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.

Week 2 of The Cat Bytes

We're starting week 2! I'm not going to ask you what you think...not yet. But I shall endeavor to remind you to get your fix over at: http://CatBytes.atfmb.com

Thanks for the support, and if you have any comments, both Patrick and I would love to hear them.

Best regards.

Who runs this show?

Is it the puppet, or the puppeteer?

Or, in the case of who controls the varied twists and turns of a story: Is it the writer or the character?

The answer is always, to me, and most everyone else I hear from: the characters. So much so that a complaint of a character hijacking the story to do something entirely new and unanticipated is: commonplace.

However that's not how I feel about my stories...not yet, at least. Perhaps it comes with time?

I would never want a character to do something out of character (just for kicks) unless there was a good reason they had been forced that way, but...I don't know. So why don't I feel that way in my "gut" quite yet? Maybe it takes time to digest.

I like to think that I do a decent outline (I also thought this a while back, and then realized that I was horribly, disaster-laden...wrong, but I'm certain I'm better now...), and perhaps I get into the character's head well enough that what I "want" from the story and what the characters end up doing goes hand-in-hand.

Maybe.

Or maybe I'm just not cognizant of the character-upstaging phenomena quite yet.

For the writers out there, what is your experience?

Happy Valentines Day...and...a New Webcomic

Long in coming and planning, short on actual work. (Or so it seems.) The webcomic is finally ready. Go to http://CatBytes.atfmb.com. This is a story about a cat and a guy with a hat who just so happens to bear a passing similarity to my good friend Patrick Hester (an original Functional Nerd).

It starts tomorrow. And hopefully you will find it: Funny, Furry, Techie and Bitey. Tell your friends, shout it from the rooftops and...enjoy.

More info will be coming soon right here and from Patrick's own blog.

...oh and HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! (Maybe you should print this out and give it to that special someone...I'm just saying!) Now go grab yourself a friend.

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.

Choose your religion.

Wow. Todd Newton relates an amazingly ignorant comment he observed at COSine 2011, during a panel on Theology Building (in fiction), when an audience member commented:

"Maybe Islam and Buddhism just aren't that interesting."

Happy-Go-Lucky, or Dark and Demented?

Thinking about Stargate Universe vs. Stargate Atlantis, I had a realization: I like dark and gritty.

Ok, let’s not stop the presses or anything, but anyone that knows me outside of the net knows I am one of those unassuming people: too innocent and good-natured to go for some of the darker fare that I choose in my entertainment.

The Wonder and Bounty of a New Year

I may be a little late making my 2011 resolutions, but I wanted to give them some careful thought. And as we all know: most New Year's resolutions become a wash anyway. So, maybe it's just best to look at them as a guiding force and not as rock solid goals. (Cop out, you say? Yeah, maybe.)

My much delayed NaNoWriMo entry is still in progress, and I’ve been back and forth in writing it and going back to the outline to figure out where I’m going. My new goal is to finish the first draft soon—no later than the end of January.