Book Buying Ban Week #3

Third week of my buying ban - and still going strong (assuming that purchases for other people for Christmas doesn't count!). However, once again a few books arrived...I think the books in my flat  have reached critical mass where other books are gravitationally attracted them. One day they will implode under their own mass and suck all words and pages within five miles down into themselves...

Anyway, a little rambling aside, the books I've acquired this week look fantastic! Have a look!

Cold Days (Dresden Files #14) - Jim Butcher

Publisher: Orbit

  After being murdered by a mystery assailant, navigating his way through the realm between life and death, and being brought back to the mortal world, Harry realizes that maybe death wasn’t all that bad. Because he is no longer Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard. He is now Harry Dresden, Winter Knight to Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness. After Harry had no choice but to swear his fealty, Mab wasn’t about to let something as petty as death steal away the prize she had sought for so long. And now, her word is his command, no matter what she wants him to do, no matter where she wants him to go, and no matter who she wants him to kill. 

Guess which Mab wants first?

Of course, it won’t be an ordinary, everyday assassination. Mab wants her newest minion to pull off the impossible: kill an immortal. No problem there, right? And to make matters worse, there exists a growing threat to an unfathomable source of magic that could land Harry in the sort of trouble that will make death look like a holiday. Beset by enemies new and old, Harry must gather his friends and allies, prevent the annihilation of countless innocents, and find a way out of his eternal subservience before his newfound powers claim the only thing he has left to call his own…His soul

I got in a swap from the wonderful Lynsey at Narratively Speaking as received it unasked for. I adore the Dresden files and was very excited to get a brand new hardback copy of Cold Days!

Stormdancer - Jay Kristoff

Publisher: Tor UK

Griffins are supposed to be extinct. So when Yukiko and her warrior father Masaru are sent to capture one for the Shogun, they fear that their lives are over. Everyone knows what happens to those who fail him, no matter how hopeless the task. But the mission proves far less impossible, and far more deadly, than anyone expects – and soon Yukiko finds herself stranded: a young woman alone in her country's last wilderness, with only a furious, crippled griffin for company. But trapped together in the forest, Yukiko and Buruu soon discover a friendship that neither of them expected. Meanwhile, the country around them verges on the brink of collapse. A toxic fuel is slowly choking the land; the omnipotent, machine-powered Lotus Guild is publicly burning those they deem Impure; and the Shogun cares about nothing but his own dominion. Yukiko has always been uneasy in the shadow of power, when she learns the awful truth of what the Shogun has done, both to her country and to her own family she's determined to do something about it. 
Returning to the city, Yukiko and Buruu plan to make the Shogun pay for his crimes – but what can one girl and a flightless griffin do against the might of an empire?

I won this a while but forgot all about it - however, it arrived unexpected on Friday and I can't remember where I won it - but thank you whoever it was!

Autumn Series - David Moody

Publisher: Gollancz

      

In less than twenty-four hours a vicious and virulent disease destroys virtually all of the population. Billions are killed. Thousands die every second. There are no symptoms and no warnings. Within moments of infection each victim suffers a violent and agonizing death. Only a handful of survivors remain. By the end of the first day those survivors wish they were dead. Then the disease strikes again, and all hell breaks loose... 

This was a win from Book Chick City as part of their Halloween celebration - I am a big fan of zombie stories so I'm looking forward to this series!

Maybe next week will be a true ban on any books coming in...maybe...

What have you picked up this week?