Showing posts with label Book tweeting service. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book tweeting service. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
Answering Review Request: Keepers of the Dawn
Herb Smith asked me to read his novel, "Keepers of the Dawn". It is a medieval fantasy that genre shifts into something else. It is also the first book in his Dawn Cycle. I will examine plot, character and polish, and then assign a grade.
PLOT
The plot is not as neat as the amazon blurb would have you believe. While the safe keeping of a MacGuffin is indeed vital to the plot, there is a lot built around this. Bartu and his "book" do not become central to the narrative for many, many chapters. This is a "stout" narrative; a lot of meat on its bones, maybe more than it needs, but it is strong for this reason.
The first part of the book reads like an anthology. It shifts location, perspective and time period from one character to another: a seer, a prince, a royal healer, a high priestess, a blacksmith, a mountain man, etc. Each one adds to a central narrative, but it is a broad one. The Vile/Penitent conflict, such as the last war, has many dimensions and each character adds one to it. This is interesting character development and world building; it does all these things fantastically but it is also plodding and low energy. It is like the reader is watching side events and can only infer the main events from what characters talk about them.
After a while, the plot narrows its focus and picks up pace. By now the reader has a solid understanding of the world that Bartu moves through and the characters he meets. In fact, the reader knows significantly more than Bartu does, which leads to some delightful dramatic irony.
The book's great twist is not original. I have reviewed another book that used a similar device and also played a video game that used a third version of this twist. It is well constructed, well foreshadowed, and makes sense, but it is not original. Much more impressive than any claim of originality, is how committed the story is to this given genre and setting while simultaneously laying the groundwork to overturn everything.
The book's ending is exemplary for how the endings of books in a series should end. There is no cliffhanger; the book's conflict is all resolved and wrapped up. However the conflict of the series is just beginning. The epilogue is used both to address any remaining plot threads from this book and also to point out what the reader can expect from the rest of the series. Thus, the reader is made to be excited about the next book for the next book itself instead of seeking answers for the previous one.
CHARACTERS
Bartu is the protagonist. This eventually becomes clear. He's immature and doesn't know what to do on this journey of his other than "Keep the Keeper's promise" which basically means two things: "protect the Book of Ancient Power" and "tell no one about the Keeper's Promise". He knows little else. I don't fault him or the author for this because his father laments that he is not ready for this adventure or for the full Keeper's duty, and that he has a lot of additional baggage due to being a mental deaf-mute whose mother died in child birth.
He's also hotheaded and given to purple prose which, combined with the immaturity, make him difficult for me to take seriously. Third, he's a pinball protagonist. Shadow gives him grief for this by replying to his question of "with whom should we stand" with another question, "why stand with anyone?" and saying that he is quick to give up his independence.
I gotta talk about Bartu's relationship with his love interest. It is horrendous. Within minutes of finding out that she's a girl, they're having sex. Afterwards, they use pet names like "my shadow" and "keeper-of-my-heart". On Tvtropes, we call this "Strangled By the Red String" because the author tries too hard to force the couple. With the way they speak, it's like they're in Romeo and Juliet.
Braxon by contrast, is more mature, more independent and yet still capable of working with and relying on others. He is also older and he was mentored by a wise and noble healer. Thus, it stands to reason that he is better off developmentally than Bartu.
Rue-A-Kai is the Big Bad and yet not. He's a classic "Evil demon overlord" kind of villain that leads a horde of Vile/Kalifai against the Penitent world. He is monstrous, cunning, powerful, and charismatic. Yet although he moves the plot with his active villainy, he does not have much screentime. Indeed, his army is always the greater threat.
Rue-A-Kai's army is a Villain Sue. In the main narrative, after the anthology style narrative at the start, every battle they engage in is a curb stomp. The words used are "routed and crushed". The Holy Alliance has five armies to his one, outnumbers him 2-1 using only a tenth of the Penitent world's population, is staffed by soldiers who are not misshapen, and possesses a greater infrastructure for both defending and supply. Yet the Viles win every time. They are not hindered by things like time, distance, logistics, a missing commander-in-chief, or heavy casualties. What makes this particularly galling are two things.
The first of which is that the Holy Alliance is indeed hampered by things like logistics and distance. Several battles involve something along the lines of "if we can just hold out long enough for reinforcements to arrive" or "army x is too far away to help". There are also a number of scenes that talk about its difficulty finding new recruits, paying for the army's upkeep, and civilians grumbling about the war's ripple effect on their daily life. The second thing is that, even with these problems and Rue-A-Kai's advantages like superior magical might and uniting charisma, they kept the Viles in check twice already. Yes, both times were close calls but the third time they put up as much resistance as a wet tissue. It creates Darkness Induced Apathy to hear characters say, in essence, "all we can do is wait for a savior".
Pen-Um-Brah is a fascinating character. His loyalties and backstory and identity; how fluid and confusing it is makes him compelling. He is also the narrative face of how the Vile and the Penitent are Not So Different, which in turns makes the narrative itself more compelling.
Shadow is a meaningful name because she exists as a satellite character. First she is Zandow's adoptive daughter and then Bartu's love interest. There's little to her character beyond that because she pretends to be an auditory deaf-mute for much of the story. There's this one scene where she talks about self-reliance, how much she hates The People, and why she wears an eyepatch but even this is brought up only in contrast to Bartu. I'm not going to bother hiding her gender, because when an author deliberately avoids using gendered pronouns for a character who is constantly cloaked then it is clear that Samus Is A Girl.
POLISH
I didn't see any typos or some such.
The shift from anthology to protagonist is seamless. The chapters just start following Bartu more often.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "Keepers of the Dawn" a B
This has been a free review request. I received nothing in exchange for it except a free copy of the book.
Click here for the next review request: Strange Magic
Click here for the previous book review (which was not as request): Identity Wars
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Answering Review Request: The Warble
Victoria Simcox asked me to read her book, The Warble. It is the first in her Bernovem Chronicles series. I will examine plot, character and polish and then assign a grade.
PLOT
This is a Trapped In Another World Macguffin mission, for preteens. Kristina is transported from her world to Bergoen by a magic trinket and now she has to take it somewhere in order to go back home.
The beginning is Ease Into Adventure with a typical day for our protagonist. The school period itself is skipped over, which is nice, because it would have been filler. The only parts that are focused on are the relevant parts; the two bullies that will follow Kristina and the mysterious teacher who gives Kristina the Warble. I assume that Miss. Simcox' goal was to create a Woobie out of her protagonist, and in this case she is successful. Kristina could certainly use a hug by the end of the day.
The plot is split among several perspectives. This diminishes Kristina's screentime and increases that of other characters. She may seem less important for this reason, being that she is supposed to be this "chosen one" savior figure but it makes sense. She's a child without the special abilities that a protagonist in this sort of story would typical have. She is not useless by any means, just bewildered and out of her depth. She may be the "chosen one" but she doesn't have to do everything herself. This end result is less of a "superpower wish fulfillment" thing and more of a "The Power of Friendship moral", which I say is more valuable for a book aimed at this age group.
I like the idea of Fairy Blossoms.
1. These are magical flowers that are a stable of the inhabitant's life style. Not only does it provide them with energy and heal injuries but it can even halt aging. Strategic use of Fairy Blossoms becomes a key aspect of Kristina's quest. She can use it to support her party, to recruit others to her party, or for bartering. Kids who play RPGs will recognize this as a recovery item and relate to that.
2. Furthermore, it's just one item and yet it accomplishes a great deal in terms of world building. Pre-series, Queen Sentiz dug up a lot of the Fairy Blossoms and replaced them with thorns and the consequences of this are everywhere. It explains why the denizens require someone to save them; they lack the energy and strength otherwise. It explains why the queen did so in the first place; by controlling the source of Fairy Blossoms, she has significant leverage over her unwilling subjects. By planting thorn bushes in their place, the queen creates visual propaganda. It reminds them of her magically enforced rule.
One thing that I don't like about this book is that there's a lot of backtracking. For a Quest Narrative, I find this frustrating. Kristina travels over the Indra River and then stuff happens and she goes back across it, and then she crosses it a third time before she gets to the Final Dungeon. There is also a sideplot with the bullies that exists separate from the main plot and contributes little other than the build up to a given character's Heel Face Turn. It makes the book longer. The climax itself is drawn out, zigzagged, and over passed until the resolution is not triumphant or tragic but just a relief that something finally happened.
I am left with a lot of questions at the end of this book. This is the sort of thing I'd have wondered about when I was a kid. One or two is fine but there are a lot in here.
What is the nature of Seintiz's curse? How does the Warble break it? What is the Warble? How did it get into Kristina's world? Why did Miss. Hersley have it? Why did she give it to Kristina? Why didn't she say anything about it to Kristina? Why did the Warble delay in activating the world jump? Why did all four of the kids land in the same place? If only the Warble can end the queen's reign then why is Werrien so important that one of her spies passes up a golden opportunity to steal it just to lure him out? Crows dropping grenades is cool, but were did the crows get them? Why do the king and queen have as many as five pieces of world traveling stone fashioned into jewelry and yet have no idea how they work beyond "red light means it's activating"? Are these things made from the same stuff as the Warble? Where did they get it?
Given that this is the first book in a series, I assume the answers are forth coming.
The ending, while not personally satisfying, does a good job of closing the book's conflict while leaving open the possibility of future conflict.
CHARACTERS
Kristina is what I like to call a Reconstruction of the Summon Everyman Hero. She is an Ordinary School Student from a non-magic world that is summoned to a magic world to be a savior. A deconstruction would point out that she is a child who has never been on her own before, so she should be scared, unsure of what to do, homesick, lacking adventurer skills etc. A reconstruction would rebut that, yes, she is all that stuff but she can still fulfil this role. First of all, she adapts quickly by recognizing the importance of resources like Fairy Blossoms, second is that she doesn't have to do everything herself (I.E. there is no Team Cannon Fodder here), and Werrien, who is more accustomed to travel and fighting, is the one carrying the Warble for most of the trip because he is better able to guard it.
Werrien is the deutragonist of this story and he is more typically The Hero of such stories than Kristina. He is the rightful prince of Bernovem who is currently living in hiding because of a usurper, he is skilled with bow and arrow, and he has the personal charisma to rally armies. Thus, he and Kristina are an example of when The Hero and The Protagonist are separate people; he rarely gets his own POV.
Miss Simcox has skill with making kids that are nasty and in a kid-like way. One of them is spoiled, the other is jerkish professional butt kisser, and the third is just stupid and self-interested. It would be hard to argue that any of them are evil, just immature and bratty. This leads to a Beauty Equals Goodness theme. Kristina and her friends/allies are all described as good looking and everyone else is ugly. The mundane world bullies are snotty and fat, while the zelbock mooks are disgusting creatures. The queen is implied to have used magic to make herself better looking and even then the part of her that the narration most often draws attention to is her claw-like finger nails. It's quite vivid.
POLISH
I found perhaps two errors in grammar throughout the whole thing.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "The Warble" a C
This has been a free review request. I received nothing in exchange for it except a free copy of the book.
Click here for the next review request: The Rebel Trap
Click here for the previous review request: Tethered Worlds Unwanted Star
PLOT
This is a Trapped In Another World Macguffin mission, for preteens. Kristina is transported from her world to Bergoen by a magic trinket and now she has to take it somewhere in order to go back home.
The beginning is Ease Into Adventure with a typical day for our protagonist. The school period itself is skipped over, which is nice, because it would have been filler. The only parts that are focused on are the relevant parts; the two bullies that will follow Kristina and the mysterious teacher who gives Kristina the Warble. I assume that Miss. Simcox' goal was to create a Woobie out of her protagonist, and in this case she is successful. Kristina could certainly use a hug by the end of the day.
The plot is split among several perspectives. This diminishes Kristina's screentime and increases that of other characters. She may seem less important for this reason, being that she is supposed to be this "chosen one" savior figure but it makes sense. She's a child without the special abilities that a protagonist in this sort of story would typical have. She is not useless by any means, just bewildered and out of her depth. She may be the "chosen one" but she doesn't have to do everything herself. This end result is less of a "superpower wish fulfillment" thing and more of a "The Power of Friendship moral", which I say is more valuable for a book aimed at this age group.
I like the idea of Fairy Blossoms.
1. These are magical flowers that are a stable of the inhabitant's life style. Not only does it provide them with energy and heal injuries but it can even halt aging. Strategic use of Fairy Blossoms becomes a key aspect of Kristina's quest. She can use it to support her party, to recruit others to her party, or for bartering. Kids who play RPGs will recognize this as a recovery item and relate to that.
2. Furthermore, it's just one item and yet it accomplishes a great deal in terms of world building. Pre-series, Queen Sentiz dug up a lot of the Fairy Blossoms and replaced them with thorns and the consequences of this are everywhere. It explains why the denizens require someone to save them; they lack the energy and strength otherwise. It explains why the queen did so in the first place; by controlling the source of Fairy Blossoms, she has significant leverage over her unwilling subjects. By planting thorn bushes in their place, the queen creates visual propaganda. It reminds them of her magically enforced rule.
One thing that I don't like about this book is that there's a lot of backtracking. For a Quest Narrative, I find this frustrating. Kristina travels over the Indra River and then stuff happens and she goes back across it, and then she crosses it a third time before she gets to the Final Dungeon. There is also a sideplot with the bullies that exists separate from the main plot and contributes little other than the build up to a given character's Heel Face Turn. It makes the book longer. The climax itself is drawn out, zigzagged, and over passed until the resolution is not triumphant or tragic but just a relief that something finally happened.
I am left with a lot of questions at the end of this book. This is the sort of thing I'd have wondered about when I was a kid. One or two is fine but there are a lot in here.
What is the nature of Seintiz's curse? How does the Warble break it? What is the Warble? How did it get into Kristina's world? Why did Miss. Hersley have it? Why did she give it to Kristina? Why didn't she say anything about it to Kristina? Why did the Warble delay in activating the world jump? Why did all four of the kids land in the same place? If only the Warble can end the queen's reign then why is Werrien so important that one of her spies passes up a golden opportunity to steal it just to lure him out? Crows dropping grenades is cool, but were did the crows get them? Why do the king and queen have as many as five pieces of world traveling stone fashioned into jewelry and yet have no idea how they work beyond "red light means it's activating"? Are these things made from the same stuff as the Warble? Where did they get it?
Given that this is the first book in a series, I assume the answers are forth coming.
The ending, while not personally satisfying, does a good job of closing the book's conflict while leaving open the possibility of future conflict.
CHARACTERS
Kristina is what I like to call a Reconstruction of the Summon Everyman Hero. She is an Ordinary School Student from a non-magic world that is summoned to a magic world to be a savior. A deconstruction would point out that she is a child who has never been on her own before, so she should be scared, unsure of what to do, homesick, lacking adventurer skills etc. A reconstruction would rebut that, yes, she is all that stuff but she can still fulfil this role. First of all, she adapts quickly by recognizing the importance of resources like Fairy Blossoms, second is that she doesn't have to do everything herself (I.E. there is no Team Cannon Fodder here), and Werrien, who is more accustomed to travel and fighting, is the one carrying the Warble for most of the trip because he is better able to guard it.
Werrien is the deutragonist of this story and he is more typically The Hero of such stories than Kristina. He is the rightful prince of Bernovem who is currently living in hiding because of a usurper, he is skilled with bow and arrow, and he has the personal charisma to rally armies. Thus, he and Kristina are an example of when The Hero and The Protagonist are separate people; he rarely gets his own POV.
Miss Simcox has skill with making kids that are nasty and in a kid-like way. One of them is spoiled, the other is jerkish professional butt kisser, and the third is just stupid and self-interested. It would be hard to argue that any of them are evil, just immature and bratty. This leads to a Beauty Equals Goodness theme. Kristina and her friends/allies are all described as good looking and everyone else is ugly. The mundane world bullies are snotty and fat, while the zelbock mooks are disgusting creatures. The queen is implied to have used magic to make herself better looking and even then the part of her that the narration most often draws attention to is her claw-like finger nails. It's quite vivid.
