Stuff & Book Review: Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
First, some notes on relatively important dates: Sunday, 11th: Chapter Eleven goes up!Friday, 16th: New book review of Tower of Shadows.Sunday, 25th: Chapter Twelve goes up! Next, I wonder how many of you are note takers. There was a short bit in the comments in my last blog about Tolkien. I mentioned that when he died he left behind a garage full of notes that are still to this day being dealt with. The idea of that is staggering when you think about it.So, I’m curious to know how indepth you all are in your note taking. Personally I don’t take a lot of notes unless I’m dealing with a story that is hard scifi. For fantasy, it’s mostly just making it up as I go. Take for instance my recent efforts for a hard scifi story. I spent about 10 hours worth of research this weekend to make sure that I stayed roughly within the parameters of modern physics as we know it. I had to make sure that star systems I wanted to use for the story could do what I needed them to do, etc. So, a good ten hours later I had over forty systems categorized and labeled for who controlled them, how many habitable planets if any, and the like. But for the story that is on this blog, The World in the Satin Bag, mostly I had an idea and I ran with it. Take Chapter Ten. I had no idea I was going to have the tunnel end in darkness. Not a clue actually. Originally I had thought they would get across and maybe get ambushed and be on their merry way to Arnur. But now, turns out my mind wanted to do something completely different. And, well there you have it. Chapter Eleven should prove to be most interesting in regards to the pace of the story. In fact, I think Chapter Eleven deals with one of my inborn fears that keeps me out of certain places in the world.So, as it is, it’s time for a book review!Old Man’s War is a fantastic military SF novel. I was pleasantly surprised. My first reaction when I saw it was written in first person was that of disinterest. I have a huge problem getting into first person stories and rarely do such POV’s hold my attention. This is not the case with Old Man’s War (OLM from this point on).The story is set in the far future. Earth has become basically a backwater world as mankind has colonized other star systems under the military power of the Colonial Defense Forces, an entity that controls the bulk of human resources. Yet, the odd part is that rather than desiring to have young, fresh recruits join from Earth into the CDF, they are looking for the elderly. John Perry is one such person. His wife has died and he has opted to join. The downside: he can never return to Earth, interstellar war is hell, and he has to survive for two years minimum before he can retire to a generous homestead on one of the many colony worlds.The story itself starts out perfectly. I don’t want to ruin anything, but from the get go you have an amazing clarity of who the characters are. Each character is dynamic, despite having only existed on the page for a mere few chapters. The humor between the characters is superb and I found myself giggling with joy at the witty remarks some of the characters made.The pace is quick and sturdy, making all the twists and turns even more disturbing and surprising. I must say this is by far one of the best novels I have read in a long time. It held my attention from start to finish. The description of battle, characters, and the world Mr. Scalzi has created are amazingly portrayed. You get a great sense of what it must be like to be a soldier for the CDF. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys SF, in any genre.
Reviews and Decisions
Well, it seems that I’ve come to a different conclusion over the possible creation of an overall map for the world of Traea–of course including Angtholand, the Farthland, and the other two major countries and their prospective landmasses. I was looking around quite a bit online, mostly at other maps from series I’ve either read, heard about, or simply have yet to read, and concluded that while a map may come in handy for readers, it’s also a terrible issue for me as a writer. The story is not finished, so I don’t honestly know where all the landmasses are–only the ones I’ve written about or intend to write about–and to draw up a map of things that have yet been placed in the story itself–whether in my mind or in the plot–would put a terrible restriction on my ability to change things. I can’t draw up a map for all my readers to see, and then simply change it within the story or the map itself and expect readers to remain. So, what I have decided to do is wait. Whatever part of Traea James and his friends happen to wander will be noted and put into a map whenever I happen to finish this book–which may put a conclusion to the entirety of the story, or may just place me into a position to continue writing more on these characters. After I’ve finished the book I can at least draw up a map of the ‘known’ locations and landmasses according to what has been written. That way there is no concern over changing things, since they have already been sealed in stone within the writing. And on to other things… I just finished reading Eldest by Christopher Paolini and have to say that I very much enjoyed it. I’d already become a fan of the first book, Eragon, and this being the second in the trilogy I was pleasantly surprised by it. My biggest complaint is that much of the book could have been edited out for sake of space, or for the sake of adding more riveting elements to the other storylines. However, this is a great work, I must say, and must give the young lad a bit of credit for his excellent grasp of language and emotion.The book is, as most fantasy stories are, very much ‘derivative’, but then, so is most everything you will ever read within this genre. This is something that many complain about in reference to his writing, and I find that to be rather deplorable. First off, there are few, if any, great works of fantasy that do not acquire their elements from things previously written or discussed, or that have previously happened in the past. That’s impossible. I’m sorry if you think that everything within the fantasy genre is capable of being purely original, because nothing is original anymore. You might have a few elements nobody has ever done before, but you are following a heroic archetype that has been used by thousands if not millions of people before you. So, right from the start you are already sitting in that derivative bin. Even my own work can be called derivative, something of which I don’t much like. If you look at it, I’ve drawn up elements from all sorts of stories already told, taken some things from English mythology and folklore, and of course fallen into some already used heroic archetypes, which cannot be helped mind you. Tolkien’s work is derivative, drawing many elements from heroic poems and mythologies that he had read throughout his school experience and after. So for anyone to say that something is derivative should probably take a step back and realize that everything is derivative. Even regular fiction…or literature.Now, as for Eldest. There’s much to be said about this. First, Paolini has put Eragon into some terrible positions within this book and by the end of it you start to think about whether or not Eragon and those that follow him have much of a chance against the Empire. That is an incredible thing to do when you’ve gone throughout the book thinking he might stand a chance to realizing he hasn’t the ability as of yet to do much of anything against Galbatorix or his minions. I was drawn very closely into Roran’s story and found that to be one of the most riveting parts of this second installment since much of the work with Eragon is rather dull. You start to actually want to learn more about what Roran is doing–and Paolini does a great job doing that for you.So I have to say that if you liked the first book, give this one a go. It is more than worth the time and effort!
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 :).