3/5
Cassie Sullivan may be one of the last humans left. The alien attack has wiped out most of humanity in four waves of increasing destruction.
It took me just over four days to read this. I started on Thursday night, and would have gone straight through the night if I didn’t have to get up the next morning. By the time I’d put it down, I was 20% of the way through, thoroughly hooked, and I finished it over the weekend.
It didn’t matter that the first part of the book was all back-story. What grabbed me was how compelling and plausible that back-story was. The aliens weren’t dumb enough to land and start with death-rays and city busters; instead taking out humanity in four swipes from orbit. Score: seven billion to zero.
The book split into two converging stories about 25% way through, which led to some twists that I could see coming a mile away (Although for a page or two, I did wonder if I had one of them pinned down). The second story strand was the brutal boot-camp training of teenage (and younger) soldiers for the fight back against the aliens. Or are they aliens? Trust and the destruction of trust is one of the themes of the book, a call back to fifties sci-fi films where the aliens (ie communists) look just like us.
Short, snappy chapters, tumbling stream of consciousness sentences stripped to the bone – Yancey’s writing style is fantastic, tripping along, ripping away everything but the most essential details. I wish THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy had been this good.
Where Yancey seems to struggle is with his social interactions. Conversations that don’t make much sense to the reader and some convoluted syntax didn’t give me much insight into their relationships. Cassie immediately falls for the first handsome boy she comes across, despite her mistrust of him and his motives, and despite warning herself not too. Although for a pleasant change, there isn’t a love triangle going on between Cassie and the two main male characters in the story.
An excellent book where it comes to action and the end of the world, but it falls off when the characters have to talk to each other.
Here comes 2014!
It’s getting close to that time of year again, when we open up the blog to indie authors for a whole month!
This year I was thinking ‘anything goes’ – so if you’re a writer of any genre (not just YA) and would like to take part with a feature on you and your work in May, then drop me a line now at bonniesyorkie [at] gmail [dot] com
If you’ve featured with us before, we’d love to have you back, and if you’ve never been on our blog, what are you waiting for? 🙂 We already have some authors on our waiting list from last year, so get in touch quickly to secure your place as we only feature one author a day.
If you are a blogger who connects with writers or an author yourself, please share this open invitation with your networks, so that we can reach as many new faces as possible.
Thanks, Mel x
How weird is spam? I’ve just cleared down the spam folder for the first time in ages and I had to chuckle at what gets sent to the blog. Our latest haul was a really eclectic mix of Canada goose jackets, Emily’s bail bonds (not sure they’re much use this side of the pond) and a range of semi-marketing, half-medical sounding junk.
I have to admit that when one spam post urged me to ‘verbalize my ankles’ I kind of considered not junking it. Random stuff prompted random post – I’m off now to consider if verbalising any body part is 1. Possible and 2. Worthwhile…
The lovely Story Reading Ape let me swing by and post on his blog today, why not drop in yourself to find out some more about the characters and inspiration behind my books in The Ambrosia Sequence?
Guest Author Melanie Cusick-Jones discusses the ‘Hope’s Daughter’ Series
Best of all, take a look around his blog while you’re there for lots of great tips, features and guests, on all things reading and writing. (Oh, and for the Monday Funnies too! 🙂
3/5
Tessa Gray descends from a boat from New York to Victorian England, expecting to meet her brother, but a very strange and sinister pair of sisters kidnap her instead. Tessa finds herself pulled into a “Downworld” of magic, spells, vampires and demons, as she searches for her brother. Rescued by an organisation calling itself The Enclave, Tessa discovers she’s the focus of some very unwelcome attention, beings that will stop at nothing to possess power she didn’t know she had.
I’ve never read any Cassandra Clare before, and the book starts off really strongly. I can see why people like her writing. I felt immersed in Victorian London, smelling it and tasting it along with Tessa. For the first few chapters, the book rattled along.
Then it all fell apart for a while. There must be close to a hundred pages of exposition after Tessa is rescued by The Enclave. She sits and wanders around The Institute, while everyone tells her what sort of world she’s fallen into.
