Work ethic, rewarded

I got some good news yesterday.  I got a call from the head of the small press I've been doing editing work for, and he asked if I'd be available to edit some rougher work.  It would, "Of course," pay more.

More pay to do something I like?  Somehow, I managed not to squeal in his ear, and I think I even sounded professional and mature, maybe.

I've been flying high ever since on the rush of being appreciated, knowing that I must be doing a good job, and on the anticipation of more editing to come.  Of course, there is a small, minuscule part of me that wonders how I'm ever going to find time to write, if I'm always working for other people in my free time after work.  But, like I said in a comment last night, either I can use my free time to get work done on something with tangible rewards, or I can keep churning away at something that'll probably require yet more edits before it'll ever see a printed form, and whether it will is a big, fat if.

There is the knowledge, though, that I'm not incredibly efficient with my time.  I still check Twitter far more often than I should.  I still stare at pages hoping they'll magically refresh with some seed of brilliance that I would've missed if I hadn't been sitting right there.  I play with my hair.  I stay up far later than I should, trying hopelessly to squeeze some productivity out of 2 AM.

I can arrange my time more efficiently.  I can gain more self-control.  I can spend enough time on edits, and still have time for my own work.  In fact, some time studies have shown that switching between two productive tasks could prove FAR more efficient than switching between editing and internet browsing.

It's all about what I give myself permission to do and what standard I hold myself to.  I choose to hold myself to a standard where work comes before play, and where I prioritize what I've always wanted to do over what I've been doing to pass the time.

Miscellany and assorted oddments

The writing group met today, after skipping the December meeting due to life and other inconveniences.  We had no "homework" to read, so we talked about things we'd had trouble with, various writing resources, and our goals for 2012.  I talked a little about how I've been focusing most of my writing effort on copy editing, which isn't a problem for me, but the group saw it as one.  They recommended that I dole out some time for my own writing.

The thing is, with this blog, it feels like I'm already doing that.  I'm selfishly taking time when I could be doing something I'm being paid to do, and not being productive with that time.  If I don't push myself to do it, the editing could take forever, and I certainly don't want to be working on it in February.

We'll see how I feel about the subject after I've slept on it, though.

Meanwhile, we talked about a couple of bits of good news.  Tara has her second book contract, and got in her edits for the first.  She writes romance.  The second book has a tentative release date of late March/early April.  She doesn't yet know when the first will come out.  I'll link to them, regardless.

Catt's writing is harder for me to put into a box, but she writes fantasy, urban fantasy, erotica, and poetry.  Her writing is lyrical and poetic.  She's also one of the few SWAG members to write from an outline.  Bizarre, I know.  She has a book coming out, as well, which I'll be reviewing here in as timely a manner as I can manage.

Next month, the writing group is doing its own version of NaNoWriMo, where we devote a month that isn't crazy with family visits and holiday preparation to writing 50,000 words, or as many as we need to.  Very few of us had time to participate in November, and we all agreed February was far more sensible, so February it is.  We plan on weekly write-ins, one of which will occur on my birthday.  So we have tentative dinner plans for that day, followed by a write-in.

And in completely non-writer-group news, I bought a Kindle with gift cards given to us by family for Christmas.  I plan on loading it up mostly with books purchased locally.  My favorite local bookstore does allow purchasing ebooks from their site, and they can be used on the Kindle.  It takes a couple of extra steps, but that's good.  Making book buying easier for me is a dangerous proposition.

How's your reading and writing life going?

Review: Discord's Apple

Discord's Apple by Carrie Vaughn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I've been hearing good things about Carrie Vaughn for years, but this is the first book of hers I've picked up. Her concepts intrigue me, but I've always wondered if the writing lives up to my expectations. A lot of high-concept authors fizzle on the delivery.

The book is about a comic book writer named Evie Walker, who returns home because her father is sick, perhaps dying. As if that isn't enough to deal with, she is the heir to a family legacy of storing and protecting artifacts of legend and stories, and failure to do a job she doesn't understand may bring about the end of the world.

I felt Evie's strain, and I was right there with her. Evie, despite her emotional distancing, is a very sympathetic main character. We feel her confusion and sense of being in over her head.

