So I've been having really severe writers block for the past 2 weeks. This is why this blog post has been so delayed. I made a promise in the last post that I'd talk about the magic system, and pull together Jeshi's character based on the tarot reading. Neither of which has come together in my head. I'll write out what I have so far of the magic system. I came up with it kinda randomally a few weeks back, and I've become very attached to it. The piece I'm not figuring out yet is the partitioning of magic. For the novel, I don't want a HP-like everyone can do everything magic system, but a more focused one. On the previous draft, I used my 6-element spread as a base, but it was a bit unwieldy at times.
The reason I wanted to rework my magic system was that I didn't have a good controlling factor, or drawback. There was no downside to doing magic. In addition, I'd been thinking about Onieromancy, Dream magic, a lot for the Changling game I'm playing in. Somewhere along the way, the following dream magic came out, and it's been growing.
It started when I was thinking that I have a few magic sparring scenes in the book, but they aren't too interesting for the most part. One thing that could make it more interesting is if they could have these sessions in a dream realm instead. And so I decided that all Mages are Lucid dreamers, and that they can have dream adventures. This necessitated a division between the dream reality and the material reality. So I decided that in order to use magic to affect the material world, the mage must enter a state of waking dreaming, to bring their consciousness into the dream world. then they slowly phase the effect into the material world. The danger is that if you phase too much of the dream world into the material world, your consciousness can get trapped behind; Since you were already "awake", you can't be woken up, you're trapped in the dream world.
Now that gave me an interesting drawback, and so I settled on it as the metaphysics of the magic. I still want that partitioning, and most of my mages' abilities are staying as is, but I've been struggling to put the two together into a cohesive whole. However, I'm pretty set on thsese metaphysics, and most people I've talked to it about have agreed that it's an interesting idea. One of them even took it and wrote his own short story about it. Not sure if I should read it before, or after, I start writing my own.
Another debate Iv'e been having recently is whether or not to include a prologue. it's become more and more a staple of fantasy. Dan Wells, in his 5-part talk on story structure at BYU's Life, Universe and Everything seminar, discusses what he calls teh Ice Monster Prologue. It's from Game of Thrones, by George R. R. Martin, and it allows him to interject a bit of fantasy, to say "This book will have magic, and monsters, and action, but you have to put up with some boring preliminaries first." The Matrix does the same, and most of the Harry Potter books start with a prologue vignette from another POV. I've been thinking about including sucha prologue myself, but it depends on how much time I'll spend in the normal world before adding in the magical elements. Unfortunately, because of the writers block, I haven't plotted enough to see whether or not it's necessary. It's an interesting scene though, and so I may write it up anyway.
Lastly, I'll talk a bit about books. I'm still on track with my reading challenge, and have read 10 books since my last blog post.
White Cat
Book 1 in the Curse Worker's series by Holly Black, White Cat introduces us to Cassel, a kid from a family of con artists. He also happens to be the only one in his family who can't work curses. The story starts however, when he starts having strange dreams, and finds himself sleepwalking out to the roof of the boarding school he's attending, presumably in order to jump. This allows the plot to catch up with him, and sets him on quite an adventure. This was actually one of the things that got me started on thinking about my partitioning for Magic. In this world, there are 7 types of curse workers: Body, Memory, Dreams, Luck, Emotion, Death, and Transformation. All useful tricks, it got the wheels spinning about what sort of partitioning I really wanted.
My Soul to Keep
This is the third book in Rachel Vincent's Soul Screamers. This is the first time the romance of the series is really challenged, and it's challenged hard. In this story, the super-addictictive supernatural drug has started to make the rounds among the MCs friends, in the mortal world. it's quite a trip to see her tracking down how it's passing in and out, when it's not supposed to be able to. I definitely enjoyed this book as much as the previous 3, and have picked up the 4th book for reading in the next couple of days.
Crimson Wind
Book 2 in Diana Pharaoh Francis' Horngate Witches series. I hadn't remembered a lot about the first book, sicne it had been a year since I read it, but I enjoyed this book just as much. In this book, Witches arent the best people, in general. They're almost completely driven and consumed by greed and power. The MC is a servent bound to a witch, something called a Shadowblade. Shadowblades and Sunspears make up the witches defensive forces: Sunspears can only be out in the day, and Shadowblades can only be out at night. The issue is that the Guardians, basically the magical guards, are starting to wage war on humanity, and it's up to the MC and her friends to try and stop them. In this one, we finally see the event that the author had reported in John Scalezi's The Big Idea blog, and it was just as awesome as I could have hoped for. All in all, I'm enjoying the world and can't wait to see more of it.
Trick of the Light
This book has been touted by the author and many readers for it's surprise ending. And let me tell you, it packs a punch. The MC is a bar owner who's also supporting/helping two "brothers" (they're foster brothers really) in the fight against demons. Demons are all over the place, especially in the MC's town: Las Vegas. The plot kicks off whne the MC finds a clue leading to something called The Light, a weapon that both Heaven and Hell are desperate to get their hands on. And the MC gets caught in the middle, with her own agenda to follow. The surprise ending delivers on the hype it's been receiving, and so I won't spoil it here.
Magic Strikes
Magic Bleeds
The Kate Daniels series, by Ilona Andrews, has seen some of the best worldbuilding I've seen in Urban Fantasy for a couple of years now. I had read the first 2 books a couple years ago, and remember thinking that it (especially the first one) left me with more questions than answers. However, upon reading these I'm not sure where I got that from. Weres are pretty much treated as expected, any mammal form can be used as a ware base. There's also a subset of Wares which are animals in their birth form, and are able to turn human later. Naturally, the more traditional kind aren't too fond of this other kind. The more interesting point of worldbuilding is the Vampires. Vampires are mindless rage-filled creatures. They are only held in tight control by Necromancers, people called Masters of the Dead. It's one of the best treatments of Vampires I've ever seen. Magic Strikes is about an attack on the Shapeshifter community, and a supernatural fightclub-esque thing called the Midnight Games. Magic Bleeds is about a mysterious magical plague. Both of these books seem to bring out some of the awesome blood magic in the world. The blood magic has some awesome features, some of which I wish I could steal and bring to Jeshi. Problem is, now that I've read these, my own idea seems either lackluster or derivative. Cant' decide which is worse.
Cat's Claw
Book 2 in Amber Benson's Calliope Reaper-Jones novels. Callie is Death's daughter, and after a lot of bitterness on both sides has been pulled into the family business. This plot is designed to show us more of the process by which souls are treated, and we get a nice characterization of Bast, and the Egyptian dead. Any Buffy fans will also recognize Amber Benson as the actress who played Tara. Yes, they're the same person. I don't really have much to say about this book.
Eon: Dragoneye Reborn
I picked up this book at Comic Con, 2 years ago, and hadn't gotten around to reading it yet. I decided to read it on the plane ride last week, and was able to pretty much tear through it on the way back. It's a quick read, setting up a series based on a fantasy Chinese culture. There are 12 Dragons, which correspond to the 12 signs of the Chinese zodiac, and each of these dragons bind themselves to a human, called the Dragoneye, and grants that human powers of magic. The MC is one of the hopefulls to bind himself to the Rat Dragon, who's year has come. But of course, its a novel, and everything goes wrong. It was a very enjoyable read, and I'm looking forward to teh sequel in April.
A Touch of Dead
This is a collection of short stories in Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse universe. I've only read a few of the books, and that's been scattered througout the series. Some of the worldbuilding and word choices in these short stories made me go "WTF?" For example, the Fae are allergic to Lemon and Limes. Deathly allergic. One of the characters is actually killed as such. Maybe it's a function of not having read most of the series, but it threw me for a loop. In the same story, she also uses the term 'fundament" to refer to her butt. There are a couple other word choices which made me feel like the author was reaching for a thesaurus, but the character is a simple barmaid. Well, not so simple, but still.
I Am Not a Serial Killer
I've been listening to Dan Wells talk on Writing Excuses, the writing podcast with Dan Wells, Branden Sanderson, and Howard Tayler. This is Dan's first book in his series about a teenage sociopath. The MC struggles to not give into his obsession for serial killers, mostly because he thinks he could easily be one. The plot kicks off however when people start dying, and his unique obsession allows him to see more into the murders than anyone else seems to be able to. When the supernatural elements come into play, the MC seems to be the only one other than the killer with the full picture of what's going on. The plot though, is less about the murders and more about how the MC, John, deals with the relaxing of his strict rules and battles with the monster, the serial killer, inside him.
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
First crit submission and first week of reading
I spent the first week of the new year revisiting Ariadne's Labyrinth, my NaNoWriMo novel. Revising the first couple chapters after two months was a very different experience than writing them in the first place. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite the experience I had hoped. While I was writing, I thought it had a lot of promise. No matter which way you look at it, it's probably the best thing I've written. But, while revisiting it, I noticed it had a lot more problems than I originally thought. Part of it is that the parts I really like are in the middle, and part of it is that I've misrepresented to myself how promising it is.
The plot has some promise. They spend too much time getting locked up, kidnapped, and stuff like that. I need more inventive things to go wrong. The novel is still a little cooler than I wanted, emotionally. The conflicts are too physical, and too constant. One of my beta readers said the whole thing read like everything was going wrong. To a point, this was intended: I was following the Jim Butcher school of narrative conflict. However, they're all the same sorts of conflict. More varied conflict might give some relief on one axis while pressuring the other, making the novel feel more believable and less "everything's going wrong."
The ending is weak. More accurately, the ending isn't earned by the novel. I had the ending in mind since I started, but some of the key conflicts that were supposed to be resolved weren't brought into enough light to make it worth it. Because they weren't set up, the ending feels like a bit of a cop out for me.
I also had some weaknesses in characterization and physical description. I didn't paint a good picture of my characters. My narrator was pretty consistent, but my secondary characters weren't. Christy started out really bubbly and fun, but she mellowed out later. This wouldn't be a problem if it was gradual/intentional, but it was kinda abrupt. I had chosen some descriptors for Ariadne but not my other characters, and because Ariadne was the narrator, and because of the mode the story was being told through, there wasn't a good way to include some of them. Maybe it doesn't matter, but something worth thinking about.
The mode fo the storytelling didn't come through as clear as I wanted either. The whole thing is written as part of a diary series that Ariadne, the MC, is writing to her (dead) mother. THere are some small hints of it, but it's not clear and sometimes I don't like how it comes out ont he page. It's always kind of awkward to address the reader, even if the reader is dressed up in another character.
I'm sure there's more things I can improve on, but these are just hte ones I've noticed recently. Now, onto my reading analysis.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Almost everyone I know has heard of the book by now. The re-mastering of Jane Austin's famous work with the addition of the zombie hordes. Now I haven't read the original, but I'm fairly familiar with the story through various movies (see: Bride and Prejudice, Pride and Prejudice (2005 w/ Kiera Knightly, and Lost in Austin), but the pacing in a movie is always very different than in the book. I could see the skeleton of Austin's plot beneath the zombies and I remember thinking that I hadn't realized how slowly the whole thing moved. The zombies spiced up the interaction, but I kept wanting the romance to shoot forward. In a way though, this was more honest and more believable than many storybook romances. Some of the new additions also made me laugh out loud during the reading. Calling the Zombies "Unmentionables" was a chuckle about every time. And then there were several "ball" jokes, and the description of trousers clinging to a man's "most English parts". A bit childish, to be sure, but every once in a while the timing would be impeccable and I would laugh. It almost makes me want to read the original.
