A New Look!

We've been quiet on the ol' western front, and the eastern front come to think about it... But that's just because we've been investigating some exciting new opportunities to explore in the near future!

And for the mean time the blog(s) now have a dashing new look! Isn't that exciting?!

Yes. Yes it is.

So keep your eyes peeled and we'll have a review up later this week, I promise!

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Review: The Lost Castle (The Chronicles of Krangor)

I love a good fantasy book, and I love dinosaurs. So what's not to love when you mix them together? 

That's why I picked up The Lost Castle the first in a series called The Chronicles of Krangor written by Michael Pryor, which is a fantasy novel where all the characters are dinosaurs of one sort or another (bet you didn't see that coming?).

It is a children's book, so I wasn't expecting it to be super duper complicated and just really a bit of fun to break up the weeping muddy explosion that is the Malazan universe. 

The story centers around three young saurs who uncover the evil Queen's diabolical plan to rule the world using magic. Awesome. We've got dinosaurs, an evil queen, and world domination goin' on. Mainly we follow Adalon (on the cover, I assume) a young noble and promises to exact justice on the Queen for the death of his father. 

Look at him. Being all knight-y and prehistoric

One thing that always surprises me about children's books (although it says more about the caliber of book I read, I suspect, than the caliber of children's books) is how quickly the plot progresses. We are immediately thrown into the thick of things and the plot progresses at a compelling pace. 

However, I do think that this sacrifices something of the prose as a rather inordinate amount of the time (not all the time, but just enough that I noticed it) we are being told what is happening more often than not rather than being shown. I understand that this is also partly to do with tailoring to the audience, as much as I like to imagine I'm still a kid at heart, I know that I have grown up. (Damn you Peter Pan!)

One thing that I did find a bit odd was the description of the saurs themselves. The details were never thoroughly detailed and we are only offered snippets of the saurs in any one paragraph. I guess that a reason for this is that Michael Pryor has devised a world where the dinosaurs have evolved and moved away from the petty classification of us mere humans. Instead of (what I assumed to be a descendant of the iguanadon) we are told they are 'Clawed Ones', or instead of some sort of Tyrannosaurus Rex we hear of the 'Toothed One'. At its face I think this is a good way to try and show what the characters are without bogging the young readership down with too many details. But I did also find that it left a lot to the imagination, which sometimes left me thinking "Oh, maybe they don't look like I thought they did...". Although I should qualify this that I was a massive dinosaur nerd when I was a kid (who am I kidding, 'was'?) so maybe I shouldn't wait for Pryor to tell me if a character is a Stegasaurus or a Kentrosaurus....

But moving past that and my own geekery, the characters are interesting and there is danger abound and not just the danger of the Queen's guards that have been set on those she wants eliminated. The three friends we follow (each a different kind of saur) all have their own personalities and Pryor does well to bring them out and show the value of friendship and teamwork throughout. 

So if you like dinosaurs and fantastical stories and you fancy a quick read, or you know a suitable youngling (no, I don't know why I phrased it like that either) then I would recommend this book. The world is ripe for the picking and Pryor sets himself up for an adventurous romp over the trilogy. 

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Review: A Natural History of Dragons

I have some shocking news for you.

Are you sitting down?

Good.

I love books.

What? That didn't come as a shock to you? Well I suppose it is pretty obvious. But, why am I telling you this?! Because I'm hideously self-centered and I need you to know! Muhahah!

No, wait, that's not it. It's because I think that A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan is a fantastic book in truly every sense. And I specifically mean the hardback edition. Although of course the paperback is still a wonderful thing, as all paperbacks are. Compact, flexible, and delightfully colourful. In fact everything you could also want from a foldable-street-urchin.

Despite this the hardback is truly a wonder. A Natural History of Dragons, which has the subtitle; A Memoir by Lady Trent is a throwback to the time of intrepid scholar-adventurers, much like Indiana Jones now I come to think about it. The hardback really adds a whole extra dimension to make sure this book is definitely a memoir that would not feel out of place in an old library. You know the kinds of libraries I mean, the ones that have huge bookshelves brimming over with leather-bound tomes. The ones that have armchairs you fall into and can almost smell the pipe-smoke still lingering on the worn leather. That have books with epic titles like 'Popular Music of the Olden Times' in containing the music from all the way back to the Battle of Hastings! (Okay I am thinking of somewhere specific. Yes I'm looking at you Devon and Exeter Institute)

Getting back to the point, why is this hardback fitting in with this? Because it feels like one of those old books. It has a fantastic dust cover which I'll move on to, but remove that and you're left with a fairly unassuming brown volume (well unassuming for the word DRAGON emblazoned on the side) and the paper is really what got me. So this is really where the hardback comes into its own. Instead of the, perhaps reassuring, square-edged pages, A Natural History of Dragons has rough edges and varying lengths of paper. Of course, they all sit nicely inside the hardback, but it really adds something else to the whole memoir of a scholar turned adventurer, don't you think? If you ever wonder why people prefer buying hardbacks, this is it. (If you look carefully you can see the rough edges pages in this image)

But that's literally judging a book by the cover, and something tells me that's not such a good idea.