Unfortunately, in order to achieve that effect, people are more cryptic than they need to be in the beginning of the book. Also, I had a harder time empathizing with other characters. We're given few looks into the main love interest's thoughts, and most of them are from 3000 years before (and involve a bit too much rape and coerced sex for my liking). The glimpses we get into Hera, the villainess of the piece, contradict later behavior. And there was far too little of Bruce's perspective (he's her illustrator and close friend, apparently), so that his sections near the end lacked the sense of danger I think they were supposed to have. Most of the alternative perspectives seemed there to slow the plot down to let the reader get some air.

I don't say this often, but I think the book could've benefited from being padded out more. I would've liked to have heard more about this world where gods exist as powerful, immortal magicians, and the people who populate it.

Overall, I was satisfied the story, and impressed with the world-building. Vaughn has the pacing down for a compelling read that pulls the reader along. She also has a good grasp of mythology, and did an excellent job of weaving in characters from old stories while remaining true to the myths.

I don't know what took me so long to get around to reading something by Carrie Vaughn, but I will be picking up another of her books in the near future.



View all my reviews

What story ideas may come

A few short years ago, I wasn't writing.  I simply didn't make it a priority, and so it didn't get done.  I still had ideas, and I had one great big unfinished idea that I'd been churning over in my mind for ages.  I'm the perfect example of why you shouldn't wait to have time to write, because you never will.

Then one night, I had a vivid dream.  In the dream, I was on the T going through Boston late at night, in an almost-empty car.  A man sat across from me.  I didn't know him at first, until he looked me in the eye and told me that yes, I did know him.  Without raising his voice or giving any inflection at all, he said that, if I didn't get his story down in a permanent form, I was going to regret it.  He would see to it.

This person was the villain of the piece in earlier incarnations of the story.  Even though he isn't anymore, he's not a good guy.  He scares me the most out of all the people who've come out of my head.

I'm telling you that story to explain why I don't use dreams as story ideas.  I certainly don't look down on people whose dreams make enough sense or have enough narrative cohesion to make stories, but my dreams don't lend themselves to a storytelling form.  If I'm lucky, a character will visit me.  If I'm very lucky, it will be one of the nice ones.

I have tried all of the methods for mining dreams for story ideas.  In theory, it's a good idea.  After all, dreams are an expression of one's subconscious, and if story ideas can't come from your own mind, where do they come from?

The most effective method was to write down my dreams in a journal shortly after waking.  As hard as dreams are to remember later in the day, they're even harder to recall weeks, months, or years later.  Going back through dream journals and matching them up against what was happening in my waking world showed me a lot about my thought process and what function my dreams were serving.  Sometimes, a theme would emerge, and I would think about weaving that into something I was working on.

Should you choose to mine your dreams for story ideas, be careful about following the plot too closely.  If your dreams are anything like mine, there's no foreshadowing, no reason why anything happens, and certainly no justification for feeling the way I do in dreams.  If I'm scared in a dream, it's not because something menacing is coming after me or because it's dark; I'm scared in a dream because I'm scared.  That would be terrible writing.

How about your dreams?  Do they lend themselves to conversion to stories easily? Have you ever written a story off something you dreamed?  How did it turn out?

Looking forward to 2012

I didn't think there were too many books I was anticipating the publication of, until Goodreads posted a list of books we can't wait for in 2012.  The list is ranked by the number of users picking a book, and each vote is weighted by its position on your personal list.

I thought I'd share my list, in order of expected publication date.

1. Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire (expected publication 3/6/12)
As I'm sure you know by now, I'm a huge fan of Seanan McGuire's writing.  I've been looking forward to this one since I first heard about it on Seanan's LJ over a year ago.  It has mythological beasties, several strong female characters, cargo cult-like mice, and ballroom dancing.  What's not to love?

2. Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore (expected publication 3/22/12)
Christopher Moore is another of my favorites, for entirely different reasons.  His books make me laugh. They're absurd and bizarre and darkly funny.  I don't know a thing about art history, but I suspect I'll still enjoy the read.

3. The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King (book 4.5 of The Dark Tower)(expected publication 4/3/12)
I'm one of those strange people who liked the ending to Stephen King's Dark Tower series, who liked the authorial self-insert in the books, and who liked UR just because it was an extension, however fleeting, of the Dark Tower world.  I'll take any excuse to revisit the world Stephen King taps into to write his stories.

4. Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse #12)(expected publication date 5/1/12)
I was disappointed by the last couple of Sookie Stackhouse books, but I'm hopeful about this next installment.  I picked up the first book entirely on a whim before it took off, and I've loved the world, the characters, the gentle dark humor, ever since.  I trust writers to do right by their characters, and so I'm sitting back with fingers crossed for this one.

