Showing posts with label Hiraia Files. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hiraia Files. Show all posts

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Book 1: Red Pyramid (Kane Chronicles)

Behold !! My idol Rick Riordan's Kane Chronicles debut its first book called Red Pyramid.
This is a story of 2 ordinary siblings a girl and a boy whose lives are turned on the eve of Christmas. They learned that they are special children, strongest of their kind. Read the first book of the Series to know more about them and their journeys as they try to win a battle that holds the destiny of the world. (That's so Rick Riordan huh.. End-of-the-world-in-a-few-days-and-kids-saving-the-day). For those who loved Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series, this is more like it except that Kane chronicles is based on Egyptian Gods and Goddesses not Greek. A little bit of Roman mythology mentioned herein to give emphasis to the eras of Egypt as they were conquered by Romans and been colonized for many centuries.
This Novel is very very rich in Egyptian culture, worth reading and may possibly keep up with Percy Jackson and the Olympians in time.


Sunday, June 19, 2011

Book 1 : The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus)

The Lost Hero is a 2010 fantasy-adventure novel written by Rick Riordan and based on "Greek and Roman mythology". It is the first book in the series The Heroes of Olympus, the next series about Camp Half-Blood. It was preceded by the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, which focused solely on Greek mythology. The Lost Hero was released on October 12, 2010.

Summary
Jason is a boy who suffers from amnesia. He wakes up on a school bus not remembering anything from his past, including anything about who he is. He is sitting next to Piper McLean, a girl who appears to be his girlfriend, and a boy, Leo Valdez, who says he is Jason's best friend. The bus is taking them, along with the rest of their grade at their school, the Wilderness School, on a field trip to the Grand Canyon. While they are there, storm spirits, or venti, attack the three. Their supervising teacher, Coach Gleeson Hedge, reveals himself to be a satyr, and helps fights the venti. Jason surprises himself by using a sword disguised as a coin to fight off the spirits, and Coach Hedge is captured while defending them. At the height of the battle, two pegasi land next to them carrying strangers: Annabeth and a boy named Butch with a rainbow tattoo; he is a son of Iris. Annabeth is angry because she had a vision that she would find a clue to her missing boyfriend, Percy Jackson, at the Grand Canyon. She was told to look for the "boy with the missing shoe"; Jason lost a shoe in the battle, but has no memories of his own identity, let alone Percy Jackson's whereabouts. Jason, Piper and Leo are informed that they are demigods (children of a god and a mortal) and are taken back to Camp Half-Blood where they meet other demigod children like themselves. There, Leo is revealed as a son of Hephaestus, Piper as a daughter of Aphrodite, and Jason as a son of Zeus and the brother of Thalia. He remembers his sister while seeing a picture of her in Cabin One. After scarcely 24 hours of learning about their previously hidden identities, the three receive an urgent quest to rescue Hera, queen of the gods, who was captured by unnamed forces.
The three friends set off on the back of a giant robotic dragon, Festus (which in Latin means "happy") on a cross-country quest to save Hera and Piper's fathaer from the clutches of Enceladus. Their enemies are under orders from Gaea to reawaken her and overthrow the Olympian gods by pulling up- destroying- their original roots in Greece. On their way, Jason, Piper and Leo meet Boreas the North Wind (who lives in the Château Frontenac), a trio of cyclopes, the evil Medea, King Midas, a pack of wolves and Lycaon and the very unhelpful Lord of the Winds, Aeolus. In the end the heroes and their friends, the Hunters of Artemis, manage to save both Piper's father and Hera, whose godly life force was being used to raise the giant Porphyrion. They temporarily stall Gaea's plans, but they were unable to completely destroy the ancient beings, and will have to face them again. With part of his memory returned, Jason realizes that he is a hero from a Roman counterpart to Camp Half-Blood somewhere near Long Island, NY, and that Hera has switched him with the Greek hero Percy Jackson, who is now at the Roman camp with no memory of his life at Camp Half-Blood. Both Jason and Percy had to let the Greek and Roman camps know of each others' existence, so the Roman and Greek demigods must unite to provide the prophesied group of seven heroes who will defeat the giants along with the gods. Jason, Piper, Leo, and Annabeth have to find the Roman camp and convince them to help.

