Reviews by Writer Dan

So, a few months ago, one of our readers commented on my review for ALTERED CARBON (EBR Review) that I should look into the second and third books in this series. If I’m being completely honest, I wasn’t too high on the idea, as I’ve never really been overly enamored with Richard K. Morgan’s books. Still I thanked the reader for the comment and proceeded on my merry way.

Then, randomly, I found a copy of the second book in the series at one of the second-hand bookstores that I frequent, and the thing was only two bucks. The thickness of the spine made it look like it was going to be relatively short too. So, I picked it up with no real intention to read it any time soon. But the opportunity to dive in was quickly afforded me when I was asked to chaperone for a couple days at a girl’s camp my daughter was attending. All I needed to do was be present. So I figured, why not grab a quick read and see what came of it?

And here we are.

I mention all this mostly because at no point in this whole process did I think there was going to be any chance that I might actually like this book.

Man, do I love being surprised.
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Thrillers are a genre of books that I typically find myself glancing past, but every once in a while I like to dip back into the pool and see if anything has changed since last I tempted the genre fates. I think it’s more the structure and pacing that typical thrillers keep to that pulls me away from them. Short chapters that get in late, pull out early, and don’t spend a lot of time sticking around to figure out just exactly what’s going on. The fast pace seems to be of utmost importance for these stories, and consequently somewhere along the way, we lose a bit of what ultimately pulls me into any and every story that I love: the characters.

On the plus side, I’d never read anything by this author before, and to all appearances it looked like he’d been around for a while and might know what he was doing. So I was happy to give him a try.
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I need to read more science fiction. I keep telling myself this, and then keep steering away from picking up anything from within the genre. I found this book in among the pile of those that publishers throw at us, in the hopes of garnering a beneficial review. From what I remember, the bright colors and slim spine is what caught my eye here, and the fact that it was not only science fiction but had been marketed as a story that would “resonate with LGBTQ+ readers” sealed the deal for me. I’m still trying here. Trying to find good story in science fiction. Good story from marginalized authors. I can’t say that I’ve succeeded much yet though. Maybe someone else out there has a decent suggestion?
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So, yeah. This one is a little older, but between seeing a bunch of references to and comments about this one over the last year or so and then getting a very positive personal reference from a guy at work, I decided to take the plunge. In fact, I went all-in and even bought the dead-tree version. A decision that I am, oddly enough, regretting at this stage of the game. Though I do have to say, this read was a good bit of fun, and seemed to be just the thing I needed in order to take the edge off, after the recent spate of mediocre books I’ve made my way through recently.
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A while ago we published a new page on the site that listed out a few handfuls of books that we thought were the best examples of fantasy fiction to be had (EBR Page). One of the comments we received on that page suggested that our list was missing this exact book. I have to admit that I wasn’t particularly enthralled by the cover or the title though, and so I passed it by as I did so many others that just didn’t tickle my fancy.

Recently, however, the audiobook was released, and so I figured that I might as well give it a go. After all, I’m always up for another suggestion of a great read.

Turns out, I probably should have just passed it by.
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The other day I was admiring the long stretch of Mark Lawrence books on my bookshelves, and I realized just how many great stories this guy has pumped out for us in the last decade. He’s currently working on closing out his fifth trilogy–that’s pretty impressive, given the timeline–and so much of what he’s brought to the table has just been awesome. If you haven’t checked his books out yet (EBR Archive), you should.

However, I have to admit that I felt somewhat trepidatious (an adjective that Wordpress’s spellchecker apparently doesn’t recognize) in approaching this next book. The first book in the series, while entertaining, had a few aspects to it that made me worry about the evolution of the story to come. Where it might go. How it might tackle the perspectives it was trying to bring together.

And I’m afraid that my concerns ended up being quite justified.
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Back during one of my interminable years of college, I was able to take Sanderson’s Creative Writing course. This was before things took off for him with the Wheel of Time. Mostly I just took the class because I’d begun to dabble with writing my own stuff–instead of just reading–and the teacher happened to be a local author of some minimal renown. Deal. One of his lectures that semester was about how to use perspective and point of view in our stories, and we talked about all sorts of things, not the least of which was the several options we had to choose from.

I remember one question in particular from our discussion being about mixing first-person and third-person POVs within a single book. My recollection is that he said something along the lines of “being careful” but that you could do it, if you wanted to. That’s not something you come across very often though: first- and third-person POVs in the same book. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I read a book that did things that way.

Well, not before this one, anyhow.
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Sometimes, all you have to do is ask, and someone will listen.

That’s essentially what happened to me for this book. The author threw out a tweet about needing reviews for his books that made me laugh, and so I told him I’d oblige. Figured out later that the book of his that I bought was self-published and recently entered into the SPFBO that Mark Lawrence runs. Funny enough, he got lumped into the same initial group of books as ALONG THE RAZOR’S EDGE (EBR Review). So, while I’d suggest that Mr. Snyder not hold his breath at the possibility of moving on to Round 2… this was still a pretty good book, and something I’m glad I found my way to.
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I find it interesting just how wide and varied the opinions given for a single book can be. This concept has been rattling around in my brain ever since I started reading this book. Prior to deciding to pick it up, I’d seen a decent amount of buzz about it making the rounds on social media. Nothing too excessive. Some people bandying it about as an “African Game of Thrones”. But then it showed up on a list of books. Well, not just any old list, but a list from Time Magazine of “The Best 100 Fantasy Books of All Time” put together by a selected panel of “well-esteemed” fantasy authors. I mean yeeeeesh. How could I not take them up on that opportunity? At the time though, I somehow completely missed the fact that the author of this book… was actually on the panel.

[side_eye]

Yeah. Okay, I’d say that’s a pretty good primer for one of the most tedious books I’ve finished reading in a long, long time.
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Potential. Potential. Potential.

This was my mantra after having read the first book in this series, THE GUTTER PRAYER. In what ended up being the most influential way, that single repeated word kept me from picking up this second book in the series for quite some time. Then I came across a picture of Rob J. Hayes (EBR Archive) on Twitter where he was reading a copy of this book… and for some reason, I couldn’t get the freaking thing out of my head. Something about the way he was looking at its open pages almost haunted my reader brain. Thus, when I came across an announcement that the third in the series had an upcoming release date (yesterday, as it happens), I bit the bullet and bought all three. I just couldn’t help myself.

And, man, am I glad I did.
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