Novelnaut

Exploring the Depths of Novels and Writing

The Last Four Things

By: Paul Hoffman

Let’s get the disclaimer out of the way right off.  I was sent a review copy of this book by a publicist.  My standing policy on this is that if I don’t like the book, I don’t review it.  Since I didn’t pay for the book, I can’t complain too much if I didn’t like it, so I don’t complain at all.  If I had paid for the book, then I have every right to complain about my wasted money.  Since you’re reading this disclaimer, you’ve probably already discerned that I liked the book.  So, let’s get on with the review, shall we?

This is the second book in an expected trilogy.  I really dislike reading books out of order.  I always feel like I’m missing something of the plot, world, and/or characters.  This wasn’t much of an exception to that rule.  I will say, however, that Hoffman did a splendid job of getting me up to speed on the highlights of the backstory.  That helped, and it was done in such a way that it didn’t feel like it was just a recap for the reader.  I still found myself feeling that I’d missed out on some of the character building, and plenty of the world building.  Hoffman has built this world that feels very much like a parallel world to ours, with many of our locations and religions built right in.  I found myself wondering more and more, as the story went on, where some of this came from, and how it all tied in.  Perhaps that was stuff that would have been answered in the first book.  I can’t know until I read it.

The book read quickly, despite the fact that it’s full of information at every turn.  Much of the dialogue reminded me of the dialogue from a Kevin Smith movie, or a Tarantino movie; deep and thoughtful without being too complex.  The characters are well rounded, and I found myself being drawn to them while, at the same time, being repulsed by some of what they did.  That sounds funny, but given the circumstances they found themselves in, it’s not so bad.  In fact, if you ask me, it’s the sign of some really well written characters.  The plot was well twisted, and very little of it was given away.  In fact, I think that Hoffman may have gone a bit too far in a few places in keeping the plot hidden.  The actions made sense, but they weren’t ever really given any clear justification.

All around, a really well written fantasy with some really fun/interesting elements that make it highly readable.  I’ll have to keep an eye out for the third book when it comes out, as well as add the first to my list.

Let’s Get Digital: How to Self-Publish, and Why You Should

By: David Gaughran

I think it’s important, regardless of what stage you are in on you publishing journey, to try and understand as much about the options available to you as you can before making any major decisions.  There is quite obviously a rather large discussion going on about publishing right now.  There are those who say that you should self-publish, and there are those who say that you should publish traditionally through the publishing houses.  I’ve discussed a bit about both sides here before.  I still am not entirely sure where I sit, but think that, at the moment, I am leaning more towards the self-publishing side.  Why?  Partially, because I read this book.

Gaughran makes a very strong argument for the self-publishing route.  None of which are anecdotal.  He backs up his thoughts with some very solid logic and even stronger facts, and really makes a good case for doing it yourself.  He doesn’t just tell you to wade in and get your feet wet, either, but makes the argument for still having your manuscript edited at least once by someone other than your mother or yourself.  He makes an argument for professional cover designers as well.  This isn’t just a book that says that self-publishing is great, now jump in.  The steps are outlined and ready for you to discover the path you will take with your creation.

If there’s any one thing that the book is thin on, it’s extreme detail.  For instance, Gaughran writes about using professional cover artists and editors, but doesn’t go into a whole lot of detail about who, where, when.  He also writes about the process of getting your work loaded into the various publishing services, but again doesn’t go into the exact detail on how to do that.  Which, I think, is good.  He actually expects you to learn how to do those things.  The information is freely available in several locations, and is really just a search away, so why waste the readers time hand-holding them down the path.

The book is an excellent primer on self-publishing, and is by far the best book on digital self-publishing that I’ve read to date.  This will sound a bit strange, but with some non-fiction books, you come away with the desire to read other books on the exact same subject so that you can learn more on the subject.  I didn’t with this book.  In part, I think that is because there is plenty of information there, and what detail is missing, Gaughran points the reader in the right direction to find that detail.

The book is currently available digitally only.  You can pick up a copy of Let’s Get Digital for the Kindle at Amazon (and support this site while you’re doing it).  Also, I’ve added Gaughran’s blog to the blogroll in the sidebar if you’re interested.  He posts regularly, and continues the conversation on self-publishing. He’s also listed the other ways you can get pick up a copy of the book (including a free pdf version) on his blog: Let’s get Digital.

The Sunrise Lands

By: S.M. Sterling

This is book 4 in the Emberverse series.  The first three are the original trilogy that begins with Dies the Fire.  Sunrise Lands picks up many years later, and centers itself on the children of the change, mainly Rudi, son of Mike “Lord Bear” Havel and Juniper “Herself herself” Mackenzie.  I wasn’t truly sure what to expect when I picked this book up.  I loved the original trilogy of books.  (I’m coming to realize that I love just about any apocalypse/end of world as we know it story)  But, this story picked up well after the change, so I wasn’t sure if it would still hold my interest without that urgency factor.  Within pages, I was relieve of that worry.  It was much like coming home to your old friends and family.  Many of them have aged a bit, but are still the same old folks you know and love.  Comforting.

