Gripey Rant. I'm a Picky Reader - 011 Brainstorm Podcast

In episode 11, it's time for a good ole-fashioned rant about being a picky reader, and why I stop reading a lot of books. 

Other Links: Youtube, Bitchute, Odysee

I get stuck on this need for the right balance of character and plot. We always need strong characters. That's largely how we connect with a book through our shared human experience. It's also why series do so well, when they follow some of the same characters around that we have gotten to know so well. But for me, I don't want my story to become subsumed by this wandering experience in the life of a character with little appearance of plot giving structure. I certainly don't want the character to change who they are because of plot restrictions, create awkward illogical rationale for why someone is doing something...just because the plot dictates. And a major fantasy novel by an indie writer did just that for me. Let's examine.

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The Grueling Life of a Book Reviewer

As far as things go, I'm pretty new to reviewing books. I've long enjoyed them, always had personal critiques for my favorites and ranting laments for the disliked. But, yeah, I'm still a padawan trying to tread in the path of greater jedi.

Immersing myself further in the process has brought about some interesting events. I started down this path initially, because I wanted to start blogging; as a beginning writer, I was either going to focus on sharing my developing work or talk about the writing process.

Yes. Unsettling.

Let's be honest, after all, a learning writer sharing their work is rife with danger for anyone's good sense of fiction, and talking about the writing process seemed...well...ridiculous. (Yes, I still do it, but hey, it's not the focus...or at least it wasn't.)

I'd like to say I gave this all a lot of conscious thought, and through a well-formed plan took on book reviews as the main focus of my blog posts, but I didn't.

Whoops.

Perhaps I'll save face a little, by noting that I wanted to take the time to analyze books and see why they worked for me and why they didn't, to help further my own writing process and because talking about books is just a lot of good nerdy fun...or perhaps I've already lost you. *sigh*

Through my involvement with SF Signal, I like to think that I've started to reach that next level of book reviewing expertise, and recently had the pleasure of being sought out for a review by Daniel Polansky, for his debut book: Low Town. In my talks with him, I ended up getting a free book and the chance to see more of the publishing process.

I've gotten some free books before through SF Signal's Books Received, but this time it was all solo, just me, and that was pretty freakin' cool.

I was expecting a "galley" copy, of which, I can still only guess the actual appearance of, because Doubleday sent a first edition hardcover. (I'll try not to complain.)  Anyone not used to the process, this does not encourage you (me) to write a positive review, but it does encourage me to read the book. I see room for improvement in Polansky's debut, but it is a debut and for anyone that has read enough, you start to see that a first book always has room to improve. (Perhaps that sounds horrible, but there it is.)

I also got a chance to do my first book interview with Polansky, now on SF Signal.

I'm certainly eager to cram more book reviews in amongst the writing, the day job and the family life. A few more free books would be welcome too. Should I just post my address here?

Book Review: Low Town, by Daniel Polansky

(This is a repost, of my review that appeared on SF Signal recently - reposted here for posterity)

Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Doubleday (August 16, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0385534469
ISBN-13: 978-0385534468

Low Town has lords with hidden agendas, willing to kill on a whim even as they smile behind veils of lace; gang lords with blood on their hands that riff poetry about their beloved deity; and artisans of magic that are powerless to stop the horrors of life. Low Town is a conundrum that tries to portray reality, with a touch of compassion, in an age where little was pretty.

Book Review: Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin

(This is a repost, of my review that appeared on SF Signal recently - reposted here for posterity)

This is the cover I own

Paperback: 720 pages
Publisher: Bantam; Reprint edition (March 22, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0553386794
ISBN-13: 978-0553386790

**Thar be minor spoilers aboard, so be watchful for you HBO TV watchers that have yet to sail this treacherous book.**

The land of Westeros is a land of old kings, of ancient magics, storied with many fables and gods; but this story is about lies and deceit, debauchery and a struggle for power that will leave you breathless. Nothing is sacred—no vow and no pledge.

