D.M. Wiltshire has chosen my entry in her “If I had 100 Dollars” contest as the winner, which means my nominated charity, Indspire, is the recipient of not $100, but $200, as she has doubled the initial amount promised. I am honoured by my entry being chosen, and have matched her donation to Indspire.
You can read my original entry here.
Reblogged on WordPress.com
Being both an author and a reviewer, I find writing not-so-rave reviews difficult, because I know first-hand how devastating they can be. If I’m feeling particularly down over a bad review (and that can be either one I got or one I wrote – regardless of how diplomatic I try to be, and how well I’ve managed to find some positive things to say, I still don’t like writing them) – I go to Goodreads, and the reviews posted on the sites of authors I believe write in a way I wish I could, those I read every chance I can, whose new works I actually buy (in hardback, even)….like Guy Gavriel Kay, or Neil Gaiman. Why? Because even these guys get poor reviews. I do it to remind myself that I as a writer will never be to everyone’s taste, and as a reviewer, I may dislike something others love, or love something others dislike. It works.
How do you find solace after a poor review? I’d love to know!
Many thanks to reviewers Liz Scanlon at Cover to Cover and K.T. Munson at Creating Worlds With Words for their generous reviews of Spinnings: Brief Fantasies in Prose and Verse. Read their reviews at the links below:
Spinnings can be pre-ordered from Amazon; release date is March 25th.
Leaves of the World Tree is a collection of short stories by first-time author Adam Misner. Taking place in a wide variety of worlds, the overall theme of the collection is that people are not what they seem: heroes are not entirely heroes, villians are not entirely villians. Misner is a young author with skill in evoking mood, especially dark moods, effectively. The stories have some interesting premises: of the collection, Olaff was my favourite story among them; the title character’s slow realization that the difference between being mediocre and being a hero is a matter of degree was handled competently and the story is defined in its purpose. The enigmatic 3 A.M. was a close second, though.
The stories are uneven in execution. The longest, Amorphous, is in my opinion the weakest; it has an ‘outline’ quality to it suggesting the author might wish to consider expansion into, perhaps, a novella. Shorter stories – Olaff, There are No White Knights – are tighter, the writing more focused.
The production quality of the paperback is less than stellar. There are changes in font size not related to the story and first-line indent issues. While these don’t detract from the stories, they are just a small annoyance that could have been avoided. The book cover by Jorge Jacinto, evoking Yggdrasil, the World Tree of Norse mythology, is attractive.
Overall, I’m giving Leaves of the World Tree three stars. Short stories are a difficult form, and Adam Misner has made a good start in some of the stories in this first publication. As he matures as a writer, I’ll be interested in reading what he produces.
The author provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Imagine a world not too distant from our own, where the current research into neurological bridging between human minds and computers has become a reality….a two-way reality. The entertainment-industrial complex, run by the rich elite of the world, sees the potential for complete mind control, bringing the mass of workers into line through implanting ideas and reactions into the brains of all participants in the virtual reality game Halcyon Dreamworlds, through the simulation’s neurological controller. As Halcyon Dreamworlds is already the escapist alternative to the drudgery of daily life for many, if not most, of the population, there seems little to stand in the way of this plan.
Logan Fischer, big-box-store drudge with a past marked by failures she’d like to forget, is one of those whose alternative life in Halcyon Dreamworlds is more appealing to her than her reality. She is nearly swept away entirely into the glittering, decadent sexuality of the simulations, until her one trusted friend and family member is found dead…and the cause may be the neurological bridge, the ‘spider’, that links his brain directly with the computer program. Devastated by this loss, Logan finds herself being drawn deeper and deeper into the converging worlds of the police investigation and the lives of the elite who control Halcyon Dreamworlds, and who count no cost too great in their bid for world domination.
