Archive for June 2016
five books, 50 pages
Posted on: June 26, 2016
When I pick up a book, I really do pick it up with the intent of finishing it. But these last 10 days or so, I’ve been having trouble sticking with any one book. I’ll pick something up, read half of it, pick something else up, read 20 pages, pick up an anthology and read two stories…. we’ve all been there. I can’t seem to stick with anything! Years ago, when asked “how do you decide what to read?”, my friend nrlymrtl of Dab of Darkness said she puts a ton of interesting looking books in a comfy reading spot, reads the first 40-50 pages of each one, sees which one grabs her attention, and then she puts the rest down guilt-free.
I took five books that have been sitting on my To Be Read stack, and did the same. I read 50 pages of each (or at least attempted to), and one or two really stood out as books that If i continue reading, I’m gonna finish. the books were:
Spells of Blood and Kin by Claire Humphrey – Thomas Dunne Books, June 2016
Way Down Dark by J.P Smythe – Quercus Books, Oct 2016
A Lovely Way to Burn by Louise Welsh – Quercus Books, April 2016
Dead on the Bones: Pulp on Fire by Joe R Lansdale – Subterranean Press, Nov 2016
Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer – Tor Books, May 2016
Well? How did it go? Did 5 books 50 pages help me figure out what to read next? LOL, at least this is a spoiler free post, since the events I talk about in these books happen in the first 50 pages and I have no idea what happens next!
On writing negative reviews
Posted on: June 22, 2016
Hey blogger buddies – do you write negative reviews? And what I mean by a negative review isn’t “this book sucks”, it’s “this book didn’t work for me and let me tell you why”. A well written negative review tells you just as much information about the book about a positive review. When I write critical / negative reviews, it’s mostly to talk about why I bounced off a book, or why I though the book was problematic. Oftentimes, it’s a book that the majority of readers really enjoyed, perhaps the book even won a ton of awards, but really, really didn’t work for me. Any of my friends will tell you I’m not the kind of person to sugar coat. If I think something didn’t work on some level, I’m going to say so. If I was offended by something, or thought it was boring, or thought the POV switches weren’t clear, I’m going to say so. If a book made me, personally, feel like the world of that book is not a world I would be welcome in, I’m going to say that too.
I do not write negative reviews to dig at an author, or to convince others not to read that author’s books. I need to make that clear: it is a negative review of a book, not of an author or of their career. In fact, I’ve had people respond to my negative reviews with “that sounds like a book I’d like!”
I’m interested to know if my peers write negative reviews, and how you think about those reviews, because I’m in the process of writing a negative review right now. Many people have praised this particular new-ish novel, but I’m finding it predictable, and with a plot that moves forward solely by the power of “because of course it is” combined with characters that do willfully dumb things. (which will be further explained in the review)
Ok, so sound off in the comments, because I wanna know:
Bloggers: Do you write negative reviews? It that a different reviewing process than when you write a glowing review?
Writers: how do you react when you become aware of a negative review of your work?
It’s extra fun being me, because not only do I write negative reviews, but I then run into those authors at SFF Conventions! Fun! And by fun I mean quite awkward. Should “I’m going to meet this person!” affect how I review their books? Nope.
I’ve discovered Lost!
Posted on: June 18, 2016
I’m terrible at watching TV. I can barely remember what day of the week it is, let alone what time I’m supposed to turn on a specific channel. Anyways, now that I watch a lot of shows streaming, I can watch them whenever I want, watch a few episodes in a row, watch favorite episodes over again. I feel like a commercial for Netflix.
Netflix doesn’t get a ton of brand new stuff, but they get a lot of good older stuff and I recently discovered the TV show Lost. This show ran from 2004 to 2010, and I remember hearing about it and people going crazy for it, but I never watched it when it was new. I still don’t know much about it. I’m reluctant to look up information about the show online because I don’t want spoilers. LOL, I’m Mark Oshiro-ing Lost!
