Zoë Marriott's Blog, page 61

AND...IT JUST KEEPS GETTING WORSE

Okay. So now, in addition to the sprained ankle, dislocated toe and bruised hip that I gained on Friday, I've also caught my first cold of the winter. Probably from the hours I spent waiting in the hospital A&E. I both look and feel like something grey and soggy that one of my cats might bring up after an extended grooming session. If I could walk, I'd be walking (well, shuffling) around the house covering all the mirrors.

Sorry guys, but I'm bailing on today's post. Even I'm not capable of being entertaining when I'm this wretched. I'll be back when I've down a few gallons of fruit-juice and chicken soup. In the meantime, take care of yourselves.

In closing: BLERGH.

HURRAH FOR AMAZON PRE-ORDERS!

Hello, faithful readers! Happy Friday!

I don't have much of a post for you today because I've been completely submerged in my FF re-reading and marking up (the actual re-writing starts next week). And also, at just about the time that I would normally have been writing something witty and fascinating for you all to enjoy, I was taking a tumble down the stairs and doing some fairly nasty damage to my knee and ankle. But not to worry. I have applied frozen garden peas and frozen green beans to the affected areas, and I'm sure I'll be running about as normal very soon.

However, I do not come to you empty handed. Today, I present to you:

Shadows on the Moon, now available for Pre-Order on Amazon. Whoohoo! Check out the synopsis, guys.

The new edition of The Swan Kingdom (with improved cover!) also available for pre-order! And I can tell you that the despite the green lettering on the Amazon thumbnail, actually this cover has gorgeous shiny red lettering. Just like I always wanted!

Have a great weekend, everyone.

WHY NaNoWriMo IS LIKE A MANDOLIN

The video says it all. Take it away, Sam.

COPY EDITS...FINISHED!

Hi Everyone! First to reassure you that despite my wild eyes, bad hair and strange babbling in Friday's vlog, I am, in fact, fine. You don't actually have to send me coffee! The first chunk of any kind of editing nearly always sends me into a tailspin. Then when I hit the halfway mark I get my game-face on and open a can of whup-*ss, and everything's sorted.

I finished the Shadows copy edits on Sunday and posted them off today. So my new task is to re-read, mark-up and re-write FF. I'm really hoping that won't take more than a week or two at the very most. Fingers crossed.

Now onto prettier things. Autumn (fall, to American or Canadian readers) is my favourite season. I love it. LOVE it. I always forget just how much I love Autumn until it comes around again, and then I want to hang onto it for as long as I can. I love the chill in the air, the frosts, the clear skies, and most of all the colours. Suddenly every time you go outside you're greeted with a new array of living treasures.

On Sunday after the copy-edits were safely finished I decided to clear my head by going for a long walk in Weelsby Woods with my mum and my dog. And because I love you nearly as much (all right, all right, just as much) as I love my favourite time of year, I took my camera with me. Behold!


Finn, otherwise known as Finbar Finley Finbarsson the Third, The Devil Hound or Wonder Pooch. You may think this is a look expressing sheer doggy love and devotion. In fact, he is thinking: Give me a cheese treat. 


This was the start of our walk. Just to give you an idea of scale, that is the back of my mum, who is a lady of average height. These pictures, by the way, really don't do justice to the glowing gold, amber and red of the leaves. Something to do with the quality of the digital camera and it's photons.


But probably if I posted pictures that did capture the real colours you'd think I'd doctored them, because the Autumn display is so incredibly bright this year. It took our breath away.

Don't you just want to lie down and roll in those leaves? Maybe I even would have, except my dog went and pee'ed on them. Damn it, Finn!

He doesn't care. He's saying: Well, you should've given me a cheese treat.
Doesn't that look exactly like the path you see in The Fellowship of the Ring, right before the Ringwraithes come for Frodo? I had a shiver walking down this avenue, let me tell you. And I'd forgotten it was Hallowe'en! I'm lucky to have escaped alive.