5. Blackout by Mira Grant (Newsflesh trilogy #3)(expected publication date 6/7/12)
Deadline ended on a reveal that was a total game-changer for book 3, and it's been kind of torture to wait as long as I already have for the third installment.  That Mira Grant is a transparent pen name for Seanan McGuire doesn't hurt this book's anticipation value.

6. The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (expected publication date 6/21/12)
I've loved all of Carlos Ruiz Zafon's Barcelona books thus far.  I find them textured and atmospheric and hauntingly beautiful.  I can't help but look forward to reading this one.

7. Ashes of Honor by Seanan McGuire (October Daye #6)(expected publication date 9/12)
I'm sure you're all terribly surprised that I'm looking forward to everything Seanan McGuire is getting published in 2012.  What you don't know, though, is that I plan on rereading all five of the Toby Daye books before Ashes of Honor comes out so I can look for all the small details and clues scattered throughout the books.  Developments in later books have been telegraphed quite clearly, just from what I remember, so I can't wait to see if I can actually anticipate any of book 6's reveals. Probably not, but there are worse things than rereading a series I really like.

Bad grammar makes me [sic]

Once upon a time, I worked on a college newspaper as copyeditor.  This position entailed writing an editorial for each issue to help fill the page.  I went to work, happily tearing down all the vices of consistently bad spelling, misused punctuation, and the dreaded they're/their/there problem.

The paper got a letter, from an education major who shall remain nameless (mainly because I can't remember, and am too lazy to look it up), riddled with spelling and grammar errors.  It accused me of elitism, scoffed at all the bile I was wasting railing about something so silly as how stupid people sounded when they didn't even try to string together a sentence, and then pointed out all of the errors she'd found in the paper over the last several issues.

The letter taught me something, but not what the letter writer intended.  It confirmed my suspicion that those most defensive that spelling and grammar don't matter are those who don't care they're bad at it.  It told me that presentation does matter - after all, the errors she'd noticed were supposed to reflect poorly on me.  And I learned that I was doing a good job; all of the errors the letter writer found were in sections I didn't proofread.

I'm more aware these days of the immense privilege I had in attending a school where some grammar basics were taught, where the teachers not only marked our papers in red ink but explained what was wrong with what we'd written.  I understand that bad grammar is not a sign of lacking intelligence, or laziness.

But I understood that then, too.  My point, which I still maintain, was that presentation matters.  What you say, how you say it, and how much effort you put into polishing it all matter, sometimes more than what you're saying (or writing).  This is true whether you're a writer or not.

As a writer, if you submit your draft for publication or for representation by an agent, and it's riddled with spelling errors, you're going to have a hard time selling that manuscript.  From what I've heard about the publishing world, new manuscripts aren't competing with a majority of poorly-written dreck.  Most submissions are cohesive, well-written, and polished.  Of two similarly well-written stories, one that obviously needs more work on the basic level (as in, spelling and grammar) is less likely to be picked up.  It's the same reason why they don't build houses on top of mounds of sand: the foundation has to be strong.

Grammar and spelling matter outside the publication world, as well.  If you misspell a job title or description on your résumé, you're going to have a hard time getting a good look from an employer who recognizes the need for a professional presentation. (In my limited experience of HR offices, that's most of them.)  Send an email riddled with sentence fragments and a bad grasp of apostrophes, and a business contact may go with someone who can put forth the effort to string sentences together properly, instead.  You won't see businessmen coming to blows over the minutiae of grammar, but it does affect one's business life and how people perceive you.

That is not to say you're doomed, if you haven't grasped it by now.  The beauty of the written language, and what I especially like about it, is that it can be edited.  You can't take back having said something stupid, but you can stop and take a few moments to look your emails over for common spelling errors.  You can have someone who knows these things proofread your résumé or cover letter.  You can spend a few minutes every day familiarizing yourself with the basics, and vow to stomp out one faux pas at a time.

To me, it's always been about the effort, not the errors themselves.  I'm not going to snark at every email I receive and make fun of every spelling error.  I'm not going to forward a poorly-written email to my co-workers or fellow grammar police to make fun of the person who wrote it.  I'm not going to correct a comment's spelling and grammar if I find it lacking.