Article : www.wikipedia.org



Sunday, January 23, 2011

Mary Janice Davidson



Mary Janice Davidson (born August 1969) is an American author who writes mostly paranormal romance, but also young adult literature and non-fiction. She is the creator of the popular Undead series. She is both a New York Times and USA Today bestseller. She won a 2004 Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award and was nominated for the same award in 2005.
MaryJanice Davidson invented the vampire chick lit genre . Appearing several times a year on the best-seller list, as well as occasional Federal "person of interest" sheets, she takes time from the living hell that is being paid to do what she loves best to seek out the nearest Cinnabon franchise. Her goals include working for world peace, figuring out how to make potstickers, and speaking at writer and reader conferences around the world.


*Biography courtesy of www.maryjanicedavidson.net , www.wikipedia.net

Undead Series


Elizabeth "Betsy" Taylor turns thirty in the most unfortunate manner possible: she is laid off from work and then run down by an SUV. Waking up in the morgue fails to improve her mood, and when she discovers she can't kill herself, she gets downright stroppy. Being proclaimed "Queen of the Vampires" by the obnoxious Eric Sinclair, who places himself first in line to be her consort, proves to be the last straw.

1. Undead and Unwed
2. Undead and Unemployed
3. Undead and Unappreciated
4. Undead and Unreturnable
5. Undead and Unpopular
6. Undead and Uneasy
7. Undead and Unworthy
8. Undead and Unwelcome
9. Undead and Unfinished

Related Articles : Mary Janice Davidson (Author of Undead Series)

Undead and Unwelcome


Is the eighth book in the Undead series, by MaryJanice Davidson. It was released on June 2, 2009.

Summary: Betsy Taylor has problems that only a vampire queen/suburban wife could possibly understand. Such as taking the body of her werewolf friend Antonia—who died in her service—to Cape Cod, where she's not sure if the Wyndham werewolves will welcome her with fangs or friendship. Meanwhile, her posse back in St. Paul is sending frantic e-mails alerting Betsy to her half-sister's increasingly erratic behavior. Looks like the devil's daughter is coming into her own—and raising hell.

Related Articles:

Prev Book: Undead and Unworthy
Next Book: Undead and Unfinished
Main Page Undead Series
MaryJanice Davidson

*Summary taken from www.wikipedia.org

Undead and Unworthy

Seventh in the hilarious New York Times best-selling series featuring Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor—now with a hot new look.
No one does humorous romantic fantasy better than the incomparable MaryJanice Davidson” (The Best Reviews), and nobody reigns over the undead with more savvy than her heroine Betsy Taylor,
Back to rule the nights as Vampire Queen––and survive the days as a new suburban bride. But it’s not all marital bliss. Betsy’s husband, Sinclair, has been perusing The Book of the Dead, Betsy’s being hounded by a ghost who’s even more insufferable in death than in life, and a pack of formerly feral vampires has decided to pay an unwelcome visit…

*Summary taken from www.wikipedia.org

Undead and Uneasy

It is the sixth of Davidson's Undead series of books.

In the days leading up the The Big Day, Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor seems to have a full house - and the wedding guests have yet to arrive. Along with her human buddies, there's a ghost, a werewolf, and a Fiend crashing at her place. And though her fiance, Vampire King Eric Sinclair, conveniently disappears when the conversation turns to seating charts and flower arrangements, he does manage to make his oh-so-sexy presence known at other moments.

Betsy knows the next few weeks won't be smooth sailing - but she never expects just what's in store for her. Cold feet are no surprise, especially with an undead groom. But when Sinclair truly goes missing - and not just to avoid wedding preparations - along with most of her friends and loved ones, Betsy is frantic. Alone and afraid for the fate of everyone she loves, Betsy can't trust anyone as she tries to find them and whoever is behind all the disappearances. And what happens next will shake the foundation of the vampire world forever in the bestselling series that "breath(es) new life into conventional vampire lore."

*Summary taken from www.wikipedia.org

Undead and Unpopular

Betsy Taylor, Queen of Vampires, is celebrating her 31st birthday and her 1st anniversary of being dead (or perhaps that should be undead.) She has told her friends that she doesn’t want a party but she is sure that they are planning a surprise party for her.