POLISH
I found perhaps two errors in grammar throughout the whole thing.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "The Warble" a C
This has been a free review request. I received nothing in exchange for it except a free copy of the book.
Click here for the next review request: The Rebel Trap
Click here for the previous review request: Tethered Worlds Unwanted Star
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Answering Review Request: Tethered Worlds Unwelcome Star
Gregory Faccone asked me to read his novel, "Tethered Worlds Unwelcome Star". It is a space opera concerning the politics between two space faring civilizations. I will examine Plot, Character and Polish, before assigning a grade.
PLOT
The plot starts out confusing. The first part is a In-Media-Res that consists of a single line before jumping back a little bit. This leads to a dramatic political rally that leads into a car chase and sniping. The second part is a news segment that appears to be exposition for the world's setting. It's actually heavily biased propaganda but the reader won't learn that until later.
Eventually, I get the full scope of the immediate conflict. There are these two major powers in space, Perigeum and Asterfraeo/Cohortium. They're basically The Empire and The Republic in that the former is (supposedly) oppressive and has "drone" citizens and the later is (supposedly) all about free and rugged individuals. The Perigeum bribed, threatened etc. enough Assembly members on Adams Rush to push through a vote for Adams Rush to leave the Cohortium and join them. Their motivation for this is only briefly alluded to after several hundred pages; they're looking for fresh economic markets and resources.
The goal of the Wilkrest family is to recall the Assembly members who voted for the change, reverse course on it, and then call in the Cohortium's military in order to beat back the Perigeum's military that's parked around Adams Rush. The Perigeum plans to counter this by using their military, and their Faster-Than-Light-Travel technology known as "egress" to basically impose martial law on Adams Rush.
His grandfather is this classic wise old mentor figure. He has impressive technology and cunning tactics. One thing that I find annoying about him is that he never tells anyone, not even his grandson, his objectives or what it is that they're doing. Either he's making it up as he goes, or Mr.Faccone wants to keep everything mysterious.
I like the sibling sidkicks, Glick and Cranium. They are a Sibling Team of Brawns and Brains that become Jordakh's allies through Defeat Means Friendship. The three of them together make for both an effective and entertaining team.
The two Perigeum villains are distinct from each other but part of the Perigeum monolith. It's like a Cohortium propaganda cineVALD; on one hand is the merciless military man focused on taking over their planet and on the other is the petty power tripping Archiver who will spy on every part of their life looking for Mystic tech to exploit for his devious purposes. Everyone working for them is a either a mindless killer machine, enslaved AI, or mooks disguising themselves as civilians.
POLISH
No spelling or grammar errors that I could find.
This story is long enough and has a big enough scope to be two stories. One of them covers the away mission and the other the home front. Both of them are interesting but they are largely separate from each other. This sort of fusion is better handled than others I've seen. It doesn't harm the narrative; just make it twice as long.
Trickster Eric Novels gives Tetthered Worlds Unwelcome Star a B+
Click here for the next review request: "The Warble"
Click here for the previous review request: Alpha Hunter
PLOT
The plot starts out confusing. The first part is a In-Media-Res that consists of a single line before jumping back a little bit. This leads to a dramatic political rally that leads into a car chase and sniping. The second part is a news segment that appears to be exposition for the world's setting. It's actually heavily biased propaganda but the reader won't learn that until later.
This is why As You Know is a useful trope despite how awkward it can be. Authors need to explain the world for the readers. When Adams Rush (the planet) is described as a "Sojourner's stronghold", what Mr. Faccone means is that it had a heavy concentration of a culture of people who were anti-Perigeum and vastly skilled in Mystic tech. Based on the conventional definition of "Sojourner" I thought it was a vacation spot. I had no idea what was going on for dozens of pages, and in particular, why someone was going to so much trouble to kill the Wilkrest family. They did but I didn't.
Eventually, I get the full scope of the immediate conflict. There are these two major powers in space, Perigeum and Asterfraeo/Cohortium. They're basically The Empire and The Republic in that the former is (supposedly) oppressive and has "drone" citizens and the later is (supposedly) all about free and rugged individuals. The Perigeum bribed, threatened etc. enough Assembly members on Adams Rush to push through a vote for Adams Rush to leave the Cohortium and join them. Their motivation for this is only briefly alluded to after several hundred pages; they're looking for fresh economic markets and resources.
The goal of the Wilkrest family is to recall the Assembly members who voted for the change, reverse course on it, and then call in the Cohortium's military in order to beat back the Perigeum's military that's parked around Adams Rush. The Perigeum plans to counter this by using their military, and their Faster-Than-Light-Travel technology known as "egress" to basically impose martial law on Adams Rush.
It was hard, at times, to take the conflict seriously. The villains here are one military commander (Legion) and one MiB style commander (The Archivers). The first one is so stoic and efficient he's little different than his AI and the second is a Smug Snake with sweating problems. The Wilkrest family repeatedly states how awful it is to live in the Perigeum, and the egress is going to turn everyone on Adams Rush into a "drone" without going into the whys and the hows. The worst part of this is the implication that all of this conflict is rooted in a cultural clash within the movie industry. Here is a direct quote:
"EpiVADs and cineVADs were distributed far and wide from major media enclaves on the Six Sisters. Thinking and attitudes grew homogeneous. Those who refused to take their cues from the expanding popular culture became increasingly ostracized. A new wave of outward migration was fueled by such cultural holdouts."
Yes, political corruption, assassination, and space fleets moved by the establishment and counter culture movements centered on movies.
There's interesting world building. A lot of thought has gone into this world's history, politics, technology (medicine, spacecraft, computer, textile). There would be times where whole pages were nothing but narration about this or that. I must admit I found them more fun to read than the main plot. This is not to say that the main plot was bad but that the world building was better.
There's an issue of time. The crux of the plot is that travel between planets and solar systems etc. takes a long time without an egress. Yet Jordahk goes to two places that are described as being remote and distant from everything and then returns to Adams Rush between the time when the egress arrives and before it activates. There is no mention of how much time passes. I had to re-read the first part of the novel to realize that the whole story covers six months. It's confusing.
Also, an egress has to travel someplace the long way itself right? Then shouldn't it have taken months or more just for the egress to arrive at Adams Rush? Why did it turn up on the morning of the vote to allow it? Was there some process beforehand or was it sent in advance, believing that the vote would go through?
Also, an egress has to travel someplace the long way itself right? Then shouldn't it have taken months or more just for the egress to arrive at Adams Rush? Why did it turn up on the morning of the vote to allow it? Was there some process beforehand or was it sent in advance, believing that the vote would go through?
There are four point of view characters. There's Jordahk on his journey with his grandfather, his parents on the home front, the military commander and the Archiver commander. All of them focus on Adams Rush egressing, so they have plenty in common, but the latter three are unnecessary for Jordahk, or Jordahk is unnecessary for them. It's a bloated thing.
This story has a good ending in the style of And The Adventure Continues. This is a clear "the end of the first battle of the war" sort of thing. The main conflict is closed but the series conflict is still open and there are plot threads for sequels.
CHARACTERS
Jordakh is sort-of the protagonist. He has one of four viewpoints but he's basically the main one. He was raised in his parent's security business so he has little life experience outside of missions and training. He's also an Amazon Chaser; he lost his heart to Glick as soon as he saw her sparing. His Beware The Nice Ones trait is an appealing contrast with his AI companion, who is gruff and mischevious.
His grandfather is this classic wise old mentor figure. He has impressive technology and cunning tactics. One thing that I find annoying about him is that he never tells anyone, not even his grandson, his objectives or what it is that they're doing. Either he's making it up as he goes, or Mr.Faccone wants to keep everything mysterious.
I like the sibling sidkicks, Glick and Cranium. They are a Sibling Team of Brawns and Brains that become Jordakh's allies through Defeat Means Friendship. The three of them together make for both an effective and entertaining team.
The two Perigeum villains are distinct from each other but part of the Perigeum monolith. It's like a Cohortium propaganda cineVALD; on one hand is the merciless military man focused on taking over their planet and on the other is the petty power tripping Archiver who will spy on every part of their life looking for Mystic tech to exploit for his devious purposes. Everyone working for them is a either a mindless killer machine, enslaved AI, or mooks disguising themselves as civilians.
POLISH
No spelling or grammar errors that I could find.
This story is long enough and has a big enough scope to be two stories. One of them covers the away mission and the other the home front. Both of them are interesting but they are largely separate from each other. This sort of fusion is better handled than others I've seen. It doesn't harm the narrative; just make it twice as long.
Trickster Eric Novels gives Tetthered Worlds Unwelcome Star a B+
Click here for the next review request: "The Warble"
Click here for the previous review request: Alpha Hunter
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Answering Review Request: Dark Expanse, Surviving the Collapse
Paul M. Joy Jr, the Head of Community Relations Deorc Enterprise, asked me to read an anthology of science fiction stories. It is called Dark Expanse, Surviving the Collapse and it's a collection of stories that share a background and setting but are otherwise unrelated. A race of beings known as the Zyxlar created this vast interstellar empire and then disappeared without warning. Being the micro managers they were, this caused quite a shake up. I will examine plot, characters and polish and then assign a grade.
PLOT
Being an anthology, there is no overall plot. A couple of them reference the myth arc of why the Zyxlar disappeared, where they went and what they're planning, but that is all. As it becoming standard, I will only discuss a couple in brief and give my opinion of the work as a whole.
Most of these are great. They have this solid plot that is quickly set up, built up, executed and resolved satisfactorily. It's not easy to do that in a short story format. There are some exceptions, stories that leave too much hanging for once thing, or stories that feel too thin/flat on characterization, or too bareboned in their plots. However, these are indeed exceptions.
Some of them feel like complete stories ("Dominos Falling" and "Fires of Night") and others like the start of a story ("Hellfire Unleashed"). A third group could have moved on if they wanted, but as they are now they a sense of thematic completion, if not narrative completion ("Ten Suns" and "Castles of Night"). Of those that feel like the start of a story, that is a compliment; Hellfire Unleashed leaves off at the point of its greatest world building potential. I wanted to read more of that plot line.
PLOT
Being an anthology, there is no overall plot. A couple of them reference the myth arc of why the Zyxlar disappeared, where they went and what they're planning, but that is all. As it becoming standard, I will only discuss a couple in brief and give my opinion of the work as a whole.
Most of these are great. They have this solid plot that is quickly set up, built up, executed and resolved satisfactorily. It's not easy to do that in a short story format. There are some exceptions, stories that leave too much hanging for once thing, or stories that feel too thin/flat on characterization, or too bareboned in their plots. However, these are indeed exceptions.
Some of them feel like complete stories ("Dominos Falling" and "Fires of Night") and others like the start of a story ("Hellfire Unleashed"). A third group could have moved on if they wanted, but as they are now they a sense of thematic completion, if not narrative completion ("Ten Suns" and "Castles of Night"). Of those that feel like the start of a story, that is a compliment; Hellfire Unleashed leaves off at the point of its greatest world building potential. I wanted to read more of that plot line.
Many of them also incorporate the Short Story Twist. Some of them do it better than others. Some don't use it at all.
Some of them make great use of meaningful echoes and other repeating narrative tropes, with others it feels lame.
Some of them make great use of meaningful echoes and other repeating narrative tropes, with others it feels lame.
"Fires of Night" is fun, deep, and doesn't pull some last minute twist. It also has this Dececptive Disciple, Master-Apprentice Team that is usually a martial arts story angle, not a space intrigue thing.
"Gorlack the Destroyer's All You Can Eat Adventure" has a great degree of humor. It can vary from Black Comedy to Ironic Humor and then twist around and and become pretty scary.
"Gorlack the Destroyer's All You Can Eat Adventure" has a great degree of humor. It can vary from Black Comedy to Ironic Humor and then twist around and and become pretty scary.
"Betrayal, Clear as Kanzai Glass" is fascinating in terms of a species origin story.
CHARACTERS
Characters on the whole are good throughout the stories. It was a fun exercise to determine what species the protagonist is in each story. It is not always obvious and you can't assume it to be human. With one or two exceptions, they and the others in the story are created to be distinct individiuals isntead of simple view ports for the story.
The protagonist from "They Cannot Scare Me With Their Empty Spaces" is complicated a character (also a Silicate, by the way). At first he sounds like some dim witted muscle guy that's part of a comedy act, then he goes out and does some insightful philosophizing without meaning to. You can say he is both dumb and wise at the same time.
Chaplain Theodore from "A Small and Secret Freedom" is also one of my favorites. He's like this perfect mix of Chaotic Good, Church Militant, and Good Shepherd. In other words, he's a badass that doesn't need to have bulging muscles and a huge laser chainsaw; a mental strength that is quietly dignified and heroic.
POLISH
It looks good. No spelling or grammar problems
Trickster Eric Novels gives "Dark Expanse: Surviving the Collapse" a B+
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Answering Review Request: Unreliable Histories
Rob Gresgson asked me to read his novel "Unreliable Histories". It's an urban fantasy that looks to take place in a fantasy counterpart of the British Isles during the Age of Exploration. I will examine plot, characters and polish and then decide on a grade.
NOTE: this review is about the first edition. I was 1/3 finished with it by the time Mr.Gregson put out the second. He informed me that the chapter ordering is a little different, Jul has a little more screen time and the opening was rearranged, but in terms of content and story, they are the same.
PLOT
What we have here is two characters investigating a mystery. Myrah and Al encounter a wizard in a big and flashy event who tells them to find a certain object before dying. Mostly because they're bored, they go off on this little scavenger hunt. They travel from place to place learning about this thing they've found and uncover pieces of information relating to alternate histories for their country and their own lives.
What I like the most about this story is its angle about the Commercialization of Adventure. Myrah's uncle is one of the three heads of an empire spanning company that supplies explorers, adventurers and the like. It's called FMS Exploration and it has everything from ships to equipment to crew for its customers. Most of it is just for show because the adventurers are just for show. They're trying to become rich, famous or some other self-serving goal by lying about their boring and profitless adventure. There's a running gag about how they name innocuous and harmless places something intimidating and fearsome like "Light of Dragon's Blood" or some other such silliness in order to spice up their tale.
It's the opposite of the trope No Hero Discount. While the hero sees the merchant as greedy for not cutting him a break when he's trying to save the world, the merchant sees the hero as walking money whose not as special or important as he thinks he is. It's even this sort of merchant that keeps the traps in all those dungeons fresh and ready. HOWEVER, this is all done is good fun (narratively speaking). It's not a dark and gritty sort of angle but a light hearted mocking angle. I find that much more appealing than someone who piles on the tragedy.
About half way through there's a genre shift where Myrath and Al go through a genuinely threatening dungeon that houses a genuinely threatening demon and receive aid from a genuinely heroic adventurer (Myrth, in her jadedness, still thinks he's a scoundrel, despite a smidgen of infatuation). There's still more of the Commercialization of Adventure going on, but I got the sense that the vain glorious adventurers of the start are just the most public and visible; there's a deeper layer going on.
Ending is great. There's closure for the book's conflict and a funny lampshading of the remaining plot threads and how everything is not all neatly tied up. It also works well as a launching pad into the second book.
CHARACTERS
Myrah is the hero of this story and a character I like. She's practical, she's both intelligent and cunning, and she has heroic spirit. She's also jaded from her uncle's "profit above all else" business model, poser explorers and the general misogyny of her society. Third, she has this British wit which I believe is a gift direct from her author.
Al (Alaethar) is her partner and foil. He's this big guy that helps Myrah because he's in love with her. He's routinely Mistaken For Badass because of his size and an innocent scare on his collarbone. At the start, you think he is the one going to be the Ascended Fanboy but then he becomes Myrah's voice of reason as she tries to figure out the Index. It is quite amusing to see Agent Mulder turn into Agent Skully so quickly. The genre shift has quite an effect on him.
