I Am Noveling

Book Review: The Broken Kingdoms (Book II of the Inheritance Trilogy) by N.K. Jemisin

            Published in 2010 by Orbit/Hachette Book Group

Genre: Fiction-Fantasy                                                     Stars: 4 out of 5

Summary

            Oree Shoth is an artist. A blind artist whose strange eyes can see the magic and godlings now running rampant through the city once called Sky. Taking in a mostly silent and haughty godling she finds lying in a trash heap starts Oree on a frightening journey into the lingering power lust and madness of the Arameri family. Someone is capturing and killing the godlings of Shadow and now they’ve set their eyes on Oree and her unique abilities.

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            The opening pages of Broken Kingdoms are much clearer than the first book. The only thing that threw me was finding out Oree Shoth is a woman, which I should have known, but defaulted to a male since no obvious gender markers was given. Jemisin looks to be a writer who will favor strong, independent women and Oree Shoth does not disappoint. I was a fan of Yeine, our leading lady in Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, but Oree has something about her that edges out her predecessor. I think a key factor in her likeability is the different way of describing setting. Oree is blind to what every day people see, but can see magic. Shadow, the new name of Sky, is described well since magic runs through its streets but people are nothing but scent, sound, and touch. Jemisin does a wonderful job showing us a world filled with texture, distinctive sounds, and memorable smells.

            With any good character you are along for the ride on the emotional roller coaster Oree finds herself on after taking in a shining stranger. The ending in particular had me tearing up, both the good and bad kind, and every emotional response is earned through some great story telling. (I’m telling you, the ending is going to have you smiling and sniffling at the same time.)

            As in the last book, there is no good stopping place. I would suggest you have a few hours set aside to stretch out on the couch or curl up in a chair because once you read the first one you’ll be lunging for the second and Broken Kingdoms has just as much and more on the line as Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Broken Kingdoms is nearly four hundred pages, not counting the glossary of terms at the back, but the words fly by. I found myself halfway through the book in only a couple hours.

            Returning characters are few and fleeting; the Nahadoth, Sieh, and Yeine make an appearance as does T’vril but for the most part we are introduced to a whole new facet of the city through Oree. The gods are still involved as are the godlings, children of Nahadoth and Enefa, but this book takes place more on the human side of things.

            It’s the third book that looks like it’s going to delve into the godlier side of things so this is a nice fulcrum book to balance the events of the first and third. The third book The Kingdom of Gods is out, it came out in October 2011.  And I am ordering it as we speak, because I cannot wait to see how this trilogy is going to be wrapped up.

Book Review: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Book I of the Inheritance Trilogy) by N.K. Jemisin

            Published in 2010 by Orbit/Hachette Book Group

Genre: Fiction-Fantasy                                                                 Stars: 4 out of 5

Summary

            N.K. Jemisin’s debut novel The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms takes readers to a new world where gods can be enslaved and a kingdom’s monarchy is won through bloodshed. Yeine Darr, a half-breed whose mother abdicated the throne to marry a barbarian, is summoned to the crown city. There she is informed by her grandfather that she is now in the running to be the next monarch, but if she wants the crown she will have to untangle thousands of years of love, hate, jealousy, and secrets both mortal and godly.

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            This was a great read. Once I got through the first, somewhat confusing, twenty pages the book really took off. It’s not until about halfway through the book the odd paragraphs separated by asterisks begin to make sense, but once they do the beginning is very clear. You just have to have a “go with it” attitude and keep faith Jemisin knows what she’s doing.

            This is the first book of a trilogy and I’m holding out hope that the world Jemisin has created will flesh out more as the series progresses. I found myself intensely curious about our main character’s home culture that seems to be based off of Amazon women-warrior tribes.

            Yeine is a woman who carries a knife on her person at all times and has a blunt way of speaking. I loved her. In the often deadly dance between the heirs trying to win the throne her to-the-point way of speaking and dealing with people helps cut down on the confusion that might otherwise occur with such political intrigue.

            The other conspiracy is on a godlier plane of existence. Within the walls of the Sky Palace are four gods and goddesses, prisoners of the God’s War that occurred more than two thousand years ago. The main god is Nahadoth, god of night/darkness, chaos, and change. He is father to the other three gods and goddesses and true to his nature he is a very unpredictable and dangerous character.

