If you’ve checked in on my official NaNoWriMo page at all, you know that I am FAR behind on my quota of 50,000 words by the end of this month. In my defense, I do have a great deal of the entire novel (which will likely be more than 50,000 words) outlined, I just haven’t actually written it out yet. This is due to several factors, summarized below.

I have determined that it is practically impossible to keep up with NaNoWriMo when:

1. You run your own small business and holiday season (aka. The Gauntlet) is starting.
2. You lose a week and a half by being out sick and then having to catch up on real work before you can devote time to writing.
3. Said real work leaves you stressed out and exhausted, and all you want to do with your limited free time is relax with good books or your boyfriend, instead of writing a novel about a topic that stresses you out and is occasionally sad.

The last point is admittedly the most controllable, as I could’ve just picked a different topic to write about. But writing a book is hard work no matter the topic or angle, and sometimes my day job just doesn’t leave me with the energy to tackle that.

I may do my own version of NaNoWriMo in a less hectic time of the year – perhaps May (MayNoWriMo?). Regardless, I do plan to keep plugging away at this novel in small chunks until then, and ultimately completing it, as it’s a story that I feel is important to see told.

The Magicians

by Lev Grossman

I wasn’t bored by this book, for sure, but ultimately I wasn’t satisfied either. The cynical, disinterested view of the narrator, Quentin, pervades even the alternate magical world(s) he becomes privy to. There is a bit of wonder and awe at this new fantastic dimension to everyday life, but moreso there’s a grungy, apathetic feel to the whole book, that I was hoping would be resolved by the end and wasn’t. I don’t have a problem with drinking and sex on principle, or even drugs for the purposes of fiction, but they were present to such a degree that I got sick of it and of the characters engaging in such wasteful excess when, c’mon, they have magic to explore and be excited about! I felt more disgust and impatience with them to get over themselves and get on with life, than I did empathy for them.

I especially wanted to like Quentin, and at times did, but the usual story payoff of an antihero narrator changing/growing didn’t happen – he ends much like he began and behaved the entire book. He also ends much stronger in magical skill, which is something, but not stronger in any other area. Certainly not any stronger in regards to principles or personality. The most likable character, Alice, who may have had some chance of redeeming Quentin – well, I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but let’s just say that doesn’t happen and I was not happy with the direction her storyline ultimately took. The world Quentin falls in love with from childhood books, Fillory, comes off as a hollow mockery of established fantasy worlds like Narnia, which may have been intentional, but didn’t go over well with me.

Overall, I really was interested in the plot and the characters and the world of magic that Grossman portrayed, but a large part of my interest was in the hopes that they would prove worthy of devoting that much reading time to, and ultimately they didn’t. I closed the book with a memorably unsatisfied ‘hmph.’ If the intention was to parallel real world dissatisfaction and angst and ennui in magical fiction, it worked. But that’s not what I want or like to read – I am admittedly an escapist reader, and I want my reading ventures to be either pleasant or satisfying or both, and this was neither.

I will say, though, that the quality of the writing itself (voice, grammar, style, etc.) was very good. That alone isn’t enough to make me want to reread this book, or read any other of Grossman’s works, however.

I give it 2/5 stars.

A review over at Amazon says it really well:

“Definitely, the book had the makings of a great story. Yet, I was left numb at the end, not happy, not sad, not scared. And that, really, is why I left this review with 3 stars. I read fiction to be entertained. This entertainment can be in the form of humor, feeling good, scared, excited, titillated, insightful, or some combination thereof. Instead, when I read this book, I saw through the eyes of a fairly apathetic protagonist, who messes things up and blames everyone else, who had chances to become a hero and fails each time. I read about a person who wanted something, got it, didn’t like it, and became apathetic. I read about the antagonist being defeated, the protagonist winning in the end, and no one feeling … well, happy for having accomplished anything. Perhaps this is what real life can be. But come on, that’s not entertainment. And that’s what’s sad about this, that this book had the potential to be a GREAT story, but misses the mark significantly.” – Mitchell M. Tse

Elfland

by Freda Warrington

Overall, I thought this was an interesting way to mix the world of fantasy with the modern world. The lines between what makes a being human or a fairy are blurry and blurrable (at least from the fairy side). An Aetherial being (as they are called in the book) can blend in with humans no problem – their true selves only show in other realms or to other Aetherials. They can also choose to reject their otherworldly side and forget about their race’s history and powers, and become essentially human – as a few characters in the book attempt to do. The way Aetherials can slip ‘sideways’ between different realms/dimensions – intentionally or accidentally – was a bit of a new twist, too. No stone circles or travelling west into twilight necessary. And I like a good romance storyline with occasional sex scenes as well as the next woman, so a few bonus points for that.

My major beef with this book, though, is unfortunately it’s largest action-driven plot point – Lawrence Wilder and the mysterious threat from beyond the Gates. Even by the end, it is not really clearly explained why, if the threat has always been there from the beginning of creation, it is only awakening now. There’s some vague mention about Lawrence’s nightmares having had something to do with it, possibly creating it, but that doesn’t jive with the story that it was always there. But the more character-driven side of the ending (namely, Rose’s storyline) was very satisfactory, so I found myself able to overlook the bit about Lawrence and still have the warm fuzzy feeling that comes from finishing a good book.

I give it 3.5/5 stars.

My birthday was this past weekend (the 23rd, for those of exacting curiosity) and my geeky bookworm side was indulged to the max. Witness below:

On the left, you see 3 books that I purchased just today from Austin’s wonderful BookPeople store with a gift card from my friend Nicholas. I picked a good mix: a modern sci-fi, an epic fantasy, and of course a book all about dragons. I’m eager to dive into them, but my reading attention is currently taken up by the other half of the picture above.

