This and That

No big topic to really post about today but more some clean up, if you will, and some notes on what’s coming up.

This:

I finished Elven Star and it was disappointing.  I knew it wasn’t my favorite of the cycle, but it was a lot more campy than I was expecting.  In a way it tipped too far into the roleplaying world and there was a lot of stuff I just didn’t care about.  All the elements I enjoyed in Dragon Wing were missing as was Alfred, which of course offset Haplo.  The good points were again, the world building is marvelous.  Simply marvelous and the reader does get more insights into Haplo’s past.

Would I recommend it?  Not really.  You could probably skip over it without much worry

I’ve currently started Sword Dancer and it has that distinct flavor of 80s fantasy.  This is a good thing.  The 80s were a good time for fantasy.  Anyways, I’m looking forward to reading more since I do know it holds a special place in at least one writer’s heart.

That:

Coming up on my reading list will be Eragon by Christoper Paolini.  I’ve given a little back handed grief to this book but I haven’t really given any reasons for why I have the opinion of it that I do.  I think, as with other books I hate, that I owe it to the book and to readers to actually give reasons for why I think it is a terrible book.  Must have evidence for my conclusion, eh?  So I am going to reread it  attempt to reread it, so I can really give it a thorough look.

Yes, sadly, I’ve read it once. 

The first time I attempted it, I checked it out from the library when it was first causing a stir.  I read two pages and gave up.

The second time I read it, I was in Germany.  I had read all the English books I brought, didn’t feel like reading anything in German, and just needed something easy and mindless.  Unfortunately, the English book section of Sci fi/Fantasy of the Hugendubel  was small and I had read most of the books they had.

 

Coolest bookstore name EVER

So I ended up buying Eragon, paperback, for 10€.  Yeah you read that right.  Ten EUROS.  I paid that much for Eragon.  I think that should reflect my level of desperation for some fantasy in English.  It took me a while to get through, not because it was long but because…well you’ll see (hopefully).  I left it in my host parents house not wanting to bog down my luggage with its weight when I went back to the states.  So,  have no copies and I had to order a new one.  This one, however, only cost me .75 cents.

Much better.

Children aren't stupid

 

One of my favorite bedtime stories

Nothing makes me go on a rampage harder than people who think children are literary idiots.

What I mean by this is people who think children should only read silly happy stories.  Stories that don’t talk about bad things, or have any violence, or any serious evil.  Stories that are, for lack of a better word, simple.  These would be the same people who happified the Grimm’s Fairytales.

Well guess what.  Stories like that are boring.  And kids know it.

If you read the original Grimm’s fairytales, they are much more satisfying, stronger, and make a lot more sense than their purified modern versions.  Some are kind of crazy, like the one where the heroes trap the evil witch in a casket full of tar and poisonous snakes (no kidding), but it’s such a strong concept of good and evil and it’s creative and makes for a good story that, for a kid, it’s okay.  I say this because I can’t think of a kid who broke down in tears because of hearing something like that.  I know as a kid, that sort of ending left my imagination spinning.

Kids are not stupid.  Kids like stories.   Good stories.  And to have a good story you need more than just surficial happy dappy material.  You need plot, you need an antagonist, and the worse, the better because it makes for a better story.  Children can recognize a good plot line.

Yes I understand shielding someone from something like rape, or pornographic material, that’s fine.  And I understand that kids love, well, kids books. My favorite book as a kid was A Year at Maple Hill Farm.  But, at the same time, I think it’s ridiculous to think that we can only read them Bernstein Bears.

I say this from personal experience.  I grew up with my mother reading me Beowulf and The Odyssey as bedtime stories.  And I loved them.  Beowulf (mom read the Robert Nye translation) was full of violence.  Honestly one of the clearest things I remembered was Beowulf using the bubbles of blood to breathe after he killed Grendal’s mother.  I loved that book.  Why?  Because it was a good story.  It didn’t make me want to go out and murder a bunch of Danes, (although that would have been an interesting side effect), it didn’t make me want to kill anyone.  Rather the opposite because it was about a hero.  Yes I know there is a lot more to Beowulf but as a 4 year old I was really able to grasp the good/evil hero concept.

I loved these stories because they had adventure, they had danger, real danger, and transported me to a world not my own, but, at the same time, had feelings and emotions I could identify with.  I once read a critique of someone’s work that said “Children shouldn’t be introduced to words like hate.”  Um, excuse me?  Guess what, the world is full of it and kids aren’t idiots.  They understand the concept.  And more importantly, if you don’t introduce hate, how can you understand forgiveness?

I also rampage because I feel that by dumbing down literature for kids we inhibit growth. There is a reason kids learn languages best when they’re younger, there is a reason the best time to teach your child to read is between 2 years and 6 years.  It is the time when they are learning the most so why shield them from learning plot structures, and the strong themes of good and bad.  They can handle it.  I feel as if sometimes people view children as if they are fragile beings from another planet and forget that they were kids once.

I can see some people saying that “Well yeah, that’s you.  You like reading and literature.  Not everyone can understand it.”  But does it ever occur to them that I like what I like, and I understand what I understand because my mother read real literature to me as a child?  That the material wasn't all happy dappy simplistic?  I learned to write by listening and reading, and by being introduced to good quality literature at the age I was I was given the opportunity to learn and start thinking about stories early.  For that I’ll be forever grateful.

Thanks mom.

The Importance of Age

By this time next week I’ll be another year older and that’s got me thinking.  Isn’t it interesting how most heros in fantasy novels are young?  And by ‘young’ I mean the span of teens and twenties. Clearly not babies.

We don’t want jerks like these being main characters!

Okay it makes sense.  It’s going to be hard to have a baby flying dragons, fighting off monsters, falling in love, having a pint with friends in a tavern (although that would be hilarious.  I smell a satire!) and the things a normal hero or MC does.  I know duh, common sense, but why not swing the other way?  Why not make an MC in their forties?  Or fifties?

