Science Fiction Book Review: Gridlinked by Neal Asher

This is another book I finished today. It was a good read. It was sort of space opera meets cyberpunk meets spy thriller. While it was a lot of fun, I didn't connect with the characters as much as I would have liked. Granted, some of that is due to the concept behind the book. Our main character, Agent Cormac, has been Gridlinked so long that he's out of touch with his humanity. In essence, he's spent all his time with a computer in his head (though it's a bit more complicated than that).

Now he's without that guidance and connection, and he has to tackle an action-packed plot (and reclaim his humanity in the process).

There was a lot of action in this book, and that's how I like it. I rarely felt that the pacing lagged. However, I did feel Asher spent too much time with the antagonists. I prefer to keep such sections short, but at times, we spent as much time with the antagonists as we did with our hero.

I also would have liked to get a better idea of the universe he created. I'm not really sure if this polity Agent Cormac lives in is a good system or a bad system. Basically, I identified with him in his support of the government because the separatists seemed like bad people.

In all, though, it was a good book, and I'll probably read more by Asher at some point.

Rating: 8/10

Fantasy Book Review: The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley

Today, I finished The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley. I've heard so many glowing reviews of the book, though I've also seen quite a few less-than-glowing reviews. I was curious to find out for myself. In general, I'd say both types of reviews are accurate. The Mirror Empire was equal parts fascinating and frustrating.

Hurley crafted a great world. There are multiple universes, sentient plants, reversed gender roles, gender identity issues, and more factions than you can remember. The last sentence there sums up my issue with this book. It is not an easy read. You are thrown into a very unfamiliar world. Hurley doesn't hold your hand and doesn't give you common archetypes to fall back on. Personally, I prefer a few more familiar elements in my fantasy, but I also appreciate what Hurley did. The experience was kind of like reading Steven Erikson's Malazan series. You have to figure things out as you go.

I found the first half of this book difficult to get through because I didn't connect with the characters. Once I got to the second half, though, things started clicking. I can't say I liked the character, but Hurley created such a fascinating world that I wanted to know what was going to happen.

In summary, this book has a lot of flaws, but I agree with others who say Hurley is bringing new life and direction to the epic fantasy genre. This is not standard medieval fantasy. This is a completely alien world, more like science fiction in many respects. I think the execution could have been better, but I won't fault Hurley for taking on such a difficult task.

In all, it was not one of my favorites, but I'm glad I read it.

Rating: 7/10

MG Fantasy Book Review: Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull

Here's my first review for my YA and MG reading, so I decided I'd use it for one of my favorite MG fantasy series: the Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull. The series started off a bit slow for me, feeling a bit too childish in the first couple of books. Around halfway through book two, though, it had me convinced, and I loved the last three books.

What does Mull do well? There's a lot of action, and there's variety to it. His magic works. It's not incredibly systematic or anything, but he doesn't pull solutions out of nowhere. The characters are also fun, especially some of the side characters. As far as the main characters go, Kendra can be a bit too perfect at times, and Seth can get annoying with his stupidity, but they are kids. I found they were the perfect characters for the story.

The basic premise is that their grandparents own a wildlife preserve for all the fantasy creatures in the world. The series is, at first, about their adventures on this preserve. Eventually, they end up visiting other preserves, and it turns into a "save the world" plot. Along the way, the characters grow up and develop as people, and there are quite a few interesting twists.

In all, it's one of my favorites, especially later on in the series.

Rating: 9.5/10

Fantasy Book Review: Traitor's Blade by Sebastien de Castell

I just finished this book today, and I came away very impressed. It's one of those books that brings back the action I like to see in fantasy. There were action scenes galore, and the author still found the time to develop interesting characters. It's a fun book, but it can also be a bit dark at times. Contrary to so much that's out there, I found it had grittiness without overdoing it.

The big thing is that our heroes are actually heroic, especially the protagonist. That's not to say he doesn't have his flaws. He does. But they're not the kind of flaws that make him a terrible person. To be honest, I'm sick of seeing so much fantasy starring despicable protagonists. At times, it feels as if authors don't know how to make a well-rounded character who still falls on the hero side of the spectrum. I'm glad Sebastien de Castell didn't go that route, providing me with characters I liked going through an action-packed story.

If you're looking for an exciting story that finds a balance between today's Grimdark and the optimistic fantasy of old, this is a good book to take a chance on.

Rating: 9/10

Fantasy Book Review: The Grim Company by Luke Scull

It's been a while since I've done some book reviews, so I'm going to try to get back in the habit. Since I've expanded my categories now, each book review will contain the genre or age category.

