tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44380414495950851652024-03-28T17:02:23.479-04:00Fantasy Book CriticRoberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15006565422867420980noreply@blogger.comBlogger4014125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-23615482834205627562024-03-27T03:00:00.020-04:002024-03-27T04:07:29.326-04:00Review: The Trials of Empire by Richard Swan<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1YHAecImFwVpo4KdOzp8F1HjmonkDSWcg2_6t0FgZcOldX5uEat3pnIp7LX5bld_3XSnKzo63FS1qllHRlGZ3yAh-codC2PRDMbJzWJ0PCmmaVVhC1Po4WGJBjo7CKaXXnHJK58I3s_E61lSgbu2DskkUOUGsYt0f2NZoGVRsE8JlRQodiJY_bPhS-nU/s466/173403998.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="301" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1YHAecImFwVpo4KdOzp8F1HjmonkDSWcg2_6t0FgZcOldX5uEat3pnIp7LX5bld_3XSnKzo63FS1qllHRlGZ3yAh-codC2PRDMbJzWJ0PCmmaVVhC1Po4WGJBjo7CKaXXnHJK58I3s_E61lSgbu2DskkUOUGsYt0f2NZoGVRsE8JlRQodiJY_bPhS-nU/w259-h400/173403998.jpg" width="259" /></a></div><div><br /></div><a href="https://www.stonetemplelibrary.com/" target="_blank">Official Author Website</a><div>Buy <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/richard-swan/the-trials-of-empire/9780316361989/">The Trials of Empire</a></div><div><br /><div><div style="color: black; font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><b>OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: </b>Richard was born in North Yorkshire in the United Kingdom. He spent most of his early life on Royal Air Force bases in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, and attended St Peter's School in York as a boarder. He studied law at the University of Manchester, and spent most of the following ten years as a lawyer specialising in multi-million pound commercial disputes.<br /><br />
Between 2015 and 2018, Richard self-published THE ART OF WAR trilogy, a sequence of epic military space operas, as well as a number of prequels, novellas and short stories.<br /><br /><b>
FORMAT/INFO:</b> The Trials of Empire was published on February 6th, 2024 by Orbit Books. It is 544 pages and told from the first person POV of Helena. It is available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats.</div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div style="color: black; font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><br /><br /><b>
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS:</b> Sir Konrad and Helena may have dealt a brutal blow to the plans of their enemies, but that doesn't change the fact that the Empire of the Wolf is on the verge of collapse. With an army marshalling to march on the capital of Sova, Konrad knows that the imperial army won't be enough against a force empowered by demonic magiks. He and Helena must try to gather what allies they can before finally making a stand to defend the empire - or at least, what's left of it.<br /><br /><i>
The Trials of Empire</i> is a bleak but rewarding finale to a series that has been building towards a clash of monumental scale since book one. Readers of the series may recall that <i>The Justice of Kings</i>, book one in the trilogy, announced in its opening pages that by the end of the account, the Empire of the Wolf will have fallen. After spending <i>The Tyranny of Faith</i> watching the tragedy of Sir Konrad, Helena, and their allies trying in vain to stop dominos from toppling, we are at the crux of events that will define the fate of that empire.<br /><br />
It's not a happy book. It's gruesome, gory, and brutal, with one or two scenes I would like to scrub from my brain. And yet it's exactly the kind of book where the stakes are so well done, I was constantly driven to pick it up. This is especially true of the second half of the book, when the focus is on the struggle for control of the city of Sova. It's not just enemies outside the walls our heroes have to contend with, but also enemies within, as well as allies jockeying for whatever power they can gain in these desperate times.<br /><br />
It is certainly wearying to see the daunting task ahead of the characters, especially when they themselves are bone tired from the sheer exhaustion of trying to find the narrow path to victory Throughout it all, there's a constant interrogation of what methods are justifiable when it looks like good is about to be crushed by overwhelming evil. Are evil methods, while still evil, permissible if they stop a greater evil? If they spare thousands of others from death or torment? Do you risk becoming the thing you are trying to stop?<br /><br />
Helena herself has certainly grown since we first met in her <i>The Justice of Kings</i>, and I appreciated the ways in which she tried to hold Sir Konrad accountable in his actions, questioning him often. At the same time, I found myself throughout the book grappling with my feelings about Helena as a character, but maybe I'm meant to. She's a particularly ordinary young woman thrust into extraordinary events, caught up in the orbit of a man she has an unhealthy emotional relationship with. What little training she has is in law, not martial arts, and she can barely defend herself when the need arises. Powerful forces work around her and she is trying her best to simply stay alive. At times, I found myself wishing she was more capable in combat, a more traditional fantasy heroine instead of one that constantly needs rescuing.<br /><br />
But perhaps what makes Helena extraordinary is that even caught up in events that are largely out of her control, faced with near certain destruction, she keeps on keeping on. She doesn't have might or magic, but she is the one who stands in the room and points to the moral line, who pushes back against things that are easier but aren't right. When hope is lost, she will still try to save just a few more lives. I don't know that Helena will ever be my favorite character, but I have certainly grown to respect her over the course of the series.<br /><br />
The one critique I have of <i>The Trials of Empire</i> is minor and comes down more to preference. I've liked the more subdued fantasy nature of this series; while <i>The Tyranny of Faith</i> definitely increased our heroes' interactions with the realms of death and beyond, it still felt like a grounded story with gothic horror elements. But in this final battle, the magical stakes have cranked to eleven as incredibly powerful beings are interested in the outcome of the struggle, leading to one or two moments that felt a bit deus ex machina. I, however, was far more interested in the mortal struggles than the cosmic ones, though the two are intrinsically linked.<br /><br /><b>
CONCLUSION:</b> <i>The Trials of Empire</i> has cemented the <i>Empire of the Wolf</i> trilogy as a gripping read that fully pays off in the end. One small incident in a backwater town creates ripples that shake the foundations of an entire nation. I was absolutely engrossed in watching Konrad and Helena try to build a bulwark against the approaching tidal wave of destruction, both politically and militarily. I have to reiterate that there is much in this book that is not for the faint of heart, but if you are here for bloody and brutal strife, <i>The Trials of Empire</i> will reward you.<br /><br /></div></div></div>Caitlin G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18413387498278506457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-27584841397658946682024-03-26T09:00:00.059-04:002024-03-26T15:05:28.937-04:00SPFBO 9 Finalist review: A Rival Most Vial by R.K. Ashwick<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV8hZKeHz_zJIVW8J237mvDUck-hSkdvDeXXiRetlmu9FDbR56TcvUnAiFA7fDh7t9gvnLtRFK2hxO1ASym86YCOjNlU7IJM0wWKF8sNoIvBGGwszPhUQXvbQMNGy7LV52N4WvCxQb2rZPvFB4H8qgNJAxgk1DiLZ4lOCyUPxhsGNYluoR82GJOt0aaCnM/s1200/RIVAL_SPFBO_REVIEW.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="638" data-original-width="1200" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV8hZKeHz_zJIVW8J237mvDUck-hSkdvDeXXiRetlmu9FDbR56TcvUnAiFA7fDh7t9gvnLtRFK2hxO1ASym86YCOjNlU7IJM0wWKF8sNoIvBGGwszPhUQXvbQMNGy7LV52N4WvCxQb2rZPvFB4H8qgNJAxgk1DiLZ4lOCyUPxhsGNYluoR82GJOt0aaCnM/w400-h213/RIVAL_SPFBO_REVIEW.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div><b>ABOUT THE AUTHOR: </b>By day, R.K. Ashwick herds cats in the animation industry. By night, she writes, bakes, and herds her literal cat around her living room. She lives with her husband (and said cat) in California.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you like fancy coats and silly ramblings, you can find R.K. on <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@rkashwickbooks?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc">Tiktok</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/rkashwickbooks">Instagram</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>A Rival Most Vial links:</b> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rival-Most-Vial-Potioneering-Profit/dp/B0BT16G4YZ" target="_blank">Amazon</a>, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/86210935" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></div></div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>ADAM</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">A warm, tender story of a stuffy master potioneer and a brash and charismatic new neighbor who opens a competitive store directly across the street. Tempers fly, misunderstandings are exacerbated l, and they’re content to never speak to each other again - until they’re forced to work together.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">This is a cozy romantasy that’s highlighted with themes of found family, perseverance, and a few chapters of adventure. Overall it’s a low-key, feel-good story that’s engaging and well-paced. The two leads are well-characterized and there were some sneaky-good lines that have stuck with me (“But I want that stupid farmer” 😆).</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">While there are several supporting characters — mostly local business owners — only one of them is given a true arc. I wish the side characters got a little more face time as they felt a bit thin by book’s end.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Still, this is an easy rec for someone looking to curl up and grin. A well-deserved SPFBO9 finalist.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>CHELS</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qs_qCvgLECo" width="320" youtube-src-id="qs_qCvgLECo"></iframe></div><br /></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>ESMAY</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Bubbling over with charm, wit, and love, A Rival Most Vial is a delightfully cosy queer fantasy romance that will warm even the coldest of hearts.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Nothing in life brings the quiet half-elf Ambrose Beake more joy and pride than his successful potion-making business. That is, until a new potion shop opens right across the street from him, causing a heated rivalry to start brewing. And if that wasn’t awful enough, they are begrudgingly forced into a collaboration on a nearly impossible commission by the mayor. Though as they start working together, they soon start to appreciate each other’s brilliance, and their reluctant alliance might just start to bubble over into something more after all.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Now, A Rival Most Vial was a bit of a tale of two halves for me. For the first 50%, I was having a fine enough time, but truly nothing was particularly standing out to me. The world building felt a bit flimsy, the characters and their relationships felt somewhat shallow, and the rivalry plotline very quickly got tiresome to me.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">However, I thought the second half improved on everything in every single way imaginable, and it almost felt like I’d consumed some magic potion that had suddenly made me fall in love with the story. Honestly, as soon as Ambrose and Eli started to work together, I just got completely enchanted by the irresistible charm of these characters, and it really was smooth sailing from there.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I am very much in a cozy mood at the moment, so I really enjoyed how quiet and chill the plot of A Rival Most Vial was. That is not to say that there are no stakes, but as we are essentially following the NPCs in this world, the stakes are just a lot more personal and intimate than in your regular epic fantasy adventures, and I loved that. The interpersonal drama, the confusing heightened emotions, the scary budding romance, the interesting potion brewing lore, and the delightful found family vibes; I just ate it all up.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">There’s also a surprisingly emotional undercurrent to this story, which comes more to the forefront in the second half of the book as we dive deeper into these characters’ pasts. Whether it was Ambrose’s traumatic and lonely upbringing or Eli’s struggle to find his true calling in life, I really enjoyed seeing them slowly start to heal and grow together.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">And not only do they find support and comfort in each other, but they also have a wonderful group of oddball friends who will stop at nothing to keep them safe, giving this story only more heart than it already had.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Even though this book stands perfectly on its own and wrapped up in an utterly satisfying and heartwarming way, I would honestly sell my soul to Rosemund Street in the future and see what everyone in this delightfully chaotic found family is up to next. If you are looking for a very cute and cozy rivals-to-reluctant allies-to-lovers queer fantasy romance, then you have to check out A Rival Most Vial!</span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>ŁUKASZ</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I'm not really into cozy books. I prefer my reads to be light on romance and I lean more towards the dark and existential. And yet, I can’t help but admire the lightness of writing, the skillful scene-setting, and the whimsical atmosphere created by K.R. Ashwick in A Rival Most Vial is fun. This book is simply fun. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">It takes a look into the lives of street merchants, highlighting their friendships, struggles, and mischievous escapades. The plot is simple. Two men, one grumpy and the other one outgoing start off as competitors but eventually develop a deep friendship, and later, romance. There are no surprises here; it's evident from the beginning how things will develop, with the twists being quite predictable. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Logically, I should feel indifferent about it. But I can’t because it’s all very well done and written. It contains no wasted scenes or bloated descriptions. The timing is impeccable, and the pacing is just right. The found family dynamic between Ambrose and Eli and their friends is fantastic and quirky.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">While this world lacks “classic” magic, there's an intriguing system of potioneering based on magical artificing. Magical ingredients are all derived from natural materials in the world, and can create magical effects when mixed well.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">R.K. Ashwick's prose is engaging, easy to follow and understand, and creates a vibrant atmosphere able to draw readers into the enchanting small-scale world of Rosemond Street. The characters are well-crafted and engaging, they all have distinct personalities and quirks. The dynamic between the various shopkeepers, such as Banneker, Sherry, and Dawn, adds a touch of humor and camaraderie to the story and makes everything work.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Possible issues with the story come from the fact it's light on plot, the stakes are almost non-existent, and some readers will find it too sweet :)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Fans of queer cozy fantasy - don’t miss this one. You’ll love it. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>OFFICIAL SPFBO RATING</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijJumH2ftHa7gMW0tm5gUYb9BY6XgoEnAGG9YPxXu2-mwbI8AWXjMs2lpGFItz_3LxgR91zGAVa0QvW5RTPxoLdXXEM46bI2iWJojlVD6uoLu4d46xFkCYYv4mc-yIa-27GJY-xww06WF256wKDRFH0OOsQWAXqp-xch9JaIL1g-QdckKVliUpvpmF189s/s1747/A%20Rival%20Most%20Vial_SPFBO_ratings.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="957" data-original-width="1747" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijJumH2ftHa7gMW0tm5gUYb9BY6XgoEnAGG9YPxXu2-mwbI8AWXjMs2lpGFItz_3LxgR91zGAVa0QvW5RTPxoLdXXEM46bI2iWJojlVD6uoLu4d46xFkCYYv4mc-yIa-27GJY-xww06WF256wKDRFH0OOsQWAXqp-xch9JaIL1g-QdckKVliUpvpmF189s/w400-h219/A%20Rival%20Most%20Vial_SPFBO_ratings.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></div></div>Łukaszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08150091349987128184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-58533970323323425062024-03-26T04:00:00.038-04:002024-03-26T04:00:00.289-04:00SPFBO 9 Finalist Interview: R.K. Ashwick, The Author of A Rival Most Vial<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEira6fUjWn1JOAi6JYQCCWb6sFkbJZPUCQKl_9LKw99RVCQws-o20X9Tf_Cm4kI9s8HII5-O3uEwlAeKhkS0r7W3LceCtPZSIebwvGB149sfCPs484FukrJnN30YytYY4dQMs5PG63JDVsf1_RZ42AvGgS0TPOFxOcf9L9Aqo5cpeDtc72rYthyphenhyphenN_OMS_jj/s1024/me-and-cat.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEira6fUjWn1JOAi6JYQCCWb6sFkbJZPUCQKl_9LKw99RVCQws-o20X9Tf_Cm4kI9s8HII5-O3uEwlAeKhkS0r7W3LceCtPZSIebwvGB149sfCPs484FukrJnN30YytYY4dQMs5PG63JDVsf1_RZ42AvGgS0TPOFxOcf9L9Aqo5cpeDtc72rYthyphenhyphenN_OMS_jj/w400-h400/me-and-cat.webp" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div style="font-family: Merriweather; text-align: justify;"><b>ABOUT THE AUTHOR: </b>By day, R.K. Ashwick herds cats in the animation industry. By night, she writes, bakes, and herds her literal cat around her living room. She lives with her husband (and said cat) in California.</div><div style="font-family: Merriweather; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Merriweather; text-align: justify;">If you like fancy coats and silly ramblings, you can find R.K. on <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@rkashwickbooks?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc">Tiktok</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/rkashwickbooks">Instagram</a>.</div><div style="font-family: Merriweather; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Merriweather; text-align: justify;"><b>A Rival Most Vial links:</b> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rival-Most-Vial-Potioneering-Profit/dp/B0BT16G4YZ" target="_blank">Amazon</a>, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/86210935" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><a name='more'></a></span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">When not writing, R.K. Ashwick loves to bake and draw. She lives in California with her husband and her cat, Leia.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">(Yes, like Princess Leia.)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">If you like fancy coats and silly ramblings, you can find R.K. on <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@rkashwickbooks?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc">Tiktok</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/rkashwickbooks">Instagram</a>.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Thank you for agreeing to this interview. Before we start, tell us a little about yourself.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Hi! I’m R.K. Ashwick, a cozy fantasy romance author. When I’m not writing (or, you know, working), I love to draw, craft, bake, and play cozy video games.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Do you have a day job? If so, what is it?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I do indeed! I work in animation production. Yes, that does mean I get to write serious emails about fart jokes.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Who are your favorite current writers and who are your greatest influencers?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Two of my core influencers are Diana Wynne Jones and Tamora Pierce- they basically injected dragons into my DNA. In terms of current favorites, I’m really enjoying Megan Bannen and T.J. Klune, among many others.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Can you lead us through your creative process? What works and doesn’t work for you? How long do you need to finish a book?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I’m still very early on in my writing career (I only have two books out), but it takes me a year to a year and a half to finish a book. I’m a huge plotter- I have not outlines, but outlining charts- and it takes me many, many editing passes to get to a finished product. First, the garbage draft, where it’s just words on a page, then many iterations of noting, re-outlining, rewriting, and editing, just to get it to a place where I can share it with beta readers. After that, I do a few more passes, then kick it over to a line editor and proofreader.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>What do you think characterizes your writing style?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I can only hope this comes through in my writing, but I really try to focus on paragraph flow and rhythm when I’m editing. And I mean rhythm in almost a literal sense- I often have a pattern of beats in mind that I want to wrap the words around. For example, I’ll know I want a series of short, choppy words leading to a joke at the end, or a fragmented run-on leading to a crescendo, then a quick, punchy line to cut it all short. These ideas start out as beats without actual words assigned to them- after that, it’s just a matter of staring at the Word doc until I find the right words. (Sometimes there’s crying and cookies involved.)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>What made you decide to self-publish A Rival Most Vial as opposed to traditional publishing?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I’ll be honest, I’m too impatient to slog through the querying process. It was either to wait years to fail in the query trenches, or keep total control over my book (and the cover and illustrations!) and see it released within a year.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>What are your favorite and least favorite parts of self-publishing?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Favorite parts: maintaining creative direction over all elements of the book, like the cover, formatting, and illustrations. Also, just holding my book in my hands? Wow. Crazy. Still can’t believe it.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Least favorite parts: oh my god the marketing.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Contrary to many self-published authors, you went wide instead of being Kindle exclusive. Why? Did it pay off?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">KU is really great for romance authors, particularly spicy ones, but my books don’t quite fall into that genre, so I wasn’t confident I’d see the same success there. I also didn’t want to be completely beholden to the whims of the ‘Zon for my money and distribution.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Why did you enter SPFBO?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">A friend on a writing Discord posted the opportunity, so I figured why not! It sounded cool!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>What would you do if you won the SPFBO?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">After explaining to my parents what SPFBO stands for? Probably bake a cake and eat it.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>How would you describe the plot of A Rival Most Vial if you had to do so in just one or two sentences?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Two rival potioneers apply for a lucrative joint commission and soon find a particular sort of chemistry brewing between them.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>What was your initial inspiration for A Rival Most Vial? How long have you been working on it? Has it evolved from its original idea?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I was falling asleep one night when the phrase “rival potion shops” dropped into my head. As you can tell, that core idea stayed very much the same over the year that I worked on it. I knew I wanted two men, a grumpy/sunshine pairing, and an adorable family of merchants around them, but a lot of the details surrounding that evolved. I added dual POV after the first test draft, Sherry went from being an orc to being a human, and Tom the Automaton didn’t exist until draft three.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>If you had to describe it in 3 adjectives, which would you choose?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Queer cozy fantasy!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Is it part of the series or a standalone? If series, how many books have you planned for it?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Series! A Rival Most Vial is the first in a trilogy.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Who are the key players in this story? Could you introduce us to A Rival Most Vial’s protagonists/antagonists?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I will happily talk about my beloved potion trio.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Ambrose Beake:</b> potion master and owner of The Griffin’s Claw potion shop. He’s the grumpy of the grumpy/sunshine pairing and one of our POV characters. Pale elf with blue hair, rigid posture, formal tone, and…so much trauma. Please, someone, give this man a hug.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Eli Valenz:</b> the outgoing owner of Eli’s Elixirs, which just opened across the street from The Griffin’s Claw! A marketing whiz, a dazzling conversationalist, and he’s handsome to boot. Ambrose wants him gone.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Dawn Kerighin:</b> the ambitious, prodigious owner of The Whirling Wand Emporium- and Ambrose’s oldest friend. She’s as bright and bubbly as her firework wands, and she is going to be famous for her work, burnout be damned.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Does your book feature a magic/magic system? If yes, can you describe it?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Look, Ambrose would do a much better job explaining the minutiae of potioneering in this world, but I can tell you that it’s a hard magic system all based on magical artificing. No one in Laskell is born with innate magic- it all comes from natural materials in the world. So, rather than someone just shooting magic from their hands, it has to come from a crafted good of some kind, whether that’s magical jewelry, clothing, armor, wands, potions, or food.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Cover art is always an important factor in book sales. Can you tell us about the idea behind the cover of A Rival Most Vial and the artist?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I knew I wanted something bright and fun, and personally, I’m obsessed with highly illustrated, meticulously composed covers. I sent my designer Andrew Davis a few reference covers along this vein along with the types of objects I wanted to see (like swords, potion bottles, dragon wings) and he totally knocked it out of the park. I also worked with Andrew on my cover for The Stray Spirit.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Which question about the book do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Question: hey, how many personal Dungeons & Dragons references did you add to this book?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Answer: So many, thank you for asking! I’ve got at least seven hidden references to my friend’s DnD characters, my own characters, and my husband’s campaigns.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>What’s your publishing Schedule for 2022/2023? [I think you mean 2023/2024?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I’m aiming to release the audiobook for A Rival Most Vial this month before Thanksgiving! After that, I’m hoping to release The Spirit Well (the sequel to The Stray Spirit) in March and A Captured Cauldron (the sequel to Rival) in October.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Thank you for taking the time to answer all the questions. In closing, do you have any parting thoughts or comments you would like to share with our readers?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I hope you take a chance on the cozy fantasy genre in general! It spans such a wide range of books; I know you’ll find something you love there.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Łukaszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08150091349987128184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-57517831239279298892024-03-19T04:00:00.002-04:002024-03-19T09:44:23.976-04:00Book review: In The Shadow of Their Dying by Michael R. Fletcher & Anna Smith Spark<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVnVJ7XEV2w0bDyK9RN_Fzl9xWNrEpbCkQ-S7r-V_LYraYdZNc9jahIiJeL2dHiyLk45Q67u5TUlWnIEvWxCy2YZru88mtD0Mxrp5V7s3_JqpDx5LRX_27JYPh1NS9G-q-Ewe7D7ua5SUAv7QkubFhZRUnm2n-SlBzMjb2clnbUTXCWEtbNQd2gw9M1_-8/s1650/In%20The%20Shadows%20of%20Their%20Dying_cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1650" data-original-width="1100" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVnVJ7XEV2w0bDyK9RN_Fzl9xWNrEpbCkQ-S7r-V_LYraYdZNc9jahIiJeL2dHiyLk45Q67u5TUlWnIEvWxCy2YZru88mtD0Mxrp5V7s3_JqpDx5LRX_27JYPh1NS9G-q-Ewe7D7ua5SUAv7QkubFhZRUnm2n-SlBzMjb2clnbUTXCWEtbNQd2gw9M1_-8/w266-h400/In%20The%20Shadows%20of%20Their%20Dying_cover.