I think there are several reasons.  The first is a matter of development.  The most obvious time for a character to grow through massive life and thought changes is in that time between child and adult hood.  It’s kinda the whole point of a ‘coming of age’ novel.  There are new things to experience, first times for a *lot* of things.  They pick up new skill sets etc.

However, if we argue that then…why can’t an older character do the same?  It’s not as if people hit a certain point and BAM they know everything and they’re a perfectly formed human being who can’t learn new skills,  have new firsts, have new experiences.  Yes you get crotchety old men and women who are set in their ways, but that doesn’t mean that they absolutely can’t change.  Usually they just choose not to.

What an older character does offer is a different set of writing challenges.  While this older character can fall in love, it may not be their first time.  Older characters can marry at an older age, look at Polgara from David Edding’s Belgariad/Mallorean.  She ends up marrying whatever his name was, but their relationship is slightly different from that of a younger character.  It must be.   Because the age makes a difference.  Older characters may have already had a family, several lovers, or just lots of baggage.  Or experience.  Call it what you will :D.  They are at a different place in their lives and while they may have experienced more than a younger character, the writer has the challenge of finding and giving them new things to experience.  Things that will change them, will challenge their beliefs.  And that can be hard.

Another reason that young characters dominate is that they’re fun to read and write.  I think readers like to read young characters because lots of readers are in that age range or have experienced that age range and perhaps can associate with their characters better.  Plus I think there is a sense of freedom with that younger age, and a sense of innocence that readers may want to either harken back to, or envelop themselves in.

But then again, to argue this point if the writer is talented and can remove the age construct as they can remove the gender construct and have the reader relate soley to a personality, then the age becomes no problem.  This personality will of course be tempered with the experiences of age, but one could argue that many young characters are, in spirit, old because of what the author has put them through prior to the beginning of the novel.  However old in spirit isn’t quite the same as old in terms of life. There will still be a difference I think, between old characters and young characters who have been through a lot, but if the author can make the reader relate to personality, to love, to hate to whatever then age may no longer matter.

It’s hard to find many fantasy books who have an old main character, but one I think was done really well was Song for the Basilisk by Patricia A. McKillip.  Fantastic book, one of my top 5 favs or hers and the character is older.  But she celebrates, not necessarily the age, but the age of the personality and its story, its journey.  And she writes quite clearly an older character having the same sort of adventure of a younger character would winds the tale up with a beautiful lesson.  McKillip worked this well, for she started the story with the MC, Rook, still child, and grew him up before the readers eyes so when the meat of the plot took place, age didn’t matter, the person behind that age did.

 For me, personally, as a writer, I like to make my main character young/young adults because I like watching them through their first hurdles—at least when it comes to anything of length.  I like to see them trying to be adults, or are young adults that still need …something.  That just appeals to me more, and I think that is because I am only a 20-something.  It’s hard for me to really grasp writing an older MC.  I haven’t experienced it being older and, while I haven’t experienced riding a dragon or being cursed by a witch, its easier to use my imagination with those things than understand what it is like to live my life twice over.  It’s a little odd, really to think about.  I can make secondary characters older, and not worry, but the challenges that face and MC(s) are certainly unique.

Granted I really haven’t tried to write a real story with an older character.  I did once for a campfire, and it was going pretty well.  But the campfire didn’t last for two long so I never really got to dig deep down into the character.   I would like, as a challenge to maybe try a short story with an older character to see if I can do it and to satisfy my penchant for things that are unusual.

Book Review: Breath and Bone

A few days ago I wrote how I thought my degree was destroying my creative ability but I’m also quite sure, now, that the opposite is true.

I was up until 2:10am on Saturday morning reading Breath and Bone, and then reading from 10:30-12:30pm on Saturday to finish the book. Then I spent part of Saturday afternoon working on the below review, and then, because I was in a literary mood (the wrong sort of course) I started focusing on my own work and was determined to get Tammarand out of Daneland by the end of the night.  An entire day I could have been writing my thesis introduction completely gone to my other love.

*sigh*  What can I say, but the heart wants what it wants.  And what is worse, Elven Star is calling me from its place in a cardboard box at the foot of my bed.

But no.  Strength, I need strength!  Today, Sunday, I will buckle down with my books, scientific papers and my wheat thin cheese crackers and knock out at least two pages.  Or at least get the whole sand ridge info taken care of.

Shhh Elven Star shhhh.

At least I can share some fruits of my labor.  Breath and Bone by Carol Berg. The book that stayed on my mind for the entire length of time I was reading it.  Occupying my thoughts as I sifted sand, and read about wetlands, and climate change.  Breath and Bone, continuation of the story of Flesh and Spirit.  While I would call Flesh and Spirit set up, Breath and Bone is pure story.  It is one of those stories where there are definite loose ends, and the author didn’t quite continue something she started, but most of the story was strong enough to carry it.

In other words, it was a great story and shows Bergs mastery of being able to make a classic plot her own.  It follows the classic sturcture of young hero, has some baggage,  goes out to train in mystic ways, come back and helps the great battle at the end.  It has the self sacrificing prince, the arrogant and haughty foreign sort of race.  But it was all very much Berg’s own world.  Classic plotlines are classic for a reason: people like them.  They work, they’re satisfying.  The challenge is often so much to be creative that people may try to stray from those classic structures.  What Berg did, however, was to embrace them, whole heartedly and them make them irrevocably her own.  And she made it her own by adding her own peoples, her own twists, her own vision, she made it unique and creative.

The idea of the Danae was awesome.  I can see her inspiration coming from a mix of nymphs, dryads, and a hint of The Book of Atrix Wolfe.  They are such beautiful creatures and the amount of care and work that went into writing their world, writing Valen into getting his guards was fantastic.  I bow down to her creativity.  The time she took to show us the world of the Danae strengthened and helped carry the novel for me. They hooked me the most out of the entire story and I ended up being much more fascinated with them than with the human world.

