"SHOT DOWN" - answering review request

Steve Snyder asked me to read his historical book, "SHOT DOWN". It is about the author's father, Howard Snyder, and how he survived being shot down over Germany-occupied France during WWII.
The blurb states that this is about Howard Snyder's experience but it reads more like a biography of him with a focus on the WWII mission and its aftermath. It also includes a lot of information about other subjects, such as Howard's military training and other missions he went on before the one where he was shot down. There's also a section about members of the French Resistance and other individuals who sheltered downed pilots.

It's all interesting stuff. I had no idea the pilots had to wear so much gear during their missions. There's armor to protect against shrapnel, winter clothing for the altitude and air masks for oxygen. I thought all they had to worry about was enemy fire. It makes what they did a lot more impressive for its bravery. The process of take-off and landing and the formations they had to assume, and how dangerous these were, was also interesting. I can only imagine what it must have been like to see an allied airplane slip out of formation or, of course, to be on that plane.

Besides that, I enjoyed reading about the Comet Line. These guys are the heroes of this particular story. When they see a plane go down in their area, it is a race against the Nazi to get to the plane first, find survivors and hide them. Then of course to continue hiding them while feeding and then getting them out. In addition to courage, resourcefulness and organization, they also had to be clever because the Nazi would have their own pilots crash in a sting-like operation.

Primary sources are fantastic. Included in the book are many illustrations of planes, locations, wreckage and the people involved. The author even included letters and journal entries that his father wrote during his time as a soldier.

This book is factual information with a keenly human experience.


Trickster Eric Novels gives "SHOT DOWN" an A+


This was a free book review. The author requested an honest review so I provided one. 

Click here for my next book review (for fun): Chronicles of the Crusade

Click here for my previous book review (a request): Enaro

Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback

Death in D&D - It Completes a Character

Hello!

This post is about using death as a tool for character development. Not the actual death of a character that affects others but imagining how a character would respond to a hypothetical death.

I've spent the last several months playing a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. My character is a high elf fighter named "Hadari" who was literally raised by wolves (rolled for it on the Outlander background). It's taken this long to reach level 5 and I've planned out how I want his character development and mechanical advancement to progress. I hadn't thought about his potential death.

Unlike in video games, there is no guarantee of "game over - restart" in D&D. If your entire party is wiped out, that's it.  A Dungeon Master could allow it for a penalty as a house-rule, of course, or arrange a situation for the party's revival, but the typical response is to roll-up a new character. There are no second chances. This was a new experience for me.

Recently, my party botched a mission and had to leave town in a hurry. The DM decided to call the session as we fled. We didn't know if anyone was pursuing us. If so, we didn't know how many or if they were on horseback. We had to leave most of our own horses behind in our hurry, so if the city guards were on horseback then they would overtake us. I spent much of the next day worried about our uncertain doom.

Then I remembered a line from a fellow author. Thaddeus White said in a blog interview, "Nothing completes a character like their demise " (You can read the whole thing here).  (He's a fantastic novelist, by the way). That got me thinking how I would roleplay Hadari's death in such a situation.

Due to trauma in his backstory, he definitely wouldn't allow himself to be captured alive. He also misses his former wolf pack (the party being his replacement for them) and fears them to be dead. So I figured he would die fighting in a frenzy of panic and fear. His end would be that of a tragic hero.

This helped me to understand Hadari on a deeper level, which helped my role-playing for the next session. It also brought me peace of mind if the party got into such trouble.

A week later, we discovered that the city guards were more worried about putting out the fire our rogue started than chasing us so we got away clean.


Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback 

The Highest Power beta reading status: complete

My third beta reader replied this past week and the fourth is busy so the beta read phase for the fifth book in the Journey to Chaos Series is complete. The fourth draft of The Highest Power has begun.

All of the beta readers agreed that the start needed to be re-established. It was originally a continuous scene from the end of the previous book, Transcending Limitations. It clumsily added recap exposition that was insufficient to the point of confusing. Then it quickly moved into action with several more characters. It made sense to me but no one else. This is why an author needs beta readers.

I have kept busy while waiting for the beta readers to finish. I worked on two other writing projects.

1.  The first book of the new series
This is to be the first in my next main series, with others being spin-offs from Journey to Chaos. I don't have a name for the book itself but the series title will be "Tariatla".  I've talked with others and gotten some good advice (Thanks again, Jean Gill!). Perhaps I'll list the ones I like best in an upcoming blog post and make a poll out of them.  
I finished two drafts. So after I publish The Highest Power I'll do a third and then go looking for beta readers again.

