Who doesn't enjoy shiny, shiny giveaways? CODEX BORN releases today!: seanan

Who doesn't enjoy shiny, shiny giveaways? CODEX BORN releases today!

My dearly beloved friend Jim Hines (http://www.jimchines.com/) has a new book out today: Codex Born, the sequel to Libriomancer. The magic of books has never been so real, or so incredibly dangerous.

I really, really loved this book, which I felt expanded and improved upon the world of the original, so when Jim asked if I would be willing to host a giveaway, I was happy to oblige. This is that giveaway. The rules:

1. Leave a comment on this post, naming the first book that really changed your life.
2. Identify your location in the world (US, non-US).
3. If non-US, confirm that you are willing to pay postage (for we are poor writers).

The winner will be chosen by RNG on Friday, August 9th, and Jim himself will be sending a signed copy of Codex Born to the winner. If you're not familiar with the series, you're in luck: book one, Libriomancer, is out today in paperback, so you can get all caught up.

Books! Magic! Awesomeness!

GAME ON!

ETA: Guys, I know it's tempting to discuss people's awesome taste in books with them, but please DO NOT REPLY to comments on RNG giveaway posts! It confuses the RNG, and has resulted in people NOT getting the prizes that they should have received!

carlammm

August 7 2013, 23:16:18 UTC 3 years ago

New comment

The Black Stallion by Walter Farley. This book started me on a life of reading.

I'm in the US

paul_baughman

August 7 2013, 23:49:37 UTC 3 years ago

Catseye by Andre Norton

Before that I was an eclectic reader: SF, Fantasy, Mysteries, Animal Stories, Adventure Stories. That book combined them all. I've never been the same since. It focused me mainly (but not exclusively) on SFF. I feel privileged and honored to have corresponded with the Lady and actually met her (sadly, only once before she passed her Gate). The first story I ever wrote was a tribute ( or blatant rip-off ) of her Star Rangers; luckily long-since lost to the mists of time and the place where lost spiral-bound notebooks go.

I live in the US.

huggebear

August 7 2013, 23:52:58 UTC 3 years ago

"A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeline L'Engle. I read it as a 12-year-old girl and thought, "I *am* Meg Murray."

realmjit

August 8 2013, 01:19:23 UTC 3 years ago

Ozma of OZ, because it taught me that I could go back and visit the magic land again.

(I live close enough to Jim that he could meet me at the corner for a hand-off. I'd even agree to the nice one without the drug dealers.)

affreca

August 8 2013, 01:51:25 UTC 3 years ago

Dragonsinger, Anne McCaffrey
(US)

ext_2103241

August 8 2013, 01:54:35 UTC 3 years ago

Probably Jean Rabe's Downfall. One of the first books I can remember reading anyway (I think. It's tough getting old! And tomorrow will add another birthday to make remembering even more of a challenge!)

dormantdrake

August 8 2013, 02:05:58 UTC 3 years ago

Magic's Pawn, by Mercedes Lackey.

I am in the US!

Michael Micklea

August 8 2013, 02:53:50 UTC 3 years ago

Call of the Wild (It's why I own a St. Bernard!)

I'm in the U.S.

gemdol

August 8 2013, 04:05:43 UTC 3 years ago

And thus I learn that the sequel is out. I've been waiting. I loved Libriomancer! I want to do that!

But for the first book I can remember that shaped and/or changed my life, Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey.

trektone

August 8 2013, 04:38:33 UTC 3 years ago

THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH by Norton Juster.

US

triskelmoon

August 8 2013, 05:25:43 UTC 3 years ago

In 5th grade I found Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey: it was about a young girl who left an abusive family to build her own chosen family of ~~cat-sized dragons~~ firelizards. LIFE CHANGED.

I am in the US but would be willing to pay shipping. :)

jarissa

August 8 2013, 07:59:11 UTC 3 years ago

I ran into two books at the same time on my first visit to a new library, and I can no longer remember in which order I read them:
The Girl With the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts made me realize that wearing thick glasses did not make me lesser; that a complete stranger could understand what it's like to be an outsider so utterly; that there were other people who had to move to a new place, and had trouble making friends with their peers, and got judged unfairly for it. That my mother's expectation for me to merely smile and people would leap to be my friend was well-intentioned but still wrong.