I’m about 10 episodes in, and I really dig this show! For those of you who don’t know this show, it follows the survivors of a plane crash on a deserted island. They need to survive, find food, deal with medical crises, and deal with each other. Among our survivors is Charlie the drug addicted rock star, Jack the doctor, a woman named Kate who won’t tell anyone about her background, Sawyer the grifter, Claire the pregnant single mother, Sayid the Iraqi ex-military officer, a Korean couple who doesn’t speak English, and Mr. Locke, who appears to be a big game hunter. The show has a huge cast, so the characters are introduced very slowly, often with long flashback scenes to tell viewers more about them. What’s neat is that nearly everyone is using this horrible event to start over in their lives. No one knows what the criminal did earlier in their life, so why should they tell anyone their secrets? No one knows that the guitar player is a depressed drug addict. No one knows that Locke the game hunter spent 4 years in a wheelchair. Another survivor asks you what your name is, are you required to be truthful? No, you are not. Is this an island of liars? Maybe.
Jack, Kate, and Sawyer
Why This Book Works So Well
Posted on: June 12, 2016
- In: Greg Bear
- 10 Comments
You ever notice that some books really work, others work relatively ok, and some just don’t quite work? And those that work, you just can’t put them down! Maybe when I say “it works”, what I mean is pacing, I’m not really sure what I mean, actually.
Well, right now, I’m reading a book that really works – Darwin’s Radio, by Greg Bear. Darwin’s Radio came out in 1999, and won the Nebula in 2000 and was nominated for the Hugo, Locus, and Campbell awards. As I was zipping through the first 80 pages, I realized I wanted to know why this book works as well as it does. Is it the pacing? The characters? The presentation? The science? The all of the above? I wanted to pick it apart and figure it out.
I’m about a third of the way through Darwin’s Radio, and this is what I’ve come up with so far:
– The first thing I noticed was how much showing Bear does, and how little telling. Very early on, a character has a mountain climbing accident, and wakes up in a hospital. Bear doesn’t give us a description of the man’s injuries, but the way that other people treat him gives us a pretty good picture of the state this guy is in. Instead of describing the picture, Bear paints one, and lets the reader look at the painting and get information that way. It’s up to the reader to decide how much they want to see.
– The info isn’t dumped. This is a hard science thriller with lots of genetics, anthropology, molecular biology, the study of viruses and diseases, how bacteria works, how our bodies fight off diseases and how early mankind might have fought off diseases and probably more science stuff that I haven’t gotten to yet. It’s fascinating as hell, but way over my head. None of it is dumped. Most of it is presented through dialog, with the old trick of “Let me tell you what our team has been doing in the lab these last two weeks” type conversations. Is that a trick? Sure it is. But it gets your reader a lot of information in an accessible and non-info-dumpy way. And hey, now I have just enough knowledge to sound like I know what I’m talking about next time I’m at the doctor’s office.
– So far, there’s been zero action. No chase scenes, no fights, no nothing. Which is a little weird, since a lot of recent books I’ve read have super intense action scenes as a way to get the reader hooked on all that 100% pure awesomesauce. This book is all scientists and politicians and others talking about things, and trying to figure stuff out. The “action” is in how fast their ideas are transmitted. They bounce ideas off of each other (typically while learning their funding is about to be cut), and the fast pace comes when their brain is moving faster than their mouth, and the ideas tumble out . . .and it’s totally cool.
– So we’ve got all these characters who are trying to solve the problem from different angles, and everyone has slightly different information to share, or not. But us readers have *all* the information. This is where the tension comes from. I know that this guy knows this one thing, and this other lady knows this other thing, and these jerks over here know something else. So omg, when are they going to share what they know!! Because if they don’t, this horrible other thing is going to happen!
Gah! I gotta go read this book!
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a book that fucking works.
Central Station, by Lavie Tidhar
Posted on: June 10, 2016
Central Station, by Lavie Tidhar
published May 2016
where I got it: received review copy from the publisher (Thanks Tachyon!)
