Tag Archives: recommendation

Märchensommer Buchvorstellung #3

Willkommen in der letzten Woche des Märchensommers!
Denkt dran, euch alle Punkte zu sichern, um tolle E-Book Preise zu gewinnen!

Zum Abschluss gibt es noch ein paar Vorstellungen.

Das Märchensommer Banner zeigt eine Scherenschnitt-Fee, die Glitzer auf den verschnörkelten Schriftzug "Märchensommer" über einem aufgeschlagenen Buch streut. Alles vor einer grünen Wiese neben einem Baum und Sonnenstrahlen im Hintergrund.
Cover Queer durch die Märchenwelt
Cover Der Karusellkönig
Cover Märchentruhe

Ein bisschen mehr Humor als das neulich vorgestellte Rowan & Ash ist Amalia Zeichnerins Queer durch die Märchenwelt – Der Prinz, der mich liebte. Besonders gelungen finde ich ja die Landesnamen „Nebenannien“ und „Inderferne“. Ein kurzes Lesevergnügen für alle die Märchen und Romance mögen.

Düsterer klingt Der Karusellkönig von Fabienne Siegmund. Habe es neulich mehr durch Zufall entdeckt und in erster Linie gehamstert, weil es als Graphic Novel beworben wurde. Für mein Verständnis ist es das leider nicht (illustrierte Novelle, nicht gezeichnete Novelle), aber die Zeichnungen sind dennoch faszinierend. Der Plot um die Freundin, die auf einem Jahrmarkt verschwindet ist anders als dass, was man von Märchen sonst kennt.

Nochmal eine ganz andere Richtung ist die Märchentruhe von Anja Zachrau. Im Gegensatz zu eigentlich allen Geschichten, die ich bisher vorgestelt habe, ein Buch direkt für Kinder zum Vor- oder selbst lesen geeignet. Eine bunte Mischung aus Geschichten zu Feen, Waldgeistern, Außerirdischen und vielen mehr. Schaut auch auf ihrem YouTube Kanal vorbei, da liest sie einige davon vor.

Cover Phantast

Als letzte Vorstellung diesen Sommer, tu ich mal noch was ganz ungewöhnliches und verweise auf eine meiner eigenen Geschichten. In der Jubiläumsausgabe des Phantast ist „Tonloses Flötenspiel“ meine Fortsetzung des Rattenfänger von Hameln erschienen und ihr könnt sie hier nachlesen – zusammen mit weiteren tollen Inhalten.

Ein paar Ideen für eine Weiterführung der Geschichte hätte ich schon, vielleicht kehre ich irgendwann noch einmal in jene Welt zurück. Wir werden sehen.

Übrigens gab es auch bereits eine reine Märchenausgabe, falls ihr da auch einen Blick hineinwerfen möchtet: Phantast 19. Mit u.a. Interview und Rezension zu Im Bann der zertanzten Schuhe von Janna Ruth und einem Werkstattbericht von Christian Handel zu Rosen & Knochen.

Also dann, genießt die Restwoche des Märchensommers und denkt dran, alle Rätsel zu beantworten, um euch die Preise zu sichern!

Anne/Poisonpainter

Märchensommer Buchvorstellung #2

Willkommen in der fünften Woche des Märchensommers!

Wie ihr gemerkt habt, halte ich mich dieses Jahr etwas zurück mit der Vorstellung von Märchenadaptionen, doch ein paar weitere möchte ich euch nicht vorenthalten.

Das Märchensommer Banner zeigt eine Scherenschnitt-Fee, die Glitzer auf den verschnörkelten Schriftzug "Märchensommer" über einem aufgeschlagenen Buch streut. Alles vor einer grünen Wiese neben einem Baum und Sonnenstrahlen im Hintergrund.

Im dritten Jahr als Station der Märchenrallye und Preisgeberin ist Jenny Völker dabei. Da wird es Zeit, dass ich euch noch ein paar weitere ihrer Märchenadaptionen vorstelle:

Cover Die Gefallene Fee
Cover Goldröschen
Cover Sternmarie

Die gefallene Fee ist in diesem Sommer einer der Preise und erzählt ein Märchen voller Piraten und magischen Welten. Mich würde es nicht wundern, wenn darin auch ein gewisses tickendes Krokodil einen Gastauftritt hat. Ob es stimmt, müsst ihr mir bei Gelegenheit erzählen.

Dornröschen-Flair gibt es in Goldröschen. Ein restaurierter Spiegel führt den Protagonisten in eine andere Welt, ob er die schlafende Frau retten kann?

Jennys Debutroman Sternmarie dürfen wir natürlich auch nicht vergessen. Darin verknüpft sie Fantasy Elemente mit einem abenteuerlichen Märchen über der Suche nach dem Selbst, indem auch Elfen, Zwergen und Hexen nicht zu kurz kommen.

