Every now and then, a weird or wacky idea pops into my head. A lot of these are fun to think about for a little while, but never go anywhere. Others, I actually find a way to bring to life. Such is the case with a short little work of multi-media fiction that I call "The Midnight Lake." If you want to check it out, you can head over to the brand new page that I've made to showcase this project.
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
REVIEW: PATIENT DARKNESS
Death has come to Odols...
INTRODUCTION
Shutt follows up his supernatural mystery novel, BROODING CITY with a sequel set a few months after the events of this series' debut. I thought the original was a fun, interesting story that did a nice job of introducing the world of the Sleepers, people with supernatural gifts whose moral compass seems to be ambiguous. The story followed Arthur Brennan, a police detective and former member of the shady organization of Sleepers run by a mysterious man named Benjamin, as well as the young Jeremy, whose powers were only just beginning to manifest. The story took a long time to tget going which was one of my main criticisms. It wasn't until the last quarter or so of the book that all the pieces came together and I could feel myself getting into things. I also felt like the parts featuring Jeremy came off as being much stronger than those featuring Arthur and the people in his corner of the world. I just didn't really like the characters on this side of the story all that much. The interactions were definitely quirky, but I think there was some layer of sarcasm coating it all that just didn't resonate well with me. In spite of the slow build up and characters I didn't connect super well with, I was definitely pulled into this mysterious world and the shocking events at the novel's end left me wanting more. Needless to say, I was very excited when the author reached out to me with a copy of his second novel leaving only the gentle request for another review in return.
Please Note:
- While I'm very appreciative of the author giving me a free copy of his work, this gratitude in no way affects the contents of my review.
- As with all of my reviews, I tried to keep this spoiler free, but do note that there ARE some heavy spoilers for BROODING CITY's ending which are referenced due to their importance in the plot of PATIENT DARKNESS.
MY RATING
4/5 Like it's predecessor, I felt that PATIENT DARKNESS struggles a little with establishing it's premise and really pulling readers into the crux of it's narrative. There are notable improvements made since the first outing, but also some areas in which the book flounders.
CHARACTERS
WORLD/SETTING
The world continues to be one of the main selling points of this series for me. The seemingly mundane streets of Odals are becoming a lot more interesting as more supernatural characters start to emerge from the woodwork. There aren't any particularly notable locations really. Alex's apartment complex and her father's mansion are certainly distinct and Brennan's cozy apartment is an interesting setting in that it's adjusting to there being two full-time residents living in it now. Most of it is typical mystery-thriller fare with morgues, dormitories, churches, and hospitals thrown in for good measure. Where the real world building takes place is in how the secret underground of the Sleepers is explored in greater detail.
In this installment, the portrayal of the sleepers as monsters of the night is greatly challenged. Lines are blurred with the inclusion of numerous other figures with supernatural powers whom are not affiliated with Benjamin's Sleeper organization. There's a killer on the loose posing a threat to human and superhuman alike. Then there's people who've stayed utterly removed from it all like Alex and her father. If this all sounds a little vague, that's partially because there aren't a ton of concrete revelations delivered to readers about what exactly the Sleepers are and what they want. Instead, there's mostly a lot of doubt thrown in. Small truths like what really happened to Brennan's sister muddle the previously established ideas about how Sleepers are the big bad of this world. There are a lot of little hints dropped about what might actually be going on, but nothing solid as of yet.
PLOT/TONE
Where this novel ultimately struggles most is in how it makes the deliberate choice not to give too much away. While neither of the entries in this series are particularly lengthy, they're still at full novel length so I did find it slightly off-putting to have no clearer picture of what the actual threat to Odals is than I did at the end of BROODING CITY. While this decision definitely builds up a ton of intrigue for the next book in the series, it also prevents the story from feeling as rewarding as it should. Perhaps if the final conflict was a bit more dragged out or if more was revealed about one of the principal antagonists, then it would have concluded a little stronger. There are still plenty of interesting little twists, but nothing as showstopping as what I was hoping for. This issue is compounded by the fact that I felt like the opening half of the book was very very slow. Shutt spends an awful lot of time reminding us of what happened in the previous book before really allowing his readers to be tossed into the events of this new story.