            Sieh is the child-god and the most lovable. Though he is still older than time his main form is that of a boy aged nine or ten. Throughout the book he is Yeine’s constant ally and mischievous companion. I’m also hoping to see more of him in the next two books as well.

            Of the two living goddesses, the warrior Zhakkarn is the most prevalent throughout. Though mostly she is a silent foreboding figure she is a respectable secondary character. Yeine seems to have a bit of a connection with her since she was raised to be a warrior. They don’t often speak out loud but there’s a great deal of eye contact that speaks for itself.

            The other goddess, Kurue, plays a part at the end but for most of the book she is cranky and hardly seen. Which I think takes away some of the impact of the ending; I would have liked to know her better. But, in lieu of spoiling some great twists and turns, I won’t go much into her.

            There are a great many twists in this book, nothing that will shock you out of your seat, but more subtle things that will keep you turning the pages wanting to figure out the whodunit. The first time I picked up this book intending to read only the first hundred pages or so just to get started and had it finished by the end of the day. The beginning is a bit rough, but given the surprises at the end it was as well done as it could be to not spoil anything.

            The mysteries and battles Yeine faces are both of the mortal present, mortal past, the gods’ present, the gods’ past, and at the heart of it all is love, sibling rivalry, and jealousy. This is definitely a book that needs to be read twice, once to tease out all the surprises and again to connect the dots from beginning to end. And, a third and fourth read is not out of the question, just for the fun of it.

Book Review: Blood Ninja: (Book II) Revenge of Lord Oda by Nick Lake

            Published in 2010 by Simon and Schuster BFYR

Genre: Fiction/Young Adult                                                      Stars: 5 out of 5

Summary

            The second book in the trilogy begins a year after the events of the first. Taro, Hiro, and Hana have chronologically hardly aged but mentally the war, treachery, and death have made them twice their age. Taro is on the hunt for his mother who has finally sent her pigeon message to the mountain lair of the ninjas. But as soon as Taro reaches the peaceful Tendai Monastery he finds himself between a sword and a gun. Now the question is: How far will Taro go for revenge and for the Buddha Ball?

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            The sequel to Blood Ninja is even faster paced and action packed than the first. But that doesn’t mean it’s all candy. In Revenge of Lord Oda we have some POV shifts between Taro, allies, and enemies which really gives a good depth to every situation and will have you finished with this 377 paged book in only a couple hours.

            Taro has become a much deeper character, losing some of the young naïveté he had in the first book, he now struggles with what he is supposed to do with his life. The prophecy told in the first book is a constant thought in his head. He is also battling with his feelings for Hana and the social gap between him, a self-proclaimed fisherman/peasant, and her, the daughter of a daimyo. Throughout the book I found it hard to remember Taro is only about sixteen, his thoughts and skill with the sword have increased exponentially. I’m glad Nick Lake opted to set this book a year later, were it only a few months this deep change would have been unbelievable.

            Lake pulls out all the stops on lore and mythology in this book; you will encounter ghosts, demons, and death itself. Each element of the supernatural is worked so well within the realm of the very real sixteenth century Japan none of the encounters will pull you out of the story with questions of verisimilitude. I also found a great deal more of Japanese myth as well as Buddhist and Shinto traditions/philosophy worked into the story making it a very fun, very fast read.

            The third book of the trilogy comes out August 7, 2012 and with the cliff hanger we’ve been given at the end of Revenge of Lord Oda I cannot wait to get my hands on it.

Book Review: Blood Ninja (Book 1) by Nick Lake

            Published in 2009 by Simon and Schuster BFYR

Genre: Fiction/Young Adult                                                      Stars: 5 out of 5

Summary

            Nick Lake debuts his writing skills in a masterfully told tale about Taro, a teen surviving in sixteenth century Japan with his mother and ill father in a small seaside village. Taro’s quiet world is blasted wide open when a band of ninjas attempts to assassinate him. Fleeing from the only home he’s ever known with Shusaku, a ninja who seems to have no regard for the revered Bushido code, Taro is thrust into the middle of a deadly game of chess between two power-hungry warlords.