As the subtitle suggests, the book is in the first person and it is Lady Trent telling the story of her life and how her love (obsession?) with dragons fuels her daring adventures and how it ends up with her being the Lady of renown and respected intellect that we now know she is.

I like that, first of all, the assumed knowledge of the reader of Lady Trent as a national treasure and intellectual institute, really helped to set the work in its context and also helped to keep the book a relatively light read without too much suspense concerning our beloved lady (although plenty everywhere else).

The book does well in its writing and although there were never any sentences that caused me to pause and think 'wow, that's a superbly written sentence,' I read the whole thing in two or three sittings and it just flowed very easily. The story never juddered or felt forced in any way and you will find yourself smiling along with the ups of the book and at the very least casting your eyes down in dismay at the low points of the story. 

We meet Lady Trent before she was Lady Trent but merely Isabella, the child of a well to-do household and a bit of a tom-boy (or at least as far as the times were concerned). Marie Brennan really seems to want to engage with the inequality of the scientific community and how difficult it was for women to break through and be seen as equals rather than just airhead vehicles for gossip and children. 

I realise that I have spent an inordinate amount of time talking about the production of the book. But! Marie Brennan has clearly put in just as much effort as Tor did into her writing, and the story comes off as seamless. You find yourself easily rooting for Isabella as she tries to rise above the glass ceiling to the lofty heights of equality. The story glides easily for one moment to the next without making it appear like the plot is being forced merely to keep the story going. We are definitely driven here by Isabella's, almost mad, need to research dragons. 

If you pick up this book, I do have to say that I don't think you will be disappointed in any way. Only perhaps that the Memoirs of Lady Trent have not been published in their entirety. 

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Iron Druid Chronicles; Impressions

This week I want to talk about the Iron Druid Chronicles, which tell the story of Atticus O'Sullivan. I won't be giving a review of a specific book because I've been getting through the audiobooks and am already on the fourth book in the series (of a current six with the seventh to be released later this year).

Atticus is a 2,000 year old Druid, was born in Ireland, and now resides in Arizona in the USA.

The Iron Druid Chronicles is a nice urban fantasy that strays away from the somewhat common underdog trope. Sure, we all love an underdog, who doesn't? But sometimes it's nice to do some reading where the main character knows they can probably handle themselves, steps up to the plate, and knocks it right out of the park.

Sometimes, that's what Atticus does. Right in the opening of the first book we see him get attacked by fairies (vicious, murderous nobleman type fairies) and he beats them handily them summons something to eat them.

Suffer that woundikins you fairy scoundrel! 

Full disclosure, in my head I do end up comparing the Iron Druid Chronicles and the Dresden Files in my head quite a lot. I think they have a lot of similarities but also deliver differently on a lot of different things.

The underdog example being a prominent one, that's one of the reasons I liked the Dresden Files. Harry Dresden is usually, if not always, on the back foot and you really feel like the story is dragging him kicking and screaming through the mud. But Harry Dresden never gives up, and neither does Atticus O'Sullivan.

On the flip side, the Iron Druid Chronicles you get the impression that Atticus is over his head but in the same way that I can't breathe if I stand at the bottom of a swimming pool, but I can swim. I can breathe just fine if I use my noggin' and actually start swimming.

It's almost unfortunate that this relieves a lot of tension from the story, even when you're thrown into climactic battles at the end of the books. Atticus just isn't in trouble like we're used to. The books are still very enjoyable, I don't want to detract from that, but perhaps they could be executed a bit better.

The characters in the Iron Druid Chronicles are colourful, varied, and have their own goals and ambitions. One of the things I do love about this series is that it pulls on a mythology that gets less of a look in than the standard European medieval fantasy.

What with Atticus being 2,000 years old he's old school. Literally. He's an old Irish druid and he has connections. He personally knows a lot of gods and most of them hail from the Emerald Isle B.C.E.. And I think that's pretty darn cool.

(Sidenote - anyone want to suggest other fantasy that's based on Celtic mythology or Ireland? Artemis Fowl not withstanding. I am game for some more of that)

So along with seeing some pretty smart destruction of dangerous faeries very quickly we also see the wonderful entrance of the Celtic goddess of battle, Morrigan, also make a swift appearance. And this is the flip side of being a top dog, It's a pleasant change from the constant uphill battle, it's more of a 'tread carefully lest ye be throttled by a god' kind of battle.