One small nitpick that I had with the original trilogy was that Sterling couldn’t help but throw a bit of the fantastical into the story.  I suppose it was somewhat necessary to explain the change itself, but it always seemed a bit extraneous.  Unfortunately, it’s become much more pronounced in this new series.  One interesting thing that happens as a result of that, however, is that we get a pretty interesting look at how a society might evolve over 20 years after a significant change in the way of life.  So much so, that by the end of the novel, the fantastical elements weren’t nearly as pronounced to me.  Still there, yes, but they don’t stick out like sore thumbs like they did near the beginning.  You grow to accept them.  That’s a bonus point for Sterling’s world building, I think.

The writing, like the original series is conversational.  It isn’t text book difficulty, which, to me, makes it easy to read and understand.  There’s a few terms and names that are a bit higher on the difficulty scale, but not so bad as to cause anything more than a slight bump in the reading pace.  The extent of Sterling’s research into many of the battle weapons and the way of life without electricity shows in the amount of detail that he melds into the world and the story.  I think you could pick up this book without having read the previous three books and still end up with a satisfying read.  I would suggest your read the other three first however.

The Black God’s War

By: Moses Siregar III

This is a review of the Kindle novella version of The Black God’s War, which I read on my smart phone, so I won’t be discussing the typesetting, or formatting of the book at all.  (Not that I usually do that for paper books, either.)

It used to be that if you read a self-published bit of fiction, you got something that was unpolished, likely unedited, and just all around not worth reading.  Now, with the advances that have been made in self-publishing and it’s growing popularity among new and established authors, you’re more likely to stumble upon something worth reading.  That’s exactly what happened with this novella.

It’s meant as an introduction/teaser for the full length novel that is to be released sometime later this year, and you can tell that.  The plot carries along just fine, but the ending makes it very obvious that there is something more to it.  Knowing that it was a part of something larger to begin with made this a bit of a softer blow, but I can see where someone who didn’t know that would feel like the story had an abrupt and unsatisfying ending.  I think Siregar does a good job, between the addition to the title of the novella and in the introduction, of disclaiming the larger nature of the story, there are those who don’t read the electronic title or the introduction.

The writing is very good.  The dialogue moves along nicely and also moves the plot along.  There is very little wasted speech, unlike some who tend to have paragraph after paragraph of dialogue whose only purpose seem to be to give the reader some little nugget about the character who dies on the next page.  (Ok, that’s a bit dramatized, but you get the point.)  The story itself is good.  I’ll be honest and say that it isn’t the most unique setup that I’ve ever seen, but, then how many of them really are.  The way that he melds the Gods and the world together is well done, and I think it will be enhanced by the extra ability of a full novel.

This is one that I’ll be looking for when it is released.  The novella is enough of a taste of the world, the characters, and the quality writing, to make me want to find out what happens.

The Kindle version of this is, as of this writing, currently priced at the low-low price of free, so go pick it up if you have a Kindle!

Dante’s Journey

By: JC Marino

This is a book that’s been on my “to-read” list for quite some time.  It’s an interesting concept, really.  Take the original classic Inferno and put a more modern twist on it.  Marino does so with the help of the protagonist, Joe Dante, a Boston Police Officer whose only purpose in life became vengeance upon a crime boss who he blames for his family’s death.  We come into the story as Dante finds himself in a strange place, and quickly find out that he’s passed through that bright light and landed himself on the first level of Hell. What follows is an interesting tale of the search for his family’s killer and, more importantly, for who he really is.

I have to admit, the first 50 or so pages almost turned me off of the book.  The characters lived their lives in the past, so the slang and phrases that they use in their speech threw me.  Once you get used to it and figure out that it’s going on, it wasn’t so bad.  I also found myself confused by the ending.  I won’t spoil it here, but suffice to say that the ending isn’t the clearest on who is who and what really happens.  There’s a bit of complexity in the plot, that needed to be tied up.  It was, but just not very neatly, I thought.

If you overlook the adjustment pages in the front and the somewhat muddled ending, the book is a good book.  For a book whose setting is Dante’s Hell, I expected a bit more religious overtones, but I never felt like the religion was the purpose of the book.  The story was.  It is a story of discovery, and as such, there’s a bit of introspective meandering, but it’s well mixed with action as they travel through the circles of Hell.

I think people who normally read detective books will like this more than I did.  I gave it three starts (out of 5) on Goodreads, but it really should have had a 3.5.  They don’t have half stars there, so it got 3.  It’s a good book, that’s worth a read, especially if you are into detective/action books.

