Early Autumn - Apple and Cinnamon

New VapeSafe Early Autumn eLiquid.

Early Autumn - Apples and Cinnamon flavored eLiquid evokes memories of the beginning of fall. The feel of the warm autumn sun on the skin. The sight of vibrant hues of amber and crimson leaves hanging in gently swaying trees soaking up the light. The rustling sound of the breeze slipping through the tree branches tugging and teasing the remaining leaves into releasing their hold and floating downward. The laughing children raking the leaves into piles and then running and jumping into the soft, luscious piles scattering the leaves again. The delicious smells of baking apple and cinnamon pies wafting through open windows. These are the sights, smells and tastes of Early Autumn.

Early Autumn eLiquid by VapeSafe captures the essence of Autumn no matter what season it is. Early Autumn eLiquid is flavorful combination of apples and cinnamon. As with all of the VapeSafe eLiquids, our mixtures are designed to produce nice, heavy vapors and the most succulent flavors. Try Early Autumn eLiquid today!

Technology Information:

Discord's Apple

Description

Reviews

Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2010-08-14
Summary: "The truth of myth"

Greek gods, faeries, Arthurian legends, the Trojan war, and the possible end of the world... all centering on a store-room in a small Colorado town. Carrie Vaughn shatters the urban fantasy mold in a BIG way. "Discord's Apple" is quite possibly her best book yet -- a brilliant, clever fantasy story that flips effortlessly through the centuries and across the world.

After finding out that her father is dying of cancer, Evie Walker returns to Hope Springs to care for him. Despite her best efforts, he doesn't seem to want to live. But she soon notices that weird things are happening -- a strange woman arrives and asks for a pair of glass slippers, and an old man requests a sword for "the lad." And then there's Alex, a strange immortal man who wants to die.

Just so you know, it's revealed pretty quickly that Alex was a friend of the legendary Odysseus who was enslaved and made immortal by the god Apollo. It's a pretty interesting backstory.

Evie soon realizes that the storeroom under her house is filled with mythical and magical items -- the golden fleece, the sword Excalibur, and quite a few other things. And unfortunately, the goddess Hera and her allies are determined to break into the Storeroom and take its power -- and if she succeeds, the world as we know it will end...

Carrie Vaughn has been around for some years with her werewolf-centric urban fantasies, and more recently with a book about dragons. But as far as I'm concerned, "Discord's Apple" is where she goes from being AN urban fantasy author to one of THE urban fantasy authors -- it takes her writing skills onto a whole new level.

Part of this is Vaughn's strong writing -- has a strong, smooth style with lots of vivid descriptions and some brilliant magical battles. She's as comfortable writing about modern-day Colorado as she is about Stonehenge or the fall of Troy, and she fleshes out Alex/Sinon's character along the way by giving glimpses of the cruel, luxurious life he led after Apollo enslaved him.

Another high point is that Vaughn just combines different myths SO WELL. The fairy godmother was a bit much, but her seamless intertwining of Greek myth, Arthurian legend and modern fantasy is simply breathtaking. And she weaves in some glimpses of past Walkers who guarded the Storeroom, giving a true feeling of historical depth to the story.

And Evie is a thoroughly likable heroine -- a no-nonsense graphic novelist whose entire worldview gets popped on its head when she discovers that myths and legends are (mostly) real. Alex comes across as a little nuts at times, but he has the right mixture of warmth, mystery and strength to make an excellent love interest. And there are countless striking side-characters -- Merlin, Odysseus, the cruel and beautiful Apollo, and Robin.

Carrie Vaughn has turned out some excellent fantasy in the past, but "Discord's Apple" is undoubtedly the best, richest book she's written yet. And I'm dying to see what her future books will be like.

---

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-08-12
Summary: "Gelati's Scoop"

I really don't think Vaughn left much out of this novel. I felt a bit overwhelmed as I have not read her work and didn't know what to expect, and by overwhelmed I mean it in a good way. The story goes all the way back to the time that gods were formed and ruled the Earth to present day. How does she carry that off you may ask, she does very well, thankfully.
Here is what the inside jacket of the book has to say: "When Evie Walker goes home to spend time with her dying father, she discovers that his creaky old house in Hope Fort, Colorado, is not just the legacy she will inherit. Hidden behind the basement door is a secret and magical storeroom, a place where wondrous treasures from myth and legends are kept safe until they are needed again. Of course, this legacy is not without its cost: there are those who will give anything to find a way in."
I really enjoyed the read. It had surprises galore and was fun to try to follow and figure out where she was going next with it. The plotline was fun, the subplots were many and not distractions. Carrie Vaughn brought it all together in the end in a very cohesive way. I totally enjoyed the paranormal; sci-fi theme running throughout the novel. Not to give anything away, but these were the elements she had in here novel: Homeland Security, King Arthur, Merlin, Zeus and his group of Greek gods, Russia, China, comic books, werewolves, Jesus Christ and a dirt basement. Sounds like your normal fun and frolic. I for one totally enjoy it.
Discord's Apple has an amazing range of emotion in it. There is plenty of action and adventure, humor, fantasy, mystery, and magic for anyone's tastes. I think I forgot to put romance in there also, more than what I had anticipated, but I don't add that in a bad way. What else can you expect during an impending worldwide nuclear war? I think I may have covered all the bases, at least Carrie Vaughn did. I don't hesitate to say to put this in your Goodreads or Shelfari -to read- lists, why not both?
What are you reading today? Check us out and become our friend on Facebook, Shelfari, and Crimespace. Go to Goodreads and become our friend there and suggest books for us to read and post on. You can also follow us on Twitter, Book Blogs, and the Gelati's Scoop Facebook Fan Page; also look for our posts on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles , Borders and the Bucks County Library System. Did you know you can shop directly on Amazon by clicking the Gelati's Store Tab on our blog? Thanks for stopping by today; we will see you tomorrow. Have a great day.
[...]