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Book links: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CLRQ5X7F" target="_blank">Amazon</a>, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/200658329" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Michael R. Fletcher: </b></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Michael R. Fletcher lives in the endless suburban sprawl north of Toronto. He dreams of trees and seeing the stars at night and being a ninja. He is an unrepentant whiskey-swilling reprobate of the tallest order and thinks grilled cheese sandwiches are a food group.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Anna Smith Spark: </b>Anna Smith Spark lives in London, UK. She loves grimdark and epic fantasy and historical military fiction. Anna has a BA in Classics, an MA in history and a PhD in English Literature. She has previously been published in the Fortean Times and the poetry website www.greatworks.org.uk. Previous jobs include petty bureaucrat, English teacher and fetish model.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Anna's favourite authors and key influences are R. Scott Bakker, Steve Erikson, M. John Harrison, Ursula Le Guin, Mary Stewart and Mary Renault. She spent several years as an obsessive D&D player. She can often be spotted at sff conventions wearing very unusual shoes.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Publisher: </b>Grimdark Magazine (March 19, 2024) <b>Length:</b> 143 pages <b>Formats: </b>ebook, paperback</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><a name='more'></a></span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><i>In the Shadow of Their Dying</i> is such an evocative title. It suggests a story that touches on themes of mortality. But whose dying the title refers to?</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Well, everyone’s, of course. It’s Fletcher’s and Smith Spark’s book, after all. And if they specialize in anything, it’s in beautifully written death, chaos, and mayhem.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The narrative almost literally swims in blood and gore. In the hands of lesser authors, it could have easily turned into something gratuitous and over-the-top. Here, though, it’s visceral and immersive. And yes, somewhat over the top. Definitely dark, but also sad, despite excellently timed moments of humor.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The story unfolds in a city under siege where the third-best (available) assassin, Tash, takes on a job to kill the king. Things go south when it turns out a demon named Iananr is guarding the king's chambers. Calling the demon bloodthirsty would be an understatement of the year. Yet, its chapters are poetically brutal and expertly written by Anna. </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Iananr's point of view is something else, a unique experience that takes you on a wild, gore-soaked ride. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Tash’s POV carries Fletcher’s trademark dark humor and wit, and the combination of the two makes the novella a treat to follow. The pace is breakneck, and with everything constantly in motion, there's never a dull moment.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I won't dive into the plot or characters too much—it's a novella that zips by, and all the reveals come in due time. Suffice it to say that both authors have done a stellar job with the concept of the attacked city, and people acting petty for monetary gain despite their reality crumbling around them.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">If you enjoy dark fantasy and concise storytelling, do yourself a favor and pick up this book. Just be prepared to see your “goremeter” explode.</span></div><p></p>Łukaszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08150091349987128184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-58318643694621157222024-03-14T03:00:00.004-04:002024-03-14T03:00:00.135-04:00Review: The Last Phi Hunter by Salinee Goldenberg<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFmQlumhsemYV3pMCg83_PosO1Iupc_Xc5lDQCfoijnvQpu_3KBufqRQxn_yhF3M71KYG1xpo8Ap26P6Lzn4ZcKLM9o2aB4_pLc6OdZqa4v7eGWbgVDygUw6aICYHXaJin6isMrOl5To6pYhCU_qzHIHRZAalFxyYYt-x_CWuanri-FISo_MZ-qEW4Jj0/s2551/186491408.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2551" data-original-width="1594" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFmQlumhsemYV3pMCg83_PosO1Iupc_Xc5lDQCfoijnvQpu_3KBufqRQxn_yhF3M71KYG1xpo8Ap26P6Lzn4ZcKLM9o2aB4_pLc6OdZqa4v7eGWbgVDygUw6aICYHXaJin6isMrOl5To6pYhCU_qzHIHRZAalFxyYYt-x_CWuanri-FISo_MZ-qEW4Jj0/s320/186491408.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br /><a href="https://salgowrites.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Official Author Website</a><br />Buy <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/747427/the-last-phi-hunter-by-salinee-goldenberg/">The Last Phi Hunter</a><p></p><div style="color: black; font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><b>OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: </b>Sal(inee) Goldenberg is a multimedia artist and writer living in Washington D.C. She paints, draws comics, and plays guitar in a punk rock band. Before freelancing, the bi-chaotic elder-millennial worked at Bethesda Softworks, producing narrative trailers on IPs like Skyrim, Fallout and Dishonored. Now she makes wholesome social videos for Minecraft. She loves cooking, (especially Thai family recipes,) playing video games, and lowlevel hustlin’.</div><div style="color: black; font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span><a name='more'></a></span> <br /><br /><b>
FORMAT/INFO:</b> <i>The Last Phi Hunter</i> will be published April 9th, 2024 by Angry Robot Books. It is 384 pages long and told in third person from multiple POVs, including Ex. It will be available in paperback and ebook forms. <br /><br /><b>
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: </b>Ex has hunted monsters and ghosts all over the kingdom, but there is one prey he hasn't yet killed: a true demon. He's spent months tracking one that the rest of his hunter brethren have dismissed as a myth, and now he's finally discovered where the demon will appear in a few short days. But money is tight, so Ex agrees to escort a pregnant young woman through a ghost-infested forest to make a few coin along the way to the demon's lair. Unfortunately for Ex, that woman turns out to be the favored consort of the crown prince, and royal agents will stop at nothing to bring her back to the palace. With monsters on one side and assassins on the other, can Ex protect the woman he's falling for and still kill the demon that will bring him the glory he craves? <br /><br /><i>The Last Phi Hunter</i> is a rich tapestry of monsters from Thai folklore, perfect for those looking for a <i>Witcher</i>-esque story. Ex is a phi hunter, a killer of the deadly creatures formed from reincarnated spirits being punished for sins in their previous life. To do so, he frequently opens his sight to the Everpresent, the vibrant spirit world that exists as a layer on top of the mortal one. I loved the imagery, the ritual, the scales of karma, the spirits rooted in Thai stories that I was unfamiliar with. They were creepy and macabre and kept me pulled into the story, waiting to see what terrifying creature lurked around the corner. <br /><br />This is also a story full of the melancholy of a dying age. Ex is the youngest phi hunter, but there is also fear that he might be the last. Humans have increasingly pushed into the wilds, cutting down sacred lands and dismissing rituals as superstition. And as the old ways fall out of favor, the phi hunters are both less in demand and are viewed with hostile suspicion for the "dark magics" they supposedly practice. The conflict between progress and tradition haunts the background of the story as Ex struggles to get by in a profession that is often needed but rarely respected.<br /><br />Where the story fell apart a bit for me is the character of Ex himself. He's full of the brash incompetence that marks the young, always confidently running into situations only to realize he's woefully unprepared. As someone who tends to prefer seasoned veterans as main characters, this frequent tendency to get himself into trouble began to wear over the course of the story. It also made it a bit harder to believe his prowess when he DID get those big kills, especially as the fights were over so quickly it seemed anti-climactic.<br /><br />Ex's budding romantic relationship with Arinya also didn't quite work for me. He goes through some understandable whiplash of trying to figure out if she also has feelings for him or if she's just manipulating him for protection, to the point where I as the reader wasn't fully convinced of where Arinya's affections lay. Ex also makes some petty assumptions that rubbed me the wrong way, like telling himself Arinya will be happy to go back to her cushy palace life, despite the fact that her husband is controlling and quite potentially abusive.<br /><br /><b>CONCLUSION:</b> In the end, however, all of Ex's stupidity couldn't stop me from enjoying the beautiful and horrifying spirit world the author created. If you like tales of hunting monsters in dangerous swamps and forests, where Guardian spirits may help or hinder you depending on their mood that day and ghosts offer you tempting but dangerous deals, you should pick up <i>The Last Phi Hunter</i>.<br /><br /></div>Caitlin G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18413387498278506457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-25940406795824097942024-03-13T03:00:00.016-04:002024-03-13T03:00:00.142-04:00Review: That Time I Got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion at a Werewolf by Kimberly Lemming<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJrYhuo3H3ZCSfJVjrMVIGVfEB2itpAnm43SESlVh2Nl41Vj0bOPF0OT2WyfmmUNMOViJ8o3JHUwQH7Tl2zSwwHdur7Nx3oQvkG8SAGjmCFr1JH8MAvWJA430JlubMl2CitU3TSswhVPe40rzZURm7-NOxu4RgOskPKeDuhUXSFVOdMGMlH8iq8Os3MaU/s383/103455655.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="255" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJrYhuo3H3ZCSfJVjrMVIGVfEB2itpAnm43SESlVh2Nl41Vj0bOPF0OT2WyfmmUNMOViJ8o3JHUwQH7Tl2zSwwHdur7Nx3oQvkG8SAGjmCFr1JH8MAvWJA430JlubMl2CitU3TSswhVPe40rzZURm7-NOxu4RgOskPKeDuhUXSFVOdMGMlH8iq8Os3MaU/s320/103455655.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><a href="https://www.kimberlylemming.com/">Official Author Website</a><div>Buy <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/kimberly-lemming/that-time-i-got-drunk-and-yeeted-a-love-potion-at-a-werewolf/9780316570312/">That Time I Got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion at a Werewolf</a><br /><p></p><div style="color: black; font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><b>OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: </b>Kimberly Lemming is on an eternal quest to avoid her calling as a main character. She can be found giving the slip to that new werewolf that just blew into town and refusing to make eye contact with a prince of a far-off land. Dodging aliens looking for Earth booty can really take up a girl's time.<br /><br />
But when she’s not running from fate, she can be found writing diverse fantasy romance. Or just shoveling chocolate in her maw until she passes out on the couch. </div><div style="color: black; font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span><a name='more'></a></span> <br /><br /><b>
FORMAT/INFO:</b> <i>That Time I Got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion at a Werewolf</i> was published on February 6th, 2024 by Orbit Books; it was originally self-published on May 16th, 2022. It is 288 pages long and is told in first person from multiple POVs including Brie and Felix. It is available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats. <br /><br /><b>
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS:</b> It was supposed to be a simple night out at the town festival, but Brie's evening was definitely ruined when a rejected suitor wouldn't leave her alone. Making matters worse, when she threw a drink at his head, she missed and hit the werewolf next to him. And the cherry on top? The drink had been spiked with a love potion, and now the werewolf thinks Brie is his fated mate. But with strange ghouls showing up in the woods and women going missing in the night, there are worse times to have a protective werewolf madly in love with you. <br /><br /><i>
That Time I Got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion at a Werewolf</i> is a fantasy romance that tries to be a comedic take on the fated mate trope, but ends up with muddled messaging. Nowhere is that more prevalent than the opening of the book itself. We meet Brie as she is literally fending off the advances of a man who won't take no for an answer, who insists she'll come around to loving him. Not five minutes later, poor Felix the werewolf is hit with the love potion, falls for Brie, and spends the rest of the book insisting they are supposed to be together. He steps over an incredible amount of personal boundaries in the process, but somehow this wins her affection in the end - which weirdly seems to justify the idea of a pushy, insistent dating approach that the book rejected on its first page. <br /><br />
To be fair, the author does manage to offset a little of the cringe with POV chapters for Felix, showing he knows he's overstepping and that he literally can't control himself because of the love potion. In those chapters, he does come off as someone who just wants to make sure the person he cares about is happy. <br /><br />
I think I could have looked past my problems with that mixed messaging if Brie falling in love had felt more earned. Instead, it comes out of nowhere, driven by a night of physical intimacy instead of any kind of real mutual bonding. While Felix is certainly earnest and sweet over the course of the book, I just didn't buy that Brie had developed feelings for someone who had just spent the entire day disregarding any of her own wishes (regardless of whether or not that person was under the influence of magic). <br /><br />
(And yes, this book is REAL spicy. Tentacles, anyone?) <br /><br /><b>
CONCLUSION:</b> On the whole, <i>That Time I Got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion at a Werewolf</i> is a quick and easy read. It was fun seeing returning characters, and there's a real sense of camaraderie amongst the women as they band together against the threat to their village. But this is a romance novel, and I simply didn't like the central romance. I will admit, I don't have a fondness for the fated mate trope, so that may have colored my feelings slightly. But after having a fun time with <i>That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon</i>, I was hoping for another diverting read. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get invested in the relationship, leaving me not feeling much of anything at all when the Happily Ever After arrived. <br /><br /></div></div>Caitlin G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18413387498278506457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-44999690394252573322024-03-12T09:00:00.025-04:002024-03-12T09:00:00.141-04:00SPFBO Finalist review: Daughter of The Beast by E.C. Greaves<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgRVYUjmOZJ7M1jSXwigoD4TpPzlKrQec2tCjw82_WVv2aOQmULKtmKcJ3BjayKMFj-60rpGSMEw9ngI3tTFtZzMM_viGtT2uHUMZ6EjheQgUF-deBZgl-buh1i2xBIKIuA5jQuvOSZIgGWQsLuqo49L3Bg5DdWVr-fys7CNRrqkFgtUz4yp4wR5Qo-CFj/s1200/Daughter_SPFBO_Review.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="638" data-original-width="1200" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgRVYUjmOZJ7M1jSXwigoD4TpPzlKrQec2tCjw82_WVv2aOQmULKtmKcJ3BjayKMFj-60rpGSMEw9ngI3tTFtZzMM_viGtT2uHUMZ6EjheQgUF-deBZgl-buh1i2xBIKIuA5jQuvOSZIgGWQsLuqo49L3Bg5DdWVr-fys7CNRrqkFgtUz4yp4wR5Qo-CFj/w400-h213/Daughter_SPFBO_Review.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b>ABOUT THE AUTHOR:</b> </span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Born in Solihull, UK, Ed Greaves now resides in Auckland, New Zealand.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Besides pouring his imagination out into the pages of his books, he also spends his time developing indie horror games, composing music, building and modifying old vehicles, and drawing.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">And wasting too much time on Twitter.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Find E.C. online: <a href="https://www.ecgreaves.com/books" target="_blank">Website</a></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Daughter of the Beast links: </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Daughter-Beast-Vyshivka-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B09Q8WDH98" style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;" target="_blank">Amazon</a><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">, </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/60129056" style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></div><div><br style="text-align: justify;" /></div></div><span><a name='more'></a></span><p style="text-align: center;"><b>ESMAY</b></p><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1915; font-size: 16px;">Brimming with Slavic folklore and legends, </span><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1e1915; font-size: 16px;">Daughter of the Beast</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1915; font-size: 16px;"> is a dark, unique, and monstrously maniacal coming-of-age fantasy that deftly straddles the line between the YA and Adult age range.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #1e1915;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1915; font-size: 16px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">After a surprising (or maybe surprisingly stupid) act of bravery during a devastating Vulkari attack, the young Kikimora Zyntael Fairwinter is the only one taken captive by the dog-like warrior women. Soon, she is claimed as a daughter by the notorious and fearsome matriarch of the clan, and she will have to learn to adapt if she is going to survive the brutal Vulkari way of life. Though no level of unexpected camaraderie and sisterhood will ever stop Zyntael’s desperate search for answers: why was she taken, and what is her destiny?</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #1e1915;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1915; font-size: 16px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In many aspects, <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Daughter of the Beast</i> delivers exactly what it promises. The Slavic-inspired world building feels fresh and alluring, Zyntael’s coming-of-age journey is harrowing yet powerful, and the exploration of identity, belonging, destiny, sisterhood, and female empowerment are all skillfully done.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #1e1915;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1915; font-size: 16px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Yet as intriguing as this story sounded on paper, the execution just fell a bit flat for me personally. I so badly wanted to like Zyntael as a character, but for some reason I just felt like I couldn’t get a good grasp on her personality, which made it hard to feel compelled by her first-person narration. If she was intentionally written to be such an enigma of a character, then kudos to the author for pulling that off so well. Though for me, the lack of strong voice combined with the rocky pacing and seemingly directionless plot honestly just made for a bit of an uncomfortable reading experience.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #1e1915;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1915; font-size: 16px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">That said, I do think Greaves did an exceptionally fine job of portraying realistic (young) female characters. Zyn might have felt a bit oddly mature for her age, especially when she is only 10 years old at the start, but overall I was quite impressed with how accurately he depicted the struggles of a teenage girl. Moreover, I liked the unexpected friendships that Zyn developed along the way, and the banter between these unhinged girls was quite amusing.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #1e1915;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1915; font-size: 16px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Also, I found it interesting to read a story without any human characters, though I do find myself wondering if that might have added to my sense of emotional disconnect. Regardless, I was fascinated by the Vulkari way of life and I liked soaking up all the intriguing bits of culture and lore through’s Zyn’s outsider perspective. There’s an innate sense of wonder, bewilderment and slight fear to her narration that added such a compelling and mystical air of intrigue to the story, so that definitely kept me turning the pages.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #1e1915;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #1e1915; font-size: 16px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Ultimately, I suspect this was mostly a "it's not you, it's me" situation. All the unique and bold narrative choices might not have been to my personal tastes, yet I still think that Greaves pulled off his vision quite well. <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Daughter of the Beast</i> shows a lot of ambition and promise, and I'd highly recommend it if you want a unique take on a coming-of-age fantasy story full of weird critters, strong women, and brutal action!</span></div></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"> </span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b>OFFICIAL SPFBO SCORE</b></div></blockquote><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP2pvndAKQmf57KMcHiLCLlfke43VOGclNpyG2PN0MrFYlLmOHfnrhdBmIViVc0H-InkxIcITPM-UY8wayt3HEMFezFtyJWZVk5oh6CqqFP9dMTUHCQD31S8RGkzb2RKQf051Pat38lrHz7O-sZTaJg_ehuk5ixEvmdGIjIAT3EsBqipPRCbVJKr6BwaJM/s1747/Daughter%20of%20the%20Beast_SPFBO_ratings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="957" data-original-width="1747" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP2pvndAKQmf57KMcHiLCLlfke43VOGclNpyG2PN0MrFYlLmOHfnrhdBmIViVc0H-InkxIcITPM-UY8wayt3HEMFezFtyJWZVk5oh6CqqFP9dMTUHCQD31S8RGkzb2RKQf051Pat38lrHz7O-sZTaJg_ehuk5ixEvmdGIjIAT3EsBqipPRCbVJKr6BwaJM/w400-h219/Daughter%20of%20the%20Beast_SPFBO_ratings.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Łukaszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08150091349987128184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-50094817875103138282024-03-12T04:00:00.004-04:002024-03-19T09:44:59.335-04:00SPFBO FInalist Interview: E.C. Greaves, the author of Daughter of the Beast<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather; text-align: justify;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg57016Vupc0BkWTZOkeHXsL487IW_104Y4OEYRl9k7a4TCmGo6o1Vt2MU_1UdWLP5oOcjcLXHZsVKJlzLZbRpCk1jmlKZuMJHtWyEXPMOxfMbsTeRro0fAO4qMaBWwXGqd4SKIEzmKSoBy14VO5piBcXb3H4tl7IcqAgzrsEUQfJo9z4Gd3cuQq3ffZrxD/s1028/E.C.%20Greaves.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1028" data-original-width="1028" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg57016Vupc0BkWTZOkeHXsL487IW_104Y4OEYRl9k7a4TCmGo6o1Vt2MU_1UdWLP5oOcjcLXHZsVKJlzLZbRpCk1jmlKZuMJHtWyEXPMOxfMbsTeRro0fAO4qMaBWwXGqd4SKIEzmKSoBy14VO5piBcXb3H4tl7IcqAgzrsEUQfJo9z4Gd3cuQq3ffZrxD/w400-h400/E.C.%20Greaves.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Merriweather; text-align: justify;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b>ABOUT THE AUTHOR:</b> </span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Born in Solihull, UK, Ed Greaves now resides in Auckland, New Zealand.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Besides pouring his imagination out into the pages of his books, he also spends his time developing indie horror games, composing music, building and modifying old vehicles, and drawing.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">And wasting too much time on Twitter.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Find E.C. online: <a href="https://www.ecgreaves.com/books" target="_blank">Website</a></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Daughter of the Beast links: </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Daughter-Beast-Vyshivka-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B09Q8WDH98" style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;" target="_blank">Amazon</a><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">, </span><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/60129056" style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></div></div><span></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div><br style="text-align: justify;" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">INTERVIEW</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Thank you for agreeing to this interview. Before we start, tell us a little about yourself.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Hi, I'm Ed (short for Edmund, like the naughty kid in Narnia). I was born in England, but moved to NZ when I was 5 or 6. I live in Christchurch, and mostly spend my time fiddling about with crappy old vehicles, writing, drawing, and growing free-range, cruelty-free, gluten-free, hypo-allergenic tobacco - when I'm not at work, that is.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Do you have a day job? If so, what is it?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">What a segue! I work as a technical writer for a medical company, which kinda sucks if I'm honest. It makes it hard to find the motivation to write my own stuff when I'm at home. I'd rather be telling stories than writing stuff about how to treat anal fissures or gonorrhoea!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Who are some of your favorite writers, and why is their work important to you?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Truth be told, I don't actually do all that much reading anymore! I've picked it back up since joining SPFBO, but now I have so many books to read, it's a little overwhelming!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Of the stuff I read back when I had the time to, I'd say David Gemmell is my top pick. I think I most enjoy that despite what might be considered pretty grim world building and plotting, the majority of his stories I like are about fundamentally good people triumphing over evil.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">A recent standout from this competition though, is E L Lyons - author of Starlight Jewel. I went into her book expecting romance, and got a really well-crafted exploration of duty and identity instead. That, and she's responsible for feeding my addiction to videos of raccoons doing stuff!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">And then there's my older sister, Charlotte Greaves. She writes fantasy too, and has two books out already. (Darkness Turning, and Shattered Light). Buy 'em!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">But everyone I've met through SPFBO has been so wonderful. It's mind-blowing!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>What do you think characterizes your writing style?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I'd have to say I've never really given it much thought. It's been described as authentic to the character's voice, but as far as word-choice and sentence structure, I just sorta wing it! I genuinely just imagine I'm whoever I'm writing at the time, and use language they would!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>What made you decide to self-publish Daughter of the Beast as opposed to traditional publishing?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I actually intended to see if I could get traditionally published, because I figured my book might fit the young girl against the world sorta ya/adult crossover genre you see cropping up a lot. But then I had people who don't actually write, but just sell products for faceless corporations and shareholding firms, tell me I had to gut the story to fit their algorithmically-dictated mould.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Needless to say, I didn't wanna. And being the kind of guy who fixes his own vehicles, only eats meat if he hunted it, and makes a single sweater last a decade, I figured I might try doing it myself.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I'm glad I did, because, like in music and whatnot, the indie scene is real people making connections with one another, not just unaccountable corporates turning art into commodity!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Man, I really never grew out of my anti-corpo punk phase, did I?</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>What’s your favorite and least favorite parts of self-publishing?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Beyond a doubt, my favourite is the aforementioned connection with real human beans!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">My least favourite is that I have to actually market my books, and sell them. I prefer the social to the media in social media! If I could somehow live off banter, gifs, emojis, and too many exclamation marks, I'd give them away!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Why did you enter SPFBO?