One book I finished recently was The Grim Company by Luke Scull. I wasn't sure about it going in, mainly because of the title. As I've mentioned before, I'm not the biggest fan of the Grimdark movement in recent fantasy. I'm fine with worlds having some grit and realism, but I've found many stories take this to an extreme, filling their worlds with utterly despicable main characters.

To my surprise, Scull didn't do that. Yes, our main characters were still antiheroes, but they were antiheroes I connected with. This didn't happen for me with some of Joe Abercrombie's characters.

I've read many reviews comparing The Grim Company to Abercrombie's work. While there are undeniably some similarities, mainly in the type of main characters and in the tone, there are also quite a few differences. For one thing, Abercrombie writes more in the low-fantasy vein, where there's some magic, but not a whole lot. Scull's world is very much a high-fantasy world, with tons of magic, where Magelords rule the world's nations.

There's also some pretty cool backstory involving, with the Magelords conquering the gods and then introducing their iron-fisted regimes. Their troops, the Augmentors, are also pretty cool. In all, the world kind of seems like one you might see in a fantasy video game (and that's not a bad thing). I think Scull's biography states that he also works on games, so there probably is some influence there.

Overall, I enjoyed this story. It had its rough patches, but I'm intrigued enough to see where it's going.

Rating: 7.5/10

I sent ouf five queries today.

I got back on the horse after a few rejections had me down for a while. Today, I sent out five queries for Sunweaver. I figure I might as well send it as many places as possible. Then I can make the decisions I alluded to in my last post. That is, should I consider self-publishing electronically. For now, that's not a major concern, but I'll keep it in the back of my mind.

You might also see that I've added more pages to the blog. They're not finished as of yet, but I added two new projects, as well as more reading lists. Now I'll try to get back to doing my reviews. I've added this stuff because I want the blog to reflect everything I do as a writer and reader.

Thanks for sticking with me despite the only occasional posting.

Trying to define myself as a writer (and figure out where this whole writing thing is going).

It's been a while since I've posted on here. Sorry about that. I finally managed to get a job, so the blog kind of fell on the wayside. I've still been writing and hanging around AW. Most recently, I started work on a project I mentioned a while back. It's an epic fantasy in which the first book is tentatively titled The Watersong. It's going pretty well. I wrote about 3,000 words today.

Today, I also did some work on my Martin Mason upper MG fantasy series. I wrote about 4,500 words in this one today. I actually found that doing two projects at the same time wasn't all that hard. Because the projects are quite different, I find I can switch between them when I get tired on one, and I still have the creative energy to work on the other. Now I'll have to see if this keeps up.


This brings me to my existential writerly questions. I have a wide range of interests as far as writing goes. Pretty much, I want to write fantasy and science fiction (and maybe horror). Now, that probably doesn't sound like that much, but when you factor in that I want to write for MG, YA, and adult audiences, things get a bit messier.

The issue is figuring out which one should be my jumping off point. Will I hurt my chances of establishing a career in one age group or genre by writing the other? Yes, I know I should just ignore that and write the stories I want to write, and that's what I'm trying to do right now. I'm trying to take away some of the publishing pressure I put myself under.

Make no mistake. Publishing is still a huge motivation for me, but if I'm not having fun writing, why am I doing it at all? There are countless other things that I could do and not have fun (but make a lot more money in the process). So that's where I'm trying to go as a writer: toward a place where I can write again for the fun of it.

I've also opened my mind a bit to the idea of self-publishing (if trade publishing doesn't work out for me). I've learned that cover artists are not nearly as cost-prohibitive as I once thought. It wouldn't be my ideal situation, but if I can't get anyone to bite on my books, I don't want them to languish on a hard drive, where no one will ever read them.

I'm still in the querying process for Sunweaver. I believe in that book, as I believe in all my stories. It's just the question of whether agents and publishers will believe in them the same way I do. I guess I have the issue where what I like isn't necessarily what they're looking for.

They want dark, gritty fantasy. I write fantasy that sits more middle-of-the-road between the optimistic fantasy of decades past and the grimdark of today. I'd like to think there's a place for it. Authors like Brandon Sanderson are doing quite well. But will I struggle because that market is already filled by established authors like Sanderson?

Once again, maybe I should just not worry about this stuff and write the best books and query letters I can. It's just so hard to ignore the business side of writing. And that won't get any easier if I do end up self-publishing, because then I'll have to handle the business side myself.

Oh well. I'm just kind of musing aloud here. It's probably not the most coherent blog post.