Category: Book Review

Other Cool Blogs: Literary Hub July 6, 2017

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Do better.

Reading book reviews about your babies is hard. Real hard. Not just because some of the bad reviews  are spiteful, but because some of them are right. They shine a light on an error which got through your work and ask you to “Do Better”.

The  first review I received for Honestly was entitled “missing an ending”. I hadn’t intended the book to be a happily ever after (HEA), just a happily for now. I got the couple to setting up their first date, showing the slow path they would follow because one had a child and the other romantic lead was still physically recovering from an injury. Everything following, I figured, would be boring and predictable. But the abrupt cut off didn’t tie things together for an emotional ending.

The reviewer correctly one-starred me.

Two additional chapters later, with a jump in time, I uploaded the emotional payoff to the couple getting together for future readers. I received no further one-star reviews. The plus side of self-published work is you can do tweaks like that.

Daniel Price similarly faced reviews for his book The Flight of Silvers. The few negative reviews had the vague ” I didn’t like” but focused on two of the point of view (POV) characters. Frustrated but not knowing how to fix whatever might be wrong, Mr. Price continued pounding out the second book of the series until one reader contacted him directly. Erin (not me) indicated her vague feelings and he asked her for details. She provided it in detail; boiling down the barely noticeable issues (at least overtly) of lack of agency and excessive trope replication without a twist on two of the female POVs. Publishing through a house, Penguin in this case, prevented a direct fix but he applied her words to his final edits on his work-in-progress and sent it to her to beta read. After a 2000-word commentary about her problems with Flight, her second letter to the book he had fixed had only four words. Interested in knowing what those words were?  Read “How a Reader’s Feminist Critique Changed My Sci-Fi Novel.”

Writers do read their reviews. Going with the ambiguous “It stunk.” doesn’t help much. You want better things to read, better reviews can help.

Writers, want better feedback, have someone read your reviews and let you know which one you need to see. Be sure to show them this post to let them know bad reviews are okay when useful. (Unless you got real thick skin, then you can try it direct. Mine is in development and that one-star review still stings.)

Book Review: Duplicate Effort (Retrieval Artist #7)

Erin Penn

Book Cover from Amazon

Duplicate Effort (Retrieval Artist #7) by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON

Retrieval Artist Miles Flint has a mission: take down the law firm of Wagner, Stuart, and Xendor. He enlists the aides of old friends and old enemies. But as the mission gets underway, one member of his team dies horribly.

Flint can no longer take on the entire universe. He violated the rules of his Retrieval Artist mentor and now has a lot to lose. But he can’t reverse the events he set in motion—and the crisis he caused might destroy everything—and everyone—he loves.

International bestselling writer Kristine Kathryn Rusch has won two Hugo awards, a World Fantasy Award, and three Asimov’s Readers Choice Awards. IO9 called her six (so far) bestselling, award-winning Retrieval Artist novels, inspired by this novella, one of the top ten science fiction detective series ever.

 

MY REVIEW

First off, love.the.book.title “Duplicate Effort”, which has more than one meaning in the story.

This is the first of the fifteen-book “Retrieval Artist” series I read and it is the 7th of the series and works well as a stand-alone, though I believe it would work better if read in order. The author does provide good insight to the other books like a universe building on itself.

Second, I love the initial premise. What is a cop to do with a self-cleaning crime scene? How do you save the evidence before it is destroyed?

Each layer of the book get more and more interesting. I’m not going to go any further so I don’t give any of the mysteries away. 

Book Review: A Sword Into Darkness

Erin Penn 1 Comment

Book Cover from Amazon

A Sword Into Darkness by Thomas A. Mays

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON

HUMANITY IS NO LONGER ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE. AN UNKNOWABLE THREAT APPROACHES EARTH . . . AND WE ARE COMPLETELY UNPREPARED TO FACE WHAT’S COMING.

Aerospace tycoon Gordon Elliot Lee cannot stand idly by while a mysterious alien presence from Delta Pavonis bears down upon mankind’s only home. Shut out from NASA and military support, Gordon is forced to go it alone, to sow the seeds for an entirely new sort of planetary defense: a space-based naval force.