I’ve been reading Lavie Tidhar on and off since I started this blog. I really enjoyed The Tel Aviv Dossier, thought The Bookman was just OK, enjoyed some of his short fiction and the World Science Fiction anthologies he edited with Apex, and then I bounced pretty hard off of Osama. His work has won a lot of awards, and I constantly feel like I’m either not taking his work seriously enough, or taking it so seriously that I’m missing the point. With that background, it should surprise no one that this beautiful ARC of Central Station sat on my to-be-read shelf for as long as it did.
But . . good news! By the 2nd chapter of Central Station I was hooked, by the middle I was grinning every time I learned about another character’s back story, and on the morning of Memorial Day I had either the best timing in the world or the worst, as I read about the robotnik soldier beggars of the future.
I don’t know why, but I shy away from using the term “mosaic novel” to describe Central Station. Yes, the novel does fit the definition of a mosaic novel, and it also fits the definition of a “fix up” novel. . . and the problem is that both of those terms feel too flat and too small to encompass this book. Central Station has the overwhelming sensory overload of an Ian McDonald, the fantastical descriptions and bio-technology of a China Mieville, and the each story is a foundation of the next of Cat Valente’s Orphan’s Tales. With nods to scifi greats like Cordwainer Smith, Philip K. Dick, and Isaac Asimov (and was that a Burroughs reference I saw?), Tidhar touches on history, culture, and socio-economics to tell a story about how we’re all stuck together and should really make the best of things because these kids need a village to raise them. Reading this book was like being a bartender at bar frequented by locals – Everyone has a different story to tell, but all their stories are interrelated and interconnected. The further I got into this novel, the more I enjoyed myself.
Mystery Review, revealed!
Posted on: June 6, 2016
I did a mystery review last week.
I told you everything you needed to know about the book – what it was about, what I liked about it, etc – to help you make a decision as to if this was a book you’d enjoy. It was fun writing the review, and I got a kick out of how people responded to a review that never mentioned the book’s title or author. Maybe I should make this a regular thing?
Ready to know what the title of the book is?
Mystery Review!
Posted on: June 3, 2016
This is a most unusual book review, because I am not going to tell you the name of this book, the name of the author, or the year the book was written. You don’t get any cover art either. We all judge books by their covers and all that, so I’m curious what everyone’s thoughts will be if I tell you everything you need to know about the book except what you’d see on a bookstore shelf. A deliberate experiment, if you will. And don’t worry, I’ll reveal the author and cover art in a few days. For those of you who recognize this book, or think you do, please, please don’t reveal the book’s title in the comments.
Are any of you familiar with the anime TV shows Sword Art Online or Log Horizon? In these shows, gamers get transported into the world of their MMO video game, and have to survive. This book has a similar, if simplified premise. A bunch of college kids are in a table-top Role Playing Game club, with a professor as their game master. I won’t get into the how’s or why’s, but the professor is able to transport the students to the fantasy role playing world, and the students have to survive. What’s really neat here is that while everyone comes through into the fantasy world as their characters (a cleric, or dwarf, or thief, etc) and with the skills and attributes (strength, speed, dexterity, etc) from their character sheet, they also retain all their knowledge and morals from the real world. One woman depends on her real world travel experiences to help her haggle with traders, there’s even some “innovative” WWF style fighting moves that no one else in the arena had ever seen.
At it’s heart, this is a coming-of-age fantasy quest story . The goal is to find the gate between worlds, so they can get home to the real world. But, as we learn, not everyone wants to go home. Sure, home has modern dentistry, and cars, and our parents, and health insurance. But one guy, if he goes home, the only thing waiting for him is his wheelchair and people pitying him. Here, in the fantasy world, he can walk. He can do all the things he can’t do at home. Another character, this is the first time in his life he’s respected for his knowledge and abilities. If he goes home, it’s back to being the guy everyone makes fun of. It was neat, how some characters abandon their real world first names right away to only go by their fantasy role play character names, and how others never take on their characters names because they don’t want to be these fantasy world characters, and how others have an internal conflict as to who they are because they have a compelling reason to be a little bit of both. The author presents the character’s inner conflicts with subtlety. The author doesn’t shy away from tough subjects either. Like another very popular series, main characters die – usually in shockingly awful ways.
