and Instagram: @damagedbutinvigorated