Joined by Nathan Kelley — a bloodied naval warrior, scarred by his own actions in the waters off North Korea — and Kris Munoz — an avant garde scientific genius with more ideas than sense — these three will scour the very edges of fringe science and engineering to attempt development of Earth’s first space navy in time to oppose the Deltan invasion.

Beset by ridicule, government obstruction, industrial espionage, and their own personal demons, it will take a miracle just to get off the ground. But the challenges on Earth are nothing compared to what awaits them in space. Against an unknown alien enemy with vastly superior technology, a handful of human scientists and warriors must become the sword that holds the darkness at bay.

MISSILES WILL FLASH, RAILGUNS WILL RUMBLE, LASERS WILL BURN, AND DEFENDERS WILL DIE.

 

MY REVIEW

Excellent Military Sci-Fi trip to the near future. This stuff feels like we may actually be able to do it, and the reason for the need of creating the first interplanetary warship is equally urgent as we realize just how many worlds upon worlds there are in the heavens.

Not everyone out there is going to be friendly, not everyone who drops by will want a cup-of-tea and biscuit, not everyone in the big black is on the side of life. The question raise by this story is what do we do when we see someone coming to visit? Do we roll out the red carpet or bar the door? Do we assume the best or plan for the worst?

And what do you do if you are the first one to see it and no one believes you? How do you make them believe before it is too late? Should you even try? Can loners save humanity or will you need a planetary navy? (The answer to the final question is yes.)

A mixture of tech, politics, and humans being human drive this story, in the tradition of David Weber.

Book Review: The Witches Walk (Haven Harbor #1)

Erin Penn

Book Cover from Amazon

The Witches Walk (Haven Harbor #1) by Jeanne Adams

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Welcome to Haven Harbor, Massachusetts!

In 1691, a group of renegade witches fled Salem in the dark of night, escaping the desperate evil that spawned the Witch Trials. They struck out to form their own town, with their own rules. Three hundred years later, their descendants celebrate by retracing those steps, but this year, a new evil stalks the Witches Walk…

It’s Time for The Witches Walk!

She’s got a plan. Burned out, beaten down, and on the brink of a career implosion, event management dynamo Mari Beecham bypasses the contract of a lifetime to take a job in a community known for its strange, spooky happenings. She doesn’t buy into the story line about the witches founding the town, but it’s great publicity. Bottom line? If she can make the annual Witches Walk a top destination event, she’ll save her career and, maybe, find some balance. She’ll do it, too, if “First Son of Haven Harbor” Peregrine Hestworth will stop interfering. 

He’s in her way. As Town Council chair, Pere is serious about the safety and welfare of his people. He doesn’t want to like Mari. Even if he didn’t suspect his meddlesome mother of weaving a matchmaking spell, he still would have voted against hiring the petite whirlwind with a spine of steel. His visions of fire and death moving to Haven Harbor along with Mari are too deadly to ignore. 

As trouble brews and the event stalls, the attraction between Mari and Pere bubbles like a cauldron. When a woman is attacked, and another disappears, Pere knows his unreliable foresight has hit the mark this time. An old evil is rising, with a new vendetta, and if they can’t work together, the devastation Pere foresees will take his town, along with the woman he’s coming to love. 

 

MY REVIEW

A fun read and worth four and a half stars, just a breath shy of perfect for the genre, a paranormal romance thriller/murder-mystery mix. The book starts off slow, but builds to its lightning-packed conclusion, giving you time to get to know the town and people. 

This very appropriate first book for a promising series introduces several potential singles you get to like and look forward to seeing in future books finding their true loves. (I really want Jake and Dan to get HEAs, and Jeff and Lydia too when I think about it.) Two more books of the series are already out when I read this in August 2017 – but only as physical books and I soooo want to read them right now. Kindle has spoiled me. Oh, and the potential romances aren’t the only thing I want to follow forward – whether a certain witch finds herself an apprentice, seeing what the background big-bad has planned for its next attack, and, of course, exploring the really cool magick of the Haven Harbor Witches.

The first half of the book is about relationships being developed – welcoming a new person into town, power plays, family dynamics, and planning events. The second part is where the romance and the thriller action goes from the smoldering-tinder-gently-fed-hoping-a-spark-will-catch level to out-of-control bonfires. Ms. Adams somehow keeps both bonfires roaring without one consuming the other.

