To be perfectly honest, I did not have high expectations when I picked up Skyward. But it did say Sanderson on the cover, so I did eventually read Skyward. I have to say this was a case of not judging a book by its summary, because Skyward genuinely did draw me in, and I found it to be a unique, compelling story. So when Starsight came out, I may have wished a little that he had been working on Stormlight Archives, instead, but I was eager to read this second installment in the series.
Plausible Impossibility
If you've been a follower of the site for awhile, you may remember the post "Written in a Corner." In that post, I mentioned that I would write another post addressing the topic of plausible impossibility, which is an important concept in speculative fiction writing. Of course, if you've been a follower of the site for awhile, you probably also have realized that I'm not always very good at following up on these post ideas that I drop in my posts in anything approaching a timely fashion. Don't worry, I'll get to it eventually. In this case, it's only taken me a couple months.
The Tropic of Serpents Review
There's something about dragons that stirs the imagination. Whether they're vicious wyrms, wise, ancient lords, or symbiotic fire lizards, dragons of all shapes and forms seem somehow fascinating (this may have something to do with why so many people go through a "dinosaur phase," which begs the question if fantasy authors writing about dragons simply never quite grew out of it). This can result in dragons, like dwarves, trolls, elves, and other creatures that frequently populate pages in various forms, that seem flat, one-dimensional, or simply indistinct. How many times can we read about how the dragons almost disappeared, but then someone finds and egg and returns the symbiotic dragonriders? So any time I come across a new and interesting take on dragons, I get excited.
Thud! Review
A lot of very strange things can, and do, happen on a world that is flat, and is carried on the backs of four elephants perched upon the shell of the great turtle A'Tuan. Terry Pratchett's world and stories seem, on the surface, to be plainly fun. And they are that. Lighthearted and amusing, his stories don't feel heavy, but despite their facade, they in many cases convey unexpected significance. The well-meaning Watch Captain Vimes does just that as he investigates a dwarfish murder.
Lightbringer Review
After five books, Brent Weeks's Lightbringer series concluded with The Burning White, which I reviewed in the previous post. Since it is the end of a series, I wanted to do a review of the series as a whole, to accompany the review of the final book.
The Burning White Review
I will fully admit that I devoured The Burning White after my re-read of the Lightbringer series, by Brent Weeks. I'll be posting a review of that book, specifically, here, and will also make a later post reviewing the series as a whole. Now, I'm not some kind of literary critic, but I have read a lot of genre fiction, and I have a good idea of what I like to see. That being said, what I like to see may not be the same as what you like to see.
DUNE Review
Ultra-tough, misunderstood desert cultures can be a slightly overused trope in fantasy writing, especially alternative world fantasy. They often crop up as the much-needed army for the beset hero, at just the right time, after the hero properly impresses them and meets some ancient prophecy. It might be that the origin of this tendency lies with DUNE.
Genre Jargon
Speculative fiction, broadly, includes the stories that are typically classified as science fiction and fantasy, but if you've written in the genre realm for long, you may have noticed that the terminology employed by libraries and other sources to classify genre fiction is somewhat limited. Maybe we genre writers aren't as "serious" as the "real" authors, but that hasn't stopped us from developing our own terminology to help describe our works. Since I think that many of these terms would be useful for both readers and writers to know, I've sought to describe some of them below.
Cartography
One of the distinguishing features of the speculative fiction genre in its published form is the maps. Avid readers of fantasy and science fiction are known to pour over the maps included in the books they read, maps describing fantastical worlds and universes in vivid detail. It was perhaps inevitable, therefore, that I would at some point be obliged to create maps to go along with the stories I've written or am in the process of writing.
The Grounds Warden Release!
It is now available for purchase, exclusively at igcpublishing.com, as a digital download. For only $1.99, you too can own a PDF copy of The Grounds Warden, readable from your phone, your tablet, your computer, your Amazon Kindle, or any other devices that support PDFs.
IGC Publishing 