My brother introduced me to one of the best/worst sites I have ever encountered. Royal Road is a site for people to post their fiction for others to read, rate, review, etc. I now have an official love/hate relationship because I am reading about 5 “ongoing” works and I want it all right now. But per my normal policy, I am sticking to reviewing a completed work. I ran across this one among the highly rated, complete works and gave it a try. It has it’s rough points and there were several things which I am confident had the entire manuscript been submitted to an editor, they would have caught/prevented/helped with. I went and bought it on Amazon after reading the beginning because I was enjoying the premise. I’m really glad I did because the audiobook narrator does a great job capturing the tone. The reason I enjoyed it is a simple concept of “leaning into the premise.” The premise
Books
Review: Iron Widow
I meant to review this awhile ago, but life got in the way. This has been sitting in my Drafts folder for too long. I really wish I could read this book a second time before I review it. There is a lot to chew on and I hope on a second reading I’ll catch more. Edit ~3 months later – this is still true. I WILL read this a second time, when I have “spare time.” I found this author on YouTube when the new Mulan movie came out. She did a review of “historical accuracy and cultural influences.” She has now done both Mulan versions and some others. She also sometimes puts out historical tellings of Imperial China. One of these involved Wu Zetian, the only woman to rule as “emperor” of China. Fuuuun. So this book is an alternate world, the main character, Wu Zetian, is “based” on the actual empress. However, throw everything else about the
Life Events: Encyclopedia
I have encyclopedias that need a new home. A home that will love it as much as I do.
Review: Tiger Burning Bright
HOW HAVE I NOT REVIEWED THIS ALREADY. I feel like an idiot. I realized the other week, I haven’t reviewed this one!! So I have to do this: Tiger Burning Bright by three of the most amazing women authors ever Andre Norton, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Mercedes Lackey. I first picked up this book from my local library when I was in middle school. I can still remember where it belonged on the shelf. I knew this because I think I checked it out of the library 10 tens times in the next three years or so. Then I stopped. Then I went to college. Years passed. I never forgot this book. One day, when I had a little money in my pocket I went looking for it again. It took me a minute, but I found it. And I bought it. Why do I love this book? Well, there is definitely some sentimental attachment for sure. I remember loving
Writing: Science Fiction Evolution
I am reading some classic science fiction (Foundation Triology) and have found an understanding why I didn’t enjoy science fiction as much as fantasy when I was younger. There is a trend in the genre to be plot, world, and science focused with characters only being a carrier for these things to be explored. Asimov, Heinlein, Butler, and even Douglas Adams. It generally isn’t the characters we love and quote from these authors. Dune was an interesting books, but I didn’t connect with any specific character. The world, the politics, the exploration of different societies on different worlds feels like a core to book. Heinlein’s characters are notoriously flat and repetitive (if I read 3 Heinlein books in a row, I begin to confuse names they are so alike). Butler’s book I read was amazing and emotional, but it wasn’t the characters. Then I compare to the fantasy I loved when I was young: Tamora Pierce, Mercedes Lackey, Mary Herbert,
Review: Never Have Your Dog Stuffed: And Other Things I’ve Learned
Anyone who reads my book reviews has probably noticed a dearth of non-fiction. I don’t read much of it. I generally read for escapism and reading something real isn’t escape. There are exceptions to this rule. Alan Alda is a fun actor. I’ve known of him pretty much my entire life – mostly from M.A.S.H. I don’t know when or why I picked up his memoir, but I needed something different to read recently and so I started it. It was very interesting. I had no idea he was a child of vaudeville although it makes perfect sense to his acting style. I will admit, I had to struggle some to separate “actor” from “character” (Hawkeye) and stop trying to pigeon-hole the actor into the character. As I did, I feel like I got a better glimpse of the creative process of the creative artist behind the character. I never would have guessed some of his struggles, emotional or professional.
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Review: Diving Universe
So my general rule has always been to avoid reviews until I have read an entire series. The problems come when a series is begun, but incomplete. The author has more to write. Do I review or not? Well, I think I have decided if I have read all available published in a series, I will review. Mostly because there are several series I’ve been reading that I haven’t been reviewing and it’s making me feel like a slacker. I’m not reviewing! I AM reading though. So I am going to start this new rule with a good one: Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s Diving Universe. She has been writing novels in this universe since 2009. Sometimes short stories, sometimes novellas, and some full-length novels. I have read the novels. All of the short stories I’ve read were already in the novels, so for this review I am going to stick with the novels and novellas. As of today, this is the
Review: Things Fall Apart
I picked up this book several years ago and put it on my “to read” shelf with great gusto. And promtly forgot about it. I wish I had read it sooner. Hell, if I was a high school English teacher, this would be part of my curriculum. It is good. I can see why it’s been aclaimed. Why the author, Chinua Achebe is aclaimed. The book isn’t long or dense. It’s a pretty easy read over all. It is more a character exploration than anything else, digging into the “whys” of human choices than following the what in a direct path. The book is broken into three parts which are unequal in length and depth. The first part is the longest in words. It is building the picture of the world of the protagonist Okonkwo and his own mindset. At the very start of the book I was a bit confused, but it did not last long. The cadence is
Review: Black Jewels Trilogy
This is not my normal fare of fantasy. These three books by Anne Bishop; Daughter of the Blood, Heir to the Shadows, Queen of the Darkness. They are borderline romantic, without the erotic elements most romance novels feature. Reading these three books, it felt like I got dropped into a world without a lot of context. But since this was her debut novel, it’s not like I accidentally picked up a trilogy in a world she’s written other books in (I did that with Mercedes Lackey before). I want to start here that I would not recommend this book casually. There is too much dealing with trauma and abuse to just say “everyone would enjoy!” and not in a “everyone would learn good lessons from her approach” way. A LOT of people would be made very uncomfortable with the issues it addresses. These issues are very interwoven throughout the three novels, although the most in the first novel. By the
Review: Book of a Thousand Days
Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale is written like a diary, the entries numbered by days. The story itself is an interesting melding of eastern and western fantasy. I like that the world isn’t a direct correlation to Chinese or Japanese imperialism. At least not anything so directly recognizable. The plot is such a cool retelling of Rapunzel. Sort of. Which I love. I love when authors give me what I think is a story I know, put it a cool twist on it, and drop me with a swift kick in the expectations. And this book delivers all that inside an intriguing medium of the “diary” storytelling method. Which is challenging. And I love the illustrations (James Noel Smith does them and they are really good). The villain is well written and evil and scary and yet realistic (in the world Hale created). The magic is there but not blatant. The romance is subtle and kind of funny and
Dream by Day 