Fuzzy Nation

By: John Scalzi

In interest of disclosure, I was sent a review copy of this book by Tor, the publisher.  I’ll try my best to keep that out of the review.  I won’t make any such claims about my author-love of John Scalzi.  Got it?  Free book, no sway.  Author-love, sway.

Fuzzy Nation is, as Scalzi says, a “reboot” of Piper’s Little Fuzzy.  I’ve never read the original by Piper, so I can’t really speak to whether Fuzzy Nation takes a huge detour from the original or not, nor can I compare the two.  What I can tell you though is that it is a terrific story.  The plot cruises along and Scalzi does a wonderful job of hiding the motivations and important plot twists from the reader until they are absolutely necessary.  The writing, typical to Scalzi, is short on elaborate description and long on action and dialogue.  Neither of those, in my opinion, is a bad thing.  It lends to a book that reads quickly, and keeps the reader turning pages, and, also is what has gotten the name John Scalzi associated with the term “Bestselling”.

Having not read the original, I don’t know how much credit to give to Scalzi for the story itself.  Whether a majority of it came from Piper, or, from Scalzi, it was good.  A classical morality sci-fi tale about finding sentient life on a otherwise non-sentient planet and the reactions of those who would rather it stayed a non-sentient planet.

I think that, if you’re read the original, you really should read this “reboot”.  Really, even if you haven’t, you should read it anyways!  Another great novel from John Scalzi!

P.S. The original, “Little Fuzzy”, is available for free at Amazon for Kindle.

ADDED: Fuzzy Nation also has it’s own Power Ballad Rock Song by Paul and Storm.

Blockade Billy

By: Stephen King

I don’t think I’ve ever made it a secret that I’m a bit of a Stephen King fan.  A majority of my early adult reading list consisted of early King works.  They were dark, mysterious, psychological thrillers that drew me in and held me until the book was over.  Many of his latest works, however, hold none of those properties for me.  Blockade Billy was no exception to that emerging rule.  Make no mistake, King is still a storyteller among storytellers.  He can craft a story like very few have ever been able to.  They just aren’t the type of stories that I fell in love with so long ago, and it becomes harder for me to anticipate each new one with the same vigor.

Blockade Billy is really a small novella sized book with two short stories in it.  The first, the title story, is a story about a baseball player who became known as Blockade Billy and the season that he saved, and killed, all in the span of a few short games.  It’s written in a bit of a strange method, as a sort of transcript of someone telling the story to King in an interview for a story.  It works.

The second story is called Morality.  It’s the story of a young married couple who just want to leave the big city behind and move to a nice little town in the country, but can’t afford it.  Until the wife’s employer offers a very lucrative deal.  All she has to do is help him set his morality aside and perform a sin.  King touches on many of the obvious topics of a tale of this type, but does so in such a way that they are never really expressed, but merely shown through the characters actions.  A hefty feat, but well done.

I must admit that I have very little idea what the idea was in combining the two into one book.  Neither has anything to do with the other.  It’s almost as if King had the baseball story that he wanted to release, but it just wasn’t long enough, so he found an old story that would help fill up the space and threw it in.  It’s worth reading, but I’m glad I didn’t pay full price for it and got it off of Paperbackswap instead.

American Gods

By: Neil Gaiman

I think that to properly understand some of what I’m about to say, you must know my back story with this book.  Literally, years ago (at least 5-6 years), I bought a used copy of this in hardcover off of amazon.  It’s been long enough ago that I don’t even remember why I bought it.  Perhaps it was recommended through the amazon recommended engine.  Or, perhaps I read something else by Gaiman that made me want to read something further.  Whatever the case may be, I bought a copy.  When I received the copy, I flipped through the pages as I usually do, only to find that the copy that I was sent was a signed, limited edition copy.  But, I still never read it.  Sometime spring, a local Relay for Life team was having a used book sale as a fundraiser.  People bring in and donate books to be sold for $1.  Who can turn down a book sale?  Not me.  While perusing the titles, I came across a paperback copy of American Gods.  I bought it.  That way, I could carry it around and read it without worrying about damaging the signed copy that I have.  And, so, I finally read American Gods.

And, I’m so angry at myself for not having read it earlier.  American Gods is easily the best book I’ve read so far this year.  Granted, it was only the 8th book of the year, but I think that it will remain right up there at the top.  Enough gushing.  Let’s get down to the review.

The book, quite simply, is about American Gods.  It’s an incredibly interesting look at what might happen to the gods of the old world when the people who believe in them visit and move to America.  Throughout, we follow an ex-con named Shadow who gets picked up on his way home by a man called Wednesday.  From there, we learn that there is an epic battle of survival among the old gods and the new gods.  (I won’t go too much farther, as even that is a bit more spoilery than I usually care to go.)

