GoodReads Monday

This weekly meme was started by @Lauren’s Page Turners. It is now being hosted by Budget Tales Book Blog. To participate, choose a random book from your GoodReads TBR and show it off. Which sounds easy enough until you have to decide how to choose that book! I think I will use a different way each week, like picking a color or number of pages. I will let you know each week how I chose the book and then something interesting about it, like how it ended up on the list or why I want to read it. Got it? Okay let’s get started.

Wow, my first Goodreads Monday post of the year! How exciting! I had to think a bit about how I was going to choose a book this week to talk about, but then it just popped into my head to just choose the oldest book on the list. Now I don’t mean the one that has been on my list the longest, I mean the one that has the oldest publication date. Which I was surprised to find was from 1993, and boy does the cover reflect that. It was reprinted in the early 2000’s with a much better cover, but I decided to share the original just for fun.

The Element of Fire by Martha Wells

Publication Date: July 1993

Summary from Goodreads:

The kingdom of Ile-Rien is in peril, menaced by magical threats and court intrigue. As the weak King Roland, misled by treacherous companions, rules the country, only his ruthless mother, the Dowager Queen Ravenna, truly guards the safety of the realm. But now Urbain Grandier, the dark master of scientific sorcery, has arrived to plot against the throne and Kade, bastard sister of the king, has appeared unexpectedly at court. The illegitimate daughter of the old king and the Queen of Air and Darkness herself, Kade’s true goals are cloaked in mystery. Is she in league with the wizard Grandier? Or is she laying claim to the throne? It falls to Thomas Boniface, Captain of the Queen’s Guard and Ravenna’s former lover, to sort out who is friend, who is foe in a deadly game to keep the Dowager Queen and the kingdom she loves from harm.

You just have to love that cover! This is Martha Wells debut book and I am really looking forward to reading it. They do have it available at my local library, but only as an ebook or audiobook. Not sure which one I will go with. It might end up being pretty dated, but hopefully it will be good.