And there’s a chapter which really bugged me: Two of the main characters interview a businessman to see if they know anything about Tessa’s brother, and other matters. It could have been covered with a reported speech conversation about as short as this: “We went to see Mortmain. He doesn’t know where your brother is, but he seems to know more than he should about Downworld.”
It didn’t need a chapter. It didn’t need a chapter that head-hops out of Tessa and into two other characters. Nowhere else in the book does it do that. It was about this point that I realised I was reading exposition and nothing much else was going on apart from Tessa falling in love with the (obligatory) two boys at the same time.
Hmmm, love triangle with supernatural creatures, where have I seen that one before? At least these two are the best of friends and don’t let Tessa come between them.
However, the pages of exposition were quite subtly done – It did take me seventy pages to realise there wasn’t much else going on – and by then the pace was picking up again, enough to keep me reading until the end of the book. There was a neat twist close to the climax that reverberated right back to the start of the book that kept things interesting.
One of the joys of the book is its strong sense of location and atmosphere. Clare writes wonderful little details – moonlight streaming through a window, the stench of The Thames, long shadows and dark corners – to wrap you up in the world. Although she does need to know that in England in summertime, twilight goes on for hours. She has Tessa looking out of a window at sunset and a page of dialogue later it’s dark. At least, I hope Clare thinks it’s summertime – we don’t get much daylight at eight pm in winter.
The characters are another of the strengths of the book. Will and Jem flash witticisms off each other like a comedy duo, lightening the mood with comic relief; Tessa gives as good as she gets back at them, refusing to back down when faced with the moody Will.
Will…he’s an interesting character, a brooding Heathcliff and a Byronic hero, a wastrel like Sidney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities. Yet, like Sydney, you know his heart beats with passion and fire. I kept seeing Sydney Carton in every description of him – he does lean against things a lot, and has the same subtext of vulnerabilities, you sense. A 19th century Han Solo, waiting for his princess.
Jem was the yang to Will’s ying – sensitive, caring, passionate. Fragile to Will’s indestructible.
I never got the impression there was any contest between which of them Tessa would choose, so I couldn’t call the relationship they had a love triangle. Maybe a right angle one if it was; Tessa was always going to choose…ahh, but that would be a spoiler.
I knew going in that this was book one (Thanks for telling me on the cover – I hate books without a resolution that turn out to be trilogies), so not all of the questions were answered, not all of the villains dispatched or the threads wrapped up.
All in all, a skilful tale, filled with a great sense of place and atmosphere and witty dialogue. The exposition let the book down for me…it could have been fifty pages shorter.
I believe I read this is a prequel to The Mortal Instruments series, but I haven’t read them and didn’t need to to enjoy this one.
I’m in no rush to read Book Two or Three (Why does everything need three books these days anyway?), but if I stumble across them one book-bereft day, I’ll probably pick them up.
Today’s guest author under the spotlight, is Amanda Turner. I have to offer a big apology to Amanda, as I completely missed her email when she returned it to me in late 2011!! I found it languishing in my ‘to do’ folder for the blog at Christmas – obviously I’d gotten a little behind with my admin. Anyway – sorry Amanda, it’s great to be featuring you today – and also explains why she was looking forward to “Breaking Dawn – Part 2” this year – she doesn’t live in a cave, that’s me 🙂 OK – let’s find out more about the lady herself…
Amanda eats, sleeps and breathes writing. All her life she has dabbled with short stories. Amanda has her own poetry collection that she supplies to a greetings card company. Her first public work was at the age of 14 when she wrote a poem to be read at her grandfathers funeral. It was always a dream of hers to have her work published so in 2011 she began writing the trilogy The Witchlings and the first book was published in July 2012. Now she has got the writing bug and is constantly tapping away on her computer. When she does have some rare free time she spends it with her husband and children and dog ‘Gizzy’. Amanda loves to get together with her girl friends and put the world to rights over a bottle of wine. She loves all things fashion and owns over 100 pairs of shoes.
What is you favorite way to spend a rainy day? Under my duvet with hot chocolate and a good book or movie.