She is trying to plan her summer wedding to Sinclair but it doesn’t help that he is avoiding having anything to do with it and deciding to give up drinking blood in honour of her birthday is just making her cranky. And nobody likes a cranky vampire.
Jessica her best friend since childhood has been diagnosed with cancer and this leads Betsy to think that maybe converting her friend to become a vampire might be a good idea.

With a delegation of European vampires arriving to pay their respects to her, a baby brother to baby sit, unexpected guests dropping by and a phone that just won’t stop ringing she has plenty to keep her occupied. And that’s before she deals with the zombie in the attic..

*Summary taken from www.wikipedia.org

Undead and Unreturnable

It's Christmas time in the Kingdom of the dead(Minneapolis), which is complicated as it sounds. Betsy Taylor isn't going to let a little thing like death and blood-drinking stop her from enjoying the holidays or planning her upcoming spring wedding to drop-dead gorgeous vamp Eric Sinclair. But all is not merry and bright-Betsy is plagued by ghosts who demand her help in rectifying their past mistakes, and a serial killer is on the loose. With his victims all being, blond women. Besty fits the profile exactly... The book starts out with the knowledge that Betsy is technically dead, however everyone but close family and friends think that she is still alive. In Betsy's life she has a stepmother, Antonia (the Ant) who gives birth to a younger brother, Jon, and her best friend, rich Jessica, and Laura, is technically her half-sister but also the devil's daughter after Satan possessed her stepmother (The Ant who gave her up to adoption to, ironically, the Goodman's) and produced a daughter. She also receives attention from a human boy who is a past member of a gang of vampie slayers. She also has a gay human friend called Marc, a doctor she saved in the first novel from suicide and a human policemen who is a former flame called Nick Berry.
Aside from all of this she has vampire servants who work for her and a hostage wild vampire dubbed George the Fiend. George is a wild vampire created by a 500 year old vampire Betsy killed. She feeds him with er blood to make him stronger and Jessica teaches him different things such as crocheting. Laura later attacks George the Fiend thinking her mother (Satan) is using him to annoy her and meddle in her life. After Betsy tries to break up the fight Laura stabs her with a sword forged by Hellfire that kills magical creatures, however it doesn't kill her. After this Laura is sent to feed him.
Eric and Betsy fight after she reveals she can hear his thoughts during sex. Eric is hurt she doesn't tell him earlier and goes back to his room which causes Betsy to point out that he hasn't fully committed to their relationship.
Also, in an attempt to connect with her people Betsy starts an advise column to new vampires which some deem as stupid. Also, the human boy decides to write her life story as a fiction story and publish it through his university course, however Sinclair and his best friend Tina wipe his memory of it to save Betsy from exposure. After a serial killer known as the "Driveway Killer" kills her stepmother's next door neighbour a ghost starts plaguing Betsy. Laura and her set out to find him and discover him in a rundown house with a hostage. Laura kills him and the two set the hostage free.
In this novel it seems that Antonia knows that Laura is her daughter.

*Summary taken from www.wikipedia.org

Undead and Unappreciated


Is the third novel in the Undead series by MaryJanice Davidson. The breezily written paranormal romance novel is told from the point of view of Betsy Taylor, reluctant Vampire Queen and not-so-reluctant shoe-hound, and introduces a major character to the series: Laura, Betsy's half-sister and the daughter of the Devil herself.

*Summary taken from www.wikipedia.org

Undead and Unemployed

Is a paranormal romance novel by MaryJanice Davidson.

"And the first who shall noe the Queen as a husband noes his Wife shall be the Queen's Consort and shall rule at her side for a thousand yeares." The Book of the Dead

"If that rat bastard Sinclair thinks I'm going to be his wife for a thousand years, he's out of his f****** mind." From the private papers of Her Majesty, Queen Elisabeth I, Empress of the Undead, Rightful Ruler of the Vampires, Consort of Eric I, Lawful King.

Nothing can make Betsy Taylor give up her shoe fetish- even dying and rising as the new Queen of Vampires. Only being royally undead doesn't mean that there aren't credit card bills to be paid. Luckily, Betsy lands her dream job selling designer shoes at Macy's Department Store. But then there's a string of vampire murders in town and Betsy has to enlist the help of the one vamp who makes her blood boil: the oh-so-sexy Eric Sinclair. Only the last time she ran into Sinclair she accidentally fulfilled an ancient prophesy- and ended up married to him...