Counterfeit Magic
This is the latest novella in the Otherworld series, by Kelley Armstrong. I love her witches, possibly because I'm a magic whore. This novella is about a Supernatural Fight club, being investigated by Paige and her ward Savannah. Apparently Savannah's been growing up fast, it's such a difference seeing her in her early 20's instead of when she first shows up on the scene. This novella suffered from the same problem I had with Waking the Witch, which is also a Svannah-centric story: The ending feels like it's not over. Waking hte Witch was specificially supposed to be a cliffhanger, but I'm not sure this one was supposed to be. The main conflict was dealt with, but some of the other things weren't tied up. While I love the plot, I feel like this isn't my favorite work of hers.
Patriot Witch
This was a premeditated random choice. I know that sounds weird, but bear with me. I don't know how I stumbled across it, and if it wasn't about Witches, I probably would have left it on the shelf. The first in a series by C. C. Finlay, it's a historical fantasy, based around witches in the Revolutionary war. I'm not much of a history buff. I think the opening conflict was one of the first shots fired in the war, which helps draw the MC into the conflict a little more thoroughly. The conflict at the farm was pretty interesting, but I was getting lost by the time they left and started operating in the greater War setting. The ending was a bit confusing, though it might be because I was rushing it a bit.
The Unusual Suspects
Book 2 of the Sister's Grimm, by Michael Buckley. This one has the kids finally going to school, only to find out everything's going wrong. We also find out more about who has kidnapped the kids' parents, which is seeding the next book. How they'll drag out the conflict over the next five books, I don't know. But it's a nice read, for what it is.
The plot has some promise. They spend too much time getting locked up, kidnapped, and stuff like that. I need more inventive things to go wrong. The novel is still a little cooler than I wanted, emotionally. The conflicts are too physical, and too constant. One of my beta readers said the whole thing read like everything was going wrong. To a point, this was intended: I was following the Jim Butcher school of narrative conflict. However, they're all the same sorts of conflict. More varied conflict might give some relief on one axis while pressuring the other, making the novel feel more believable and less "everything's going wrong."
The ending is weak. More accurately, the ending isn't earned by the novel. I had the ending in mind since I started, but some of the key conflicts that were supposed to be resolved weren't brought into enough light to make it worth it. Because they weren't set up, the ending feels like a bit of a cop out for me.
I also had some weaknesses in characterization and physical description. I didn't paint a good picture of my characters. My narrator was pretty consistent, but my secondary characters weren't. Christy started out really bubbly and fun, but she mellowed out later. This wouldn't be a problem if it was gradual/intentional, but it was kinda abrupt. I had chosen some descriptors for Ariadne but not my other characters, and because Ariadne was the narrator, and because of the mode the story was being told through, there wasn't a good way to include some of them. Maybe it doesn't matter, but something worth thinking about.
The mode fo the storytelling didn't come through as clear as I wanted either. The whole thing is written as part of a diary series that Ariadne, the MC, is writing to her (dead) mother. THere are some small hints of it, but it's not clear and sometimes I don't like how it comes out ont he page. It's always kind of awkward to address the reader, even if the reader is dressed up in another character.
I'm sure there's more things I can improve on, but these are just hte ones I've noticed recently. Now, onto my reading analysis.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Almost everyone I know has heard of the book by now. The re-mastering of Jane Austin's famous work with the addition of the zombie hordes. Now I haven't read the original, but I'm fairly familiar with the story through various movies (see: Bride and Prejudice, Pride and Prejudice (2005 w/ Kiera Knightly, and Lost in Austin), but the pacing in a movie is always very different than in the book. I could see the skeleton of Austin's plot beneath the zombies and I remember thinking that I hadn't realized how slowly the whole thing moved. The zombies spiced up the interaction, but I kept wanting the romance to shoot forward. In a way though, this was more honest and more believable than many storybook romances. Some of the new additions also made me laugh out loud during the reading. Calling the Zombies "Unmentionables" was a chuckle about every time. And then there were several "ball" jokes, and the description of trousers clinging to a man's "most English parts". A bit childish, to be sure, but every once in a while the timing would be impeccable and I would laugh. It almost makes me want to read the original.
Counterfeit Magic
This is the latest novella in the Otherworld series, by Kelley Armstrong. I love her witches, possibly because I'm a magic whore. This novella is about a Supernatural Fight club, being investigated by Paige and her ward Savannah. Apparently Savannah's been growing up fast, it's such a difference seeing her in her early 20's instead of when she first shows up on the scene. This novella suffered from the same problem I had with Waking the Witch, which is also a Svannah-centric story: The ending feels like it's not over. Waking hte Witch was specificially supposed to be a cliffhanger, but I'm not sure this one was supposed to be. The main conflict was dealt with, but some of the other things weren't tied up. While I love the plot, I feel like this isn't my favorite work of hers.
Patriot Witch
This was a premeditated random choice. I know that sounds weird, but bear with me. I don't know how I stumbled across it, and if it wasn't about Witches, I probably would have left it on the shelf. The first in a series by C. C. Finlay, it's a historical fantasy, based around witches in the Revolutionary war. I'm not much of a history buff. I think the opening conflict was one of the first shots fired in the war, which helps draw the MC into the conflict a little more thoroughly. The conflict at the farm was pretty interesting, but I was getting lost by the time they left and started operating in the greater War setting. The ending was a bit confusing, though it might be because I was rushing it a bit.
The Unusual Suspects
Book 2 of the Sister's Grimm, by Michael Buckley. This one has the kids finally going to school, only to find out everything's going wrong. We also find out more about who has kidnapped the kids' parents, which is seeding the next book. How they'll drag out the conflict over the next five books, I don't know. But it's a nice read, for what it is.
Saturday, January 01, 2011
2010 in Review: Books, Writing, and Goals for 2011
One of the things I set forth to do in this blog was account for my reading and writing. So before I go onto my goals for next year, let's take a look at how I did.
Reading:
I was telling a friend that this year was one of my slowest years in reading. For those of you counting at home (see posts tagged reading), I read 80 books in 2010. The two of which is going to be present in this entry. About 5-7 of these books were re-reads. In an effort to interject more commentary into the blog, let's get some lists.
Top 5 Authors from 2010:
Jim Butcher - I finally got around to reading the Dresden files this year. I can see what all the fuss is about. The first two books were slow going for me, but once the meta plot became more prevalent, I started to enjoy it much more.
Lili St. Crow - Her strange angels books sucked me in quickly. I still want to read some of her others, but her worldbuilding was fascinating, and the plot solid.
Rachel Vincent - The two books I read by her are quick contendors for the best books I've read this year. While I didn't enjoy her Shifter series as much, there's no short of awesome in these two.
Kelley Armstrong - One of my favorite authors ever, she's one of the reasons I started writing.
Brandon Sanderson - This is the first time I've picked up any of his books, but between them and the awesome podcast, he's earned my respect.
Top 5 Adult Books from 2010:
Proven Guilty - Of all the Dresden books, this still holds the place as my favorite.
Way of Kings - The crazy gravity magic and shardblades made this book a win on it's own.
Angelic - I love Eve, and can't wait to see more of her.
Hard Magic - Probably one of the best books from an author I hadn't heard about before this year.
The Devil Inside - Amazing concept, and a new take on Possession I hadn't ever expected to see.
Top 5 YA Books from 2010:
My Soul to Take - See blurb on Rachel Vincent
Strange Angels - See blurb on Lili St. Crow
Terrier - Tamora Pierce is another huge inspiration for me, and this book is no exception.
Lightning Thief - The Percy Jackson books were a new read for me. The first one was great, and I enjoyed the movie as well. The later books in the series didn't quite hold up to the first though.
The Reckoning - See blurb on Kelley Armstrong
5 Runner Ups: Books / authors that bear mentioning, even if they didn't make the lists
Sarra Cannon - I know it seems a bit plug-y to talk about someone in my crit group, but her books are a contender for hte best YA books I read this year. And I read a lot of them.
Magicians, by Lev Grossman - The only reason the book didn't make the list was some of the drug themes turned me off. It's still a solid book, and I'm looking forward to the sequel.
Clockwork Angel, by Cassandra Claire - While not the best plot I've read this year, the worldbuilding in this book deserves some recognition.
Demons Lexicon, by Sarah Rees Brennan - Other than the ending, this book would have made the list as well.
Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians - While not a world-shattering book by itself, the commentary and devices used to play with the fourth wall are rather amusing.
And now, for the two missing book reviews:
Legacies
A new series by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edgehill. Mercedes Lackey is one of the most prolific authors I've ever read. Some of that is due to the fact that she's a frequent collaborator. However, I've never read a book of hers that I didn't enjoy, and that didn't make me think. This book is a UF setting in a school, which has become increasingly popular. Her treatment of Magic here really caught me, as it's very similar to what I hoped to do with my own novel. It's an elemental system, but rather than controlling elements, characters get 1-3 powers which are thematically related to the element. Pathfinding is an Earth talent, whereas invisibility is I think an Air talent. Combat Magic falls under fire. There exists elemental controllers too, so it's a pretty rich background within which to work.
Cast in Shadow
Somehow I missed this book in my blog posts. This is the first book in the Chronicles of Elantra, not to be confused (as I often did) with Elantris. The MC is a girl whos' been brought in off the streets to become one of the elite guards, called the Hawks. The departure from standard fantasy races is pretty intriguing, as she has winged Avians, and cold but mysterious Barrani. Sure, they sound like elves, but they didn't look like them. The plot involves a good mystery, which still raises all kinds of interesting questions. I should pick up the next book at some point.
Writing
I didn't write as much as I wanted to this year, but all in all it was a good year for writing. I finished a novel, and won NaNoWriMo for the first time. I also learned more about myself as a plotter, and spent a lot of time investigating the craft of writing. I learned a lot. The book I did finish, Ariadne's Labyrinth, is quite possibly the best thing I've written to date. It's not perfect, especially in the final third, but it has promise. I also joined up with a Critique group this year, and will be submitting my work in a week to be reviewed by the other members. I'm a little nervous, but it should be good for me.
Looking Forward: 2011
So what about my goals for next year? Let's start with the writing goals, since they're more numerous.
I intended to write a lot in 2010. It didn't happen. I wanted to rewrite basically everything I've written to date. Now I see that it was a bit too steep to require. So I'm going to narrow it down a bit.
Reading:
I was telling a friend that this year was one of my slowest years in reading. For those of you counting at home (see posts tagged reading), I read 80 books in 2010. The two of which is going to be present in this entry. About 5-7 of these books were re-reads. In an effort to interject more commentary into the blog, let's get some lists.
Top 5 Authors from 2010:
Jim Butcher - I finally got around to reading the Dresden files this year. I can see what all the fuss is about. The first two books were slow going for me, but once the meta plot became more prevalent, I started to enjoy it much more.
Lili St. Crow - Her strange angels books sucked me in quickly. I still want to read some of her others, but her worldbuilding was fascinating, and the plot solid.
Rachel Vincent - The two books I read by her are quick contendors for the best books I've read this year. While I didn't enjoy her Shifter series as much, there's no short of awesome in these two.
Kelley Armstrong - One of my favorite authors ever, she's one of the reasons I started writing.
Brandon Sanderson - This is the first time I've picked up any of his books, but between them and the awesome podcast, he's earned my respect.
Top 5 Adult Books from 2010:
Proven Guilty - Of all the Dresden books, this still holds the place as my favorite.
Way of Kings - The crazy gravity magic and shardblades made this book a win on it's own.
Angelic - I love Eve, and can't wait to see more of her.
Hard Magic - Probably one of the best books from an author I hadn't heard about before this year.
The Devil Inside - Amazing concept, and a new take on Possession I hadn't ever expected to see.
Top 5 YA Books from 2010:
My Soul to Take - See blurb on Rachel Vincent
Strange Angels - See blurb on Lili St. Crow
Terrier - Tamora Pierce is another huge inspiration for me, and this book is no exception.