You’ve found a time machine on your driveway this morning – where are you going to go in it? Victorian London, I love to people watch and I think they were particularly hard times. It would be interesting to see how people coped.
It’s your fantasy dinner party – who are your guests? Richelle Mead, Robert Patterson, Marie Antoinette and Franky Boyle (British comedian)
How do you react to a bad review? To me, they are just as important as good reviews. They help to develop my writing.
How did you celebrate the sale of your first book? I had a few bottles of wine with some friends.
If you could have any superpower, what would you choose? Invisibility, I am naturally a nosy person.
Night owl or early bird? Early bird.
One food you would never eat? Sushi!!! The thought of eating raw fish makes me squirm.
What are you working on at the moment – do you have any other books in the works? I am currently working on a novel called ‘Just One Bite’ about werewolves. I am also working on the final installment of The Witchlings series.
What has been your most rewarding experience since being published? Reading the reviews from people that have really enjoyed the book. It makes all the stress worth while.
What was your favorite book when you were younger? I fell in love with the character of Mildred Hubble from the Worst Witch. It was the first book I bought and read it over and over.
What is your favourite Quote? Success is the best form of revenge.
When you were little, what did you want to be when you “grew up”? I wanted to be a writer since forever, nothing else really appealed to me.
Who are your favourite authors of all time? I love all of Richelle Mead’s books and I enjoy reading Josephine Cox novels especially the older ones.
Can you see yourself in any of your characters? No, but some of my characters have similarities to friends and family.
What movie and/or book are you looking forward to this year? Breaking Dawn Part 2, I am a total Twihard!!
Cats or Dog? Dogs
Heads or Tails? Heads
Facebook or Twitter? Facebook
Truth or Dare? Dare
Midnight curse (The Witchlings#1)
Roxanne didn’t know what to expect when she started her new school. However, what she didn’t expect was a new boyfriend. Luke was gorgeous but came with baggage, otherwise known as the Elites. Why did they worry her so much ? She was soon to discover that the Elites were a secret coven of witches. Roxanne is thrown into a world full of mystery, spells and best of all love. But love comes at a price. Can Roxanne overcome the Elites, a curse and worst of all the witch finders to find true happiness.
Blood Moon (The Witchlings#2)
For the first time in her life Roxanne had it all. A permanent home, her mother back in her life and her gorgeous boyfriend Luke. Little did she know that was all going to change. She was about to lose everything she held dear.
With the witch finders looming ever closer, can Roxanne defeat the Blood moon curse? Can she prevent death, possession and the five angels of hell? Will she ever be accepted as a true Elite?
For Roxanne, only one thing is certain. Her life will never be the same again.
Want to know more? Check out the links!
twitter supermand1974
Adam yawned and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, blearily taking in the empty place at the breakfast table. “Morning, mum. Where’s dad? Did he leave for work already?”
His mum didn’t turn away from the eggs she was scrambling. “We had an argument last night, so after he fell asleep, I shot him.”
Adam yawned again. “Extra butter in those eggs?”
“Of course.”
Adam poured himself some juice. “Is this orange? Did they change the ingredients?”
This silly piece of writing is an example of what writers call “The Elephant in the Room”.
Elephants, are of course, very hard to ignore. Unless your characters are wearing blinkers or earmuffs, having someone throw something major into your story and then not have anyone react to it is generally not a good idea.
Your character got up last night and shot someone, and all you want to know is if there’s extra butter with those scrambled eggs. At which point, your readers will start to wonder what the gubbins are you talking about, and why aren’t you talking about what’s really going on here.
Think of the facet of your story as a spotlight aimed at a darkened stage. There it is, shining away on the box on a table. The thing you want your characters to talk about is in that box – why Adam’s mother shot his father. And what are you doing? Shining your spotlight wayyyy over there, talking about scrambled eggs. Why do we care about scrambled eggs? We keep looking back at the box, no matter how hard you don’t want us to.
The other side of this is where magic and misdirection comes in. When you dim the lights to shine it on the eggs, we don’t see the stagehands swooping away the box and bringing the elephant on stage until the lights come back up – in my example, perhaps Adam pulls his own gun while we look away. Then we want the characters to talk about something else, while we do some magic in the dark.