*Summary taken from www.wikipedia.org

Undead and Unwed

Betsy Taylor—former model, newly unemployed secretary, 30, and still single, wakes up after being flattened by a small SUV in a tacky coffin wearing cheap knock-off shoes. Her mother is glad she is back, albeit as a vampire, but her stepmother is enraged that Betsy has reclaimed her designer-shoe collection.

With a wealthy best friend and a newly acquired doctor pal who is not susceptible to her formidable allure, she sets out to right wrongs but is abducted by Nostro, a tacky 500-year-old vampire who rules the undead roost. It seems that Betsy is an anomaly: a vampire who doesn't burn in sunlight, can fight the urge to feed, and is not repulsed by religious articles, all of which may make her the prophesied Queen of the Vampires. Teaming up with gorgeous vampire Eric Sinclair, who is in her opinion a major pervert, she takes on Nostro and his minions.

*Summary taken from www.wikipedia.org


Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Richelle Mead

Richelle Mead (born November 12, 1976) is a bestselling American fantasy author. She has three ongoing series: the Georgina Kincaid series, the Vampire Academy series, and the Dark Swan series. All are available internationally, including countries in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania.

She was born in Michigan, and now lives in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland, Washington.[5] She has three degrees: a Bachelor of General Studies from the University of Michigan, a Master of Comparative Religion from Western Michigan University, and a Master of Teaching from the University of Washington.Her teaching degree led her to become an 8th grade teacher in suburban Seattle, where she taught social studies and English. She continued writing in her free time, until she sold her first novel, Succubus Blues. After quitting her job to write full time, her other books quickly followed.

Mead actively writes books in three different series. The schedule for this is so demanding that she has to turn out a draft for a new book every three months. This is an extremely fast turnaround compared to the year that most authors take to write a book.

Novels

Georgina Kincaid series

  1. Succubus Blues (2007)
  2. Succubus on Top (2008) (UK title: Succubus Nights)
  3. Succubus Dreams (2008)
  4. Succubus Heat (June 2009)
  5. Succubus Shadows (released March 30, 2010)
  6. TBA

Dark Swan series

  1. Storm Born (2008)
  2. Thorn Queen (2009)
  3. Iron Crowned (scheduled for release early 2011)
  4. Title TBA
Vampire Academy Series
  1. Vampire Academy (2007)
  2. Frostbite (2008)
  3. Shadow Kiss (2008)
  4. Blood Promise (2009)
  5. Spirit Bound (scheduled for release May 18, 2010)
  6. Last Sacrifice (scheduled for release December 7, 2010)


Digital Fortress

Digital Fortress is a techno-thriller novel written by American author Dan Brown and published in 1998 by St. Martin's Press. The book explores the theme of government surveillance of electronically stored information on the private lives of citizens, and the possible civil liberties and ethical implications using such technology.

When the United States National Security Agency's code-breaking machine (TRANSLTR) encounters a mysterious and ingeniously complex code called Digital Fortress that it cannot break, Commander Trevor Strathmore calls in Susan Fletcher, a brilliant, beautiful mathematician and their head cryptographer, to crack it. She discovers that it was written by Ensei Tankado, a former NSA employee who became displeased with the NSA's intrusion into people's private lives. Tankado intends to auction the code's algorithm on his website and have his partner, "NDAKOTA", release it for free if he dies. Essentially holding the NSA hostage, the agency is determined to stop Digital Fortress from becoming a threat to national security.

Synopsis

When Tankado indeed dies in Seville, Spain, of what appears to be a heart attack, Strathmore sends David Becker (Susan's fiancee) to Seville to recover the ring Tankado was wearing when he died. The ring is rumored to have the code that unlocks Digital Fortress. However, he soon discovers that Tankado gave the ring away immediately before his death. Each person that Becker questions in the search for the ring is murdered one-by-one by Hulohot, a mysterious assassin.. Read more in [My Corner]

The Da Vinci Code

The Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery-detective fiction novel written by American author Dan Brown. It follows symbologist Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu as they investigate a murder in Paris's Louvre Museum and discover a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus Christ of Nazareth having been married to Mary Magdalene.