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I was in an indie Facebook group, and was seeing the same group of books getting a lot of genuine engagement. Then someone mentioned that they were in SPFBO, so I looked it up. Originally, I thought it might have been one of those exploitative paid contests. But when I saw Mark Lawrence's reasoning behind it, and that it had no monetary component at all (entry fee Or prize), I was sold!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Long story short, I saw those books' authors chatting with readers, and wished I could have an excuse to do the same! I just wanted to meet new people!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>What would you do if you won the SPFBO?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I'd probably have a little cry. Then I'd update my twitter profile to say "winner" instead of "finalist". Then I'd get back to work on the latest WiP.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">To be fair, I really do just like chatting to people instead of trying to market my books. So I'd kinda hope it just sorta works itself out!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>How would you describe the plot of Daughter of the Beast if you had to do so in just one or two sentences?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">It's a dark, but kinda manic coming of age story about a girl who is captured and raised by monsters, and who must embrace the monster within herself if she is to survive.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>What was your initial inspiration for the book? How long have you been working on it? Has it evolved from its original idea?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">It stemmed from wondering why a "person" would hang out with "monsters" after playing dnd with some mates. You always see the bad guy with their cronies, and often the main villain will be someone of the same race the players will be. But then, why are they surrounded by monsters? Are they friends?</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Well, I wanted to explore that. I wanted to get into the head of the child soldier who grows up to be part of the militia that pillages their former home.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I had random idea documents kicking about for ages, but started actually writing it way back in 2013 or 14, during long train rides to work at a job I hated. But I shelved it and forgot all about writing until on a whim in 2021, I opened the document and just finished it in one go.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">It hasn't actually changed much at all from the very first draft. I rearranged some stuff, and regrettably cut a little out after some early feedback.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I edit as I go, so I try to really polish a chapter up before writing the next, then only need to go back and sprinkle some foreshadowing in after the fact!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">And, if you'd believe it, the ENTIRE thing is done on my phone, with autocorrect turned off!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>If you had to describe it in 3 adjectives, which would you choose?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">They're describing words, right? ;)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Wild, folkloric, gritty.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Is it part of the series or a standalone? If series, how many books have you planned for it?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">It's book one in a trilogy, which is all already out. Protip: don't release a whole trilogy back to back! Actually get people to read book 1 first!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Who are the key players in this story? Could you introduce us to Daughter of the Beast’s protagonists/antagonists?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The whole series is written from the first-person perspective of a girl called Zyntael. She is a Kimora, which is the Kikimora from Russian folklore, but a touch less weird chicken-legged, beaked critter, and just a little more humanlike. She's a bit of a lazy brat to begin with, but through the power of brutal hardship (or as my old man would call it, character-building) becomes a wild and remorseless raider.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">She's kidnapped by Vulkari, who are bipedal houndfolk. Kinda part dnd Gnoll, part the actual Psoglav of Balkan myth. They're matriarchal, and amongst their young she makes some friends.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">There are also Domovoi (usually called Hobgoblins), and other Kimori. And then there's a Pixie/Gnome/Ratling who is pretty rad.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The main antagonist of the book is actually more the pressure Zyntael is put under, than a character. Whether that be enslavement, servitude, growing up, finding her place amongst the monsters who stole her, or the threat of an empire that's encroaching on the lands that the Vulkari roam. It's kinda unorthodox in that regard.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Does your book feature a magic/magic system? If yes, can you describe it?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Not a system, per se. Magick (with a K, bekause it's kooler!) is mostly experienced through dreams and the like. The Vulkari also consume a lot of… "special" mushrooms and do rituals that hold genuine power.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">There's also some necromancy. But of the speaking to the dead as opposed the raising them kind.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I mostly keep it all kinda mysterious, so if you want a periodic table of the 5 elements or any kinda "rules" then sorry!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Have you written Daughter of the Beast with a particular audience in mind?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">No, not really. I just told the story as it came to me. I expect it might be off-putting to a lot of dudes though, given that it's about a girl growing up. But then, people are people - even if they're weird brownie things with bat-like ears and huge eyes.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>What was your proofreading/editing process?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I did the vast majority of it as I went. But I also bounce my work off my older sister, and so she gave it a once-over as well.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">There are always little things that slip through, so I try to catch them by ordering a print copy and going through it with a ballpoint pen, and using text to speech to hear the story too. It's way easier to catch stuff if you change how you're engaging with it. Even changing the font can help!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Cover art is always an important factor in book sales. Can you tell us about the idea behind the cover of Daughter of the Beast and the artist?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I wanted something to capture the vibe of the book, and represent the thematic struggle that our heroine faces throughout. When I realised the story would work best as a trilogy, and had chopped it up to suit, I decided that each book should match. And that Zyntael should level up on each one!the artist is a pretty cool guy. He's handsome and clever, and he cooks a great mushroom medley…</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I did my own covers!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Which question about the book do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Why isn't there a map?</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Well, first, because I kinda imagined the whole world from Zyntael's perspective, so I've no clue what it'd actually look like from above, and second, because most of the story takes place in a couple of locations. Zyntael travels a lot, but mostly in a big loop!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I do actually plan to sit down and draw one, and then maybe chuck it on my website and in a special hardcover edition, alongside some new art.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>What’s your publishing Schedule for 2023/2024?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I'm working on a follow up to the trilogy, but this story is broader in scope, and follows a larger cast (from third person). It won't be ready for a release this year, but hopefully around halfway through next year.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Aside from that, I have a short story (featuring pirates and living skellingtons!) that I intend to flesh out into a wee novella to get out before the next full novel. Hopefully in December, otherwise early 2024.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Thank you for taking the time to answer all the questions. In closing, do you have any parting thoughts or comments you would like to share with our readers?</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Thank you for having me!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">I'd say, please remember that, whether a writer, reader, reviewer, or combination of the three, we all just want to find a way to connect with all the other wonderful humans we share the planet with - through the medium of books.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">My writing journey so far has introduced me to some absolutely amazing people, and I am always so happy to hear from you. I welcome any and all discourse, and would be thrilled if you drop in and say hi on social media!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Also, please don't think that, just cause it was picked for finalist, my book is better than any other. It's all down to taste, so have a wee nibble on every other Indie book you can, SPFBO entrant or otherwise. And build yourself a tasty buffet!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Okay, I realise that if I'm making food analogies, it's time to go have dinner!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Take care; stay rad!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Ed.</span></div>Łukaszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08150091349987128184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-65987851955853611472024-03-11T01:00:00.007-04:002024-03-11T02:46:53.579-04:00The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder by C L Miller (Reviewed by Shazzie)<h1 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: white;"> Book Review: The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder by C L Miller</span></h1><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8bxrYCfJHf0G1OSxKbHr_8rueuk30x2UTtBIDn2s-v0dGQ03iX8Jofcm7f0SS6Iv3LPNAT2IYGnhLYW6HqiXf_VG4dcNrVeoukoa3-mpmhfcuZ98vYoilNLYKwcRZOEc_6m8AzA9Bohm08fmWhyJZjC8okDXMk2Saxchpf2ioIdaYPeeDqIL0Ca6gf4EF/s415/the%20antique%20hunters%20guide%20to%20murder%20by%20c%20l%20miller.jpg.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="415" data-original-width="270" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8bxrYCfJHf0G1OSxKbHr_8rueuk30x2UTtBIDn2s-v0dGQ03iX8Jofcm7f0SS6Iv3LPNAT2IYGnhLYW6HqiXf_VG4dcNrVeoukoa3-mpmhfcuZ98vYoilNLYKwcRZOEc_6m8AzA9Bohm08fmWhyJZjC8okDXMk2Saxchpf2ioIdaYPeeDqIL0Ca6gf4EF/s320/the%20antique%20hunters%20guide%20to%20murder%20by%20c%20l%20miller.jpg.webp" width="208" /></a></div><br /><p><a href="https://clmillerauthor.com" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Official author website</span></a></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">Buy <b>The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder</b> <a href="https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/c-l-miller/the-antique-hunters-guide-to-murder/9781035021802" target="_blank">here</a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>OFFICIAL BOOK BLURB: </b>Freya, it’s down to you to finish what I started. . .Freya Lockwood has avoided the quaint English village in which she grew up for the last 20 years. That is until news arrives that Arthur Crockleford, antiques dealer and Freya’s estranged mentor, has died… and the circumstances seem suspicious.</span></p><p><span></span></p><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /><br />You will uncover a reservation, I implore you to attend. . .<br /><br />But when a letter from Arthur is delivered, sent just days before his death, and an ordinary pine chest concealing Arthur’s journals including reservations in her name are revealed, Freya finds herself sucked back into a life she’d sworn to leave behind.<br /><br />But beware, trust no-one. Your life depends on it. . .<br /><br />Joining forces with her eccentric Aunt Carole, Arthur’s staunch best friend, Freya follows both clues and her instincts to an old manor house for an ‘antiques enthusiasts weekend’. But not is all as it seems; the antiques are bad reproductions and the other guests are menacing and secretive.<br /><br />Can Freya and Carole solve the mystery surrounding the weekend before a killer strikes again?</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b style="caret-color: rgb(20, 41, 62); color: #14293e;">OVERVIEW: </b>The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder by C L Miller is a solid debut that pays homage to classic murder mysteries.<br /><br />Drawing on her experience growing up around antiques (her mother is Judith Miller, of the Antiques Roadshow and Miller’s Antique Price Guide fame), the author has set a cozy mystery centered around an eclectic but endearing duo of characters. Freya, the main protagonist (for lack of better words), is a divorced mother with empty nest syndrome, someone who gave up on her career in the antiques business and turned to domestic life, only to find out it wasn’t a good match, and ends up with multiple house viewings arranged by her ex-husband. When she finds out from her aunt Carole, about the suspicious death of her estranged mentor, Arthur Crockleford, the two team up to determine who was behind it.<br /><br />I’m not one for reading many classic style murder mysteries because there can be quite a bit to track, and all that can be quite taxing after long days. I do most of my reading in the evenings or before I sleep, and as I get older, I find myself preferring to pick up lighter and lighter reads. This book had a good balance between details about the mystery and lighter moments between characters. It was quite satisfying to watch Freya go from a hesitant divorcee with empty nest syndrome, to her former “I can hunt down anything once I make up my mind” personality, and the slow change in her confidence made this a fist-pumping read in that aspect.<br /><br />Carole, however, has all my heart. She’s just the kind of diva who adds flair and flamboyance to an otherwise grim situation, and each of her dramatic exclamations elecited a chuckle from me, at the least. She added a big chunk of the cozy in this book, but something about her reassuring, steady and protective presence made me believe everything would be all right. The mystery itself was easy to follow, with it revealing a big chunk of what happened in Freya’s past, and ending with the triumph that can easily be likened to those in classic Hollywood films, and it, along with the excerpts of sayings from Arthur himself at the beginning of every chapter, had me feeling his ghost in the pages, though well past his demise.<br /><br />I won’t lie, there was a bit of clunky pacing here and there, and the harrowing event in Freya’s past was mentioned far too often in her inner monologue before the reveal. Despite all this, it played well into the theme of the dark side of the trade and the question of reparation of cultural artifacts that drives the story.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /><b>CONCLUSION: </b>Despite the little stumbles, The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder is a fresh and clever whodunnit that has a charming duo of characters whose pairing just works like magic. I highly recommend it and already have my finger’s crossed for the next adventure planted in these pages.</span></p>Shazziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06909586940953366802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-92068155263493161172024-03-07T03:00:00.000-05:002024-03-07T03:00:00.344-05:00Graphic novel review: Tender by Beth Hetland<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTVP8BMjtAARe9GyrHJRvyWGqqvCiny82iuOIL5e1EqCj2L_C9_n5O4LaENq5fTOzPKmbUp6_C4AXoexPfT2Zjm7f0QngkFxTAPPj4FW4n6Fd9qB4Zm9YF_mQJS6B433OX3PUci2S5zeoGtLH24q0ND76aiQRgAqbh0WreILCMvgUxsahxRXkXI4dDugth/s399/Tender.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="399" data-original-width="255" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTVP8BMjtAARe9GyrHJRvyWGqqvCiny82iuOIL5e1EqCj2L_C9_n5O4LaENq5fTOzPKmbUp6_C4AXoexPfT2Zjm7f0QngkFxTAPPj4FW4n6Fd9qB4Zm9YF_mQJS6B433OX3PUci2S5zeoGtLH24q0ND76aiQRgAqbh0WreILCMvgUxsahxRXkXI4dDugth/w256-h400/Tender.png" width="256" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Book links:</b> <a href="https://www.fantagraphics.com/collections/beth-hetland" target="_blank">Publisher</a>, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/184557247-tender" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>ABOUT THE AUTHOR: </b>Beth Hetland is a Professor, Adj. at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she teaches several comics and comics adjacent courses. She holds an MFA (2011) from The Center for Cartoon Studies and BFA (2009) from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Publisher:</b> Fantagraphics (March 12, 2024) <b>Length: </b>162 pages <b>Formats:</b> ebook, paperback</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span><a name='more'></a></span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Whoa, it was surprisingly dark. "Tender" opens with Carolanne happily married and pregnant. The story has good timing and is simple to follow. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">After a while, Hetland takes readers back to the past to reveal how the idyllic life started. That's when they realize things aren’t as they seem on the surface, or in the Instagram posts so important to the protagonist.</span></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEislpfPdtxu90iFTyN46uwzWTwq3jhK6s6wadLK0lBjkExj0b0k2p9MUAFEQuRlcvwEi4GNtpP7lJC6AERCA7F9FiBYEr-kijMJ4oetYo8cKL7mdaLe_e0L_F3KSTIxQbgeag6J87K0PrmxesOBgITRoCu7y6TVXzHm1EiKIBDVk1NuxsYV3mQ0FHTOYpXW/s938/Tender_1.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="938" data-original-width="622" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEislpfPdtxu90iFTyN46uwzWTwq3jhK6s6wadLK0lBjkExj0b0k2p9MUAFEQuRlcvwEi4GNtpP7lJC6AERCA7F9FiBYEr-kijMJ4oetYo8cKL7mdaLe_e0L_F3KSTIxQbgeag6J87K0PrmxesOBgITRoCu7y6TVXzHm1EiKIBDVk1NuxsYV3mQ0FHTOYpXW/w265-h400/Tender_1.png" width="265" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Carolanne may appear nice at first glance, but as you delve deeper, you discover her manipulative nature. She manipulates others to satisfy her desires. Desires that aren't particularly unique or malicious—she simply craves a happy, "Instagrammable" life.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEVfK8-0ldCMnTG88Q6TU0x4n4dvxHd56-VRjeprySxW9Xyj0PYRgEqRj8YtYntq3dwQZOQwe6dAYYl1BHuXQJiLLsxb8mS8eag5YWATOoq06Duea78V25j9fIxnU1l-S5S7dBS5Bv5PppMmuc_XbYGONFBMzvNbxS3wYepcd1g0jOAdtp_AjlrLAThrEG/s773/Tender_2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="773" data-original-width="768" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEVfK8-0ldCMnTG88Q6TU0x4n4dvxHd56-VRjeprySxW9Xyj0PYRgEqRj8YtYntq3dwQZOQwe6dAYYl1BHuXQJiLLsxb8mS8eag5YWATOoq06Duea78V25j9fIxnU1l-S5S7dBS5Bv5PppMmuc_XbYGONFBMzvNbxS3wYepcd1g0jOAdtp_AjlrLAThrEG/s320/Tender_2.png" width="318" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">However, everything comes at a cost. Carolanne is fixated on the image of a perfect, happy life and tries to control the uncontrollable. When she experiences a devastating loss, the story morphs into one of obsession and body horror.</span></div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ8MiBPpAQ7maEf7TL6wy6H8EcQCgrBzyhR35pU-6hxG7qcikhRZbaCcAjXoLPlowxfjIWBpDOaFtgvt4o9IiS0oy0BDxnWT-qbC3SScje1rtjP1bv3NHnctFPULwrWZFKmBu7DKAgjkM2ZpbSuMABbztU2OPvgmrtVCz3gVhO5-X_QsWCsonKjsEQXkwW/s738/Tender_3.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="385" data-original-width="738" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ8MiBPpAQ7maEf7TL6wy6H8EcQCgrBzyhR35pU-6hxG7qcikhRZbaCcAjXoLPlowxfjIWBpDOaFtgvt4o9IiS0oy0BDxnWT-qbC3SScje1rtjP1bv3NHnctFPULwrWZFKmBu7DKAgjkM2ZpbSuMABbztU2OPvgmrtVCz3gVhO5-X_QsWCsonKjsEQXkwW/w400-h209/Tender_3.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Ultimately, "Tender" is a quick and unsettling read. If you enjoy horror comic books, it's worth giving it a try.</span></div><br /></div>Łukaszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08150091349987128184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-58010862282248065642024-03-06T00:00:00.002-05:002024-03-06T04:39:45.836-05:00GUEST POST: Writing the Villainess by Elyse Thompson<h1 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: white;">GUEST POST: Writing the Villainess by Elyse Thompson</span></h1><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKFdK10vAeI7Nz3QPcFvdOaR1QqA_feZ-KY7HQTK0spNBgZVYfGyu0aPIFp95QrGWetm4QMPm7h-6WofV_QUtFkzCn4Mi6MNWZ1ph9hiCz5cSAntSrZ5qJ8PV6C64DnOp2MwI1-HkAv1r9Ix1y9aXP43yJ4QlKaiWkbC5DMY3bnAqMErXXbJC5SNxl___J/s3508/Conspirator's%20Kingdom%20Elyse%20Thompson.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3508" data-original-width="2270" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKFdK10vAeI7Nz3QPcFvdOaR1QqA_feZ-KY7HQTK0spNBgZVYfGyu0aPIFp95QrGWetm4QMPm7h-6WofV_QUtFkzCn4Mi6MNWZ1ph9hiCz5cSAntSrZ5qJ8PV6C64DnOp2MwI1-HkAv1r9Ix1y9aXP43yJ4QlKaiWkbC5DMY3bnAqMErXXbJC5SNxl___J/s320/Conspirator's%20Kingdom%20Elyse%20Thompson.jpg" width="207" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">I was about half way through writing what I thought would be the second (now sixth) book in my series when inspiration struck. What if the innocent victims from Poisoned Empire were, in fact, party to the coup attempt? That would make them villains, wouldn’t it? Chasing the next shiny thing (something I’m often guilty of as a writer) the female lead for Conspirators’ Kingdom, Taisiya, began taking shape in my head.</span></div><div><span><a name='more'></a></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">The idea of a villain simply being the hero of their own story helped shape how she viewed her world, which meant she would have a number of unkind thoughts about the first book’s heroes. And I didn’t want Taisiya to be the least bit heroic—I wanted her to eat heroes (and heroines) for breakfast. There would be no ‘redemption arc’ for her. She should remain a true villainess from the first page to the last. Thus, our leading lady was born. Except for this to be a fantasy romance (or romantasy, take your pick) she would need a partner who looked at her and thought, “I can make her better worse.” Where better to turn to for inspiration than some of my favourite media?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">To say I’m a fan of manga and manhwa would be an enormous understatement. I’ve read more ‘I was reincarnated into the villainess’ type stories than is perhaps wise. But I can probably count on one hand the number of them where the female lead remains a true villainess, with no intention of backing down or giving up her wicked ways. The same goes for English-language novels. It’s not terribly surprising. The ‘unlikable’ female lead isn’t exactly the most popular choice for a protagonist, and a villainess takes that type of character to the extremes. My challenge in writing her was this: how to make a cruel, ambitious, calculating woman likable enough that my readers wouldn’t simply put the book down before the action starts?</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Maybe you wonder why I didn’t ask this of myself to the same degree about the male lead. The short answer is that fictional male leads in fantasy romance are generally given astonishing leeway in how morally bankrupt they can be and still be rooted for. The long answer involves several PhD theses on misogyny in fiction and a number of other topics best left to more learned individuals than myself. In fantasy romance, nearly every crime can be forgiven when a handsome man with a wicked tongue is the one to commit it. And I mean that without the least bit of rancor. Who doesn’t love a flirty villain? It was safe to say that as long as our male protagonist had affection for our female protagonist, and a few other good qualities aside from his lust for power, he was going to really shine in the story I had planned. Taisiya, on the other hand, was going to need some work.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">It should also come as no surprise that I read more ‘enemies to lovers’ style fantasy romances in every format than is strictly necessary. In stories with the main trope revolving around the delicious friction of enemies to lovers, the male lead is often portrayed as the villain. What turns him from enemy to lover is just that—love. Love, lust and affection soften his edges enough that we as the reader can enjoy the fireworks to come. And if that can work for a male lead, why not a female lead? The answer to my dilemma was to show the soft underbelly of my villainess’ porcupine-like personality and ambitions.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">I gave Taisiya grief over the people she’d lost, a fierce love for the family she had left, and an even fiercer loyalty to anyone she considered her own. I made her shoulder the weight of her family’s magical and political legacy. Taisiya became someone who would do anything for those she loved, no matter how unsavoury or horrifying. She was as willing to self-sacrifice as she was to sacrifice those she considered pawns. Taisiya remains a villainess, as cold-blooded as she is steadfast, and as cruel as she needs to both destroy her enemies and protect her loved ones.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Fortitude, a sense of duty, and (albeit brief) moments of vulnerability give her something for the reader to relate to, the same way they might relate to those same qualities in a hero or heroine. The conceit in Conspirators’ Kingdom is that such qualities are used in service of making you root for baddies. In short, I gave her some of the same humanizing qualities that turn a male villain into a love interest.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Now to cross my fingers that it’s enough to endear her to my readers, and maybe even inspire them to look for more female leads just like her. As they say, write what you want to read. I, for one, would love to read about more wicked leading ladies, and better still, the kind that need neither a redemption arc nor a heroic partner. In writing Conspirators’ Kingdom, I hope I’ve done my part to contribute to a truth (not yet) universally acknowledged that a villain in possession of royal ambitions is in want of an equally cunning villainess.</span></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcCsxcM7B3RcGHdHzTs1EoaOvxrotsmZu3V0wmm7yERIr0eESSbpOwooFwcJYZT6j6DOkf9pba_TwUaD6ZTOtm2tAZV_EIWcrKljefBfTEr03hTxWojFzFSlNXn-uSgQTatAlFO12jdiSwF-REBtnlWj7NpZMOJrHiKNQp_24Iw2tV413dWwWwkyOMAv0d/s1280/Elyse%20Thompson%20Author%20Photo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcCsxcM7B3RcGHdHzTs1EoaOvxrotsmZu3V0wmm7yERIr0eESSbpOwooFwcJYZT6j6DOkf9pba_TwUaD6ZTOtm2tAZV_EIWcrKljefBfTEr03hTxWojFzFSlNXn-uSgQTatAlFO12jdiSwF-REBtnlWj7NpZMOJrHiKNQp_24Iw2tV413dWwWwkyOMAv0d/s320/Elyse%20Thompson%20Author%20Photo.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><div style="caret-color: rgb(20, 41, 62); color: #14293e;"><b><a href="https://elyse-thomson.square.site" style="color: #6e6b45;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Official Author Website</span></a></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(20, 41, 62); color: #14293e;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(20, 41, 62); color: #14293e;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white;">Buy </span><b>Poisoned Empire </b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Poisoned-Empire-Mages-Oblivion-Book-ebook/dp/B0BZ15GBTN" style="color: #6e6b45;" target="_blank">here</a></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(20, 41, 62); color: #14293e;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(20, 41, 62); color: #14293e;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">READ<a href="https://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2023/06/review-poisoned-empire-elyse-thomson.html" target="_blank"> Lena's review</a> OF Poisoned Empire</span></b></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(20, 41, 62); color: #14293e;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><br /></b><b>Official Author Information: </b><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; text-align: justify;">Elyse Thomson writes steamy fantasy full of court intrigue, daring heroines, magical mayhem, swoon-worthy romances and worlds inspired by ancient history.</span></span></div><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Elyse graduated from University of Toronto with a Bachelors in History and Classics and currently resides in Canada's capital where you can find her binding antiquarian books, playing Dragon Age or snuggling with her husband or her neurotic terrier.</span></div></div>Shazziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06909586940953366802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-21014888630606860392024-03-05T03:00:00.088-05:002024-03-05T05:28:25.040-05:00Book review: The Truth of the Aleke by Moses Ose Utomi<h1 style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: white;">The Truth of the Aleke by Moses Ose Utomi</span></h1>