Nevigorn is a fun character. During his previous adventure, he found The Truth and gained an Enlightenment Superpower that changed his view of the universe and everyone in it. As a result, he rarely makes any sense to anyone. It's cloud cuckoo lander humor that is at the same time very pertinent to the plot. His Lack of Empathy can come off as Leaning On the Fourth Wall.
Fievelus is Myrah's uncle and one of two villains for this story. He may be the Big Bad or an Unwitting Pawn by the end but he's certainly The Heavy. He's greedy. He's a Corrupt Corporate Executive that has developed a Social Darwin style philosophy to explain how he is not corrupt despite his actions. Myrah tries to keep him out of the loop regarding her adventurer activities as much as possible because she knows that he will push her aside to make as much profit as possible regardless of anything else.
Hahn is a minor character but I wanted to include him but he is a fascinating case. He is every bit the Ideal Hero: brave, charismatic, kind, generous, defender of the innocent and scourge of oppressors while also very skilled in combat. For this reason Myrah thinks he's a scoundrel because he's known as an outlaw (because of the scourge of oppressors thing) and because she's never met an adventurer that wasn't a selfish glory hound. On the contrary, he spends all his praise on Al, a rookie warrior and a stranger to him. He also speaks in a formal heroic style, which Al and Myrah both find strange but fitting with his character type.
POLISH
It looks good. No spelling or grammar errors. The foot notes have some funny and interesting world building.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "Unreliable Histories" an A+
This is a free review request. I received nothing in exchange for it but a free copy of the book.
Click here for the previous book review (which was not a request): Spice and Wolf Volume 4
NOTE: this review is about the first edition. I was 1/3 finished with it by the time Mr.Gregson put out the second. He informed me that the chapter ordering is a little different, Jul has a little more screen time and the opening was rearranged, but in terms of content and story, they are the same.
PLOT
What we have here is two characters investigating a mystery. Myrah and Al encounter a wizard in a big and flashy event who tells them to find a certain object before dying. Mostly because they're bored, they go off on this little scavenger hunt. They travel from place to place learning about this thing they've found and uncover pieces of information relating to alternate histories for their country and their own lives.
What I like the most about this story is its angle about the Commercialization of Adventure. Myrah's uncle is one of the three heads of an empire spanning company that supplies explorers, adventurers and the like. It's called FMS Exploration and it has everything from ships to equipment to crew for its customers. Most of it is just for show because the adventurers are just for show. They're trying to become rich, famous or some other self-serving goal by lying about their boring and profitless adventure. There's a running gag about how they name innocuous and harmless places something intimidating and fearsome like "Light of Dragon's Blood" or some other such silliness in order to spice up their tale.
It's the opposite of the trope No Hero Discount. While the hero sees the merchant as greedy for not cutting him a break when he's trying to save the world, the merchant sees the hero as walking money whose not as special or important as he thinks he is. It's even this sort of merchant that keeps the traps in all those dungeons fresh and ready. HOWEVER, this is all done is good fun (narratively speaking). It's not a dark and gritty sort of angle but a light hearted mocking angle. I find that much more appealing than someone who piles on the tragedy.
About half way through there's a genre shift where Myrath and Al go through a genuinely threatening dungeon that houses a genuinely threatening demon and receive aid from a genuinely heroic adventurer (Myrth, in her jadedness, still thinks he's a scoundrel, despite a smidgen of infatuation). There's still more of the Commercialization of Adventure going on, but I got the sense that the vain glorious adventurers of the start are just the most public and visible; there's a deeper layer going on.
Ending is great. There's closure for the book's conflict and a funny lampshading of the remaining plot threads and how everything is not all neatly tied up. It also works well as a launching pad into the second book.
CHARACTERS
Myrah is the hero of this story and a character I like. She's practical, she's both intelligent and cunning, and she has heroic spirit. She's also jaded from her uncle's "profit above all else" business model, poser explorers and the general misogyny of her society. Third, she has this British wit which I believe is a gift direct from her author.
Al (Alaethar) is her partner and foil. He's this big guy that helps Myrah because he's in love with her. He's routinely Mistaken For Badass because of his size and an innocent scare on his collarbone. At the start, you think he is the one going to be the Ascended Fanboy but then he becomes Myrah's voice of reason as she tries to figure out the Index. It is quite amusing to see Agent Mulder turn into Agent Skully so quickly. The genre shift has quite an effect on him.
Nevigorn is a fun character. During his previous adventure, he found The Truth and gained an Enlightenment Superpower that changed his view of the universe and everyone in it. As a result, he rarely makes any sense to anyone. It's cloud cuckoo lander humor that is at the same time very pertinent to the plot. His Lack of Empathy can come off as Leaning On the Fourth Wall.
Fievelus is Myrah's uncle and one of two villains for this story. He may be the Big Bad or an Unwitting Pawn by the end but he's certainly The Heavy. He's greedy. He's a Corrupt Corporate Executive that has developed a Social Darwin style philosophy to explain how he is not corrupt despite his actions. Myrah tries to keep him out of the loop regarding her adventurer activities as much as possible because she knows that he will push her aside to make as much profit as possible regardless of anything else.
Hahn is a minor character but I wanted to include him but he is a fascinating case. He is every bit the Ideal Hero: brave, charismatic, kind, generous, defender of the innocent and scourge of oppressors while also very skilled in combat. For this reason Myrah thinks he's a scoundrel because he's known as an outlaw (because of the scourge of oppressors thing) and because she's never met an adventurer that wasn't a selfish glory hound. On the contrary, he spends all his praise on Al, a rookie warrior and a stranger to him. He also speaks in a formal heroic style, which Al and Myrah both find strange but fitting with his character type.
POLISH
It looks good. No spelling or grammar errors. The foot notes have some funny and interesting world building.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "Unreliable Histories" an A+
This is a free review request. I received nothing in exchange for it but a free copy of the book.
Click here for the previous book review (which was not a request): Spice and Wolf Volume 4
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Answering Review Request: Seventh Moon
Michael Joy asked me to read his novel "Seventh Moon". It's a dystopian science fiction thing staring a group of super soldiers that rebel against their corrupt creators by becoming super heroic clergy. I will examine Plot, Characters and Polish before assigning a grade.
PLOT
The story starts off exciting with Seventh Moon sending a group of super soldiers to a supposed base of terrorists that stole Seventh Moon's technology. There's a description of the soldiers showcasing Mr.Joy's love of tropes, followed by what we call on Tvtropes a Curb Stomp Battle. What I like about this sort of beginning is that it is set up to be a "Lawful Super Team fighting Chaotic criminals" thing and then does a pirouette into a "Defector From Decadence rebellion" thing. All the soldiers are set up as equals and then two of them break away as heroes, which colors the rest as villains.
What follows is a seamless genre shift from science fiction government black ops to fantasy martial arts philosophy. Why is it seamless? Because the Mentor Archetype for the fantasy was the combat instructor for the science fiction. He was hired by Seventh Moon but has since retired. He remarks that Seventh Moon has no taste for the spiritual component of his martial arts style and so he's basically completing their training. This becomes a key difference as the trio of heroes fight their counterparts as well as a long running plot thread. Over all, there is a impressive mix of Science Fiction and Fantasy tropes all the way to the end of the story. Esper or full contact mage? It doesn't matter. Either way, it's cool.
I like the flow of the plot. It follows a sound progression of events as the heroes try to unravel Seventh Moon's control. It's not just beating the bad guys but addressing the underlying problems caused by them. For instance, freeing a hydroelectric dam from their control in order to restore power to the country housing it.
There are two problems with the plot. Add some Alternate Character Interpretation, and there's only one. It is the three year gap between the first scene and the Evil Counterparts attacking the Shinryuu shrine. Given that Seventh Moon knows about this place and it's close by the village they destroyed and there's nothing keeping them away, I don't understand why the attack didn't come for three years. I don't know the reason for it, and because this time of peace allows the heroes to develop their esper powers, it is significant.
The ending is good. It has a climatic battle and a resolution of the book's conflict. There are a few threads dangling but there are more of a "connecting thread" to a possible sequel rather than loose ends from laziness or a Goading Cliffhanger.
CHARACTERS
There are a lot of characters on both the heroic and villainous side and all of them receive sufficient development. The main characters get the most, of course, but even the sub-bosses (so to speak) have traits that make them stand out.
Kichiku the Gentle Giant and who takes on Big Brother responsibilities for Douji.
Hidariude has the blades and minor Leroy Jenkins/Hotblooded traits.
Kiesi is remarkable for being a sex slave instead of a super soldier, and also has more a Never Be A Victim Again mentality instead of The Atoner.
On the villainous side, there's this guy named Kodama. He's a minor bad guy who only has one scene and doesn't live beyond a couple chapters. Yet he's my personal favorite of the trio's enemies New Wave Elite's soldiers. It may be his Smug Super attitude, his favoring the No Sell tactic, his Forest Hive Mind powers, or perhaps the caliber of the fight itself, but whatever it is, I enjoyed his fight the most.
POLISH
This is the area where the story loses the most points.
Spelling is good but grammar has flaws. It's minor because some 80 percent of them are the same thing; using a comma where a semi colon would be appropriate.
Also, some of the language is immature. What I mean by this is that it doesn't flow as well as it could. Again, this a minor thing because most of the story is not like this.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "Seventh Moon" a B+
Click here for the next book review (which was not a request): Sword Art Online: Aincrad 1
Click here for the previous book review (which was not a request): How To Practice
PLOT
The story starts off exciting with Seventh Moon sending a group of super soldiers to a supposed base of terrorists that stole Seventh Moon's technology. There's a description of the soldiers showcasing Mr.Joy's love of tropes, followed by what we call on Tvtropes a Curb Stomp Battle. What I like about this sort of beginning is that it is set up to be a "Lawful Super Team fighting Chaotic criminals" thing and then does a pirouette into a "Defector From Decadence rebellion" thing. All the soldiers are set up as equals and then two of them break away as heroes, which colors the rest as villains.
What follows is a seamless genre shift from science fiction government black ops to fantasy martial arts philosophy. Why is it seamless? Because the Mentor Archetype for the fantasy was the combat instructor for the science fiction. He was hired by Seventh Moon but has since retired. He remarks that Seventh Moon has no taste for the spiritual component of his martial arts style and so he's basically completing their training. This becomes a key difference as the trio of heroes fight their counterparts as well as a long running plot thread. Over all, there is a impressive mix of Science Fiction and Fantasy tropes all the way to the end of the story. Esper or full contact mage? It doesn't matter. Either way, it's cool.
I like the flow of the plot. It follows a sound progression of events as the heroes try to unravel Seventh Moon's control. It's not just beating the bad guys but addressing the underlying problems caused by them. For instance, freeing a hydroelectric dam from their control in order to restore power to the country housing it.
There are two problems with the plot. Add some Alternate Character Interpretation, and there's only one. It is the three year gap between the first scene and the Evil Counterparts attacking the Shinryuu shrine. Given that Seventh Moon knows about this place and it's close by the village they destroyed and there's nothing keeping them away, I don't understand why the attack didn't come for three years. I don't know the reason for it, and because this time of peace allows the heroes to develop their esper powers, it is significant.
The ending is good. It has a climatic battle and a resolution of the book's conflict. There are a few threads dangling but there are more of a "connecting thread" to a possible sequel rather than loose ends from laziness or a Goading Cliffhanger.
CHARACTERS
There are a lot of characters on both the heroic and villainous side and all of them receive sufficient development. The main characters get the most, of course, but even the sub-bosses (so to speak) have traits that make them stand out.
Kichiku the Gentle Giant and who takes on Big Brother responsibilities for Douji.
Hidariude has the blades and minor Leroy Jenkins/Hotblooded traits.
Kiesi is remarkable for being a sex slave instead of a super soldier, and also has more a Never Be A Victim Again mentality instead of The Atoner.
On the villainous side, there's this guy named Kodama. He's a minor bad guy who only has one scene and doesn't live beyond a couple chapters. Yet he's my personal favorite of the trio's enemies New Wave Elite's soldiers. It may be his Smug Super attitude, his favoring the No Sell tactic, his Forest Hive Mind powers, or perhaps the caliber of the fight itself, but whatever it is, I enjoyed his fight the most.
POLISH
This is the area where the story loses the most points.
Spelling is good but grammar has flaws. It's minor because some 80 percent of them are the same thing; using a comma where a semi colon would be appropriate.
Also, some of the language is immature. What I mean by this is that it doesn't flow as well as it could. Again, this a minor thing because most of the story is not like this.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "Seventh Moon" a B+
Click here for the next book review (which was not a request): Sword Art Online: Aincrad 1
Click here for the previous book review (which was not a request): How To Practice
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Answering Review Request: The Apprentices-Crimson Guard Trilogy book 1
Andretta Shellinger requested that I read one of her client's books. She is a co-owner of Wizards Keep Publishing and the client is Dana Journey. His book The Apprentices-Crimson Guard Trilogy was published in November and she contacted me to aid its exposure. I will examine Plot, Character and Polish, and then assign a grade.
PLOT
The prologue is fantastic. It has this sense of epic battle while this wise old mage is doing something Last Resort like. A panicky boy runs in and underscores the master's calm. This master mage, Mantiloc, is more annoyed at this apprentice mage's lack of a spine than the invading army outside his doorstep. It's "the youth of today are pathetic" sort of grumbling that is stereotypical of grumpy old people. The context makes it humorous. Then Mantiloc initiates his Last Resort, thoroughly thwarting the invasion attempt, and thus leading the villain to shout We Will Meet Again. Reading this prologue in the Amazon preview is what convinced me to accept this review request.
The first chapter is also good. It starts out with Lyndon referencing Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" and how he doesn't like that road because he doesn't like change. Thus, Lyndon is quickly and excellently set up as a Reluctant Hero and a snarky one at that, which promises to be fun to read. The following two events (The Burning City Library and work as caravan guards) are similarly interesting and well set up. The first one even addresses an instance of Fridge Logic in a humorous fashion. They could be fleshed out more, polished a little better, but they're still good. It's the following arcs (about half the book) that have problems.
The general thrust of the plot is Lyndon gathering the titular "apprentices". They are the apprentices of four other apprentices of Mantiloc. There's a prophecy saying they are essential to ending a long and supernatural war. This is the connecting thread between all the adventures within this story. However, this is only a "rear view mirror" perspective on the plot. The way it is presented is much different.
Lyndon starts his journey without any objective; not to gather the apprentices, not to rescue/avenge Mantiloc, not For Great Justice, just to satisfy curiosity provoked by a stranger. The events that lead to each arc appear to be coincidence rather than character driven goals. It's less annoying than it could be because the prologue has Mantiloc talk about prophecies and afterward Lyndon monologues about destiny and how he feels it will drag him down a troublesome path because that's what his master talks about. Because Destiny Said So is a legitimate trope but here it lacks the development to fully distinguish itself from bad/lazy writing.
There's constant jumping around in terms of character perspective, which is made worse by the changes in narration. When Lyndon has the POV, the narration is first person; everyone else is third. It is confusing and jarring.
The fight against the Big Bad is not resolved in this book because it's not started. This book's conflict is basically a recruitment program and that is resolved but it is subtle. Mr. Journey is clearly going for a queuing up cliffhanger, but because nothing has been set up, there's nothing behind it and so the cliffhanger lacks force.
CHARACTERS
Lyndon is a Vanilla Protagonist. He's a first person narrator with little in the way of personality or driving goal. Initially he had this Didn't Want An Adventure thing but that disappeared quickly. Later in the book, he remarks that "all I wished for was excitement". Other people tell him where to go and what to do and his berserker side does the fighting for him, so he himself doesn't do much of anything. It makes me think he was deliberately created this way to show off the others. There are flashes to a personality, but for the most part it's bland.