Speaking of dogs and battle, what good is an age old druid if he doesn't have some sort of warhound? No good, that's who.

But never fear, we have Oberon, the Irish wolfhound (come on now, was it really going to be anything else?). Oberon is the comic relief, he has all the typical sensibilities and attention span that you would expect of a dog and comes across as lovable and playful scamp. There are some  flaws with Oberon, I think, though. For example, if there's a huge Irish wolfhound as the animal familiar of a kick-ass, 2,000 year old druid, I want to see him wreck the place up. You do occasionally see him helping out in some battles, but not being the avatar of doggy death and destruction that you would hope he would be.

Okay with all that I think I've rambled on at you enough for now!

To summarise; the Iron Druid Chronicles are quite an entertaining series but with a few flaws. Sometimes you get the feeling it tries too hard to make you laugh. I think this is probably a lot easier to deal with in the books where you can skim over bits, but when you're listening to the audiobook you're forced to hear every line of Atticus trying to speak as a lolcat to a vampire, and man is that awkward.

But the flaws shouldn't stop you. It is a lot of fun and it's nice to dive straight into the, pretty much non-stop, action. The world is interesting and the characters are fun. And even though there are a couple of bits that I found awkward, which were few and far between to be fair, I also found that I went through the first few books like nobody's business and that is always a very good sign. So definitely check it out if you enjoy urban fantasy

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Lost Words - How to insult, describe and perplex with words from 17th century and beyond!

I was planning on writing a post about when is the right time to call it a day with a book you're not enjoying. And I was doing well writing that.

But then I found this website.

Here we have another list similar to the one that I've shown you before with the Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

Only this time the words have been forgotten and aren't necessarily insults (but you and I both know they're going to be used as such)! So, ladies and gentleman, for your delight and delectation I present to you some of my favourite words from my perusal. Full with their definitions of course!

Squiriferious

Having the character or qualities of a squire

Why yes I did imagine a squiriferious squirrel when I read that word, and you should too!

One day the squiriferious Reginald hoped to be Sir Reginald the Nutty

Namelings
Persons sharing the same name

Foppotee
Simpleton

A simple word with a simple definition, for a simple person.

Sagittipotent
Having great ability in archery

I like that word. Sagittipotent. Similarly, sagittiferous means bearing arrows.

Uglyography
Bad handwriting, poor spelling
I'm sure I'm not the only one surprised by that definition. If I said I was a practitioner of the undesirable art of uglyography I'm sure people would make some pretty hasty assumptions.

Kexy
Dry, brittle, witheredPerhaps kexy is the opposite of sexy, then?

Medioxumate
of gods of intermediate rank between heaven and hell
I would not have thought a word would exist for such a thing. So terribly and wonderfully specific that I had to include it here.

Ascoliasm
boys' game of beating each other with gloves or leather while hopping

Again, so delightfully specific it had to be included. I can only assume that this game is akin to some sort of bloody hopscotch gauntlet.

Step between the chalk lines of death. If you dare!

Oporopolist

Fruit-Seller

Now that sounds  a lot more regal than saying you have a stall down the market, don't you think? "Me? Why I, sir, am an oporopolist." (Cue monocle)

Woundikins

diminutive form of 'wounds'; mild oath

This tickled me greatly, and I shall most definitely be trying to say 'woundikins' when I am mildly shocked, injured or elsewise surprised in future. 

So there are some words to get you started on making your speaking, writing, or sandwich boards more archaic and hilarious. Hopefully this sort of segment will become fairly regular with other strange and wonderful words that have either faded out or are just plain obscure.

Until next time! Happy hunting!

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And Now For Something Completely Different! A Real Tale From History

I love me some history, I love it so much that I studied various kinds of history for pretty much my whole education. I grabbed 2 degrees in Classics and Ancient History (they were mine I promise, I didn't steal them).

One of the things I love about it is all the stories that you could make from it. Maybe one day I'll give it a go! But for now, I shall just tell you about one of my favourite episodes from Ancient History! Maybe you could make it into a story, or at the very least I hope it interests you.

Now we all know that people can make hasty decisions when their blood is up. You're excited, angry or sad so maybe you're not making the best choices?

There is an episode from ancient Athens that sums this up pretty perfectly.

At the time (427BCE) Athens' power sprawled across the ancient world and across the oceans. There was a large hegemony of city states that bowed to the Athenian's power, called The Delian League. Athens had a large amount of territory, but even father was their territory they controlled via their tributaries. Of course a lot of people weren't happy about being forced to pay Athens a variety of tithes and there are several episodes of city-states trying to secede.