As much as I liked the story, there were definitely some weaknesses that frustrated me.

Elene.   I gotta say it…she was kinda useless.  She didn’t actually do anything.  She was just sorta…there.  And then she got pregnant, which of course we all know she couldn’t have done that alone.  With her running around, disguised as Squire Corin, I was expecting a bit more out of her but…nada.  She was pretty much a waste of space.

Which brings me to something that never made sense to me and still doesn’t.  Why was Valen so strongly attracted to this woman?  He was attracted to her before they even spoke, knew each other, and before he even knew she was a woman.  And the attraction wasn’t a simple ‘that girl’s hot, that girl’s beautiful,’ it was an urgent, strong, need.  I suppose one could say it was because Valen was nearing the third ramasti, but that doesn’t make much sense either.  When Valen first sees Elene at the beginning of Flesh and Spirit, he is not close to his birthday.  And if it were simply the case of the third ramasti then he would have been drawn to almost any woman.  Yes, he was drawn to a few random innkeeps daughters, but the attraction to Elene was so much more…intense.  It was different and stronger.  But absolutely nothing comes of it and its not explained.  It was as if the author was started her character down one path, then changed horses in mid stream and never cleaned up after herself.

I used to think I hated romance.  But after growing a bit, reading more, I discovered I am just really really picky about romance.  This book really didn’t have much, which was perfectly fine with me, but the beginning of the one between Valen and the healer, Saverian, I just didn’t buy.

The book was not about their relationship, and Valen’s character didn’t have that raw need for a lover, so I fully recognize that developing the romance between the two wasn’t of major importance.  However, I think with the bit that was done, it could have been a bit more believable.  See, Saverian’s I don’t think fit. As a character she was cold and emotionless, as she was designed to be, and showed little to no reciprocating attraction.  She seemed more like a lump than a person, which didn’t help matters that she was only really described once.  Honestly, I forgot what she looked like for most of the book and associated her name with sort of stony personality.  I know part of it was her character but the character didn’t seem quite designed for romance and I couldn’t see why Valen was attracted to her nor did I really buy the authors explanations.  I felt as if she were reaching for someone for him and grabbed the healer.

While the above gripes are definitely more minor, the worst thing, I have to say was she rushed the ending.  Why, Carol Berg, why???  It was a good book and I felt that rushing at the end weakened it!  The whole finding of the Plain was almost an after thought!  The finding of the Plain was a very important point and it took only a few paragraphs to write. A few paragraphs.  It was almost as if after the battle in the human world she just…gave up.   And what happened to the fact that Valen is the guardian of the Well.  Oh he’s only the guardian of one of those most important Danae sinauos…lets not mention that again. 

While I recognize Berg will end stories with some open endings and lets the reader fill in some blanks of the future, there were many points where important things were emphasized, such as the sinauos, Valen’s unexplained attraction to Elene, etc., that were just sort of forgotten.  Since they had importance in the plot I would have thought they would have had the same sort of importance in the ending and since they didn’t, the ending was weakened.

Even with those grievances, the book is still completely worth the read. It’s a wonderful mix of action and some down time, with riddles constantly mixed throughout.  I liked it so much I’m writing the review instead of my thesis.  There are some loose ends, some frustration, but all in all a creative satisfying read.

Fantastisch

Well I do have to make a comment about how awesome the past 24 hours have been.  Our team won first place in trivia, I got the opportunity to communicate with Deborah Beale aka MrsTad, AND Jimmy Johns was giving out free sandwiches on campus.

Epic win.

Thoughts on Dragon Wing

I’m not going to do a full book review on Dragon Wing by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.  Why?  I don’t really feel like it, so ha! But I do want to do some comments because I do enjoy this series and there are things I just have to babble about.

I’ve actually read the entire Deathgate Cycle before, but I’m rereading it so I can do a character spotlight on Haplo.  I love Haplo.  I’ve got a bit of a reader’s crush on him, and on his entire character, if that makes any sense, because he’s just so interesting and awesome. To quote Alfred “The man with the bandaged hands!” hee hee.  Anyways,  it’s been a while though, years in fact, since I’ve read the entire cycle so I have to reread the entire thing to really do Haplo justice.  It’s important because of the way Haplo’s character…not changes because I think it’s more Haplo’s character being Haplo, but maybe  just becomes more himself.  His situation and his views are challenged and changed I think is the best way to put it.

But anyways, it’s been really fun to go back and read.  I couldn’t remember the plot for the life of me, and it was enjoyable to try to solve the puzzles, like the Kicksey Winsey, that I had forgotten about. And it was interesting to see that I had forgotten how long it took Haplo to get there.   I kept going, wait, when does Haplo show up?   Since I’ve read the series before, and I had a grasp of the overall concept, the first 100 pages made me think…where is this plot going?  Does Haplo ever get here?

Then on page 119, a strange ship crashes on Devlin.  Limbeck the dwarf, who remembers the so called gods who came in the dragon ship, opens it and:

He also saw--rather to his disappointment—that it wasn’t a Welf.  Limbeck had seen a human only once before, and that was in pictures in the Welf books.  This creature looked something like a human, yet not quite.  There was one thing certain, however.  The creature, with its great height and thin, muscular body, was definitely one of the so-called gods.

Now of course I get all excited.  This has to be Haplo, I’m thinking.  I mean it can’t be anyone else but I’m not sure.

Then it comes.  The determining line:

“My…dog!”

Bahaha totally is Haplo.  You can’t have Haplo without his dog.

That’s another reason I like these books.  Even without reading the whole series, and just by what the reader has read so far, there are so many of those moments where the reader knows who is coming, what’s going on, what’s about to happen and you can’t wait to see how the character is going to react.