Lightning Thief - The Percy Jackson books were a new read for me. The first one was great, and I enjoyed the movie as well. The later books in the series didn't quite hold up to the first though.
The Reckoning - See blurb on Kelley Armstrong
5 Runner Ups: Books / authors that bear mentioning, even if they didn't make the lists
Sarra Cannon - I know it seems a bit plug-y to talk about someone in my crit group, but her books are a contender for hte best YA books I read this year. And I read a lot of them.
Magicians, by Lev Grossman - The only reason the book didn't make the list was some of the drug themes turned me off. It's still a solid book, and I'm looking forward to the sequel.
Clockwork Angel, by Cassandra Claire - While not the best plot I've read this year, the worldbuilding in this book deserves some recognition.
Demons Lexicon, by Sarah Rees Brennan - Other than the ending, this book would have made the list as well.
Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians - While not a world-shattering book by itself, the commentary and devices used to play with the fourth wall are rather amusing.
And now, for the two missing book reviews:
Legacies
A new series by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edgehill. Mercedes Lackey is one of the most prolific authors I've ever read. Some of that is due to the fact that she's a frequent collaborator. However, I've never read a book of hers that I didn't enjoy, and that didn't make me think. This book is a UF setting in a school, which has become increasingly popular. Her treatment of Magic here really caught me, as it's very similar to what I hoped to do with my own novel. It's an elemental system, but rather than controlling elements, characters get 1-3 powers which are thematically related to the element. Pathfinding is an Earth talent, whereas invisibility is I think an Air talent. Combat Magic falls under fire. There exists elemental controllers too, so it's a pretty rich background within which to work.
Cast in Shadow
Somehow I missed this book in my blog posts. This is the first book in the Chronicles of Elantra, not to be confused (as I often did) with Elantris. The MC is a girl whos' been brought in off the streets to become one of the elite guards, called the Hawks. The departure from standard fantasy races is pretty intriguing, as she has winged Avians, and cold but mysterious Barrani. Sure, they sound like elves, but they didn't look like them. The plot involves a good mystery, which still raises all kinds of interesting questions. I should pick up the next book at some point.
Writing
I didn't write as much as I wanted to this year, but all in all it was a good year for writing. I finished a novel, and won NaNoWriMo for the first time. I also learned more about myself as a plotter, and spent a lot of time investigating the craft of writing. I learned a lot. The book I did finish, Ariadne's Labyrinth, is quite possibly the best thing I've written to date. It's not perfect, especially in the final third, but it has promise. I also joined up with a Critique group this year, and will be submitting my work in a week to be reviewed by the other members. I'm a little nervous, but it should be good for me.
Looking Forward: 2011
So what about my goals for next year? Let's start with the writing goals, since they're more numerous.
I intended to write a lot in 2010. It didn't happen. I wanted to rewrite basically everything I've written to date. Now I see that it was a bit too steep to require. So I'm going to narrow it down a bit.
- I want to revisit my trilogy. For the purposes of Goals, I want to rewrite Book 1 by the end of the year. Depending on how the other goals are doing, I may seek to rewrite Book 2 as well.
- NaNoWriMo: I won this year, and I proved to myself I can do it. Whether I'll continue to aim to do so is a different matter. It all depends on what sort of plot I come up with.
- Animation: I'm hoping to work on a short animated film. I don't think I'll complete it in 2011, because of the ambitiousness of my other goals, but I want to get the script written, and one of the other pieces: Voice Acting, Character Modeling, or Music.
Reading
And this is the most ambitious goal of all. As I said, i read 80 books this year. I was not trying to push myself, and this is probably even one of the slower years. I didn't finish a book at all in the month of November for instance. I feel like I could read 100 books in the year if I set my mind to it. But this is supposed to be about pushing myself, and pushing boundaries. And as such, I'm going to attempt to read 150 books in 2011. It's going to be a long ride. I have to average 3 books a week, which while doable, is one of the most ambitious goals I've ever set for myself. All of this, of course, depends on the length and density of the books. 150 YA books is a much different prospect than 150 Epic Fantasies. Of course, I have a mix on my todo list. About 25-30 of the books will probably be Audio books as well, which have a different time requirement. All in all, it should be an interesting Journey.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Iron King by Julie Kagawa
So I saw this blog post in my drafs folder from April, apparently I never got around to posting it. This is a quick high-level review for The Iron King, by Julie Kagawa.
This book has taken me a few weeks to get into, but it's worked itself up to an interesting story. Two things of note, which I hope to discuss more in the future are:
This book has taken me a few weeks to get into, but it's worked itself up to an interesting story. Two things of note, which I hope to discuss more in the future are:
- Mab, Queen of Air and Darkness - Many fiction stories I've read seem to feature the Queen of Air and Darkness as the leader of the Unseelie court. But my Ireland-addicted friend said that she has seen no basis in Myth. Interesting.
- The Nevernever - Both dresden and this book call the home of the Faerie the Nevernever. I wonder if that has basis in myth.
The overall story isn't the most memorable, but it wasn't notably bad either. As I said, I read this back in April, so it's not very coherent. What I do remember of the book, is that I was a bit disappointed in the ending. Unlike Demons Lexicon, where the ending confused me, this one was sad because of unanswered questions. Something came up early enough in the novel that I thought it would have come up before the end. But it didn't. There are sequels to the book, and I will probably check them out eventually. In the meantime though, it's not very high on my todo list.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Book Review: Rachel Vincent, Cassandra Claire, Sarah Rees Brennan, Jim Butcher, Sarra Cannon, Michael Buckley
39 Clues: Into the Guantlet
And with book #10, the 39 clues is finished. It's a middle-grade book, and as such the ending is more or less the only one that could have happened. However, it was well executed, and there was a twist or two that I didn't see coming. This gives me a little perspective when I look at the series as a whole. There were plenty of twists, plenty of secrets. While many of them were not foreshadowed fully, they were consistent, even across different authors. That may be something I haven't really talked about: There were about 5-7 authors for the whole series (a couple wrote two-3). There was some minor inconsistency of characters (mostly the side characters, not the three main ones), and I'm sure that more than once the authors threw a loop for their compatriots to deal with. It must have been an exciting trip. As far as the series itself goes, as a middle-grade series, I feel it did it's job. It is not the best series I've read, for this point in my life, but it was enjoyable.
My Soul to Save
The second book in the series by Rachel Vincent. This one brought up some Faustian themes, mixing them with the very rich mythos that she's woven for the characters. The trip to the underworld was pretty crazy, and I'm hoping will get addressed more in future books. As it were, the worldbuilding continues to impress me. The romance is still a little strange, but it's easy to imagine that true of most relationships at that age (having not been in one myself, I can't comment more fully). Other than that, this remains an impressive series, and I hope to read more soon.
Demons Lexicon
First book in a series by Sarah Rees Brennan. The book held my attention, and was rather well executed, right up until the ending. The book follows two brothers who are running from magicians. Magicians, like in Bartemeus, summon demons to give them power, and the two brothers have run afoul of a group. As premise goes, it's not bad. There's some cool worldbuilding, like the dances at the goblin markets. However, I was very unsatisfied with the ending. It was confusing, and while I got the twist (had guessed it only a few pages earlier), I didn't really like hte resolution. I'll probably give her another shot, but it's on teh back burner for the moment. Cut the ending, and it would have been a great book.
Clockwork Angel
A friend of mine doesn't have much respect for Cassandra Claire. This is the first book in her second trilogy, set in the victorian (steampunk) time. The thing that caught me about the first trilogy is the awesome use of runes for the shadowhunters. The shadowhunters are a group of more-than-humans who try and protect teh regular humans from the "monsterous" downworlders. The worldbuilding caught me pretty strongly in this one two. We see more of downworleder society in this one, which I enjoyed, but I still think the runes are some of the best worldbuilding in the setting, and the one thing I keep wanting to find more about.
Side Jobs
Jim Butcher has collected a bunch of short stories, novellas, etc. that have been published in various anthologies and released the collection as it's own novel. Awesome idea, for those of us who don't want to go out and buy the dozen anthologies that contain some of his work. He still has more out there that are not included in here, but it was a great start. Some of the stories caught me more than others. The one from Thomas' viewpoint let me see deeper into some aspects of the setting that, by their nature, can't be shown from Dresden. And I liked them. The one from Karrin's viewpoint was an interesting story, if a bit emo. Personally, I think I'm more excited about the next book in the series than most of these side novellas.
Inner Demons
For another shameless plug, Sarra Cannon has released book 2 for general consumption. If I had an e-reader, I'd totally be all over this. In the second book, the world is starting to be fleshed out more, and the girl really starts to learn more about her magic.
Sisters Grimm: Fairy Tale Detectives
The last book I'll talk about is the new series of Audio books I'm starting, by Michael Buckley. The premise is a pair of orphans who are descendents of the Brothers Grimm, start taking place in the family business: acting as magical detectives to the everafters, the fairy tale creatures. Again, a middle-grade book, I didn't really expect any great revelations. Still, there was enough of a twist to keep things interesting. Mostly, I'm reading it for the random literary and fairy tale creatures who pop up every now and again.
And with book #10, the 39 clues is finished. It's a middle-grade book, and as such the ending is more or less the only one that could have happened. However, it was well executed, and there was a twist or two that I didn't see coming. This gives me a little perspective when I look at the series as a whole. There were plenty of twists, plenty of secrets. While many of them were not foreshadowed fully, they were consistent, even across different authors. That may be something I haven't really talked about: There were about 5-7 authors for the whole series (a couple wrote two-3). There was some minor inconsistency of characters (mostly the side characters, not the three main ones), and I'm sure that more than once the authors threw a loop for their compatriots to deal with. It must have been an exciting trip. As far as the series itself goes, as a middle-grade series, I feel it did it's job. It is not the best series I've read, for this point in my life, but it was enjoyable.
My Soul to Save
The second book in the series by Rachel Vincent. This one brought up some Faustian themes, mixing them with the very rich mythos that she's woven for the characters. The trip to the underworld was pretty crazy, and I'm hoping will get addressed more in future books. As it were, the worldbuilding continues to impress me. The romance is still a little strange, but it's easy to imagine that true of most relationships at that age (having not been in one myself, I can't comment more fully). Other than that, this remains an impressive series, and I hope to read more soon.
Demons Lexicon
First book in a series by Sarah Rees Brennan. The book held my attention, and was rather well executed, right up until the ending. The book follows two brothers who are running from magicians. Magicians, like in Bartemeus, summon demons to give them power, and the two brothers have run afoul of a group. As premise goes, it's not bad. There's some cool worldbuilding, like the dances at the goblin markets. However, I was very unsatisfied with the ending. It was confusing, and while I got the twist (had guessed it only a few pages earlier), I didn't really like hte resolution. I'll probably give her another shot, but it's on teh back burner for the moment. Cut the ending, and it would have been a great book.
Clockwork Angel
A friend of mine doesn't have much respect for Cassandra Claire. This is the first book in her second trilogy, set in the victorian (steampunk) time. The thing that caught me about the first trilogy is the awesome use of runes for the shadowhunters. The shadowhunters are a group of more-than-humans who try and protect teh regular humans from the "monsterous" downworlders. The worldbuilding caught me pretty strongly in this one two. We see more of downworleder society in this one, which I enjoyed, but I still think the runes are some of the best worldbuilding in the setting, and the one thing I keep wanting to find more about.