In 427BCE one of the states that tried to do so was called Mytilene. The city was on the other side of the Aegean to Athens, and were very unhappy with the Athenians. They even sent an envoy to Olympia to seek help against the Athenians with their revolt, saying that the Athenians had abused their power with the Delian League. Maybe that's true, or maybe the oligarchy that rules Mytilene wanted to unite the power of their island of Lesbos, something the Athenians would never allow.

So one thing led to another and they revolted. Sorted.

But, alas! Someone tipped off the Athenians (one of the other powers on Lesbos, and some internal dissenters) and war broke out. That's all well and good of course, except that Mytilene nor their allies were ready for it, and got their arses handed to them. That led to their negotiating terms which was essentially them surrendering.

The Athenians allowed the Mytilenians to send an envoy to Athens and plead for compassion. The envoy was summarily executed on his arrival at Athens and the Athenians began a debate to decide what to do with all the rebels.

Now, the Athenian Assembly consisted of every Athenian citizen (and here follows one of the dangers of a direct democracy) and so they could all vote on what to do next. The Athenians were scared of further revolt and enraged by this thought out plan to thwart their power. After all more than one of the city states on Lesbos has risen against them and had orchestrated an attack on Attica to help them out (them being the Mytilenians that is, it didn't help the Athenians).

So the Athenians decide that the best defence against further revolt is a good offense. Of course that means slaughtering all the men and selling the women and children into slavery. Huzzah!

And there goes the Trireme to carry it all out. Not a bad day's work, eh fellow Athenians? Phew, time to hit the sack!

The next day, they realised that maybe they'd been a bit harsh. I mean, did they really need to kill everyone? Maybe not. Another debate ensued. Whereas before every single Athenian had been in favour of utter annihilation, now even the most bloodthirsty from the day before were hesitant. This led to a narrow margin in favour of not killing everything.

Another trireme was sent out, with double the normal crew, to catch up with the first. Luckily for the Mytilenians both triremes arrived at about the same time and in what I'm sure was a crazily intense scene, the old orders were overruled.

So instead of death and destruction for anyone and everyone, they merely razed the walls, replaced the oligarchy and divied up the land of Lesbos.

Yay, democracy!

This episode I think clearly outlines the dangers of being too loose and easy with your pent up emotions. And just imagine what would have happened if the second ship hadn't reached them in time! Could it have led to a revolt that spanned the Aegean? Does it send the Athenian people into a spiraling miasma of depression and despair?

I hope you enjoyed this little segment, maybe it'll spark some ideas, maybe you just found it interesting. I hope both, and more!

More to be coming soon!

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The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf

So with this book I decided to take a little bit of a break from my usual perusal fare, and went into some Young Adult fiction instead.

I was expecting to be a little put off by the fact it was written for a younger audience and would (I thought) just shove stuff in your face to make sure you got what the author was talking about. But I really wasn't, it's easy to forget that YA is just as exciting, thrilling and complex as any other genre that you care to name. 

The book is set in a vaguely post-apocalyptic world, but the details are sketchy and it's not like the world has radiation poisoning, everything is back to normal and everyone tries to preserve the Balance, so the world doesn't implode in on itself again. 

That's why I was worried it would be a bit in your face with the themes and some aspects of the story, but Kwaymullina uses those themes to accent and drive the story rather than use the themes as the mainstay and the story as a sideline. 

We follow the story of Ashala Wolf, one of the 'Illegals' who are shunned because of their supernatural powers. I'm not going to lie, I'm thinking of the X-Men, not a bad thing, but I'm a bit of a geek anyways so that's where my mind's going. 

These powers are central to the plot as they are the whole reason that Ashala has been captured, and ran away in the first place. Apart from the fact that these Illegals are being hunted by the government, we don't find out too much about why they have these powers, leaving us lots to be discovered in later books. 

As the story begins Ashala has been captured by agents of the government and, oddly enough, an interrogation is about to take place. To glean any information Ashala is willing (or not!) to give up about her group of Illegals. 

Placing Ashala in this weird and not so wonderful place gives her a chance to be just as out of place as we would be, so a consist mystery is present and we are given glimpses into Ashala's past and that of the post-apocalyptic world which she inhabits. 

I did find the romantic elements slightly odd at first, but the parts that I found a bit awkward and crow-barred in were eventually explained and my fears were once more allayed. This is a personal thing, as I was not overly keen on the romantic elements in Daughter of Smoke and Bone despite how much I enjoyed the book overall. 

The first person perspective reinforces the mystery that we see being presented in the book and, I think, helps to hammer home the confusion and lessons that Ashala finds as the story progresses. 