Also for some odd reason I had into my head that Alfred wasn’t in this book.  Which is dumb.  Alfred is in all the books just like Haplo is.  And their relationship, and the development of it, is actually really good the more I think about it.  I’m glad I’m rereading these because I don’t think I got the duality of the two and their relationship until, well, now.

And the world building.  I forgot about the amazing world building in these books.  Dragon Wing takes place in a world consisting of a bunch of floating islands, and people have to travel to each either by dragon or by dragonship.  Each society (elves, dwarves, humans) have their own culture, and their own way of phrasing things.

Only problem for me was I wasn’t fond of the use of footnotes.  9 times out of 10 you could figure what a word or a certain thing was without the footnotes.  Yes it was cool to learn all about it and how the currency works, so on the world building aspects that was cool, but I personally wasn’t fond of it in footnote form.

Now, I wait in the mail for the next book, Elven Star.  I know I’ve said before I usually don’t like elves in literature, but these elves don’t seem like Tolkien-esk elves, so I’m okay with it.  It just sorta…fits with the story line and the world.  Anyways, I’ll see what memories this next book rekindles once it gets here!  But while I wait, I have the very lovely Breath and Bone which just arrived.  Finally!  So onward with Valen’s world.

Comparing apples to oranges

Sometimes I'm pretty sure my quest for my degree ruins my creative writing ability.  This is what I wrote yesterday:

Moslow and McBride (1991), Snedden (?), propose a model of shore-oblique sand ridge genesis from the remains of ancient ebb tidal deltas.  Deltas form from the seaward mouths of inlets, often time with ridge like protuberances developing on the outer fringes.  As lateral movement of the inlet takes place, accompanied by sea level rise, an oblique like morphology of these sand bodies develop.

Once the inlet closes, the direct sediment source for the delta is removed.  It is hypothesized that sediment is then supplied from the shelf or modern shoreface and the sandbody is subject to reworking by the local hydrodynamic regime.  Despite the hydrodynamic reworking of sediments, Snedden et al found traces of the ebb-tidal precursor in the lower reaches Peahala ridge, including a mix of shelf, bay, and marsh macro and microfaunal assemblages (Snedden 1999).  Robinson and McBride (2008) were able to reconstruct the ebb-tidal delta and former marsh environments in a similar shore obique bar using microfossil assemblages and sedimentological characteristics.

Once cut off from the supply of sediment, sea level continues to rise and the sand body is no longer attached to land (McBride 1991)

Whooo talk about creative fun times!   Even though it’s rough, I think it’s clear that the introduction to my masters thesis requires a complete change in the way I have to think and the way I have to write.  Compare this to Reindeer Dreams.  Very different.  So it’s hard for me sometimes to go from a day where my head is being mashed full of papers, scientific writing, etc., to switch on the ‘creative mode.’

Sometimes I can do it.  Sometimes I can’t wait to work on something other than science writing and I can’t wait to just flip that switch in my head and get lost in my characters.  Other days, not so much.  But the point of all this is that its clear to me that different kinds of writing require different kinds of thinking, and different kinds of language.

Let’s take this idea and apply it to Fantasy, Sci fi, and Horror.  The three usually get lumped together.  I’m going to remove horror from this discussion because, well, I never read it so I can’t really talk about it with any sort of confidence.   Also, sometimes horror is shelved in its own stand alone genre, thus I’m going to confine my thoughts to purely SF/F.  And those thoughts include that writing strong fantasy is a very different experience from writing strong sci fi and, very often, strong writers of Sci fi can’t write good fantasy and vice versa.

First I want to make a note that I say strong writers of one genre.  That’s important for when you tend to lean far in one universe its hard to make the leap to the other.  Because, well, let’s just call a spade a spade: sci fi and fantasy are very different animals.

I am clearly a fantasy reader.  My brother tried to get me to read David Brinn, Isaac Asimov etc., but I could never get involved in the sci fi like I could in the fantasy.   I’m sure sci fi readers are the same way about reading fantasy, indicating again that the two genres are most definitely different.

Yes, the two genres require imagination and in some cases different worlds, but the actual language of sci fi is very different from the language of fantasy.  I can always identify a writer who tends to favor sci fi or reads three times the amount of sci fi than fantasy because there is a technicality to their language when they try to write fantasy that just doesn’t work.  I think there’s a softness require for fantasy sometimes, and a technical aspect needed for sci fi, because the feel and tone of the two genres require it.  If this weren’t true, then you wouldn’t have people who read mostly sci fi, and you wouldn’t have readers who read mostly fantasy.

Now this isn’t saying sci fi writers don’t try to write fantasy and vice versa, they do, but most of the attempts I’ve read are either sci fis that have a heavy fantasy aspect, or fantasies that have a heavy sci fi aspect.

For example.  I love Tad Williams’s Otherland series.  Honestly, it might be one of my favorite series of his and it’s called a sci fi series.  I call it a sci fi-ish series.  Tad Williams is primarily a fantasy writer and the Otherland series, although taking place in the future where the internet is a place of incredible virtual simulation, the style and the kinds of settings are very fantasy, such as the variety of simulations, the appearance of the woman with the feather, etc.  I’m sure there are hard core sci fi readers who might argue it being truly ‘sci fi.’ On the flip side, although I enjoyed Zelazny's Nine Princes in Amber, I couldn’t get as deeply involved in it as I could in a straight fantasy because the language was a bit stark and there was a lack of that fantasy ‘feel.’  Again maybe too technical.  When I say technical, I’m not saying the writing is talking about technology but there is some sort of formality about the writing that is different from fantasy.  That’s the best way I can put it.