<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbJKp6qDbheIEvBQngEY2L3wtUCgB3BzXrNX-jBilfTygOKUMaDiFJ-m3gQPVHXPjKq_yNOBKdtjHnHXN7HJhxErB1IT9hLNjdiAaNdZ7QWyQxfKMvOjUWnyOvwXjb2lPphyphenhyphengRmEIDIT-o4S-TOMuyqpk3am8DIafvNmBbVMR_jFz3RfrmSH4hIOiASVC2/s1381/The%20Truth%20of%20the%20Aleke.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1381" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbJKp6qDbheIEvBQngEY2L3wtUCgB3BzXrNX-jBilfTygOKUMaDiFJ-m3gQPVHXPjKq_yNOBKdtjHnHXN7HJhxErB1IT9hLNjdiAaNdZ7QWyQxfKMvOjUWnyOvwXjb2lPphyphenhyphengRmEIDIT-o4S-TOMuyqpk3am8DIafvNmBbVMR_jFz3RfrmSH4hIOiASVC2/w261-h400/The%20Truth%20of%20the%20Aleke.jpg" width="261" /></a></div><br /><p></p><b><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Book links:</b> Amazon, Goodreads</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span></b><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>ABOUT THE AUTHOR:</b> Moses Ose Utomi is a Nigerian-American fantasy writer and nomad currently based out of Honolulu, Hawaii. He has an MFA in fiction from Sarah Lawrence College and short fiction publications in Fireside Fiction, Fantasy Magazine, and more. He is the author of the novella The Lies of the Ajungo and the YA fantasy novel Daughters of Oduma. When he’s not writing, he’s traveling, training martial arts, or doing karaoke—with or without a backing track.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><a name='more'></a></span><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><b><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>Publisher: </b>Tordotcom (05/03/2024) <b>Length:</b> 112 pages <b>Formats: </b>ebook, paperback</span></div></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Truth is a cruel teacher. It does not appease.It does not reconsider. Its lessons vary in delivery - sometimes tickling in over decades, sometimes crashing down all at once - but consistently disregard the desires of the student.</span></blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><i>The Truth of the Aleke</i> is an excellent sequel to <i><a href="https://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2023/03/book-review-lies-of-ajungo-by-moses-ose.html" target="_blank">The Lies of the Ayungo</a></i>. It's self-contained and technically works as a standalone, but I highly encourage you to read the series in the publication order. It'll make the impact of the ending much stronger.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><div>Five hundred years have passed since the events of <i>The Lies of The Ajungo</i>, and history has replaced truth. The City of Truth and its leaders have been at war with the Cult of Tutu and its cruel leader, Aleke, for three centuries. Both sides of the conflict have different versions of history, with neither fully interested in the truth.</div><div><br /></div><div>Young Osi believes his city stands as the final bastion in the fight against the ruthless hordes of Aleke, who bring nothing but suffering and destruction. Aleke's actions seem to confirm his belief: their attacks leave the city wrecked and its citizens massacred. Osi survives (not gonna tell you how) and embarks on a quest to defeat Aleke and retrieve the ancient magical artifacts stolen from the City during the bloodbath.</div><div><br /></div><div>His journey into the desert reveals the depth of the lies. And Osi's fate is brutal and gut-wrenching. Osi is a flawed and naive hero, desperate for truth, and easily manipulated by others. His desire for glory blinds him and results in rather poor choices. The clash of his youthful idealism with the harsh realities of the world and political cunning is painful to watch.</div><div><br /></div><div>I loved how Utomi approached themes of <span style="background-color: white; font-size: 11.5pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">truth, power, and history, showing their ambiguity and complexity. The way he packed excellent world-building in just 112 pages impressed me, too. And I can't forget about awesome action sequences and awesome magical powers that enhance the readability of the story. </span></div><div><br /></div><div><i>The Forever Desert</i> is shaping to be a brilliant trilogy of novellas somewhere on the intersection of dark fantasy and fable. I can’t wait to read the last one in the series.</div></span><div><br /></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Łukaszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08150091349987128184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-37039271446763095662024-03-04T10:00:00.001-05:002024-03-05T05:28:45.889-05:00Interview: Gareth Brown, author of The Book of Doors<h1 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: white;"> Interview: Gareth Brown, author of The Book of Doors</span></h1><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKS9nsMH5i-Omh_63F43WqgU0PT7B6c-QP8Q0vcRNylXR5_JhPf9iQmVbhzbMvtwNf7dvpdnUyAgrbewSzzP_UfPyW3kKSVq8VNy0ZDkMoax4EINHL7tB8Fkw857L8SBrLJyn-ZkPnMqTlh2S-MEm4_NC0b2wmgbD03kOWZnwP2yMs1Sg-ic90ZpDzMyZS/s2048/gareth%20brown%20author%20photo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1652" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKS9nsMH5i-Omh_63F43WqgU0PT7B6c-QP8Q0vcRNylXR5_JhPf9iQmVbhzbMvtwNf7dvpdnUyAgrbewSzzP_UfPyW3kKSVq8VNy0ZDkMoax4EINHL7tB8Fkw857L8SBrLJyn-ZkPnMqTlh2S-MEm4_NC0b2wmgbD03kOWZnwP2yMs1Sg-ic90ZpDzMyZS/s320/gareth%20brown%20author%20photo.jpg" width="258" /></a></div><br /><p style="caret-color: rgb(20, 41, 62); color: #14293e; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0.5em 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Buy <b>The Book of Doors </b><a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/456384/the-book-of-doors-by-brown-gareth/9781787637245" style="color: #6e6b45;" target="_blank">here</a></span></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px;"><b style="caret-color: rgb(20, 41, 62); color: #14293e; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 14px;">OFFICIAL BOOK BLURB: </b>New York bookseller Cassie Andrews is not sure what she’s doing with her life. She lives quietly, sharing an apartment with her best friend, Izzy. Then a favourite customer gives her an old book. Full of strange writing and mysterious drawings, at the very front there is a handwritten message:</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px;"><br /><b>This is the Book of Doors. Hold it in your hand, and any door is every door.<br /></b><br />Cassie is about to discover that the Book of Doors is a special book – a magic book. A book that bestows extraordinary abilities on whoever possesses it. And she is about to learn that there are other magic books out there that can also do wondrous – or dreadful and terrifying – things.<br /><br /><b>Because where there is magic there is power and there are those who will stop at nothing to possess it. <br /></b><br />Suddenly Cassie and Izzy are confronted by violence and danger, and the only person who can help them is Drummond Fox who has a secret library of magical books hidden in the shadows for safekeeping, a man fleeing his own demons. Because there is a nameless evil out there that is hunting them all . . .<br /><br /><b>Because this book is worth killing for.</b></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(20, 41, 62); color: #14293e; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="color: #1e1915; font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(30, 25, 21);"><br /></span></span><div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(30, 25, 21); color: #1e1915;"><br /></span></span></div><h3 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(30, 25, 21); color: #1e1915;"><b>INTERVIEW</b></span></span></h3></div></div><br /><br /><div><b>Welcome to Fantasy Book Critic! Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us, could you please tell us a little bit about yourself?<br /></b><br />Of course! I am Gareth Brown, author of The Book of Doors. I live near Edinburgh in Scotland with my wife May and our two Skye terriers, Dougal and Flora. To be honest Dougal and Flora rule the place, and we are just the human staff. I have been writing since I was a teenager, but The Book of Doors is my first published novel. I also work full- time in the NHS in Scotland.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><b>How would you describe your book, THE BOOK OF DOORS, to our readers in just three adjectives, and then in just three sentences?</b><br /><br />Wow… great question. <i>Three adjectives: </i>Thrilling. Adventurous. Terrifying.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><i>Three sentences:</i> This is a book about magical books that can do amazing and dreadful things. This is a book about stumbling into a secret world full of danger and darkness. And this is a book about friends and family.</div><div><br /><br /><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNDUPJoZy396uXWyNoOQiqkmI6mTlNnM4oMD39auKqNQ6oMsL5Xu6sHNyeTa0rkkI6hOwKRFawU1pecagT5cKH0RyI0saOfj3oV2bRVQVbpqrNWbmao7YJZAkKj8fivmfLzkTx_-hJ2PmTfm-h4Lo8JdBpRb2IRT6jIDK7UvCDh8ewldAKNPFO8NX0c2U-/s2049/the-book-of-doors-by-gareth-brown.jpg.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2049" data-original-width="1332" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNDUPJoZy396uXWyNoOQiqkmI6mTlNnM4oMD39auKqNQ6oMsL5Xu6sHNyeTa0rkkI6hOwKRFawU1pecagT5cKH0RyI0saOfj3oV2bRVQVbpqrNWbmao7YJZAkKj8fivmfLzkTx_-hJ2PmTfm-h4Lo8JdBpRb2IRT6jIDK7UvCDh8ewldAKNPFO8NX0c2U-/s320/the-book-of-doors-by-gareth-brown.jpg.webp" width="208" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div><b>Booksellers are always romanticised because most readers feel like being one would simply be heaven. On behalf of Cassie, your protagonist, I ask you, what would she tell us about being one that would shock us? What does she love about it, and what is she indifferent to?</b><br /><br />‘Hi, Cassie here. You want to know what it’s like being a bookseller? Okay. Um. I love all the books. Maybe that’s obvious. But even just being around lots of books all the time, it’s like being smothered in your favourite warm blanket. I am pretty indifferent to most of the customers. They are fine, I guess, and some of them are very nice, don’t get me wrong.<br /><br />But I would quite happily spend my day doing stock control and tidying the shelves. I don’t need to be working the cash register to have a good time. Oh, and what would shock you? Rents in this part of town. And how many books the store has to sell just to stay in business. We probably make more money from our coffee shop than from the books we sell.’<br /><br /><br /><b>Your book also features a secret library. What is that, in your opinion, that makes readers love libraries in books, and particularly those in unsuspected existence?</b><br /><br />If you are a reader, you probably love libraries, right? Many of us discovered our love of books through libraries. And there is something special about them… they are temples to books. Quiet, cosy, a place of community and good intentions. Who wouldn’t want a library of their own, that nobody else knows about?<br /><br /><br /><b>What other elements do you have soft spots for, why? And what of them can we expect to see in this book?</b><br /><br />I love travel, and The Book of Doors has a lot of travel in it. The novel came about during the Covid pandemic when I hadn’t travelled for a few years, and I really wanted to go places. So that features heavily in the book. (That is what The Book of Doors is, in reality, a way to go wherever you want without having to deal with airports and long-haul flights!)<br /><br />I also like cakes and pastries. There are probably too many cakes and pastries in the novel.<br /><br /><br /><b>It’s easy to wish for the central concept of the book, a book that can take you anywhere, to be true. If you had it, when and where (locations real or fantastical) would you love to visit? What were the initial locations you dabbled with, for options as to where Cassie would be transported, that did not make it into the book?</b><br /><br /></div><div>I have thought about this a lot. I would love to be able to open the door of my study and just go somewhere warm, maybe Malaysia where my wife is from. We could go get some laksa for lunch at the place on the beach in my wife’s home town. I’d also love to be able to visit Tokyo or Hong Kong for an evening walk, just as the day is getting dark and the lights of the city are sparkling. That is the best time in any big city.<br /><br />There were a few other locations in the book that ended up not working. At one point I had Cassie and Drummond visiting Rio de Janeiro. One abandoned sub-plot also had them visiting a war-torn country in Eastern Europe, but that subplot didn’t work. I also had Cassie and Drummond going to Singapore for lunch at one point, but that was just wish fulfilment on my part, because I wanted to go to Singapore for lunch, and it didn’t serve the story at all.<br /><br /><br /><b>There's a really cinematic and fun, but at the same time, mad time travel element in the book. This can be quite tricky to work into the plot. When and how did you come up with the idea, and how did it change from draft to final copy?</b><br /><br />I think the time travel element was always there, right from when I first thought of the idea of the book. That is because I really wanted my main character to be able to do something lots of us would love to do - to be able to go back and visit a dear relative who we have lost. That to me was always the heart of the novel and the time travel element was necessary to allow that. As it happens the time travel became more important to the second half of the book as I wrote it, and I found myself having a bit of fun by letting our heroes use time travel as a tool to defeat the main antagonist. That was not something I had worked out at the start, but it came quite naturally as the plot unfolded, and I did like the idea of revisiting scenes from earlier in the book and seeing them from a new perspective. I love it when that sort of thing happens in fiction, when you learn something new about something you've already seen and thought you understood. It's like the reveal at the end of a magic trick, the surprising and delightful think that makes you stop and think, 'Wow!' I hope the Book of Doors does that for people. <br /><br /><br /></div><div><b>Given all the work that needs to be put into writing fiction, has it changed how you react to other books as a reader, and how?</b><br /><br />I think I have always been very understanding of how hard it is to even write a book, never mind get it published. I have always been loath to criticise any book, even ones I don’t like. It’s such a subjective thing; just because I didn’t enjoy a book doesn’t mean it has no value. I don’t think that has changed at all. Probably what has changed is an understanding of how the finished book is something that multiple people have had a hand in – the author does most of the work, but editors and agents have such important roles in making books better.<br /><br /><br /></div><div><b>Before we wrap this up, I want to talk about you as a reader. What are you currently reading, and which of your recent reads made a positive impression on you? Are there any that you are looking forward to, or anything that’s already published that you hope to squeeze into your reading, and how do you discover these books?</b><br /><br />I have just finished reading The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean, which was superb. I had heard good things about it but it exceeded my expectations. I can’t wait to see what Sunyi does next. I also recently read an advance reader copy of The Day Tripper, by James Goodhand, which was right up my street. Definitely one to pick up when it comes out later this year if you like time jumps and mind-bending plots. I haven’t yet read the second book in Richard Swan’s Empire of the Wolf series, and I know the third has just been published. The Justice of Kings was superb, and I hear the second and third books lean more into horror, which I am absolutely here for. Looking forward to reading both of those this year. In terms of discovering books, the best thing that has come out of the last eighteen months is meeting other authors and getting more connected into the book world on social media. I have learned about so many great books I wouldn’t otherwise have known about. In the past I would usually just browse in bookshops and pick up things I<br />liked the look of, but I don’t get to bookshops much these days, so getting recommendations from people who know much more than me has been great.<br /><br /><br /><b>In closing, do you have any parting thoughts or comments you’d like to share with our readers?<br /></b><br />Buy my book! Please? I need to pay for my serious biscuit and cake addiction. Actually, even if you don’t buy my book, just buy any book, preferably from independent booksellers. Booksellers are the best so please help them stay in business.</div>Shazziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06909586940953366802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-60275936985674229302024-03-04T00:00:00.001-05:002024-03-04T04:25:57.481-05:00The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown (Reviewed by Shazzie)<p><br /></p><div style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;"><h1><span style="color: white;">Book Review: The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown</span></h1></div><div style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMmWdRAB_zHXRqCDoMYGkwjvyQWjPp3_z-nUr66yoTRGAcSaN9KIRt2lwAjwqqVzc5hyphenhyphenflliI9syinrtZTvqhHDsfrkv70iuJSFhGE0B4fDMIU9NDv6jF0CLLvOdpCXdYBnwpGGVM_1jFU-e2eFtBcDggqzQXHylSEQ9CoubSi7mAzAalK7-fvI6TIekhK/s2049/the-book-of-doors-by-gareth-brown.jpg.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="the book of doors by gareth brown" border="0" data-original-height="2049" data-original-width="1332" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMmWdRAB_zHXRqCDoMYGkwjvyQWjPp3_z-nUr66yoTRGAcSaN9KIRt2lwAjwqqVzc5hyphenhyphenflliI9syinrtZTvqhHDsfrkv70iuJSFhGE0B4fDMIU9NDv6jF0CLLvOdpCXdYBnwpGGVM_1jFU-e2eFtBcDggqzQXHylSEQ9CoubSi7mAzAalK7-fvI6TIekhK/s320/the-book-of-doors-by-gareth-brown.jpg.webp" width="208" /></a></div><br /><div><br /><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(20, 41, 62); clear: both; color: #14293e; text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.garethbrownbooks.com" style="color: #6e6b45;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Official Author Website</span></a></div><div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(20, 41, 62); clear: both; color: #14293e; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Buy <b>The Book of Doors </b><a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/456384/the-book-of-doors-by-brown-gareth/9781787637245" target="_blank">here</a></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /><b>FORMAT/INFO: </b><i>The Book of Doors</i> was published on February 15th, 2024 by Bantam Books in the U.K. and on February 13th 2024 by William Morrow in the U.S. It is available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats. <br /></span></div><div><span><a name='more'></a></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /><b>OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS:</b> The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown is a fresh urban portal fantasy standalone that’s just one of those books that got me reading well into nap time on a long flight. It’s saying something because I take nap time very seriously.<br /><br />Cassie, an introverted young woman who works at a bookstore and lives with her friend is handed a book that gives her the magical power to make any door every door and transport herself to places, unlocking unlimited possibilities. Clearly it’s not that simple, because that’s where her trouble begins, because should it get into the wrong hands that are already in search for it, it would be a disaster.<br /><br />What starts simply with Cassie and her polar opposite and best friend Izzie being swept up in a mad adventure for their survival, while making friends on the way. It is here I want to stress that the author has a certain way with describing settings in an impressionable way that made me feel like a silent bystander in the story, almost to the point where I once wanted to shout “look out!” at the characters. This certainly added to my investment in the events, as did the portrayal of Cassie’s relationship with Izzie and her late grandfather. The latter was simply so endearing in a way that’s hard to describe, and it makes for some very emotional moments.<br /><br />If this was a simple portal fantasy, it might’ve not been so mad, but there’s an element of time travel and the way it is used for the progression of the story makes this book exciting and heart-pounding. While the narrative is told majorly from Cassie’s perspective, the others add to the flavor of the story and heighten the stakes. While the book is initially quite plot-driven, with Cassie just reacting to everything that happens around her, it becomes character-driven after a point and she subtly develops this kind of quite confidence by the end that made her arc a gratifying one to read. Over the book there are new additions to her friend circle, and all characters have a compelling part to play, and the interweaving of the past and the present was done so well that I wouldn’t have had trouble following the timeline if it weren’t clearly stated in the chapter headers. <br /><br />Something felt off about the book but I can’t put my finger on what exactly it could be, and anyway I had such a blast reading this that I give in and indulge it with a rounded up five-star rating, so that makes it my first of the year!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /><b>CONCLUSION: </b>The Book of Doors is everything I wanted in a fantasy adventure: books as magical artifacts, a fight between good and evil with a compelling heroine, a charming retinue of characters, time travel, and a fractured timeline. Not to forget, epic cinematic moments that made me imagine it made into a Marvel movie, and some of the soundtracks still play in my head as I write this review. It’s so fresh in a way that’s hard to explain, and for that alone, if nothing else, you should give it a shot.</span></div>Shazziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06909586940953366802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-32983972624859834132024-02-29T00:00:00.002-05:002024-03-04T04:26:02.947-05:00The Rest To The Gods by Joshua Walker (reviewed by Matthew Higgins) <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijcHg_v7y2Zw9v-p-PyvhCG5dp52FgeLzZqRPg4IlIUIxVUhn2PcpahmW_ko95pnrClm30K2ql0ThCHC9XDZgKxn-b7WtvgFXpyWtZ8h0lg4nIv7Zru9FZdA2huwhy3OZb1slBKhPaBBscIdW_xP4obr_1lVgTgDqkf9xjbCN8KwpXjSWm7fTE1IvYCDI/s892/lAYUDvgdUnvh0FcIt11xgapIQFzMaTmL6C5uzgBx.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="892" data-original-width="598" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijcHg_v7y2Zw9v-p-PyvhCG5dp52FgeLzZqRPg4IlIUIxVUhn2PcpahmW_ko95pnrClm30K2ql0ThCHC9XDZgKxn-b7WtvgFXpyWtZ8h0lg4nIv7Zru9FZdA2huwhy3OZb1slBKhPaBBscIdW_xP4obr_1lVgTgDqkf9xjbCN8KwpXjSWm7fTE1IvYCDI/w284-h416/lAYUDvgdUnvh0FcIt11xgapIQFzMaTmL6C5uzgBx.jpg" width="284" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p></p><div style="border: none; padding: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://joshuawalkerauthor.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc;">Official</span></a><u><span style="color: #1155cc;"> <a href="https://joshuawalkerauthor.com/">Author</a> Website<br /></span></u></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://joshuawalkerauthor.com/subscribe/">Get the Novella for free by
signing up to Joshua’s mailing list!<br /></a></b><o:p> <br /></o:p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">OFFICIAL AUTHOR
INFO: Joshua Walker</span></b><span style="line-height: 115%;"> is the author of The Song of the Sleepers series. He was born in
Sydney, Australia and was an avid reader from the age of five, when he first
read The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien ‘all by himself’. Josh currently lives in
Melbourne, Australia with his wife and BFD (Big Fluffy Dog). In between
spending time with his family and friends, he sticks to a regimented writing
routine, and is also a primary teacher. He also makes his own beer, and likes
to think it’s pretty good.</span></span></div><div style="border: none; padding: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><a name='more'></a></span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">OFFICIAL BOOK
BLURB: </span></b><span style="background: white; color: #1e1915; line-height: 115%;">On the peak of the Mountain
Pass, the Four-Front War takes its final breaths.<br /> <o:p></o:p></span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #1e1915; line-height: 115%;">The
walls are closing in.<br /></span></b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #1e1915; line-height: 115%;">The
allies are dwindling.<br /></span></b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #1e1915; line-height: 115%;">The
last front is on its knees.<br /></span></b><o:p> <br /></o:p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">OVERVIEW: Joshua Walker</b>’s<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘The Rest To The Gods’<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></i>is a promising display of word building prowess sure to keep
your fingers eagerly turning those metaphysical kindle pages. Wholly original
and action packed, by the time you finish you’ll be left questioning the nature
of time since it cannot have possibly traveled so quickly in the space it takes
to peruse this nifty novella.<br /> <o:p></o:p><o:p> <br /></o:p>Whilst the character
development did feel constrained within the minimal novella size, and the lore
fed in by the mouthful it was fun and ultimately, that’s a fantastic measure of
a good book.<br /><o:p> <br /></o:p><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Do not think that by heartening your heart
you can accomplish your every goal in this life, child”<br /></i><o:p> <br /></o:p>I start this
review by being honest...<br /> <o:p> <br /></o:p>This book was 100%
a mood read. I’d seen the cover going around on social media and being the whimsical
plank that I am, I decided to blow up the TBR…<br /><o:p> <br /></o:p>Again!<br /> <o:p> <br /></o:p>But, as readers
will find when they spend time in <b>Joshua</b>’s world, this was not without good
reason. For <b>Joshua</b> invites into a Redwall-esque world in the midst of a grand
war, and he certainly does not hang about!<br /><o:p> <br /></o:p><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We start <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in
media res </i>with our protagonist <b>Nischia</b> who is one of the eponymous
Sleepers. Caught in a battle high up in the peaks, <b>Nischia</b> and the Aobians face
overwhelming odds in a last stand for their kingdom.<br /> <o:p> <br /></o:p>A sleeper is
essentially <b>Joshua</b>’s in-world mage, and they use a magic system known as
Luminosity to power their <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">cism </i>(aka
magic). It was inventive and refreshing and I was certainly<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>intrigued to learn more, even if the
terminology at times could be a little overwhelming.<br /><o:p> <br /></o:p>Alongside the
present day, <b>Joshua</b> also delves into <b>Nischia</b>’s past and her initiation into the
order of the Sleepers, which is where most of the emotional heft of this
novella comes from. <b>Nischia </b>certainly has what one could deem a ‘troubled’
past, although it is usually <b>Nischia</b> caught in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">midst</i> of these troubles, and I found I could really admire her
strength and tenacity through all she suffered.<br /><o:p> <br /></o:p>The dual narrative
allows <b>Joshua</b> to expand on the present via the past and vice versa, which adds
a nice sense of progression to the novella, each chapter revealing a new aspect
of character. Furthermore, it kept me on the hook, finding myself eager to
return to the next piece of the story regardless of timeline, and never left me
wanting!<br /> <o:p> <br /></o:p>Surprisingly the
present narrative was my personal favourite, despite the more character driven
nature of <b>Nischia</b>’s past. Personally, I found that there simply wasn’t enough
page time available to devote to <b>Nischia</b>’s past to show the depths that I would
personally find fully compelling. The broad themes on display in <b>Nischia</b>’s
past, of overcoming adversity and emotional turmoil are certainly very
respectable, however there is a lot to unpack and I think being a novella
hindered its ability to really delve as deep as I would've liked.<br /><o:p> <br /></o:p>Accordingly the
underlying political plot occuring didn’t have the impact I believe <b>Joshua</b> was
aiming for. For me the surprises that came in this section felt underwhelming
because we hadn’t had the time to fully connect to the cast of characters before
things turn on their head. This undermined the impact of those twists which for
me developed rather too quickly. Whilst this is certainly an ambitious novella,
broad in scale, yet intimate in character, I do think with more page time it
could’ve been more impactful.<br /><o:p> <br /></o:p>To speak of my
favourite section though, we go to the present day, where most of the creative
world building is on display. I really loved the feel of these anthropomorphic
characters in the vein of <b>Brian Jaques</b>’ <b>Redwall series</b>; they were endearing and
incredibly easy to root for. Who doesn’t love a good last stand after all!