There's only one way to explain why Juleen falls so quickly for him, why the other apprentices don't ditch him, and why an army volunteers to work for him despite the fact that the only payment he can provide is, by his own admission, "death on a distant battlefield". That explanation is "destiny". Again, this wouldn't be a bad thing if it were further developed. The Red String of Fate, for instance, is a time-honored justification for why two people quickly fall in love.
The other apprentices are all more interesting characters than Lyndon. Their backstories are more detailed, their personalities are more visible, and they take action based on motivations, because they have motivations. Jes has his friend loyalty and Lovable Rogue personality, Frey explicitly talks about destiny to explain himself and demonstrates compassion in a big way, Naomi has this fiery snarky thing and her introduction justifies why she stays with the group, and Talon has this Gentle Giant Atoner thing going for him.
This is highlighted during a scene where the party is captured and shackled: Jes picks his chain locks with rogue skills, Talon breaks his with his dragon strength, and Naomi melts her's with fire magic. Lyndon just sits there and narrates.
Redington is a case of Fridge Logic. He's implied to be the person who gives Lyndon the scroll that sets him off and then he leaves until the end of the story. At that point, he explains a bunch of stuff, including why the apprentices are important. Why does he wait? If the apprentices are so important, why doesn't he help?
POLISH
The book I initially received was an unedited rough draft. I read most of it before either I or Miss. Shellinger noticed this and so I saw a lot of grammar errors and other stylistic problems. After I received the fixed copy, I still noticed these things but to a lesser degree.
There are missing apostrophes for the possessive tense.
There is no distinction in text to show that someone is thinking. With Lyndon's POV, this is worse because it is difficult to distinguish his thoughts from his narration.
The prose is immature and clunky. The dialogue and narration often sounds artificial, like it's trying too hard to be elegant or poetic.
In the final part of the story, there are no paragraph breaks to separate two or more people talking. It's all one paragraph with whatever action they take. It's hard to read. It feels as though the editor didn't reach this part.
The book is "ALMOST" a good one. If it were truly bad, then this review would be easy to write and this book easy to grade. Instead, it is constantly on the verge of something great. It's just not quite there yet. There's nothing fundamentally flawed. It could shine with a lot more polish and organization.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "The Apprentices-Crimson Guard Trilogy book 1" a C
Click here for the next book review (which was a request): Terran Psychosis
Click here for the previous book review (which was not a request): Rich Dad, Poor Dad
PLOT
The prologue is fantastic. It has this sense of epic battle while this wise old mage is doing something Last Resort like. A panicky boy runs in and underscores the master's calm. This master mage, Mantiloc, is more annoyed at this apprentice mage's lack of a spine than the invading army outside his doorstep. It's "the youth of today are pathetic" sort of grumbling that is stereotypical of grumpy old people. The context makes it humorous. Then Mantiloc initiates his Last Resort, thoroughly thwarting the invasion attempt, and thus leading the villain to shout We Will Meet Again. Reading this prologue in the Amazon preview is what convinced me to accept this review request.
The first chapter is also good. It starts out with Lyndon referencing Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" and how he doesn't like that road because he doesn't like change. Thus, Lyndon is quickly and excellently set up as a Reluctant Hero and a snarky one at that, which promises to be fun to read. The following two events (The Burning City Library and work as caravan guards) are similarly interesting and well set up. The first one even addresses an instance of Fridge Logic in a humorous fashion. They could be fleshed out more, polished a little better, but they're still good. It's the following arcs (about half the book) that have problems.
The general thrust of the plot is Lyndon gathering the titular "apprentices". They are the apprentices of four other apprentices of Mantiloc. There's a prophecy saying they are essential to ending a long and supernatural war. This is the connecting thread between all the adventures within this story. However, this is only a "rear view mirror" perspective on the plot. The way it is presented is much different.
Lyndon starts his journey without any objective; not to gather the apprentices, not to rescue/avenge Mantiloc, not For Great Justice, just to satisfy curiosity provoked by a stranger. The events that lead to each arc appear to be coincidence rather than character driven goals. It's less annoying than it could be because the prologue has Mantiloc talk about prophecies and afterward Lyndon monologues about destiny and how he feels it will drag him down a troublesome path because that's what his master talks about. Because Destiny Said So is a legitimate trope but here it lacks the development to fully distinguish itself from bad/lazy writing.
There's constant jumping around in terms of character perspective, which is made worse by the changes in narration. When Lyndon has the POV, the narration is first person; everyone else is third. It is confusing and jarring.
The fight against the Big Bad is not resolved in this book because it's not started. This book's conflict is basically a recruitment program and that is resolved but it is subtle. Mr. Journey is clearly going for a queuing up cliffhanger, but because nothing has been set up, there's nothing behind it and so the cliffhanger lacks force.
CHARACTERS
Lyndon is a Vanilla Protagonist. He's a first person narrator with little in the way of personality or driving goal. Initially he had this Didn't Want An Adventure thing but that disappeared quickly. Later in the book, he remarks that "all I wished for was excitement". Other people tell him where to go and what to do and his berserker side does the fighting for him, so he himself doesn't do much of anything. It makes me think he was deliberately created this way to show off the others. There are flashes to a personality, but for the most part it's bland.
There's only one way to explain why Juleen falls so quickly for him, why the other apprentices don't ditch him, and why an army volunteers to work for him despite the fact that the only payment he can provide is, by his own admission, "death on a distant battlefield". That explanation is "destiny". Again, this wouldn't be a bad thing if it were further developed. The Red String of Fate, for instance, is a time-honored justification for why two people quickly fall in love.
The other apprentices are all more interesting characters than Lyndon. Their backstories are more detailed, their personalities are more visible, and they take action based on motivations, because they have motivations. Jes has his friend loyalty and Lovable Rogue personality, Frey explicitly talks about destiny to explain himself and demonstrates compassion in a big way, Naomi has this fiery snarky thing and her introduction justifies why she stays with the group, and Talon has this Gentle Giant Atoner thing going for him.
This is highlighted during a scene where the party is captured and shackled: Jes picks his chain locks with rogue skills, Talon breaks his with his dragon strength, and Naomi melts her's with fire magic. Lyndon just sits there and narrates.
Redington is a case of Fridge Logic. He's implied to be the person who gives Lyndon the scroll that sets him off and then he leaves until the end of the story. At that point, he explains a bunch of stuff, including why the apprentices are important. Why does he wait? If the apprentices are so important, why doesn't he help?
POLISH
The book I initially received was an unedited rough draft. I read most of it before either I or Miss. Shellinger noticed this and so I saw a lot of grammar errors and other stylistic problems. After I received the fixed copy, I still noticed these things but to a lesser degree.
There are missing apostrophes for the possessive tense.
There is no distinction in text to show that someone is thinking. With Lyndon's POV, this is worse because it is difficult to distinguish his thoughts from his narration.
The prose is immature and clunky. The dialogue and narration often sounds artificial, like it's trying too hard to be elegant or poetic.
In the final part of the story, there are no paragraph breaks to separate two or more people talking. It's all one paragraph with whatever action they take. It's hard to read. It feels as though the editor didn't reach this part.
The book is "ALMOST" a good one. If it were truly bad, then this review would be easy to write and this book easy to grade. Instead, it is constantly on the verge of something great. It's just not quite there yet. There's nothing fundamentally flawed. It could shine with a lot more polish and organization.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "The Apprentices-Crimson Guard Trilogy book 1" a C
Click here for the next book review (which was a request): Terran Psychosis
Click here for the previous book review (which was not a request): Rich Dad, Poor Dad
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Answering Review Request: "Crisis on Stardust Station"
John Taloni asked me to read his story "Crisis on Stardust Station". It is about intelligent and telepathic cats that live in a space station and help humans repair it after a freak solar flare. I will examine plot, characters and polish before assigning a grade.
PLOT
The plot starts off with world building and character introduction during a peaceful time. I find this necessary to set the tone of the story. It's like something written by Vulcans; all serious and logical. At many times someone says something along the lines of "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one." Overall, it's interesting to see the tripartite world of the space station: human astronauts, Civilized Cats and Free Cats.
I would classify the rest of the plot in two arcs: Repair and Prepare. The Repair Arc follows the space station's attempt to fix the damage done to the station by the solar flare and the Prepare Arc follows their attempts to shield themselves against the next solar flare. The primary work is done by the Civilized Cats and Free Cats with the three humans providing knowledge of the station and the necessary work to be done.
Aside from the intelligent and telepathic cats thing, it is a hard space science fiction work. I will freely admit that I don't understand how space stations and solar collector satellites function so my confusion at the events is likely due to my own ignorance. If Mr.Taloni were just making stuff, I wouldn't be able to tell. However, it sounds plausible enough. Nothing techno babble or P particles.
On the other side of the coin, it's not completely science-y. There's other stuff too. There's a culture clash between the Civilized Cats and the Free Cats, discussions about leadership, and also a very tiny love mystery. These things provide that Human/Cat element so you know you're not dealing with robots.
Ending is good. There's a climax and then falling action to resolution, and finally a sequel hook. I like that pairing.
CHARACTERS
There's a large cast of named characters. The more prominent have good development and I will highlight some of them. On the whole the cast feels more like an ensemble without a "main cast".
Shadow is the leader of the Free Cats. He's powerful and a skilled hunter. As the crisis unfolds, it's interesting to see him transition from "forest hunt leader" to "space hunt leader". It's kind of like a Industrial Revolution thing; that transfer of skills. Instead of catching mice he's catching packages in space.
Speaker is a Free Cat misfit. He's a poor hunter and "paths" i.e. (telepathic transmits) much louder than others. It turns out that he has a special skill for long range telepathy and going deeper than others. On Tvtropes, we'd call him a Woobie, so it's nice to see him "find his highwalker" in Alice.
John the human and Mrrowl the cat are like the same person in two different bodies. Both of them are studious, inquisitive, strong willed and take the long view of things. If one removed descriptions and saw only dialogue, it would be easy to imagine them being old friends of the same species. Being on the same wavelength likely helps Mrrowl add John to the "Deep Path", a Hive-Mind like group telepathy session.
POLISH
No spelling or grammar errors.
Like I said above, there's a Vulcan style tone in this book. It's serious, logical, presents the facts and gets stuff done. It reminds me of the classic Sherlock Holmes stories in that way.
This is not to say that there is no emotion. For instance, when Shadow goes off to make his Heroic Sacrifice, there is a great deal of emotion. In fact, scenes such as these stand out all the more because they are rare, and therefore more memorable.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "Crisis on Stardust Station" a B+
Click here for the next book review (which is not a review request): Young Miss Holmes casebook 1-2
Click here for the previous review request: Dawn of Steam: First Light
PLOT
The plot starts off with world building and character introduction during a peaceful time. I find this necessary to set the tone of the story. It's like something written by Vulcans; all serious and logical. At many times someone says something along the lines of "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one." Overall, it's interesting to see the tripartite world of the space station: human astronauts, Civilized Cats and Free Cats.
I would classify the rest of the plot in two arcs: Repair and Prepare. The Repair Arc follows the space station's attempt to fix the damage done to the station by the solar flare and the Prepare Arc follows their attempts to shield themselves against the next solar flare. The primary work is done by the Civilized Cats and Free Cats with the three humans providing knowledge of the station and the necessary work to be done.
Aside from the intelligent and telepathic cats thing, it is a hard space science fiction work. I will freely admit that I don't understand how space stations and solar collector satellites function so my confusion at the events is likely due to my own ignorance. If Mr.Taloni were just making stuff, I wouldn't be able to tell. However, it sounds plausible enough. Nothing techno babble or P particles.
On the other side of the coin, it's not completely science-y. There's other stuff too. There's a culture clash between the Civilized Cats and the Free Cats, discussions about leadership, and also a very tiny love mystery. These things provide that Human/Cat element so you know you're not dealing with robots.
Ending is good. There's a climax and then falling action to resolution, and finally a sequel hook. I like that pairing.
CHARACTERS
There's a large cast of named characters. The more prominent have good development and I will highlight some of them. On the whole the cast feels more like an ensemble without a "main cast".
Shadow is the leader of the Free Cats. He's powerful and a skilled hunter. As the crisis unfolds, it's interesting to see him transition from "forest hunt leader" to "space hunt leader". It's kind of like a Industrial Revolution thing; that transfer of skills. Instead of catching mice he's catching packages in space.
Speaker is a Free Cat misfit. He's a poor hunter and "paths" i.e. (telepathic transmits) much louder than others. It turns out that he has a special skill for long range telepathy and going deeper than others. On Tvtropes, we'd call him a Woobie, so it's nice to see him "find his highwalker" in Alice.
John the human and Mrrowl the cat are like the same person in two different bodies. Both of them are studious, inquisitive, strong willed and take the long view of things. If one removed descriptions and saw only dialogue, it would be easy to imagine them being old friends of the same species. Being on the same wavelength likely helps Mrrowl add John to the "Deep Path", a Hive-Mind like group telepathy session.
POLISH
No spelling or grammar errors.
Like I said above, there's a Vulcan style tone in this book. It's serious, logical, presents the facts and gets stuff done. It reminds me of the classic Sherlock Holmes stories in that way.
This is not to say that there is no emotion. For instance, when Shadow goes off to make his Heroic Sacrifice, there is a great deal of emotion. In fact, scenes such as these stand out all the more because they are rare, and therefore more memorable.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "Crisis on Stardust Station" a B+
Click here for the next book review (which is not a review request): Young Miss Holmes casebook 1-2
Click here for the previous review request: Dawn of Steam: First Light
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Answering Review Request: Dawn of Steam First Light
Jeffrey Cook asked me to read his book "Dawn of Steam: First Light". It's about a Drean Team exploring the world to either prove or disprove that an adventurer's journals are non-fiction, and all because of a bet made by two aristocrats. I will examine plot, character and polish before assigning a grade.
PLOT
This story takes place in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, and several people have gotten rich because of it. Two of these newly rich people decide to make a high stakes bet on Dr.Bowe's journals. These journals talk about his adventures across the world, from the American Wild West to India, to Japan, the last of these was closed to outsiders at the time, and the many wonders that he has seen. The bet is that he made all this up and so they hire crews to prove one way or the other.
This book covers the first leg of the trip, thus "First Light". It covers the bet itself, the Avengers Assembled scenes, and the trip across America. There's also an unplanned detour at a Spanish fort in Florida to claim it for England because a certain incident indicates war is coming.
Considering the story is told through Gregory Watt's journal and letters, and in professional and documentary tone, it can hardly be said to be thrilling despite its subject matter. The reader is further removed from the source of the action since Gregory Watts is not the one publishing this story in-universe. His wife is and after 65 years of marriage to boot. HOWEVER, that does not mean that this story is not dramatic or suffuse with tension. For example, there's this horrific storm that the airship is trapped in that leads to tragedy; since Gregory warns of the tragedy before hand (after all, his girlfriend is a delicate thing and might not be able to handle such awful happenings!) it has this "waiting for the other shoe to drop" sort of suspense; of knowing something bad is going to happen and being unable to stop it, because it's already happened.
Also, there is a subplot within the "exploring on a bet" main plot. Up until now, the in-universe public has been unaware of this conspiracy. Cordelia adds extra stuff that wasn't in the original publication. These are revealed in occasional interludes from other characters; other letters that hinted at something bigger and more sinister. It's quite a treat to find those gems.
There's a historical element; a deep sense of history. The events of the story take place in 1815 but the in-universe book is published in 1885. Thus there are footnotes for events that take place between the two. It is fascinating flavor text. It's the sort of small details that can push a story's quality higher.
The Ending is fantastic. Cordelia, the in-universe editor, decides to stop volume 1 after the group's first big achievement. This also marks the end of the first year of their adventure. Thus, it is a milestone and suitable stopping place.
CHARACTERS
The main cast is a Rag Tag Bunch of Misfits. Their recruitment fills tens of pages. While this may sound boring, the events that occur in the midst of recruitment and the colorful nature of these characters makes it quite entertaining. Gregory's English snarkiness makes it even better.