Is this true all the time?  Of course not.  I’m merely speaking of those writers who are very strongly in one camp or the other.   And I think it’s important, for example, for a mainly sci fi writer to read a lot of fantasy if they plan on writing it so they can begin to understand the differences.  It’s very misleading lumping the two genres together, as so often happens, because looking at the writing the feel of the two is usually like comparing apples to oranges and that is an important point to recognize.

Note: I suck at writing sci fi

Book Review: Flesh and Spirit

What a fascinating book.  The author, Carol Berg, the same author of Song of the Beast, does a complete 180 with this book, not necessarily in terms of how I liked it, but rather in the style and feel of the writing.  Again, the book is in first person, but in the type of first person I’m not really a fan of.  The first person narration happening in the here and now, instead of the first person looking back, storytelling, style found in Song of the Beast.  The story is darker in tone, as well as the style of writing being very different.  This is not necessarily a bad thing.  In fact, it’s incredibly interesting to watch an author be able to be so chameleon like and write two things that are so completely different.

(Booo cover artist.  The mask is so much cooler than you've drawn!)

Flesh and Spirit started out slowly.  In fact, I have a hard time remembering what happened in the first two hundred pages.  This was a bit of a negative for me.  I have no problem with novels starting out slow.  Tad Williams’s stuff is like that all the time. But with his books I’m so caught up in getting to know the character, the world, the intrigue that it doesn’t matter.  That didn’t quite happen for me with ‘Flesh’ and I attribute that to the first person view point

First person is, in a way, difficult because the author is limited to what that single character hears, does, experiences etc.  So to really establish the world, the characters, the politics, Berg had to make her character, Valen, do certain things and go certain places to ‘discover’ or ‘experience’ things that were necessary to the plot.   Which needs extra writing.  If they were to go places and see things they needed a motivation, which requires even more writing, making a longer ‘prep time.’  If Tad Williams did everything soley from Simon’s POV, or Renie’s, or Barrick’s, I shudder to think how much longer those books would have gotten.

So, in other words, I understand the slow start, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I could have.

Once I got about halfway through the book, though, and all the set up was complete, I was hooked.  I couldn’t put it down.

The story follows Valen, an escaped Pureblood, in a land torn by a war between two brothers and a supposed menace of a third.  After taking refuge in a monastery, he learns that there are greater things afoot than he realizes, ones that involve him, the mysterious Danae, and his own book of maps.

Always the great world builder, Berg introduces us to a fascinating place mixed with convoluted politics and another world just out of sight.  The idea of the Pureblood is awesome, and took some neat world building in and of itself and I could see Berg easily being able to do a short story taking place within the confines of the Pureblood world.

The whole tone of the story is dark.  It deals with war and spirits and, while not necessarily ‘dark’ in the way one might see a ‘dark’ novel dealing with vampires or werewolves or the like, the reader is really looking at a society in its death throws.  The society itself is poisoned, and is crumbling and I think that is really what makes the book dark.  The good thing about this is, though, the way Berg is able to use that ‘dark’ feeling to contrast with the Danae who are so much more ‘light’ by comparison.  It just emphasizes their ethereal-ness. (yeah I know probably not a word)

I have to admit I’m very fond on the map idea.  But then again I’ve always loved maps since I was little.  They seemed to hold all sorts of possibilities, and filled that desire in me to discover the secret, hidden places of the world.  I give kudo points to Berg for thinking of that and it’s niggled a bit of inspiration in me as well.

There are many mysteries in this book, and many puzzles to work out, so there are some things I’m suspicious of, like “squire Corin” I won’t really be able to discuss until I’ve read the next book. Once the plot picks up, its hard not to turn the page as the mysteries swirl out of Valen, and the brothers at the monastery.   Berg leaves the reader on a cliff hanger at the end with so many questions unanswered and I’m watching my mailbox for when my copy of Blood and Bone comes.

Would I recommend it?  Yes, to readers who enjoy darker fantasy and with a warning about the slow beginning.

Cover Attraction

Isn’t it amazing how cover art draws you in?  I get ridiculous with it sometimes.  For example, as happy as I am that P.C. Hodgell has a new publisher, I can’t stand the new cover art because it makes Jame look awfully whorey.  Sometimes I’ll go to great lengths to collect series I love with different cover art.  Like I said, it’s a bit ridiculous.  But on a slightly less ridiculous note, cover art is one of the things that attracts me, and I’m sure many other readers as well, to a certain book.

When I was little, before I could even read, I couldn’t wait to know the story inside Taran Wanderer.  I didn’t know that was the book’s title, I just saw the cover and was fascinated at what the story could possibly be, and I was jealous of my brothers when they could read it.

(At the time, this book only cost 3$.  Oh how times have changed)

See?? Isn’t that an awesome cover??  Who is that creepy old guy and why is he holding a half moon?!  Is it a real moon?  Is it a crystal?  What is that cool thing that looks so awesome?  And there’s a guy with a sword.  How can you go wrong?

I loved the cover art so much, that when it came time to read The Chronicles of Prydain, I read Taran Wanderer first, and then went back and read the series in proper order.

Speaking of other cover art, I love when the cover art matches the book.  Kuniko Y. Craft does absolutely beautiful illustrations for most of Patricia McKillips books.  And they match the style and tone of the author.

(Hmmm maybe I just have a thing for moons)

Oddly, my least favorite McKillip book, Solstice Wood had non Craft cover art.  Connection?!  …Probably not.

Also, for me, I expect my book covers to tell me something about what’s in the book, which is why I tend to dislike the trend lately in modern covers to streamline the pictures and, in my opinion, make them boring.  For example, this cover of Lady Knight by Tamora Pearce.

( Yawwn)

Aah yes.  When I see a woman’s bare neck and shoulders, I immediately think it’s a knight.  Very appropriate *thumbs up*

And as much as I like George R. R. Martin…really now sir.  I know you could do better than this.

I know you can do better than this because you have.  Although I have to admit, with the complexity of Martin’s stories, it’s hard to capture them in art. So, in this case, maybe I’m being a bit too harsh.