Here's a tree I always stop to look at when I walk in these woods. Quite often you'll find little garlands of flowers or leaves draped over it, or sometimes empty snail shells. Sometimes you even find seashells. This wood is nowhere near the sea! So I'm pretty sure it's a fairy throne or something. I always make sure to nod respectfully at it, and put back the garlands or shells before I walk on.



We spotted a red squirrel - a rare sighting in England these days - just about here, but I wasn't quick enough to catch it. It darted up a tree and probably laughed at us.


This was as we were coming out of the woodland into the park, which still has a lot of trees but isn't really wild. But I can almost see an elf or a shapeshifter flitting between the trees here. I told my mum that, and she rolled her eyes at me and said: You and your imagination.

After twenty-eight years, you would think she'd be used to it by now.


The last picture I took before we left. You can't see them here, but as I took the photo there was a gust of wind and a shower of golden leaves came fluttering down. It was like something from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Gorgeous.

In other news, I saw the film Whalerider for the first time in full this weekend, and I think it might be one of my all-time favourite films. I also made my first Asian noodle soup from scratch (I'll use less chilli next time. My throat is still sore).

What did you guys do with your weekend?

MAKE OF IT WHAT YOU WILL

From the sublime (Wednesday's post) to the ridiculous (today's). Three hundred pages to go. I don't know. Just...glargh.

I'm off to my mum's house to cadge some coffee now. I may be some time...
 

BOOK ADDICT AND PROUD OF IT

So, yesterday I gave into temptation, blew my budget for the month and hopped on the train for another shopping spree in my nearby major city. My reasons for doing this were twofold:

Firstly, I had recieved a voucher for a third off a meal at Yo! Sushi, and I didn't feel I had done *quite* enough research on Japanese food to satisfy me (their katsu tiger prawns, by the way? Fantastic).

Secondly, I knew I had not done justice to the megahuge, fantastically stocked book shop. I mean, I had gone in and bought some books, yes. But they were books that I was already planning on buying - that's not the same thing. And it was near the end of my day and I was tired and my arms hurt from all the bags I had been dragging around with me (they have a Paperchase there too and I stocked up on notebooks. Lots of notebooks. Those beggers are heavy). I just wanted to get in and out and catch my train home.

However, long before I got home, I started having flashbacks to all those shelves of shiny new books that I had never even SEEN in real life before. I began to agonise over the glittering story gems I might have missed out on through my stupid and short-sighted failure to browse.

When I started having bad dreams about it? I knew enough was enough.

Am I saying that I spent a total of three hours on the train on Tuesday, just to be able to spend three hours in a bookshop, browsing? Yes. Yes, I am. And now I present to you the spoils of my book-stravaganza:

Shiiiiiny....   You're drooling right now, aren't you? It's okay. There's no shame in it. 

The thing that strikes me most, looking at all these books (aside from how much I am dying to read them) is how individual and beautiful they are. I've been seeing lots of blogs lately that complain all YA books look the same, that bland photo covers are taking over, and saying that the art of cover design is dead. Well, I admit there are a lot of paranormal romances with similar covers on the shelves right now, but...seriously? Have these guys SEEN the cover of Candor? Or Mercy, or Leviathan or Knife? Cover design is clearly alive and well.

Right now I'm reading Need by Carrie Jones and liking it on the whole. I'm hoping to squeeze in The Eternal Ones or possibly Spells by Aprilynne Pike before my copy-edits for Shadows arrive.

What book covers did you guys drool over most recently? What books did you pounce on in your local bookshop with a gleeful cry?

(Is it just me that does that? What about happy dancing in the YA section? Anyone? No? Ah, well.)

BEST AND WORST FIRST LINES

It's true, guys. The Pencils are out to get us...
Hello! Monday again (groan) but only three days until Friday (whee!).

Now, since I never seem to be able to participate in Road Trip Wednesday (the Blog Carnival on YA Highway) I've decided to just start stealing their topics at random. Mwaah-haa-haa! Ahem. No, really, I'm sure they wouldn't mind.