Als zweites haben wir heute ein kleines Update zu den Märchenwerken von Christian Handel

Cover Palast aus Gold und Tränen

Palast aus Gold und Tränen ist die Fortsetzung von Rosen & Knochen, dass ich 2018 bereits im Märchensommer gelesen und (wie eben verlinkt) rezensiert habe. Das Dämonenjägerinnen Pärchen begibt sich in ein neues Abenteuer, dass sie erst auf einen Ball und dann zu niemand geringerem als der Baba Yaga führt. Russische Märchenwelt verwoben mit Grimmschen Einflüssen.

Es ist leider an mir vorbeigegangen, dass das Buch erschienen ist, aber das hat die Entscheidung ein bisschen zu #BücherHamstern direkt einfacher gemacht. Bin gespannt wie es mit Muireann und Rose weitergeht …

Rowan & Ash geht in eine komplett andere Richtung. Wo das romantische in in den Hexenwald-Chroniken nur ein Nebenschauplatz ist, steht es hier im Vordergrund. Eine arrangierte Ehe, eine unerwartete Liebe eines Prinzen zu einem nicht-Adligen und ein Königreich, dass gerettet werden muss. Ob es ein Happy End gibt ? Müsst ihe selbst herausfinden.

Von beiden Schreiberlingen könnt ihr euch übrigens noch auf ein Interview-(Update) freuen.

Anne/Poisonpainter

Blogparade: #Geheimtipp

I’m aware that this has nothing to do with Fairy Tales, but I want to share my „insider tips“ (Geheimtipps) with you and Aleshanee’s Blogparade is the fitting wrap for it.

Aleshanee asks:

Present up to 5 book insider tips, that excited you and where you think they didn’t get noticed in the masses of hypes and new releases.

First of all: I will tell you why the books are great, you can read what they are about through clicking on the covers which will lead you to their Goodreads pages.
Also: None of the books I want to introduce you to was published this year. The „youngest“ is from 2016, the oldest from 1986 as I just realized. 😀
We’ll then let’s start with that one:

The Hyde Effect

I’m fairly certain this was one of my very first Werwolf novels, both in regards to reading and buying. I was so excited when I first saw it in the catalogue of the EMP and wanted to have it right away, even if it might have been an age 16 novel and I might have not been that age. Luckily it was just as great as I expected it to be. I’m still fascinated by the cover and the story itself is – from what I remember after reading it about ten years ago – pretty amazing. It has action, great and fun characters, thrilling life-and-death situations and is just a not so cuddly Werwolf story. The sequel Shapes did unfortunately not keep up with that and was rather disappointing. 🙁

Wolfsbane and Mistletoe

on the other hand consists mostly of the cuddly wolf kind. 😀 It’s an anthology by and with Sookie Stackhouse authoress Charlaine Harris. It has many different kinds of stories about Werwolves around Christmas time (including a Sookie special). Though the two things I remember most are the rogue Santa’s hunting Werwolves and of course the Wer-Coral. That is just such a weird idea that I keep telling people about it whenever the topic of wer-creature comes around. Which is surprisingly often. 😀
Speaking of weird stories, ever heard of

Fledermausland? (Bat Country)

Named after a certain scene from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas this German novel is one of the strangest and most hilarious I’ve ever come across. Dierssen uses ordinary every day things and turns them into something strange and unexpected. Back in the day when The Forum was still fresh and new we read this alongside the author, but unfortunately those topics don’t exist any more, so I can’t check what I wrote. What I do know is that everyone who liked the novel got a free PDF of an additional story about one of the characters. He has created several of them, but that’s the only one I’ve read (so far?).
Speaking of series:

PWNED

As part of The Gamers universe this is a different perspective into the way those stories work. Where the webseries switches between Pen&Paper players and characters, this does the same with video game characters and their players. I already talked about this while reading it, so have a small excerpt here:

It’s a bit strange to read the switch between gamer and character, but it’s well done and you still know when the perspective is no longer the one looking at it from the outside. As in all of his (their) work you really know that it’s done by a gamer who loves what he’s doing. It reflects in the chosen words, the descriptions, the little things added to the story (like tips for new gamers at the start of every chapter). It’s just great to have something like this, combined with great characters.

How can I now lead over to the last one? It’s both a series and it has great characters; it’s more or less old (2003/2005) and just sounded interesting. Ah to hell with it:

Sam Linnifer: Waywalkers (Lucifer) & Timekeepers (Satan)

When I first saw this book in my local library I was intrigued. Lucifer being the good guy, saving the day? It is as strange as it sounds, but at the same time absolutely fascinating and great. Webb weaves the world of Myths & Legends and Ancient Gods & Goddesses like they are just normal characters, yet you still know that it’s not a trivial challenge they face. I really need to re-read these two. I’ve been putting it off for quite some time now and I think it might be especially interesting now that I’ve read Good Omens, but maybe I should wait until after I read American Gods
Anyway, these are the five I was allowed to introduce you to (Number five is no cheating, you have to read both to fully understand the story 😉 ).