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            It was pure serendipity finding this book on a road trip with my best friend. While the book is written for a young adult audience the storytelling is absolutely wonderful. Unlike other young adult books I’ve read plot situations, conversations, and action are not held back or censored which makes the 369 pages fly by. The concept is by far the most unique I’ve come across as far as ninjas are concerned. It’s amazing with how popular ninjas are how few stories are written about them and Lake has added his own twist to the lore. I won’t spoil it, but when I read this book I almost slapped myself in the face with how obvious the connection was.

            The settings, history, and traditions are very well researched. Even if you are a casual reader who knows nothing about feudal Japan or a feudal expert the amount of time spent crafting this world is unbelievable. Small things like celebrations and the effects of war on inland Japan vs. the ocean villages make the story all the more real and textured.

            The story revolves around the idea of finding oneself and what to believe in, façade, power, love, and friendship; all wonderful ingredients for a very engaging novel.

            Our main character, Taro, is very much the young teenager looking to leave his normal, mundane, life and begin something with adventure. Unfortunately, when adventure finds him it comes with swords and shurikens and intent to kill.

            Often times, when reading young adult fiction, I find it hard to relate to the main character. So often their thoughts are this/that, that it can become almost annoying to read. With Taro, though, his thoughts are a bit more complicated spinning out three and four different possibilities for situations and he runs through a gauntlet of emotions. He is a dynamic character more prone to action than sitting around waiting for something to happen, his thirst for vengeance may account for that, but nonetheless it’s refreshing to have a character that has a similar thought process to real people.

            As the self-professed best friend and all around gentle giant, Hiro, is the next character we are introduced to. Coming from a family fleeing the war, Hiro lost his parents when he was young and was raised as Taro’s brother after Taro saved his life. The bond between the two is reaffirmed on a regular basis and when all else fails Taro, Hiro is there to back him up.

            The third key character, and my favorite, is the ninja Shusaku. After saving Taro from the band of ninjas sent to kill him, Shusaku becomes a mentor to Taro during the journey to the ninja stronghold. Taro has spent his life idolizing Samurai and the Bushido code as well as the warlord who rules over his small village. Shusaku is the one who kicks open the door and shows Taro the darker side of everything he believes in.

            Others in the cast include: Lord Oda, warlord over Taro’s home province and power hungry sword master; Hana, Lord Oda’s beautiful daughter, and an accomplished swordswoman/samurai; and Heiko and Yukiko, ninjas in training close to Taro and Hiro’s ages.

            While some may not approve of the near constant violence and blood prevalent in the novel I thought it lent a macabre sort of realism to the story. Truly, if a book is set in 1565 in any country, there’s going to be a lot of violence. To offset that though, you will develop a morbid sense of humor by the time you finish this book, if you don’t have one already. The play between Taro’s fluctuating perception of Shusaku and his outlaw ninja ways of getting things done rubs against Taro’s near worship of the samurai and their honor lends itself to some fun dialogue.

Book Review: Rock Hard By Olivia Cunning

            Published in 2011 by Sourcebooks Casablanca

Genre: Fiction/Romance                                     Stars: 3.5 out of 5

Summary

In the second installment of what is shaping up to be a five book series, Olivia Cunning jumps feet first into the derailed relationship of The Sinner’s vocalist, Sedric Lionheart. Sed’s love interest and former fiancée, Jessica Chase, walked out on him two years ago. The book opens with the fight that ended their relationship and brings us up to present day with The Sinners going out for the night.

Jessica is another headstrong female character, a law student working her way through college, when her financial aid fails to go through she goes to a strip club for summer work where, coincidentally, The Sinners show up. After Sed disrupts her performance and pulls her off the stage in a bout of protective rage, Jessica is fired and furious at Sed once again sets off to pay the vocalist back in spades.

The ups and downs of this relationship stem from Jessica and Sed being too alike to communicate in an effective way. As was hinted at in the first book and becomes abundantly clear in this book Sed is a very protective, pack oriented personality, he’s headstrong and undyingly loyal but sometimes what he sees as ‘the right thing’ sometimes blows up in his face. Jessica is also stubborn, self-sufficient and tenacious which makes it difficult for her to accept Sed’s offered help or to even see his actions as his way of trying to help.