If, on the other hand, I see a consistent pattern of someone making the same mistake again and again, and I know the person well enough, I'll try to correct the writer in a gentle and nonjudgmental way.  If that person has made it clear this approach is unwelcome, I'll leave it be.  I'll also correct my own errors, often loudly and blushing furiously as I do.

English is not an easy language.  I get it.  All I'm looking for in any written correspondence is that I'm worth the effort to attempt to communicate with effectively and meaningfully.  If you don't care about grammar, that's your prerogative, but at least try to think about the message it sends.

The title of the post, by the way, comes from a printed tank top my ex-husband got me for Christmas one year. I also have a "Grammar Police" mug.  Same source.

Review: The Stepsister Scheme

The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I went into this book with high expectations. After all, I love new takes on fairy tales, I love stories where the heroine saves the guy, and humor is always a plus. This book has not just one strong female lead, but three, with several more supporting female characters that make it clear this fairy tale world is not one where women sit by and wait to be rescued.

I wasn't disappointed in this book, either. It's a fun take on what happens after "happily ever after." The powers and abilities of the princesses evolve in a logical and organic way, and didn't feel forced.

Still, it was not a perfect book. It felt like the first 2/3rds were world-building and establishing character, with the last third where the action took place. We got a couple of warnings in the narrative that things were about to get exciting, then it took off.

What was odd was the trouble I had with reading the exciting parts quickly. There were narrative stumbling-blocks that forced my eyes to slow down or go back to reread. Hines includes some rich detail in the middle of action scenes, which led to a confusing narrative. Other scenes had me losing track of characters or wondering why someone was just standing there and watching things unfold.

The characters were compelling and interesting, and I want to know what they get up to in the future. I really hope, though, that the pacing issue is smoothed over, and that the action is less confusing to read.



View all my reviews

Readalong: Stephen King's 11/22/63

I should probably have posted about this earlier, but I wasn't even sure if I could participate until I got the book for Christmas.

Grace at Feeding My Book Addiction is doing a readalong during the month of January for 11/22/63 by Stephen King.  I will be posting my thoughts for the first half on Saturday, January 14th, and the second half on Tuesday, January 31st.  I'll also be popping by the other discussions to share my thoughts.  If 11/22/63 is on your to-read list, it may be a good month to bump it to the top of the list.

Though I read 128 books in 2011, I've downgraded this year's reading challenge to only 100.  Once I'm done with copy edits, I want to make sure I'm devoting that same amount of time to working on my own writing, rather than on reading, so my pace is going to slow.  I'm going to be concentrating on reading books I already own, but, as my husband bought me a Kindle with the Amazon gift cards he got for Christmas, I expect the number of books I own to grow.

Review: Road Rage: Two Novellas

Road Rage: Two Novellas by Joe Hill

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This was a decent way to pass a couple of hours on the road.

Road Rage is two novellas: Richard Matheson's "Duel," which inspired a movie of the same name by Steven Spielberg, as well as "Throttle," a short story written by Stephen King and his son, Joe Hill.

Matheson is probably best known by modern readers for I Am Legend, which has spawned several movies, but he also wrote some of the most intriguing and memorable Twilight Zone episodes. "Duel" is about an ordinary salesman taking a back road, and randomly encountering a murderous trucker on the route. The truck driver is given a name (Keller) and a description (square hands, square face), but he exists as an embodiment of fear more than anything else. We never learn why he's trying to dominate the road and kill Mann, the perspective character of "Duel." Mann certainly speculates, but he never gets an answer.

"Duel" is not that kind of story, though. The horror and mystery of "Duel" is that it's so random and can happen to anyone. I found myself grateful, while I drove, that there weren't any trucks on the road.

"Throttle," by contrast, keeps the truck driver faceless, but gives him plenty of reason to be upset with the bikers who fill the role of protagonist only in that the story is from their perspective. They're not good people, and they're running away from having done something terrible. And yet, in a testament to King and Hill's writing, the reader does wind up rooting for the bikers to somehow survive being mowed down by a huge, unstoppable truck.

It's clear where the latter story was inspired by the former, but, side-by-side, it's a strange experience. I would recommend this for people who are already familiar with "Duel," either as the short story or the movie. Coming into it fresh creates a certain frame of mind that makes the earlier story pale in comparison to Hill and King's update. I would've very much liked to have savored "Duel," to mull over its themes and subtleties, but listening to them back-to-back took that opportunity, and I think it lost something in translation.