I also have a thing for the older covers because there is something about the rich story like illustrations that make me feel like I’m truly reading a story.  It harkens me back to the old school days of fantasy and really just transport me somewhere else

(See? See? Isn't that just beautiful??)

And then sometimes, cover art just makes me laugh

(What a good book series...what a terrible cover)

Really? LOL I’m pretty sure that’s a *tad* over the top

Word love: Jewel tones

Time for another little bit on descriptions, and time to discuss another little pet peeve of mine: using jewel tones to describe the color of someone’s eyes.  

I fully admit that this prejudice is partly due for my own love of things that are different, and creative, and strange, but I also think I have reason behind it.  My problem with jewel tones is also one of my reasons for hating the word ‘orb’ to describe ‘eyes,’ aka it’s not very creative.   However I do think that jewel tones are a bit more flexible than ‘orbs’, and to me, do work but the key is knowing when and how to use them.

When I talk about jewel tones to describe eyes, I’m referring to the use of ‘sapphire,’ ‘emerald,’ ‘ruby,’ etc, to describe eye colors in place of blue, green, or if there is a strange fantastic creature, red.  The first two are really the major offenders, and the ones I see the most often.  While these do work as descriptors, in the grand scheme of things, they’re not always that great of a choice.

So the question is...Why?

Well, mainly, I see them a lot.

Let’s go back a step and ask a question.  Why are we replacing green and blue with emerald and sapphire?  I think most everyone knows the answer to this.  As with orbs, we are taught in school to experiment with adjectives, and use other words than the standard ‘blue,’ ‘green’ to describe something and spice up the writing.  Blue, green, etc, are very common, very standard, and aren’t that exciting because we see them all the time in our society.

So we experiment and choose new words.  Only problem is that the first alternate description most people go for to replace the normal colors of green and blue, are jewels, mainly emerald and sapphire.  I see this a lot in writing, and a lot in beginning writing.  Since I see it so much, emerald and sapphire eyes are become mundane, and even more common than the simple green and blue.  So if they are now so common or mundane, and the purpose is to replace the common and mundane…then why are we using them??

In other words…what’s the point?  We now see them so often, what do they really add to the writing? Not usually. Nothing is wrong with using the words blue and green.  I don’t know why people get scared of them. 

Now, I do see jewel tones sometimes in the published literature and in unpublished literature that does work and I do completely admit that, like most things in writing, there are some exceptions.  For me, these include:

1)      You don’t use it that often.  If almost every character is introduced with some sort of jewel for an eye, I’m going to put down your book.  If only once and a while they’re introduced with and emerald or sapphire colored eye…okay, I can live with that.  Especially if you’ve been using other descriptors for ‘green’ and ‘blue’ throughout your work

2)      If it’s part of a theme.  If the tone and the style has something to do with riches or jewels, then it only makes perfect sense to use the jewel tones to describe eyes

3)      If it’s important to your character, his/her life, his/her destiny etc.

4)      You truly want something to look exactly like an emerald or a sapphire, and you want to get the point that they are that beautiful

In other words, like most adjectives, jewel tones work if one knows how to use them.  But I think writers have to be careful.  While plots can be recycled, adjectives can be one of the keys that make a piece of writing stand out.  If there’s no real point behind the adjective chosen for the eyes…choose something different. Please.

Seedling: Reindeer Dreams

It's time I actually posted a little seedling, or the beginning of a story, here.  I found this one when I was going through my short stories folder and I think with a little watering and pruning I think it can grow into something good.

A reindeer ran through her dreams the night the stars fell and her home burned.  A reindeer ran through her dreams, white as snow, with eyes of liquid amber, horns covered in satin.  In her dreams she ran after it and through the sun and onto a cold mountain top where she awoke in the snow.  They said she ran in fear, out of the burning house and into the snow drift to soothe her burning skin, they said she must have screamed for her throat was so dry that she had no voice and for that she couldn’t find an answer in the reindeer or in her memory.

The weeks after were full of fever and pain, and when the bandages were removed the healers clucked and murmured to themselves, but she didn’t need their words to see the scarred, shiny skin and to know her life would be different than it was before.

“It’s okay, dearie,” said one of the nurses kindly, “there’ll be a place for you.  There will be a place.” But what place?  Somewhere for someone like me?  Where?  How?  She looked down at her shiny left hand, so red and angry unlike her left, and clenched it until the skin stretched tight.  “Don’t cry, dearie.”  A tissue dabbing at her cheek and she realized tears had bloomed in her eyes even though she had told herself she didn’t care.

It was then that she buried her memories along with her voice, buried her thoughts and her feelings.  And that was how, on the fifth day after midwinter, Illia came to the great library of Torny to sort books and copy manuscripts in a place they had given her.

Okay, realize this seedling hasn't been edited (well that's the point of a seedling anyways), but I really think it has potential.  It was saved under 'Reindeer Dreams,' and its a good sign I have a title. Also I think it wants a theme, maybe gearing toward forgiveness/revenge.  It feels...right.  But sometimes these things take on a life of their own so we'll see how it develops, when I get the chance of course.

I'm Marking My Calendar

BOOM!

According to Barnes and Noble, both of these guys will be available March 2nd!  To you, Tad Williams, I say "it's about time!" And to you, P.C., I say..."wow that was fast!"

Character Spotlight: Elias

Books: The Dragonbone Chair, The Stone of Farewell, To Green Angel Tower pts 1 & 2 (collectively known as Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn)

Author: Tad Williams

“Damn all children!” Elias swore. “Girl!” he shouted, striding to the door, “you understand nothing!  You know nothing about what the king is called on to do and you have no right to be disobedient.  I have no son! I have no heir!  There are ambitious men all around me and I need Fengbald.  You will not thwart me!”