On the afternoon of my birthday, the doorbell rang, a box was delivered, I near broke my back picking it up expecting something lighter, and then I open it. The ENTIRE Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. Sent by none other than my awesome boyfriend, who gets bonus points for being clever and absolutely surprising me. See, I’d first stumbled on this series when I chanced to watch an episode of Legend of the Seeker and got hooked. I found out it was based on this series, which I’d been meaning to read for awhile anyway. I got the first one from the library, thoroughly enjoyed it, and requested the 2nd one, which was checked out but they could put on hold for me when it came back in. And then I waited. And waited, and waited. Longest library hold EVER. I commiserated with my boyfriend on the long wait more than once (he, too, is a fan of the series), and he decided to end my wait and make me squeal girlishly in birthday book excitement all in one fell swoop.

I’m halfway through book 2, Stone of Tears – witness the crease down the spine – and the bookworm inside me is rubbing its hands together maniacally in anticipation of tackling the rest of this haul.

Flash Forward

by Robert J. Sawyer

I won a copy of this book from @torbooks on Twitter in a giveaway they did around the time the TV show based off of it premiered. Overall, I thought it a fairly good read. It did what I like to see science fiction do: use the premise of some science-fictiony event or discovery to explore human psychology and philosophy. The premise in this case being that the entire human race blacks out for two minutes and each person sees a vision of themselves 21 years in the future (and for the record, I think the 21 years gap works a lot better as a story vehicle than the 6 months used in the TV show). Then the world has to deal with what to do about these visions, what they mean, whether they are real, etc. For me the most interesting parts of this story were the worldwide and individual reactions to what happened, and on the individual note I thought it fell just a tad shy of the mark it could’ve hit. Parts of this book focused far too much on the science rather than plot or characters, and it may very well have been valid science and served as an extended explanation, but for me as a reader, that wasn’t what interested me. When it did focus on characters, it was only sometimes believable. Michiko’s reaction to her daughter’s death in the Flash Forward, and Lloyd’s role in that, was completely believable. Lloyd’s reaction to his vision was not as much. And sometimes I thought characters were being unduly stupid. Theo, for instance, the character that learns he will be murdered by three shots to the chest a month before the visions in the Flash Forward – I was tempted to scream at him, “Just wear a bullet-proof vest that day, you idiot!” And don’t go anywhere alone, as he stupidly and inevitably does. He worries and obsesses about it for 20+ years and then just ignores everything he learns? I don’t think so.

The ending was interesting. I’m still on the fence as to whether I liked it or not. It was at once both surprising and not surprising, disappointing and satisfying. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, so I’ll just say that despite the stupidity mentioned above, I ended up liking Theo’s character more than Lloyd’s, and ultimately finding him more believable.

I’ve been watching the TV show based on the book, and so far I like that better overall. It does a much better job of characterization (with a superb cast!) and plot, and they haven’t even gotten to what might have caused the Flash Forward yet, so no chance for it to have gotten bogged down in science speak. It is only very, VERY loosely based on the book though. A few character names are similar (just names, not the characters themselves), and of course the main event of the Flash Forward, but everything else is different.

I give the book 3/5 stars
I give the show 3.5/5 stars (subject to change as the season continues)

NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month: http://www.nanowrimo.org

Well, it’s official. I’ve signed up for this madness. Starting on November 1st, I will attempt to write at least 50,000 words of a novel over the course of the following 30 days. If you figure that one page has about 250 words, that works out to about 6-7 pages each day, which doesn’t seem quite as intimidating. I have an idea and rough outline in mind, and strangely enough it’s not going to be of the science fiction or fantasy bent, but a bit more true to life. It’ll still be fiction, but will be set in current times, and be about a very real-world issue for this particular character. Right now I’m leaning towards writing it in first person, even though I know that will bring the inevitable ‘is this about you?’ questions. We’ll see. It will be an interesting exercise, in many ways.

I’ll be posting word count updates on the NaNoWriMo site, so if you’d like to track my progress (and possibly chivvy me along occasionally) you can do so here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/522485

Any one else out there onboard for this crazy ride?

Sandman Slim

by Richard Kadrey

I won this book in a giveaway by HarperCollins/Eos Books and wasn’t really sure what to expect, not having heard much about it previously. What I got was a wickedly enjoyable read. James Stark, the narrator, is a magician turned pit fighter and assassin after 11 years in Hell – from which he has just escaped. He is a sarcastically hilarious and cynical character, whose time Downtown (as he refers to Hell) has also turned him into a bit of a vicious brute with handy self-healing powers, and Kadrey doesn’t pull any punches when describing all of the violence and gore – and there is plenty. Or the lewd and crude, either, which normally bothers me more, but with Stark’s dry and sharp delivery just adds to the humor. The story follows him as he tries to piece the reality of his life on Earth back together (there’s an interesting scene when someone has to explain 9/11 to him, since it happened while he was gone) and take revenge on those who killed his girlfriend and sent him to Hell in the first place, all while dodging agents of both Heaven and Hell and something else besides. Stark is definitely a shoot-first, ask-questions-later kind of old western throwback hardass, but he isn’t completely cold and brutal; he has a very human side as far as emotions, he just generally chooses to focus on anger and annoyance, as they seem to him more productive. He also genuinely cares for the few friends he has on his side (a vampire, among other creatures). All in all, it’s an irreverent, clever and grittily violent ride into a magic-riddled Los Angeles, with biting humor and an antihero you can’t help but cheer for as he thumbs his nose at both sides of the divine war. The fact that he may be the world’s only chance of avoiding utter destruction and chaos is kind of a ironic, pain-in-the-ass side gig, and the ending was certainly a surprise for me. I give this book a hearty recommendation, though not for the faint-of-heart or devoutly religious.

I give it 4/5 stars.