New Book: From a High Tower (Elemental Masters) by Mercedes Lackey with Full Series List

From a High Tower (Elemental Masters) by Mercedes Lackey was released in June and I just realized I never posted about it!

Book description:

From a High Tower is newest adventure in Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters series, featuring a retelling of Rapunzel’s not-so-happily-ever-after ending.

How's that for an in-depth description? In other words, surprisingly enough, there hasn't been a Rapunzel retelling in this series yet. Now there is. And reading the reader reviews, this isn't where to begin the series if you are interested. I am behind on these, but enjoyed some of the earlier ones well enough. According to most lists, this is book 11 in the series, but that is always crazy because this series changed publishers so there are more than that I think. It would technically be book 13 I believe. Here is my list. The Fire Rose is my favorite since it is a Beauty and the Beast tale. And behind that would be The Serpent's Shadow--those are the two books that come to mind rather vividly when I think of the series. And two of the books are anthologies, but that still counts for me!

Elemental Masters Series by Mercedes Lackey:

1. The Fire Rose (1995)

2. The Serpent's Shadow (Elemental Masters, Book 1) (2001)

3. The Gates of Sleep (Elemental Masters, Book 2) (2002)

4. Phoenix and Ashes (Elemental Masters, Book 3) (2004)

5. The Wizard of London (Elemental Masters, Book 4) (2005)

6. Reserved for the Cat (Elemental Masters, Book 5) (2007)

7. Unnatural Issue: An Elemental Masters Novel (Elemental Masters, Book 6) (2011)

8. Home From the Sea: An Elemental Masters Novel (2012)

9. Elemental Magic: All-New Tales of the Elemental Masters (Daw Book Collectors) (2012)

10. Steadfast: (Elemental Masters #8) (2013)

11. Elementary (All-New Tales of the Elemental Masters) (2013)

12. Blood Red: (Elemental Masters #9) (2014)

13. From a High Tower (Elemental Masters) (2015)

New Book: Preserving the Spell: Basile's "The Tale of Tales" and Its Afterlife in the Fairy-Tale Tradition by Armando Maggi

Today is Amazon's Prime Day, sales galore for their 20th anniversary. My first order with Amazon was in 1997, a paperback copy of Tam Lin (Fairy Tale). Not very surprising that it would be fairy tale related, is it? And SurLaLune was still a year away from its birth when I ordered the book, a replacement copy of one I had lent out.

But on to regular business.

Preserving the Spell: Basile's "The Tale of Tales" and Its Afterlife in the Fairy-Tale Tradition by Armando Maggi is released this week. I have a copy preordered but I haven't seen it yet to know much more about it than the description below.

Book description:

Fairy tales are supposed to be magical, surprising, and exhilarating, an enchanting counterpoint to everyday life that nonetheless helps us understand and deal with the anxieties of that life. Today, however, fairy tales are far from marvelous—in the hands of Hollywood, they have been stripped of their power, offering little but formulaic narratives and tame surprises.

If we want to rediscover the power of fairy tales—as Armando Maggi thinks we should—we need to discover a new mythic lens, a new way of approaching and understanding, and thus re-creating, the transformative potential of these stories. In Preserving the Spell, Maggi argues that the first step is to understand the history of the various traditions of oral and written narrative that together created the fairy tales we know today. He begins his exploration with the ur-text of European fairy tales, Giambattista Basile’s The Tale of Tales, then traces its path through later Italian, French, English, and German traditions, with particular emphasis on the Grimm Brothers’ adaptations of the tales, which are included in the first-ever English translation in an appendix. Carrying his story into the twentieth century, Maggi mounts a powerful argument for freeing fairy tales from their bland contemporary forms, and reinvigorating our belief that we still can find new, powerfully transformative ways of telling these stories.