Game of Thrones is incredible. A book that passionately explores what drives us and what we will do to achieve all that we desire. Some stop at nothing, and others will lose everything to try and stop them. Who will win? Who is right? And who is playing who?

I'm Back...Sorta

July brought the birth of our second child: a ravenous baby boy. All are happy and healthy and trying to be wise in the Hill household.

Now I'm starting to get back into the swing of things with my various projects. I wrote, or at least finally finished a book review for Low Town by Daniel Polansky, and the going was slow and torturous—as if I'd never written a review in my life. Ugh. But it's done and I'm happy.

Busy with a capital "Yikes!"

The blog looks like it will suffer for a week or two, while I work furiously on the webcomic Shadow Bytes. Looking to expand the audience with some advertising, but first, we need some amusing art. Thanks to Patrick's work and incorporating the talented assistance of Ty Barbary, we got an ad banner incorporated into the site design.

Did you know that this week is the 17th week of Shadow Bytes? By this Thursday there will be 34 strips, each one has been on time—more or less. I will freely admit that I was a few hours late on a few.

I've got the buffer for the comic up to one week, but I'm trying to push it a little further and cramming in what time with the novel that I can. This is the novel that was started last year for NaNoWriMo, for now I'm calling it Felling Abberfaun, we'll see if that changes or not. One thing I'm trying to push the envelope on in this book (for me at least) is the political intrigue. Fitting, then, that I am re-reading Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin. Not planned, but it works out well. If I had cable and HBO I'd probably just be watching the series, but alas (or thankfully) I am not.

Book Review: The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss

(This is a repost, of my review that appeared on SF Signal recently - reposted here for posterity)

Paperback: 672 pages
Publisher: DAW Trade; Reprint edition (April 7, 2009)
ISBN-10: 0756405890
ISBN-13: 978-0756405892

Even infinite potential can be tempered by absolute apathy. This is an endearing tale of a boy that grows into a legend to be respected and feared.

I’ll start this review off simply: If you love fantasy, don’t bother reading this review, just go read The Name of the Wind right now. Of the books that I have reviewed over the last year or so, this is quite possibly the best. It is hard to adequately convey just how good this book is. It may not be perfect, but it comes close.

National Buy a Book Day - September 7th

John Ottinger, of popular sci-fi and fantasy blog Grasping for the Wind, asked for a logo for National Buy a Book Day—which started last year. I heard and obeyed and below is the result. Everyone should go over and read the full post on GFTW, share the logo everywhere, and support your favorite authors, publishers and booksellers.

*Note, there are many logo sizes to choose from, go click-ety and you'll see.

Logo by Clifton Hill

Book Review: The Greyfriar, Book One of the Vampire Empire, by Clay and Susan Griffith

(This is a repost, in part, of my review that appeared on SF Signal recently - reposted here for posterity)

Paperback: 301 pages
Publisher: Pyr (November 18, 2010)
ISBN-10: 1616142472
ISBN-13: 978-1616142476

Sucked of life, this steampunk, vampire mash-up misses the mark.

Vampires have taken over the world, ruling with a clawed fist. Humanity's hope lies with a marriage of two nations, a "mysterious" freedom fighter, and a princess that is more than she appears.

Book Review: The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi

(This is a repost of my review that appeared on SF Signal recently - reposted here for posterity)

Paperback: 300 pages
Publisher: Night Shade Books (April 20, 2010)
ISBN-10: 1597801585
ISBN-13: 978-1597801584

This book springs into...Action? The Plot? Character? No, not really any of those.

This is a hard book to figure.

On the surface it seems to have it all: Distinct characters all working towards their own ends, sometimes in conflict, sometimes in harmony. You don’t know what will happen as a reader, only that something big is coming. The world is unique and plays with some of the big topics of the day.