Gaiman does an very good job of giving life to the many old (and new) gods that we encounter through the book, and makes the incredible task of tying them altogether seem effortless.  There were times when the plot slowed, but the information there was tied to the plot and made the slight plodding worth while.  This is, very much, not a suspenseful story.  At least, not in the traditional sense that you are constantly wondering what is going to happen to this character or that character, or, when will that bomb blow up.  It is, however, suspenseful in that you find yourself wondering how each of the plot points that are introduced will develop.

I thought that the book was a wonderfully put together piece of literature.  (I should note that I quickly borrowed this to Jake, and he disagrees to some degree.)  I think that it owes a great deal of that to Gaimans skill.  He has an incredible grasp of language, and prose.  A lesser author would not have been able to breath the life into this story that Gaiman did.

I don’t know where to place this book, genre wise.  In a way, it’s a piece of literary fiction.  In another, it’s a paranormal fiction novel.  Maybe it’s best being called a literary paranormal fiction?  I don’t know.  But, if you’re a reader, I think you owe it to yourself to read it.  I know I wasn’t disappointed.

Goblin Hero

By: Jim C. Hines

The continuing adventures of Jig.  Now dubbed Jig the Dragonslayer after his adventures in Goblin Quest, Jig even has a song in his name.  Despite that, he still hasn’t overcome the title of runt.  Hines has done something interesting in this book.  In Goblin Quest, we met Jig and throughout the book, we really got a feel for what it meant to be Jig the Goblin.  The constant fear of his peers, the cowardice of the Goblins, and how Jig was just a bit different from the others.  In Hero, Hines leaves the bulk of that behind and heads off in a different direction.  And, I think, if he hadn’t, this book would have been a far lesser book for it.

In Hero, we’re immediately thrown into Jigs life post adventure.  He’s still just as looked down upon.  He’s still the runt.  But, he’s got his new god, Shadowstars healing ability to keep him alive.  Jig is once again thrown into an adventure when an Ogre comes busting into the Goblin lair demanding to see Jig the Dragonslayer.  Despite his best efforts to get out of going, Jig sets off with the Ogre down into the depths of Straums lair.

I felt like I got to know Jig a lot more in this book.  Maybe that’s because, after the first book, all the wider picture stuff was out of the way and we could get in for a more character expanding look.  Another nice thing that I noticed is that Hines doesn’t weigh the book down with all of the details of what has happened since the first book ended.  He dribbles a bit here and there, but leaves the rest out, and, in doing so, leaves a great deal of it to our imaginations.

Goblin Hero is a good book.  It’s fun, and well written.  It’s not a literary masterpiece, but if you picked up a book about a run Goblin expecting that it would be, you need to have your head examined.  What it is, though, is a quick read that comes across light and entertaining.  What more can you ask for?  I don’t think you’d need to read the first book to catch up in this one.  But, I’ve always thought that if you’re going to read a book in a series, you might as well start at the start.

Crystal Rain

By: Tobias S. Buckell

When I first heard about this book, by a Caribbean born author who now lives in Ohio, I was a bit skeptical.  I mean, come on.  A sci-fi book with flying ships, and characters that talk in a Caribbean accent?  Sounds a bit funky to me.  However, it was Buckell himself that won me over and made me decide to at least give it a try.  Buckell is one of those authors who has embraced the 21st century, ditched the typewriter, and has a blog (tobiasbuckell.com) and even a twitter (@tobiasbuckell) account.  Not only that, but neither of them is merely there for presence sake.  The guy is approachable.  And, in my opinion, a pretty good guy.

So, as I mentioned, the book is about a bunch of characters that talk in a Caribbean accent.  Well, that and a bit more.  They all happen to be descendants of Caribbean settlers who settled the little island on the planet that they are on.  Unlike some books I’ve read that start off in new worlds, Buckell found a great pace for releasing the information to the reader.  He doesn’t info-dump all the back-story on you all at once, but instead lets it trickle in little by little, making sure you have just what you need to make everything make sense.

The story itself is a bit more shallow than some of the books I’ve read recently.  By that, I mean that there aren’t more than a couple of sub-plots going at once (or at all).  Depending on your point of view, that could be a good or bad thing.  I, personally, don’t mind.  I can read either way, but a book with only a few sub-plots makes for pretty easy reading.  You can easily slip into the story and enjoy it, rather than having to sometimes flip back to find a key bit of info that you missed that suddenly became important.

Overall, the book is well written, the characters are well played, and the world is fleshed out to a deep enough degree that it becomes real within the story.  It’s original, and has flavors within it that you’ll be hard pressed to find anywhere else. And it’s those flavors that make it a very readable book.