He stood for a long moment, but there was no reply.  He struck the heel of his hand against the door and the timbers shuddered.

“Miriamele!  Open the door!”  Only silence answered him.  “Daughter,” he said at last, leaning his head forward until it touched unyielding wood, “only bear me a grandson and I will give you Meremund.  I will see that Fengbald does not hinder your going.  You may spend the rest of your life staring at the ocean.”  He brought up his hand and wiped something from his face.  “I do not like to look at the ocean myself…it makes me think of your mother.”

One more time he struck the door.  The echo bloomed and died.  “I love you, Miri…’ the king said softly.   ~The Dragonbone Chair

After reading Song of the Beast I was inspired to do a character spotlight on King Elias because, to me, he is a good example of one of those “enemies” where everything isn’t so cut and dry.  Tad Williams doesn’t let the reader into Elias’s head too much, but when he does he allows the reader to see how this character became who he is, and take form beyond the typical evil sort of king.  So much of Elias is exposed in the above sentences, I had to choose it to start this entry, although the passage is a bit long.

Elias is the eldest son of Prester John, the High King.  He has a younger brother, Josua, whom he now hates since Josua was helping to guard the caravan on Elias’s now dead wife.  During the trip, Elias’s wife’s retinue was attacked, Josua survived (although lost a hand) but his wife died and Elias has never forgiven him.

At the beginning of The Dragonbone Chair the High King dies and Elias takes his place as king.  It soon becomes very obvious that Elias, being prickly and grumpy (for lack of a better word), is not a very good king, nor a very good person.  As a reader, you don’t actually like him, but…I, at least, was a little torn.

In these books there are levels of antagonists.  There’s the “big foe” Ineluki, there are the Norns, and there’s one of the nastiest pieces of work in the series: Pryrates.  When you take a step back you can see that, antagonist though he is, Elias himself isn't the big evil, just a tool of Pryrates and that’s just one of the many tragedies of his character.

Elias obviously loved/loves his wife very very much.  So much that he’s willing to stop caring about everything else he loves to bring her back.  Pryrates uses Elias's love and loneliness and twists it to get Elias to help him by promising if he does certain things, certain evil things, he can get her to return.  He’s not evil just for the sake of being evil, or because it amuses him.  He does it for love, he does it because he misses his wife that much.  How twisted is that?  All this evil is for love. Very clever, Tad Williams, and also human and very realistic.

While I do pity Elias some, I can’t exactly pity him too much.  In Song of the Beast Narim knew what he was doing was wrong, he also truly believed it was a necessary evil, and that a greater good was coming out of it.  In contrast, although Elias doesn’t know exactly what’s going on, he can plainly see that what he is doing is evil, and that nothing good will come about from it.  However, it is as if he’s stopped caring, he’s locked that care up inside of himself and is charging ahead like a raging bull in an effort to get his wife back.

Another tragedy with Elias is his relationship with his daughter.  Before this passage, Mirimele shouts that Elias has changed and is becoming Pryrate’s tool.  Imagine how that must be for a child, to see their father and their relationship with their father change that much.  Mirimele obviously loves her father, and their relationship before all this mess was most likely a very good father daughter relationship. Imagine having to see that relationship with your only parent morph and change into something horrible.  And see your parent essentially being destroyed.  Mirimele has lost her only parent, and instead of simply dying, she has to see him being used and manipulated not even against his will.  It’s tragic and cruel, but in an emotional sort of backhanded way that is an unintentional evil from this antagonist.

What makes this relationship worse is in the above passage.  It is clear that Elias still loves his daughter, even trying to grant her a few concessions.  And this small recognition of love between a father and daughter, as twisted as it might be, makes Elias utterly human again.  It makes the reader forget his nastiness to people as king, and makes them realize, ‘hey there’s a man behind this visage.’

In the grand scheme of the books, Elias doesn’t play too central of a role.  His mind continues to get twisted and warped until its unrecognizable and he no longer is the man he was.  He remains a more minor evil character, but, and this is why I love Tad Williams, even as a more minor evil character has motivations for being who he is and he serves as a reminder that ‘evil’ isn’t always as it seems, nor is it so black and white.

Book Review: Song of the Beast by Carol Berg

There's nothing I love more than a good story.  It makes me feel satisfied, as if I've eaten a good meal, and sticks with me like a ghost.  I love a good story and would sell my heart and soul for one.

Luckly I didn't have to since the library had this one.

(Mmm delicious!)

Song of the Beast by Carol Berg follows the story of Aidan McAllister, one of the greatest musicians the land of Elyria until he was imprisoned for seventeen years, forced to stay silent and forget his voice.  Released, he wants nothing more than to know the reason for his imprisonment, but the reasons behind his imprisonment and the magic of his songs thrust him into a conflict he never expects.

It's been a long time since I've fallen in love with a book as hard as this one.  My writer friend, to whom I owe at least a cookie, if not my soul, suggested I pick it up and I was immediately absorbed and couldn't put it down.

It's written in first person, which isn't normally my favorite thing, but it's done extremely well.  It's written as if the character is telling the story, looking back on events in a smooth, flowing style reminiscent of the always amazing Patricia A. McKillip.  The POV goes in sections, switching from first Aidan, to Narim, to Lara, back to Aidan and so forth.  Carol Berg shows her genius knowing just when to switch the point of view to allow the best view of the other characters in the novels.

Speaking of characters, the ones in this book are beautiful.  Well rounded, deep and so utterly human.  That's what I love most about this book, I think.  The humanity, and the emphasizes on human qualities of love, compassion, pain, longing, desire.  These oh so human qualities that we as readers know so strongly ourselves.  Berg draws them out of characters, and in doing so draws them out of us so when the dragon calls for 'Aidan, beloved,' you want nothing more then something to fill that lonely call. 