Gregory Watts is the Supporting Protagonist and documentary/photographer of the expedition. He wastes no time in establishing how silly he thinks the bet is and how it is obvious that Dr.Bowe fabricated his journals. He takes the job in spite of this because he believes such an adventure will bring him fame and fortune enough to convince his girlfriend's father that he is worthy of her hand in marriage. In other words, a modern engagement challenge.
He is an English gentleman. This means that he is polite, chivalrous and patriotic. It also means that he is prejudiced against everyone that is not English, has mild Stay In The Kitchen ideas, and is prone to backhanded compliments and stealth insults.
The people he recruits as follows:
-Sir James Coltrane and Jilian Coltrane are like paragons of English society for their gender. Respectively, they are the gentleman war hero/inventor and the proper lady Silk Hiding Steel social networker. They are dual leadership of the expedition.
-Sam Bowe is frontier hunter and the daughter of Dr.Bowe. She is their guide. It becomes a minor running gag how her feats impress Gregory yet impress upon him that she must be insane for doing so.
-There's Eddy McBride, a Scottish sniper and a foil for James; gruff, quirky, Scottish, and snipping.
-Harriet is a Cute Clumsy Girl desperately trying to be a Proper Lady like her cousin Jillian. She's also a mechanic from her time on her family's farm in Virgina.
-An Italian conman named Giovanni Franzini and his assistant, Julietta Penn, who is a Romanian fortune teller. They provide less reputable skill sets.
There is no clear villain, just the "opposing crew" from the other side of the bet. Very little is revealed about them in the first volume but they still cause a great deal of trouble.
POLISH
Dawn of Steam is an epistolary novel, that is, it takes the form of letters and journal entries. Never once does this atmosphere break. The illusion of historical documents and 70 year footnotes is perfect. It's impressive stuff.
No spelling or grammar errors.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "Dawn of Steam First Light" an A+
Click here for the next review request: "Crisis on Stardust Station"
Click here for the previous review request: Blood for Gold: The Fatal Tome
To read about the sequel: Gods of the Sun, click the link.
Brian Wilkerson is a freelance book reviewer, writing advice blogger and independent novelist. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).
PLOT
This story takes place in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, and several people have gotten rich because of it. Two of these newly rich people decide to make a high stakes bet on Dr.Bowe's journals. These journals talk about his adventures across the world, from the American Wild West to India, to Japan, the last of these was closed to outsiders at the time, and the many wonders that he has seen. The bet is that he made all this up and so they hire crews to prove one way or the other.
This book covers the first leg of the trip, thus "First Light". It covers the bet itself, the Avengers Assembled scenes, and the trip across America. There's also an unplanned detour at a Spanish fort in Florida to claim it for England because a certain incident indicates war is coming.
Considering the story is told through Gregory Watt's journal and letters, and in professional and documentary tone, it can hardly be said to be thrilling despite its subject matter. The reader is further removed from the source of the action since Gregory Watts is not the one publishing this story in-universe. His wife is and after 65 years of marriage to boot. HOWEVER, that does not mean that this story is not dramatic or suffuse with tension. For example, there's this horrific storm that the airship is trapped in that leads to tragedy; since Gregory warns of the tragedy before hand (after all, his girlfriend is a delicate thing and might not be able to handle such awful happenings!) it has this "waiting for the other shoe to drop" sort of suspense; of knowing something bad is going to happen and being unable to stop it, because it's already happened.
Also, there is a subplot within the "exploring on a bet" main plot. Up until now, the in-universe public has been unaware of this conspiracy. Cordelia adds extra stuff that wasn't in the original publication. These are revealed in occasional interludes from other characters; other letters that hinted at something bigger and more sinister. It's quite a treat to find those gems.
There's a historical element; a deep sense of history. The events of the story take place in 1815 but the in-universe book is published in 1885. Thus there are footnotes for events that take place between the two. It is fascinating flavor text. It's the sort of small details that can push a story's quality higher.
The Ending is fantastic. Cordelia, the in-universe editor, decides to stop volume 1 after the group's first big achievement. This also marks the end of the first year of their adventure. Thus, it is a milestone and suitable stopping place.
CHARACTERS
The main cast is a Rag Tag Bunch of Misfits. Their recruitment fills tens of pages. While this may sound boring, the events that occur in the midst of recruitment and the colorful nature of these characters makes it quite entertaining. Gregory's English snarkiness makes it even better.
Gregory Watts is the Supporting Protagonist and documentary/photographer of the expedition. He wastes no time in establishing how silly he thinks the bet is and how it is obvious that Dr.Bowe fabricated his journals. He takes the job in spite of this because he believes such an adventure will bring him fame and fortune enough to convince his girlfriend's father that he is worthy of her hand in marriage. In other words, a modern engagement challenge.
He is an English gentleman. This means that he is polite, chivalrous and patriotic. It also means that he is prejudiced against everyone that is not English, has mild Stay In The Kitchen ideas, and is prone to backhanded compliments and stealth insults.
The people he recruits as follows:
-Sir James Coltrane and Jilian Coltrane are like paragons of English society for their gender. Respectively, they are the gentleman war hero/inventor and the proper lady Silk Hiding Steel social networker. They are dual leadership of the expedition.
-Sam Bowe is frontier hunter and the daughter of Dr.Bowe. She is their guide. It becomes a minor running gag how her feats impress Gregory yet impress upon him that she must be insane for doing so.
-There's Eddy McBride, a Scottish sniper and a foil for James; gruff, quirky, Scottish, and snipping.
-Harriet is a Cute Clumsy Girl desperately trying to be a Proper Lady like her cousin Jillian. She's also a mechanic from her time on her family's farm in Virgina.
-An Italian conman named Giovanni Franzini and his assistant, Julietta Penn, who is a Romanian fortune teller. They provide less reputable skill sets.
There is no clear villain, just the "opposing crew" from the other side of the bet. Very little is revealed about them in the first volume but they still cause a great deal of trouble.
POLISH
Dawn of Steam is an epistolary novel, that is, it takes the form of letters and journal entries. Never once does this atmosphere break. The illusion of historical documents and 70 year footnotes is perfect. It's impressive stuff.
No spelling or grammar errors.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "Dawn of Steam First Light" an A+
Click here for the next review request: "Crisis on Stardust Station"
Click here for the previous review request: Blood for Gold: The Fatal Tome
To read about the sequel: Gods of the Sun, click the link.
Brian Wilkerson is a freelance book reviewer, writing advice blogger and independent novelist. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Answering Review Request: "From Fairies and Creatures of the Night, Guard Me"
Daphne du Bois, writing as Emily de Courcy, (pename) asked me to read her book "From Fairies and Creatures of the Night, Guard Me". It's an anthology of seventeen fairy tale style stories. I will examine plot, character and polish and then assign a grade. I will not examine each one because that would make this review too long.
PLOT
This anthology is like a Shared Universe in one volume. All the stories take place in the same verse, either explicitly by sharing characters or implicitly, by sharing setting or mechanics. (The exception is the Beowulf Prequel, but I'll get to that in a minute). It's interesting to compare and contrast.
Many stories have this low energy humor. She refers to it as "witty repartee". In the story, "Something Rich and Strange", for instance, there's a human woman bantering with the Erlking (I.e. King of the Fairy Realm) over coffee in a café. "The Bridge" has this same woman talking with a traditionalist troll. The narration has him ranting about troll politeness and how rude humans have become over the ages, while she responds to him like he's her human classmate.
These stories revel in a lack of awe and wonder at the supernatural. "Of Ice Pixies and Wine Casks" sees the Erlking dealing with a infestation of Ice Pixies in his castle. Penny snarks at him and is roped into helping. Despite the fantasy setting, characters, and magic, it's quite mundane. That's where all the humor comes from. I would call it "Comical Low Fantasy".
Even "The Barely Seen World" where a wizard describes at length the many marvels of the Hinterland Market, the physical location (more accurately, what it appears to be) is a flea market. This same story also mocks the grandiose; the real thing doesn't have to make noise. In fact, the flashier a thing is, the more likely it is to be fake.
There's a running theme of Living Forever Is Awesome. The long lived races of the Hinterland go about business as usual for centuries on end. The humans who become immortal generally don't mind. It's just day-to-day life. When a vampire starts Wangsting about eternity, Death herself tells him to cheer up. I find this refreshing. It also adds to the humor. Wulf (the troll from the Bridge) dislikes how impolite the modern era is because he was in the previous eras. It sounds like someone's grandfather reminiscing about the Good Old Ways.
Because this is an anthology of short stories, there is no "ending" so to speak. Some stories are self-contained, some look like the beginnings of larger tales, and some are a mixture of both.
I have two complaints about this anthology
1. Odd Friendship template
Many stories have as their basis an Odd Friendship between a human and a supernatural creature (or as in "Pumpkins", an earthly supernatural creature and a deity) that engage in witty banter and mundane activities. Near the end of the volume, it gets stale.
2. Beowulf Prequel
This story claims to take place in Heorot before Beowulf arrives. The time period is the same but everyone has been replaced with immature teenagers from the late 20th century. The silly humor becomes stupid, there's not the slightest sense of supernatural at all (mundane or not), and the wit from other stories is replaced with whining. It's so distinct that I feel like someone else wrote it.
CHARACTERS
Being an anthology, there are few consistent characters. Some of them have more meat on them than others, fully fleshed out, engaging etc. Others are more like walking plot props that enable the story to function.
An example of the former is Penny. She is a human college student and is present in three stories. What I like about her is her wit combined with her sense of "do not care". She's what you call an Unfazed Everyman. She's more impressed with the Erlking's (otherwise mundane) violin than the Erlking himself, a being of magic that rules the supernatural Hinterland. When a troll (living under a campus bridge) tries to steal her lunch, she smacks his clawed hand and goes back to reading. She's always interacting in this nonchalant style that's fun to read.
An example of the later is the wizard in "Market". One can only assume things about his personality because little time is spent developing it. He's just there to explain how the Hinterland Market works to Olympia. Ironically, she has more of a personality than him despite being a soul-less automata whose individuality her creators deliberately hobbled to make a bigger profit.
POLISH
I caught perhaps 2 or 3 spelling/grammar errors. Nothing major.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "From Fairies and Creatures of the Night, Guard Me" a B+
Click here for the next review request: "Past, Present and Nowhere"
Click here for the previous review request: "Angeions"
PLOT
This anthology is like a Shared Universe in one volume. All the stories take place in the same verse, either explicitly by sharing characters or implicitly, by sharing setting or mechanics. (The exception is the Beowulf Prequel, but I'll get to that in a minute). It's interesting to compare and contrast.
Many stories have this low energy humor. She refers to it as "witty repartee". In the story, "Something Rich and Strange", for instance, there's a human woman bantering with the Erlking (I.e. King of the Fairy Realm) over coffee in a café. "The Bridge" has this same woman talking with a traditionalist troll. The narration has him ranting about troll politeness and how rude humans have become over the ages, while she responds to him like he's her human classmate.
These stories revel in a lack of awe and wonder at the supernatural. "Of Ice Pixies and Wine Casks" sees the Erlking dealing with a infestation of Ice Pixies in his castle. Penny snarks at him and is roped into helping. Despite the fantasy setting, characters, and magic, it's quite mundane. That's where all the humor comes from. I would call it "Comical Low Fantasy".
Even "The Barely Seen World" where a wizard describes at length the many marvels of the Hinterland Market, the physical location (more accurately, what it appears to be) is a flea market. This same story also mocks the grandiose; the real thing doesn't have to make noise. In fact, the flashier a thing is, the more likely it is to be fake.
There's a running theme of Living Forever Is Awesome. The long lived races of the Hinterland go about business as usual for centuries on end. The humans who become immortal generally don't mind. It's just day-to-day life. When a vampire starts Wangsting about eternity, Death herself tells him to cheer up. I find this refreshing. It also adds to the humor. Wulf (the troll from the Bridge) dislikes how impolite the modern era is because he was in the previous eras. It sounds like someone's grandfather reminiscing about the Good Old Ways.
Because this is an anthology of short stories, there is no "ending" so to speak. Some stories are self-contained, some look like the beginnings of larger tales, and some are a mixture of both.
I have two complaints about this anthology
1. Odd Friendship template
Many stories have as their basis an Odd Friendship between a human and a supernatural creature (or as in "Pumpkins", an earthly supernatural creature and a deity) that engage in witty banter and mundane activities. Near the end of the volume, it gets stale.
2. Beowulf Prequel
This story claims to take place in Heorot before Beowulf arrives. The time period is the same but everyone has been replaced with immature teenagers from the late 20th century. The silly humor becomes stupid, there's not the slightest sense of supernatural at all (mundane or not), and the wit from other stories is replaced with whining. It's so distinct that I feel like someone else wrote it.
CHARACTERS
Being an anthology, there are few consistent characters. Some of them have more meat on them than others, fully fleshed out, engaging etc. Others are more like walking plot props that enable the story to function.
An example of the former is Penny. She is a human college student and is present in three stories. What I like about her is her wit combined with her sense of "do not care". She's what you call an Unfazed Everyman. She's more impressed with the Erlking's (otherwise mundane) violin than the Erlking himself, a being of magic that rules the supernatural Hinterland. When a troll (living under a campus bridge) tries to steal her lunch, she smacks his clawed hand and goes back to reading. She's always interacting in this nonchalant style that's fun to read.
An example of the later is the wizard in "Market". One can only assume things about his personality because little time is spent developing it. He's just there to explain how the Hinterland Market works to Olympia. Ironically, she has more of a personality than him despite being a soul-less automata whose individuality her creators deliberately hobbled to make a bigger profit.
POLISH
I caught perhaps 2 or 3 spelling/grammar errors. Nothing major.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "From Fairies and Creatures of the Night, Guard Me" a B+
Click here for the next review request: "Past, Present and Nowhere"
Click here for the previous review request: "Angeions"
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Answering Review Request: Phoenix Rising
Martin Allen asked me to read his book "Phoenix Rising". It's about a guy from a theocracy investigating a freelance preacher in the space age. I will examine plot, characters, and polish and then assign a grade.
PLOT
I like to call this story "The Gosepl According to Javert" because it is a blow by blow copy of the New Testament but from the perspective of a zealous law enforcer, like Inspector Javert from Les Miserables.
It's an interesting idea. Because Decimus has seen charlatan preachers in the past, he assumes that to be the case here. From that perspective, the healings are staged, calming the sea is made up, some stories are conflated to be more than one event, etc. This makes the early parts funny by way of Dramatic Irony. Because Decimus doesn't accept the miracles at face value, he reaches for earthly explanations that are more complicated and less likely, right up to inventing a "Shadow" figure that is manipulating and providing for The Phoenix. Thereby, he makes his own atheistic "God of the Gaps".
Because this story is framed as the Investigator's private log after he's been converted to The Phoenix's flock, the Investigator also takes on dimensions of Apostle Paul. He's an antagonist that eagerly prunes what thinks is/could be heresy, then ultimately sees the light and spreads the word himself. It's like Mr. Allen arranged for Apostle Paul to meet Jesus in the flesh instead of in a vision on the Road to Damascus.
I also like how the setting is space age. I disliked the Out Grown Such Silly Superstitions trope, which states that space age capable societies are atheistic by default. I find it illogical to think that religions would passively fade away because humans live on Mars instead of Earth or what not. It's not a problem here. (The Corrupt Church thing is another matter.)
There are many things I don't like about this book.
This story takes place in the future of Earth. Rome is the main setting, Naples is visited, etc. My problem is there's no connection between 21st century and this setting. I don't understand how this solar system spanning theocratic empire was created. More importantly, I have no idea where this "Sol Invictus" religion came from. Without that, I lack the fundamentals for not only the society but the main characters's motivation and the conspiracy driving the plot.
There are two narratives here. One is the setting update for the Christian New Testament. The other is wholly original yet also wholly dependent on the first. The problem is that these two plots don't mesh.