After the foreboding words delivered by Benjamin during BROODING CITY's Epilogue, I was expecting to get tossed into something far more exciting. I felt like the story kind of gets the reset button hit on it. Between the constant restating/overstating and the fact that there's a brand new mystery for Brennan to solve in somewhat typical contemporary noir fashion, it felt like this just didn't do enough to outdo it's predecessor. There are little things like how Brennan is trying to find love again (and using a sketchy dating site to do it), moments with Benjamin, and just about every chapter with Alex that do standout in my mind as points where the novel felt worthwhile. I ultimately just wanted things to pick up a little sooner than they did and provide me with a little more satisfaction by the end.
CONCLUSION
You can check out more reviews on PATIENT DARKNESS at Goodreads. Kindle and paperback editions of this book can be found on Amazon.
Sunday, August 7, 2016
REVIEW: ENDER'S GAME
INTRODUCTION
Few books are as widely revered as Orson Scott Card's ENDER'S GAME. It's widely referenced and I always had an idea of what the basic plot points were but never actually experienced the cultural phenomenon for myself. I went in with some pretty lofty expectations, hoping this piece of classic science fiction would live up to it's sterling reputation.
MY RATING
5/5 ENDER'S GAME is not only a brilliant scifi ensemble, but also a deep and occasionally harrowing examination of what it means to be both a part of and apart from humanity.
CHARACTERS
One of the toughest aspects of this story is that nearly all of the key characters are young children. Ender, Petra, Bean, Alai, Valentine, and Peter are some of the more notable members of the cast, but there are a host of others who play an important part in Ender's journey towards saving humanity. All of them are children who never really get to have a childhood. They're picked as the best and brightest that humanity has to offer and are asked to be brilliant for the rest of us. It's a big burden to bear and Card paints a stark picture of how this pressure molds them into pseudo-adults. All too early, these characters learn the meaning of evil and are exposed to injustice much sooner than they should be. But in spite of their early maturity, it's also evident at times that they really are just kids trying to play the role of something more.
Ender's character is one of the most compelling I think I've ever seen in a piece of fiction and I found myself relating to certain aspects of his character throughout the story. In spite of being extraordinary in every physical and mental way imaginable, he's also flawed in just enough ways to make him someone my heart ached for. I don't know if I've ever routed for a character more than I did for Ender Wiggen and there was this bizarre sense of responsibility I felt for his pain by simply reading through the story. What's most interesting about him though is how dangerous he is. The idea of having a boy his age be as deadly as some of the most powerful action heroes is definitely a disturbing one. It also messed with me a little since there's still an innocence about Ender that can only come with a character of such youth.
WORLD/SETTING
The Ender Universe is one that is both glittering and shrouded in darkness. There's a certain timelessness to a lot of the science fiction technology that shows up. From the spacecraft, to the "desks" that the kids use for their schoolwork, there was just enough description to give me an idea of what these things were capable of, but never so much that I didn't find myself using my own imagination to decide what exactly they looked like. It was really interesting to read a piece of science fiction with such and open-ended set of visuals since most novels in this genre painstakingly describe each technology employed or reference common science fiction fare which most readers will instantly be able to see in their mind's eye. It's a rather bold choice to build up a world in this way, but I liked it quite a bit. It gives the book a lot of flexibility in that I would have no idea what year it was written in by simply reading through it. This may be one reason why the story continues to resonate so well with audiences so many years after it's publication.
PLOT/TONE
This idea is reinforced by the brief moments that feature dialogue between the adult characters who run the school as well as with two key members of Ender's family. In these moments, readers get a break from the excitement of Ender's life and are offered some deeper insight into the finer points of how this world works and what it takes to be an important part of it. The socio-psychological depth that is explored is partially what makes me think this is almost more of an adult book. There are a lot of insightful statements made about the topics of politics and war which, while not totally inappropriate for kids, probably wouldn't really be fully appreciated by them either. In his prelude to the book, Card argues the point that children are often very adult-like in their thoughts and actions. As someone who's still fairly young himself, I definitely don't disagree with this statement, but I think there's also a number of things that a child shouldn't have to worry about or experience until they are older. The kids in this story are definitely not shielded from very much and in some cases are even manipulated into maturing way earlier than they would if given a normal childhood. It's the way that they're robbed of their innocence that I found to be the most disturbing and the shocking twist at the end definitely lands the final blow. Fortunately though, there's also a lot of childish charm scattered throughout which helps lighten the mood. Sometimes it's a funny quip and in other's its an inventive way of dealing with bullying, but in all cases, it definitely reminded me that these really are just kids trying to find their way like any other person their age.