There *was* a lot of new terminology introduced rather quickly, and this may
potentially put off new readers, however I think as readers it's important to
understand that we don’t need to grasp every concept to enjoy a fun new tale.
<b>Joshua</b> does an admirable job of centering us through the character of<b> Nischia</b>,
so one can always ground themselves with her character in the midst of the
unfolding chaos.<br /><o:p> <br /></o:p>I do think again
that the small page count did hinder some aspects of the suspense and action,
but this is surely a promising aspect too, as I trust with a wider page count
that <b>Joshua</b> will find a suitable rhythm. The fast pace certainly aided in
turning the pages, despite somewhat undermining the suspense of the piece.<br /> <o:p> <br /></o:p>Despite being an
almost singularly located novella, we do learn a lot about the wider world, and
the culture of the Aobians with their great tree was a great example of
inventive worldbuilding. Especially in today’s age of climate change it's
always welcome to see a culture rooted (no pun intended!!) in the beauty and
majesty of nature. This makes the world feel as if a living character itself,
similar to Pandora in the Avatar movies. I certainly appreciate how much we
could learn from worlds such as this and their connection to nature.<br /><o:p> <br /></o:p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">CONCLUSION:</b> Overall, a very promising debut which has
certainly left me ready to delve into <b>Joshua</b>’s subsequent works. Pacy and
punchy, grounded characters in an inventive world, despite the page count
undermining some aspects, i couldn’t turn those pages fast enough! Watch out
world, the Aussie author squad is coming for us!! (Seriously, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Mark Timmony, Luke Schulz</b>, now <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Joshua</b>, it’s fantastic!)<br /><o:p></o:p><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br /><p></p>The Readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060590167867977158noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-36515925765324721712024-02-28T03:00:00.010-05:002024-03-04T04:26:10.955-05:00Review: Lore of the Wilds by Analeigh Sbrana<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Bd3vgu3h4L2WdIa5UiQklagMjGYtiljsXG-vzLTQaDJipxQr1o-UGEgaH20dQJC1x5YXHH1_VVXx5HJ6ECLRHgBq6AdMUa_7dkV3xNo1eiTXy66AQRzK3fYdvAP1gIHdpIZpEHB4obuGnYBB0xLMpkjwa_7NZ4_NmwDz4_jcQk7B38nJr9WaZGfTQso/s960/157626239.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="620" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Bd3vgu3h4L2WdIa5UiQklagMjGYtiljsXG-vzLTQaDJipxQr1o-UGEgaH20dQJC1x5YXHH1_VVXx5HJ6ECLRHgBq6AdMUa_7dkV3xNo1eiTXy66AQRzK3fYdvAP1gIHdpIZpEHB4obuGnYBB0xLMpkjwa_7NZ4_NmwDz4_jcQk7B38nJr9WaZGfTQso/s320/157626239.jpg" width="207" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://analeighsbrana.com/" target="_blank">Official Author Website</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Buy <a href="https://www.harperreach.com/products/lore-of-the-wilds-lore-of-the-wilds-duology-book-1-analeigh-sbrana-9780008671730/">Lore of the Wilds</a></div><p></p><div style="color: black; font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><b>
OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO:</b> Analeigh Sbrana is a writer and visual artist. She lives in Delaware with her husband, daughter, and chonky kitty named Rey. You can often find her either writing books, reading books, or taking elaborate photos of books.</div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div style="color: black; font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><br /><br /><b>
FORMAT/INFO: </b><i>Lore of the Wilds</i> was published on February 27th, 2024 by Harper Voyager. It is 352 pages and told in third person from Lore's POV. It is available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats. <br /><br /><b>
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS:</b> For centuries, the humans of Lore's village have lived trapped in a dark forest. Any attempts to leave are met with a swift death at the hands of the fae sentries that surround the town. But shortly after a disaster befalls the town, a fae lord approaches Lore with a deal: if she will enter a library warded against fae and catalogue its contents, he will ensure the town gets the aid it needs to recover. Lore accepts out of necessity but also because she's hoping to discover something in the library that could change her town's fortune's forever: magic.<br /><br /><i>
Lore of the Wilds</i> is a tale that is absolutely charming when it tries to be a cozy fantasy, but tonal swerves prevent it from truly being one. The cozier aspects of the story are where it<i> </i>shines. From the moment Lore steps inside the warded library, the focus changes from survival to the soothing process of cataloguing books and cleaning shelves. As the story expands, we're treated with cooking, herb craft, and moonlit rituals, all of which make you want to snuggle under blankets as you read. This does mean the story begins to meander, especially in the back half of the book when it leans into the "low stakes" plotting, with urgency largely lost until the final 15% of the story. <br /><br />
But I have to stop short of calling this a true cozy fantasy because of the darker elements that intrude on the story. That includes not only some violence (mostly in the form of combat that results in some gruesome deaths) but some particularly horrifying reveals late in the story. In another book, I don't think I would have made a note of such things, but it was a jarring juxtaposition in a story that largely spent its time embracing cottagecore vibes. <br /><br />
(And if you're wondering about the fantasy romance aspect, there is one explicit spice scene). <br /><br /><i>
Lore of the Wilds</i> is also a bit rough around the edges in its writing style, particularly when it comes to dialogue. The dialogue at the beginning of the book felt a bit clunky, and while it seemed to smooth out as the story went on, that might also have been because the cozy elements were enchanting me so thoroughly that I forgave some of the odd phrasing. <br /><br /><b>
CONCLUSION:</b> <i>Lore of the Wilds</i> honestly makes me wish the book had whole-heartedly pursued its cozy aspirations. There were a lot of elements that charmed me, making me forgive the other elements that grated a bit. But the unevenness of tone makes it a bit hard to know exactly who to recommend this to (and also made me feel like the book didn't truly know what it wanted to be). It's cozy-ish, but one plot line in particular really makes this impossible to call a true cozy fantasy. But if cozy-adjacent is something you enjoy, there's enough here to make a pleasant read.<br /><br /></div>Caitlin G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18413387498278506457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-79117146540711494952024-02-27T03:00:00.005-05:002024-02-27T03:00:00.145-05:00Review: That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiFBOvyPTKIt2kEyKxWnidfkNqtV450HoYN9UCW5KX2V89xbPlH0ztcnpHZCS3p4zgVe4F-57wJGnFrnmJgGAM-goK59Q6kc1OYfk0qskCrDI8w4X4RHcKIm2j65M9xL5UEKtkfhbwGzLyOsmsfTBJg8FrkQTCWz-NJQ1dQ4U_yCfjy4-OPRF6W2TmAls/s898/85158509.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="898" data-original-width="596" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiFBOvyPTKIt2kEyKxWnidfkNqtV450HoYN9UCW5KX2V89xbPlH0ztcnpHZCS3p4zgVe4F-57wJGnFrnmJgGAM-goK59Q6kc1OYfk0qskCrDI8w4X4RHcKIm2j65M9xL5UEKtkfhbwGzLyOsmsfTBJg8FrkQTCWz-NJQ1dQ4U_yCfjy4-OPRF6W2TmAls/s320/85158509.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><a href="https://www.kimberlylemming.com/" target="_blank">Official Author Website</a><br />Buy <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/kimberly-lemming/that-time-i-got-drunk-and-saved-a-demon/9780316570268/">That Time I Got Drunk and Saved A Demon</a><p></p><div style="color: black; font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><b>
OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO:</b> Kimberly Lemming is on an eternal quest to avoid her calling as a main character. She can be found giving the slip to that new werewolf that just blew into town and refusing to make eye contact with a prince of a far-off land. Dodging aliens looking for Earth booty can really take up a girl's time.<br /><br />
But when she’s not running from fate, she can be found writing diverse fantasy romance. Or just shoveling chocolate in her maw until she passes out on the couch.</div><div style="color: black; font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><span><a name='more'></a></span> <br /><br /><b>
FORMAT/INFO: </b><i>That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon</i> was published on January 2nd, 2024 by Orbit Books; it was originally self-published July 22nd, 2021. It is 288 pages long and told from the first person POV of Cinnamon. It is available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.<br /><br /><b>
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS:</b> Cinnamon doesn't want a life of adventure. She wants a nice quiet life on the family farm, growing spice and trading jokes with her brothers. But when she accidentally breaks a spell controlling a demon, she finds herself dragged along on his quest to free the rest of his kind from an evil witch's magic. But in between all the fighting off cultists and rescuing dragons, she starts to realize that maybe this demon is exactly her kind of trouble after all.<br /><br /><i>
That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon</i> is a breezy spicy fantasy read that is perfect for readers looking for a quick escape. But it's also a book for a very specific kind of reader: namely, those who want a fantasy world wrapper around the spicy treat inside. This is not a particularly deep read. The characters aren't very dimensional and the story itself is done in broad strokes. The plot is fairly simple: travel to a few temples, smash some relics, save the day. But at the end of the day, the readers who are going to get the most out of this are the ones who came for spice, as there are multiple explicit scenes.<br /><br />
And it's hard to fault the book for being exactly what it says it is! It doesn't pretend to be anything other than a tongue in cheek fantasy romance (I mean, the lead character is a spice farmer, that should tell you everything you need to know). If that isn't your cup of tea, simply move along to the next book. I enjoyed Cinnamon's no-nonsense attitude, coupled with her begrudging realization that she is indeed extremely physically attracted to the demon Fallon.<br /><br />
I was a little thrown, however, that this was a book where the violence was as explicit as the sex. At least one person gets an arm ripped off fairly early in the book, and evil people meet similarly dire ends. There's also depictions and references to some heavy themes like slavery. For a book with such a bright cover and general comedic tone, it was jarring to have these darker elements weaving through the story.<br /><br /><b>
CONCLUSION:</b> <i>That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon</i> is the reading equivalent of empty calories. It's fun to consume, even if it doesn't have a lot of substance to it. This is definitely a Your Mileage May Vary book - if you want to watch a demon and a woman bicker, wreak havoc across the land, and eventually tear each other's clothes off, you'll probably enjoy this. If not...there's plenty of other books out there!<br /><br /></div>Caitlin G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18413387498278506457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-24419951845689541142024-02-26T07:28:00.002-05:002024-02-27T08:41:49.458-05:00Interview: Robert Jackson Bennett, author of The Tainted Cup<h1 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: white;">Interview: Robert Jackson Bennett, author of The Tainted Cup</span></h1><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh05O0eZlYrT5qc3EDOZKg0qza7yrZob2jRtL60rbVOTpGKdvYYGetP5H-NiEIT2_5jAX2aPL9Ymvrn-HN97WvkeXggiduRlO-99SnfszKstRtO1fKdvxuPAjXpQ3t1B3u_3WchH8UkRhGutvZ0Pxf58kWLpYcUNXHNC_SaUVd13lgoBOlCKWOYtLXIblD0/s5000/robert%20jackson%20bennett%20author%20photo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="robert jackson bennett author photo" border="0" data-original-height="5000" data-original-width="3333" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh05O0eZlYrT5qc3EDOZKg0qza7yrZob2jRtL60rbVOTpGKdvYYGetP5H-NiEIT2_5jAX2aPL9Ymvrn-HN97WvkeXggiduRlO-99SnfszKstRtO1fKdvxuPAjXpQ3t1B3u_3WchH8UkRhGutvZ0Pxf58kWLpYcUNXHNC_SaUVd13lgoBOlCKWOYtLXIblD0/s320/robert%20jackson%20bennett%20author%20photo.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Read Caitlin's review of <b>The Tainted Cup</b> <a href="https://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-tainted-cup-by-robert-jackson.html" target="_blank">here</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Read Mihir and Shazzie's review of <b>The Tainted Cup</b> <a href="https://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2024/02/book-review-the-tainted-cup-robert-jackson-bennett.html" target="_blank">here</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b style="caret-color: rgb(20, 41, 62); color: #14293e; font-family: georgia; font-size: 14px;"><span style="background-color: white;">Buy </span><i>The Tainted Cup</i> here - <a href="https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/robert-jackson-bennett-3/the-tainted-cup/9781399725378/" style="color: #6e6b45;">U.K.</a> | <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/648051/the-tainted-cup-by-robert-jackson-bennett/" style="color: #6e6b45;">U.S.</a></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b style="caret-color: rgb(110, 107, 69); color: #6e6b45; font-family: georgia; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.robertjacksonbennett.com/" style="caret-color: rgb(110, 107, 69); color: #6e6b45; font-family: georgia; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Official Author Website</a></b></div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>OFFICIAL BOOK BLURB:</b> In Daretana’s most opulent mansion, a high Imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a tree spontaneously erupted from his body. Even in this canton at the borders of the Empire, where contagions abound and the blood of the Leviathans works strange magical changes, it’s a death at once terrifying and impossible.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Called in to investigate this mystery is Ana Dolabra, an investigator whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities.<br /><br />At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol. Din is an engraver, magically altered to possess a perfect memory. His job is to observe and report, and act as his superior’s eyes and ears--quite literally, in this case, as among Ana’s quirks are her insistence on wearing a blindfold at all times, and her refusal to step outside the walls of her home.<br /><br />Din is most perplexed by Ana’s ravenous appetite for information and her mind’s frenzied leaps—not to mention her cheerful disregard for propriety and the apparent joy she takes in scandalizing her young counterpart. Yet as the case unfolds and Ana makes one startling deduction after the next, he finds it hard to deny that she is, indeed, the Empire’s greatest detective.<br /><br />As the two close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens the safety of the Empire itself, Din realizes he’s barely begun to assemble the puzzle that is Ana Dolabra—and wonders how long he’ll be able to keep his own secrets safe from her piercing intellect.<br /><br />Featuring an unforgettable Holmes-and-Watson style pairing, a gloriously labyrinthine plot, and a haunting and wholly original fantasy world, The Tainted Cup brilliantly reinvents the classic mystery tale.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: center;"><b>INTERVIEW</b></h3><div><div><b>Welcome to Fantasy Book Critic! Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us, could you please tell us a little bit about yourself?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>I’m Robert Jackson Bennett, author of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/159695-the-divine-cities" target="_blank">The Divine Cities trilogy</a>, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/228579-the-founders-trilogy" target="_blank">The Founders Trilogy</a>, and the new <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/362899-shadow-of-the-leviathan" target="_blank">Shadow of the Leviathan</a> series.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwSSfdOw_NYqtR-tPjm_LiILL7MrNVGIoS3y2Vw6xJ4-cEqP8CalOsFGjEN1c6rk-EzwJEKXRQzjPHVKuo5vE8j2mSkyla4dWNmjp6jjycSPEy4BcXfYnVYChet7EvRZXMSyk67caH74she-brqzrTlkG-pWZjYcRrtLp_SDSQ0lJw1jjGXjv0jPC8_RW_/s500/the-tainted-cup-by-robert-jackson-bennett.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="the tainted cup by robert jackson bennett" border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="343" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwSSfdOw_NYqtR-tPjm_LiILL7MrNVGIoS3y2Vw6xJ4-cEqP8CalOsFGjEN1c6rk-EzwJEKXRQzjPHVKuo5vE8j2mSkyla4dWNmjp6jjycSPEy4BcXfYnVYChet7EvRZXMSyk67caH74she-brqzrTlkG-pWZjYcRrtLp_SDSQ0lJw1jjGXjv0jPC8_RW_/s320/the-tainted-cup-by-robert-jackson-bennett.jpg" width="220" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Could you describe your latest book, THE TAINTED CUP, in three adjectives, and then in three sentences? What readers would you pitch the book to?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>I would say: byzantine, uncanny, and ribald. That pretty much sums it up.</div><div><br /></div><div>In three sentences: it’s Knives Out meets Game of Thrones meets Attack on Titan. A giant, sprawling, complex medieval empire has mastered the ability of shaping life – the qualities of plants and flesh and our very bodies – and must gather all of its arts and genius to defend its people against the massive leviathans, which emerge from the sea each year to lumber ashore. Managing this is incredibly difficult, and one task the Empire rates very highly is keeping the peace, especially solving the occasional murder – so, enter our hero, Dinios Kol, who’s just been assigned his first death scene.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>I really enjoy reading fantasy murder mysteries because not only are they set in </b><b>potentially interesting worlds, but also provide for very interesting ways to </b><b>perform/solve murders, and of course, far reaching consequences. What is it about </b><b>them that intrigues you, and how did the idea for this book form?</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>I like murder mysteries because they require so much rigor from the
. It’s like trying to build a mousetrap, you can’t really leave too much excess or fat or complication on there. Every scene must snap, and it all has to move in the same direction.</div><div><br /></div><div>I also appreciate murder mysteries because of their historical significance. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the drawing room murder mystery became codified during the 30s, 40s, and 50s, and particularly seem to have been codified in England, perhaps the most besieged nation during this era. My suspicion is that murder mysteries sort of encapsulate the idea of a functional civil, legal, and bureaucratic state: something has gone horribly wrong, the appropriate authorities have been dispatched, and everyone is trying to put things aright.</div><div><br /></div><div>None of these people seem especially “special”: their genius and insight is not elevated by their birthright, or their class, or some other received quality. Rather, they are everyday people who are just a little more perceptive than others. This flies in the face of the fascism and autocracy that was in full bloom during this era, which all insisted there was a Right Kind of Person, and if someone got murdered, well, maybe they were the Wrong Kind of Person, and thus nobody needed to care.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>When I was growing up, I believed in this lie that’s commonly told to children in my </b><b>part of the world: If you eat a seed, the tree will start growing in your stomach and </b><b>eventually make its way out of your mouth. Of course, I lived in constant fear of that </b><b>happening for a while, and imagine my reaction when that’s how the murder at the </b><b>beginning of the book happens! I also live in constant worry of slowly being poisoned </b><b>by mould, after a small leak went unnoticed for a while in my house. Now, enough </b><b>about me. How did you come up with the aspects of the world that relate to these </b><b>strange fears of mine?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Actually, my inspiration from that came from a real case! There was a story I read about a lumberjack in the Pacific Northwest who had a terrible pain in his chest, and when they went for x-rays they found a sprawling root system developing in one of his lungs. It turned out he had inhaled a pine tree seed somehow, and it had actually sprouted inside of him and was actively growing. The surgery it took to remove it was quite extensive.</div><div><br /></div><div>Rather horrible, really – I suppose that won’t do much for your fears.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>I’m quite enthralled by the world you have set this book in, where people can have </b><b>grafts that augment their bodies with strange, fascinating, and even somewhat </b><b>grotesque abilities, and mountainous leviathans try to go inland on a rampage during a </b><b>certain season, and much more. Can you elaborate upon the setting for our readers?</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>This is a world where for millennia, during the monsoon or “wet” season, giant leviathans would lumber ashore and wreak havoc. These giant creatures were terrifyingly mutagenic, leaving behind transmuted or significantly altered organic life in their wake: trees that bloomed wrong, plants that grew fruit that previously didn’t use to, and people warped and transformed.</div><div><br /></div><div>One race of people was eventually transformed just so that they learned how to master these organic transmutations, and they made themselves unnaturally strong and brilliant, capable of conquering the surrounding kings and eventually felling the leviathans and driving them back. Though this race of people went sterile and extinct centuries ago, their Empire remains, and its citizens continued to tinker with altering organic life, creating entire buildings from vines, for example, or augmenting the human mind so that it excels at certain difficult tasks.</div><div><br /></div><div>Think of the mentats from Dune, and you’re not far off.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>There’s a certain situation in the book with a character trying to find a way around the </b><b>restrictions in an institution, and here, you give us your opinion on regulations. Can </b><b>you tell us more about what prompted this theme in the book?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>I live in America, which has ruinously expensive construction costs. There are a lot of reasons for this, but the most glaring one is that we wrote a lot of environmental protection laws in the 1970s, and though they did us a lot of good then, they’re now being used by landowners, incumbents, and vested interests to ensure that nothing around them changes at all.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, for example, in California, if you want to build a bus stop, all the homeowners around the site will file all kinds of environmental lawsuits claiming that you didn’t do this or that environmental impact study right – not because they’re concerned about the environment, but because they don’t want the bus stop built, as they’re worried it’ll affect the value of their homes.</div><div><br /></div><div>Or, in lots of America, gas or coal or oil interests will prop up lots of environmental groups and have them go around doing the same thing to wind or solar farms, claiming that building them would harm their environment. The real goal of this, of course, is to make any effort at construction so expensive and so difficult that it doesn’t get done at all. They prefer the status quo, and want things to stay exactly as they are.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is a thorny issue that occurs to lots of developed nations: the rules we first used to protect ourselves eventually become weapons in the hands of the powerful to attack and damage us.</div><div><br /></div><div>Since I write a lot about change, and since this particular fantasy empire was built on the concept of metamorphosis, this seemed like an interesting kind of corruption to examine: <i>what happens if you desperately need to change, but some people won’t let you?</i></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Since this book draws on a Holmes and Watson style pairing, tell us more about the </b><b>main character, the two that have this dynamic, and your own feelings of the classic </b><b>Arthur Conan Doyle books?</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>The pairing was actually inspired less by Sherlock Holmes and more by the Nero Wolfe books, by Rex Stout: Nero Wolfe is a difficult, fussy, socially hostile genius who doesn’t want to go out and solve crimes, and would rather eat five course meals and tend to his orchids in his sumptuous brownstone apartment. The actual investigation is left to Archie Goodwin, a sort of slick, noir-esque fast talker who makes his rounds in the city of New York and reports back to Wolfe, who then reluctantly and irritably puts the case together.</div><div><br /></div><div>I knew for Ana that I would want to make her different: rather than having her be a somewhat reluctant detective – Wolfe usually only solves cases for the money – she is somewhat more Holmes-like, solving cases out of a hunger for the challenge of it all. Really, “hungry” is probably what defines her most: she is a ravenous devourer of bizarre foods, psychedelic compounds, and data and information of all kinds. So intense is her hunger, and so preternatural is her ability to divine patterns in what she consumes, that she almost never leaves her home for fear that the outside world will overwhelm her; and if she does leave, she will only venture out blindfolded.</div><div><br /></div><div>Her investigator – and our protagonist – is Dinios “Din” Kol, who is much cooler, stiffer, reserved, and much more cautious than Ana is. For him, I drew somewhat from P.D. James’s Dalgliesh: he probably comes off as sniffy and a bit arrogant. Part of this is likely because Din has been augmented to possess a perfect memory, which means he not only remembers all he saw, but he remembers how things should be: how he should look, dress, act, and keep to all the rules and regulations of the Empire.</div><div><br /></div><div>In other words, they clash most marvellously.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Before we wrap this up, let's talk about you as a reader. What books are you drawn to, </b><b>and what genres do you read the most?</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>I read a lot of history these days, focusing on eras of change, and the obscure – and often obfuscated – backroom deals that made them happen. A lot of who we are is created by circumstances in ways we can’t even imagine.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>What do you enjoy reading the most, and what books would you recommend to</b></div><div><b>readers who are looking forward to this one (or, to those who loved it?)</b></div><div><br /></div><div>I’m on a real James Lee Burke kick right now, and highly recommend <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/63910381" target="_blank">Flags on the Bayou</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>In closing, do you have any parting thoughts for our readers?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>None besides I hope they enjoy the novel!</div></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: white;"><br /></span></div>Shazziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06909586940953366802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-90738320831065124672024-02-21T03:00:00.018-05:002024-02-22T06:35:44.514-05:00Review: Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSC7J1LRoCJ-48i6Z4AyXeC7Q2PjvL0o_cYViGGiRjj2JmHg3sp8R1zSuMWEyO-0Rxt3TsPVvo-3MsObPqGjwaXKJVdJrKz5x0PCsfqu4vY3Q0L9qT-CHKClKMh928ZDPPFmJ0NSvKitSwbmSEj531oV95kvzaAdWWCZ6oeZX8Lbs5GfaOnivumO_Ij9E/s750/173404001.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="498" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSC7J1LRoCJ-48i6Z4AyXeC7Q2PjvL0o_cYViGGiRjj2JmHg3sp8R1zSuMWEyO-0Rxt3TsPVvo-3MsObPqGjwaXKJVdJrKz5x0PCsfqu4vY3Q0L9qT-CHKClKMh928ZDPPFmJ0NSvKitSwbmSEj531oV95kvzaAdWWCZ6oeZX8Lbs5GfaOnivumO_Ij9E/s320/173404001.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div style="color: black; font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.elizachan.co.uk/">Official Author Website</a><br />Buy <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/eliza-chan/fathomfolk/9780316564922/">Fathomfolk</a></div><div style="color: black; font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="color: black; font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><b>OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO:</b> Eliza Chan is a Scottish-born Chinese-diaspora author who writes about East Asian mythology, British folklore and madwomen in the attic, but preferably all three at once. Eliza’s work has been published in The Dark, Podcastle, Fantasy Magazine and The Best of British Fantasy 2019. Fathomfolk is her first novel..</div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div style="color: black; font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><br /><br /><b>