We see some very colourful characters along the way and they really bring Ashala's tribe to life. Although each of the members of Ashala's tribe are children of varying ages they have fully developed and varied personalities and I can still hear the giggles and laughter bursting from some of the characters. 

They contrast greatly against the grey and dreary parts of the book that are set in the government buildings. Kwaymullina does this rather well and even now looking back and thinking about the characters and the story there is a definite monochrome that hovers over the government buildings, compared to the bright and luminous colours of the setting outside the city. 

This isn't to say that the characters from the government are too dull or boring, just that the setting is nicely differentiated from that outside the city. The characters who come from the city are still diverse and have their own drives and emotions. 

Kwaymullina does a wonderful job of bringing her strong themes together in story, setting and characters. There are trials and tribulations, victories and jubilation. We follow Ashala from her confusing capture and the tale slowly unravels around her. The way that Kwaymullina shows us this unraveling delves us into a mysterious tale, leaving us wanting more at the end of the book. A thoroughly enjoyable read with a powerful message about the environment weaved in. 

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Review: The Gospel of Loki

Okay, first off, this isn't a bad thing, but a lot of the time sentences would jump out at me in Tom Hiddleston's voice. It was pretty cool.

Anyway, so what's this book! It's The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris, the first person retelling of Norse mythology, with Loki as the main character, straight from the horse's mouth (and that's not just a phrase in this case!).

Before we get onto the story, writings and characters themselves I just want to make a quick comment about how the book itself. I can be a bit of a nerd for how books look and feel, I think that can really bring a book together. Even if the writing is phenomenal but it looks like something a dolphin’s sat on when it was waiting for the bus then it’s going to put me off.

Thankfully, there was no dolphin. The title and look of this book work very well together. I very much like the juxtaposition of the title; The Gospel of Loki, as he is a well known fiendish liar, and yet here we have his gospel, his truthful word.

Just lovely

Equally the cover illustration is exquisite. The bold lines and solid colours of the illustration is reminiscent of a stained glass window. The illustration draws upon many elements of the story to provide a wonderfully diverse colour scheme across the cover. All in all a brilliant design for this book.

But anyway onto the actual work.

So we follow Loki all the way from his origins in the very heart of chaos right up until Ragnarok, with all the highs, lows and middle-y bits that go with it.

At first I found it slightly jarring at times that the language was quite colloquial, that sort of thing doesn't happen so often in an epic fantasy tale. It was slightly odd to read a sentence or a piece of dialogue with the gods talking to frost giants or something similar when the dialogue read; "Okay, just, like, calm down!" Alright it wasn't that colloquial, but you see where I'm coming from.

But thankfully that doesn't happen very often and once you've seen it happen a couple of times it actually fits in very well with the image of the cheeky and mischievous Loki with the silver tongue that I'm sure we've all come to know and love.

Cheeky devil

We start the story at the very beginning and get a nice overview of the characters, the setting and how everything generally works. Harris' writing immediately puts you at your ease and lets you gently settle into how the tale is going to be told.

Harris very much captures the essence of the Loki character; mischievous but altogether good. It's from the first person perspective of Loki and so comes across in pretty much all the aspects of her writing. There is never a word or phrase that doesn't weave this image further into the book.

The storyline also presents a side of the mythology that doesn't seem to get much of a look in nowadays. Odin is presented as a much more shady character than you would expect. This gives the book plenty of opportunity for twists and turns to keep you guessing and then keeps you guessing about guessing.

This book is very entertaining, it has all the right amounts of epic fantasy and tongue-in-cheek humour and an excellent mix of heroic and dastardly characters. Harris skillfully weaves the stereotypical evil Loki into a self-aware but misunderstood antihero with a heart of gold. Or at least a heart of fire that's covered in gold.

I hope that you check this book out, it’s a wonderful piece by a wonderful author. Well worth your time.

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A Red Review of Red Seas Under Red Skies (The Most Expected Review...)

So in a recent blog post I hinted (badly) that a friend had mentioned to me that Red Seas Under Red Skies felt like it was just filler. But at the time I hadn't finished the book so I couldn't really comment.

Well, now I can. 

First off, let's deal with what was said about the book being filler. Now from what I can see about how the book went down, I think that the reason this has been said is because although there's a fair amount that happens in the book you get the feeling that a lot of it is build up to the climactic ending. And there is a climactic ending, but because the ending explodes and snaps rather suddenly you very much get the feeling when you're closing that 'There's not enough room to finish this'.

I definitely started wondering how Lynch was going to resolve the plot once I started getting to 150 pages left to go ... 100 pages left to go. And then boom. 