The Windup Girl takes place in a dystopic future Thailand, where the world is beset upon by plague and famine—a result of massive corporate greed and folly. The oceans have risen and many of the world’s greatest cities are under water. Petroleum fuels are scarce and alternative energy abounds. The fruits and mistakes of genetic manipulations are everywhere. It is a difficult place to live for those not at the top.

The Reviewer's Style

How do you review a book, movie, game? Why? What motivates you? And what is your focus? These are questions I raise as I looked over a couple of my reviews in contrast with others.

I want to be a professional writer, so it is no surprise that my reviews try to analyze, not just what worked and didn’t, but why. I don’t just want to say how much enjoyment there was to be had, but why it was enjoyable.

Boredom with Broken Springs and a Hint of Steam, Part 2

         vs.     

Onto Part 2...The Steampunk that hints at greatness, but has yet to grab me by the ass and send me flying down a road of adventure.

Vampire Empire by Clay and Susan Griffith seems plagued with an oddly detached perspective. I don't know what yet to make of it. I'm only 60 pages in, but the POV seems to distance me from attachment to the characters, killing any sense of mystery and the prose is so spartan as to read like a comic book. Which would be fine, if it were—with compelling pictures to back up the action—but it isn't.

Boredom with Broken Springs and a Hint of Steam, Part 1

         vs.     

Two books. Both failing for me in vastly different ways and all I can wonder is if they will get better.

Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi suffers (in my mind) from trying to be too intelligent. As far as I know this is a book written for a Western audience and yet the terms are incredibly Eastern in origin. I might look upon this as a good thing, with a book and author taking the language of their fiction in a different direction than what I'm used to. It might even be a refreshing change of course, however it ultimately just confuses me.

This reviewer is out to lunch.

Annoyances and aberrations! Bah! As we all know, life does not always cooperate with what we want. I, for one, would like to turn out a book review every month. Hmm...while I'm at it, I'd also like to finish my book edits, drop The Veil of a Warrior on a publisher's desk to be snagged up, run out the door and sell millions of copies, pay off my mortgage with the massive advance and have oodles of spare money and time.

But, uh, getting back to reality (NOOOOO!), my reviews are lacking. I've been trying, but my luck in choosing has been out to lunch.

Book Review: Towers of Midnight, by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

(This is a repost of my review that appeared on SF Signal recently - reposted here for posterity)

Hardcover: 864 pages
Publisher: Tor Books (November 2, 2010)
ISBN-10: 0765325942
ISBN-13: 978-0765325945

How do you even approach reviewing something like a Wheel of Time book? I mean, it’s the thirteenth installment in the series...kind of hard to recommend to someone not already indoctrinated, and utterly futile to even try with an ex-reader—turned off by the scope and sluggish pace midway through the series.

So, what’s even the point? *scratch head, shrug shoulders* Come on! It’s the bloody Wheel of Time. Blood and bloody ashes! I’ve got to review it. The wheel weaves as the wheel wills. I am but a thread caught in its tapestry. *Yoink!* Off I go.

Book Review: Kell's Legend, by Andy Remic

(This is a repost of my review that appeared on SF Signal recently - reposted here for posterity)

Paperback: 448 pages
Publisher: Angry Robot (September 3, 2009)
ISBN-10: 0007324154
ISBN-13: 978-0007324156

Kell is a retired warrior of legend, suffering from arthritis and the sluggishness of age, until a bloodthirsty army descends upon his town to lay destruction. He takes up his dreaded butterfly axe named: Ilanna, to do battle. Fleeing an enemy that proves too strong, Kell sets out with some lone survivors, on a journey that becomes nearly forgotten amidst an onslaught of horror and bloodshed that unfolds in their path.

Remic pulls out all the stops to make sure that his characters are challenged. At times you may wonder if he is going down a checklist of torturous torments to visit upon these hapless souls, fleeing for their lives.