Fast-paced and complex, Halcyon Dreamworlds is believable science fiction, raising questions about technology that are relevant and challenging. Author Lee Baldwin’s background as a human interface designer in Silicon Valley no doubt adds to the veracity of the technology and its potential. The political issues in the background of the novel are the political issues of today, if more extreme, also adding to the sense of possible reality. There are no huge dystopic events here, only the expansion of climate change, the decline of the middle class, and an increasing isolationism in the West.
Baldwin uses language effectively, with a flair for description and dialogue. Characters are complex, with the main characters presented as more than stock figures, and in the case of the protagonist Logan, with a back-story which shapes her actions.
If I have one niggle it was the novel’s pacing, which I found to be a bit uneven, not quite hitting the right balance for me between world-building and narrative action. Production quality was good; I noted one mis-placed comma in the Kindle version I read. Overall, 4 stars for a thoroughly entertaining and thought-provoking story.
The author provided me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
On January 5th I posted a review of Robin Wildt Hansen’s book The World, giving it 4 stars. Since then, the author has made structural and editorial changes to the book, and on yesterday’s flight from Heathrow to Toronto, I read it again. I am pleased to say the changes have had a positive effect on the book, making it more accessible to readers and fixing issues to do with punctuation and paragraph structure. I’m upgrading my review here and on all other sites to 5 stars: Arkin’s mystical journey is now one of the best books I’ve read in the last year. It will challenge you, but it should, read with an open mind and an appreciation of language, both entertain and possibly enlighten you.
The premise of The Glooming is a promising one: the old gods return; chaos, panic and destruction result; from within the panicking peoples of the world there are a few who can, just possibly, bring about salvation.
There are strengths and weaknesses to this book, and I think the strengths just managed to win out in my mind over its weaknesses, but I’ll be honest, it was close. The strengths are in Triptych’s ability to create characters, a wide range of characters who were almost all believable, sufficiently well developed, and nuanced enough not to be stock “good guys” or “bad guys”. He’s also done his research into the pre-monotheistic gods of much of the world, and their characteristics and attributes. These two strengths gave a solid underpinning to the novel.
There were two notable weaknesses. The most significant is the pacing of the book. Perhaps because of the scope of the story – this is a world-encompassing epic, and Triptych shows us how much of the world reacts – the story is very slow to develop. Fully the first third of the novel is setting the stage, showing us how the gods arrive in several areas of the world and the detailed reactions of the people. By the third repetition, this was getting tedious. The second section of the book set up the world’s remaining military and intelligence reactions and plans, in parallel to the actions of the young woman, Tara, who will be one of the ultimate decisive factors in the battle against the old gods. This section was better-paced than the first, whereas the final section is almost too fast. Tara’s time with the Native American brujo, who shows her what she must overcome to be able to effectively battle the old gods, should have taken much longer: its speed made it unbelievable.
The second and more minor weakness was Triptych’s love of run-on sentences, too many thoughts strung together and punctuated only by commas. There were a few minor grammar and mis-used word errors, but not more than I see in any mass-market book, whether indie or traditional, these days. But both weaknesses could have been significantly reduced by a good editor, who could have helped the author take this book from the 2 1/2 stars I’m rating it (3 on Amazon and Goodreads) to a solid 4 or possibly 5 star book. There’s a sequel in the works, and perhaps by the time the whole series is done, the slow start-up will seem less of an issue; it’s sometimes difficult to judge that when reading one book of a planned series. John Triptych has real strengths as a writer, so I hope he continues to refine his craft to more elegantly tell his stories.
Many thanks to The Incessant Bookwork for this lovely and insightful review of Empire’s Daughter!
Many thanks to Susan Leigh Noble at Into Another World for hosting this interview. https://susanleighnoble.wordpress.com/2016/02/19/todays-featured-author-marian-thorpe/
Here is is! A reminder ARCs are available on request – either comment below or send an email to marianlthorpe(@)gmail.com (remove the spambot brackets first).
7000 words…it’ll take you half an hour to read!
marianlthorpe.com 
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