Another reason I think that it felt like a bit of filler is partly because of the setting. Even after the swashbuckling quote on the front of the first book and piratical adventures suiting the characters, the fact that they were gallivanting on a ship with a very strong captain made it feel like they were almost piggybacking on another story for a large part of the book. 

It's a strange feeling really, because I don't think this in any way detracted from the enjoyment that is to be had from the book. The writing is still good, the characters are still very entertaining and the world is still fascinating.

I think it's that because you felt like they were just hopping along with someone else's adventure you knew that they were going to leave those characters behind in the end so it almost felt inconsequential. This feels silly to say because Lynch does try and address this and he does that well, introducing characters and intertwining them with our protagonists with skill and consequence.But I guess, at least from my perspective, I'm always aware that they're the great con-artists and it's hard to forget that whatever might happen they're going to move on to the next big score at some point. Although that view point is probably not helped by the fact that I knew there was a third book, so maybe if I didn't know that I might have thought they could settle down at the end.... 

Anyway! 

The work itself is just like reading more of the first, so that's no bad thing. The characters retain their playfulness, intelligent and cunning ways. There's more baggage than you get with the first book, the ending of Lies of Locke Lamora clearly weighs on them and at times there is the feeling that there's a sword of Damacles dangling overhead waiting to split the group asunder. But that's not a bad thing, it just adds another dimension to the plot along with the usual tension from whatever score they're planning. The writing retains its wit, keeps its pacing and generally drags you along for the ride whether you want to put the book down or not.

I've touched on the setting. But the fact that the characters are out in the big wide ocean for a portion gives a good reason for Lynch to show you the characters weaknesses and expose their raw nerves. You definitely feel like the characters are being pushed to their limits and that they're finding out just as much about themselves as we are. 

I would definitely recommend this book, even more so if you've already enjoyed The Lies of Locke Lamora. I am glad that the next installment is already available for purchase as the ending almost felt too quick. You're just getting ready for a big climactic ending and you get one, but it's over almost before you know what's happening. 

So yes, read this, it's just as good as the first and you'll be hard pressed not to dive straight into the next one!

See you next time!

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The Battle of Pratchett and Rothfuss

So this week we’re going for something a little bit different (again). Instead of a review we’re going to be looking at the exciting (and I’m not going to lie slightly irritating) scheduling for the World Fantasy Convention as it looms on the horizons of our calendars.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m going to be dithering on about this time the World Fantasy Convention (we’ll call if the WFC for the sake of laziness and brevity) is an international convention for the publishing industry focusing on the fantasy genre. So perfect for me! It’s usually held in the USA but will sometimes make its way to Canada, and so this year marks only the third time that the convention has been hosted outside of North America. Great news for me!

If you go to the WFC website you can see a long list of attending members many of whom are delegate parties from publishing companies from around the world (Gollancz, Orbit, HarperCollins to name but a few) and many others are authors, old and new, famous and infamous. The rest are likely made up of people like me, keen enthusiasts and only just stepping foot into the industry! There’s panels, discussions and awards ceremonies so a little bit of everything that you could want!

So there was excitement abound recently as the WFC website placed up its first official line up of programming, with only a few short weeks to go! Of course, not all of the programming will be as fascinating as others to every single attendee but it all looks rather fabulous and my mouth is already salivating with the prospect of this fantastical buffet.

So I look down through the days and give a chuckle here and a coo there at various amusing and interesting panels. But what’s this!? “Sir Terry Pratchett: In Conversation” I am not ashamed to admit that there was a little bit of hyperventilation when I realised that Terry Pratchett is going to be an attending member of the WFC this year! It is not often that you are offered the opportunity to meet a man who is as much as part of British culture as he is an international best seller.

But, now! What is THIS!?

It turns out that the Conversations with Terry Pratchett happens to be scheduled for the same hour that the readings by Patrick Rothfuss is scheduled! This is a most unpleasant and undesirable turn of events. Mr Rothfuss is perhaps my favourite author, not only because of the lyrical and beautiful books he has produced but if you follow his blog you’ll see that he’s a very kind and humorous man who really does a lot for charity.

I am super super miffed at this, but I know that if it weren’t Patrick Rothfuss then it would be someone else and I’m sure another attending member would be just as upset as I was when I found out. But thankfully the scheduling does appear to have 2 readings per hour slot so I am hoping that this means the readings start every half an hour. This at least gives me half an hour of basking in the reflected glory of Terry Pratchett before I sprint to absorb the mighty awesomeness of Mr Rothfuss’s beard.

There are many other reasons to be going to the WFC and I am going to a small meeting with Tor UK the book publishers which I am also very much looking forward to. I am also hoping to get some meeting time with other publishers to get their take on what I can do to get into the fantasy game within the publishing industry.