FORMAT/INFO: </b><i>Fathomfolk</i> will be released February 27th, 2024 by Orbit Books. It is 448 pages long and is told in third person from the POVs of Mira, Nami, and Cordelia. It is available in paperback, audiobook, and ebook formats..<br /><br /><b>
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS:</b> The city of Tiankawi is home to both humans and the fathomfolk - myriad magical species who can live both on land and underwater. But humans and fathomfolk do not share the city equally; the fathomfolk are tolerated at best, second-class citizens mistrusted for their magic and strangeness. But the fathomfolk have grievances of their own: the pollution from human inventions is poisoning the water, spreading deadly infections to those who swim in it. With tensions between humans and fathomfolk rising, one newly immigrated water dragon may be poised to send the entire city up in flames.<br /><br /><i>Fathomfolk</i> is an immersive tale in a fantastical city, one that explores the many hardships that face first and second generation immigrants. It's not a subtle metaphor, but it is an effective one, as the fathomfolk who literally keep the city running face discrimination at every turn. Many fathomfolk are simply trying to escape civil war or collapsing ecosystems, but are met with mistrust and forced to wear a device that suppresses their magic.<br /><br />We follow three characters in this story: Mira, a half-siren born and raised in Tiankawi who is a captain in the city guard; Nami, a young water dragon exiled from her home who finds herself drawn to radical activists; and Cordelia, a sea witch manipulating both sides of the human/fathomfolk tensions to further her own gains. Nami is likely to be a love or hate character. She's extremely naive and easily swayed by rhetoric, but to me seemed emblematic of young people who believe that dramatic action is needed to make change happen sooner; that belief in turn can make such people easy to radicalize. Mira, on the other hand, is an advocate for change over time, of keeping your head down and being a model citizen to show that the fathomfolk are an asset, not a great evil. Neither character is wholly right, but the tension between their two ideologies and those ideologies work (or more often, don't work) is what drives the story.<br /><br />A few other characters could have used a bit more fleshing out. I loved Cordelia's conniving nature and the way she manipulated through both magic and more mundane political pressure to make things happen. That being said, I wasn't fully sure what her endgame was, especially given the amount of chaos she enables that harms both human and fathomfolk alike. (Her storyline also pulls heavily from Disney's version of <i>The Little Mermaid</i>, which I found a bit distracting given how much of the rest of the world felt original.) There was also a secondary character that was introduced in a manner that made me sure they were going to become an important player, so I was perplexed when they ended up doing nothing vital in the story.<br /><br />The world-building of <i>Fathomfolk</i> is certainly overwhelming at first, as you are thrown into a literal and metaphorical deep end. It's daunting trying to follow all the different water species pulled from different mythologies, understanding their abilities, how they interact with water, how some can shift to live on land, etc. But after a bit I found my rhythm and came to really enjoy this city. It seems to be pulling from a 1920s era Hong Kong or San Francisco, busy and crowded and full of different cultural pockets. While I wish I'd gotten a little more information about the world at large, the focus here is very much on this one slice of the world.<br /><br />Real quickly, I need to address one of the romance subplots in this book because I've seen a few reviews comment about it. Mainly, those reviews complain that the relationship is toxic and icky and feels like grooming and is a terrible romance and THAT IS THE POINT. The romance in question is not meant to be a grand love story or aspirational or something that is supposed to set your heart aflutter. To me, it was very clear that the author is fully aware that one character is manipulating the other to further their own agenda. It's fine if that kind of storyline is not something you're interested in, but this subplot should not be mistaken for the author's romanticizing of that kind of behavior.<br /><br /><b>CONCLUSION:</b> Overall, I had a really enjoyable time with <i>Fathomfolk</i>. While it did take me a minute to get acclimated to the world, I found it an engrossing story of people just trying to get by in a city that actively works against them. I will definitely be back with part two of this duology releases in the coming months. <br /><br /></div>Caitlin G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18413387498278506457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-31609490752005472402024-02-20T08:00:00.013-05:002024-02-22T13:25:09.136-05:00SPFBO 9 Finalist review: The Fall is All There Is by C.M. Caplan<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq9Br9R6wNbhtKWwm371tifwY7UxtoARL6SmYHyDMxBRlyZNmXw40ci6TwVXyPZkSJwCdHBzc2xZmeJsHDPf5oIcUxkKEhNkzPiSXkuLhtg-ZMuOu3pxG_g2BbjZb7ORiBVXDYGyAqRA2ifGxNKuqULM8pd11u83Mr50OulVtkhW_Fq7OeVZoeHzjIsP7I/s1200/The%20Fall_SPFBO_Review.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="638" data-original-width="1200" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq9Br9R6wNbhtKWwm371tifwY7UxtoARL6SmYHyDMxBRlyZNmXw40ci6TwVXyPZkSJwCdHBzc2xZmeJsHDPf5oIcUxkKEhNkzPiSXkuLhtg-ZMuOu3pxG_g2BbjZb7ORiBVXDYGyAqRA2ifGxNKuqULM8pd11u83Mr50OulVtkhW_Fq7OeVZoeHzjIsP7I/w400-h213/The%20Fall_SPFBO_Review.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b>ABOUT THE AUTHOR:</b> C.M. Caplan is the author of the SPFBO7 semifinalist The Sword in the Street, SPFBO9 FINALIST The Fall Is All There Is. He's a quadruplet (yes, really), autistic, and has a degree in creative writing. He was awarded his university's highest honor in the arts for his work.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Find Connor online: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/thecmcaplanauthor/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b><i>The Fall is All There Is</i></b> links: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BHDBD8M7" target="_blank">Amazon</a>, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/77779740" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></span></div><div><br /></div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>CHELS</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SM9q__FRJE4" width="320" youtube-src-id="SM9q__FRJE4"></iframe></div><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><b>ESMAY</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><div style="text-align: justify;">The Fall Is All There Is is a wonderfully weird, unapologetically unhinged, and darkly entertaining gendreblendy gem of a book. It throws all genre conventions and reader expectations straight out the window, and that is exactly where its irresistible charm lies.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Five years ago, Petre Mercy fled the royal drama and petty politicking of his family home on a cyborg horse, and he had no intention of ever looking back. But then his dad, the King, had the audacity to die, and with a set of quadruplets as heirs, the line of succession is just a tiny bit messy. Soon Petre is sucked back into an intricate web of deadly political schemes and emotional family feuds as he has to decide which of his siblings deserves his pledge of fealty; if there is any right choice at all.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Within a couple of pages I just knew that The Fall Is All There Is was going to be a book for me. Petre’s intoxicating and disturbingly intimate first person narration immediately pulled me in, and he has quickly shot up to the top of my list of favourite SFF protagonists. As a neurodivergent gay man who lets his emotions rule his actions and who acts before he thinks, he is not the most conventional or even likeable fantasy protagonist. But dammit, if I didn’t love him with all my heart!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Caplan did an absolutely magnificent job of portraying Petre’s chaotic and frenetic headspace, and I loved the moments of quirky writing where Petre almost breaks the fourth wall and asks you directly if you know what he is feeling. He demands you to place yourself in his shoes, and that did absolute wonders for my investment and immersion. The panic, the fear, the anxiety, the hyperfixations, the frustration, the hysteria, the bewilderment, the anger, the paranoia; I related way more deeply to Petre’s intense emotions than I would probably like to admit, and I was honestly revelling in the chaos of it all.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And it’s not only Petre who just absolutely shines, but all of the impressively nuanced side characters simply stole the show as well. The messy and complicated interpersonal relationships were without a doubt my favourite aspect of this story, be they familial, romantic, platonic or something nebulous in between it all. I was honestly gobbling up all the delicious interpersonal drama, and I have no shame in admitting that I was constantly cackling out loud at the hysterical interactions and effortlessly funny dialogue (Fabrian is a GEM!).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What’s more, all that exquisite character work doesn’t come at the cost of some brilliant and honestly batshit crazy world building. With this being set in a post-post-apocalyptic world, the flora and fauna of this world was truly unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. I adored the air of mystery and intrigue that’s embedded into the world building, and I was fascinated with how technology, science, and magic were all so intricately interwoven to create some of the most mind-boggling concepts I have ever stumbled across in SFF (hi ghostfog, exploding cyborg horses and flesh eating plants).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now, as much as I adored Petre as a protagonist, there were some moments where I almost wished we had gotten some additional perspectives to make things a bit less confusing. We only know as much as Petre knows, and it just so happens that he is completely out of his depth for large parts of this confoundingly complex story. To me, this made the (political) plot feel a bit muddy at times, and especially near the hectic climax of the story I started to lose some of the threads.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That said, this story is so deeply character-driven that I truly didn’t mind the little stumbles in the plot and pacing all too much. Ultimately, I was just so deeply in awe (and maybe slightly frightened?) of Caplan’s wildly exciting imagination, and I could not stop turning the pages. I honestly thought I would never find another reading experience that would come close to Tamsyn Muir’s The Locked Tomb series, but The Fall Is All There Is might have just done so. And trust me, that is the highest of high praise for me.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Fall Is All There Is was simply a true delight to read, and I will be counting down the days until I can return to this magnificently mystifying world and deeply flawed yet inexplicably endearing characters. If you think the SFF genre has nothing new to offer anymore, please do yourself a favour and pick up this wholly original and refreshingly unconventional political scifantasy novel!</div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">ŁUKASZ</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">It’s a wild one. Petre Mercy, the youngest of the autistic royal quadruplets, ran away from home at eighteen. After his father dies, Petre is summoned home to the chaotic life at court he’d fled from years ago, to sort out the line of succession. Each of his siblings wants him to pick their side, and one wrong move could ignite a civil war. Especially since Petre’s siblings are a curious bunch. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Desmon Mercy, who was trained from a young age to be the family's ambassador, excels at forging alliances and business deals but has a bit of a superiority complex.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Edgar Mercy speaks in very clipped, controlled sentences, and is more than a little confrontational. Also, charismatic enough to have built up a bit of a cult following. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">As for Anoïse Mercy, the eldest of the quadruplets and the current Queen, she struggles to be as decisive as she'd like to be. She's deeply committed to upholding her father's memory and fulfilling her birthright, even though it has already cost her a great deal. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">To say their unique family dynamic is complicated would be the understatement of the year. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Apart from being absolutely bonkers, The Fall is All There Is is hard to categorize. You might call it post-apocalyptic science-fantasy but that doesn't quite capture its essence. In this world, science allows to enhance people's physical abilities and reflexes (dear lord, the injections scenes!), but there's also a significant element of magic. Right from the beginning, we learn that magic was responsible for the world's fall thousands of years ago during "The First Annihilation," which reshaped the world in bizarre ways. Survivors managed to create incredible scientific marvels but tragically misused them during "The Second Annihilation," plunging themselves back into a primitive existence. The people of today live in a world pieced together from the remnants of these two catastrophic events. Science clashes with magic, magic with science, and sometimes it’s hard to tell which is which and where are boundaries.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The book opens with a gripping and attention-grabbing first line that immediately establishes a sense of tension and unease. Petre's distinct voice (1st person POV) creates a compelling narrative. Petre is a hot-mess and his Caplan finds a way to effectively convey his complex emotions and inner conflicts. Now, perhaps, less screaming during family meetings would make things smoother but don’t count on it 🙂 As mentioned, Petre’s family dynamic is unique. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">The pacing of the book is well-managed - the initial tension builds gradually as the protagonist grapples with his new circumstances. The tension continues to escalate, and a sense of anticipation and urgency drives the story forward. I think Caplan effectively integrates world-building elements without tormenting readers with huge blocks of exposition. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">In terms of critique, parts of the story could benefit from clearer transitions between different sections to ensure a smoother flow of the narrative. Additionally, Petre's inner monologue occasionally becomes convoluted and lacks clarity. Perhaps simplifying some of the complex sentence structures and streamlining the narrative could help maintain clarity and make the story more accessible to readers.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Merriweather;">Overall, I enjoyed The Fall is All There Is. It’s wild, unpredictable, and contains enough twists and turns to keep readers' attention.</span></div></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>OFFICIAL SPFBO SCORE</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUCxSTipOsi9WrFkNLJRFpr1N6cbGOfqZozLxQ5IClgVWIDbredN2vgbOXwwlqkzQ0h9aWyztai54SIHlH40XzV2QHDOidx3r2l3nR-N7kh5dnLup48O-uyH2jV4YvAJ-xVyN3xJpmVBXSNC8T3uOIPVPiHFk3tNbVPRHNzHzdRYmW_szi_x9V9fmXsnNA/s1747/The%20Fall_SPFBO_ratings.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="957" data-original-width="1747" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUCxSTipOsi9WrFkNLJRFpr1N6cbGOfqZozLxQ5IClgVWIDbredN2vgbOXwwlqkzQ0h9aWyztai54SIHlH40XzV2QHDOidx3r2l3nR-N7kh5dnLup48O-uyH2jV4YvAJ-xVyN3xJpmVBXSNC8T3uOIPVPiHFk3tNbVPRHNzHzdRYmW_szi_x9V9fmXsnNA/w400-h219/The%20Fall_SPFBO_ratings.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><b><br /></b></div>Łukaszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08150091349987128184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-30341502315066636632024-02-20T03:00:00.005-05:002024-02-20T03:05:51.160-05:00SPFBO Finalist Interview: C.M. Caplan, The Author of The Fall Is All There is<div style="text-align: justify;"><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW7GrTo1a22ymkHsMPv9DCmeTeMmj7gNdnNJBLlUWhaWrSlNWNAidIqQNhHjZCCfMhk84dPBjM7JD3728Vz5LwKODNoRTQBq1Q3d30e27kYfnJOiwlE6PAbZd9VuBpybTkzGmgexFmwZkrMlodIuK4L6Y28WwOJw1FhKyEa5BOmUxKjCG9aRC5KaoAp2T0/s400/C.M.%20Caplan.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="300" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW7GrTo1a22ymkHsMPv9DCmeTeMmj7gNdnNJBLlUWhaWrSlNWNAidIqQNhHjZCCfMhk84dPBjM7JD3728Vz5LwKODNoRTQBq1Q3d30e27kYfnJOiwlE6PAbZd9VuBpybTkzGmgexFmwZkrMlodIuK4L6Y28WwOJw1FhKyEa5BOmUxKjCG9aRC5KaoAp2T0/w300-h400/C.M.%20Caplan.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b>ABOUT THE AUTHOR:</b> C.M. Caplan is the author of the SPFBO7 semifinalist The Sword in the Street, SPFBO9 FINALIST The Fall Is All There Is. He's a quadruplet (yes, really), autistic, and has a degree in creative writing. He was awarded his university's highest honor in the arts for his work.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Find Connor online: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/thecmcaplanauthor/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b><i>The Fall is All There Is</i></b> links: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BHDBD8M7" target="_blank">Amazon</a>, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/77779740" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></span></div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><b>INTERVIEW</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Thank you for agreeing to this interview. Before we start, tell us a little about yourself.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">My name is Connor Caplan, I’m a quadruplet, I’m disabled, I’ve got basically all the alphabet acronyms in the DSM-whatever-the-fuck number they’re on. I really enjoy working out, swords, history, and disassembling stories to figure out why they work, examining the linguistic flourishes that can enhance things like characterization and all the component elements that make stories tick and build empathy across a narrative arc.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Do you have a day job? If so, what is it?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sort of? If it’s possible to be a house-husband without being married or having kids, that'd describe most of my day-to-day. Although I manage to scrumble together a modest income from an eclectic variety of sources month to month. Mostly relating to paid beta reads, book sales, or writing essays for various people.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Who are some of your favorite writers, and why is their work important to you?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I think my earliest influences were reading <b>Tolkien</b> and <b>George RR Martin</b> as a teenager, and I think my biggest lesson from those early influences was the value of indulgence. I think there’s something of incredible value in the ability to bring everything you love into a work put it all on the table. It’s a really vulnerable, personal thing to do, and I think when you can incorporate a lot of things you’re passionate about well, people tend to respond well to it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Though It wasn’t until I read <i>The Broken Earth Trilogy</i> by <b>NK Jemisin</b> and <i>Realm of the Elderlings</i> by <b>Robin Hobb</b> that I truly started rethinking the possibilities of what fantasy as a genre could even be. Jemisin is just one of the most talented people I’ve ever read, full stop. Like I’ve never read a writer who can pull off every element of a story at an eleven. The worldbuilding is at an eleven, originality at an eleven, dialogue, character, prose, it’s all the best a work could ever be. And it’s interrogating a deeply painful history that reflects struggles people face in the real world without pulling any punches, or going for the cheap and easy 1:1 level worldbuilding. And then I read Robin Hobb, and it had such an emphasis on characters and messiness and relationships, and I’d never seen someone take a character centric approach to that insane degree, who delved deeper into a point of view than I even knew it was possible to go. And I think all of those got smashed together as I learned to bring a more unique perspective to my own work.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>What do you think characterizes your writing style?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I can’t find a way to say this without sounding wildly arrogant, but I think the main draw of my style is the ability to form unexpected connections. I process information and draw comparisons, even on a daily basis, in ways that are strange and confusing to the people around me. That’s not a brag, to be clear. It genuinely brings a lot of chaos into your life when a lot of conversations end in, “how the hell did we get here?” But I think that becomes a strength when it comes to writing. A lot of prose construction is, to me, a matter of empathetic math, where I need to slot in words with the right social, cultural, or emotional connotations to solve for an emotional truth. But because I make connections in unexpected ways, it can lead to comparisons and choices that are a bit unconventional, for some. And that’s also where a lot of the weirdness in this book comes from–slotting together a bunch of weird ideas together from unexpected places. It’s me going “I want lightsabers, but I can’t use a laser-sword. I’ve already got cyborg horses. Maybe there’s another way I can fuse biology and machines. Okay, so the thyroid is responsible for regulating body heat, so I’ll just give these swords a battery made of human thyroid and a wirework that pumps hormones into the blade, and–” and then suddenly I’ve got an angle no one’s seen before, and a lot of the people who are only reading the end result are like “how did you ever even think of that in the first place?” And I dunno why I made these connections, it just made sense at the time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>What made you decide to self-publish <i>The Fall Is All There Is</i> as opposed to traditional publishing?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So when I wrote what would become my debut, <i>The Sword in the Street</i>, I actually tried to query it. I got a couple of personalized rejections from a few big name agents (I think the most high profile one was Richard Curtis? (Dan Simmons’ literary agent, not the guy who wrote Love Actually), which all said something to the effect of “This is really very good, but it’s just a bit outside the kinds of things we normally try to publish.” And after a while when enough people started saying the same thing I decided to go indie with it. And then I went to write this one, and by the end it was so far out of the box, especially in comparison to my first book, that I figured I should just go indie with this one too, and hopefully be able to demonstrate that there’s a market for whatever the fuck this thing is I’m doing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>What’s your favorite and least favorite parts of self-publishing?