Doubtless this will be a different experience in future listens, but this "reading" of this audio book was not what I anticipated from three such masters of horror and suspense.



View all my reviews

Ending 2011 on a high note

As with all other years, there were some changes in 2011.  Some were anticipated, like finishing a draft of "Awaken" and starting in on book 2.  Some were not, like starting this blog (entirely a whim, like most things I decide to do), moving into an apartment, and picking up a freelance editing job.  Most of the good things that have happened this year came because I moved out of my comfort zone, though.  The risk of submitting my manuscript to some people whose reactions I couldn't anticipate has paid off nicely - I've gotten some very positive and helpful remarks, and I feel more confident about submitting for publication.


The most pleasant surprise came a few days ago on Twitter, and I promise this is related to reading and writing.  You see, when I initially joined Twitter and started looking for people to add, I saw that Margaret Atwood, the brilliant author of the book that formed the basis by which I judge social commentary (The Handmaid's Tale), was on there, and had made news headlines for it.  When I joined her throng, she was wondering what a "squee" was. There were a lot of creative and amusing answers, which she retweeted to share with the rest of us.


So the other day, she got a response that included the tag, "#woot."  She wondered in her feed if that was a hoot of joy, or something else.  I replied (and that link won't work in a couple of weeks, because of how Twitter archives things, so I'm copy-pasting the text below):

     @MargaretAtwood Woot is what a squee grows up to be.

And the wonderful, creative, unmatched Ms. Atwood not only saw my tweet, but liked it so much she retweeted it to her many followers.


Had you told me ten years, five years, even one or two years ago that such a thing would've made me want to dance with joy, I would've rolled my eyes at you.  But this small interaction, this stamp of approval from someone I admire, has made my week, my month, possibly my year.


It's a wonderful note to end 2011 on, even if that were all the joy I had for today. But I have more to look forward to, because my friend Grace, perhaps the most discerning and well-read of everyone I asked to look at my manuscript, has invited me and my husband to hang out with her and her fiancé and her friends I've never met in person, but interacted with online and heard a lot of good things about. Grace has excellent taste, which isn't limited to books.

2011 wasn't perfect, but it's certainly ending on a high note.

Best of 2011

I challenged myself to read 125 books in 2011.  I started out with a lowball figure, which I upgraded to 100 by spring.  Then, over the summer, I decided I could make it to 125.  And, as of December 22, I made it.


That's a lot of books.  Rather than talk about all of them, I thought I'd tell you about the 12 I liked best.  In no particular order, and bearing in mind I read them in 2011, not that they were published this year:


1. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (read on audio).  I liked how the book got into the mind of a teenager with depression.  Without turning her into a martyr or a specimen of human perfection the world suffers for the loss of, it tells the story of a girl who's angry, hurt, and who sees no other way out of her problems.  I was happy with the book for existing, giving some teenagers a chance to empathize with those they might otherwise drive to feel they have no other choice, as well.


2. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer (read on audio).  I loved this book not only for its effective use of the epistolary literary device, but because it was a light and heartwarming read where I expected a deep, depressing read.  It's ultimately about the warmth and friendship people can find when they reach out for others through a shared love of books, and the theme had some resonance for me.


3. UR by Stephen King (read on audio). I've heard a lot of complaints about the silliness of the idea of a haunted pink Kindle, but I enjoyed it.  I liked the Dark Tower references, this fleshing-out of a world we know so little about.  I like it when Stephen King steps away from the creepy, scary stuff, and just tells us about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.


4. Sleight of Hand by Peter S. Beagle. I liked the flexibility shown in this collection of short stories.  There was a great variety on display in this collection, and Peter Beagle writes each expertly.  Writing this up, I wish I'd picked up a copy so I could go back and revisit some of the stories.


5. When You Were Mine by Elizabeth Noble. I got an ARC through Goodreads' First Reads program, but I would've bought a copy, anyway.  I probably wouldn't have read it as promptly as I did, though, so thank goodness for First Reads.  I found it poignant and touching and lovely.  This is not a traditional chick lit romance, which is exactly what I liked about it.  There are logical consequences and hard choices, and it's not the happily ever after one expects from a book with a pastel cover.