A good read and I think the next in the series, now the world has been established, will be even better.

Time to Read: About seven hours.

Writing Exercise: Review of Book Reviews

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Review of my book reviews.

I average over 100 book read a year for the last few years, since I made a requirement to do a book review every time I read a book I’ve actually been able to keep track through my Goodreads count. I passed the magic 100 books in November 2017, which is when I am writing this post in preparation for tax season during my NaNoWritMo craziness.

I’m going to be way less than previous years (182 in 2015 and 128 in 2016). Each year I get a little less because I (1) don’t count books I edit and (2) don’t count books I slush read. As my editing and slush reading increases, the pleasure reading decreases.

With the magic 100 book level, I thought I would see if I raved or depraved too much. As an editor and author myself, I sometimes feel like I need to take it easy on other writers at which point I pull myself up by the shorts and remind me I am writing the book reviews to become a better editor and writer. If I don’t be honest about what I read, I can’t learn from it.

The review levels between Goodreads and Amazon allow me to give higher marks on Amazon reviews.

one star Goodreads “I did not like” / Amazon “I hate”
two star Goodreads “It was ok” / Amazon “I did not like”
three star Goodreads “I liked” / Amazon “It’s okay”
four star Goodreads “I really liked”/Amazon “I liked”
Five star Goodreads “It was amazing”/Amazon “I loved”

If you notice, a four on Amazon is equal to a three on Goodreads. So if someone gets a four star on Goodreads, I usually give them a five on Amazon because of the difference in the grading scale. This helps soothe my writer’s heart, supporting friends and co-workers. The write-up portion of the review is cut and pasted between the two review sites, therefore same review shows up on both, just star level are different. Oh, and Goodreads allows spoilers to be hid but Amazon does not – I sometimes need to work around that.

The Goodread scale for me is as follows:

One Star – Total fail, should not exist. Hated it, usually unable to finish. (One or more of these reasons.)
Two Star – Serious structural problems to the story. A “trunk” story where the author is learning how to write, but should have never been published in its present form. Did not like book. Able to finish reading the book, but frequently thought about quitting.

(Stars One and Two often inspire Editing Rants and Writing Exercises.)

Three Star – Readable. Some flaws. Bland. Nothing stands out. Liked book.
Four Star – Good book. Solid. Really liked it.
Five Star – Loved story – which I have discovered means incredible worldbuilding is involved.

(Stars Four and Five often end up in Author Spotlights and Book Review posts the following year.)

How did my 2017 reading split up?

Five Star – 11
Four Star – 42
Three Star – 28
Two Star – 12
One Star – 7

The disbursement may seem top-heavy, but remember many of these books are edited by publishing companies and many self-published people use editors as well which will reduce the pure clunkers. People want to publish books to make money, therefore most books overall will be better than mediocre.

I think the split between stars is a good disbursement. I’m not afraid to call a spade a spade.

WRITING EXERCISE: Go to your recently finished reading pile and pull out three books. Write a review for each of them figuring out what you liked about them and what you didn’t and post them to an appropriate review site. Of the three books, which book stood out the most and for what particular reason. What book received the lowest score and why? Looking at your present work-in-progress, can you apply any of the lessons you learned from these review-critiques to your own story?

***

The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi (published by Tor) – 5 Stars – Why I loved it the most: Worldbuilding. New thing learned: working with a multiple person POV allows unlikable as well as likable main characters, adding interest to the story.

Mind of My Mind by Octavia E. Butler (published by Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy) – 4 Stars – Nothing stood out.

Villains Rule by M.K. Gibson (published by Amber Cove Publishing) – 2 Stars – This humorous satire is exactly what I expect from humorous satire. Unfortunately going for the easy joke can be very misogynistic (The Pop Culture Detective Agency covers this well in “The Adorkable Misogyny of the Big Bang Theory”.) New thing learned: This story is very Meta about breaking down the Fantasy tropes and helped me be aware of a few.

Taking the thing I learned: I write likable characters. Maybe I should try for some unlikable ones. All three of these books have at least one of the point of view characters be a unrepentant villain. Something to think about.

If you would like to see all my book reviews on Goodreads, you can follow the book review links above and follow me there.