Side Jobs
Jim Butcher has collected a bunch of short stories, novellas, etc. that have been published in various anthologies and released the collection as it's own novel. Awesome idea, for those of us who don't want to go out and buy the dozen anthologies that contain some of his work. He still has more out there that are not included in here, but it was a great start. Some of the stories caught me more than others. The one from Thomas' viewpoint let me see deeper into some aspects of the setting that, by their nature, can't be shown from Dresden. And I liked them. The one from Karrin's viewpoint was an interesting story, if a bit emo. Personally, I think I'm more excited about the next book in the series than most of these side novellas.
Inner Demons
For another shameless plug, Sarra Cannon has released book 2 for general consumption. If I had an e-reader, I'd totally be all over this. In the second book, the world is starting to be fleshed out more, and the girl really starts to learn more about her magic.
Sisters Grimm: Fairy Tale Detectives
The last book I'll talk about is the new series of Audio books I'm starting, by Michael Buckley. The premise is a pair of orphans who are descendents of the Brothers Grimm, start taking place in the family business: acting as magical detectives to the everafters, the fairy tale creatures. Again, a middle-grade book, I didn't really expect any great revelations. Still, there was enough of a twist to keep things interesting. Mostly, I'm reading it for the random literary and fairy tale creatures who pop up every now and again.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Book Review: Too many to name.
I'm a little behind on my book reviews. Between NaNo and my research, I've not had much time to write it up. So here's a quick catch-up, some of these I may revisit with more fevor later.
39 Clues: Beyond the Grave by Jude Watson
39 Clues: Black Circle by Patrick Carman
39 Clues: In Too Deep by Jude Watson
39 Clues: The Vipers Nest by Peter Lerangis
39 Clues: The Emperors Code by Gordan Korman
39 Clues: Storm Warning by Linda Sue Park
Rather than going through each of these books individually, I'll talk a bit about this chunk of books as a whole, since they're from the same series. The story is developing, and it's taking a different route from the standard Alchemists Stone, which is cool. That only happened in the last couple books though, so it's still got potential. The Black Circle was one of the better ones I read, with a very nice exploration of Rasputin and Russia. There was a new character introduced who I kept hoping would become more important, but she has yet to do so. As things are winding to a close, the plot keeps thickening.
Secret World Chronicles: The Hunt
Secret World Chronicles: World Well Lost
The next two books in the Secret World Chronicles, by Mercedes Lackey and Steve Libby. More awesome superhero goodness. The story is really interesting, and I just love some of the characters (two in particular). I found out that this was inspired by the game City of Heros, which makes me kinda want to play it now. Lots of potential for awesomeness. The story has taken a hiatus since early september, and I keep hoping that they'll come back to it. Maybe I'm getting my hopes up though.
Thomas Riley
In this debut book by Nick Valentino, we've got my first real introduction to Steampunk. I picked it up at the Decatur Book Festival, and I haven't regretted it. It's a nice story, involving alchemy and steampunk and all kinds of other things. Pretty simple, for all that. I don't remember all of hte end, it got kinda hectic, but I'm happy with it.
The Red Pyramid
New mythological-based Urban Fantasy, by Rick Riordan. This one is leveraging Egyption mythology. In general, I know much less about this than I do Greek/Roman, but that didn't stop it from being a good story. The mode of telling is also interesting. It's two kids, and they're 'fighting' over hte rights to tell the story, but in several places they're explicitly addressing the reader, as if the whole thing is a letter or warning to the reader. It's well done, and it's what sparked some of the inspiration for my nano novel (in voice).
The Way of Kings
The new epic fantasy by Brandon Sanderson (and I do mean EPIC). This thing's a brick. For all that there's little sorcery, there's some really awesome magic going around in the world. Most people can't do it, and those who can can't do everything they used to be able to. People are in a war where they have barely a notion of what they're fighting for. All in all, there's some fascinating things in here. The magic has made me think, and it may be worth re-investigating as I pull things together for my rewrite of DragonMage.
Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians
This is a middle-grade/ya book by Brandon Sanderson. It seems to have largely be written as an experiment. It contains a lot of commentary on the craft of writing, since the protag considers himself a novice writer. Or something. He keeps doing things and commenting about how a writer shouldn't do them. Beneath the writerly commentary is a story about two worlds, in which librarians are evil and people can do amazing things with lenses made specially out of sands. Better sand means better glass, and so it's a hot commodity. Some strange ideas, some interesting ones. We'll see if I pick up sequels.
My Soul to Take
The first book in the Soul Screamers series, by Rachel Vincent. This is one of hte best YA books I've read recently. She took a different direction on the whole supernatural kid angle, the kid is not a mage, not a vampire, not a werewolf and not related in any way to the Fae. That right there is reason enough to give it a try. Don't get me wrong, I love books about all of those, but it's nice to see something different that still holds your interest. Since the reveal of what she in fact is is a big spoiler, I won't mention more here. Suffice it to say she did everything I thought was redeeming Twilight (which wasn't much), and made it awesome. I just grabbed book 2 out of the library yesterday.
The Black Prism
This new novel by Brent Weeks is the beginning of a trilogy I guess? I wasn't sure about this one, since it was targeted facebook advertising. It worked though. I enjoyed the book. The basic story is simple, the world in the aftermath of a brothers' war. Like Way of Kings, this is the introduction to a world, and so there often seems to be more worldbuilding than plot building. I guess you can get away with that in a series, though I would have liked to see more direction in this one. The primary magic system, based off of light, is really fascinating and has earned this book a second look in my eyes. Unfortunately, their little test keeps putting me as hopeless :(
Terrier
This is actually a reread of one of my favorite books by Tamora Pierce. It's kind of amazing that I love this book so much, since it's pretty low magic, but I love the characters, especially the narrator. The story is told through a journal, which had more influence on the voice of my nano novel than anything else. The treatment of slang and vernacular in this book is also very fascinating. The story itself is about a young overconfidant girl who gets in over her head as a trainee guard.
Bloodhound
This is the sequel to Terrier. All of the above awesomeness, except she's now a full guard.
Beautiful Demons
This one is more of a plug than the others. Sarra Cannon is actually in my critique group, and so I got to read the draft of this. It's available on amazon and b&n as an ebook, and is a really fascinating story about a young girl coming into her powers. Totally worth the $1 she's charging for it.
39 Clues: Beyond the Grave by Jude Watson
39 Clues: Black Circle by Patrick Carman
39 Clues: In Too Deep by Jude Watson
39 Clues: The Vipers Nest by Peter Lerangis
39 Clues: The Emperors Code by Gordan Korman
39 Clues: Storm Warning by Linda Sue Park
Rather than going through each of these books individually, I'll talk a bit about this chunk of books as a whole, since they're from the same series. The story is developing, and it's taking a different route from the standard Alchemists Stone, which is cool. That only happened in the last couple books though, so it's still got potential. The Black Circle was one of the better ones I read, with a very nice exploration of Rasputin and Russia. There was a new character introduced who I kept hoping would become more important, but she has yet to do so. As things are winding to a close, the plot keeps thickening.
Secret World Chronicles: The Hunt
Secret World Chronicles: World Well Lost
The next two books in the Secret World Chronicles, by Mercedes Lackey and Steve Libby. More awesome superhero goodness. The story is really interesting, and I just love some of the characters (two in particular). I found out that this was inspired by the game City of Heros, which makes me kinda want to play it now. Lots of potential for awesomeness. The story has taken a hiatus since early september, and I keep hoping that they'll come back to it. Maybe I'm getting my hopes up though.
Thomas Riley
In this debut book by Nick Valentino, we've got my first real introduction to Steampunk. I picked it up at the Decatur Book Festival, and I haven't regretted it. It's a nice story, involving alchemy and steampunk and all kinds of other things. Pretty simple, for all that. I don't remember all of hte end, it got kinda hectic, but I'm happy with it.
The Red Pyramid
New mythological-based Urban Fantasy, by Rick Riordan. This one is leveraging Egyption mythology. In general, I know much less about this than I do Greek/Roman, but that didn't stop it from being a good story. The mode of telling is also interesting. It's two kids, and they're 'fighting' over hte rights to tell the story, but in several places they're explicitly addressing the reader, as if the whole thing is a letter or warning to the reader. It's well done, and it's what sparked some of the inspiration for my nano novel (in voice).
The Way of Kings
The new epic fantasy by Brandon Sanderson (and I do mean EPIC). This thing's a brick. For all that there's little sorcery, there's some really awesome magic going around in the world. Most people can't do it, and those who can can't do everything they used to be able to. People are in a war where they have barely a notion of what they're fighting for. All in all, there's some fascinating things in here. The magic has made me think, and it may be worth re-investigating as I pull things together for my rewrite of DragonMage.
Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians
This is a middle-grade/ya book by Brandon Sanderson. It seems to have largely be written as an experiment. It contains a lot of commentary on the craft of writing, since the protag considers himself a novice writer. Or something. He keeps doing things and commenting about how a writer shouldn't do them. Beneath the writerly commentary is a story about two worlds, in which librarians are evil and people can do amazing things with lenses made specially out of sands. Better sand means better glass, and so it's a hot commodity. Some strange ideas, some interesting ones. We'll see if I pick up sequels.
My Soul to Take
The first book in the Soul Screamers series, by Rachel Vincent. This is one of hte best YA books I've read recently. She took a different direction on the whole supernatural kid angle, the kid is not a mage, not a vampire, not a werewolf and not related in any way to the Fae. That right there is reason enough to give it a try. Don't get me wrong, I love books about all of those, but it's nice to see something different that still holds your interest. Since the reveal of what she in fact is is a big spoiler, I won't mention more here. Suffice it to say she did everything I thought was redeeming Twilight (which wasn't much), and made it awesome. I just grabbed book 2 out of the library yesterday.
The Black Prism
This new novel by Brent Weeks is the beginning of a trilogy I guess? I wasn't sure about this one, since it was targeted facebook advertising. It worked though. I enjoyed the book. The basic story is simple, the world in the aftermath of a brothers' war. Like Way of Kings, this is the introduction to a world, and so there often seems to be more worldbuilding than plot building. I guess you can get away with that in a series, though I would have liked to see more direction in this one. The primary magic system, based off of light, is really fascinating and has earned this book a second look in my eyes. Unfortunately, their little test keeps putting me as hopeless :(
Terrier
This is actually a reread of one of my favorite books by Tamora Pierce. It's kind of amazing that I love this book so much, since it's pretty low magic, but I love the characters, especially the narrator. The story is told through a journal, which had more influence on the voice of my nano novel than anything else. The treatment of slang and vernacular in this book is also very fascinating. The story itself is about a young overconfidant girl who gets in over her head as a trainee guard.
Bloodhound
This is the sequel to Terrier. All of the above awesomeness, except she's now a full guard.
Beautiful Demons
This one is more of a plug than the others. Sarra Cannon is actually in my critique group, and so I got to read the draft of this. It's available on amazon and b&n as an ebook, and is a really fascinating story about a young girl coming into her powers. Totally worth the $1 she's charging for it.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Book Review: Peter Lerangis, Laura Anne Gilman, Mercedes Lackey, Jonathan Stroud, Herbie Brennan, Charlaine Harris
To follow up the book festival, I thought another book review post might be interesting. So let's see what I've been up to in the last couple of weeks.
The Sword Theif
Book 3 in the 39 clues series, this one written by Peter Lerangis, sees the duo off to Japan. In this book we find out more about what the 39 clues are all about. There was also this awkward romance budding between two characters (who, I might point out, are cousins), and more secrets dropped about the kids' mysterious past. I'm not sure I like some of the character changes that happened here (mostly the romance and the ending), but the series itself is still promising. It might be a long ride though.
