Category Archives: Books/Literature

Books/Literature

Six Wakes (2017) a (mildly) belated book review… and more!

Been a while since I’ve offered an opinion on a book but sometimes you run across one which is so intriguing, so fun, that you have to give it a shout out.  Afterwards, I’ll offer another review… at least of a book I tried and had to give up on…

First, the positive review:

Released early this year, Mur Lafferty’s Six Wakes is a really clever, enjoyable sci-fi book that reads like an Agatha Christie mystery, but set in outer space (for the most part).

The book is an interesting amalgam of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and, to some extent, Murder on the Orient Express.

And Then There Were None, perhaps Agatha Christie’s best known novels, involved a group of 10 strangers are brought together to a remote island and then they’re knocked off… one after the other, and the big mystery is who brought them here and why is this person killing them off.

Now take that general concept and have the main characters already killed off and their latest clone versions are awoken moments after the last of the original crew was murdered on a large vessel in deep space and have these “new” clones of the murder victims try to figure out who killed their previous selves… and why.

In this novel, one’s last stored memories are imported into the fresh clones and in the case of the people aboard the ship, the last memories are from when they boarded the vessel some 24 years before.  They have no idea what happened between then and now, and the mystery of which one of them -one or more!- were involved in the ghastly murders committed and why.

As I mentioned above, the book also had some similarity to Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, but to delve into that aspect would be a little too spoilery so I’ll just bite my tongue.

By the way, though there are similarities in concept, this is absolutely NOT a negative but rather a compliment. My admiration for the works of Ms. Christie is high and for me to put this book in that sphere is indeed a compliment.

The only negative I would give the book is that in the early chapters things take a little bit to get going and the back and forth between the present and sometimes very distant past got a little confusing given we’re introduced to many characters almost at once.  However, when you have a grip on who’s who, things really click.

Recommended!

Now, the book I didn’t make it through…

Stephen King is arguably the most popular novelist today, having sold many millions of copies of his books over the years and having not only released a staggering number of works, but also having a staggering number of them be made either for the movies or TV.

So I don’t feel too terribly bad giving one of his novels a big thumb’s down.

Joyland sounded really interesting, based on the description on the back of the book.  The time frame the story took place in, for the most part the early 1970’s, was also intriguing to me as I was a very young child at the time and was curious to read a story set in and around that era.

But the book, unfortunately, proved dull and off-putting.

I managed to get some 60+ pages into it when I decided enough was enough.  The book purports to be a mystery/thriller with supernatural elements but what it really appears to be is Mr. King doing a thinly veiled growing up/maturing story… and it proved a real chore to read.

If you’re doing a story about someone growing up, then try to make the character interesting and the main character in this novel, at least to the point where I read it, is more annoying than interesting.  Love sick and blue balled (pardon the expression, but its a fact of the book) by a girlfriend we’re told early on is about to abandon him and then, for sixty pages, we keep coming back to her and his feelings for her and it… is… soooooo… irritating.

I recommend Six Wakes.  Can’t say the same about Joyland.

Books/Literature

Corrosive Knights, a 11/14/17 update

We’re nearing the middle of November so why not give an update on Book #7 of my Corrosive Knights series?  And, while I’m at it, let me again post this nifty graphic showing the entirety of the series and the two books to come…

Alright, so here goes:

I’m still hard at work on revising the first full draft of the book.  The book has three parts which are roughly the same length:

  1. An intro which offers us a “the story until now” in as interesting/new a way as I can fashion it which leads to…
  2. The bulk of the story which leads to…
  3. Conclusion

I’ve finished going over that first part and I have to say, I really think it worked well.  There are parts presented which offer scenes found in earlier books but offered from different perspectives and, IMHO, it works so damn well!

I wish I could get into more details but to do so would be silly.  Today I embark on the second part of the story and, hopefully, soon enough I’ll have made my way through the entire book…

…at which time I begin all over again but with a hopefully far stronger overall work.

Exciting, exciting stuff!

Books/Literature

Hang on a second there…

Yesterday I posted an update of my latest Corrosive Knights book (you can read the full update here).  As I mentioned there, I’m now revising the first “full” draft of book #7 in the series, which will conclude the series’ main story.

Toward the end of the post, I created and put up this picture:I didn’t think all that much of it when I created and posted it in the still in-progress blog entry, but when I published the entry and looked back at the whole thing I got…

…emotional.