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I adore the immediacy of it. The certainty that if you plug away at something and polish it enough, you will end up with a book. There’s no querying, no being on sub, no tragic story writing something and not finding anybody who will take it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But then there’s the flip side, you don’t have anyone who will tell you what to do, but you’d better be sure you’re making the right decision, because if it’s all on you then you also have to be the one to sell it. Unless you’re making enough money to pay for a publicist or experiment with ads, you’ve got to do all the hustling yourself. Which–even that I have a lot of fun with, honestly. I love making tiktoks and podcasting and promoting myself. I’m sure it’s obvious by now how much I love to talk. But it can take some time to get eyes on you, and often consistency is more valuable than blitzes. And since I’m someone more inclined to sprints of effort, that kind of marathon-style pacing can be daunting at times.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Why did you enter SPFBO?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I’ve had my eye on it since before I’d even started publishing. I think I first learned about it during SPFBO 3, in 2017, when I googled Mark Lawrence after I first read Prince of Thorns. I was 21 and still in college. I hadn’t even finished a manuscript yet or even gotten a degree, but I remember thinking if I ever went indie I wanted to join the contest. And then I joined and made semifinals in SPFBO 7, and I wanted to see if I could match that or do better once I’d put my second book out this year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>What would you do if you won the SPFBO?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Oh god I don’t even know. That hasn’t even entered my brain as a possibility. I’m fully expecting to get dinged too many times for being too sci-fi, or too fast paced, or something. I’d probably want to do <a href="https://twitter.com/thecmcaplan/status/1704918995378278844">something similar to what I did when I first got the nomination</a> and try use that spotlight to highlight a few books I liked that didn’t make it that far.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>How would you describe the plot of The Fall Is All There Is if you had to do so in just one or two sentences?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After his father dies, the youngest in a set of quadruplets royals is summoned home to the chaotic life at court he’d fled from years ago, in order to sort out the line of succession. But all his siblings want him to pick their side, and one wrong move could kick start a civil war.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>What was your initial inspiration for the book? How long have you been working on it? Has it evolved from its original idea?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The initial spark came from The Lion in Winter, which is where the title is derived from. It’s a play by James Goldman and also one of my favorite things to ever exist, and if I ever write anything half as good I could die happy. I started it in May 18th, 2021, and initially Petre was a bastard sibling, and I wanted to write about a civil war that took a lot of inspiration from The Anarchy in England. But a lot of that felt too similar to Robin Hobb, and when I realized I was the only person I knew with first hand experience on being a quadruplet, I figured it’d be cool to incorporate that the broad strokes of that experience and make it into something cool.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That said, it was also nothing like the final product. It had ghostfog and cyborg horses, but it was also set in a post apocalyptic future-earth, and everything else was fairly medieval, and there wasn’t really any of the weird landscape and worldbuilding. That actually only came a few months from publication. Avram, and the injections at the beginning of the book only came during the second draft, which was a 208K-word romantasy novel, only about 60K of which survived the first beta-read. Edgar didn’t even make an appearance! Mercedes was a man and he had a daughter!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But after the first beta read in February of 2022, I realized the focus needed to be more firmly on the siblings, so I cut out the romance arc and almost totally rewrote it into more or less the version it exists in now, which I finished in May of 2022. And then over the summer the weird stuff like the skeleton castles, the chameleon coat, and the thyroid swords slowly started bleeding into the final draft, because I wanted lightsabers and that required figuring out how to build on the cyborg horse tech that fused meat and machinery.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>If you had to describe it in 3 adjectives, which would you choose?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chaotic, Sleek, and Bizarre.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Is it part of the series or a standalone? If series, how many books have you planned for it?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It’s part of a series. Unless things get wildly out of hand, it should be a trilogy, and (unless things change drastically) the ending to book two might be the meanest thing I’ve ever done as an author.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Who are the key players in this story? Could you introduce us to The Fall Is All There is’s protagonists/antagonists?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The main character is Petre Mercy, the youngest (by two minutes) in a set of autistic quadruplets who ran away from home at eighteen. He’s a hot mess of emotions and contradictions and spends most of the book strung out and falling apart.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The third oldest of the four is Desmon Mercy, who probably is the closest to Having His Shit Together™. He was trained from an early age to be the family ambassador, building alliances and business deals. He’s spent the last few years carefully cultivating a superiority complex.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Edgar Mercy is the second oldest of the quadruplets. He speaks in very clipped, controlled sentences, and it’s never clear if he actually maintains that stoicism or if he’s putting on a front. He’s more than a little confrontational, but charismatic enough to have built up a bit of a cult following.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anoïse Mercy (pronounced Ann-oh-weez), is the eldest of the four, and the current Queen after their father died of lymphoma. She’s not as decisive as she wants to be and is committed to doing justice to her father’s memory and fulfilling her birthright, despite, if not because of, all it’s cost her already.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Does your book feature a magic/magic system? If yes, can you describe it?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It’s less of a system at the moment and more of a texture, if that makes sense. There’s no real ruleset laid down for how it works, but we know at the start of the book that magic ended the world thousands of years ago in what was called The First Annihilation, which terraformed the world and turned it into a weird fusion of flora and fauna. And then the survivors built a world of scientific marvels atop the wreckage, building wetware technology and developing scientifically until they advanced far enough to blow themselves back to the stone age in The Second Annihilation. And it’s been a few centuries since then and the survivors of that have eked a kingdom out from the wreckage of these two events, and have spent those years trying to reverse engineer how all the fusions of magic and technology left over from those previous societies actually work.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Have you written The Fall Is All There Is with a particular audience in mind?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Not at first? Not on purpose, anyway. I just had a bunch of ideas that had been in my mind since around 2018 and I put them all in a document and tried to synthesize them. Over time it turned into something hopefully for fans of fantasy and sci-fi who want to see something new and off the beaten path.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>What was your proofreading/editing process?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I had one aforementioned beta read done by Angela Boord, who completely ripped the book to shreds, and it was really clear that the initial draft was me terrified to let anything really happen out of fears of being too pulpy. So I had to completely rewrite it, and then I sent it to Ryan Howse for another beta read. He wanted to see more stuff like the cyborg horses, and repeatedly stressed that he wanted to see more Avram, which both resulted in a lot of the weirdest things people highlight about this book. If anyone deserves credit for how weird this book is, it’s home, so please direct all your thanks to his way.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After that, I sent it to Noah Sky who is phenomenal and has a fantastic turnaround time, for a line edit. Then Quenby Olson did a proofread, thank god, because I’d used the word “murmured” about 112 too many times, so she definitely saved me from being inundated with “Nynaeve tugged her braid” style memes, for which I owe her a life debt.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivvtN3QA4BhY41s8aswfTMbgV1GPB5DPEbJ1EM8ieTbPM6qrlxC1aL6N2EnjVXwi0t0EVPRN6XYrl6HLyRJIc-mNfRkU7nIKJywyljFNrFaoB44gYJXV0ayibnXQo_2lLbsn5ixWz7AJlvhaNwz5JGsVGJhYH7-ESTaP91CmoCCD98nk6x2iYaad34sF7b/s847/77779740.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="847" data-original-width="574" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivvtN3QA4BhY41s8aswfTMbgV1GPB5DPEbJ1EM8ieTbPM6qrlxC1aL6N2EnjVXwi0t0EVPRN6XYrl6HLyRJIc-mNfRkU7nIKJywyljFNrFaoB44gYJXV0ayibnXQo_2lLbsn5ixWz7AJlvhaNwz5JGsVGJhYH7-ESTaP91CmoCCD98nk6x2iYaad34sF7b/w271-h400/77779740.jpg" width="271" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Cover art is always an important factor in book sales. Can you tell us about the idea behind the cover of The Fall Is All There Is and the artist?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The cover art was done by Mike McClung, who is fantastic and I love him. He’d done a few covers I really really liked for his own books, and I can’t recall if he offered to do me a cover, or if I asked, but I wanted to highlight the cyborg horses while also centering Petre on the cover, so we walked through it back and forth for a while, and he seriously did the most phenomenal job on it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Which question about the book do you wish someone would ask? Ask it and answer it!</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Oh man I don’t actually think I have anything. I’m just grateful for the attention it’s received thus far.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>What’s your publishing Schedule for 2023/2024?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I am hoping to get book two out in 2024. I’ve no idea how optimistic that is. I’m not as far into it as I’d like to be, due to a horribly embarrassing error I promise I’ll admit to after the book is out in which I spent like nine months trying to paper over a plot hole before I took a closer look at it and realized that was the plot the whole time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hopefully I can get it out next year. Though I’ve heard stories from previous finalists about this time moment of hypervisibility can be a bit stifling when it comes to writing future books. I think V.E Schwab has a metaphor for a similar, obviously more scaled-up phenomenon about writing in a glass box. So a lot of it will come down to how close I get to the final vision in my current pass.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Thank you for taking the time to answer all the questions. In closing, do you have any parting thoughts or comments you would like to share with our readers?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Honestly I’m just grateful for anyone taking the time out of their day to read my mad scribbling, so I just have to salute anyone who’s made it to the end of this page. If you’re reading this, you’re amazing!</div></span>Łukaszhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08150091349987128184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-59802581029779271762024-02-16T03:00:00.002-05:002024-02-20T02:37:34.340-05:00Review: An Education in Malice by S.T. Gibson<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd3TTwcW-Qy5a62nFu3Lzri3v_3pDDBhdGdCip4EEGPUb5FJ5JwnQmvT0UMUMj_n_KODfTX8P4vlm0IE42ursx52L293-UkUqqxsUzoOL4AslhNYuuAmfrpH7hqJuZSQKv00pcsZJ7_aM-MtLwnR4Rz1qztFPLpFG9sG0Hje2939xNKtW9LIUzT6CpqbU/s965/64414866.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="965" data-original-width="627" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd3TTwcW-Qy5a62nFu3Lzri3v_3pDDBhdGdCip4EEGPUb5FJ5JwnQmvT0UMUMj_n_KODfTX8P4vlm0IE42ursx52L293-UkUqqxsUzoOL4AslhNYuuAmfrpH7hqJuZSQKv00pcsZJ7_aM-MtLwnR4Rz1qztFPLpFG9sG0Hje2939xNKtW9LIUzT6CpqbU/s320/64414866.jpg" width="208" /></a></div><a href="https://stgibson.com/">Official Author Website</a><br />Buy <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/s-t-gibson/an-education-in-malice/9780316501972/" target="_blank">An Education in Malice</a><p></p><div style="color: black; font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><b>
OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: </b>Saint is a literary agent, author, and village wise woman in training. A graduate of the creative writing program at the University of North Carolina at Asheville and the theological studies program at Princeton Seminary, she currently lives in Boston with her partner, spoiled Persian cat, and vintage blazer collection. She is represented by Tara Gilbert of the Jennifer De Chiara literary agency</div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div style="color: black; font-family: georgia; text-align: justify;"><br /><br /><b>
FORMAT/INFO:</b> <i>An Education in Malice</i> was published on February 13th, 2024 by Orbit Books. It is 352 pages long and told in first person from both Laura and Carmilla's POV. It is available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats.<br /><br /><b>
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS:</b> Saint Perpetua's is an isolated women's college, cut off from much of the surrounding communities, but to Laura it's a first step into a wider world. Her poetry professor De Lafontaine pushes her writing to new heights, while the modern girls of the 1960s hardly blink at Laura's romantic preference for women. But the true challenge that shapes her is Carmilla, Laura's academic rival in De LaFontaine's class. Soon the two are competing for the professor's attention both in and out of the classroom; their rivalry will draw them into the school's darkest secrets, as well as their own darkest desires.<br /><br /><i>
An Education in Malice</i> is another decadent vampire outing from S.T. Gibson, where academic rivalry is the stepping stone to much more unhealthy emotions. Where <i>A Dowry of Blood</i>, the previous book set in this world, was a vibes heavy book, this outing has a stronger plot line to follow, though it is still secondary to the character relationships themselves. The story alternates POVs between Laura, a quiet young woman who has learned to hide and suppress her sexual preferences, and Carmilla, a petulant rival obsessed with keeping the adoration of Professor De Lafontaine. Both vie for De Lafontaine's approval, and both suffer from her manipulations. <br /><br />
This book is a mess of toxic relationships; these are characters in lust, not love, much as they might try to argue otherwise. They are by turns obsessive, possessive, and manipulative. And in the moment, I became equally obsessive about watching these characters be disasters, breezing through the book in two days. When vampires truly enter the scene (a surprisingly late development), hungers get expectedly darker and more seductive. If you came to <i>An Education in Malice</i> looking for some explicit exploration of vampire hedonism, you've come to the right place. <br /><br />
Where I got a bit frustrated with the book was the way it ended its story. I'm on board for an indulgent showcasing of sexy vampires (we know why we're here), but the book doesn't truly hold anybody's feet to the fire with regards to consequences. After all the manipulation and obsessiveness, the ending simply shrugs and lets the characters go on their way, rather than truly force them to face the awfulness they've been complicit in. It felt like it let everybody off the hook in a way that betrayed its own awareness of how terrible the characters are. <br /><br /><b>
CONCLUSION:</b> <i>An Education in Malice</i> is here to provide a snack of a vampire story, a blend of sapphic discovery and dark academia. If this is your kind of story, it will completely draw you in, even if it doesn't quite nail the landing in the end.<br /><br /></div>Caitlin G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/18413387498278506457noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-39895019888028238282024-02-15T00:00:00.025-05:002024-02-20T02:37:39.852-05:00The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (Reviewed by Shazzie & Mihir Wanchoo)<h1 style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: white;">Book Review: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett</span></h1><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a alt="The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisDMrV6VHNViUl3xrw5H_86xorSYAdYJSmmWVF0WKXur7rsMc4RagC5z4uxbPiXlyFcFt8wONrjS6j9W5ZcrTcLVNoYwUXtyFszprAd1JGplgeU0C5jWZ0QQGjNHXe2ihg5e4pZ_56D-V6Tb_KjFO0UYq0MqSqTh9cq4ij3Ais-xMt0WmU5gDhUUX_WpRE/s500/the-tainted-cup-by-robert-jackson-bennett.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="343" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisDMrV6VHNViUl3xrw5H_86xorSYAdYJSmmWVF0WKXur7rsMc4RagC5z4uxbPiXlyFcFt8wONrjS6j9W5ZcrTcLVNoYwUXtyFszprAd1JGplgeU0C5jWZ0QQGjNHXe2ihg5e4pZ_56D-V6Tb_KjFO0UYq0MqSqTh9cq4ij3Ais-xMt0WmU5gDhUUX_WpRE/w292-h424/the-tainted-cup-by-robert-jackson-bennett.jpg" width="292" /></a></div><p><span style="color: #6e6b45; font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://www.robertjacksonbennett.com/" style="color: #6e6b45;"><b>Official Author Website</b></a></span></p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(20, 41, 62); color: #14293e;">Buy </span><i>The Tainted Cup</i> here - <a href="https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/robert-jackson-bennett-3/the-tainted-cup/9781399725378/">U.K.</a> | <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/648051/the-tainted-cup-by-robert-jackson-bennett/">U.S.</a></b></span><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>Read Caitlin's review <a href="https://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2024/01/review-tainted-cup-by-robert-jackson.html" target="_blank">here</a></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span><p style="caret-color: rgb(20, 41, 62); color: #14293e; margin: 0.5em 0px; text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO:</b> Robert is the author of American Elsewhere, The Troupe, The Company Man, Mr. Shivers, as well as The Divine Cities trilogy and The Founders Trilogy. <br /><br />His work has received the Edgar Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the Phillip K. Dick Citation of Excellence, and he has been shortlisted for the World Fantasy, British Fantasy, and Locus Awards.<br /><br />He lives in Austin with his wife and two sons, one of whom is very large and one of whom is very loud, and he focuses on writing and not maintaining his website.</span></div><span style="caret-color: rgb(20, 41, 62); color: #14293e;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a name="more" style="color: #2b5988; text-decoration: underline;"></a></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><a name='more'></a></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /><br /><b>FORMAT/INFO:</b> <i>The Tainted Cup</i> was be published on February 6th, 2024 by Hodderscape in the U.K. and by Del Rey in the U.S. It is 432 pages and told in the first person from Dinios Kol's POV. It will be available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats.<br /><br /><b>OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS (SHAZZIE):</b> <span style="text-align: left;">Every once in a while I read a book from a genre I'm not generally a fan of but find so fun, and</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><strong style="text-align: left;">THE TAINTED CUP</strong><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">by</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><strong style="text-align: left;">Robert Jackson Bennett</strong><span style="text-align: left;"> </span><span style="text-align: left;">is one of those few.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><p style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Quick unrelated dump about my childhood fear here: It's common in my part of the world to discourage children from eating seeds of fruit by telling them that if they do, a tree would grow start growing inside of them and eventually makes it way out. Why am I telling you this? Because this book starts that way, there's a graphic death cause by a plant exploding from the inside of and through a commander. The protagonist is Kol, the assistant of Ana Dolabara, a strange woman who lives with a blindfold and never leaves her place.</span></p><p style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">This is a fun, fantastic and comforting murder mystery that is fast paced. It starts with a simple looking death that soon unfolds into far reaching consequences. In some places I felt like the author relied a bit too heavily on the Holmes and Watson dynamic and character types throughout the story, and the sider characters involved lacked personality beyond a dimension, and there were minor moments where the treatment of the story swerves from having suspense as Kol works on the mystery, and in building tension by dropping hindsight in his narration. Anyway, those are very minor complaints and I enjoyed reading this.</span></p><p style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">So, the major plus here is the weird and gruesome world this takes place in, and I assure you that no matter how you feel about reading murder mysteries, this is worth a read for that aspect alone. There are mountainous leviathans that head inland on a rampage at the start of the wet season, and the empire has to resort to all kinds of machinations and sets of huge walls to keep the citizens safe. There is plenty of exposure to this concept through the plot, but is also seen through the protagonist's backstory as well. The death that kick starts the book happens at the start of the wet season, and adds an impending sense of danger to the implications of their finds in the case.</span></p><p style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">But, that's not what I thought was the best part. The creepiest and most intriguing part of the world is the plants and the body and mind alterations they help bring about. Plants are shown to have industrial uses, but the humans in the empire can also alter themselves with specific ones. Kol, for example, is an engraver who has his mind altered with a specific plant that gives him the equivalent of a kind of eidetic memory, and there are others who use certain others to grow extra muscle, so that they can defend the territory and shores from the monsters if needed. This is but a small sample of the macabre world created by the author.</span></p><p style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXc6DOqHAenbY8yyXjpBFp9ZzdxltpV-CMqE3bAdIUvhpUryN0MlsLloMsmE-DwC6JlcZ5GXRLXPleRcO9GbTaAfz_cXJJuM-4lpMaowJo3wIIFx3Hyk8uYuLZO5IU67XogUWBbisIN2o9E6zHmJwMllc2PTWOKCve7vlLtq3uuRpRgubmfOFaYONfeFo/s1500/918HFs91Z-L._SL1500_-3583300918.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="987" height="427" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXc6DOqHAenbY8yyXjpBFp9ZzdxltpV-CMqE3bAdIUvhpUryN0MlsLloMsmE-DwC6JlcZ5GXRLXPleRcO9GbTaAfz_cXJJuM-4lpMaowJo3wIIFx3Hyk8uYuLZO5IU67XogUWBbisIN2o9E6zHmJwMllc2PTWOKCve7vlLtq3uuRpRgubmfOFaYONfeFo/w282-h427/918HFs91Z-L._SL1500_-3583300918.jpg" width="282" /></a></div><br /><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS (MIHIR): </b>The
Tainted Cup was one of my most anticipated books when it was announced last
year. It spoke of Sherlockian mysteries with a secondary fantasy world and it
was written by cypher like Robert J. Bennett. It was a no-brainer as the kids
like to say.<br /><o:p></o:p> <br />The story begins with Dinios Kol who is
assigned to be head investigator Ana Dolabra’s assistant around the Daretana
canton beyond the third wall. The Empire of Khanum is a thriving place but
becomes more and more fatal as one get closer to the seas on the eastern front
(Sarisav, Sabirli, Yarrow & Eastern). There are four giant walls that have
been built and therein lies the safety of the population.<br /> <br />For in this world, there are leviathans
who come marauding into the land during the wet Season and it can be
devastation all around. Somewhere in the past, these walls were built and it
lead to prosperity (or atleast the death toll became manageable). Since then
technology has prospered with implants and gene modifications, which has, lead
us to the present day empire.<br /> <br />The story begins with a strange plant
related death of commander Taqtasa Blas in a mansion that’s owned by a rich
family. Dinios is forced to be the eyes and ears of the investigation as his
superior Ana Dolabra refuses to leave her home and keeps herself blindfolded
while reading everything and anything to keep her mind busy. Thus beings the
strange case that makes the Tainted Cup such a fascinating read.<br /> <br />Robert J Bennett has created a very
fascinating world and it absolutely draws the reader in. The story is very much
plot driven and herein lies the rub. The story is very much seen through the
eyes of Dinios Kol and not through Ana Dolabra. In this it very much mirrors
the scenario from Richard Swan’s debut trilogy (a La Justice Konrad Vonvalt and
Helena Sedanka). This is the part wherein the story falters a bit as the Din’s
character while mysterious isn’t as gripping. This very much is due to the fact
that this is the first volume of Shadow Of The Leviathan series and I’m sure
with further volumes, more of Dinios and Ana’s pasts and behaviours will become
easier to understand.<br /> <br />The plot however is the story’s Atlas,
it holds the readers’ interest from the start all the way to the action-packed
climax. For fantasy readers, this book will offer something new and for
returning fans of Robert J. Bennett, once again they will get a new fantasy sub-genre.
The worldbuilding is top-notch and it is one of the author’s strongest facets.
The world with all of its plant based features as well as the Leviathans are
what make the world feel so unique and I hope in the future volumes, we get to
see other parts of the world and that can lead to understanding why the Leviathans
do what they do.<br /> <br />The Tainted Cup is a fascinating start
to a wonderful series that will have Robert J Bennett gain a lot more fans.