6. Late Eclipses and One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire (books 4 and 5 of the Toby Daye series). There are precious few books I run out to pick up the week they come out, and there's a good reason these make that exclusive list.  I love the bread crumbs the author drops throughout these books, I love knowing that the writer knows where the series is going, and I'm in love with the world she's created.  The universe Toby inhabits is filled with fascinating and bizarre people, and the references to fairy tales is done with a light touch.  I recommended this series to a Goodreads member who asked for books like the TV show Grimm, but honestly, I use any excuse to recommend these I can find. They're awesome, and they keep getting better.


7. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (read on audio). This is the only nonfiction entry on the list, but that isn't the only notable thing about it.  This book shows the average non-scientist why the legal rights of who our body parts belong to matters.  It presents a lot of history of medical science of the last 50 years in a way that's both memorable and easy to understand.  And it shows an awareness of racial issues that I didn't expect.  More than an informative read, this book was also fascinating and enjoyable to read.


8. The Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin (Matthew Swift #1). I hadn't expected to like this book as much as I did.  I expected a paint-by-numbers urban fantasy with perhaps a bit more narrative wandering than usual.  It is, after all, 613 pages, almost twice as long as most of its cousins on the UF shelf.  Instead, I got a gripping story set in a fascinating and textured world, with a protagonist who was both maddening and irresistible.  I couldn't get through it fast enough, once I'd started.


9. The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I love the texture of Zafon's Barcelona of the early 1900's.  The tone is gothic and creepy, and his protagonists are inevitably in over their heads but keep chewing on the mysteries set before them, anyway.  I loved The Shadow of the Wind, and this one lived up to the high expectations I had as a result.  The language, even translated from the original Spanish, is lovely and flowing and adds up to a tale unlike any I've read lately, delightfully told.

10. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. It starts off as a mystery novel with a twist: the protagonist, Christopher John Francis Boone, has autism.  The mystery is solved about halfway through, creating more questions and setting Christopher off well beyond the comfort zone of his routines and what he knows about the world.  The book does an excellent job of getting into the head of a boy with autism, illustrating the thought processes that make some people with that particular diagnosis speak or act the way they do.  Christopher's actions always make perfectly rational, logical sense to him, while the adults around him are left scratching their heads.  I loved the insight this book offered, I enjoyed the story, and I loved Christopher and his unique storytelling voice.


11. Duma Key by Stephen King (read on audio). Again, it's not the creepiness of the story that I enjoyed, though I still refuse to walk through my apartment in the dark thanks to one of the scenes in this book.  It's that King takes a perfectly ordinary human being, shakes him up, takes him out of his comfort zone, and lets us see how he copes.  This seemed like a response to the terrible collision King was involved in years ago.  If only wonderful works could come of such awful things every time.


12. Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson (read on audio). I loved the original J. M. Barrie story, and I'd been reluctant to pick up these modern prequels.  My fears turned out to be unfounded.  This is faithful to the source material, with much of the same sense of fun and freedom.  It didn't detract one little bit, but served as an excellent companion.  As my nieces and nephews grow into the recommended age group for this book, they can expect to receive copies as presents.


What were some of the best books you read in 2011?

Review: Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener's Bones

Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener's Bones by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This is the second in Brandon Sanderson's Alcatraz books, a YA series he supposedly writes for fun. As there are a lot of writing in-jokes, self-deprecating asides, and puns galore, I have no reason to doubt how much fun Sanderson has writing these books.

In this book, the title character rides a crystal dragon, gets lost to find his way to the Library of Alexandria, writes a story about a bunny who inspires a pig to change his name to Hambo, and begins to accept the heroic role everyone seems to expect of him.

I'm not sure how enjoyable this series would be for kids, because the jokes I love most are the ones that seem to be a direct response to some college literature courses I've taken. The puns are pretty clever (if one likes puns, anyway), but a lot of the literary jokes seem like they'd be over a preteen's head. I suppose there's plenty of silliness to occupy them, though, and then they can reread the book when they're older to appreciate the rest.

The YA I appreciate most, by the way, is the kind that can be enjoyed on several levels. I'm just not sure if this qualifies, because I don't know enough 11-year-olds to ask if they liked it.



View all my reviews

Review: Fool Moon

Fool Moon by Jim Butcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This is the second book in the Dresden Files series. If you like Harry Dresden and the first book, I suspect you will like this one more. If you don't, I would not foist this book upon you. That isn't to say it's a retread, like certain series I might mention. But not a lot has changed.