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t tear up or cry or howl at the moon or give myself high fives.  Instead, seeing the published entry, I did have feelings.

Pleasant feelings.

The first, primary feeling was one of pride.  The second was one of relief.

The pride part is easy enough to explain.  Whatever job you have, and especially if it is one you enjoy, whenever you accomplish something “big” after plenty of hard work doing it and are happy with the way things turned out, then you should feel pride.  You should feel like patting your back.

I’ve noted far too many times before that writing a book is extremely difficult work, at least to me.  The amount of time spent on a single novel, much less eight novels that form a series, is very hard.  There are many characters and situations to keep in mind.  There are so many events and repercussions to deal with.  Finally, I was determined to deliver something fresh and new and interesting and was extremely careful not to have any story devolve into cliche.

So when I looked at yesterday’s post and saw that image, all that hard work was right there in that single graphic.

Sure, books #7 and 8 aren’t out yet, but at this time both novels are written.  The only thing keeping me from releasing them is the work needed to clean them up so they can be released.

Otherwise, this series -at least from the creative writing side- is done and, to my mind, done well.

That’s where the feeling of relief comes in.

After all these years -indeed much of my adult life- as of yesterday the process is almost done and, most importantly, it works.

After so many small and large steps, so many days and months and years of hard work, of whole days and weeks spent working on one particular segment of one particular book and sweating out how that would mesh with other parts of said book…

…I’m suddenly here, nearing the end of this long, wonderful journey.

As I said before, it has not been easy, but there’s nothing better than seeing the fruits of your labor and realizing you’re not just nearly done, but that you’ve done well.

I can’t wait for you guys and gals to see the next two books.

If you liked what came before, you will love what comes next.

Books/Literature

Corrosive Knights a 10/25/17 update

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Though the update is listed as today (ie, the 25th of October), this concerns yesterday.

Specifically, as of yesterday, the 24th of October, I finished the first detailed read through of my latest Corrosive Knights novel.  This will be novel #7 in the series and will conclude the story I began all those years before with Mechanic.

(A quick side note: Though this will conclude the main Corrosive Knights story line, there will be a book #8 which will offer an “epilogue” to the story.  For now I’ll say no more, other than that I have already written the first draft of that epilogue and it should come out very soon after the release of book #7)

Having now read through book #7 from start to end, I have a clearer idea of how the individual parts fit together.  When I wrote this book, I first wrote one major section and the conclusion then went back to write the second major section, a process that took me some time, before marrying the two elements together in one large file.

As I have mentioned before, this is the longest novel I’ve written so far, clocking in at 128,761 words (261 single spaced printed pages) and I suspect when all is said and done the word could will likely increase.

There are bits and pieces that need clarification and/or expansion.  There are less pieces here and there that require compression.

But the big question is: Does the book work?

It may seem like an odd question to make at such a late stage, but trust me, I was sweating for a while.  Because I did one large section of the book, put it away, then worked on the other section before merging the two, it had been a while since I read and revised the first stuff I did.  And when I merged the two together and started the full read-through, I was nervous, worried if everything would fit together and whether the story in full came together or, as I put it above, worked.

I’m happy to say it did.

Boy, did it ever.

Though there’s still much to be done, I’m extremely happy with what I have so far.  This is a book that will, I believe, very satisfactorily conclude the Corrosive Knights saga.  Those who have been following it, I feel, will be happy with this ending which deals with all the various plot threads I’ve opened but, up to this point, haven’t closed.

So today I start the revision process on the computer and, when I’m done with it, I’ll print the whole thing out and give it another read and do the pen revisions before once again doing revisions on the computer.

Hang in there, folks.

They’ll all be out before you know it!

Books/Literature

It was bound to happen…

When one releases one’s own works to the general public, it stands to reason that not everyone will love what you do.  This goes for people who draw, paint, sing, play instruments, direct, act, etc. etc. etc.

As an author, my hope, as should be the hope of all artists out there, is that the number of people who like your work will be far greater than those who don’t.

At this point, I have 44 ratings on Goodreads.com for my works.  In total, the reviews for all my works merits a 3.89 rating out of 5, a number that frankly thrills me to no end.

Reading over the reviews, there are the positive ones.  Look, I’ve got an ego and, like everyone out there, I love to have my ego stroked by people who love what I’ve done.

To them: Thank you.  Thank you very, very, very much.

But some of the reviews make me chuckle.