There is a romance in this book, but it is not done as sometimes happens, where the romance is the main point of the book and is propped up by a weak skeletal plot. The romance done here is simply beautiful.  It is not a romance where one character was simply written to be the one half of the other, but rather each character has their own past, their own struggles, and their own sets of challenges they must face.  Berg leads her two "lovers" through a dance, not knowing each others feelings, and she doesn't over due the tension, and she doesn't do it stupidly, but with that delicious cosmic irony that makes the reader not only want the two to succeed, but wants the characters come about it in their own way and you're cheering for them.  Berg also ends the book with doing something a little A-typical with the romance, but it was needed, it made perfect sense.  Lara needed to figure herself out first, because her journey was only beginning.  She wasn't ready.  And I applaud Berg for letting the character live rather than forcing her into a typical ending.

There are the obvious antagonists of the Ridemark, but the true foe, who you know is up to know good, is my favorite kind of foe, both to read and to write myself.  It's the foe who truly believes in his heart he is doing the right thing.  It's that good intention that is so terribly misdirected you can't help but to not hate him, but pity him, for you now he isn't truly bad.

I love this book.  It was fantastic and I always, since reading The Riddlemaster of Hed and especially since writing my own bard character in some group writing, have a soft spot for musicians.  The story is fantastic, following a classic sort of plot structure perfect for a stand alone fantasy.

Would I recommend it?   Yes, without hesitation.  It was simply beautiful.

Lost in Translation

(Your guess is as good as mine as to what the heck this says.)

I remember when I used to work for a small bookstore and a book came out called Inkheart by Cornelia Funke.  At the time it was a pretty popular read, not as big as Harry Potter or Twilight (ugh) or Eragon (another ugh), but still pretty popular for its time.

One day, on break, I decided to pick it up and see what all the fuss was about.  I read the back of the book, and got a little flavor of The Neverending Story, and figured okay it was worth a shot.  On my fifteen, I sat down to read and I didn’t get beyond the first few pages before I gave up.

There was nothing exactly wrong with the book itself, but it seemed for me something was missing in the style.  The writing was flat, lifeless, and lacked personality and more importantly, voice.  I set it down, a little disappointed, and never picked it up again.

Flash forward a few years later.  I was in my second year of German in undergrad and one of the books our professor had us purchase for reading was Potilla by none other than Cornelia Funke.  When I saw this, I inwardly groaned.  I knew I wasn’t fond of Cornelia Funke’s writing with the brief experience I had had with Inkheart, but I didn’t have much of a choice.

Boy was I in for a shock. Finally, when I began Potilla I was completely surprised.  The writing had life.  It had wit.  It had voice.  It had charm.  It was cute and had the elements that were missing in Inkheart.  I read the entire thing and praised it when it came time for book discussion.  But I was left wondering.  Why would a book, written by the same author, have such an interesting switch in style?  One so different that it would completely change my reading experience?

The most obvious answer?

I read Potilla in its original German.  Inkheart was in English.

The writing of Inkheart had gotten lost in translation.

As an author, I had never really thought about how works were translated when published overseas, nor the impacts those translation would mean on success, or the impact it would have on foreign readers.  A translation can really make or break a book’s success in another country and you had better hope your translator can capture your voice or in the case of Inkheart, your book could fall flat.

A New Read for the New Year

I wasn’t expecting to make a post today, but I’m enjoying Feist’s Shadow of a Dark Queen so much I just had to talk about it.

I’ve never read Feist, which is a bit surprising since he’s one of those authors I’ve always put up on the tier with classic good fantasy.  He’s one of those author’s that any fantasy fan has read (or has at least heard of)  and is generally regarded as a good read.  I don’t know why I’ve never read him because I’ve read a lot, and I mean a lot, of fantasy.  So the other day, while at the library trying to find something new to read and erase the horribleness of A Darkness Forged in Fire I decided to give him a go.

Boy am I glad I did.

He is just good, old fashioned, classic quest fantasy.  Nothing too complex, nothing super impressive, just classic quest.  Yes, I’ve said I usually like things to puzzle out and plotlines that are unusual, but there is always that part in me, and I think in many fantasy readers, that just can’t say no to classic, old school, quest fantasy.

What’s odd to me, and what I’m now attributing to Feist’s skill, is that he does many things that normally I would classify under “things I don’t really like.”  His POV is omniscient, but he slides from one POV to the other so seamlessly that you don’t even realize he’s done it.  In fact, by telling the story in this manner the reader gets such a better view of his characters that they’re three dimensional within the first chapter.

While his characters, like all fantasy characters, are reminiscent of certain forms-in this case the bastard son of a noble- Feist makes them so relatable its crazy.  The characters have hobbies, relationships, quirks, and aren’t extremely handsome or extremely awesome in one way or another.  They’re very much boys, and have such everyman qualities that you can’t help going “yeah I know someone like that.  I know him!” and root for him.  It’s not the ‘I know what this character is’ feel that I got from A Darkness Forged in Fire but more the “I know him” like a friend. 

The pacing is done very well.  It doesn’t speed along, but it doesn’t plod and Feist puts the reader in a setting he/she may know- a little village, gives enough details so the reader feels like they know the place and then starts moving.

The writing style is a little…eh.  It’s nothing special, and he uses some tools for description that I think are less than impressive.  Due to the omnicient POV he tends to tell a lot more than show, but it doesn’t matter that much because everything else is so engaging and all the bits fulfill their brief.  In other words, the writing style and all the other elements are good for what the book is: a classic quest fantasy.

I’m only on page 73, and it’s always in the back of my mind, a good sign for me.  Also it is satisfying my hunger for good classic fantasy that isn’t trying to be anything other than what it is.  I see why I’ve always had Feist on position of classic old school quest fantasy and I know I’m going to be satisfied with it.

Would I recommend it?  Yes, to certain people, and with the description of classic quest fantasy.