New Book: Letters to Zell by Camille Griep

Letters to Zell by Camille Griep was released earlier this month. And it looks like fun! We get several fairy tale heroines--I hate to say princesses--sounds so marketing machine. Has anyone read this one yet? This is a debut novel and it's nicely priced at $4.99 in ebook format, too. The UK edition ebook is £3.99, see Letters to Zell (UK Edition).
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Book description:

Everything is going according to story for CeCi (Cinderella), Bianca (Snow White), and Rory (Sleeping Beauty)—until the day that Zell (Rapunzel) decides to leave Grimmland and pursue her life. Now, Zell’s best friends are left to wonder whether their own passions are worth risking their predetermined “happily ever afters,” regardless of the consequences. CeCi wonders whether she should become a professional chef, sharp-tongued and quick-witted Bianca wants to escape an engagement to her platonic friend, and Rory will do anything to make her boorish husband love her. But as Bianca’s wedding approaches, can they escape their fates—and is there enough wine in all of the Realm to help them?

In this hilarious modern interpretation of the fairy-tale stories we all know and love, Letters to Zell explores what happens when women abandon the stories they didn’t write for themselves and go completely off script to follow their dreams.

Bargain Ebooks: The Snow White Trilogy Books 1 & 2 by Salla Simukka

As Red as Blood (The Snow White Trilogy Book 1) and As White as Snow (The Snow White Trilogy Book 2) by Salla Simukka are both $1.99 for ebook format for a limited time. The sale is anticipation of the third and final book--As Black as Ebony (The Snow White Trilogy Book 3)--to be released in the U.S. on August 4, 2015.

Book description for As Red as Blood (The Snow White Trilogy Book 1):

In the midst of the freezing Arctic winter, seventeen-year-old Lumikki Andersson walks into her school’s dark room and finds a stash of wet, crimson-colored money. Thousands of Euros left to dry—splattered with someone’s blood.

Lumikki lives alone in a studio apartment far from her parents and the past she left behind. She transferred into a prestigious art school, and she’s singularly focused on studying and graduating. Lumikki ignores the cliques, the gossip, and the parties held by the school’s most popular and beautiful boys and girls.

But finding the blood-stained money changes everything. Suddenly, Lumikki is swept into a whirlpool of events as she finds herself helping to trace the origins of the money. Events turn even more deadly when evidence points to dirty cops and a notorious drug kingpin best known for the brutality with which he runs his business.

As Lumikki loses control of her carefully constructed world, she discovers that she’s been blind to the forces swirling around her—and she’s running out of time to set them right. When she sees the stark red of blood on snow, it may be too late to save her friends or herself.

Book description for As White as Snow (The Snow White Trilogy Book 2):

Book 2 in the Snow White trilogy.

The heat of the summer sun bakes the streets of Prague, but Lumikki’s heart is frozen solid.

Looking to escape the notoriety caused by the part she played in taking down Polar Bear’s crime ring, seventeen-year-old Lumikki Andersson escapes to Prague, where she hopes to find a few weeks of peace among the hordes of tourists. But not long after arriving, she’s cornered by a skittish and strange young woman who claims to be her long-lost sister. The woman, Lenka, is obviously terrified, and even though Lumikki doesn’t believe her story—although parts of it ring true—she can’t just walk away.

Lumikki quickly gets caught up in Lenka’s sad and mysterious world, uncovering pieces of a mystery that take her from the belly of a poisonous cult to the highest echelons of corporate power. On the run for her life again, Lumikki must use all her wits to survive, but in the end, she just may discover she can’t do it all alone.

New Release: The Wild Girl: A Novel by Kate Forsyth

(US/UK Links)

The Wild Girl: A Novel by Kate Forsyth is finally released this week in the US. It was released last year in the UK, see The Wild Girl (UK Link).

Book description:

One of six sisters, Dortchen Wild lives in the small German kingdom of Hesse-Cassel in the early 19th century. She finds herself irresistibly drawn to the boy next door, the handsome but very poor fairy tale scholar Wilhelm Grimm. It is a time of tyranny and terror. Napoleon Bonaparte wants to conquer all of Europe, and Hesse-Cassel is one of the first kingdoms to fall. Forced to live under oppressive French rule, Wilhelm and his brothers quietly rebel by preserving old half-forgotten tales that had once been told by the firesides of houses grand and small over the land.