Over at Amazon.uk (the British Amazon service), a reader named “sonnet” offered a four out of five star rating for my novel Haze and wrote that it was A surprisingly good read.

Again, I really appreciate the review but also couldn’t help but think that the reader was genuinely surprised an independent writer could do something “good”.  Was the surprise based on this?

Who knows.  Perhaps I’m reading too much into this.

Over at amazon.jp, the Japanese amazon service, I received a 2 star out of five review from Orezqtotter for my graphic novel The Dark Fringe and his/her review, under the heading of Too Simple, was Everything goes like as I could expect and nothing unpredictable.

Again (part deux), I don’t expect everything I do will appeal to everyone, though I do take issue with the notion that The Dark Fringe’s story is “too simple” or predictable.

But, again, this is this reader opinion and I can respect it didn’t turn him/her on, its his/her absolute right to have an opinion of said product.

Then there are these types of reviews, reviews that, frankly, irk me.

A few days ago on amazon.com my latest novel, Foundry of the Gods, received a one star review.

The review, under the headline “One Star“, is by Tony6232 who wrote: Did not Order this.

Amazon.com allows you to see the reviews of the people who post and, curious to get an idea of Tony6232’s reviewing, I found that on that same date s/he wrote the review for my novel s/he wrote three other one star reviews with the very same Did not Order this comment.  Of the four items s/he reported, mine was the only novel.

I’m assuming Tony6232 is sincere in his/her comments that, perhaps, someone illegally took over his/her amazon account (the Gods know this can happen!) and purchased things s/he didn’t want.

However…

…what the reviewer did was take out that anger/frustration on a product instead of where it should have gone to, however that order was made.  And by offering the one star review, his/her opinion brings the overall reviews of my novel down as well, especially when the book hasn’t received all that many reviews to this point.

I can’t help but think there will be people who look at the overall review numbers and, unless they scrutinize the reviews, will think the book isn’t good because the overall ratings are low even if it is no fault of the product itself.

Understand: I know I’m not the first person with a product placed on amazon that has faced a bad review for something unrelated to the product itself.  It is, however, the first time it has happened to me.

For example, I’ve read many poor reviews for products where, it turned out, the reviewer was upset not about the product but rather that it was delivered damaged to their door.

Think about that.

You order a book or movie or CD or whathaveyou and it is delivered to your house and the box is smashed and, unfortunately, the product within is damaged.

Instead of contacting amazon or the postal carrier and complaining about the delivery, you give the product a one star review even if you note that its because of a damaged product.  Unfortunately, there may be people out there unlike me who do not read the reviews and think the one star review is for the product itself.

So what can one do?  For me, I replied to Tony6232 with the following comment:

From looking at your profile, it is clear there were three other products you “reviewed” with a similar statement, ie that you “did not order this”.

While I appreciate reviews -positive or negative- of my novels, it seems your issue is not with my book but rather with Amazon.com itself. I hope you get the issue resolved.

There’s little else at this point one can do.
Books/Literature

2 Sentence Halloween Story

Over on Goodreads.com authors were asked/challenged to provide a two sentence horror story in honor of Halloween.

Here’s mine…

Deep under the earth and in the bunker, Earth’s last survivors let out an anguished cry when they heard the approaching noises. Those vile, terrifying creatures could gnaw through concrete and metal just as easily as human flesh.

Books/Literature

Corrosive Knights, a 10/12/17 update

Quick update:

I’m slowly… very slowly… reading through the current draft of the book and…

I’m liking what I’m reading.

To be sure, there are some things that will need expansion and/or “cleaning” but much of what I’ve read (approximately the first 1/3rd or so of the book) flows remarkably well.

While I know what happens in these early pages, its been many months since I’ve looked at them so, therefore, I’m looking at them with fresh eyes and the fact that the stuff reads as well as it does is very promising.

I suppose when you’ve made it to your 11th major work, even if you’re a fool like me you’re bound to learn a few tricks along the way.  Either that or I’ve finally learned to write things with a stronger eye on making it closer to what it should be by the time I’m through.

Anyway, back to work.

Books/Literature, General

The passing of Hugh Hefner

News broke yesterday that Hugh Hefner, 91, had passed away (here’s a CNN article by Brandon Griggs on his passing, if you want to read more).

In many ways, Mr. Hefner was one of the more influential figures of the late 20th Century.  His publication, Playboy, came at exactly the right time and rode the wave which only grew larger and larger from the 1960’s and on.