1. The Passion in the original text was about saving people from sin. Here it sounds more like trying to prevent earthly slaughter, but the thing is, there was no threat of such before The Phoenix started preaching and even if his followers didn't fall for provocation, it wouldn't solve the root problem. I'm left wondering why he started in the first place.
2. The text doesn't confirm if The Phoenix is just one more preacher or something special. I feel Mr. Allen wants to keep it ambiguous but this creates problems. If he's not special, which is what the text leans toward, then this creates a number of plotholes.
2.1 The Transfiguration scene has two instances of clearly supernatural happening. The first is when Decimus tries to eavesdrop on the private scene, and he is repeatedly teleported away from it. The explanation given is that he spaced out and climbed down. This doesn't make sense because it doesn't fit the mentality of a investigator.
2.2. When he finally gets close to the area, he sees a bright white light. There is no explanation here. Decimus merely states that there was no way to create earthly light.
3. The Phoenix clearly knows the Passion is going to happen and he knows the full extent of the plot before Decimus is sure that there is a plot. How does he know this if he is just one more free lance preacher in no man's land?
There is no ending. There is no conclusion. There is no resolution. I feel like it's a Shocking Swerve downer ending. After following the story beat by beat, everyone with even a passing knowledge of the New Testament would expect a Resurrection Scene. Thus, averting this at the last moment is a Twist Ending. It's cheap and more than that, it doesn't make sense.
This whole time the followers are portrayed as cowardly, self-interested, assholes. The Peter figure even does the "deny three times" thing. Yet at the end they're storming the Imperial Compound. If there hadn't been a plot involved, they would have been quickly and effortlessly slaughtered. This can't be called anything besides "suicidal devotion". Why did they wait until now?
I don't understand why a nuke would be used. This is a handful of bums trying to free their small-town leader. A nuke is hardly justified force. Also, Rome is considered to be the lowliest place in the empire. Everyone believes it to be a cursed place and full of the worst of the worst. Who cares if it gets blown up again?
Why is Decimus horrified at this turn of events? His fellow Investigator clearly believes it will benefit the Empire and the only cost is the dregs of society. Decimus cares nothing for these people. He still thinks of them as diseased and sinful wretches. At no point is he trying to save them. What's the problem? I'm left wondering why they're fighting. Histar has no idea what's going, and without Decimus telling her, she wouldn't know what happened. Thus, there's no reason to silence her and no reason for the fight.
Decimus knows that the Empire is corrupt from the start. He talks about how higher ups live in luxury while others scrap to get by, or how he knows certain big whigs to be pederasts, or others in the Empire that wouldn't survive one of his investigations. Yet he is shocked that an innocent man would be condemned to death in a kangaroo court. It gets worse. He acknowledges at numerous points that Phoenix's sermons could easily be interpreted as heresy or criticism of the Empire. One of them was as transparent as "replace 'Evil' with 'Empire'".
Normally, I refrain from suggesting improvements in reviews. Despite any dislike I may have, I try to respect the author's vision. However, this book personally offended me and since a large chunk of it is ripped straight out of the New Testament, I feel it qualifies as an exception.
I think there should be an epilogue. Something that goes back to the start of the narrative, where he's introducing this story. It should involve his plans to duplicate this narrative and spread it around like the other works in The Movement, because he considers himself part of it now. He would frame it in terms of atonement, both for turning in The Phoenix and all the other murders he's committed for the Empire. This would bring forth the full potential of the Apostle Paul expy in his character.
Also, he would declare himself to be investigating the Empire. This would bring forth and crystallize his doubts about the Empire (especially the upper echelons) that have been sprinkled through-out the narrative beginning with the start of his investigation of The Phoenix. I believe something like this would bring closure to the narrative, while at the same time, serve as a fantastic sequel hook.
I don't ask for a Resurrection scene. While I'd like to see one, and I feel some sort of explanation for the supernatural happenings is needed, I'm going to respect Mr.Martin's desire to keep it ambiguous-leaning-nonsupernatural. In fact, giving Decimus bad dreams or "hallucinations" of The Phoenix would further this ambiguity and contribute to the Road to Damascus theme of this entire book.
CHARACTERS
There are basically three characters here. They are Decimus the Investigator, "The Phoenix" the preacher, and Histar the follower.
Histar is like an Audience Surrogate and Morality Pet. Her only role here is to humanize Decimus and act as an opposing influence. She does not otherwise contribute to the plot
"The Phoenix" is a carbon copy of Jesus the Christ. Even the speeches are similar but with local terminology. It is a well done copy, but a copy it remains. On TvTropes, we'd call this an "expy".
Decimus is, as written in the previous section, interesting. He's like this mix of Inspector Javert and Apostle Paul, with a sympathetic Judas mixed in. Now give this composite character the conditioning and weaponry of Halo's Master Chief.
Despite this mix, he is a passive character. More accurately, he is an active character that is made passive by the narrative. The bulk of what he does is read about The Phoenix and then observe him in person. He does a lot of thinking and explaining, which means a good chunk of the report is his own speculation about things. The only action he takes other than his Judas thing is to get Histar out of Rome before The Very Bad Thing happens.
The relationship between Histar and Decimus makes no sense. It goes beyond Love At First Sight and becomes instant irrational obsession. Out of a large crowd, Decimus spots Histar. As the narrator, he points out that it made no sense to rescue her from rapists (outside the investigation) and even less sense not to kill her afterward (she realized he was an investigator from his fighting ability). For someone as heavily indoctrinated as Decimus is supposed to be, her safety quickly becomes his only objective.
POLISH
There are several spelling and grammar errors. It's not excessive but the book would definitely benefit from a proofreader. Also, there are few paragraph breaks. Most pages are a single paragraph. This makes it hard to read.
Interestingly, there is a In-universe justification for this. The book is a first person narrative and Decimus says that he's using "lowtech" to better avoid detection. As interesting as it is, the errors could also be due to other reasons.
The first person narration is poor. The in-universe justification is to be account of the life of the Phoenix, but it's more about Decimus' life. At the beginning, he states that there are written works besides his own being circulated by The Movement, yet the ending implies that only person left in the Movement is headed toward suicide. At the end, one would think he would reach the point in the story where he would begin to write down what happened, i.e. the beginning of the narrative where he explains his purpose. Instead, it cuts off at the end of The Passion. Without that connection, the narrative doesn't make sense. There's not even an afterword stating "thus concludes my account/investigation" etc.
I like the idea for the story but the execution is weak and I feel the desire for a tragic twist ending over-rode the desire for a complete narrative.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "Phoenix Rising" an F
This is a free review request. I received nothing in exchange for it except a free copy of the book.
Click here for the next review request: "Within Ruin"
Click here for the previous review request: "The Experiment"
PLOT
I like to call this story "The Gosepl According to Javert" because it is a blow by blow copy of the New Testament but from the perspective of a zealous law enforcer, like Inspector Javert from Les Miserables.
It's an interesting idea. Because Decimus has seen charlatan preachers in the past, he assumes that to be the case here. From that perspective, the healings are staged, calming the sea is made up, some stories are conflated to be more than one event, etc. This makes the early parts funny by way of Dramatic Irony. Because Decimus doesn't accept the miracles at face value, he reaches for earthly explanations that are more complicated and less likely, right up to inventing a "Shadow" figure that is manipulating and providing for The Phoenix. Thereby, he makes his own atheistic "God of the Gaps".
Because this story is framed as the Investigator's private log after he's been converted to The Phoenix's flock, the Investigator also takes on dimensions of Apostle Paul. He's an antagonist that eagerly prunes what thinks is/could be heresy, then ultimately sees the light and spreads the word himself. It's like Mr. Allen arranged for Apostle Paul to meet Jesus in the flesh instead of in a vision on the Road to Damascus.
I also like how the setting is space age. I disliked the Out Grown Such Silly Superstitions trope, which states that space age capable societies are atheistic by default. I find it illogical to think that religions would passively fade away because humans live on Mars instead of Earth or what not. It's not a problem here. (The Corrupt Church thing is another matter.)
There are many things I don't like about this book.
This story takes place in the future of Earth. Rome is the main setting, Naples is visited, etc. My problem is there's no connection between 21st century and this setting. I don't understand how this solar system spanning theocratic empire was created. More importantly, I have no idea where this "Sol Invictus" religion came from. Without that, I lack the fundamentals for not only the society but the main characters's motivation and the conspiracy driving the plot.
There are two narratives here. One is the setting update for the Christian New Testament. The other is wholly original yet also wholly dependent on the first. The problem is that these two plots don't mesh.
1. The Passion in the original text was about saving people from sin. Here it sounds more like trying to prevent earthly slaughter, but the thing is, there was no threat of such before The Phoenix started preaching and even if his followers didn't fall for provocation, it wouldn't solve the root problem. I'm left wondering why he started in the first place.
2. The text doesn't confirm if The Phoenix is just one more preacher or something special. I feel Mr. Allen wants to keep it ambiguous but this creates problems. If he's not special, which is what the text leans toward, then this creates a number of plotholes.
2.1 The Transfiguration scene has two instances of clearly supernatural happening. The first is when Decimus tries to eavesdrop on the private scene, and he is repeatedly teleported away from it. The explanation given is that he spaced out and climbed down. This doesn't make sense because it doesn't fit the mentality of a investigator.
2.2. When he finally gets close to the area, he sees a bright white light. There is no explanation here. Decimus merely states that there was no way to create earthly light.
3. The Phoenix clearly knows the Passion is going to happen and he knows the full extent of the plot before Decimus is sure that there is a plot. How does he know this if he is just one more free lance preacher in no man's land?
There is no ending. There is no conclusion. There is no resolution. I feel like it's a Shocking Swerve downer ending. After following the story beat by beat, everyone with even a passing knowledge of the New Testament would expect a Resurrection Scene. Thus, averting this at the last moment is a Twist Ending. It's cheap and more than that, it doesn't make sense.
This whole time the followers are portrayed as cowardly, self-interested, assholes. The Peter figure even does the "deny three times" thing. Yet at the end they're storming the Imperial Compound. If there hadn't been a plot involved, they would have been quickly and effortlessly slaughtered. This can't be called anything besides "suicidal devotion". Why did they wait until now?
I don't understand why a nuke would be used. This is a handful of bums trying to free their small-town leader. A nuke is hardly justified force. Also, Rome is considered to be the lowliest place in the empire. Everyone believes it to be a cursed place and full of the worst of the worst. Who cares if it gets blown up again?
Why is Decimus horrified at this turn of events? His fellow Investigator clearly believes it will benefit the Empire and the only cost is the dregs of society. Decimus cares nothing for these people. He still thinks of them as diseased and sinful wretches. At no point is he trying to save them. What's the problem? I'm left wondering why they're fighting. Histar has no idea what's going, and without Decimus telling her, she wouldn't know what happened. Thus, there's no reason to silence her and no reason for the fight.
Decimus knows that the Empire is corrupt from the start. He talks about how higher ups live in luxury while others scrap to get by, or how he knows certain big whigs to be pederasts, or others in the Empire that wouldn't survive one of his investigations. Yet he is shocked that an innocent man would be condemned to death in a kangaroo court. It gets worse. He acknowledges at numerous points that Phoenix's sermons could easily be interpreted as heresy or criticism of the Empire. One of them was as transparent as "replace 'Evil' with 'Empire'".
Normally, I refrain from suggesting improvements in reviews. Despite any dislike I may have, I try to respect the author's vision. However, this book personally offended me and since a large chunk of it is ripped straight out of the New Testament, I feel it qualifies as an exception.
I think there should be an epilogue. Something that goes back to the start of the narrative, where he's introducing this story. It should involve his plans to duplicate this narrative and spread it around like the other works in The Movement, because he considers himself part of it now. He would frame it in terms of atonement, both for turning in The Phoenix and all the other murders he's committed for the Empire. This would bring forth the full potential of the Apostle Paul expy in his character.
Also, he would declare himself to be investigating the Empire. This would bring forth and crystallize his doubts about the Empire (especially the upper echelons) that have been sprinkled through-out the narrative beginning with the start of his investigation of The Phoenix. I believe something like this would bring closure to the narrative, while at the same time, serve as a fantastic sequel hook.
I don't ask for a Resurrection scene. While I'd like to see one, and I feel some sort of explanation for the supernatural happenings is needed, I'm going to respect Mr.Martin's desire to keep it ambiguous-leaning-nonsupernatural. In fact, giving Decimus bad dreams or "hallucinations" of The Phoenix would further this ambiguity and contribute to the Road to Damascus theme of this entire book.
CHARACTERS
There are basically three characters here. They are Decimus the Investigator, "The Phoenix" the preacher, and Histar the follower.
Histar is like an Audience Surrogate and Morality Pet. Her only role here is to humanize Decimus and act as an opposing influence. She does not otherwise contribute to the plot
"The Phoenix" is a carbon copy of Jesus the Christ. Even the speeches are similar but with local terminology. It is a well done copy, but a copy it remains. On TvTropes, we'd call this an "expy".
Decimus is, as written in the previous section, interesting. He's like this mix of Inspector Javert and Apostle Paul, with a sympathetic Judas mixed in. Now give this composite character the conditioning and weaponry of Halo's Master Chief.
Despite this mix, he is a passive character. More accurately, he is an active character that is made passive by the narrative. The bulk of what he does is read about The Phoenix and then observe him in person. He does a lot of thinking and explaining, which means a good chunk of the report is his own speculation about things. The only action he takes other than his Judas thing is to get Histar out of Rome before The Very Bad Thing happens.
The relationship between Histar and Decimus makes no sense. It goes beyond Love At First Sight and becomes instant irrational obsession. Out of a large crowd, Decimus spots Histar. As the narrator, he points out that it made no sense to rescue her from rapists (outside the investigation) and even less sense not to kill her afterward (she realized he was an investigator from his fighting ability). For someone as heavily indoctrinated as Decimus is supposed to be, her safety quickly becomes his only objective.
POLISH
There are several spelling and grammar errors. It's not excessive but the book would definitely benefit from a proofreader. Also, there are few paragraph breaks. Most pages are a single paragraph. This makes it hard to read.
Interestingly, there is a In-universe justification for this. The book is a first person narrative and Decimus says that he's using "lowtech" to better avoid detection. As interesting as it is, the errors could also be due to other reasons.
The first person narration is poor. The in-universe justification is to be account of the life of the Phoenix, but it's more about Decimus' life. At the beginning, he states that there are written works besides his own being circulated by The Movement, yet the ending implies that only person left in the Movement is headed toward suicide. At the end, one would think he would reach the point in the story where he would begin to write down what happened, i.e. the beginning of the narrative where he explains his purpose. Instead, it cuts off at the end of The Passion. Without that connection, the narrative doesn't make sense. There's not even an afterword stating "thus concludes my account/investigation" etc.
I like the idea for the story but the execution is weak and I feel the desire for a tragic twist ending over-rode the desire for a complete narrative.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "Phoenix Rising" an F
This is a free review request. I received nothing in exchange for it except a free copy of the book.
Click here for the next review request: "Within Ruin"
Click here for the previous review request: "The Experiment"
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Answering Review Request "The Experiment"
Christian Solari asked me to read their novel "The Experiment". It's about these aliens who want to see how intelligent life develops and then get scared when their creations develop hyperspace techonology. I will examine plot, characters and polish, and then assign a grade.
PLOT
There are two plot threads in this story. They intertwine like DNA. In the first thread, there's the Universe Confederation investigating the Experiment. This investigation is complicated, but in a nutshell, the UC wants to determine if subjects of the Experiment (humans, by the way, sort of, it's complicated) will play nice with the rest of the universe. It's basically a "Humanity on Trial" plotline, except no human is aware that trial is taking place. In the second thread, there's the Frontier Space Program pushing to prove that Hyperspace travel is possible. It is this second thread that triggers the first and so they mutually develop alongside each other and influence each other. They are, in fact, so intertwined, that either one of them could be "The Experiment" from the title.
It's fascinating to watch this story start up and develop. MR. Solari's constructed world is well thought out.