I'm particularly interested in first lines because I never seem to be able to start work on a book until the main character has 'spoken' the first line to me. I know this sounds weird. It IS weird. But that's just the way I roll. I can plan, plot, sketch character's faces, draw maps, use up whole pads of Post-Its, but until I 'hear' the character speak, I can't actually start the writing. For The Swan Kingdom, Alexandra piped up to tell me:

My first memory is of the smell of sunwarmed earth.

That line set the tone for the rest of the story, instantly showing me the dreamy, sensory 'voice' that I needed to get used to. It's a first line that, in a way, encapsulates the important themes of the book - a book about memories, about the earth and feeling a connection to it. And it's a sort of mirror image of the final line too, which is:

In the end, I know all will be well.

Coming up with the first line of Daughter of the Flames was a rather different experience. Having just finished TSK, I was trying to give myself some time off, but Zira (typically for her character, it turned out) was having none of that. She wanted her story told RIGHT NOW. And so she spoke in my ear:

I never knew my mother's name.

I mean, who could resist that? I started writing that day and six months later the book was finished. Once again, I see that in a strange way the first line is twinned with the last one, which is:  

My people.

The heroine has gone from being lost, not even knowing who she is, to having a perfect sense of her own identity and her place in the world. Looking at the first and last lines of my two upcoming books, I can see this bookend effect is something I apparently do all the time (without actually realising it before now!) but telling the first and last lines of Shadows on the Moon or FrostFire would be rather a spoiler, so I'll move on.

Although my first line is really important to me as a writer, I'm not sure first lines are as all important to the reader as some people seem to think. Very, very rarely do I read a first line and find myself utterly sucked into the narrative. The last time was Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolomore:

The audience didn't understand a word we sang.

I'm not really sure why that worked for me, it just did. However, because I'm aware that authors agonise over their first lines to the point of bleeding from their eyes, most of the time I tend to open books at a random page, somewhere in the middle, just to see what the writing is like when they've relaxed a bit. To me, that's the true test of the story. After all, you're not buying a book for a great first page, you're buying it for a great STORY.

That's not to deny that first lines do seem to make a big impression. Amazing first lines seem to enter the common vocabulary, even among those who've never read the book at all. Most people know the really famous ones, like the first lines of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen ("It is a truth universally acknowledged...") and Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier ("Last night I dreamt...") and A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens ("It was the best of times..."). But what about some modern YA ones?

Despite my well documented dislike for the Twilight books, I have to admit that the opening line of Stephenie Meyer's saga is pretty darn good:

I'd never given much thought to how I would die - though I'd had reason enough in the last few months - but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this.

Not PERFECT, mind. I reckon it would be a lot stronger if it just read:

I'd never given much thought to how I would die.

But still compelling, and definitely enough to get me to read on.

Meg Rosoff's debut YA novel How I Live Now , which is one of the most haunting books I've ever read, begins:

My name is Elizabeth, but no one's ever called me that.

A fantastic introduction to the main character's unconventional voice, and a line which tells you more about the story - with it's themes of alienation, loss and identity - than you can possibly realise at first. Another opening line which recently sent a shiver down my spine was:

Mommy forgot to warn the new babysitter about the basement.

*Shudder* That's from The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong, and, again, it warns you exactly what is coming up next. Spookiness. Lots of spookiness.

I personally think that the main purpose of that first line is to do exactly what Kelley Armstrong's line does, which is to make a promise to the reader about what kind of story is coming next. If you raise a question in your opening, you need to be sure that a) you answer it and b) that it's important to the story over all. By which I mean, not that you need to set your main conflict up right there in the first line, but that you need to understand what tone you're creating and what expectation you're raising. Let's say your first line is:

I never knew how much a dead goldfish stank until Mark Hinkey put one down the back of my shirt in biology.