Yes, the magazine was mostly known for giving us photographs of incredibly beautiful -and sometimes very famous- women in the nude, but also were featured other things…

As the recurrent joke goes when one is discovered with a copy of the magazine: I bought it for the interview or story or whathaveyou.

And yet another icon of the era falls.

Books/Literature

Reading novels…

Found this over on reddit (this is the full link) concerning “majchek’s” favorite quote about books, from author Ursula Le Guin:

In reading a novel, any novel, we have to know perfectly well that the whole thing is nonsense, and then, while reading, believe every word of it. Finally, when we’re done with it, we may find – if it’s a good novel – that we’re a bit different from what we were before we read it, that we have been changed a little, as if by having met a new face, crossed a street we never crossed before. But it’s very hard to say just what we learned, how we were changed.

Wow.

I hadn’t read that quote before, which is presented in the introduction to her novel The Left Hand of Darkness.

As others have noted, reading a book is the closest you get to entering someone else’s head and, yes, joining/sharing in their dreams.

Most stories presented in novels, short/long stories, comic books, movies, and TV are, let’s be clear, mostly nonsense.

I love works that dwell on the fantastic.  I love the play Oedipus Rex.  I love the 1978 film Superman.  I consider Fritz Lang’s Metropolis one of the best movies, IMHO, ever made.  I love Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Over in the literary field,  I love the Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.  I love most of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories/poetry.  H. P. Lovecraft’s horror stories are a source of endless fascination, as are the works of Lester Dent (Doc Savage), Robert E. Howard (Conan).  I love the hard boiled works of Raymond Chandler (one of, IMHO, the best pure writers out to ever come around) and Dashiell Hammett.

In comics, I love the earlier writings of Alan Moore.  I find Len Wein, Denny O’Neil, Doug Moench, Marv Wolfman, Archie Goodwin, etc. etc. etc.’s storytelling.

This stuff is a source of constant wonder and amusement and, in some cases, awe.

Yet, looking at almost all the stories that I love so much logically… they are indeed nonsense.

Sure, some of the works I mentioned above address societal issues (Metropolis, for example, dealt -at times in a very heavy handed way- with the idea of societal divisions between lowly -and at times exploited- workers and those who run the industries they work at, and how these two parts of society could eventually understand each other).  Others, especially the works of Edgar Allan Poe, worm their way into a person’s feelings of guilt and mounting horror… to delightful effect.

And, as stated so eloquently by Le Guin, if the work is good and we absorb what the author/actor/etc. is offering us, we come away with a potentially very positive thing: We learn something new.  We experience a feeling we may not have had before.  At the very least, we potentially come away with a richer feeling than before.

What a positive feeling to have!

Makes me want to jump right into my novel… which I’m about to do! 😉

Books/Literature

Corrosive Knights, a 9/25/17 Update

Just a few days ago I wrote up a mini-update on my latest Corrosive Knights series.

I began the Corrosive Knights many years ago with Mechanic…

…and I worried that book #7 in this series, the concluding story, would be so big it needed to be broken into two novels.

Well, as I stated in that update I wrote a few days back, I was getting all the stuff I was hoping to do and it was looking even better that I’d have the story done in one larger novel.

Saturday, being alone for most of the day, I sat before the computer and began what, it turned out to be, the finishing touch on those elements I worried might lead to splitting the novel in two.

In effect, I finished what I need to finish and, later that day (or was it Sunday?) I cut and pasted the material into one large file and today, Monday, I printed the whole damn thing…

And there it is, lying –very heavily- on my desk.

The total page count for what is essentially a first full/complete draft of the story came to 261 single spaced pages (I print on both sides to preserve paper) and a total word count of 128,761.  These numbers easily represent the largest word/page count for any early draft of my novels… and I’m quite sure that count will go up as I begin the reviewing process.  I know there are some things -mostly smaller things at this point- here and there I still have to add in.

The most exciting thing is that that’s where I am: In the reviewing process.  There are still some things that need to be worked out and bits and pieces which will either be added or removed, but this draft has almost everything I wanted to touch upon in this novel from start to end.

So the process goes on and I’ll spend most of this week -and likely some of next!- reading and revising this draft and marking it up like crazy.  Then, off to the computer to put in all the revisions, print it out, and go through the same process of refining the novel until I feel it is ready to be released.

In general, I’ve taken roughly 12 drafts to get to that point.

My hope is that it will happen soon!