Book Review: Ragamuffin, by Tobias Buckell

(This is a repost of my review that appeared on SF Signal recently - reposted here for posterity)

320 pages
Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition edition (June 12, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0765315076
ISBN-13: 978-0765315076

Buckell's sophomore effort is a mixed bag, with a medley of characters that span the cosmos. You will be wowed on this journey. And then you will be confused. There is a lot going on here.

Maybe I missed the inter-galactic bus here by jumping in at book 2 (Crystal Rain is the predecessor), but I don't think so. The book lacks clear labeling as to being a sequel, and it is apparent in its writing that the author wished for this to stand on its own.

As a whole, it starts strong, alternates in quality and then tries to bring it together at the end but veers wide of perfect wormhole-center.

Despite problems, I see the appeal of Buckell's storytelling: The technology is well conceived and utilized in a setting that is real and gritty. World-building is high quality and interesting in a universe with humanity under the yoke of alien masters. Under the tentacled-heel they rebel, and Buckell explores how these outliers of humanity survive. The rough-edged Ragamuffins refuse to submit, while the brainwashed enforcers of the Benevolent Satrapy--the Hongguo--up the anté in a battle that quickly escalates and reaches a head (in what I can only call too convenient in timing to fully swallow).

My biggest qualm is character, though it is clear from some chapters that Buckell can get inside their head like the cybernetic implants that abound in his story. Other times, he loses sight of their personality to serve an element of story.

Nashara is a self-centered bad ass and the central character. But then she becomes a total softy for a girl that serves no purpose. For someone that has read the story, you may call me heartless; but what point does that entire storyline serve, other than to show the Satrap's disregard for life--believe me, I was already well aware. Buckell could have still docked the ship and retrieved the much needed fuel (bloody battle and all) without any need of getting the girl or her brother. Maybe he wanted to show Nashara's humanity. But what made Nashara most human was her willingness to sacrifice herself (and others--remember, she's a bad ass) for a people she had no way of knowing still existed.

Then there is the grammar. I am no expert and feel grammar is my weakest point, but there ARE mistakes. It wouldn't have bothered me as much, except for the Carribean dialogue that compounded it all. The author pays homage to the dialect with an amount of fervor that doesn't do the story justice. The odd word order, in a substantial portion of the dialogue, just ripped me out of the story. But that's me. I like a flavor of a dialect in my stories, not an entire dish and certainly not the whole meal.

When it came to the final conflict, there was a snag that had the Ragamuffins up against the very edge, the clock laughing at them and humanity's future on the brink. I should have been chattering my teeth in dreadful anticipation of who would live or die and if anyone would survive the day at all, but you know what? I didn't. This was THE climactic scene, but what ruined it was that it was rushed through and not given the chance to breathe and be its own. It just felt like a rehashing of events that had already occurred. I didn't feel present in those scenes. There was no sense of urgency. No peril. So, as a climax to the book: it failed.

For moments of goodness and technology that intrigued I give this a halting 3 stars. Given time and proper page space I think Buckell can turn out a much better read. I'll read another, have no doubt, but for now it's on to something else.

Book Review: Old Man's War, by John Scalzi

(This is a repost of my review that appeared on SF Signal recently - reposted here for posterity)

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Tor Books; 4th edition (December 27, 2005)
ISBN-10: 0765315246
ISBN-13: 978-0765315243

John Perry is an old man. His wife is dead, and he’s joining the military. ??? Certainly an interesting premise already, but it gets better.

Scalzi’s main character is intelligent, with a wry sense of humor and maintains a humble likability as he rises through the ranks. An imperfect past grounds him and make him real, while the passion and love he felt for his wife never waivers. Which is good, because this is a very personal struggle by one man. And if he didn’t sell the book on his own standing, there’d be trouble.

First bite of Sci-Fi

Aidan Moher has an interesting blog post on good introductory pieces to Science Fiction reading.

