Take a spin on The Cloud Roads (my idea of a review)

[karen_w_newton]

The Cloud Roads, by Martha Wells
300 pages
Night Shade Books (2011)

This is not the usual sort of review that summarizes (aka, gives away) the plot. Rather, I want to talk about why this book made such a good impression on me, and the one thing that bothered me. The Cloud Roads is that curious beast, a book that defies genre labels. Mind you, I'

Comments

[shoebrera]

If that's their attitude, I don't think they deserve to be a major supplier of reading material!

I'd love to ask you for help naming two of my characters. No, I won't. That's not what LJ is about.

[karen_w_newton]

I am no expert in naming characters! For one thing, a person's reaction to a name can be very personal. I find a critique group very helpful in dealing with names because of that. I once named a character "Sue Ellen" as a deliberate contrast to her nature. To me, Sue Ellen implies a really sweet person, and this woman was cruel, manipulative and selfish. I wanted readers to note the contrast and find her name ironic. However, more than half my critique group told me they could not hear the name Sue Ellen without thinking about the TV show DALLAS, so I changed her name to Elena, which still sounder softer and sweeter to me, but had no TV character baggage.

If you don't have a critique group of your own, you could try creating a post with character (or species) names and asking for feedback on what those names sound like. I'm sure folks would chime in.