Hard Magic
I've been eyeing this book by L. A. Gilman for months. Anyone following me on twitter has noticed this, since I tweeted about it when I picked it up. They had it on the 1 week shelf on the Library when I was dropping off the previous book, and I just had to grab it. What I didn't realize going in, is that this is a spin-off series of her other series. However, it was self contained and intelligable. The plot centers around a team who become a new magical forensics squad, similar to CSI. The magic system still has room for expansion, but the view of magic as current (in fact, this is why mages can't use electric appliences: they run on the same frequencies) is kinda cool. I'll be watching her more carefully. This is also the first UF I think I've read that treats alternate relationships as just another thing, without making a big deal of it. The MC is bi, and one of the other characters, it turns out, is involved in a 3-way relationship. The MC speculates a little about this, but it's pushed aside to make way for more plot. It's presented with the same lack of consideration as it would if it was a heterosexual relationship. I found that intriguing.
The Invasion
Book 1 in the Secret World Chronicles, by Mercedes Lackey and Steve Libby. This is actually a podcast audio book, which is a new format for me. I've listened to some podcasts before, mostly gaming, and I've listened to plenty of audio books (probably more than half of the ones I've mentioned here have been audio books, though I haven't kept track). This one is set in 2004, but with superheros existing. Superheros grew out of WWII, and are managed by a worldwide organization called Echo. However, in this book, we see a surprise invasion by a mysterious Nazi force, mostly metahumans and humans in superpowered suits. The story jumps around in each chapter from one character to another, and they only start interacting with each other in the 2nd book. Still, I haven't been able to stop listening.
Shakespeare's Landlord
Most people know Charlaine Harris from her Southern Vampire Mysteries (a.k.a. True Blood). However, in her Lily Bard novels, the situation is quite different. This is, in many ways, a much more mundane mystery than the UF I've been reading. It starts off as a girl in a small town with a clear past to hide. However, as it unfolds, and we learn more about her past, well it's one of the most heartbreaking backstories I've read. There's no supernatural here, and I'll be honest I spent a good chunk of the beginning looking for one. While this may have stopped me from picking it up in the first place had I known, now that I've read it I'll most likely add the next couple to my list. The next 2 I already have on audio book courtesy of my mom.
The Golem's Eye
After about 2 years, I finally got back to the Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. Book two finds our hero crawling up the government rungs. He's his own magician now, and has gotten himself in over his head tracking down the Resistance. It had been so long since I'd read the first one, that truth be told I didn't remember a bit of it. I was still able to follow most of this, but I'm sure there were many back references I didn't get. The Djini's habbit of including footnotes in his work are rather amusing. It only occured to me partway through the 3rd book that the Djini's sections are int he first person, while the other sections are in the third. This is another book that's also strangely political, but since the MC is young and naive, it really boils down to who's trying ot take advantage of him today. Some of these ideas may end up leeking into my WIP if I'm not careful though (more on that later, I've done some significant effort in plotting, but I'm nowhere near done).
Ptolemy's Gate
Book 3 in the Bartimaeus Trilogy has changed the nature of John and Kitty's relationship pretty completely. He is now even higher on the government totem pole, and is running his poor Djini raggid. While I can't remember the "main" conflict, what's stuck with me is that this novel is an interesting treatment of trust, what trust there can be between a man and his deadly slave anyway. I just can't seem to remember what lead them to that place in the first place...
Ruler of the Realm
The Third and Final book in Herbie Brennan's Faerie Wars novels finally wraps up some of the storylines. The demon's mechinations have enough plot twists to keep everyone guessing, though whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is left up to you. The romances come to a heel, at least to a certain extent, and all in all, not a bad book. Though I don't think I'm going to make particular effort to keep an eye out for sequels anymore.
The Sword Theif
Book 3 in the 39 clues series, this one written by Peter Lerangis, sees the duo off to Japan. In this book we find out more about what the 39 clues are all about. There was also this awkward romance budding between two characters (who, I might point out, are cousins), and more secrets dropped about the kids' mysterious past. I'm not sure I like some of the character changes that happened here (mostly the romance and the ending), but the series itself is still promising. It might be a long ride though.
Hard Magic
I've been eyeing this book by L. A. Gilman for months. Anyone following me on twitter has noticed this, since I tweeted about it when I picked it up. They had it on the 1 week shelf on the Library when I was dropping off the previous book, and I just had to grab it. What I didn't realize going in, is that this is a spin-off series of her other series. However, it was self contained and intelligable. The plot centers around a team who become a new magical forensics squad, similar to CSI. The magic system still has room for expansion, but the view of magic as current (in fact, this is why mages can't use electric appliences: they run on the same frequencies) is kinda cool. I'll be watching her more carefully. This is also the first UF I think I've read that treats alternate relationships as just another thing, without making a big deal of it. The MC is bi, and one of the other characters, it turns out, is involved in a 3-way relationship. The MC speculates a little about this, but it's pushed aside to make way for more plot. It's presented with the same lack of consideration as it would if it was a heterosexual relationship. I found that intriguing.
The Invasion
Book 1 in the Secret World Chronicles, by Mercedes Lackey and Steve Libby. This is actually a podcast audio book, which is a new format for me. I've listened to some podcasts before, mostly gaming, and I've listened to plenty of audio books (probably more than half of the ones I've mentioned here have been audio books, though I haven't kept track). This one is set in 2004, but with superheros existing. Superheros grew out of WWII, and are managed by a worldwide organization called Echo. However, in this book, we see a surprise invasion by a mysterious Nazi force, mostly metahumans and humans in superpowered suits. The story jumps around in each chapter from one character to another, and they only start interacting with each other in the 2nd book. Still, I haven't been able to stop listening.
Shakespeare's Landlord
Most people know Charlaine Harris from her Southern Vampire Mysteries (a.k.a. True Blood). However, in her Lily Bard novels, the situation is quite different. This is, in many ways, a much more mundane mystery than the UF I've been reading. It starts off as a girl in a small town with a clear past to hide. However, as it unfolds, and we learn more about her past, well it's one of the most heartbreaking backstories I've read. There's no supernatural here, and I'll be honest I spent a good chunk of the beginning looking for one. While this may have stopped me from picking it up in the first place had I known, now that I've read it I'll most likely add the next couple to my list. The next 2 I already have on audio book courtesy of my mom.
The Golem's Eye
After about 2 years, I finally got back to the Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. Book two finds our hero crawling up the government rungs. He's his own magician now, and has gotten himself in over his head tracking down the Resistance. It had been so long since I'd read the first one, that truth be told I didn't remember a bit of it. I was still able to follow most of this, but I'm sure there were many back references I didn't get. The Djini's habbit of including footnotes in his work are rather amusing. It only occured to me partway through the 3rd book that the Djini's sections are int he first person, while the other sections are in the third. This is another book that's also strangely political, but since the MC is young and naive, it really boils down to who's trying ot take advantage of him today. Some of these ideas may end up leeking into my WIP if I'm not careful though (more on that later, I've done some significant effort in plotting, but I'm nowhere near done).
Ptolemy's Gate
Book 3 in the Bartimaeus Trilogy has changed the nature of John and Kitty's relationship pretty completely. He is now even higher on the government totem pole, and is running his poor Djini raggid. While I can't remember the "main" conflict, what's stuck with me is that this novel is an interesting treatment of trust, what trust there can be between a man and his deadly slave anyway. I just can't seem to remember what lead them to that place in the first place...
Ruler of the Realm
The Third and Final book in Herbie Brennan's Faerie Wars novels finally wraps up some of the storylines. The demon's mechinations have enough plot twists to keep everyone guessing, though whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is left up to you. The romances come to a heel, at least to a certain extent, and all in all, not a bad book. Though I don't think I'm going to make particular effort to keep an eye out for sequels anymore.
Friday, August 06, 2010
Book Review:
I think It's time for another book review post. I've gotten through a few books in the last few weeks.
Wake
The first book in a trilogy by Lisa McMann was a rather strange book. The premise is pretty interesting, it's about a girl who gets pulled into peoples dreams any time she's near someone sleeping. The dreams themselves are strange, as dreams often are. As usual, there were a couple themes that made me uncomfortable, but all in all it was a decent story. The really strange part was the book was written in present tense. At first I thought it was just for the dreams, and hte rest of hte book would be in the more common past tense, but I was wrong. It made it awkward to read, and gave the whole thing a very surreal feel.
Waking the Witch
Waking the Witch is the latest book in Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld series. I think this is the only author I can think of who maintaines my interest in her as much in the latest book as in the first one I read, and this is the 15th book of hers I've read (11th in this series). The ending is a cliffhanger/ huge surprise, which isn't something she usually does in her books. It made me feel like the story wasn't finished, which is very strange, but apparently this is a 2-part story, and I have to wait another year to find out what's happening. Personally, I think it'll be worth the wait.
Jealousy
The third book in Lilith Saintcrow's Strange Angels series. The mythos is really interesting here, and I wish I knew if it was based on something or not. Secrets start worming their way out, and we find out a lot more backstory in this one. She weaves the two stories together well. To me, more of this book felt about the backstory than the current one, whereas the previous two were more tied to the current timeline. But there's still plenty of story to be pursued.
Elantris
I mentioned a little about this book in a previous post, because it made me think of undead. Written by Brandon Sanderson, it's a very political story, which I don't always like. This one, however, made me wonder if there was a sequel. There were times when it was predictable, though it had it's share of surprises. Some of them were because we had no way of knowing some features about the world, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Shamans Crossing
First in the Soldier Son's Trilogy by Robin Hobb, this was another pretty political book. It's set in a colonial-era fantasy world, and centers around a conflict with Civilization vs the more primal wild. There's some strong feminist leanings in there too, but it felt kinda heavy handed at times. This is probably one of the few books that made me actually hate characters that weren't an outright enemy. The characters were cast to be annoying, and I really felt it. I mostly picked up this book because the sequel kept catching my eyes in bookstores, and I never realized it was one. We got a free copy at Comic Con in NYC last year, so I've been trying to read it. I'm unsure of how I feel about it, but I'll probably give another book a chance, it wasn't that awful.
The Purple Emperor
As I mentioned with Faerie Wars, I had read this book a few years ago, but couldnt' remember anything about it. The 2nd in a series by Herbie Brennan, the book picks up pretty much where the previous one left off. I thin the series is a Trilogy, but I'm not sure. Truth is, I'm not sure what else to say about it.
Artemis Fowl
Another series I had read a few years ago is Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series. The newest one is about to come out, and I grabbed this to read with Krystal when we were driving around. I'd forgotten much of it, and it ended differently than I remembered. Maybe I was remembering a later book. In this world, Leprecon is actually LEPRecon, so rather than a race it's a group of police officers. The mythos is pretty interesting, and while the 10 yr old supergenius is a bit far fetched, it's still an intriguing tale.
Wake
The first book in a trilogy by Lisa McMann was a rather strange book. The premise is pretty interesting, it's about a girl who gets pulled into peoples dreams any time she's near someone sleeping. The dreams themselves are strange, as dreams often are. As usual, there were a couple themes that made me uncomfortable, but all in all it was a decent story. The really strange part was the book was written in present tense. At first I thought it was just for the dreams, and hte rest of hte book would be in the more common past tense, but I was wrong. It made it awkward to read, and gave the whole thing a very surreal feel.
Waking the Witch
Waking the Witch is the latest book in Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld series. I think this is the only author I can think of who maintaines my interest in her as much in the latest book as in the first one I read, and this is the 15th book of hers I've read (11th in this series). The ending is a cliffhanger/ huge surprise, which isn't something she usually does in her books. It made me feel like the story wasn't finished, which is very strange, but apparently this is a 2-part story, and I have to wait another year to find out what's happening. Personally, I think it'll be worth the wait.