CONCLUSION
I'm definitely glad to have finally read this classic piece of science fiction. It exceeded all of my wildest expectations and I can easily see why this is such a cherished story. A part of me is glad that I waited till adulthood to read it though. I think, like many YA titles, I got more out of it coming in with a more mature point of view than I ever would have as a high school or middle school reader.
There's a lot of very deep thought that went into crafting this narrative and I love how much it made me pause to think about what was really going on. I felt very deeply for each of the characters and became invested in their world very quickly. There's not much to say other than that if you haven't read ENDER'S GAME already, you should definitely pick it up.
Saturday, August 6, 2016
UPDATE: CELEBRATING MY 50TH REVIEW
I've had a lot of fun since starting the blog. While I don't read as much as some, I've been pretty pleased with the number of books, stories, and graphic novels that I've read through since I began. As of today, I've written forty-nine reviews on this blog, accounting for over fifty different pieces of fiction (this includes my review roundup posts). As I approach the arrival of my fiftieth review, I wanted to look back on those that I have done so far and link to them here.
- An Unexpected Bonding
- The Stonegate Sword
- Klubbe the Turkle and the Golden Star Coracle
- Bypass Gemini (Big Sigma Book 1)
- Your First 1000 Copies
- Napism.info
- The Devil's Playthings
- Injustice Gods Among Us Vol. 1
- Hollow Towns
- Fade to Black
- Everyone Dies at the End
- The Devil's Child
- Injustice Gods Among Us Vol. 2
- Stormdancer (The Lotus War Book 1)
- Mini Review: Sinking
- Whispers of the World that Was
- The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games Book 1)
- Catching Fire (The Hunger Games Book 2)
- Rat Queens Volume 1: Sass and Sorcery
- Brooding City
- The Strange Library
- Mini Review: The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye
- The Martian
- Unstable Prototypes (Big Sigma Book 2)
- Batman the Long Halloween
- Day of the Fish Zombies
- White Wind Rising (Gunpowder and Alchemy Book 1)
- Sixth of the Dusk
- Review Roundup: New 52 November!!!
- The Buried Giant
- Review Roundup: The Immortal Iron Fist
- Mockingjay (The Hunger Games Book 3)
- The Immortal Weapons
- Somewhere In Between
- Atomic Robo The Everything Explodes Collection
- Sung in Blood
- Dimorphic
- Atomic Robo The Crystals Are Integral Collection
- Descender Volume 1: Tin Stars
- Illuminae (Illuminae Files 01)
- Perfect State
- The Goblin Emperor
- Rat Queens Volume 2: The Far Reaching Tentacles of N'rygoth
- Review Roundup: Free Comic Book Day
- Stardust
- Review Roundup: Days of FCBD Past
- Rat Queens Volume 3: Demons
- Mini Review: Pandemonium
- Marvel 1602
Four the fiftieth post to be marked with the "REVIEW" tag, I'll be trying out a slightly different format which gives the reviews on my blog a little more pzazz than the versions I post on Goodreads. I'll also be trying to make the first couple of these reviews books that I either loved or really enjoyed in order to celebrate fully celebrate this shift.
To start things off, I'll be reviewing a beloved science fiction classic, ENDER'S GAME by Orson Scott Card!
Review to be posted tomorrow!
TWINS TO THE THRONE: AN EPISODE OF BIRTH
=================
| An episode of birth |
=================
The emperor trails his slave girl through the
dim corridors of his palace. She makes haste, shuffling her sandaled feet as
quick as she can while remaining ladylike. This is a situation that would
surely justify running, but his majesty has not given her permission to do so.
The emperor takes long, deliberate strides behind her. He too feels this is an
occasion for more than just hasty walking, but he will not suffer to be seen
doing so in front of his barbarian captive. A maroon cape falls over his right
shoulder and sways with each step. His breastplate glitters in the muted light
and a wreath sits securely over his curly hair. This is the way an emperor
ought to look, with a dignified swing of his shoulders and a chin held high.
