Wasteland
So two award-winning journalists decide to try their hand at the current craze of YA dystopian/post-apocalypse novels. But WASTELAND by Susan Kim and Laurence Klavan (Amazon), is what happens when non-fiction writers think that writing a coherent, engaging, and imaginative YA novel is not so hard. Throw in a controversial situation, maybe some race-themed antagonism, a couple of clever adjectives for spice, and voila. Easy peasy, right?
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The Mongoliad
Some reviews are difficult to write. Others fly off of my fingertips near light-speed. Some are simple. Others complex. But every once in a while, I come across one that seems to just be begging for discussion of a larger issue. This book sparked one of those latter types in me. The issue: writing character versus story.
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Best of 2013
Well then. 2013 is done. While I’m not a huge fan of the “Best Of” lists, I’ve been asked enough (by readers, authors, and even my own reviewers) that I figured I should give it a go. I’m not going to number them, as usual, and there will likely be more than 10. Why? Because I can do what I want! And stuff!
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Hellfire
So pretty much everything I said about AN OFFICER’S DUTY (EBR Review) I should just cut and paste into this review… because its sequel HELLFIRE (Amazon) is almost the exact same book. Save yourself some time, read that review, and come back and I’ll try to be succinct.
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A Shade of Vampire
I found A SHADE OF VAMPIRE (Amazon) thanks to Amazon recommendations, it had over 600 five-star ratings, and it was a mere $0.99 for Kindle. I was kinda excited to find something new.
It was a trap.
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Graveyard Child
Six hours. Six. That’d be how long it took me to devour this book once I finally got my hands on it. Started at 10:30pm, and by the time I finished my wife was considerably less than pleased with me, but DANG was it worth the ride. Now what to do with myself though, with no obtainable news about when the next one is coming out? Eek! No, no. Double eek!
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Firebrand
Seth MacGregor is Sithe, and lives in their realm beyond the Veil, apart from full-mortals. Abandoned by his witch mother, he lives in his father’s clan as an outsider, unruly and wild. He idolizes his older brother, Conal, who will inherit their father’s captaincy of their dun/village.
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An Officer’s Duty
I made the mistake of starting AN OFFICER’S DUTY (Amazon) before reading the book that came before: A SOLDIER’S DUTY (Amazon). I was completely lost and from what I read, the PoV character Ia was an insufferable know-it-all so I stopped. It reminded me too much of the annoying Kris Longknife books, only with more infodumps. As a result I wasn’t interested, but with Steve’s prodding I tried again–from the beginning this time.
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Crucible of Gold
After the disappointment of the so-so TONGUES OF SERPENTS (EBR Review), it was a relief to see Naomi Novik back in form with CRUCIBLE OF GOLD (Amazon). I’m beginning to see the longer-range purpose of Novik’s series, and with several exciting scenes and more serious characterization, I have hope for the future.
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The Republic of Thieves
It’s been a while, hasn’t it? If you are like me, you’ve read Scott Lynch’s first two novels several times while eagerly awaiting his THE REPUBLIC OF THIEVES (Amazon). There have been very few novels that I, personally, had anticipated as much as this one. I guess the real question is whether or not the wait was worth it?
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