Jealousy
The third book in Lilith Saintcrow's Strange Angels series. The mythos is really interesting here, and I wish I knew if it was based on something or not. Secrets start worming their way out, and we find out a lot more backstory in this one. She weaves the two stories together well. To me, more of this book felt about the backstory than the current one, whereas the previous two were more tied to the current timeline. But there's still plenty of story to be pursued.
Elantris
I mentioned a little about this book in a previous post, because it made me think of undead. Written by Brandon Sanderson, it's a very political story, which I don't always like. This one, however, made me wonder if there was a sequel. There were times when it was predictable, though it had it's share of surprises. Some of them were because we had no way of knowing some features about the world, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Shamans Crossing
First in the Soldier Son's Trilogy by Robin Hobb, this was another pretty political book. It's set in a colonial-era fantasy world, and centers around a conflict with Civilization vs the more primal wild. There's some strong feminist leanings in there too, but it felt kinda heavy handed at times. This is probably one of the few books that made me actually hate characters that weren't an outright enemy. The characters were cast to be annoying, and I really felt it. I mostly picked up this book because the sequel kept catching my eyes in bookstores, and I never realized it was one. We got a free copy at Comic Con in NYC last year, so I've been trying to read it. I'm unsure of how I feel about it, but I'll probably give another book a chance, it wasn't that awful.
The Purple Emperor
As I mentioned with Faerie Wars, I had read this book a few years ago, but couldnt' remember anything about it. The 2nd in a series by Herbie Brennan, the book picks up pretty much where the previous one left off. I thin the series is a Trilogy, but I'm not sure. Truth is, I'm not sure what else to say about it.
Artemis Fowl
Another series I had read a few years ago is Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series. The newest one is about to come out, and I grabbed this to read with Krystal when we were driving around. I'd forgotten much of it, and it ended differently than I remembered. Maybe I was remembering a later book. In this world, Leprecon is actually LEPRecon, so rather than a race it's a group of police officers. The mythos is pretty interesting, and while the 10 yr old supergenius is a bit far fetched, it's still an intriguing tale.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Book Review:
Well, It's apparently been quite a while since I've done a book review blog. So let's see what we can pull together.
Mark of the Demon
The first book in Diana Rowland's Kara Gillian series, Mark of the Demon was a very impressive book. Although I'm not sure how I feel about her reaction to the demon, the plot twists and turns kept me glued to the page for the whole day. I burned through it pretty darn fast. It's possible that I'd be less impressed on a second read through, but for the moment I'm keeping an eye out for her next one.
Strange Brew
This book is an Anthology. I don't remember a lot about every story, but I'll write about hte ones I do know.
Evermore is the first book in Alyson Noel's Immortals series. To be honest, elements of hte plot reminded me very strongly of Twilight, with a slight twist. Still, it was interesting to read. Plot was stronger than Twilight (though that's not saying much), and I liked the narrater most of the time. She was a little dramatic, but it's YA.
Betrayals
Betrayals is the 2nd book in Lili St. Crow's series. I am getting drawn into this series quite strongly. She's now in a school of people closer to her own..demenor. It's kinda fascinating. I still am not sure where she's getting her mythos, but it's fascinating to see another side of vamps and weres.
SpellCrash
SpellCrash is the latest book in Kelley McCullough's WebMage series. Hacking/Coding, Greek GOds, and Magic, all rolled into one nice aweseome bundle. There's some character decisions that I wans't as fond of in this book, but overall it made nice progress. The ending looked like it was gonna suck and then got better very quickly.
Demon Hunts
Demon Hunts is the latest in the Walker Papers series by C. E. Murphey . The series brings shamanistic traditions into the modern day world, and is quite fascinating. I'm not as grounded in shaman mythos as I am some others, but I thoroughly enjoy this series.
Last Olympian
The last book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, by Rick Riordan finaly brings the story to a close. While the world isn't closed, this hero's journey is pretty much ended. It was a good ending, and reallyi shows the uncertainty of prophecy.
Faerie Wars
The first book in the Faerie Wars series, this details the adventures of a prince of the realm and his travels into a parallel universe: earth. I had read the books a while ago, but couldn't remember them well and thought I'd give it another go. While one of the MC's is a bit naive at times ("How can she be a lesbian, she has two kids!"), it's a pretty decent book.
How to Train Your Dragon
This is the book the Movie was based off of (If you haven't seen the movie, I highly doubt you'd regret it. Unless you're a weirdo who doesn't like dragons). This is apparently the first book in an 8-book series. THe plot is very different than the movie, I suspect only a few characters names were actually used in the movie from the book. Most of the characters are rather different as well. But it was still an enjoyable read.
New Kid in School
It's pretty rare I'm dissapointed by a book, but this one was one. The first book in the Dragon Slayers Academy books, the book was okay (if childish, but it is a children's book), until the very end. The ending was such a big letdown.
Maze of Bones
This series, the 39 clues, is put out by Scholastic, and written by a group of writers. The story is about a pair of orphans who are members in a very influential family that apparently includes people such as Ben Franklin and Mozart. While the believability of such a long-branching family streatches a little, the books themselves are pretty interesting.
One False Note
This is the second book in the 39 clues series. Most of what I have to say about this book was said above.
Good Omens
Yes, that's right. It took me this long to read Good Omens, by Neil Gaimman and Terry Pratchett. Great story, and I never quite knew where it was going to go. The ending was a little unexpected, but follows well from the rest of the story.
Brisingr
And the last one I'll talk about for today, looks like, Is the 3rd book in the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. This was originally thought to be the last book, but a 4th is coming out to finish the series. WHile the plot is decent, it drags a little. However, my favorite part is some of the names. They're so intriguing, with what I assume is strong nordic influence. Still, this is part of what prompted the creation of the model dragon I was posting about the last two weeks.
Mark of the Demon
The first book in Diana Rowland's Kara Gillian series, Mark of the Demon was a very impressive book. Although I'm not sure how I feel about her reaction to the demon, the plot twists and turns kept me glued to the page for the whole day. I burned through it pretty darn fast. It's possible that I'd be less impressed on a second read through, but for the moment I'm keeping an eye out for her next one.
Strange Brew
This book is an Anthology. I don't remember a lot about every story, but I'll write about hte ones I do know.
- Seeing Eye - Patricia Briggs: This was about a blind witch helping a werewolf track down his brother. Really interesting short, especially the twist near the end.
- Last Call - Jim Butcher: Dresden Files short, in which Harry tracks down someone who's poisoned his favorite beer.
- Death Warmed Over - Rachel Caine: I don't remember all the details of this, but I remember really wanting to know if she has other books written in this world. I seem to think it's a war between witch factions.
- Vegas Odds - Karen Chance: Don't remember this one either. Hmm.
- Hecetate's Golden Eye - P.N. Elrond: This was about a girl who hires a detective/magic user to track down and steal this amulet from a sister who wanted but didn't deserve it.
- Bacon - Charline Harris: Set in the True Blood world, don't remember more.
- Signatures of the Dead - Faith Hunter: Set in the Jane Yellowrock world. I think I liekd the narrator here more than Jane, though I haven't read Jane yet. It's on my shef, i swear!
- Ginger: A Nocturne City Story - Caitlin Kitteredge - Umm...yeah. Not putting it together.
- Dark Sins - Jenna McLane: Another one I don't remember. I'll probably try and glance over these and give another entry later.
Evermore is the first book in Alyson Noel's Immortals series. To be honest, elements of hte plot reminded me very strongly of Twilight, with a slight twist. Still, it was interesting to read. Plot was stronger than Twilight (though that's not saying much), and I liked the narrater most of the time. She was a little dramatic, but it's YA.
Betrayals
Betrayals is the 2nd book in Lili St. Crow's series. I am getting drawn into this series quite strongly. She's now in a school of people closer to her own..demenor. It's kinda fascinating. I still am not sure where she's getting her mythos, but it's fascinating to see another side of vamps and weres.
SpellCrash
SpellCrash is the latest book in Kelley McCullough's WebMage series. Hacking/Coding, Greek GOds, and Magic, all rolled into one nice aweseome bundle. There's some character decisions that I wans't as fond of in this book, but overall it made nice progress. The ending looked like it was gonna suck and then got better very quickly.
Demon Hunts
Demon Hunts is the latest in the Walker Papers series by C. E. Murphey . The series brings shamanistic traditions into the modern day world, and is quite fascinating. I'm not as grounded in shaman mythos as I am some others, but I thoroughly enjoy this series.
Last Olympian
The last book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, by Rick Riordan finaly brings the story to a close. While the world isn't closed, this hero's journey is pretty much ended. It was a good ending, and reallyi shows the uncertainty of prophecy.
Faerie Wars
The first book in the Faerie Wars series, this details the adventures of a prince of the realm and his travels into a parallel universe: earth. I had read the books a while ago, but couldn't remember them well and thought I'd give it another go. While one of the MC's is a bit naive at times ("How can she be a lesbian, she has two kids!"), it's a pretty decent book.
How to Train Your Dragon
This is the book the Movie was based off of (If you haven't seen the movie, I highly doubt you'd regret it. Unless you're a weirdo who doesn't like dragons). This is apparently the first book in an 8-book series. THe plot is very different than the movie, I suspect only a few characters names were actually used in the movie from the book. Most of the characters are rather different as well. But it was still an enjoyable read.
New Kid in School
It's pretty rare I'm dissapointed by a book, but this one was one. The first book in the Dragon Slayers Academy books, the book was okay (if childish, but it is a children's book), until the very end. The ending was such a big letdown.
Maze of Bones
This series, the 39 clues, is put out by Scholastic, and written by a group of writers. The story is about a pair of orphans who are members in a very influential family that apparently includes people such as Ben Franklin and Mozart. While the believability of such a long-branching family streatches a little, the books themselves are pretty interesting.
One False Note
This is the second book in the 39 clues series. Most of what I have to say about this book was said above.
Good Omens
Yes, that's right. It took me this long to read Good Omens, by Neil Gaimman and Terry Pratchett. Great story, and I never quite knew where it was going to go. The ending was a little unexpected, but follows well from the rest of the story.
Brisingr
And the last one I'll talk about for today, looks like, Is the 3rd book in the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. This was originally thought to be the last book, but a 4th is coming out to finish the series. WHile the plot is decent, it drags a little. However, my favorite part is some of the names. They're so intriguing, with what I assume is strong nordic influence. Still, this is part of what prompted the creation of the model dragon I was posting about the last two weeks.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Book Review: Jim Butcher, Jenna Black
I know this entry is late. I had fully intended on posting about the character modeling, but there's been some barriers. So instead, you get another book review post :).
Small Favor
The bad guys are back, and stronger than ever in the 10th book of theDresden Files. The fae are back and calling in favors, and as usual, Harry pisses off everyone and somehow makes it out alive. The ending has some beautiful irony, though it brought up something that apparently was in one of the shorts I missed.
Turn Coat
There have been hints of a conspiracy behind the scenes in the other Dresden Files books. In this one, we see it come to life. My favorite character gets some awesome scenes in this book, and there are some AMAZING sequences when Harry walks in on his allies in compromising situations. There's also some big mysteries thrown around w/o explanation, with the hope that they'll come up again in the future.
Changes
The latest book in the Dresden Files starts and ends with a spoiler. It's a really tough one to talk about without giving stuff away. Some thinly veiled awesomenesses include my favorite character coming up with a spell titled "The One Woman Rave", which leads to a sequence with another character dancing while swordfighting. Pure awsomesauce. Harry actually mouths off to Odin, and gets away with it. Yes THE Odin. This book saw a few instances of magic that didn't click, or the MC getting around limitations through sheer contrariness. Some of it I'm not sure how I feel about, but it's worth investigating in the future.