But, the thing with “EITR” is that this misdirection is never given to a reveal. In my example, no one would ever mention the shooting again. If you cut away to focus on something else, fair enough; but remember to cut back to what your readers are thinking about:
Adam yawned and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, blearily taking in the empty place at the breakfast table. “Morning, mum. Where’s dad? Did he leave for work already?”
His mum didn’t turn away from the eggs she was scrambling. “We had an argument last night, so after he fell asleep, I shot him.”
Adam yawned again. “Extra butter in those eggs?”
“Of course.”
He poured himself some juice. “So you shot dad, huh? About time.”
“I thought so too.”
If you don’t do this, you’ll have a pachyderm of problems on your hands.
3/5
The sequel to Hope’s Daughter follows Balik’s storyline through the same events of the first book, told from his POV.
It’s an interesting choice for a sequel, and it fills in a lot of the blanks from the first book. I really liked Balik’s logical self-sufficient approach to life, and his approach to solving problems. He learns that trusting someone isn’t a weakness, but a strength – indeed, towards the end of the book, Cassie has to save him.
The world building was as strong as Hope’s Daughter, and this time we got to see more of the way the station worked. At the climax of the book, there’s a brutal torture sequence that makes me glad I’ve never upset the author enough to be interrogated by her!
It’s obvious Cusick-Jones has done her homework on medical and technological procedures – all the technology and biological information seem logical and consistent with what’s going on.
The pacing was good as well, the characters always on the move and the chapters never lingering too long.
It did suffer a little though, from knowing what was going on in Hope’s Daughter, and knowing how it played out. Although the books can be read in any order, you really need to read Hope’s Daughter first. For instance, the characters mention The Collective, which won’t mean anything if you hadn’t read HD.
There were a few typos that caught my eye as well – the most jarring was when Cassie says her friends have gone to the retirement quarter, not the marriage quarter, and there were a few run-on sentences that needed full stops and not commas – but nothing too major.
Looking forward to seeing where Cusick-Jones goes with the next book in the series!
4/5
In fighting monsters, do we become monsters?
It’s the theme of this gripping book from Card. The writing is fluid and the characters dynamic and evolving.
Taken from his home at the age of six, Ender Wiggins is trained to be a killer against an alien race, a killer without remorse or pity. Terrified of turning into the bullying brother he hates, Ender is able to turn his anger to fighting mock battles in battle school, where a generation of children and teenagers are being trained to fight for the survival of humanity. At any cost to themselves, psychologically and physically.
The battles are fake and no one gets hurt, but that doesn’t stop Ender from being bullied and suffering psychologically – his brilliance is the target of envy, an envy fostered by his teachers. He responds brutally, without mercy…only feeling remorse when he’s finished.
In some ways, Ender reminded me of the literary James Bond. Bond would kill quickly and efficently; not enjoy doing it, but doing it because he had to in order to survive, and doing it to the best of his ability. Only Ender is a child, and the stress nearly pulls him apart.
One of the problems of the book is that Ender never sounds like a child. We’re told he’s a super genius, but I don’t think any super genius would be that mature. There’s a political subplot dragged in involving Enders sister and brother, but mostly it seems to be there for padding. What’s interesting about it is the way they go about it – they go online (The book was written in 1985) and set up sock-puppet accounts, each holding different opinions and written in a different style.
The biggest problems with the book start when Ender graduates to proper military training. I won’t give away the spoiler ending, but it seems rushed.
Also, 95% of the way through the book, a super weapon is mentioned in passing that has never been talked about before. It’s dropped so casually in the conversation, I thought I’d skipped a page. Half a page later, it happens again. “It will go straight through the Ecstatic Shield.” Oh, that’s all right then. So what is an Ecstactic Shield, since no one has ever talked about one before?
The epilogue seemed a little strained and too long as well. If the book had ended a chapter after the climax, it would have worked better. Instead Card seems to struggle to shoehorn extra plots in to work up to a sequel, and the book drags its feet to the last page.
asidefromwriting 