Still as a Bonus I want to give you this one because it’s not the genre I usually read, but it still impressed me:

Why Angels never play Harmonica

I’m really not the kind of person who reads books like this, which already seem like love stories, but when I read the blurb after Tintenfleck mentioned it after Karin’s story during the #Projekt24 I was simply curious about it. The whole thing just sounded hilarious and fun and that’s what it was in the end. Sure it had a few passages where it was obvious what would happen in the end, but the way there was incredibly hilarious. It’s just a great and fluffy story that I really wanted to recommend you, after all those not so fluffy ones above. 😀
Anything you can recommend? Do any of mine sound interesting to you?

PoiSonPaiNter

Webcomics – An Introduction

The first thing people think of when they talk about Comics are thin books full of colourful pictures that tell the story of different Superheros.
 What they usually forget is that it all originated from mere monochrome, one panel Comics – alternatively called Cartoons or Comic Strips – in newspapers.

With the rise of the Internet these kinds of Comics have become a rarity in print, but more and more available online. The format changed greatly, as Comics were no longer bound to size and the two achromatic colours. They now have up to three or more colourful panels to tell the joke (though there are still newer Comics following the old pattern). Depending on the series the panels and Strips are now also used for continuing story lines instead of trying to simply reach a punch line each Strip.

I never bought a classic Comic Book (the thin ones); though I do own a few issues from Free Comic Book Day, a couple of Graphic Novels and Comic Anthologies/Trade Paperbacks, as well as quite a bunch of Manga.

Still, my interest in Cartoons and Anime – Comics’ moving cousins so to speak – are what first drew me to its immobile counterparts.

An unfunny tale

I can’t really remember how it happened, but I think that on one of my trips to the Book Store to buy a new Manga, I discovered a book-like collection of Comic Strips that I just had to look at.

But who wouldn’t do that with a bright red book that had a clown on the cover, who had just cut off his own leg with an axe, while its titled claimed the content of the “book” to be “Notfunny“?

I certainly couldn’t resist picking it up and I still do not regret that I did.

Notfunny  or Nichtlustig as it is originally called, are one panel Comics by German Cartoonist Joscha Sauer, telling the stories of his various characters. These include a Professor, his assistant and their strange experiments (check out one of my favourites: Cat & Jam); Yetis; suicidal Lemmings, a killer-robot aspiring to become a kindergarten teacher, Mr. Riebmann, who lives in the wall beside his constantly annoyed neighbour and of course Death and his Poodle, who are the not so secret stars of the Comics. Each Comic portrays a different situation and manages to tell you with just a few words and gestures what exactly is going on and this without having to give you an actual punch line most of the times. If you like strange Humour this series does not live up to its name and is on the contrary quite hilarious.

This series was my entrance into the world of Comics and I haven’t started looking for the exit yet. Quite the opposite. Since I started using the Internet more frequently, I discovered many more Comics to enjoy (Including new Notfunny-Comics posted on Sauer’s Website).

Webcomics for everyone!

(c) Bastian MelnykThe more popular the Internet became, the more common was it for artists to start their own Comic series online, thus creating Webcomics. By now the list of the ones I read on a regular basis is relatively long, though it could be longer if I continued reading some of the stories I’ve already bookmarked.

But this is the good thing about Webcomics: You can start from the get-go, see the first steps the artist took (and some of them were quite horrible to be honest), take a break from reading and continue where you left off without fear of the old Comics falling out of print and the whole series being rebooted with different content – though a few artists do re-draws after the story is finished.

One of the first Webcomics I ever came across was about a philosophical, and frankly adorable, bat, with a rather long alliteration in his name, which reads: Fledermaus Fürst Frederick Fon Flatter (Prince/Fürst of Bats Frederick of Flutter) or short: Fred  (English versions can be found on Tumblr.)

On a daily basis [Note: By now the rhythm has changed to Monday-Wednesday-Friday] German Comic artist Bastian Melnyk presents up to four panel stories starring the round bat and his friends. Each Comic is dedicated to a random every day topic and always includes a quip or pun. If you understand what is being said, the silliness of the Comic just leaves you with a smile, as the message of the Comic is always positive. Besides his “filosophizing” (philosophizing) about all kinds of things Fred loves eating cookies. On occasion he dresses up as “Batfred” to rescue his friends from different situations and even more seldom he does indeed break the Fourth Wall and talks about “The Creator”.

I guess I could keep going all day, but I stop with this minuscule look into the vast amount of Webcomics that I myself have yet to explore completely.

If you have any recommendations feel free to let me know, as I enjoy checking out new stories.

PoiSonPaiNter

© For the portrayed picture belongs to Bastian Melnyk and was simply used as example.

Originally posted on THE EXTREMIS REVIEWS: A Couple Webcomics You Should Try Out