In this book, Harry Dresden is even more broke than he was in the first, mostly because he assumes Karrin Murphy, His Chicago police contact who he works for sometimes, is still in a snit that he withheld information during the last book. It turns out to be that she's under investigation because he's been linked to a mob boss, and she can't afford to be seen with him. But, when people show up looking like they were mauled by humongous wolves, she has no choice but to enlist his help.

Evidently someone told Jim Butcher about ramping up the tension in a book, because Harry spends about half of the book unable to access his magic, or with very limited access. Add up the time he has his magical toys taken away, and he spends more time bemoaning his helpless state than magically showing off. I started to get exasperated with Harry for not doing anything to recharge, just before the final encounter. It made me worry for how much more later books would have to step up the punishment so the readers weren't yawning and saying Harry's gotten out of worse.

But the tension did keep me wanting more, and wondering how Harry was going to get out of it, and rooting for the jerk. And he makes some decisions to be less of a jerk in this book, so hopefully later books show that he's taken these lessons to heart.

I recommend, by the way, that you listen to these books on audio. James Marsters lends Harry a humanity he lacks on the written page, at least in my paperback copies. The narration makes the difference between my rolling my eyes at Harry making excuses for himself, and smiling at his self-deprecating humor.

If you've already read the first book, this will have a lot of what you liked about it, only with a greater sense of tension. I'm going to read the third, but honestly, if he gets half as much stuffing beaten out of him in that book, I might not make it all the way through.



View all my reviews

Review: Bloodshot

Bloodshot by Cherie Priest

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I found this a far cry from Cherie Priest's other novels, and not just because it's an entirely different genre with very different characters. The tone was different, the voice was entirely fresh, and the narrative approach was quite different from the other books I've read of hers. Nonetheless, it still added up to an enjoyable tale well-told.

The book follows Raylene Pendle, a vampire thief nicknamed Cheshire Red, who stumbles across a government conspiracy that left one of her kind blinded for all eternity. Her hunt for information on Project Bloodshot takes her from her comfy home base in Seattle to Atlanta, GA, then to Washington, DC.

The books wasn't without its flaws. I'm hoping the narrative flow is a bit more even in later books. This seemed to have clearly-delineated moments of action and tension, with very little blending or mixing-up. I don't want to call it predictable, but it was a little too easy to set aside for the night, knowing I was just about to read an action-y section.

I also didn't like the sexual tension, or lack thereof. As fun as it was to read Raylene's detailed descriptions of how delicious she found various men (and her speculation about a drag queen's "tuck job"), I got no indication within the text that it was at all mutual. Maybe she was supposed to skeeze out readers by coming across as a dirty old woman and call attention to how gross it is when guys do it, but I wasn't impressed.

It also seemed like Raylene had too easy a time throughout this book. Thinking on the events, it doesn't seem like there weren't a few times when the tension was ramped way up, but that's the danger with a character who's uber-paranoid, uber-prepared, and never loses her cool. I didn't feel that sense of danger.

I did enjoy this book, but there were some factors I was looking for that I found lacking, none of which added up to my knocking the book too far down in rating. Overall, I liked it, and plan on picking up the next one.



View all my reviews

Review: The Stupidest Angel CD: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror

The Stupidest Angel CD: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror by Christopher Moore

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This is a review for the audio edition of this book. I read the hardcover version a few years ago, and really liked it, and so I took this out of the library to listen to on my car trip to see family for Christmas.

The Stupidest Angel is the story of an angel who comes down to deliver a Christmas miracle. True to the title, though, he's not very bright. He interprets a child's wish for someone to come back to life by raising zombies who, after they're done munching on brains, want to go to Ikea. The residents of Pine Cove are confronted with this problem during the annual Christmas party.

This book is no less hilarious the second time around. If anything, I found it even funnier this time. I've read more of Christopher Moore's books, now, and so I understand the in-jokes his characters allude to.

That's not to say that his previous books are a prerequisite to this one, but you do enjoy it on a different level if you've read Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove and Island of the Sequined Love Nun, as characters from both feature primarily in this narrative, and don't overtly talk about the weirdness they've been through before. This takes place some years after both stories are set. Raziel from Lamb is also the title angel, but his part in that narrative is pretty well summed up within the text.

I feel compelled to warn you that I have a rather dark sense of humor, and you might not find this book as funny as I do. People die, have their brains sucked out by zombies, and lose their minds. I didn't find the violence too gruesome, but some readers may not appreciate jokes about evil developers deserving to be dispatched with gardening equipment.



View all my reviews