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After re-reading Backstage Pass I went searching for any other books Olivia Cunning had written and this wonderful sequel popped up on the search. This book has the same strong elements as Backstage Pass with flawless POV transitions, character juggling, and what’s-next cliff hangers to make this 429 pages fun and enjoyable. Cunning has used her second novel well in fleshing out the lovely characters we met in the first book. Personally, I cannot wait to read Jace’s novel, he remains something of an enigma throughout Rock Hard.

There are a few subplots in this book as well, the biggest is Jessica trying to get enough money together to get back to college while dealing with, sometimes, unbelievable sexism from a professor and the Dean. Another subplot is a bit more subvert and is based on a drug addiction Trey acquires after being injured in the strip club brawl. This plot is a favorite of mine since we get a better picture of bi-sexual Trey and his (nonexistent) relationship with Brian. And the final subplot is more upbeat and is about Jace who hasn’t been with The Sinners that long finding his place in the band and making himself standout as a musician.

Sedric Lionheart is a very up front character with hidden pockets of sweetness. He is by far the most masculine character of the band and sits firmly on his throne as Alpha Male of the group. Even getting a look inside his mind through this book he can still come across as pushy, opinionated, and kingly; but knowing his thought process it makes his foot-in-mouth comments all the more entertaining. And as frustrating as his character can sometimes be, Jessica is no different in her do-thing-my-way approach to life.

Rock Hard was a wonderful sequel and has laid some great groundwork for upcoming novels but, as in Backstage Pass, peripheral characters can be a bit two dimensional and unbelievable at times. The college Dean who threatens female professor’s jobs if they don’t do sexual favors, he goes after Jessica as well, had me almost rolling my eyes. Certainly it’s happened, probably still does happen, but the blatancy of it misses the mark of realism by several yards. The fangirls of course, I feel like I’m always going to be annoyed by their cookie cutter attitudes and depictions. But the core characters, the band members and their ladies, are well rounded and very realistic in thoughts and actions so that will have to be the tradeoff between the overly fake and the wonderfully real.

Book Review: Backstage Pass by Olivia Cunning

            Published in 2010 by Sourcebooks Casablanca

Genre: Fiction/Romance                                                 Stars: 3.5 out of 5

Summary

            In Olivia Cunning’s debut she gives us a smokin’ hot story about a mid-thirties sexual psychology professor Myrna Evans who mixes it up with a rock/metal guitarist, Brian “Master” Sinclair. While there is the disclaimer at the beginning, I have strong suspicions on which this phenomenal guitarist and the fiction band The Sinners are modeled after. Nonetheless, the story jumps straight in with Myrna’s meeting of the band and within the first forty pages she and the irresistible Brian Sinclair are in bed together.

We’re hit hard with Myrna’s baggage in the form of a verbally abusive ex-husband who flits around the peripherals of the plot and his phantom voice throws in his two cents anytime she makes a move on the guitarist. This psychotic Jiminy Cricket on her shoulder holds her back from fully giving into Brian’s sincere love for her leaving us the question: will there be a happily ever after?

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I picked this book up a few months ago struck immediately by the title. It’s not often you see a guy holding a guitar in the romance section. It was the last copy on the barren shelves of Borders (a moment of silence please…thank you) and I was immediately infatuated with the uniqueness of the concept. When I read the romance genre it often involves combing through the shelves to find a good twist on vampires, werewolves, witches, and angels. With every summary on those books beginning to look the same a book grounded in “the real world” and focused on rock n’ roll was like a gale force wind of fresh air.

Plot-wise, it’s a pretty standard fare, girl meets guy, girl resists guy because of some flaw and/or previous unpleasant experience and the rest of the book is the ups and downs of a budding relationship. What we have to balance that though are some very likeable and relatable characters.

Myrna Evans is in her mid-thirties and as far from fan-girl as a book about rock n’ roll can get. She is a fan of rock but has some iron-fisted self-control and hides her moments of star struck awe very well from the other characters while we get to see the giddy girl side of her. She’s a strong lead character and not a fainting damsel-in-distress; she takes care of herself and takes pride in being a self-sufficient woman with a steady job at her college. She has her flaws and her misgivings that anyone, male or female, can relate too as they progress in a relationship.