If you story is going to be a snarky and hilarious contemporary story about school bullying, you're fine. If you story is going to be about an teenage outsider who is obsessed with death and figures out she can speak to ghosts, again, you're fine. If your story is going to be about a modern teen who falls in love with the school bully and has to figure out how to make it work, or how to let him go, fine.

If, on the other hand, your story is going to be a historical fantasy? This is a problem. But less obviously, if the story really has nothing to do with the school setting, if bullying is not a theme and never emerges again, if there's no grim, stinky-dead-goldfish undertone to the tale, then this opening line is not right. It's a great first line, but it's not setting up the right expectations for, say, a lyrical, dreamy story about a girl dealing with losing her sister to drowning. Just like:

Emma watched the sea turn to molten copper as the sun rose, the jagged rock spires casting black shadows onto the sand.

Is a nice opening line, but NOT for a hilarious and snarky story about contemporary bullying. Your first line, for me, is not just about trying to draw a reader in. It's about giving them some idea what they are going to get if they read on.

Now, given my title, I really need to 'fess up about my least favourite opening line that I've read recently - and it has to be the first line of Raised By Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes:

"Bronwyn Alessia St. Vincent Clare!"

I'm not one of those writers who gets all prescriptive about other people's work. I think almost anything can work, so long as it's done well. Open with weather! Open with a dream sequence! Do what makes you happy! But... this - this opening with the main character's name being shouted - is just so overused. And so inefficient. What do we get from it? Only the main character's (overlong, way-too-poetic-to-be-real) name, which could easily have been revealed to us a dozen other ways, and the fact that she's in trouble, in an 'Oh, look how CUTE, he uses her full name when he's cross!' sort of way.  It tells us nothing about the book's tone, setting or themes, and it's also misleading in terms of character - the person shouting is NOT cute, for a start. This is a rare case where the opening line nearly put me off reading the book completely.

What are you favourite, or most hated first lines? Or, if you're feeling daring, the first lines of your WIPs?

GLEEKED!

Wow, don't they make you want to run out and buy some really tight black pants this minute? No? Okay, just me then...

Well, Happy Friday, everyone. The first thing I need to do is to make a confession. I have been a bad author.

I know that I promised you reviews. Lots of reviews. I've read plenty of books, including an ARC of Afterlife by Claudia Gray, Wings by Aprilynne Pike, Dark Heart Forever by Lee Monroe and most of Delirium by Lauren Oliver. I know that I also promised to review Series One of The Vampire Diaries. And that's where the problem came up.

I was probably the biggest Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan in the world who did not live in Joss Whedon's house. But in recent years this huge surge of romantic, sparkling, brooding vampires clogging up the shelves and screens started to get on my nerves, as a result of which, I have been avoiding vampires of any description for some time. When I read on Sarah Rees Brennan's blog that Vampire Diaries was 'hilarible' (hilariously horrible) I decided to give it a try, just to see if it would refresh my palate a bit and allow me to enjoy the blood-suckers again. I thought it would be a cheesy, over-the-top, badly acted mess. And lo, the first few episodes kept me happily laughing and mocking. I fully intended to come here and snark about it for the entertainment of all.

And then it went and got all GOOD. Good in terms of writing and acting (though I still think Nina Dobrev looks about as much like a normal High School student as I do an international tennis player) and in terms of complex arcs that unfold in unexpected ways. Suddenly Vampire Diaries was going the sort of places that Buffy did, and even dipping its toes into areas Buffy did not dare to. But there was ONE VITAL DIFFERENCE. Humour. Buffy has my eternal devotion because no matter what, there was always a funny side. Vampire Diaries has very little humour amid the killings and suffering and angst and vampire boyfriends and angst and did I mention the ANGST? As a result, watching it rapidly made me feel very grim indeed.

It got to the point where I found myself sighing and groaning through most scenes. But I kept on watching, partly because I had promised you guys a review, and partly because I wanted to see what would happen with my favourite character (one of only two funny people in the show). Yes, he's the insanely hammy Spike-alike. Whatever, his performance made me smile.