The next book in Julie Czerneda’s Reunification trilogy, The Gate to Future’s Past, is coming out in September, and I’m super excited to reveal the cover art and talk more about the series all day today. What’s the gist of the Clan Chronicles, and the newest trilogy in this career spanning series? I’m glad you asked!
The Clan Chronicles is set in a far future with interstellar travel where the Trade Pact encourages peaceful commerce among a multitude of alien and Human worlds. The alien Clan, humanoid in appearance, have been living in secrecy and wealth on Human worlds, relying on their innate ability to move through the M’hir and bypass normal space. The Clan bred to increase that power, only to learn its terrible price: females who can’t help but kill prospective mates. Sira di Sarc is the first female of her kind facing that reality. With the help of a Human starship captain, Jason Morgan, himself a talented telepath, Sira must find a morally acceptable solution before it’s too late. But with the Clan exposed, her time is running out. The Stratification trilogy follows Sira’s ancestor, Aryl Sarc, and shows how their power first came to be as well as how the Clan came to live in the Trade Pact. The Trade Pact trilogy is the story of Sira and Morgan, and the trouble facing the Clan. Reunification will conclude the series and answer, at last, #WhoAreTheClan.
And what will be the fate of all.
With stunning cover art by Matt Stawicki, the artwork brings together an epic story told over the course of nearly twenty years.
Julie chatted with Matt Stawicki about incorporating earlier artwork, capturing Sira’s emotions, and more. Let’s see what they said!
Ta da! Here it is. The wonderful work of Matthew Stawicki, revealed at last. I’ve been waiting to share this cover with you for the better part of a year, for it was complete well before the book.
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Pardon? you say. How can that be?
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Remember the bricks? This image was one of them, firmly in my mind since I started writing This Gulf of Time and Stars.
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Book #2, Sira, meeting her destiny. Triumphant!
Or is she?
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That’s the magic of an image like this. Knowledge morphs impact, grants new meaning and alters perspective. What you think you see now, before reading The Gate to Futures Past, will change once you have.
Friends, I’m so thrilled to be hosting author Julie Czerneda today, I can’t even. I know ya’ll remember when I went absolutely nuts over her Species Imperative trilogy (biology FTW!), when I wrote an accidentally spoilery review of the most recent Clan Chronicles novel This Gulf of Time and Stars, and how much fun we had with hosting her for an AMA. Her newest Clan Chronicles novel, The Gate to Futures Past doesn’t hit bookstore shelves until September, but today is the big cover art release party! I’ll be posting throughout the day with more artwork and more inside scoop, but in the meantime, let’s here from the author herself about how she keeps track of this generation and galaxy spanning epic. . .
Author Photo Credit: Roger Czerneda Photography
Holding Nothing Back
a guest post by
Julie Czerneda
The room could be in any seedy backwater motel. Inside, however, is an open suitcase, its contents strewn over the unmade bed: three hats; four cell phones in their original packaging; a small hatchet, its blade edged in what looks like rust. Oh, and a lab coat, scrunched into a ball.
By the bed is a night stand; on it are pieces of what had been the hotel phone.
Protruding from the bathroom are a pair of dirty boots, toes up. It’s only then you realize they contain feet.
Two things just happened. You guessed what you’re reading: a murder mystery, with clues being presented. And, perhaps without even being aware, you began a story of your own, a plausible scenario based on this room.
And those feet.
Now comes the test. What’s next? If your scenario fits the rest of what you read, for this is a book, it’s gratifying—so long as you didn’t see everything coming. In that case, you’re bored silly and probably won’t finish reading. On the other hand, if there’s an abrupt departure from what you expected, well, that could be fun. After all, who doesn’t like a startling revelation to tingle the imagination and make you read faster and faster—
the Little Red Reviewer 
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