Myrna’s love interest, Brian “Master” Sinclair, lead guitarist for The Sinners is the sweet romantic that fan girls dream of. And anyone familiar enough with the band Avenged Sevenfold will find some pretty striking similarities between the fictional Brian Sinclair and the very real Brian “Synyster Gates” Haner Jr. in both behavior and looks. Master Sinclair lives the rock star lifestyle drinking and partying with his band but when we switch to his perspective we see a more sedate young man looking for someone he can go home to after the show.

There are two main characters in Backstage Pass but I almost guarantee you’ll fall in love with one or all of the four secondary characters; Jace the sweet bassist, Eric the unpredictable drummer, Trey the always sensual rhythm guitarist, and Sedrick the charismatic vocalist. Cunning does a masterful job juggling the six, constantly bringing characters in and out of the situation and making sure they contribute in their own way to indirect characterization of Myrna and Brian and making themselves flesh and blood. If you pick up this book, you’ll find a character to like even if it’s little Jace who keeps to the quiet/mysterious realm.

Overall this was a great read and at only 375 pages a quick read too. The only aspect that made me cringe was the depiction of fans throughout the book and “Rabid Fan Girl” doesn’t really do the description justice. Anytime a fan of the band pops in it’s a young woman/girl looking to get laid by one of the band members and at one point one even resorts to violence when she catches Myrna and Brian kissing. Having lived and looked back on my own fond fan girl memories I find these caricatures of the teeny bopper stereotype hair past unbelievable. Even the way their dialogue is depicted turns the entire scene into a farce. Yes, there are girls out there who are creepy-crazy about their favorite band but women looking to get laid by a rockstar aren’t the only people that go to rock shows. An injection of normal into some of these characters is desperately needed.

My 2012 resolution is to start writing some book reviews for the backlog of books I’ve got on my shelves. I’m using a star system so I figure I should outline what my five is and what my one is before I put my first one out tomorrow, Jan. 1, 2012.

Five Stars for me is a Jane Lindskold-esque plot and writing style. Out of all the books I’ve read she is the standard I hold myself to because she does such an incredible job with making her characters come to life and immersing you in her worlds.

One Star would be like…the worst kind of fanfiction you’ve ever read. Some fan fiction is good and I’m not ragging on the genre completely, but sometimes, we all know what I’m talking about here, sometimes the writing is just gods awful and even with pre-fabricated characters they somehow fall short of being real.

The next aspect is going to be the genre and for that I’m going with what’s on the book. I’m not good at classifying books past fiction/non-fiction. I’m going with whatever the publisher thinks the genre fits into.

So, that’s what you all can look forward to this year. I will post a new review every other week on Sunday.

Happy New Year!

I’m horrible at this whole blogging thing, if you haven’t noticed. All right, so I’ve switched up the story I was writing for 407 and now I’m behind the class by 22K words. My current goal is to write 5-7K words a week. Do you set word goals for yourself either daily or weekly?

Outside of class my writing habits are quite poor, I don’t write daily, I tend to write in fits and starts. My professor has word count goals for us, we need to do 3,333 words a week and post them in private blogs. Left to my own devices, this would never happen, I can go two weeks and write maybe a thousand words but then I’ll do a weekend and knock out 10K. It’s not a good habit, but it works for me, I find forcing myself to sit and write a set number of words every day kills the inspiration and turns writing into a chore or homework.

So my question for this post is: How do you write?

So, for my 407 fiction class we are supposed to write a 50K novel for the semester. I’m all for it, but I feel like I’m going to need some help. I’m writing a novel that I’ve been trying to hammer out for a couple years. I’m changing it up, new characters and a tweaked plotline, but I don’t want to make this blog all about my writing process because that’s boring. I would like instead to make this a Writer’s Corner of sorts. My professor gives us “process prompts” every week and I’ll post them here. I feel like this could be a lot of fun, learning about how each of us approaches writing and tackles problems that come up when writing.