And then he got his eyes goudged out by another vampire.  I was...not prepared for that.

So I thought to myself: Self, you did not sign up for this. You wanted giggles and nonsense. There is quite a lot of nonsense - like that outfit that the heroine is wearing right now! Good grief! - but very little giggles to be had in this show. Hence, this show is not fun anymore. Let's stop, Self, before you get so depressed you end up eating a whole packet of chocolate digestive biscuits in one go.

But by then it was too late. I was *already* so depressed that I wanted to eat a whole packet of chocolate biscuits in one go. And there is only one reliable cure for that.

Glee. The mad-cap, whacky US show about the shenanigans of a group of misfit (and yet somehow stunningly attractive and talented) school kids.

I told myself I would only watch one episode, but...anyone who's ever watched Glee will know how likely that sort of promise is to be kept. Basically, I spent the whole of today watching Glee, and I'm not sorry. I feel much better (and I also feel a strong desire to sing show tunes). But I wrote no reviews.

I beg your pardon. I'll try to get to them over the weekend.

Oh, and if anyone has any topics they'd like to see in the coming week - drop me a line in comments and I'll try my best to oblige.

MORE BLOGTASTIC REVIEWS!

Hello Readers! Today I bring you a review of Raised By Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes.
 
And a review of The Mermaid's Mirror by L.K. Madigan. 

I had planned to write a review of Aprilynne Pike's Wings - which I really enjoyed - too, but I didn't get around to it, so instead I bring you this article on bullying, which is made of awesomesauce with a side of awesome. However there is a LOT of adult language in this, so if you are under sixteen, you click at your own peril!
In other news, on Tuesday I went to Meadowhall (a special treat I had saved up for, to reward myself for finishing FF) and not only bought piles of new books, but also gorged myself at their new Sushi restaurant. I claim that this was research for my upcoming project featuring a modern Japanese heroine. Mind you, that book is not the next one I am working on. In fact, my next book is The Giant Killer Clockwork Preying Mantis Death Robot Book. So I might need to go back and refresh my memory again before I actually come to write that Japanese themed book. Hmmm...chicken katsu curry... 
Anyway, if anyone is ever in the vicinity of the Sushi Yo! at Meadowhall, I highly recommend a visit. What books are you all reading now, and are you enjoying them?

WEEK OF BLOGTASTIC REVIEWS!

Hello, faithful readers!

So, for anyone who didn't catch Friday's post, an update. I finished the first draft of FrostFire! While I'm aware this first draft pretty much sucks, it still makes me very happy. It also means I need to put that manuscript aside for a couple of weeks to mature (basically, to get some distance and objectivity back) before I start editing it and trying to get it into a state that won't embarrass me when I send it to my editor.

Here's something you may not have noticed about me: I'm kind of a writing addict (Oh, you had noticed that? What gave it away?). I don't mean that I'm the kind of person who rhapsodises non-stop about how wonderful it is to be a writer, or that I don't moan about it or find it really hard at times. I literally mean I AM ADDICTED.

In the past, when I was working four days a week at an office job, that kind of held my addiction in check because there are only so many hours in a day and I do need sleep like the next person. But since I lost my office job in April and became a full-time writer, there has been no barrier to me indulging my addiction every. Single. Day. And I have.

Whereas in the past I could go a week, even a few weeks, without writing, now it seems that the period I can abstain for has shrunk. And when I say 'shrunk', I mean 'disappeared'. I finished FF on Friday. I spent Saturday and Sunday reading, watching DVDs, shopping, taking my dog to the beach and the park, and cooking new dishes. Sounds great, right? And now it's Monday and I am *freaking out*. I feel ansty, restless, guilty and uptight and while I can temporarily assuage those feelings by writing this blog post, I can tell that it's not going to cut it for the next two weeks. Two days, guys. I can only go two days without writing before I get withdrawals. This writing life is some serious stuff.