On Tvtropes, we have this page called "Blue and Orange Morality" which states that is a system of morality separate from the "Good/Evil" axis on which basic human morality operates. The page also states that some writers fail to make a true example and instead create "evil by a different name." I feel that's not the case here. Mr. Solari genuinely tried to create a culture that works on a different wavelength-sufficiently alien for something that claims to be "truly intelligent/ high intelligence" that a human (i.e. the reader) would still be able to recognize as valid.
This may or may not be the case, but their values are not internally consistent. They claim that "fear" is a primordial emotion that they left behind but the entire purpose for "terminating the Experiment" (i.e. solar system wide genocide) is because they're afraid that humans will harm them/their way of life. They claim to be "fully cooperative" yet they have many arguments among themselves and don't involve humans in their decision making. They claim that "destruction is never an option" yet they can't think of any solution to their Preintelloids-With-Hyperspace tech problem other than Kill Them All. They sound like hypocrites.
I say "may or may not" because I don't feel like Mr. Solari meant to portray the Universe Confederation as truly superior. It feels like more an inversion of What Measure Is A Non-Human. There are parallels between the Universe Confederation (the aliens) and the Union (the humans). Both of them deal with an experiment that will change their world and engage in morally ambiguous behavior in the process. I think Mr.Solari's point is that neither of them were as great as they believed themselves to be.
It has a peculiar turn of events in the third act. Suffice to say it's a mixture of Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions and Messanic Archetype in the same person.
I like the ending. Given the premise, making the ending neat and tidy would be unrealistic. This is a resolution of conflict that's not a "The End".
CHARACTERS
It's a diverse cast here. There are about a dozen or so main characters and all of them are distinct and well developed.
I found it interesting that the most prominent Universe Confederation members are named after Egyptian Deities. Amun was the sun god and here he's the guy in charge of The Experiment. Amaat was the concept of unity and here he is a mediator. Anubis was the god of embalmers, thus associated with death, and his role is to argue for the "termination" of the Experiment. As a side note, this is Everyone Hates Hades because Anubis wasn't considered evil or a maker of death. That's someone else.
Geb is a fascinating character. A scientist that's also a Messianic Archetype. It's a transformation and fusion. If being "fully cooperative" is the mark of "high intelligence:" then I'd say he's the only truly intelligent character in this story.
Huan is a fun character. She's a Genki Girl and brings life to many scenes. Her interactions with the stoic Gup make her even more fun. She's also a walking proof that the "pre-intelliod-Intelliod" line is blurrier than the Universe Confederation makes it out to be. Despite her aggressive-selfish genes, she has the empathy to understand the intelliods she encounters.
POLISH
No spelling or grammar problems. This is a dense but easy read.
The only flaw I see is in the UC's decision making. They do not consider any options other than "All or nothing". There's a sense that the author meant to show them as flawed but the lack of a clear What the Hello Hero make this mere speculation. If something like this was present, I'd give this story a perfect grade.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "The Experiment" a B+
Click here for the next review request: "Phoenix Rising"
Click here for the previous review request: ""Cluck the Undercover Chicken"
PLOT
There are two plot threads in this story. They intertwine like DNA. In the first thread, there's the Universe Confederation investigating the Experiment. This investigation is complicated, but in a nutshell, the UC wants to determine if subjects of the Experiment (humans, by the way, sort of, it's complicated) will play nice with the rest of the universe. It's basically a "Humanity on Trial" plotline, except no human is aware that trial is taking place. In the second thread, there's the Frontier Space Program pushing to prove that Hyperspace travel is possible. It is this second thread that triggers the first and so they mutually develop alongside each other and influence each other. They are, in fact, so intertwined, that either one of them could be "The Experiment" from the title.
It's fascinating to watch this story start up and develop. MR. Solari's constructed world is well thought out.
On Tvtropes, we have this page called "Blue and Orange Morality" which states that is a system of morality separate from the "Good/Evil" axis on which basic human morality operates. The page also states that some writers fail to make a true example and instead create "evil by a different name." I feel that's not the case here. Mr. Solari genuinely tried to create a culture that works on a different wavelength-sufficiently alien for something that claims to be "truly intelligent/ high intelligence" that a human (i.e. the reader) would still be able to recognize as valid.
This may or may not be the case, but their values are not internally consistent. They claim that "fear" is a primordial emotion that they left behind but the entire purpose for "terminating the Experiment" (i.e. solar system wide genocide) is because they're afraid that humans will harm them/their way of life. They claim to be "fully cooperative" yet they have many arguments among themselves and don't involve humans in their decision making. They claim that "destruction is never an option" yet they can't think of any solution to their Preintelloids-With-Hyperspace tech problem other than Kill Them All. They sound like hypocrites.
I say "may or may not" because I don't feel like Mr. Solari meant to portray the Universe Confederation as truly superior. It feels like more an inversion of What Measure Is A Non-Human. There are parallels between the Universe Confederation (the aliens) and the Union (the humans). Both of them deal with an experiment that will change their world and engage in morally ambiguous behavior in the process. I think Mr.Solari's point is that neither of them were as great as they believed themselves to be.
It has a peculiar turn of events in the third act. Suffice to say it's a mixture of Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions and Messanic Archetype in the same person.
I like the ending. Given the premise, making the ending neat and tidy would be unrealistic. This is a resolution of conflict that's not a "The End".
CHARACTERS
It's a diverse cast here. There are about a dozen or so main characters and all of them are distinct and well developed.
I found it interesting that the most prominent Universe Confederation members are named after Egyptian Deities. Amun was the sun god and here he's the guy in charge of The Experiment. Amaat was the concept of unity and here he is a mediator. Anubis was the god of embalmers, thus associated with death, and his role is to argue for the "termination" of the Experiment. As a side note, this is Everyone Hates Hades because Anubis wasn't considered evil or a maker of death. That's someone else.
Geb is a fascinating character. A scientist that's also a Messianic Archetype. It's a transformation and fusion. If being "fully cooperative" is the mark of "high intelligence:" then I'd say he's the only truly intelligent character in this story.
Huan is a fun character. She's a Genki Girl and brings life to many scenes. Her interactions with the stoic Gup make her even more fun. She's also a walking proof that the "pre-intelliod-Intelliod" line is blurrier than the Universe Confederation makes it out to be. Despite her aggressive-selfish genes, she has the empathy to understand the intelliods she encounters.
POLISH
No spelling or grammar problems. This is a dense but easy read.
The only flaw I see is in the UC's decision making. They do not consider any options other than "All or nothing". There's a sense that the author meant to show them as flawed but the lack of a clear What the Hello Hero make this mere speculation. If something like this was present, I'd give this story a perfect grade.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "The Experiment" a B+
Click here for the next review request: "Phoenix Rising"
Click here for the previous review request: ""Cluck the Undercover Chicken"
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Answering Review Request: "Cluck the Undercover Chicken"
G. Eric Francis asked me to read his novel "Cluck the Undercover Chicken". It's about a humanoid chicken cop infiltrating a cult that wants to take over the world, while arguing with the person writing the story. I will examine plot, characters and polish before assigning a grade.
PLOT
This book is trying to be funny not thrilling. Thus, the plot isn't as important as the comedy. The plot is generic, silly, and braced by a shallow straw feminist thing. It reads like a simple minded James Bond parody. If you read this for an engaging plot, you'll be disappointed. You should read this for the comic banter between Cluck and ST (StoryTeller A.K.A. G Eric Francis). That is what kept me turning pages. It's like a two person comedian act with something happening in the background.
You see, Cluck is the only character in this story aware of the fact that he's a character in a story. Not only that, he can communicate with the person writing the story. From the perspective of other characters, he's talking with ceiling tiles. They think he's nuts.
This book deserves recognition for the most shameless use of Deus Ex Machina I've ever read, that is also funny and fits in with the book's overall feel. Only the Freakazoid series tops it in this regard.
Cluck: Did you just write in some new ammo?
ST: Actually, come to think of it, I just did! (...........)That is the fun part about being a writer, you can change things on the fly, get it?
Good ending. There's conflict resolution but still more adventures to come.
CHARACTERS
There are two main characters, Cluck (the protagonist) and ST (the Narrator), and like I said earlier, they are basically a two man comedy routine. Cluck brags about how awesome he is and gets into trouble, and ST reacts to this.
Cluck reminds me of Marvel's Deadpool because of his tendency to talk a lot, his Medium Awareness, and his violent profession. He's like a lite version of Deadpool; doesn't talk as much, not as crazy, not as violent.
ST is a foil. He's quieter and less inclined to toot his own horn. Since he's also the one writing this story, he's effectively a reality warper that can both introduce and resolve random difficulties in Cluck's path. His goal is to make a good story. Considering how he exists on a different level of existence, there's a lot of room for Alternate Character Interpretation and Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory faux symbolism.
POLISH
No spelling or grammar problems. It's easy to follow the character conversations vs those that Cluck has with ST. However, the main plot feels too much like an excuse plot to give this book a perfect grade.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "Cluck the Undercover Chicken" a B+
Click here for the next review request: "The Experiment"
Click here for the previous review request: "Hy Brazil"
PLOT
This book is trying to be funny not thrilling. Thus, the plot isn't as important as the comedy. The plot is generic, silly, and braced by a shallow straw feminist thing. It reads like a simple minded James Bond parody. If you read this for an engaging plot, you'll be disappointed. You should read this for the comic banter between Cluck and ST (StoryTeller A.K.A. G Eric Francis). That is what kept me turning pages. It's like a two person comedian act with something happening in the background.
You see, Cluck is the only character in this story aware of the fact that he's a character in a story. Not only that, he can communicate with the person writing the story. From the perspective of other characters, he's talking with ceiling tiles. They think he's nuts.
This book deserves recognition for the most shameless use of Deus Ex Machina I've ever read, that is also funny and fits in with the book's overall feel. Only the Freakazoid series tops it in this regard.
Cluck: Did you just write in some new ammo?
ST: Actually, come to think of it, I just did! (...........)That is the fun part about being a writer, you can change things on the fly, get it?
Good ending. There's conflict resolution but still more adventures to come.
CHARACTERS
There are two main characters, Cluck (the protagonist) and ST (the Narrator), and like I said earlier, they are basically a two man comedy routine. Cluck brags about how awesome he is and gets into trouble, and ST reacts to this.
Cluck reminds me of Marvel's Deadpool because of his tendency to talk a lot, his Medium Awareness, and his violent profession. He's like a lite version of Deadpool; doesn't talk as much, not as crazy, not as violent.
ST is a foil. He's quieter and less inclined to toot his own horn. Since he's also the one writing this story, he's effectively a reality warper that can both introduce and resolve random difficulties in Cluck's path. His goal is to make a good story. Considering how he exists on a different level of existence, there's a lot of room for Alternate Character Interpretation and Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory faux symbolism.
POLISH
No spelling or grammar problems. It's easy to follow the character conversations vs those that Cluck has with ST. However, the main plot feels too much like an excuse plot to give this book a perfect grade.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "Cluck the Undercover Chicken" a B+
Click here for the next review request: "The Experiment"
Click here for the previous review request: "Hy Brazil"
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Who Has the Best Mousetrap
"If you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door"
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sure Ralph, that sounds fair and logical, but how do you spread the word about your superior mousetrap? How do you convince them that it is truly superior?
Being a self-published author is a lot like being in the woods. No one knows how great your book is because you are alone in the wilderness and obscured by many, many trees. One's voice needs to carry out of the woods and into the ears of perspective readers. A self-published author is on their own for this task. Any help must come from people they hire or their friends and family.
When I started writing A Mage's Power, I didn't talk about it. No one knew about it. Thus, when the book was finished and I wanted to publish it, there was no one waiting at the door of my forest cabin, and no beaten path behind them. I delayed publishing for a year in order to build up my social network. I looked for authors on facebook, gathered twitter followers, started this blog, and joined organizations like the Independent Author Network and Book Tweeting Service. In this way I found a way to broadcast the virtues of my mousetrap, but many other people found it too.
If thousands of people are standing in the forest and yelling about their mousetrap, then no one is truly heard. It's like a cocktail party; one can hear a lot of voices but it's all indistinct chatter. Imagine every living thing in a forest vying for attention: every tree, bird, insect, mammal, and blade of grass calling to you. In the midst of all this is our mousetrap maker shouting at the top of his lungs. Who would hear him? Book reviewers.
I became a book reviewer to increase my own reach in the social media sphere, but in the process, I help other people stand out. I review their book and while reading it I share my thoughts about it on three social media platforms. I help others spread the news about their own mousetrap and whether or not its worth beating a path to their door. Its not so hard when two people are shouting the same message.
This leads to a third problem. It's called The Problem with Paid Reviews and Reviews, Not Endorsements. Sometimes I encounter books that have a handful of reviewers and they all sound the same. It's like the author paid a bunch of people to stand in a row and shout generic praise. There's nothing wrong with this when it's honest advertising. The problem is when the advertisers pretend to be reviewers. "Okay you have my attention, but how is your mousetrap superior to all the others?" A generic review might as well be empty because it can't answer this question.
For all that are here still reading, please allow me to direct you to my mousetrap: A Mage's Power
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sure Ralph, that sounds fair and logical, but how do you spread the word about your superior mousetrap? How do you convince them that it is truly superior?
Being a self-published author is a lot like being in the woods. No one knows how great your book is because you are alone in the wilderness and obscured by many, many trees. One's voice needs to carry out of the woods and into the ears of perspective readers. A self-published author is on their own for this task. Any help must come from people they hire or their friends and family.
When I started writing A Mage's Power, I didn't talk about it. No one knew about it. Thus, when the book was finished and I wanted to publish it, there was no one waiting at the door of my forest cabin, and no beaten path behind them. I delayed publishing for a year in order to build up my social network. I looked for authors on facebook, gathered twitter followers, started this blog, and joined organizations like the Independent Author Network and Book Tweeting Service. In this way I found a way to broadcast the virtues of my mousetrap, but many other people found it too.
If thousands of people are standing in the forest and yelling about their mousetrap, then no one is truly heard. It's like a cocktail party; one can hear a lot of voices but it's all indistinct chatter. Imagine every living thing in a forest vying for attention: every tree, bird, insect, mammal, and blade of grass calling to you. In the midst of all this is our mousetrap maker shouting at the top of his lungs. Who would hear him? Book reviewers.
I became a book reviewer to increase my own reach in the social media sphere, but in the process, I help other people stand out. I review their book and while reading it I share my thoughts about it on three social media platforms. I help others spread the news about their own mousetrap and whether or not its worth beating a path to their door. Its not so hard when two people are shouting the same message.
This leads to a third problem. It's called The Problem with Paid Reviews and Reviews, Not Endorsements. Sometimes I encounter books that have a handful of reviewers and they all sound the same. It's like the author paid a bunch of people to stand in a row and shout generic praise. There's nothing wrong with this when it's honest advertising. The problem is when the advertisers pretend to be reviewers. "Okay you have my attention, but how is your mousetrap superior to all the others?" A generic review might as well be empty because it can't answer this question.
For all that are here still reading, please allow me to direct you to my mousetrap: A Mage's Power
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Answering Review Request: "Sheep's Clothing"
Elizabeth Einspanier asked me to review her novel "Sheep's Clothing". She describes it as a "Weird Western" because it takes place in the Wild West and involves the supernatural. I will examine Plot, Characters, and Polish before assigning a grade.
PLOT
A vampire hunter comes to the frontier town of Salvation chasing a Vampire Lord and he recruits the local doctor to finish the job.
I like this plot because it is straightforward, compelling and concise. It's like "this is the enemy, this is what we need to do to kill him, let's do it." It is neither too long with filler, stretches or otherwise unnecessary items, nor is it too short with unreasonable breaks for either side or idiot balls to facilitate action. Nor are there info dumps. Wolf explained as necessary, which informs his character as practical.