The Devil Inside
The first book of the Morgan Kingsley, Exorcist series by Jenna Black. A good chunk of the reason I picked up this book is because the author will be signing in my town on Thursday. After reading the book, I'm pretty excited :). The story takes place in a world where possession is legal, as long as the host consents. So Demons are everywhere, and the heroine isn't a fan. She works as an Exorcist, getting rid of demons that are illegally possessing someone, or who have killed. And then she finds out she's possessed herself, without her knowledge. That part strained believability a little, but for the most part it was a very enjoyable read.
Modeling
So just for completeness, since I was intending to talk about it, I'll speak for a bit on what happened with the modeling. So I've finished the torso, and started on the arms and legs. I don't remember if that was in the last picture I posted. This weekend, I started in on the head and found out that my reference images are too far off to be helpful. I tried moving ahead anyway, but all the proportions are off and, to be frank, it looks pretty terrible. I'll have to do some thinking about how I want to progress.
Small Favor
The bad guys are back, and stronger than ever in the 10th book of the
Turn Coat
There have been hints of a conspiracy behind the scenes in the other Dresden Files books. In this one, we see it come to life. My favorite character gets some awesome scenes in this book, and there are some AMAZING sequences when Harry walks in on his allies in compromising situations. There's also some big mysteries thrown around w/o explanation, with the hope that they'll come up again in the future.
Changes
The latest book in the Dresden Files starts and ends with a spoiler. It's a really tough one to talk about without giving stuff away. Some thinly veiled awesomenesses include my favorite character coming up with a spell titled "The One Woman Rave", which leads to a sequence with another character dancing while swordfighting. Pure awsomesauce. Harry actually mouths off to Odin, and gets away with it. Yes THE Odin. This book saw a few instances of magic that didn't click, or the MC getting around limitations through sheer contrariness. Some of it I'm not sure how I feel about, but it's worth investigating in the future.
The Devil Inside
The first book of the Morgan Kingsley, Exorcist series by Jenna Black. A good chunk of the reason I picked up this book is because the author will be signing in my town on Thursday. After reading the book, I'm pretty excited :). The story takes place in a world where possession is legal, as long as the host consents. So Demons are everywhere, and the heroine isn't a fan. She works as an Exorcist, getting rid of demons that are illegally possessing someone, or who have killed. And then she finds out she's possessed herself, without her knowledge. That part strained believability a little, but for the most part it was a very enjoyable read.
Modeling
So just for completeness, since I was intending to talk about it, I'll speak for a bit on what happened with the modeling. So I've finished the torso, and started on the arms and legs. I don't remember if that was in the last picture I posted. This weekend, I started in on the head and found out that my reference images are too far off to be helpful. I tried moving ahead anyway, but all the proportions are off and, to be frank, it looks pretty terrible. I'll have to do some thinking about how I want to progress.
Sunday, May 09, 2010
Character Modeling (Take 2), Book Review: Lisa Shearin, Jim Butcher, Julie Kagawa, Dan Brown, Kelley Armstrong
It's been a while since I've done a book review, so I have plenty to talk about.
Blood Rites
Book #6 in the Dresden Files pu the hero in a quite unusual situation. At the risk of a spoiler, I'm just going to say that he's investigating murders in a rather unusual setting. There were PLENTY of LOL moments, many of which came up because of the situation. We also find out more about Thomas and the White Court Vampires, which is pretty cool as well.
Dead Beat
Book #7 in the Dresden Files brings Necromancy into the fold of things that go bump in the night. We get to meet more Wardens as well, which is something I had been looking forward to the entire series. Some fallout from an earlier book is also explored in great deapth, and this is the first time we see Harry truely outside his magical league. Refreshing.
Proven Guilty
Book #8 in the Dresden Files brings the character who's fast becoming a favorite into greater light. Harry goes to a horror convention, and sees his friends daughter all growed up. This would be so much easier if I was allowing myself spoilers, but I did really enjoy this book :)
White Night
For the last Dresden Files book this week, we see book #9. Here there's someone killing women, and they leave messages for Harry..messages that only he can see. His first love comes back, and adds to the complicatedness of the situation.
The Iron King
Written by Julie Kagawa, this book was actually suggested by Rai, even though she hadn't read it. A girl finds herself thrown into the world of Faeries, accompanied by the now-infamous Puck (yes...THE Puck). We see both the courts of Winter and Summer, which are lead by their typical leaders, Mab and Titania (incidently, Dresden uses them too, but even some non-Mab queens of the winter court are identified as the Queen of Air and Darkness. I think there's something here, but I've not the knowledge to chase it down). Still, we even see hte rise of a new threat, and the sequels still have room for a few big twists.
The Reckoning
The last book in the Darkest Powers trilogy by Kelley Armstrong(Site #2. Chloe and the others are starting to learn more about their abilities, and what that entails for them. This book marked the end of their original arc, but she's seeded the next arc, and they will eventually meet up again. She does that a lot. I also got to meet her on Wednesday, which was a boatload of fun. She read the first chapter from her new book, and it sounds like it'll be a fun read.
The Lost Symbol
I know there are people out there who will loose any respect for me since I've read this book, but it was an entertaining read. Like many of Dan Brown's books, there are many huge infodumps, some cleverly disguised, some not. The plot was twisty but confusing. The portrayal of the masonic brotherhood was interesting, though not very flattering to that same brotherhood. It's given me the idea to try and work with some secret society things for my Mage game, but more on that later.
Trouble with Demons
The last book I finished (just yesterday in fact), was the third book in Lisa Shearin's Raine Benares series. The cover/title was for this book was what got me to pick up the series in the first place. The Demonology professor who got elaborated on in this book is quickly becoming one of my favorites. I hope she comes back. I've been on a Demon kick recently, and this helped with that. It also got me thinking about some more details for my magic system in my own novel, but that's for another post.
Character Model
So last time didn't work as well as I'd hoped. I did a few things that were, in retrospect, pretty obviously wrong. I've told some of you, but what I basically did was start over, and try a new method. There's still work to be done, but it's a much better start than last time.
Blood Rites
Book #6 in the Dresden Files pu the hero in a quite unusual situation. At the risk of a spoiler, I'm just going to say that he's investigating murders in a rather unusual setting. There were PLENTY of LOL moments, many of which came up because of the situation. We also find out more about Thomas and the White Court Vampires, which is pretty cool as well.
Dead Beat
Book #7 in the Dresden Files brings Necromancy into the fold of things that go bump in the night. We get to meet more Wardens as well, which is something I had been looking forward to the entire series. Some fallout from an earlier book is also explored in great deapth, and this is the first time we see Harry truely outside his magical league. Refreshing.
Proven Guilty
Book #8 in the Dresden Files brings the character who's fast becoming a favorite into greater light. Harry goes to a horror convention, and sees his friends daughter all growed up. This would be so much easier if I was allowing myself spoilers, but I did really enjoy this book :)
White Night
For the last Dresden Files book this week, we see book #9. Here there's someone killing women, and they leave messages for Harry..messages that only he can see. His first love comes back, and adds to the complicatedness of the situation.
The Iron King
Written by Julie Kagawa, this book was actually suggested by Rai, even though she hadn't read it. A girl finds herself thrown into the world of Faeries, accompanied by the now-infamous Puck (yes...THE Puck). We see both the courts of Winter and Summer, which are lead by their typical leaders, Mab and Titania (incidently, Dresden uses them too, but even some non-Mab queens of the winter court are identified as the Queen of Air and Darkness. I think there's something here, but I've not the knowledge to chase it down). Still, we even see hte rise of a new threat, and the sequels still have room for a few big twists.
The Reckoning
The last book in the Darkest Powers trilogy by Kelley Armstrong(Site #2. Chloe and the others are starting to learn more about their abilities, and what that entails for them. This book marked the end of their original arc, but she's seeded the next arc, and they will eventually meet up again. She does that a lot. I also got to meet her on Wednesday, which was a boatload of fun. She read the first chapter from her new book, and it sounds like it'll be a fun read.
The Lost Symbol
I know there are people out there who will loose any respect for me since I've read this book, but it was an entertaining read. Like many of Dan Brown's books, there are many huge infodumps, some cleverly disguised, some not. The plot was twisty but confusing. The portrayal of the masonic brotherhood was interesting, though not very flattering to that same brotherhood. It's given me the idea to try and work with some secret society things for my Mage game, but more on that later.
Trouble with Demons
The last book I finished (just yesterday in fact), was the third book in Lisa Shearin's Raine Benares series. The cover/title was for this book was what got me to pick up the series in the first place. The Demonology professor who got elaborated on in this book is quickly becoming one of my favorites. I hope she comes back. I've been on a Demon kick recently, and this helped with that. It also got me thinking about some more details for my magic system in my own novel, but that's for another post.
Character Model
So last time didn't work as well as I'd hoped. I did a few things that were, in retrospect, pretty obviously wrong. I've told some of you, but what I basically did was start over, and try a new method. There's still work to be done, but it's a much better start than last time.
Friday, April 09, 2010
Book Review: Jim Butcher
I had intentions for this week, but they didn't pan out. Instead, I'm going to go ahead and do a review of the last book I read. I have two library books really soon in my queue, and two new books taht I might read sooner rather than later.
The book of the day however, is Death Masks, by Jim Butcher. Like the previous one, we're starting to see more connection between the books. This one involved the Knights more, which was kinda cool. There was some interesting religious aspects, made more interesting by the fact that I started listening to it on good friday. The MacGuffin so to speak in this one turns out to be the Shroud of Turin, the one which Jesus was wearing during the resurrection. There was also some cool stuff about a 7 yr old girl with the knowledge of all the world. Heady thing.
Sorry for the short entry, I'll try and do better next time.
The book of the day however, is Death Masks, by Jim Butcher. Like the previous one, we're starting to see more connection between the books. This one involved the Knights more, which was kinda cool. There was some interesting religious aspects, made more interesting by the fact that I started listening to it on good friday. The MacGuffin so to speak in this one turns out to be the Shroud of Turin, the one which Jesus was wearing during the resurrection. There was also some cool stuff about a 7 yr old girl with the knowledge of all the world. Heady thing.
Sorry for the short entry, I'll try and do better next time.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Book Review: Rick Riordan, Jim Butcher, Lisa Shearin
Last week was spring break, and while I didn't get much of a break, I did get a lot of reading done. So we'll have a book review post that's a bit overdue.
The Sea of Monsters
Book 2 in the Percy Jackson series. We find out more about a prophecy, and get a run in with some famous greek monsters. The plot in this one was a little weaker, I think, than the first, but it did some good set-up for the third and fourth books. Percy gets a little more disobedient, closer to how he was in the movie. As with the first, and most YA I find, it's a quick, engaging read.
Titan's Curse
In Book 3 of the Percy Jackson series, we find more players in the prophecy. 2 new characters set the stage for the next book as well. Plot-wise, there's some fallout of the events in the previous book, but they're tied into a new quest and a new conflict. There's some believability issues near the end, but the book is an enjoyable read.
Battle of the Labyrinth
The penultimate book of the Percy Jackson series. The titular labyrinth is the very same of Theseus and the Minataur. We finally see the conclusion of one of the side-arcs that one of the characters was going through, which is a bit of a relief, and there's plenty of twists to keep one guessing.
The penultimate book of the Percy Jackson series. The titular labyrinth is the very same of Theseus and the Minataur. We finally see the conclusion of one of the side-arcs that one of the characters was going through, which is a bit of a relief, and there's plenty of twists to keep one guessing.
Armed & Magical
The 2nd book in the Raine Benares series, this picks up pretty much exactly where the previous book left off. All in all, I find myself sucked into the world. I would consider this strong worldbuilding. Character's are pretty engaging, even with the MCs possible lack of limits. We see a bit more of the dark side of things here, and a few more players on the global stage. All in all, an enjoyable read, even if it did take me 3 weeks to read it.