And so, Dear Readers, you need to prepare yourself for the flood, nay, the deluge of reviews which are about to fill this blog. Because if I can't write a book, I can at least write lengthy and long-winded reviews. Yay!


First up, a review of UNEARTHLY, a book about angels from debut author Cynthia Hand. I got this as a digital ARC from NetGalley. I gave this one four stars.

Second, my review of FINDING SKY by Joss Stirling, a paranormal romance which I bought myself. This one is 3.5 stars.

Next up, I'll just toss in a review of BEAUTIFUL CREATURES by Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia which I actually wrote a while ago, because re-reading it just now made me laugh. I gave this book just one star.

Finally, under the cut is a post I wrote a couple of weeks ago and have been holding back on posting since. I'm not going to put this one up on Goodreads because the author is a 'friend' on there and that would shoot the review directly into her update box, which seems unnecessarily cruel. Follow the cut to read my review of ANGELFIRE by Courtney Allision Moulton.
Okay, first of all I have a confession to make. I have a rule. A rule that states, when I'm writing the first draft of a book, I don't get to read new books by other writers. I can re-read old favourites, but I can't read anything for the first time. This rule is mostly because I'm a compulsive reader and if the new book I pick up happens to be really good, I won't get any work done on my draft until I've finished the story. The drive to find out What Happens Next consumes my brain like a peckish zombie (Er...euw. Sorry).

And yet, when blogging friend Saya (of The Rockpool) told me about a way I could get my hands on an ARC of Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton, did I say: 'Thanks, I'll check that out once I've finished my first draft!'? No. No I did not. In fact, I think my exact words were: 'Woohoo! You beauty!' A digital copy was in my hands within a day, and I was overjoyed. I have been desperate to read this book ever since I first found CAM's website here. I thought the concept was breath-taking and heart-breaking. I could not wait. My rule went out the window.

Readers, I was justly punished.

I know there's an unspoken rule among published authors that we're not supposed to disrespect each others books in public. And I completely understand why certain authors won't talk about books they didn't like, only books they do - because we all know how much love and hard work goes into a book, even a book we don't like, and we all know how it feels to read a bad review. The thing is, this idea that it's somehow rude to be honest about the books we read is leading to a lot of dishonesty on sites like Goodreads, where authors will rate books they haven't even read at five stars because they don't want to offend the author, or the author's friends, or their agent or...well whatever.

At the base of it, though, the reason I wanted to be a writer was because I love books. Good books. And I want to get more of them on the shelves, even if I need to write them myself. I think I owe it to readers to be honest about what I like and don't like, so they can make up their own minds.
 
This was not an easy decision for me to make. Angelfire is not even published yet, and CAM is young, and this is her debut novel. But reading this book made me feel so disappointed and upset (yes, really upset) that I feel like I need to put the stuff that offended me out there so that others who might feel the same way as me know to steer clear.

So. Before I do anything else I am going to list the things I liked about this book, because I don't want these to get lost. I liked the weapons that the author utilized. I liked the idea that the heroine had been getting more and more human, and that although in this life her 'Guardian' was teaching and protecting her, in previous lives she had been the strong one, the protector. I liked the fact that she had hidden memories and skills, like being able to speak the language of angels, which are presumably meant to emerge in further books. I was intrigued by the 'Grim', although I'm still not entirely clear on how it works, since when you're inside it no one can see you, but you can see them and touch them. And I liked the spookiness of the creature in the Sacophagus, shrieking for the heroine.

Now for the stuff that stopped me from enjoying this book.

Firstly, let me just say that I am not a religious person. If pressed, I will usually say that I am agnostic, which means (my definition here) someone who does not rule out the importance of spiritual thought and study, but who is still questioning and learning and has not made their mind up to follow any definite school of religious practice yet.

Despite all this, Angelfire managed to offend me. I have no idea what this author's religious leanings are, but I honestly feel that whatever your personal beliefs, it is not right to trivialise the Christian faith - and important figures within it - the way this book does.

