Review Information
This is officially going to be the post that sits at the bottom of everything that describes information about me as a reviewer (what I will read, what I won’t read, how to get in touch if you want to send me something to review, etc.). Note: I am currently closed to new submissions of books for review. Those who have a previous review relationship with me are free to send work, but I cannot take on any other authors or publishers at this point. I’m swimming in books. This should hopefully change soon. What I will read: Science Fiction (any form) Fantasy (any form) Young Adult (only science fiction or fantasy, or related styles–no general fiction please) Romance (only stories that are speculative in nature–books by Luna would be an example) Magical Realism (provided it leans more to the speculative/fantasy end rather than just being something a little odd–think The Steam Magnate by Dana Copithorne or works by Zoran Zivkovic) Cross-genre (provided it is speculative in some way) Horror (only supernatural, near-fantasy/sf type stuff and not slasher things like the movie Scream) Urban Fantasy (just to clarify in case someone makes a distinction between standard fantasy and urban) Nonfiction (science, history, guides, etc. provided it has some use to writers or readers of genre–science books work really well in this category as well as fun little guides and such) Advanced copies, printed manuscripts provided they are being published by a publisher, or any other form of unfinished work that has yet to be released to the market. (please ask before you send anything electronically) Small Presses (I would prefer these simply because they don’t get enough exposure as it is) Large Presses (I have nothing against them and I will read from them just as I will anything else) Graphic Novels or artistic books related to genre. (I will make an exception here for graphic novels that are not genre, especially for manga) Children’s literature (not Dr. Seuss, but older stuff such as chapter books and the like) Works in English (I only speak one language, so the work has to be in English) Translated Works (as long as it follows everything else) If you don’t see something listed here or in the list below feel free to email me anyway if you think I might be interested in your work. What I won’t read: Self-published books. This is a new development. I apologize to anyone who has a self-published book that happens to be good, but I’ve grown tired of having to wade through some particularly wretched works in the last year or two. There’s a certain quality that I’m guaranteed with legitimately published novels, and self-publishing cannot promise that, nor can its authors. Books published by a press you invented to publish yourself. This is the same thing as self-publishing and I do not support the deception of the consumer in order to make yourself look better. You either embrace self-publishing or you don’t. Anything outside of my typical reading (i.e.: works that are not speculative in nature, although you can query me if you think I might be interested anyway as I break this rule sometimes). Erotica (I will make an exception if your work has a particularly strong SF or F plotline that coincides with the dirtier stuff) Hentai comics (sorry, this just isn’t of interest to me and my audience really isn’t for you anyway) Books that revolve around gore and explicit violence (I just don’t have time to assess this sort of work since gore and violence should be tasteful) Non-English Works (as I said above, I only speak one language) Want to send me something?Great! Use my email: arconna@(no spam)yahoo.com (remove the no spam) and tell me what you’d like to send to me. I’ll give you my address and all will be set. I don’t want my address on here for obvious reasons (I get enough junk mail), but I would be happy to read your work.Publishers, authors, editors, etc. may send me books. Just email me and I’d be happy to work with you.Note: Publishers who already have a relationship with me do not have to query or send me an email to send me new work. You probably already know what I like, so send things as you see fit.
Book Review: Ringworld by Larry Niven
(Note: comments have been disabled on this post due to spammers.) I just finished listening to this book. So here is my review of it. This is not one of my favorites by Larry Niven. The idea is awesome, the descriptions and characters are great and well drawn, but it’s what he does with all that that I don’t much like. Here’s the basic premise: Four explorers (two humans–Louis and Tila–one Kzin–Speaker–and one Puppeteer–Nessus) set off to explore a mysterious ring around a star. When they get there they discover that there is life on this unnatural ring (unnatural because it was built by aliens of some sort). Now, the idea of there being this huge flat ring around a star that can support life is really rather cool. But Niven just takes way too long in the novel to get to the Ringworld to show it to us and when he actually gets there it just sort of drags on with not a whole lot of really fascinating things happening. As far as you know, civilization on the Ringworld has reverted back to savage times and you know nothing about the people who built it, except that the natives refer to them as gods. Given that, my favorite parts of the book were the characters. Louis is a fun character, and so is the Kzin (a sort of super evolved tiger that can talk and is intelligent and such). Even the Puppeteer (this strange creature with two heads and mouths that he uses for hands) is entertaining. All the little tidbits about human, Kzin, and Puppeteer culture are fascinating (such as the fact that any Puppeteer that shows courage considers him or herself to be insane and the rest of Puppeteer society things the same). I thought Saturn’s Race was much better than this particular book. The Gripping Hand was better too. I just didn’t like the pace and where the novel ends. So, Sunday is when I’ll post Chapter Two of The World in the Satin Bag. I also just started another audiobook (The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman) that should prove to be rather interesting. Look forward to the lovely weekend then. You’ll have something to do Sunday 😛
TGIFF
What exactly is TGIFF (a.k.a. tiggiff)? It stands for Thank God It’s Finally Friday. The general consensus among my multiple personalities is that Friday is the best day of the week. Why? It’s the first day of my weekend (I get 3 days off, four 10’s…) and it means that I don’t have work for two days. It’s in the best position because it’s the first day I get to sleep in, and it’s just an all around happy day. I figure with this post, as I prepare to post the first chapter to The World in the Satin Bag, I can do a little book review of something I read recently and do a little talking about my writing in general. So here goes. Eon by Greg BearIf you haven’t read this book and you like hard scifi, then you should read this. It was originally printed in 1986 by Tor and has been reprinted a few times now. I found it at Walmart and bought it sort of on impulse. I’ve never read Bear’s works before, nor heard much about him other than the few times I have seen his name. After reading the back, something I rarely ever do, I had to give it a shot.This book is by far one of my favorite books of all time. It revolves around a couple of characters set in a slightly futuristic Earth (we’re talking only slightly more advanced than where we are at now, but not so much so that it’s too fantastical). This giant asteroid swings in and sets up orbit around Earth, on purpose mind you. It actually slows down and sets up orbit. Anyway, this is in an Earth where the Cold War hasn’t yet ended (and when this bookwas written the Berlin Wall hadn’t been torn down yet, so it makes sense). Inside the Stone they find humanesque cities and mankind begins exploring it, well certain people do because most of the info is kept pretty secret on purpose. So, basically it starts there with the research and there is a big plot twist that comes and such.I can’t ruin how the book goes. I just can’t. All I can say is they find out that the Stone is from an alternate future and it parallels the events happening on Earth only it shows what happens in their future. Does that make sense? The explorers basically are reading about a future that has not happened yet on their Earth but something that had happened on the Earth where the stone is from.The book tells you a lot more about what is going on and how all that is possible and some other amazing aspects that you can’t miss. Seriously, give this one a thought. It’s a great book. Alright, so writing has been interesting. I have some stuff up on Critique Circle, this great website that gives critiques obviously. I was also reading some previously written things and really enjoying them. Some of my stuff is a lot more complicated than what I am writing for this project, and rightly so as I write a lot of scifi shorts and such. This is more of a longer work obviously and since it is fantasy based it won’t be as complicated.Anyway, I think this is going to work really great for me. I think :).