Sand and Blood
Rutejìmo is labeled among his clan as a useless teenager, and is considered lazy, temperamental, and cowardly. He’s jealous of the much-admired Chimípu, who seems to be able to do anything–she’s more athletic, clever, and better liked. And he wants to be like his brother, Desòchu, who is a warrior and protects the clan; no one believes Rutejìmo is capable of such a thing.
But Rutejìmo gets his chance to prove the naysayers wrong when he, Chimípu, and three other boys are taken into the desert as part of their rite of passage into adulthood. He knows that when he becomes a true member of the Shimusògo clan he will inherit the clan magic that allows him to run faster than a horse and use sunlight as a weapon. The adults, including Desòchu, take the youth into the desert to begin their rite… and leave them to fend for themselves by disappearing during the first night. Rutejìmo can’t believe Desòchu would abandon him. While Chimípu tries to find help, Rutejìmo is left with the three other boys, one is Pidòhu who is even weaker than he is, and the other two who are well-known bullies. And everything goes wrong.
So begins Rutejìmo’s rite of passage.
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Giveaway: The Unremembered
Updated 4/13/2015: Rick B from Ohio is our winner. Congratulations! Your book will be mailed out soon.
THE UNREMEMBERED: AUTHOR’S DEFINITIVE EDITION (Amazon — EBR Review) releases today, and what better way to celebrate it than with a free book?
To enter the giveaway:
1. Email us at elitistbookreviews@gmail.com
2. Include the following in the subject line: Peter Orullian Giveaway
3. In the body of the email include your name and address.
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Guest Post: Peter Orullian
Writers are the worst judge of their own fiction. And that works both ways. Meaning, often a writer’s story that he thinks is amazing… just isn’t; likewise, something he’s written that he thinks is crap… is the awesome.
Enter beta-readers.
A beta-reader is a person who reads that early draft of something the writer has written, and offers commentary and critique.
Some writers don’t use beta-readers. And I wouldn’t say a writer can’t succeed without them. But because I believe writers are the worst judge of their own work, I’ve come to feel beta-readers are worth their weight in books. The good ones, anyway.
See, all beta-readers aren’t created equal. Some are little more than fans who want the book as soon as they can get their hands on it. A good beta-reader, on the other hand, can help a writer see the flaws—as well as the successful bits—in a manuscript.
Often, this amounts to the fact that the writer is seeing the full story in his head, and so he fills in the gaps that aren’t actually on the page. So, because the beta-reader doesn’t have the story in his head, he can point out the absences. And, like I said, also help a writer see where the story is really singing.
So, now comes my story about one particular beta-reader. Steve Diamond.
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The Unremembered (Author’s Definitive Edition)
I received a review copy of THE UNREMEMBERED: Author’s Definitive Edition (Amazon), in advance of the second novel in the series, TRIAL OF INTENTIONS. It’s an epic fantasy from Peter Orullian, and the plot follows Tahn as he travels with his allies, family, and friends to learn how to stand and defeat an evil from ancient times.
I had never read the original printing, so I was excited to dig in to this book.
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Interview with Peter Orullian
Today we have an interview with Peter Orullian. Though the relationship between EBR and Orullian started rather poorly, we have since become very good friends. We asked Peter if he could take some time out of his schedule for an interview. The release of THE UNREMEMBERED: The Author’s Definitive Edition (Amazon) is this week.
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On the Steel Breeze
I recently had a conversation with a member of my extended family about the current tech surrounding virtual reality. He’s a game developer (his team did a lot of work for the F.E.A.R. games, if you’re familiar with them) and is neck deep in pushing the boundaries of what’s currently realizable. During our discussion, I was reminded of this series (Poseidon’s Children) and its “Augmented Reality” layer of vision. It was cool to talk about, in reality, the budding technology and current understanding that could very well lead to a fully realized human enhancement that I’d experienced in this series. Granted, Alastair Reynolds isn’t the first to use such a concept in his stories, but he did it in such an amazing way that it made an impact on my own life, and that’s just really cool stuff.
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Silverblind
More than a decade after the events of COPPERHEAD (EBR Review), Jane and Edward’s daughter Dorie has graduated from school and is ready to strike out on her own and find work. She figures her experience studying mythical beasts in the field coupled with her college degree will make her the perfect candidate to work for the Queen’s Lab.
Unfortunately, all her interviewers see is a beautiful young woman.
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The Thief Who Pulled on Trouble’s Braids
THE THIEF WHO PULLED ON TROUBLE’S BRAIDS (Amazon), by Michael McClung, is what Mark Lawrence’s Great Self-published Fantasy Author Blog-off is all about. This is the third book I read of the batch I was assigned. I saved it for last because I found the cover appealing, the title enticing, and the synopsis intriguing. The overall package is professional and marketable and because of that it stands out amongst the competition.
THE THIEF WHO PULLED ON TROUBLE’S BRAIDS is a little more than 200 pages long but it’s a satisfying sword & sorcery adventure that will appeal to fans of Ari Marmell, David Dalglish, Douglas Hulick, Brent Weeks, and Kelly McCullough.
Here’s the synopsis: Amra Thetys lives by two simple rules—take care of business, and never let it get personal. Thieves don’t last long in Lucernis otherwise. But when a fellow rogue and good friend is butchered on the street in a deal gone wrong, she turns her back on burglary and goes after something more precious than treasure: Revenge. Revenge, however, might be hard to come by. A nightmare assortment of enemies, including an immortal assassin and a mad sorcerer, believe Amra is in possession of The Blade That Whispers Hate—the legendary, powerful artifact her friend was murdered for—and they’ll do anything to take it from her. Trouble is, Amra hasn’t got the least clue where the Blade might be. She needs to find the Blade, and soon, or she’ll be joining her colleague in a cold grave instead of avenging his death. Time is running out for the small, scarred thief.
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Monster Hunter Nemesis
So we apparently never reviewed this novel. Oops! With the paperback edition of MONSTER HUNTER NEMESIS recently being released, I looked back over our reviews and discovered the absence. So, yeah. Here we are.
If you’ve paid attention to this site, you already know that MONSTER HUNTER NEMESIS (Amazon) was one of EBR’s top novels for 2014. For me personally, NEMESIS is my favorite Monster Hunter novel. Why? Because Agent Franks is the main character.
When Franks was introduced in MONSTER HUNTER INTERNATIONAL (EBR Review), he became an immediate favorite of mine, and a huge portion of Larry Correia’s readership. As book by book went by, we got more pieces of info and came to realize Franks wasn’t exactly human. But we still didn’t have all the answers.
Well now we do. And the answers made for one of the most entertaining reads of 2014.
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Giveaway: The Smoke-Scented Girl
Updated 3/23/15: Ray P from Vermont is our winner. We’ll send out your winnings this week. Congratulations!
The author has provided EBR with a book to give away for those of you who found the review (and for those of you that haven’t yet… EBR Review) of interest.
To enter the giveaway:
1. Email us at elitistbookreviews@gmail.com
2. Include the following in the subject line: Melissa McShane Giveaway
3. In the body of the email include your name and address. (If the winner is outside the U.S. they will likely be sent the Kindle version, FYI.)
The giveaway ends midnight (MST) on March 22nd. The winner will be posted on Monday, March 23rd. Good luck!