Perhaps the first problem is the main character of the story, Ellie. Ellie is depicted as an incredibly spoiled, shallow teen with very few positive qualities. She spends huge amounts of money without blinking - even getting a brand new car for her birthday - and expects the best treatment wherever she goes. Yet she remains convinced that her life is harder than anyone else's because her parent's marriage is in trouble, and her father is angry and verbally abusive.

I'm not saying that it's easy having a father who is verbally abusive, or watching your parent's marriage break up - believe me. However, to readers who grew up with problems like poverty, violent bullying, illness or disability, a physically abusive parent, or parents who didn't care at all, Ellie's life will certainly not seem to justify her level of self-pity, or the 'poor you!' attitude of the other characters. Ellie is rich and privileged and getting into college is a certainty. She is effortlessly beautiful and healthy, surrounded by devoted friends and has a mother who clearly worships her. In the middle of her supposedly arduous fight against evil, she finds it possible to party (and get drunk) several times with her friends, obsess over the male character because he will not do what she wants, eat at exclusive restaurants, and go on shopping sprees the like of which I have never experienced in my life. None of this fits with the divine being she supposedly is - in fact, she reads like a character from Gossip Girl.

If Ellie had grown and evolved over the course of the story (like, for example, a certain Buffy Summers) then all this could be forgiven. Instead, right from the start, everyone who isn't manifestly evil seems to adore Ellie and be convinced that she is special and wonderful. Her physical strength grows throughout the book - but it has no effect on her soul. She was not shown to have any underlying qualities of extraordinary bravery, intelligence, compassion or insight linked to the extraordinary person she is supposed to be. In fact, the only extraordinary qualities we see this character exhibit are those of physical strength. By the end of the story I was completely sick of her.
 
Next - and possibly the point that upset me the most - was the idea in this story that human souls can be abducted by 'Reapers' who take these souls to Hell and forcibly enroll them in Satan's army. It immediately struck me as very, very wrong within the context of the story. But like I said, I'm not an expert, so I spoke to a friend of mine who is an incredibly learned and devout Catholic - and the idea made her incredulous. Angelfire is supposed to be based on the Christian faith, and yet the very essence of that faith is the idea that humans have free will, that it is our sins and virtues, our choices, our ability to repent, that make us precious to God. The idea that a human soul can be...harvested...against it's will like that goes against the precise mythology that the book is trying to utilize.

The thing is, I understand that sometimes in fantasy you need to depart from source material. I could live with this idea IF the author had ever had one of the characters REALISE how utterly contradictory this is. If, at any point, someone had sighed wearily and said 'All that sin and virtue stuff - that's crap. With souls it's a matter of who can snatch them first...' But no one ever does. You know what it reminds me of, a bit? One of those manga/animes where the mangaka tries to depict the Catholic or Christian faith and just sort of misses several vital points in a way that makes the whole thing wonky. If you're going to mess with your source material, you need to acknowledge it. Otherwise I'm going to assume that you have no idea what you're doing, or how important the stuff you've discarded is to the faith you're using as a background.

I don't believe any of this was intentional on the author's part. I think the chances are she had no idea the messages she was inadvertently weaving into her story. I'm just surprised that her agent and editor didn't point them out and work with her to solve them.

In my writing group, we commonly mention the idea that an author who takes a really wonderful idea and wastes it is guilty of a worse crime than a writer who simply writes badly. That is what I feel happened in the case of Angelfire - a great idea, with so much potential, executed poorly. This was made all the more frustrating because in places I could see a very powerful visual imagination struggling to emerge. Really good editing would have made this book a lot better. And perhaps future installments in the trilogy will show an improvement, both in the quality of prose and the characterisation (I cringe over quite a lot of things in TSK and DotF, but I know that Shadows is better, and I hope future books will be better still).

When I read the next book by this author - which I feel, having written this review, I am bound to do - I'm crossing my fingers that it will not leave me feeling so let down, so frustrated and so close to tears of sheer disappointment.