But that’s all my news for now, no doubt I shall batter your peepholes with more news as it comes forward! And rest assured that I am deep into the second instalment of The Gentleman Bastard Sequence so there shall be a blog about that soon enough!

Until then my teary-eyed viewers, readers and reviewers; Good hunting!

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Coming Up Next!

Good day wordsmiths!

(I think it would be wordsmiths, I toyed with the idea of pensmiths but we don’t make pens, we make stories... so storysmith, but then what about poems and novels and epics? So words it is!)

Welcome back to another fine edition of the Tempered Pen! We’ve been away a little bit (holidays and scheduling be damned!) but we’re back with a vengeance and with a bit of a mixed up format. Instead of doing an article or review every week we’re going to be posting an article or review one week and the next a story will be posted.

The stories will be quite short and we’ll do a few series of stories, so there’ll be a few weeks worth of larger story but also various different stories going on. One reason for this is to have more time to get read books to actually review them properly rather than just from what I remember. And especially with fantasy books they can be rather lengthy!

So the good thing about this is you’ll get exciting instalments of fantastical tales as well as informative and entertaining articles and reviews! Huzzah!

But that wouldn’t do on its own for a blog post, so keep your eyes peeled for another one coming extraordinarily soon!

What I can do for now is give you a sneaky peek at some of the stories that will be coming your way.

First off we’ve got the epic journey of Seňor Bloodwhiskers! The bandit cat seeking revenge upon those who wronged him the past. Along the way he’ll meet other colourful characters, grueling opponents and hopefully find the vigilante justice he’s looking for.

And the other stories that will be working their way to you will be the colourful tale of Arthur Sullivan, his apprentice and his shop the Sullivan Emporium. Arthur is a purveyor of dreams, wishes and potions. Along with his apprentice Jeremy the story will follow them as they find new ingredients to make their wares from across the world.

So keep an eye out and soon enough there shall be a wonderful story for you to enjoy!

Good hunting!

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3 Reasons You Should Be Writing Short Stories

One of the main mantras for writers, whether they’re hopefully, published, or old hats (not literally. Although I would definitely buy a book by an old hat, if just for the experience) is: Write, write, write, write. And then when you feel like your pen can go no further, write some more. So I won’t be going over this rule too much. There it is. You see it. It has been proclaimed.

So what is today going to be devoted to. Well, I’m going to give you (arbitrary number alert) five reasons you should be writing short stories. I don’t care if you’re writing a huge, ten-book, epic fantasy series. I don’t care if you’re just letting your newly finished manuscript settle before you go back for some editing. You should be writing short stories.

Okay that sounds quite draconian. But writing short stories is good for the literary muscles, there’s a host of reasons that short stories can help all of your writing from sprawling epic series to your opening line. I know you’re just aching to see the list, so let’s get to it.

1: YOU GET A BREAK WITHOUT LOSING YOUR EDGE

You’ve been penning your sprawling space opera series for 5 years now. You’re almost at the last chapter and then you’ll be done! Ready to throw it out there for all the publishers and agents to fight over. Maybe you’ve just finished the first draft of your very first book, and you’re super excited to get it out there!

Well it would be a good idea for you to write short stories for a bit. That way you still get to work on your craft (so you’ll just keep getting better) but then you can come back to your big work with a fresh perspective. I’m not saying that you won’t be able to effectively keep working on it, but you’ve heard of being too close to the problem to see the solution? Working on a piece of writing for a long time can be like that. You might not have any problems with your writing, and that’s great! But it would definitely be worth taking a month off to come back fresh to double check. And then if you write short stories you still get to do what you love and it’s still a break! Huzzah!

2: IF YOU CAN’T WAIT TO GET SOMETHING OUT THERE SHORT STORIES ARE THE WAY TO GO

Patience is a virtue, especially in the business of scribbling, re-scribbling and then making once more sweep of edits. But sometimes patience isn’t what you want, or heck even what you need sometimes! It’s nice to have something to actually show for all your hard work, beyond just saying to people “I write.” and getting a look that says ‘suuuure you do.’ Short stories mean that you have something you can show to people, it’ll take a lot less time to get to a professional level (thinking purely from the perspective of how many words you have to shine!). You could also potentially get together with some fellow authors and make an anthology! Of course this will still have all the normal effort of publishing a book but if you just can’t wait until your major project is finished then this can be a good way to have your name on the internet with a product in tow!

3: IF YOU’RE A SECRETIVE SALLY IT’S SOMETHING FOR PEOPLE TO CRITIQUE

If you’re someone who doesn’t like showing people your big work because you’re afraid that they’ll steal your idea, I have two things to say to you. It’s  super super super unlikely, and short stories.

It’s going to be much harder for someone to take your idea for a story with a chapter or two that you’ve given them to look at and then for them to take that idea (that they won’t have the whole picture of anyway) and then write that book. I mean, you’re already asking people to look at it, you’re (comparatively) almost done!

But if that’s something you feel that you want to be worried about, then look no further than short stories!

I think that these are all some pretty awesome reasons to give short stories a try! You can get your name out there, get some good feedback on your writing, not only as general prose but also how you tie a story together, and you don’t have to give away anything from your big work (you could even tantalise people by setting the short stories in the same place or be a prequel to your characters big story!).

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The Dangerous Game of Leap-Shark

Welcome back scribblers, scratchers and word processor tappers!

Today, I want to talk about jumping over sharks. This isn’t going to be a post about encouraging you to jump over sharks mind you, it’s more about knowing your story’s limitations, what you can do and what your audience expect of you.

But what do I mean? And why am I talking about sharks!?

Well, the term ‘jumping the shark’ generally means to do something so audacious and out there that it can only signal a decline. Originally this was referred to only with regards to television but it has since been expanded to encompass a wide range of topics and media.

Okay, so that still doesn’t really explain why I’m talking about sharks. The term ‘jumping the shark’ was coined by John Hein and it refers to an episode of Happy Days in which Fonzie, as a test of his courage, literally jumps over a shark whilst using water skis. For Happy Days this supposedly marked a gradual decline in the show’s creativity and inevitably led to the cancellation of the show.

Yeah I just jumped a shark, so what?

One of the things that I love about The Dresden Files series is that you really feel like Harry Dresden is pushed to his absolute limits. You (both the reader and Harry) find out what Harry is willing to do to protect those he loved and do what he can to save them.
Now, I will avoid spoilers, but at the end of Changes I really wasn’t sure where Jim Butcher was going to go with it. The ending was an absolute explosion of emotional, physical and magical excitement and trauma. And maybe it was that, but I really felt like the next instalment Ghost Story would have been better suited for a short story. I started reading it but found it very difficult to get into the story, or re-engage with the characters. To be honest, I skipped a large part of the middle and didn’t feel like I’d missed much.

So why am I bringing this up?

Well I read something recently that made me think of this. Unfortunately it was The Dresden Files. As much as I do enjoy the books, I recently read (I say read for The Dresden Files I listen to the audiobooks as read by James Marsters) Ghost Story and I was quite disappointed.

What I think was the problem is that Ghost Story was more about the other characters within the Dresden-verse. That’s not so much a problem but I don’t think that it merited its own novel for it.

Having said all of that, I’m a sucker for a series so I thought I’d pick up the next book Cold Days just to see if it was indeed a ‘jump the shark’ situation, or if that book was just miss instead of a hit.

It was a slow start, but a better one. And then, after a good few chapters, Butcher really stepped up the game. The storyline is back to being something Dresden isn’t sure if he can handle, but knows if he doesn’t the consequences will be dire. Cold Days definitely puts to rest the worry that Butcher’s books would face a slow and gradual decline as the series went on. Not only does he lay these fears to rest, but as far as I’m concerned he has definitely introduced enough plot points at this juncture to justify the continuing series, and there are also other elements that Butcher has brought forward from the history of the series that demonstrate a thorough overarching plan that has been in place for a long time.

I don’t think that Ghost Story was a badly written book, I just think that the story itself and how it was presented was not as interesting to me as it could have been. As I said, what I love about The Dresden Files is the tension that comes from Harry Dresden’s character and how far he’s willing to go. But in Ghost Story it was more about the supporting cast, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just not my thing.

So what I would say to you, dear readers, is the following: Be careful where you’re taking your story. It might be that something you think will be a really interesting direction might put off some of your readers.

Be careful of jumping the shark, just because something’s awesome doesn’t necessarily mean you should do it. Just because jumping over a shark looks cool it might not leave you any room to develop your characters or story further, it might not even be a relevant thing to have happen!

I’m not saying you shouldn’t be ambitious in your writing and the scope of your story, just make sure when it’s awesome, it’s awesome for the right reasons! And don’t  be put off keeping up with The Dresden Files! I still think they are a thoroughly fantastic read, and to have one book in the series that didn’t quite stack up out of a total of fourteen is no mean feat! But if you don’t like Ghost Story, I would recommend picking it up at Cold Days because it definitely gets better and so much bigger (in such a good way).

I hope that makes as much sense as it can without me revealing anything about the plot! Beware spectacle for spectacle's sake!

Well that’s all for now fellow scribblers! I wish you all well, and until next time: Good hunting!

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