Grave Peril
Ahh, Back to Jim Butcher, and the Dresden Files. When I was listening to the forward, Butcher claims that this book is what fans usually consider the start of the series. The first 2 books are more stand alone. I think this is partially true, though elements do carry over, we're starting to see more global plot structure in this book. The fall out of the events effect the next book (see next bullet) much mroe than the previous book effected this one. Dresden's world is also providing some great inspriation for the Mage: The Awakening games I've been throwing around. Things dont' transfer 1-1, but it's really easy to get some of the same imeagry and themes going, if you want to. My only downside to these books is that Harry is always so beat up. I know characters are supposed to fail at times, but he's always on his last limb, making the stories pretty gritty from that perspective.
Summer Knight
The 4th book in the Dresden Files, we see the fallout of Harry's decisions in the previous book. This book also shows us the world of Harry's Fae, and the war between the courts that's seen in every fae story. Historically I've always been more of a witches and wizards fan, but lately branching into the fae has given me some interesting ideas to explore.
Conclusions
I have to say, these book reivews get harder with each book. I think it's because I'm trying to avoid major spoilers, but at the same time I'm always giving something away.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Book Review: Percy Jackson
So I'll admit that today's entry is a bit of a cheat. I had a better entry plan, but with the recruiting weekend not much has been done.
I enjoyed the book, and it's a nice quick read. I'll try for another entry soon.
So I've been putting off finishing my current read for some time, and I can't quite figure out why. In another fit of reading last weekend, I finished Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. The book was recently turned into a movie, and I had seen the movie before reading the book.
The book was entertaining, the story was a little more detached than the movie (some scenes were just happening, as opposed to having tight ties to the plot), but I felt the causality in the book was more complete. I got a better picture of the characters, and the wacky pseudo-romance was less of a point of confusion. It felt so awkward in the movie, but the book was well placed I thought.
I enjoyed the book, and it's a nice quick read. I'll try for another entry soon.
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Book Reviews
I've read 3 books since my last book review post. Most of them were finished this past weekend, so I'm not *that* far behind.
Fool Moon
First one is Fool Moon by Jim Butcher. It had been a while since I had read the first book in this series, Storm Front. While some aspects of the plot stuck in my head, very few of them were very important. The truth is, I liked Fool Moon much better than I remember liking Storm Front.
There were a few hints dropped that sucked me more into the world, and a few hints about the characters past that had my head spinning. It reminds me, in some ways, of Kim Harrison (see next review), but all the things I like best about it. Magic seemed a little more grounded and explored in this book as well, giving me some fuel (and interest) for another blog post.
It's worth noting that I listened to this on an audio book. It was read by James Marsters, which was a hoot to listen to. He used his "Spike" voice for Bob, which made me laugh. If you're an urban fantasy fan, I recommend the series. He takes a lot of hits, and for those of you who enjoy watching the hero get beat to a pulp before he manages to push back the darkness, give it an especially careful spin.
Black Magic Sanction
Wow, 8 books already. I started the series 4 years ago, on the suggestion of Lumie. She always gives me a good book to read. Anyway, the latest installment takes place more or less where the last one left off. There's been a lot of back-and-forth in the character, over the course of hte first 7 novels. One of my friend Rachel's major complaint about book 7 was that the character ended in more or less teh same place as the first one, but for different reasons. I think she's just frosted that two of the characters didn't get together.
The plot investigates some new aspects of the world, that hadn't really come into play before. The cool antagonist-y guy came back, and it was good to see him again. I feel like he didn't have as big a part in the previous book, but I could be misremembering. Either way, this book did seem to fit into the overal arc better than the previous, and it was a fun, quick, read.
Strange Angels
The last book I'll talk about today is Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow (AKA Lilith Saintcrow). This is a YA novel, but was very interesting. The premise is this girl and her father hunt things that go bump in the night: vampires, werewolves, daemons, everything. And then her father doesn't come back, and she's trying to survive. She finds out plenty of interesting secrets about herself, makes a couple of friends, and meets a couple enemies. All in all, decent story. Aspects of it are remnant of Cassandra Claire's Mortal Instruments, thought without the cool runic magic.
Fool Moon
First one is Fool Moon by Jim Butcher. It had been a while since I had read the first book in this series, Storm Front. While some aspects of the plot stuck in my head, very few of them were very important. The truth is, I liked Fool Moon much better than I remember liking Storm Front.
There were a few hints dropped that sucked me more into the world, and a few hints about the characters past that had my head spinning. It reminds me, in some ways, of Kim Harrison (see next review), but all the things I like best about it. Magic seemed a little more grounded and explored in this book as well, giving me some fuel (and interest) for another blog post.
It's worth noting that I listened to this on an audio book. It was read by James Marsters, which was a hoot to listen to. He used his "Spike" voice for Bob, which made me laugh. If you're an urban fantasy fan, I recommend the series. He takes a lot of hits, and for those of you who enjoy watching the hero get beat to a pulp before he manages to push back the darkness, give it an especially careful spin.
Black Magic Sanction
Wow, 8 books already. I started the series 4 years ago, on the suggestion of Lumie. She always gives me a good book to read. Anyway, the latest installment takes place more or less where the last one left off. There's been a lot of back-and-forth in the character, over the course of hte first 7 novels. One of my friend Rachel's major complaint about book 7 was that the character ended in more or less teh same place as the first one, but for different reasons. I think she's just frosted that two of the characters didn't get together.
The plot investigates some new aspects of the world, that hadn't really come into play before. The cool antagonist-y guy came back, and it was good to see him again. I feel like he didn't have as big a part in the previous book, but I could be misremembering. Either way, this book did seem to fit into the overal arc better than the previous, and it was a fun, quick, read.
Strange Angels
The last book I'll talk about today is Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow (AKA Lilith Saintcrow). This is a YA novel, but was very interesting. The premise is this girl and her father hunt things that go bump in the night: vampires, werewolves, daemons, everything. And then her father doesn't come back, and she's trying to survive. She finds out plenty of interesting secrets about herself, makes a couple of friends, and meets a couple enemies. All in all, decent story. Aspects of it are remnant of Cassandra Claire's Mortal Instruments, thought without the cool runic magic.
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Book Reviews
I've recently finished two books.
The Magicians
The first one is The Magicians by Lev Grossman. The basic premise is Harry Potter meets Narnia. The protag is one of those pompus smart kids (Whether I am one as well or not is up for debate) who has this "I'm fed up with life" attitude. He's constantly looking for an escape. It starts off with escaping in reading, and then a harry-potter like school of sorcery.
The premise is pretty interesting, and well executed. The characters attitude and hedonism got to me a couple of times, but it brings up an interesting question: If magic lets you do anything, what do you do to keep yourself occupied? After graduating from school, there's another instance of world-hopping, which kind of threw me for a loop. One alternate / hidden reality is one thing, but two is pushing it for me.
The other interesting thing about the plot is the pacing. The antagonist is very absent throughout the story. The conflict in the novel is very much focused on the character and his search for the right escape. At first I thought it was an interesting pacing choice, but it yielded one of those "I am villain, hear me roar" speeches that seemed out of place.
Angelic
The second book was Angelic by Kelley Armstrong. I'm a huge fan of Armstrong's work, she manages to hit all the right buttons to make me enjoy a book. This work was a novella, from my favorite narrator, the Half-Demon/Witch Eve.
I love the character, even though SOMEONE (*coughcoughsushicough*) said she sounded like a Mary Sue. The plot's pretty simple on this one, a bag & tag for the Fates. Despite being novella-sized, however, there's some nice twists to keep you guessing. Dropping the dime on Jeremy kinda threw me for a loop, I didn't remember that in her other books, but it might have been in the Anthology I missed. Still great story, as always. Finding her outlining course online was a big win, thank's to Tez Miller for pointing that out to me. That will be given it's own post in a few days.
The Magicians
The first one is The Magicians by Lev Grossman. The basic premise is Harry Potter meets Narnia. The protag is one of those pompus smart kids (Whether I am one as well or not is up for debate) who has this "I'm fed up with life" attitude. He's constantly looking for an escape. It starts off with escaping in reading, and then a harry-potter like school of sorcery.
The premise is pretty interesting, and well executed. The characters attitude and hedonism got to me a couple of times, but it brings up an interesting question: If magic lets you do anything, what do you do to keep yourself occupied? After graduating from school, there's another instance of world-hopping, which kind of threw me for a loop. One alternate / hidden reality is one thing, but two is pushing it for me.
The other interesting thing about the plot is the pacing. The antagonist is very absent throughout the story. The conflict in the novel is very much focused on the character and his search for the right escape. At first I thought it was an interesting pacing choice, but it yielded one of those "I am villain, hear me roar" speeches that seemed out of place.
Angelic
The second book was Angelic by Kelley Armstrong. I'm a huge fan of Armstrong's work, she manages to hit all the right buttons to make me enjoy a book. This work was a novella, from my favorite narrator, the Half-Demon/Witch Eve.
I love the character, even though SOMEONE (*coughcoughsushicough*) said she sounded like a Mary Sue. The plot's pretty simple on this one, a bag & tag for the Fates. Despite being novella-sized, however, there's some nice twists to keep you guessing. Dropping the dime on Jeremy kinda threw me for a loop, I didn't remember that in her other books, but it might have been in the Anthology I missed. Still great story, as always. Finding her outlining course online was a big win, thank's to Tez Miller for pointing that out to me. That will be given it's own post in a few days.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
State of the Blog
I started this blog way back when, intending to use it for research. A few years later, this is my first actual post. So, obviously that failed. I'm taking a second go at it this year, for some unknown reason.
I intend to be very specific about which topics I cover in this blog. Therefore, I am going to touch on each topic and give a rough sketch of where I am and what I have done in 2009 on each front.
Reading:
One thing I hope to use this blog for is book reviews. I haven't read as many books as I usually do in the past year, but I've read a couple good ones. I'll probably post some first thoughts on some of the more recent books later. I'm currently in the middle of The Magicians by Lev Grossman. It has a rather interesting, if complicated, plot so far, so I am really enjoying it. More to come later.
Writing:
One of the things I set out to do last year was write a few novels. I finished 2, plus a short story for class. I am hoping to do some editing, but I haven't started yet, for this year. Current state: My first piece, Dragonmage, is at least salvageable. The second piece, Phoenixfire, has to mostly be thrown out. What I've gained from writing that draft is a few ideas, but they're small objects that will have to come together differently. In tandem with the reading, I'm hoping to post some small thoughts on what I might have learned about writing from each book I review.
Research:
I thought (and am still thinking) about sketching some thoughts on my current research as I do it in this blog. I'm not sure this is such a good idea because I don't know if any of it is covered by NDA's or anything like that. I'll update once I think more on it.
Hobbies:
I don't really have any hobbies. One of the things I've been hoping to do lately is find one. There are a couple ideas I've bounced back and forth over for the past couple of months, but I can't seem to sit myself down and do any of them. I've thought about wood and leatherworking, chainmail, even knitting. At the moment, I don't have hte skills, funding, or knowledge to really get my foot in the door on any of them, but the ideas are churning around in the back of my mind. Possibly more to come on this front. Robotics interests may occasionally make it onto the blog, since it's the one area that I keep wanting to get into.
Gaming:
The one hobby I do have is that, especially in the last year, I have become an avid tabletop gamer. Since I have mostly departed from D&D, and have been exploring many other game systems. I will be playing in 3 games, and running 2 others. I will be posting some information here, and maintaining a Wiki which I'll probably link to occasionally.
I think that's good enough to get started on for now, don't you think?
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