As Dortchen tells Wilhelm some of the most powerful and compelling stories in what will one day become his and Jacob's famous fairy tale collection, their love blossoms. But Dortchen's father will not give his consent for them to marry and war, death, and poverty also conspire to keep the lovers apart. Yet Dortchen is determined to find a way.

Evocative and richly-detailed, Kate Forsyth's The Wild Girl masterfully captures one young woman's enduring faith in love and the power of storytelling.

Bargain Ebook: Hero (The Woodcutter Sisters Book 2) by Alethea Kontis for $1.99

Hero (The Woodcutter Sisters Book 2) by Alethea Kontis is on sale in ebook format for $1.99. This is the first time this book has been discounted to this low price. It is the second book in the The Woodcutter Sisters series which has been popular with several SurLaLune readers. These books are usually in the $7-10 range.

Book description:

Rough-and-tumble Saturday Woodcutter thinks she's the only one of her sisters without any magic—until the day she accidentally conjures an ocean in the backyard. With her sword in tow, Saturday sets sail on a pirate ship, only to find herself kidnapped and whisked off to the top of the world. Is Saturday powerful enough to kill the mountain witch who holds her captive and save the world from sure destruction? And, as she wonders grumpily, "Did romance have to be part of the adventure?" As in Enchanted, readers will revel in the fragments of fairy tales that embellish this action-packed story of adventure and, yes, romance.

Bargain Ebook: Charming (Pax Arcana Book 1) by Elliott James for $1.99

Charming (Pax Arcana Book 1) by Elliott James has been temporarily reduced to $1.99 in ebook format in anticipation of the third full length novel in the series, Fearless (Pax Arcana Book 3), coming out in August. It is usually in the $6-7 range. The second book in the series, Daring, was released last year and is currently $9.99 in ebook format. There are also several novella prequels to the series that I shared when the series launched in 2013.

Book description:

John Charming isn't your average Prince...

He comes from a line of Charmings -- an illustrious family of dragon slayers, witch-finders and killers dating back to before the fall of Rome. Trained by a modern day version of the Knights Templar, monster hunters who have updated their methods from chain mail and crossbows to Kevlar and shotguns, John Charming was one of the best--until a curse made him one of the abominations the Knights were sworn to hunt.

That was a lifetime ago. Now, John tends bar under an assumed name in rural Virginia and leads a peaceful, quiet life. That is, until a vampire and a blonde walked into his bar...

CHARMING is the first novel in a new urban fantasy series which gives a new twist to the Prince Charming tale.

Grateful Dead in Medieval Romances, Part 2: The History of Oliver and Arthur

I mentioned yesterday in Grateful Dead in Medieval Romances, Part 1 that I had a favorite Grateful Dead themed medieval romance, The History of Oliver and Arthur.

From my introduction to The Grateful Dead Tales From Around the World (SurLaLune Fairy Tale Series):

The History of Oliver and Arthur, a 15th century prose romance, is provided in its entirety in the present volume. Olivier de Castille et Artus d’Algarbe was first published in 1482 in Geneva and traveled around Europe in a few other translations. The Spanish translation influenced a few 17th century Spanish plays to be discussed briefly later.

Now that is not much in my intro for a story I spent a few months getting to know intimately. The History of Oliver and Arthur has been translated into English and it is available for sharing. However, the English translation has only been printed once, in 1903, in a collectors edition volume. Each page of the book looks like this:

It's intended to resemble a medieval illuminated manuscript. Fine concept, but it makes for difficult reading. Very difficult reading. For over 110 pages. Try it at yourself at The History of Oliver and Arthur. So I had Grateful Dead almost finished when I decided I would transcribe the text from this book to share in my book. I spent several winter weeks, evenings mostly, transcribing and then rereading and editing the text. Which made me very intimate with it. Was it my favorite book of the year? No, of course not. But I was fascinated and I have never regretted the decision to transcribe and then share it with the readers of The Grateful Dead Tales From Around the World (SurLaLune Fairy Tale Series). And it is one of my favorite Grateful Dead tales because it is really an exciting adventure with the usual death, sex, violence, and, of course, chivalry.