However some of his returning fans who might have gotten used to expecting
great things might find this good story fall a little bit short. </span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">
</span></p></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>CONCLUSION (SHAZZIE)</b>: <span style="text-align: start;">If you want a fast paced, popcorn-ish mystery read, you'll want this. If you love epic fantasy, you'll want it for the world it is set in. And if you like both, you'll have a blast. I did report a few minor issues, but I really enjoyed this, and need the next book please. This mystery is solved, with a few things I never saw coming, but stuff that you can relate to real life nevertheless, which is part of what made it so good. Luckily, there's plenty more adventures to be had in this world, with this being just the first installment.</span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="text-align: start;"><br /></span></span></div>Shazziehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06909586940953366802noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-25660218240990692132024-02-14T00:00:00.002-05:002024-02-14T03:59:16.460-05:00Exclusive Map Reveal: Neo Kinoko Map by Adrian M. Gibson<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCAKjZN12WWsPWm6JTPBgPlMmFVfoWPIKiqMCHKuRe-huc7HwVbNmx0XJqRnCewk8dx_7i_hfmysmjKVsNZX_r7z90wpftpeSxpz0V3grIAb9bcZgy1lQcissdC1WQASJGDn5-BP1QtrB-CEJtEnIRfHh7JKKdEcbyG2YGppmoMqOIFd-jVOo9sZNHalc/s1279/Author%20Photo%201.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1279" data-original-width="925" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCAKjZN12WWsPWm6JTPBgPlMmFVfoWPIKiqMCHKuRe-huc7HwVbNmx0XJqRnCewk8dx_7i_hfmysmjKVsNZX_r7z90wpftpeSxpz0V3grIAb9bcZgy1lQcissdC1WQASJGDn5-BP1QtrB-CEJtEnIRfHh7JKKdEcbyG2YGppmoMqOIFd-jVOo9sZNHalc/w250-h346/Author%20Photo%201.jpg" width="250" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><a href="https://adrianmgibson.com/">Official Author Website</a></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Like many people, I’m
a sucker for maps in books. I was the kid who’d spend hours poring through my
dad’s worn-out atlas, absorbing all of the continents, borders, capital cities,
rivers, mountain ranges, and more. I loved it, and, thinking back, it was a
natural extension of my father being a professional cartographer for his day
job.<br /> </span><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> <span><a name='more'></a></span></span></o:p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;">Tracing the
trajectory of my relationship with maps, it’s obvious why I was so obsessed with
them in fantasy novels. I remember the first time I saw the map of Middle
Earth, and how it completely absorbed me. So much so that it took me a good few
hours before I even started reading <i>The Hobbit</i>. From <b>The Shire</b> to the
<b>Misty Mountains</b>, and the dense foliage of <b>Mirkwood</b> to the slopes of <b>Erebor</b>, I
was hooked. Since then, I’ve devoured every fictional map I’ve ever come
across, but one thing has always bugged me: Why weren’t there very many maps in
sci-fi books, if any?<br /> </span><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;">When I started
creating <b>The Fungalverse</b> and what would eventually become <i>Mushroom Blues</i>,
I knew I wanted to have a map. Even though it’s sci-fi adjacent and takes place
in Neo Kinoko—a secondary world city analogous to our 1990’s—I thought a map
would be essential. It’s that extra touch that can bring readers deeper into a
fictional world, enhancing their sense of immersion and their understanding of
the story’s geographical space.<br /> </span><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;">Obviously, some
readers don’t give a shit about maps, and that’s fine. That’s their
prerogative. From my perspective, though, they’re missing out. For those who <i>do
care</i>, have I got a treat for you. And so, it is my pleasure to share with
you the map of Neo Kinoko, as it appears in <i>Mushroom Blues</i>. Not only
that, but I’m going to walk you through the stages of how I created this map
from scratch (with the help of my old man).<br /></span><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></o:p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></o:p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi94AXNVdpyDQWhwFz-1jdAFH8XMKhxBvzH7NbZPUM_i6Cpv3qerf8q6fwYQI4pEMKb83BPZFJfclv1Sn7UBEnt08tLBGZl1KBcIxDzrAF_ze1jsNNQCOcQi8KXWMt6rJqeF_ARoKRJPvjU4YqplV-SHZjVBH59Gjtbm_hkQLBpxhyc9WyIrt_6KIFiTR8/s6476/FBC%20Image%201.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3485" data-original-width="6476" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi94AXNVdpyDQWhwFz-1jdAFH8XMKhxBvzH7NbZPUM_i6Cpv3qerf8q6fwYQI4pEMKb83BPZFJfclv1Sn7UBEnt08tLBGZl1KBcIxDzrAF_ze1jsNNQCOcQi8KXWMt6rJqeF_ARoKRJPvjU4YqplV-SHZjVBH59Gjtbm_hkQLBpxhyc9WyIrt_6KIFiTR8/w529-h293/FBC%20Image%201.jpg" width="529" /></a></div><br /></span></o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><u>STEP 1</u>:</b><br /></span><span style="font-family: georgia;">First and foremost,
Neo Kinoko is heavily inspired by Tokyo, Japan. Not simply from the layout of
its harbor and specific geographical features, but also the culture and
religions of Japan, the density of its cityscape, the blending of modern and
ancient, and much more. This also applies to how Tokyo was devastated during
WWII by American bombing campaigns, leaving whole sections of the city leveled
and homes, buildings, and landmarks burnt to the ground. Neo Kinoko is a
post-war city, and that shows in ways both obvious and subtle.<br /></span><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;">For this first stage
of the mapmaking process, I worked directly with my dad to conceptualize Neo
Kinoko’s layout, the placement of key landmarks (like The Mother Mushroom), as
well as the general scale of the city. The digital drawing on the left is the
super basic mockup that we made, but that was just the beginning.<br /> </span><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></o:p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPDVB0tKEuqGB-Y9TZCZz38gof2Ker_UFRcww5ppVF7zRrO-C_LiIpefAHgJZUOAX389yAlqunx79AnldgzKjtuuF9opbhSfE9NaGEl2ZYfB0LcRmRE5JBYsg9GhVnQPLCKtPcWbK6VEimqPycXrkLLHozGy9vJQr0pFxrOYVIVruOlYEvpa_mepDzRV4/s7000/FBC%20Image%202.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="7000" data-original-width="5197" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPDVB0tKEuqGB-Y9TZCZz38gof2Ker_UFRcww5ppVF7zRrO-C_LiIpefAHgJZUOAX389yAlqunx79AnldgzKjtuuF9opbhSfE9NaGEl2ZYfB0LcRmRE5JBYsg9GhVnQPLCKtPcWbK6VEimqPycXrkLLHozGy9vJQr0pFxrOYVIVruOlYEvpa_mepDzRV4/w284-h382/FBC%20Image%202.jpg" width="284" /></a></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></o:p></div><br /></span></o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><u>STEP 2</u>:</b><br /></span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The second stage of
Neo Kinoko’s map was handled on my iPad in a program called <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/procreate/id425073498">ProCreate</a>. I
imported a scan of the drawing that my dad and I made, using that as the
foundational framework to lay down the linework of the city and its
surroundings. That included rivers and coastlines, dockyards and bridges, as
well as key details like bomb craters, The Mother Mushroom and a giant
stump-turned-slum called Mold Town.<br /></span><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></o:p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrv9tnzfGKKDm4IXR23l9n6sfZ-SjwEJMi0gO6gLwJOaoVzAiMLZYSNwgrwowZJArqYDHZ-LeAkaOJ3KTXuP8sKT4zUW0Z4n5Ucevc84leSo4N0HXOJPqpqB0hehyvKG_MJ7A0BLobmTla0gdWDlxbWUS5fiG8fFguyz6-kXeiYRYw4B1ZYa0omVD5qI0/s7000/FBC%20Image%203.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="7000" data-original-width="5197" height="403" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrv9tnzfGKKDm4IXR23l9n6sfZ-SjwEJMi0gO6gLwJOaoVzAiMLZYSNwgrwowZJArqYDHZ-LeAkaOJ3KTXuP8sKT4zUW0Z4n5Ucevc84leSo4N0HXOJPqpqB0hehyvKG_MJ7A0BLobmTla0gdWDlxbWUS5fiG8fFguyz6-kXeiYRYw4B1ZYa0omVD5qI0/w300-h403/FBC%20Image%203.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><u>STEP 3</u>:</b><br /></span><span style="font-family: georgia;">For this stage, I
began incorporating patterns and borders. These were important signifiers for
different neighborhoods, gang-controlled territories, irradiated zones, and
small towns surrounding Neo Kinoko, as well as to identify what was inside the
city (white) versus outside (shades of gray).<br /></span><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></o:p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiejXOHnoVLoE6VtVABWoWaum-ksndDUAaurtA4SrVlE2Bi2n-RpOlroI5P39nV7jDR0AbRBmr2eOJ7hHpohOVzQAPPPbUyzwsQ_zPA8t4USLJibctq1fhrFOKIKbnavnw3BDkUWul_s1kujIGx9I9BjhNNKPjnaTRH7MW-dygM_fz9vu9WOKSEg2pRgYk/s7000/FBC%20Image%204.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="7000" data-original-width="5197" height="421" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiejXOHnoVLoE6VtVABWoWaum-ksndDUAaurtA4SrVlE2Bi2n-RpOlroI5P39nV7jDR0AbRBmr2eOJ7hHpohOVzQAPPPbUyzwsQ_zPA8t4USLJibctq1fhrFOKIKbnavnw3BDkUWul_s1kujIGx9I9BjhNNKPjnaTRH7MW-dygM_fz9vu9WOKSEg2pRgYk/w313-h421/FBC%20Image%204.jpg" width="313" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><u>STEP 4</u>:</b><br /></span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Next up were the text
and symbols. This is where the map really started to come into focus, with
clear distinctions of what was where, and how things were named. Coming up with
names for everything was also a ton of fun, as I could conceptualize what a
neighborhood had within it and convey that as best as possible through its
name.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <br /> </span></span><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></o:p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi74UkbZs5ZAZkentQKwRpQ_R4gYCJv9qNVp_R_ILIVSzhrtG1BZMdB75lXt-HOj8d1Kkigl7pur1C6NXRQYsTYXv88Q86yGWNF2kv9cj8Fp0F9HI0HXBpcy-CS4zaRzGrxHQCHEmqNPPQ5T367y-eHfn3oKEvBIKvXasOLdpPhB8b6bcwVk5R8Cp-ffiU/s7000/FBC%20Image%205.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="7000" data-original-width="5197" height="402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi74UkbZs5ZAZkentQKwRpQ_R4gYCJv9qNVp_R_ILIVSzhrtG1BZMdB75lXt-HOj8d1Kkigl7pur1C6NXRQYsTYXv88Q86yGWNF2kv9cj8Fp0F9HI0HXBpcy-CS4zaRzGrxHQCHEmqNPPQ5T367y-eHfn3oKEvBIKvXasOLdpPhB8b6bcwVk5R8Cp-ffiU/w299-h402/FBC%20Image%205.jpg" width="299" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><u>STEP 5</u>:</b><br /></span><span style="font-family: georgia;">This was probably the
most relevant stage to <i>Mushroom Blues </i>itself, as the legend lists major
locations that appear in the story. Those numbered locations are peppered
across the map, as I thought it would be interesting for readers to see exactly
where these major events are happening. The legend also gives indications for
what the different patterns/symbols mean, along with a scale bar to measure
distance.<br /> </span><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></o:p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkVhMrMO19q0OA93_MHl9fnHABJauQoDvPTTBjPYO-t1a2LF1dG4XxCoZqkngVGCh-dMlAuxId3oh7Cn3U42Z-Kp1TnRde3lUY4GDGk_nAGD7iZFkSSmXX292Oo5BBihqzBEBbo0qqCu9KQtaZV-2lOloizk4TfxSuOnEfX9XQAQZFaVjob79k-M9JPmw/s7000/FBC%20Image%206.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="7000" data-original-width="5197" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkVhMrMO19q0OA93_MHl9fnHABJauQoDvPTTBjPYO-t1a2LF1dG4XxCoZqkngVGCh-dMlAuxId3oh7Cn3U42Z-Kp1TnRde3lUY4GDGk_nAGD7iZFkSSmXX292Oo5BBihqzBEBbo0qqCu9KQtaZV-2lOloizk4TfxSuOnEfX9XQAQZFaVjob79k-M9JPmw/w293-h394/FBC%20Image%206.jpg" width="293" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><u>STEP 6</u>:</b><br /></span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The landscape details
were a late addition, and I have one person to thank for these: <b><a href="http://www.kmalexander.com">K. M.Alexander</a></b>, a novelist and artist from Seattle. On his website, he offers a ton
of mapmaking tools and map brushes, all of which are geared towards creating
fantasy maps with historical touches. There are map packs inspired by ancient
Japan and China, whereas others draw influence from the maps of European explorers
and specific mapmakers. It’s incredibly useful stuff, and very robust in how
each tool can be applied to a map.<br /> </span><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;">Specifically for the
Neo Kinoko map, I used the Moronobu Gansai brush set, inspired by the
watercolor scroll maps 17<sup>th</sup>-century painted by Hishikawa Moronobu. The
set included a ton of beautiful watercolor-style brushes, from mountains and
rocky outcrops, to forests and rice paddies. This was one of those final
touches that gave the previously 2D space more life, style and dimension,
making it pop off the page.<br /></span><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>K. M.</b>’s project is
called <a href="https://kmalexander.com/2019/02/27/nobadmaps/">#NoBadMaps</a>, and <a href="https://kmalexander.com/free-stuff/fantasy-map-brushes/">all of the brushes are released under CC0 License (thismeans they are free for personal and commercial use)</a>. Please consider
supporting him and his work, or check out his sample maps and reach out to hire
him for your next map! His website is <a href="http://www.kmalexander.com">www.kmalexander.com</a>.<br /> </span><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></o:p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-kL9HL6qY018nUbyvtDLQGu1vXEcUPhPPj76f5U3vv68_vu9UF4Wo6JmvF38G8WTn5Y34R6JmXrwVilhT4HvhYwJQDNqTTH3nTlx6XnAW7df2l-GorIuZNW4p3QpX3Me9xaFZx7CDcQf3twg2rt_CBplrABCX4rBGm83mz6cusZZoKYVChjbNzsWvPPA/s6674/FBC%20Image%207.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6674" data-original-width="5197" height="431" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-kL9HL6qY018nUbyvtDLQGu1vXEcUPhPPj76f5U3vv68_vu9UF4Wo6JmvF38G8WTn5Y34R6JmXrwVilhT4HvhYwJQDNqTTH3nTlx6XnAW7df2l-GorIuZNW4p3QpX3Me9xaFZx7CDcQf3twg2rt_CBplrABCX4rBGm83mz6cusZZoKYVChjbNzsWvPPA/w335-h431/FBC%20Image%207.jpg" width="335" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><u>STEP 7</u>:</b><br /></span><span style="font-family: georgia;">The final product!
This was a pretty simple detail, but it made a big difference. I used to adore
the ringbound map books made by companies like Frommer’s (this was pre-Internet
shit, people!), which were created for countries, as well as specific cities.
These books were filled with detailed maps on different scales, showing you
both broad geographical areas and zoomed in neighborhoods, towns are cities.
They also featured lists of things to do, landmarks and museums. Basically,
everything you needed to plan a trip somewhere, before Google Maps,
TripAdvisor, etc. took over the game.<br /> </span><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></o:p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;">Using this
inspiration, I imposed the map onto a beat-up paper page—essentially, I wanted it
to feel like it was a torn out of one of those ‘90s ringbound map books. I then
added some drop shadow to make the page stand out against the background. Also,
for reference, the specific in-world guide book is called <i>The Outsider’s
Guide to the Mushroom Kingdom </i>(1st Edition), and it even appears briefly as
a meta-text in <i>Mushroom Blues.<br /></i></span><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></o:p></div><div style="text-align: left;"><o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> <br /></span></o:p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><u>CONCLUSION</u>:</b><br /></span><span style="font-family: georgia;">So, there you have it.
I hope you enjoyed my walkthrough of how I created the map for Neo Kinoko, and
that you’ll journey there with me in <i>Mushroom Blues</i>. Through the magic
of maps and stories, we can enter <b>The Fungalverse</b> together!</span></div>
<br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAW2p8VxtdE7sZxhNwuq3dhQ6kipAg6pqFqEshTWVOenj2488sV-PwjUO3DtY6QgDlHzU4Vu2VgQGB7Gb6_ogui5540hoooOf78plfXwNe5Nere0-9BggenCi-j-50GWa585VZLMFIPikKH80tBXUNf8hZTDNcb2YHh-glvxcy_5xIeTix_5hUlJWS9Sc/s800/MB%20Front%20NO%20QUOTE.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="525" height="419" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAW2p8VxtdE7sZxhNwuq3dhQ6kipAg6pqFqEshTWVOenj2488sV-PwjUO3DtY6QgDlHzU4Vu2VgQGB7Gb6_ogui5540hoooOf78plfXwNe5Nere0-9BggenCi-j-50GWa585VZLMFIPikKH80tBXUNf8hZTDNcb2YHh-glvxcy_5xIeTix_5hUlJWS9Sc/w275-h419/MB%20Front%20NO%20QUOTE.jpg" width="275" /></a></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #14293e; line-height: normal; margin: 0.5em 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/205981469-mushroom-blues">Add <i>Mushroom Blues </i>on Goodreads</a></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #14293e; line-height: normal; margin: 0.5em 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>Preorder <i>Mushroom Blues</i> over <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CTCF9TCF/ref=x_gr_bb_kindle?caller=Goodreads&tag=x_gr_bb_kindle-20">HERE</a></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #14293e; line-height: normal; margin: 0.5em 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #14293e; line-height: normal; margin: 0.5em 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>OFFICIAL BOOK BLURB:</b> TWO YEARS AFTER a devastating defeat in the decade-long Spore War, the island nation of Hōppon and its capital city of Neo Kinoko are occupied by invading Coprinian forces. Its Fungal citizens are in dire straits, wracked by food shortages, poverty and an influx of war refugees. Even worse, the corrupt occupiers exploit their power, hounding the native population.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #14293e; line-height: normal; margin: 0.5em 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">As a winter storm looms over the metropolis, NKPD Detective Henrietta Hofmann begrudgingly partners up with mushroom-headed patrol officer Koji Nameko to investigate the mysterious murders of Fungal and half-breed children. Their investigation drags them deep into the seedy underbelly of a war-torn city, one brimming with colonizers, criminal gangs, racial division and moral decay.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #14293e; line-height: normal; margin: 0.5em 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">In order to solve the case and unravel the truth, Hofmann must challenge her past and embrace Fungal ways. What she and Nameko uncover in the midst of this frigid wasteland will chill them to the core, but will they make it through the storm alive?</span></p><p><br /></p>The Readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060590167867977158noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4438041449595085165.post-38628694197214760752024-02-13T06:00:00.003-05:002024-02-14T03:59:21.808-05:00COVER REVEAL: Titanica (The Ruined Gods #3) by Alex Robins<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibVWWWyAzJOm3EU4kkFTnvRjC-svPYOFQ3uM66VKS6Itj6X2PqWcS8JWHwRekgyrL04qpTgqo1SKnVjYtem3-VKFn-7N63NnqmQZe30p_gesJmgl_xoLU-7bfgB31sGwYjIZkDOtmUJPBwsT89C9bY78grKEneq0Gtu7heouxqDSVE6OHleD6FBIAiWE4/s1301/Author_photo.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1301" data-original-width="1145" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibVWWWyAzJOm3EU4kkFTnvRjC-svPYOFQ3uM66VKS6Itj6X2PqWcS8JWHwRekgyrL04qpTgqo1SKnVjYtem3-VKFn-7N63NnqmQZe30p_gesJmgl_xoLU-7bfgB31sGwYjIZkDOtmUJPBwsT89C9bY78grKEneq0Gtu7heouxqDSVE6OHleD6FBIAiWE4/w223-h253/Author_photo.JPG" width="223" /></a></div><br /><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://warofthetwelve.com/">Official Author Website</a></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Pre-order <i>TITANICA</i> over <a href="https://mybook.to/titanica">HERE</a></span></div><div><span><a name='more'></a></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">today at Fantasy Book Critic, we are super thrilled to take part in the cover reveal for Alex Robins' TITANICA, the last book in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/360176-the-ruined-gods"><b>the Ruined Gods Trilogy</b></a>.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br />First you can check out the book blurb:<br /><i>All Things Must End.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i><br />Zeus’s plan for vengeance has failed. Blinded by hubris and petty hate, the greatest of the Gods unwittingly released his father, Cronos, from the bowels of the Underworld. The Titan now rules Olympus while his son lies imprisoned within, shackled to a throne that is no longer his.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i><br />For the inhabitants of Tyrris, there will be no redemption. They have spread too far; changed too much. They riddle the land like a disease, clinging tenaciously to their deluded ideals of freedom. Such a plague cannot be cured, only excised. Burnt and bloodied until there is nothing left. A clean slate from which to start anew.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i><br />And so, the human race begins to fall apart. Swallowed by the corruption of The Citrine Wastes. Slaughtered by the relentless myrmidon army. Strategos Dexios and his allies have nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. They are alone.</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i><br />Unless. There are others who still resist. Who still believe. Frail and weary, but not yet broken.<br /><br /></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i>They are the Exiled.<br />The Banished.<br />The Ruined Gods</i>.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Plus you can checkout the cover in all of its glory as the art is done by the ever amazing <b><a href="https://felixortiz.artstation.com/">Felix Ortiz</a></b> and design typography is by the underappreciated genius that is <b><a href="http://www.stkkreations.com/">Shawn T. King</a></b>. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfAnSgJT6084T_xCN9Aah57yA5fx8llt0vhVEXQxlxd-Xn0v7Cjoy1jXOJQkxqLlm-sKUP1-6S9QDbqX4FOj6Bufp7Gm1ICez1KBQ_6o-gsIwtMlGmWwHxDUmp8iuZdfcTe425YqcAYw4UWiLjrZFPtYukTBGHIDq4gxVk239GzWPO6Skz-DYKog42xLY/s1197/Titanica-ebook_cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1197" data-original-width="750" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfAnSgJT6084T_xCN9Aah57yA5fx8llt0vhVEXQxlxd-Xn0v7Cjoy1jXOJQkxqLlm-sKUP1-6S9QDbqX4FOj6Bufp7Gm1ICez1KBQ_6o-gsIwtMlGmWwHxDUmp8iuZdfcTe425YqcAYw4UWiLjrZFPtYukTBGHIDq4gxVk239GzWPO6Skz-DYKog42xLY/w275-h382/Titanica-ebook_cover.jpg" width="275" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;">Here's all the three covers together as well, just to show how amazing this trilogy looks:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif7j1jlPfIpTqfvRaTB9kVGS73sxU7OltSWGdbMddorsJX58OhL74wH8W3CnkHVIxaqk-H_fwgj7RycwWmecec2MfsSeN-I7K7hFATJG4dZXy1wMTMh9JBbeDL_aOLbOHyR7KKHEg2Bte3jvpgImsZP1N_o0JaM-70-Y8mKGy9rjLUHpWWm6VxovyMqbA/s1125/3covers.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1125" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif7j1jlPfIpTqfvRaTB9kVGS73sxU7OltSWGdbMddorsJX58OhL74wH8W3CnkHVIxaqk-H_fwgj7RycwWmecec2MfsSeN-I7K7hFATJG4dZXy1wMTMh9JBbeDL_aOLbOHyR7KKHEg2Bte3jvpgImsZP1N_o0JaM-70-Y8mKGy9rjLUHpWWm6VxovyMqbA/w509-h272/3covers.png" width="509" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div>The Readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01060590167867977158noreply@blogger.com0