We Want It! - April 13th, 2014

[helloladies]

Because we haven't quite managed to work out a way for us to consume ALL the entertainment yet: to keep us from emerging haggard and zombie like after regular all night box set marathons, book splurges and music overload we've set up this monthly space where we can express our pure fannish glee at the fact that so many projects of awesome potential are continually being made. All of our past wants and desires can be found in the We Want It! tag.Unless otherwise stated any blurbs for books have come from GoodReads.

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Books

Divided by day and night and on the run from authorities, star-crossed young lovers unearth a sinister conspiracy in this compelling romantic thriller.

Seventeen-year-old Soleil Le Coeur is a Smudge—a night dweller prohibited by law from going out during the day. When she fakes an injury in order to get access to and kidnap her newborn niece—a day dweller, or Ray—she sets in motion a fast-paced adventure that will bring her into conflict with the powerful lawmakers who order her world, and draw her together with the boy she was destined to fall in love with, but who is also a Ray.

Set in a vivid alternate reality and peopled with complex, deeply human characters on both sides of the day-night divide, Plus One is a brilliantly imagined drama of individual liberty and civil rights, and a fast-paced romantic adventure story. (source)

Plus One by Elizabeth Fama — The Book Smugglers put this one on my radar. It's got that particular "main characters belong to specific category!" thing happening, but I've been proven wrong before in hasty judgments (Chime), and the cover is so pretty. I'm weak.

In a world where experience is currency, Rosemary is the owner of a very special library—a library of memory, where scented coins transfer personal experience from one individual to another. When she trades away the sole memory of her grandmother's final concerto, family opposition, in the form of her daughter Ruth, forces Rosemary to go on a quest to try and recover the lost coin. Yet having to trade away her own memories to get it back, how much of Rosemary will survive the exchange? (source)

Trading Rosemary by Octavia Cade — Smuggler!Ana reviewed this recently and I got such strong Neverending Story 2 vibes that I knew I was going to put this on my list. Ana, you're a menace. XD

Artemis Awakening is the start of a new series by New York Times bestseller Jane Lindskold. The distant world Artemis is a pleasure planet created out of bare rock by a technologically advanced human empire that provided its richest citizens with a veritable Eden to play in. All tech was concealed and the animals (and the humans brought to live there) were bioengineered to help the guests enjoy their stay…but there was always the possibility of danger so that visitors could brag that they had “bested” the environment.

The Empire was shattered in a horrific war; centuries later humanity has lost much of the advanced technology and Artemis is a fable told to children. Until young archeologist Griffin Dane finds intriguing hints that send him on a quest to find the lost world. Stranded on Artemis after crashing his ship, he encounters the Huntress Adara and her psych-linked companion, the puma Sand Shadow. Their journey with her will lead Dane to discover the planet’s secrets…and perhaps provide a key to give unimagined power back to mankind. (source)

Artemis Awakening by Jane Lindskold — I found this title via Kristen. The whole pleasure planet premise made me dubious initially, but the second paragraph!! Animal companions. ;___;

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Books

Ava, a teenage girl living aboard the male-dominated deep space merchant ship Parastrata, faces betrayal, banishment, and death. Taking her fate into her own hands, she flees to the Gyre, a floating continent of garbage and scrap in the Pacific Ocean, in this thrilling, surprising, and thought-provoking debut novel that will appeal to fans of Across the Universe, by Beth Revis, and The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood.

Salvage by Alexandra Duncan: I heard about this via Stephanie Perskins' blog and it sounds great.

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Books

I'm writing a separate post about exciting SFF books coming out in 2014, so I only have a couple of book picks this month:

We are the Liars.

We are beautiful, privileged and live a life of carefree luxury.

We are cracked and broken.

A story of love and romance.

A tale of tragedy.

Which are lies?

Which is truth?

"We Were Liars" — E. Lockhart: I asked Ana from The Book Smugglers for some UK YA coming out in the next couple of months and she mentioned this which sounded intriguing. I of course have to read "The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks" first or several book bloggers will have a legitimate case for murdering me.





"The Tudor Saga" — Jean Plaidy: The one thing that really bugged me about seeing "Wolf Hall" and "Bringing Up The Bodies" performed on stage was how the books subtly weird attitudes to the queens and daughters was accentuated. Also that Cromwell's daughter (the apple of his eye in the book) never appears on stage. Seems weird >.>

Look, I loved the books and I thought Ben Miles was a great piece of casting for the stage production (please tell me he's contracted to come back for the third play when the book is written) but after watching both plays I felt a strong need for a feminist look at the Tudors. Machinations happened and ladies died - seems like time for feminist story telling to leap into action. To that end I've been trying to get my hands on some of Jean Plaidy's work and I've got "Katharine, the Virgin Widow", but I want them all.

Film

"The Maze Runner | Official Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX" (Watch on YouTube)

"Maze Runner": I was never interested enough in James Dashner's "Maze Runner" to pick up the book but I think the world will make for an excellent SFF action film. Admittedly I am mostly in this for Dylan O'Brien but the trailer does make it look like pretty slick film all together. Of course, Dylan O'Brien in a walled city of boys automatically says make outs to me so I am in for inevitable romantic disappointment, but the female lead, Kaya Scodelario, is an actress I've been wishing into more drama based entirely on "Skins" trailers (I can't watch that show, but she just shines in all the spots I've seen her in). And there's quite a lot of up and coming British talent scattered through this film — Will Poulter, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Aml Ameen. They can't all be evil, right?

Music

"Janelle Monae- Electric Lady (Feat.Solange)" (Watch on YouTube)

"The Electric Lady" — Janelle Monáe: All right internets you have convinced me that I need this in my life. :)