At
last, they come upon the bedchamber where the girl opens door and steps aside. The
emperor shoots her a coy grin as he passes. Better for her to think this is but
a trivial matter to him. The emperor cannot appear worried, even in his own
household. But the way his empress screams on the bed does worry him. Her ladies in waiting scurry around, holding her
hands, dabbing her forehead with cool water, and fanning her writhing figure.
The midwife crouches between her legs, waiting to see the babe emerge. She pops
up over the skirts of the empress’s dress from time to time to issue commands
or soothing words, but the emperor knows this is not going well.
“Gods,
let this child be a son,” the emperor prays, though his words are
inaudible.
The screaming and the twisting and the
hustling about goes on until the emperor feels exhausted just standing here.
“Keep fighting, my love,” he says.
This time his voice rings out rich and deep
for all to hear. It’s the most he can offer his empress right now. Were he a
normal man, he would be by his woman’s side, holding her hand, whispering sweet
things to her, and sweating under the stress of the moment. But he knows he
mustn’t do that. He understands that to rule also means he must live life
imprisoned by his own power. He stands there, frozen in place like a cool,
magnificent sculpture. He studies her olive skin, her wetted, dark hair, and
the determined glint in her eyes. He admires the way she pushes through the
pain.
At last, a wailing infant is withdrawn. A
slave comes over with a knife and chops the cord that tethers the babe to its
mother. Then another comes and wraps it up in a swaddling cloth. But something
is wrong. The midwife should be taking it over to the empress. Instead she crouches
back down in front of her as if the job is not yet done. A slave brings the
child over to her emperor. Shock and confusion rack his mind, but all he can do
is remain stone-faced as he accepts the infant.
“A boy, my lord,” the slave informs him.
He returns with a nod before turning his gaze
down to the baby boy. The sight of his warm brown eyes calms the emperor. He might
be whining and stinky and covered in blood and slime, but he’s the most
beautiful thing the emperor has seen.
“He’ll
make a good prince,” the emperor decides.
Then a second small voice echoes through the
chamber. The emperor looks up to see another baby in the midwife’s arms. The
empress lets out a loud sigh and collapses against the bed, no longer conscious.
The midwife brings the second child over to its father.
“Another boy, your honor,” she tells him.
“Thank you,” he replies, though his heart sinks
with the news. “You’ve served us well.” The emperor’s voice is steady although
his heart races.
The weary old midwife departs from the
chamber, escorted by several slave girls. The rush of joy that came from the
emperor’s firstborn son is now dashed by the presence of the boy who came but
minutes after his brother. The empire cannot have dual emperors. Yet do not
these boys have an equal claim to the throne? They’ll grow up being the same
age with the same face, same hair, and same voice. They will, for all purposes,
be the same man, but there can only be one of them. The handmaids fuss about
the sleeping empress while their emperor wanders to the bedchamber’s balcony. He
steps out onto it through the open door and breathes in the warm air.
“Is this not also my child?” he says looking
out at the tall buildings with steeple roofs.
All the emperor can see is a vision of the
chaos that these twin princes will bring to the empire. He sees them fighting
over their claim to the throne. And why shouldn’t they? Is one supposed to
accept a role as the second son? No, these would be proud boys. These would be
brothers destined to turn on one another.
“Tygren,” the emperor says, feeling his
general’s presence behind him.
“I got the news, my lord,” the soldier replies.
“What would you do to protect this empire?”
“Anything.”
A silence hangs in the air before the emperor
concludes, “I need you to take one of them away.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere close, someplace safe, a farm
maybe. If anything happens to his brother, I’ll need him to be within arm’s
reach and I –”
“It would be unbefitting to sentence the boy
to any crueler a fate.”
“Indeed,” the emperor groans.
“What of the empress.”
“She’s not to know of this arrangement. We’ll
craft a fiction that she bore only one.”
“It will be done. Which one am I to take?”
The emperor looks at the younger twin. He
should kiss the boy on the forehead or at least say he’s sorry. But he’s not
sorry, he’s the emperor. So he hands the babe over to Tygren who departs with a
bow.
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