So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane may, looking back on it, have saved my life. It gave me an ethical basis that wasn't rooted in handed-down arbritrary rules, but included handed-down rules with logical foundations behind them. It gave me the ability to look at my hostile classmates and realize their problem was that they were afraid of being me -- that they were afraid, period! And I could let their hostility blow past me, taking some reasonable precautions for myself but let them waste their energy without ever touching me, and I could choose not to hate them back. I could choose not to waste my own energy on them at all.
I think without the Young Wizards series, I would have let the scapegoaters define me in my teen years. I did have moments when I believed the future would never be any better, but they were only moments; I dove into another book, and another, until I believed I could out-endure my parents and my peers.

I live in Alabama nowadays, in the US, and I would be happy to pay postage anyway.

teal_cuttlefish

August 8 2013, 08:10:43 UTC 3 years ago

When H.A.R.L.I.E. Was One, by David Gerrold planted me in my career until disability (and too high a degree) ended it. I worked on computers for years.

I'm in Colorado.

lunarflight

August 8 2013, 14:41:08 UTC 3 years ago

This is like asking me to tell you my first memory.

But, let's go with The Farthest Away Mountain by Lynn Reid Banks. Because it was the first novel that got me trying to write, back before I knew how to spell horizon.

I am in the US.

Jennifer Shafer

August 8 2013, 14:50:45 UTC 3 years ago

Emily of New Moon, by L. M. Montgomery.

I'm in the US.

dancingotter72

August 8 2013, 15:29:40 UTC 3 years ago

D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths (I was a late bloomer in reading and this is the first book I remember loving. It was also a favorite of my brother's and since his death 2 years ago, I have been thinking a lot about it)

Clinton, NY

Allison Heinbaugh

August 8 2013, 15:53:38 UTC 3 years ago

Matilda by Roald Dahl
US

(love reading everyone else's life-changing books!)

thistle333

August 8 2013, 15:56:42 UTC 3 years ago

"North to Freedom" -- because it made me want to travel the world, which I have done!

I am in the US.

_the_firedancer

August 8 2013, 16:34:01 UTC 3 years ago

Gaudy Night, as an impressionable early teen - a love letter to Oxford, learning and equality.
UK and can pay postage.

0nce_and_future

August 8 2013, 17:15:39 UTC 3 years ago

Once and Future King by TH White

The tents were being let down, the banners waved. The cheers which now began, round after round, were like drumfire or thunder, rolling round the turrets of Carlisle. All the field, and all the people in the field, and all the towers of the castle, seemed to be jumping up and down like the surface of a lake under rain.

In the middle, quite forgotten, her lover was kneeling by himself. This lonely and motionless figure knew a secret which was hidden from the others. The miracle was that he had been allowed to do a miracle. "And ever," says Malory, "Sir Lancelot wept, as he had been a child that had been beaten."

US

ext_2104606

August 8 2013, 20:15:13 UTC 3 years ago

The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen by Howard Carter was my life-changer. It got me interested in archeology, Egyptology, hieroglyphics, history. All of that led to my interest in biology and paleontology. A whole lifetime of interests from one book. :)

I'm in the US.

swatkinsjr

August 8 2013, 21:46:27 UTC 3 years ago

Lloyd Alexander's Book of Three. Or The Black Cauldron, depending on how you look at it.

I'm based in the US.

Michael Ross

August 8 2013, 22:44:19 UTC 3 years ago

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, which was read to me by my mother when I was a child.

Canadian, postage: yes.

netpositive

August 9 2013, 01:52:17 UTC 3 years ago

First had to be _Fellowship of the Ring_. As a fast, ecletic, damn near compulsive reader, I know I'd read other SF and/or fantasy books as a kid, but I remember the specific place where I was when I picked up that used copy of Fellowship (the pink cover, no less) and the absolute affinity I felt for the new world that suddenly replaced that place. (I'm in the US.)

editormum

August 9 2013, 02:12:54 UTC 3 years ago

Well, Raymond Feist's Magician was the book that got me hooked on fantasy, which led me to the ~~dark side~~ path I am now following. But Simon Brown's Inheritance was the book which brought me to the email list which brought me to Andromeda Spaceways, which led to so many of the awesome people in my life AND my own publishing house. But I wouldn't have been searching for awesome new fantasy authors if I hadn't been addicted by Feist… so one of them!

Non-US, happy to pay postage!

Post a new comment
193 comments

Log in

Who doesn't enjoy shiny, shiny giveaways? CODEX BORN releases today!

Error