The title of the novel refers to, among other things, the fact that the murder victim is found in the Denon Wing of the Louvre, naked and posed like Leonardo da Vinci's famous drawing, the Vitruvian Man, with a cryptic message written beside his body and a pentacle drawn on his stomach in his own blood.

The novel has provoked a popular interest in speculation concerning the Holy Grail legend and Magdalene's role in the history of Christianity. The book has been extensively denounced by many Christian denominations as an attack on the Roman Catholic Church. It has also been criticized for its historical and scientific inaccuracy.

The book is a worldwide bestseller that sold 80 million copies as of 2009[update][1] and has been translated into 44 languages. Combining the detective, thriller, and conspiracy fiction genres, it is Brown's second novel to include the character Robert Langdon, the first being his 2000 novel Angels & Demons. In November 2004, Random House published a Special Illustrated Edition with 160 illustrations. In 2006, a film adaptation was released by Sony's Columbia Pictures.


Deception Point

Deception Point (2001) is a techno-thriller novel by Dan Brown, the author of The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, Digital Fortress, and The Lost Symbol.

Intelligence Analyst Rachel Sexton is in her mid-thirties, is single, and works for the NRO (National Reconnaissance Office). Her father, Senator Sedgewick Sexton, is a presidential candidate who is more popular than incumbent President of the United States Zachary Herney. The President sends her to the Arctic as part of a team of experts to confirm and authenticate findings made by NASA deep within the Milne Ice Shelf. NASA's new Polar Orbiting Density Scanner (PODS), part of the Earth Observation System (EOS), a collection of satellites monitoring the globe for signs of large-scale change, has found an extremely dense spot in the Milne Ice Shelf. At this spot NASA discovers a very dense meteorite. In it are fossils of bugs very similar to, but not the same as, species on earth. NASA claims this as proof of extraterrestrial life.. [Read More from My Corner]


Angels & Demons


Angels & Demons is a 2000 bestselling mystery-thriller novel written by American author Dan Brown and published by Pocket Books. It revolves around the quest of fictional Harvard University symbologist Robert Langdon to uncover the mysteries of a secret society called the Illuminati and to unravel a plot to annihilate Vatican City using destructive antimatter. The book uses the idea of a historical conflict between science and religion, particularly that between the Illuminati and the Roman Catholic Church.

The novel introduces the character Robert Langdon, who is also the protagonist of Brown's subsequent 2003 novel, The Da Vinci Code, and 2009 novel, The Lost Symbol. It also shares many stylistic elements with its sequel, such as conspiracies of secret societies, a single-day time frame, and the Catholic Church. Ancient history, architecture, and symbolism are also heavily referenced throughout the book. A film adaptation was released on May 15, 2009, though it was set after the events of The Da Vinci Code film, which had been released in 2006.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Cassandra Clare : Mortal Instruments Writer


Cassandra Clare is the pseudonym of the bestselling author of the young adult quartet The Mortal Instruments.
Cassandra Clare was born to American parents in Tehran. She lived in France, England and Switzerland before she was ten

years old. From her high school years on, she lived in Los Angeles and New York, where she worked at various

entertainment magazines and tabloids. She started working on her novel City of Bones in 2004, inspired by the urban

landscape of Manhattan. The Mortal Instruments have been optioned for film by Unique Features.

Prior to the publishing of City of Bones, Clare was known for writing fan fiction under the similar pseudonym Cassandra Claire. Her main works were The Draco Trilogy and The Very Secret Diaries (The Lord of the Rings). Claire was considered a Big Name Fan and was covered in several newspaper articles about fan fiction, but has since been accused of plagiarism from within the fan fiction community.

Clare took part of her pseudonym from The Beautiful Cassandra, on which she had based an epic novel during high school.

She is friends with another Harry Potter Big Name Fan Sarah Rees Brennan, who also writes in the young-adult genre.

Books by Cassandra Clare in this Blog (downloadable PDF)

Mortal Instruments Series

Book 1 : City Of Bones
Book 2 : City of Ashes
Book 3 : City of Glass

Mortal Instruments Book 2 : City of Ashes

Mortal Instruments Book 1 : City of Bones