---

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-08-09
Summary: "A novel that will appeal to fans of mythology, classic fantasy and suspense, as well as to Vaughn's numerous existing fans"

Carrie Vaughn is known primarily as the author of the popular series of Kitty Norville werewolf novels. But in DISCORD'S APPLE, she sets Kitty's world aside for a while to create an utterly engaging, creative and suspenseful vision of myth, history and the apocalypse.

Evie Walker is leaving Los Angeles in the nick of time; the city has been on lockdown from terrorist threats for years, but new attacks in Russia and new partnerships between the U.S. and former enemy China have anarchy, paranoia and outright fear all galloping out of control. She's not thrilled about her destination --- her tiny Colorado hometown, where she's headed to care for her dying father --- but at least she'll be safe there. Right?

Well, maybe for a little while, but before too long, mysterious strangers are showing up on her father's doorstep, looking for items that belong to them --- things supposedly stored in the Walker family's basement storeroom, a place where Evie has never been. When her dad is away, she fields a seemingly harmless request from a lady looking for a very particular pair of glass slippers. But she refuses to grant the request of a far more menacing woman, involving a golden apple that might not have belonged to her in the first place. Who are these strangers, and what's up with the random collection of junk that seems to have some real significance?

Maybe another newcomer to town can help Evie solve the mystery. Alex is a bit...odd, but he also strikes her as trustworthy. In fact, Alex is completely dependable, since he was cursed 3,000 years ago with the inability to tell a lie. Three thousand years ago? Yes --- at the close of the Trojan War, when Alex was Sinon, the notorious liar who helped the Greeks finagle the Trojan Horse into the city. Sinon dropped out of the historical record after the first part of Virgil's Aeneid, but (according to Vaughn) is still very much alive --- unwillingly so, in fact. Gradually, Alex/Sinon, with the help of some other familiar characters from myth and legend, helps Evie uncover her family's role as the guardians of certain mythical artifacts, a role that seems ever more crucial as less savory mythic figures come knocking on Evie's door, and as the world falls apart around all of them.

In DISCORD'S APPLE, Carrie Vaughn weaves together several inventive narrative strands: Virgil's account of the end of the Trojan War and Vaughn's own imagined aftermath, the origins of Evie's family's safekeeping duties, Evie's own attempts to synchronize her successful comics-writing career with larger-than-life global events, and her desire to write a novel whose character development (as it turns out) mirrors her own escalating personal crises. Among all these (generally well-structured) threads, Vaughn also intersperses provocative ideas about history, mythology, and the surprising relationship between mortals and gods.

Although it's hard to write an upbeat work of fiction about the end of the world, Vaughn does manage to inject humor and even a sizeable boxful of hope into her story, resulting in a novel that will appeal to fans of mythology, classic fantasy and suspense, as well as to Vaughn's numerous existing fans.

---

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-08-06
Summary: "wow"

This is the first unique story that I have read in years. There is something for every reader here and Carrie Vaughn impeccably blends thousands of stories into one.

---

Rating: 3 / 5
Date: 2010-08-02
Summary: "It didn't go far enough for me, as an adult fantasy novel"

Plot Summary: Evie Walker is a comic book writer living in a Los Angeles we wouldn't recognize. Countries are at war, cities are ruled by militias, and Evie makes her living penning a military adventure comic series, until she gets a call from her father. She drives back home to Hope's Fort, Colorado and learns that he has a terminal disease. Furthermore, strangers keep knocking on her father's door with specific requests for items in his basement. The storeroom has always been off limits to Evie until now, and she learns that her family serves as custodians of magical objects. One man in particular, named Alex, seems to be stalking Evie and her father, but the real threat is a long-disposed queen who wants to sow chaos across the world.

If the heroine was a teenager instead of an adult, I probably would have liked this better. Discord's Apple would have made a perfect young adult novel, and that would help me out with this review, because this book didn't go far enough for this adult reader. Oh well, there's no point in griping about it, right? It's an ambitious story that tries to connect all of the magic, myths and legends since the beginning of time with a present that is on the verge of war. It's a cool concept, but it started to fall apart for me by the end, and worse, it became utterly predictable. That's a sin that's not easy for me to forgive.

I thought the structure of the story was well done, with the action shifting between three parties: Evie in the present, Alex in the past, and Evie's ancestors. It takes a good writer to pull that off, and Carrie Vaughn made it look easy. Unfortunately I don't feel like I got to know Evie, or see her evolve. She was surprisingly passive throughout the story, and I expect more from the lead in a fantasy novel. There was virtually no romance, and the bit that was included felt token and tacked on.

It's an interesting stand-alone, but nothing is going to stand-out in my memory.