Miss.Einspanier straight away gets into the meat of the matter. The introduction scene is Doc Meadows pulling a piece of silver out of Wolf and remarking on the oddness of the injury and of his latest patient. By the start of the next day, they are a hero-sidekick pair.
There's a good deal of action here. Those seeking fight scenes will not be disappointed. However, the more important part is the investigation. Wolf and Meadow are similar to detectives in this regard because they have to discover Russeau's lairs before they can be destroyed.
Another thing I like is the discarding of the You Have to Believe Me trope. Doc Meadows is suitably skeptical of vampires and such, but after seeing the peculiar wound in Wolf and watching Russeau -minus glamor he is willing to listen. Other people in town are similar. There's none of that desperate straw pulling I've seen in other stories (novel and otherwise).
As for flaws I have only one and it is a minor one. I thought the fight against the second vampire minion was anti-climatic given her identity. Otherwise, no complaints.
Ending is fantastic. Conflict resolved, character development, all that good stuff.
This story is classic vampire hunting matched with Wild West Vigilantism. The word for that is "Cool!"
CHARACTERS
There is little time at the start to develop the protagonist (the doctor, not the hunter) and none of it is spent making him "relatable". It is a trick to make a first person narrator a fully fleshed character and it is even more impressive when they are a supporting protagonist. It is easy to tell and quick to catch that Nathaniel Meadows is a Gentleman and Scholar, a Cowardly Lion, and all around a Nice Guy.
Crowie Wolf is an excellent hero. He's gruff and foul mouthed but not a jerkass. He's full of heroic spirit but not a blindingly bright boy scout in a cape. It's difficult to hit that sweet spot. Another point I like about him is that he is an educated man but in a separate way from the doctor. You could say he has a Bachelor Degree in Supernatural Hunting and Lore.
Russeau is an old school Dracula style vampire; an evil blood sucking demon. No sparkling! He can look human but without his glamour it is clear to anyone that he's only pretending the part.
POLISH
I found one thing misspelled but I forgot what it was it was because it was just the one. Nothing wrong in terms of grammar.
I liked the use of the first person narration. It's not self-conscious or obstructive.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "Sheep's Clothing" an A+
Click here for the next review request: "Disconnect"
Click here for the previous review request: "Kindling Ashes"
PLOT
A vampire hunter comes to the frontier town of Salvation chasing a Vampire Lord and he recruits the local doctor to finish the job.
I like this plot because it is straightforward, compelling and concise. It's like "this is the enemy, this is what we need to do to kill him, let's do it." It is neither too long with filler, stretches or otherwise unnecessary items, nor is it too short with unreasonable breaks for either side or idiot balls to facilitate action. Nor are there info dumps. Wolf explained as necessary, which informs his character as practical.
Miss.Einspanier straight away gets into the meat of the matter. The introduction scene is Doc Meadows pulling a piece of silver out of Wolf and remarking on the oddness of the injury and of his latest patient. By the start of the next day, they are a hero-sidekick pair.
There's a good deal of action here. Those seeking fight scenes will not be disappointed. However, the more important part is the investigation. Wolf and Meadow are similar to detectives in this regard because they have to discover Russeau's lairs before they can be destroyed.
Another thing I like is the discarding of the You Have to Believe Me trope. Doc Meadows is suitably skeptical of vampires and such, but after seeing the peculiar wound in Wolf and watching Russeau -minus glamor he is willing to listen. Other people in town are similar. There's none of that desperate straw pulling I've seen in other stories (novel and otherwise).
As for flaws I have only one and it is a minor one. I thought the fight against the second vampire minion was anti-climatic given her identity. Otherwise, no complaints.
Ending is fantastic. Conflict resolved, character development, all that good stuff.
This story is classic vampire hunting matched with Wild West Vigilantism. The word for that is "Cool!"
CHARACTERS
There is little time at the start to develop the protagonist (the doctor, not the hunter) and none of it is spent making him "relatable". It is a trick to make a first person narrator a fully fleshed character and it is even more impressive when they are a supporting protagonist. It is easy to tell and quick to catch that Nathaniel Meadows is a Gentleman and Scholar, a Cowardly Lion, and all around a Nice Guy.
Crowie Wolf is an excellent hero. He's gruff and foul mouthed but not a jerkass. He's full of heroic spirit but not a blindingly bright boy scout in a cape. It's difficult to hit that sweet spot. Another point I like about him is that he is an educated man but in a separate way from the doctor. You could say he has a Bachelor Degree in Supernatural Hunting and Lore.
Russeau is an old school Dracula style vampire; an evil blood sucking demon. No sparkling! He can look human but without his glamour it is clear to anyone that he's only pretending the part.
POLISH
I found one thing misspelled but I forgot what it was it was because it was just the one. Nothing wrong in terms of grammar.
I liked the use of the first person narration. It's not self-conscious or obstructive.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "Sheep's Clothing" an A+
Click here for the next review request: "Disconnect"
Click here for the previous review request: "Kindling Ashes"
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Answering Review Request: Kindling Ashes
Laura Harris asked me to read her story "Kindling Ashes". It features a conflict between the Firesouls, who want to revive the dragon race, and the dragon slayers, who want to finish the job they started sixteen years ago. I will examine plot, characters and polish, and then then assign a grade.
PLOT
The story begins in the aftermath of a war between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Auland. It ended with dragon extinction, but unknown to most humans, the dragons have been hiding out inside humans as disembodied spirits. Now the dragons seek to regroup and return to dragon bodies before their hosts go up in flames. It's a sympathetic conflict and drives one of the two protagonists up the wall with in-decision.
There are two protagonist because this book features a dual-protagonist system. Every chapter switches the perspective of the story between Giselle, a firesoul sympathetic to the dragons, and Corran, a firesoul who wants to kill dragons. It works well not only because it underscores the grey and grey morality of the story. For instance, one chapter will have humans recall dragons tearing towers down and burning humans alive while the next will have dragons recall raids by humans that ended with dead mates and shattered eggs.
The cause and nature of the war is revealed over the course of the story. It's an interesting deconstruction of the age-old idea that dragons hoard treasure in caves.
It's not action packed by any stretch of the word but I read through it quicker than I do many review requests because the world building intrigued me and I liked the characters. Corran, in particular, was fun to dissect for his true motive and which side of the fence he would fall on.
There are a couple problems but all of them occur near the end of the story, leaving the rest spotless.
1. There's a Whatever Happened To The Mouse with a major villain, which is puzzling given the situation, but a protagonist notes the absence and also that there's a more pressing matter to tend to. Thus, it's easier to overlook.
2. There's a Diablos Ex Machina that prevents one of the two protagonists from living happily ever after as of this book, instead of waiting for the end of the series. It happens early enough, and there's enough development before and after that I feel it will become something more than that. Thus, it's also easier to overlook.
CHARACTERS
Giselle is the leading lady. I like her. She has this vulnerable toughness thing that makes her a endearing and sympathetic protagonist. There's also her fighting skills. Considering she's a host for a dragon, one would think the author would make her this super powered warrior but that's not the case. She's as strong and skilled as you'd expect a teenage street urchin whose never seriously fought before the story to be. When outmatched, she runs away or uses guile instead of god mode dragon powers.
Corran is the leading guy. What's interesting about him is that he spends the book pulled in three directions. He's from a family of dragonslayers, holds the soul of a dragon but isn't fond of either group because the former (save one member) is abusive and the latter he has been raised to hate as evil monsters. It's like he's walking on a fence for the entire story and wobbles this way and that while plotting his own course. It was fascinating to debate whether really wanted to kill dragons to be a hero or just wanted to show up his big brother bully; in other words, if he was a hero or a villain.
Frang gets a mention because he's my favorite character. He's a dragon soul stuck in Corran's head and a large part of the reason that Corran's side of the story (his mental processes and such) is so interesting. He shows the boy his memories as proof that dragons are not evil and so the boy has to go to greater lengths to justify his hatred. He's also a witty snarker that, at the same time, has a bigger role and wider personality than simple comic relief.
I could go on, but I only have more good things to say about the characters.
POLISH
No spelling or grammar problems. I like the split narration because it is consistent and adds value to the story. Other books I've reviewed use this technique but it reads like two or more separate stories. This is two sides of the same one because they reflect each other and constantly intertwine.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "Kindling Ashes" an A+
Click here for the next review request: "Sheep's Clothing"
Click here for the previous review request: "The Underworld King"
PLOT
The story begins in the aftermath of a war between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Auland. It ended with dragon extinction, but unknown to most humans, the dragons have been hiding out inside humans as disembodied spirits. Now the dragons seek to regroup and return to dragon bodies before their hosts go up in flames. It's a sympathetic conflict and drives one of the two protagonists up the wall with in-decision.
There are two protagonist because this book features a dual-protagonist system. Every chapter switches the perspective of the story between Giselle, a firesoul sympathetic to the dragons, and Corran, a firesoul who wants to kill dragons. It works well not only because it underscores the grey and grey morality of the story. For instance, one chapter will have humans recall dragons tearing towers down and burning humans alive while the next will have dragons recall raids by humans that ended with dead mates and shattered eggs.
The cause and nature of the war is revealed over the course of the story. It's an interesting deconstruction of the age-old idea that dragons hoard treasure in caves.
It's not action packed by any stretch of the word but I read through it quicker than I do many review requests because the world building intrigued me and I liked the characters. Corran, in particular, was fun to dissect for his true motive and which side of the fence he would fall on.
There are a couple problems but all of them occur near the end of the story, leaving the rest spotless.
1. There's a Whatever Happened To The Mouse with a major villain, which is puzzling given the situation, but a protagonist notes the absence and also that there's a more pressing matter to tend to. Thus, it's easier to overlook.
2. There's a Diablos Ex Machina that prevents one of the two protagonists from living happily ever after as of this book, instead of waiting for the end of the series. It happens early enough, and there's enough development before and after that I feel it will become something more than that. Thus, it's also easier to overlook.
CHARACTERS
Giselle is the leading lady. I like her. She has this vulnerable toughness thing that makes her a endearing and sympathetic protagonist. There's also her fighting skills. Considering she's a host for a dragon, one would think the author would make her this super powered warrior but that's not the case. She's as strong and skilled as you'd expect a teenage street urchin whose never seriously fought before the story to be. When outmatched, she runs away or uses guile instead of god mode dragon powers.
Corran is the leading guy. What's interesting about him is that he spends the book pulled in three directions. He's from a family of dragonslayers, holds the soul of a dragon but isn't fond of either group because the former (save one member) is abusive and the latter he has been raised to hate as evil monsters. It's like he's walking on a fence for the entire story and wobbles this way and that while plotting his own course. It was fascinating to debate whether really wanted to kill dragons to be a hero or just wanted to show up his big brother bully; in other words, if he was a hero or a villain.
Frang gets a mention because he's my favorite character. He's a dragon soul stuck in Corran's head and a large part of the reason that Corran's side of the story (his mental processes and such) is so interesting. He shows the boy his memories as proof that dragons are not evil and so the boy has to go to greater lengths to justify his hatred. He's also a witty snarker that, at the same time, has a bigger role and wider personality than simple comic relief.
I could go on, but I only have more good things to say about the characters.
POLISH
No spelling or grammar problems. I like the split narration because it is consistent and adds value to the story. Other books I've reviewed use this technique but it reads like two or more separate stories. This is two sides of the same one because they reflect each other and constantly intertwine.
Trickster Eric Novels gives "Kindling Ashes" an A+
Click here for the next review request: "Sheep's Clothing"
Click here for the previous review request: "The Underworld King"
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Blog Tour-Book Interview with Micheal Gilwood
This week is something different. I got an email from Tracy Kauffman asking for potential stops for her "Literary Book Tours". My experience with Book Tweeting Service has been positive so far (I assume that's where she got my email and interest) so I decided to help out.
Today's post is an author interview between Tracy Kauffman and Michael Gilwood
1. Would you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?
Everything has to start from somewhere.. even an author has to begin with that first paragraph before molding it into an art. I typed my first paragraph at the age of nine on my dads typewriter for my next door neighbors dad after he’d asked me to say something in a sports column. He was so impressed that he gave me the column for quite a while.
2. Which book or books are you currently promoting?
The book I am presently promoting is Anomaly.
3. How did you come up with the idea for this book ?
The idea I came up with originally when I was twelve. It is a book I started seven years ago.
4. What can you tell us about your main characters?
The characters are all scientists.
5. What made you decide to become a writer?
Writing is something that I have always done from a very young age.
6. Do you have a general idea of what direction you want the plot to take ahead of time? Yes, most definitely.
7. Have you ever had second doubts about a story you’ve written?
No
8. What other projects are you currently working on?
I am presently completing a compilation of short stories. Two novels are in their final stages and I have nine more novels in a variety of stages of completion.
9. How long have you been writing?
Forty years.
10. Is there anything else you would like to tell us that we have not already covered?
My next novel is called The Tower. I am a musician coming from a very musical family.
11. Tell me something about yourself that might be funny to others? (other than writing)
I once went to a general meeting. There must have been two hundred people present there. The spokesman was quite boring and quite honestly didn’t stop talking. I am pretty good at imitating and so I started to mimic him. At precisely that moment, he stopped talking and everyone in the meeting turned around and looked at me.
12. Tell us something that you did that might be considered dangerous.
When I was younger I went to catch a train and I was mugged at knifepoint. They took whatever I had on me.
13. What is your day job?
I teach English.
14. Tell us the worst criticism that you’ve received about your book.
Up until now, I haven’t received any bad criticism.
15. What advice would you want to give other writers?
Only to keep at it and never give up. Write whatever you feel, whatever you see.. try and see it from a different perspective then write what you see. Write your feelings, what you smell and taste.
Today's post is an author interview between Tracy Kauffman and Michael Gilwood
1. Would you tell the readers a little bit about yourself?
Everything has to start from somewhere.. even an author has to begin with that first paragraph before molding it into an art. I typed my first paragraph at the age of nine on my dads typewriter for my next door neighbors dad after he’d asked me to say something in a sports column. He was so impressed that he gave me the column for quite a while.
2. Which book or books are you currently promoting?
The book I am presently promoting is Anomaly.
3. How did you come up with the idea for this book ?
The idea I came up with originally when I was twelve. It is a book I started seven years ago.
4. What can you tell us about your main characters?
The characters are all scientists.
5. What made you decide to become a writer?
Writing is something that I have always done from a very young age.
6. Do you have a general idea of what direction you want the plot to take ahead of time? Yes, most definitely.
7. Have you ever had second doubts about a story you’ve written?
No
8. What other projects are you currently working on?
I am presently completing a compilation of short stories. Two novels are in their final stages and I have nine more novels in a variety of stages of completion.
9. How long have you been writing?
Forty years.
10. Is there anything else you would like to tell us that we have not already covered?
My next novel is called The Tower. I am a musician coming from a very musical family.
11. Tell me something about yourself that might be funny to others? (other than writing)
I once went to a general meeting. There must have been two hundred people present there. The spokesman was quite boring and quite honestly didn’t stop talking. I am pretty good at imitating and so I started to mimic him. At precisely that moment, he stopped talking and everyone in the meeting turned around and looked at me.
12. Tell us something that you did that might be considered dangerous.
When I was younger I went to catch a train and I was mugged at knifepoint. They took whatever I had on me.
13. What is your day job?
I teach English.
14. Tell us the worst criticism that you’ve received about your book.
Up until now, I haven’t received any bad criticism.
15. What advice would you want to give other writers?
Only to keep at it and never give up. Write whatever you feel, whatever you see.. try and see it from a different perspective then write what you see. Write your feelings, what you smell and taste.
Buy Links:
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1bp8VOI
Barnes and Noble: http://bit.ly/1femO70
Facebook Fanpage: http://on.fb.me/1e4WlIY
The preceding interview was conducted by Tracy Kauffman of Literary Book Tours. It does not reflect the views or opinions of Trickster Eric Novels or any of its associates or subsidiaries. (I've always wanted to say that!)
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