Made me think of my own introduction. It was fourth grade, the author was Asimov and the book was the Robots of Dawn; part of the Robot Series. I didn't understand a lot of the words, and I was too entranced to take the time to grab a dictionary, but it was good stuff. Dealing with a far flung future where humanity is confined to large cities within the construct of massive domes—a result of our pollution and haphazard use of the environment for too long. Spacer communities spring up in nearby space with an increasingly select and recluse community that comes to look upon their earthly forbearers as primitive and dirty. In this world a robot of incredible intelligence, fashioned into the likeness of its creator to exquisite detail is thrust and found in the middle of a murder mystery that draws in the main protagonist that has a distinct distaste for robots.

Book Review: Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson

(This is a repost of my review that appeared on SF Signal recently - reposted here for posterity)

Hardcover: 1008 pages
Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition edition (August 31, 2010)
ISBN-10: 0765326353
ISBN-13: 978-0765326355

Magnificent and magnormous! I know, that word isn’t real, but then neither is this book. It is full of make believe. Crammed to the hilt, really. That is both good and bad.

I love epic fantasy. I truly do. The Wheel of Time and Song of Ice and Fire are fantastic pieces. In my youth: the Belgariad, Mallorean, Riftwar Saga, The Foundation series and more were massive staples of literary enjoyment. The larger the series (and of course the books) the better. Brandon Sanderson’s new series: The Stormlight Archive promises to be HUGE. I’ve seen Sanderson grow in his writing and it certainly shows in this new piece of work. It does have its share of problems though.

First off, it’s 1008 pages long! That’s a lot to bite off in a first book, and worrisome for how long it may take to get through, but it read quickly (relative to its size) and I enjoyed almost all of it (except for the resulting neck pain from lugging it around each and every workday).

It starts with a view of the far past, where some truly epic foundation stones are set for a fascinating story in this alternate universe. Then you are pulled along on a grand journey that delivers.

Humanity lives in the strange world of Roshar where highstorms literally scour the landscape on a frequent basis, creating plant and animal life that is almost too hard to believe. Much of mankind is also strange: a myriad of races with a rainbow of skin, eye and hair colors. The distinct races and their different kingdoms are in fact too much. There is so much variety and such a large swathe of detail that the things that are most important occasionally get lost.

In this world, Stormlight is both an energy source for magically powered machines and a source of magic to be drawn upon. One of its most compelling uses is to power the Plate of powerful knights capable of astounding feats of strength and destruction. Despite the varied uses it is clear that few survive in this era that are true masters of the energies of Stormlight and there is more to come as Sanderson doles out the details of his magical creation.

Character is a strong point in this book, with some truly strong scenes of emotion and incredible trials. Like most epic fantasy, there’s a lot of them and three in particular: the thief, the lord and the surgeon-turned-soldier. Their conflicts are real, and they are complicated. Rarely do they make a decision that doesn’t have some sort of ramification. This gives great depth to the story and life. The world of Roshar has its problems and each of these characters are doing their part to try and make it a better place, each in their own ways. Each of them succeed as they fail, pushing themselves to their limit, ready to quit but persevering anyway.

One complaint, is an important reveal towards the end of the book. It is neither well set up or convincing in its reveal. I won’t say what it was only that it was irritating reading it. It is just one of those things that the writer forces upon the reader without ample reason and has the feel of a “darling” that needed to die (Writing Excuses reference). The perpetrator of this fallacy is both far too learned, and wise to make such a callous assumption. I can only hope there is a better reason in the next installment. But this is just one moment of annoyance amongst many of enjoyment. Many reveals in the book will have you reading with a jaw dropped halfway to the floor.

All in all, a worthy read for epic fantasy lovers that love expansive stories and huge books. There are moments of heart-wrenching emotion and edge-of-your-seat thrills. 4 stars!

I might, however, advise petitioning Tor for a wheeled version  to make toting it around easier, or you can always get the e-book version, I suppose...

What did you think?