2. Before Eric Arrived (Tentative title)
This is a collection of five short stories. They focus on a major character from the Journey to Chaos series and what life was like for them in the time before the main narrative started. The characters with starring roles are Annala, Tiza, Nolien, Kallen and Basilard.
If it becomes popular enough then I may write more short story prequels. I might even take requests for your favorite character.

Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback 

Enaro - Answering Review Request

Neda Aria asked me to read their novel "Enaro". I'm going to call it a science-fiction piece because that is how it starts out. It turns into horror eventually; starting with "Scale Of Scientific Sins" horror and moving into "Eldritch Abomination" horror.

PLOT

This is a weird one. It's blurb....well, it doesn't really have one. The only thing on Amazon is a quote from the book. It is a sound byte, I think. So even after reading it I'm not sure what the plot, conflict, story etc. are.
NOTE
Between receiving the review request and posting this review, the author has updated the amazon blurb. It no longer has the book quote but a premise describing conflict and characters. It is more useful to get a sense of things than the quote was but, in my opinion, more misleading.
END NOTE

Anyway, one would think that the blurb lead to a political science fiction story, perhaps dystopia or Crapsaccharine World. Except, the first section has monsters pounding away at a wall and a girl is using the power of dreams to repair the wall at the behest of a deity; I think that's what's going on.

Then the next scene is a guy despairing at the flaws in his society and then going out for a Enaro celebration. The second chapter (I think) goes back before Enaro existed, where Geras is lecturing to special students. It starts with time and gravity, and it all sounds scientific and what valid and what not. Then it goes into reality-is-a-simulation theories and the thoroughly debunked "humans only use 10% of their brain" idea. By the end of the lecture, Geras is talking about the coming of aliens. He sounds like a kook, but he's actually one of those aliens. I'm not sure if this is a Human Alien thing or he's using A Form You Are Comfortable With.

The story is not linear, which normally would not be an issue, except I'm not sure if this is just a matter of the order of events in literary fashion as it typically the case. The protagonist here (I think it is Geras) may or may not be experiencing/directing these events in the order described (i.e. linear from his perspective but In-Media-Res for the reader) or if he's aware of all of them simultaneously. I think this may be the case because there is a lot of talk about 4-dimensional thinking be limiting.

There is talk of "past lives" but I'm not sure what these mean. They could be body-surfing, reincarnation, a really long term simulation or a figure of speech along the lines of "I started a new life in place X after Y happened".

I don't know if "Khog" is a real entity, a metaphor, the proper name of a concept, or (maybe literally) personified phenomenon.

At the end, I get the sense that this whole story was a god-like creature's erotic dream.

Yes, if you don't like erotica, then this book is likely not for you.  I felt uncomfortable reading it because that sort of thing is not something that I like to read.

Geras is definitely a womanizer. One of the special students, I mentioned he admitted solely for an opportunity to seduce her, and on another occasion, he gave a woman vodka until she passed out. There is one character who is horrified at how he copied Geras' behavior; so horrified he thinks he deserves to go to literal hell (that, I'm pretty sure, is not a metaphor).

Yes, this starts as a science fiction pieces, and Geras scorns the idea of religion, but there are definitely god-like creatures here and a hell for sinners. Maybe. It seems clear at the time but it might have been an illusion, or a dream of an illusion of a show that is an abstraction of a conflict between two "higher intelligences". Of the two of them, only one might exist.

This story goes heavy into Mind-Screw territory. I read the ending but I can't really say what happened or what it resolved, if anything.

CHARACTERS

Geras - an alien atheist scientist and womanizer. Despite setting up Nero to be a place of equality and stuff, he's pretty selective on who goes there. The determining factors appear to be a certain mindset/capacity to learn his metaphysics and the right genetics to absorb his immortality drug.

Kes - a human (half alien?) who is driven by resentment of Geras and his own self-hatred.

Ze - an alien with a god-complex. Seriously, he re-enacts Judgment Day.

POLISH

It has funky grammar; I don't want to say that it is wrong but it is strange to read. I also saw a couple spell errors.

This book both intrigued and repulsed me. I want to understand it more but I also don't want to. Most of all, it just confused me.


Trickster Eric Novels gives "Enaro" a ?

This was a free book review. The author requested an honest review so I provided one. 

Click here for my next book review (a request): SHOT DOWN

Click here for my previous book review (for fun): The Last Days of Socrates

Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback