Books: The Steel Remains, The Elephant of Surprise, and The Thing I Didn't Know I Didn't Know
If my New Year's resolution was to read more, I'm pretty terrible at it. (Luckily, I don't do resolutions.) I've barely read anything in 2015.
I did read a non-fiction book called Self-Promotion for Introverts that was recommended by my boyfriend. It was all right as far as self-help books go, but I don't really think it had a secret formula for improving one's career. That state is common in the genre, so it'll do just as well as any other book if you're looking for a boost in your career.
All right, enough with the warm-up act, let's get on with the main show: fiction! First I recently read The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan, a recent fantasy novel and the start of a trilogy. I would say this book belongs to the category of adult, gritty, gore-y fantasy novels, like George R. R. Martin or Joe Abercrombie, that have become so popular these days. I also noticed a lot of these writers are trying to walk a fine line between including lots of familiar, Tolkien/D&D-esque things and also doing original things. It's quite a hard thing to do. The structure of the novel is that it takes place after a war, and three veterans of that war, in their own separated narratives, deal with... an unusual and violent incident.
I'm really tired of different chapters, different narrators structure. Far too often it seems like a way novelists take multiple short, incomplete stories and combine them into a book for publication's sake. Morgan salvages it because at least his narrative threads are woven together at the end, instead of sprawling for no good reason (or no interesting reason, which is even worse). I found I was trying to reference his original fantasy creations to elves, vampires, lizard-men, etc., though, because it was really hard to understand what he was taking about. I think the core problem is he uses third-person limited perspectives, and all three point-of-view characters are veterans, so you don't have the Luke Skywalker character around to be a proxy for the audience and receive exposition.
After that, I moved on to two books by Brent Hartinger. He's famous for a gay young adult series that started with Geography Club, which I read from the library. I read the last of his YA books, The Elephant of Surprise, and the first of his adult series, The Thing I Didn't Know I Didn't Know. The two series are connected; the protagonist is in high school for the YA series, and he's an adult in the second series. I liked The Elephant of Surprise, but it felt like it had nothing to do with his school life anymore, so it didn't feel that realistic. The second book is more realistic, but there isn't much plot. I was especially frustrated with the best friend character, who seems to have no purpose other than to sit around and be diverse. I don't think I'll try to keep on track with the rest of that series.
I did read a non-fiction book called Self-Promotion for Introverts that was recommended by my boyfriend. It was all right as far as self-help books go, but I don't really think it had a secret formula for improving one's career. That state is common in the genre, so it'll do just as well as any other book if you're looking for a boost in your career.
All right, enough with the warm-up act, let's get on with the main show: fiction! First I recently read The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan, a recent fantasy novel and the start of a trilogy. I would say this book belongs to the category of adult, gritty, gore-y fantasy novels, like George R. R. Martin or Joe Abercrombie, that have become so popular these days. I also noticed a lot of these writers are trying to walk a fine line between including lots of familiar, Tolkien/D&D-esque things and also doing original things. It's quite a hard thing to do. The structure of the novel is that it takes place after a war, and three veterans of that war, in their own separated narratives, deal with... an unusual and violent incident.
I'm really tired of different chapters, different narrators structure. Far too often it seems like a way novelists take multiple short, incomplete stories and combine them into a book for publication's sake. Morgan salvages it because at least his narrative threads are woven together at the end, instead of sprawling for no good reason (or no interesting reason, which is even worse). I found I was trying to reference his original fantasy creations to elves, vampires, lizard-men, etc., though, because it was really hard to understand what he was taking about. I think the core problem is he uses third-person limited perspectives, and all three point-of-view characters are veterans, so you don't have the Luke Skywalker character around to be a proxy for the audience and receive exposition.
After that, I moved on to two books by Brent Hartinger. He's famous for a gay young adult series that started with Geography Club, which I read from the library. I read the last of his YA books, The Elephant of Surprise, and the first of his adult series, The Thing I Didn't Know I Didn't Know. The two series are connected; the protagonist is in high school for the YA series, and he's an adult in the second series. I liked The Elephant of Surprise, but it felt like it had nothing to do with his school life anymore, so it didn't feel that realistic. The second book is more realistic, but there isn't much plot. I was especially frustrated with the best friend character, who seems to have no purpose other than to sit around and be diverse. I don't think I'll try to keep on track with the rest of that series.