Assaph Mehr's Blog, page 6

Book Review: Dragonfired (The Dark Profit Saga #3, by J. Zachary Pike)

I’ve enjoyed the first two parts of this trilogy (Orconomics and Son of a Liche), and was eagerly looking forward to the grand finale.

What to Expect

Pike started the Orconomics series as a deep satire, on both fantasy and economics. This continues in this vein, though the focus shifts more toward the epic (which the bard of the group keeps saying, so you’ve been warned :).

It’s still a brilliant story, exploring both funny fantasy economics and deep societal issues of injustice, pr...

Book Review: Split the Party, by Drew Hayes

Though it’s been a while since I read the first book of this series, I was in the mood for some light entertainment and this fit perfectly.

What to Expect

Another D&D-ish adventure for the band of heroes, this one leading them to chase an evil artifact that a whole town into zombies. Naturally, they end violating the cardinal gaming rule of ‘never split the party’ as they chase evil priests, fight bandits, and explore mysterious ruined catacombs. At the background, a group of ‘our-worl...

Reflections of 2023

My last post every year is about reflections of the year just passed, and the tone I hope for the coming one. This past year has been… eventful.

And not always in a good way. I’ve learned a lot, but many were the days where I was wishing life would finish up with the lessons and let me just get on with the basics. Y’know, like a lunch break at the school of hard knocks.

Anyway, here’s the good, bad, and ugly of 2023, and my hopes — including book news — for 2024.

The Go...

Book Review: Something from the Nightside, by Simon R. Green

A bit of a twist on the paranormal detective, a genre which I generally like.

What to Expect

What starts as a noir detective quickly moves into a bizarre world, more Alice in Wonderland on a bad acid trip than your typical paranormal detective. As the blurb says, John Taylor isn’t really a detective, just a man with a strange gift to find things. When a woman hires him to find her daughter, it naturally takes him to his shady past and even shadier alter-world behind London from which h...

History and Use of Roman Numerals

While digging around my hard-drive, I found this old meme someone sent me ages ago. Naturally, I wanted to share the chuckles with you, my loyal Felix fans!

But with my son learning about Roman numerals and me editing In Victrix (and making sure chapter numbers are correct), I thought it a great opportunity to delve into the history and usage of this system.

So buckle up! I assume you’re familiar with the basics, but this is going to be a deep rabbit hole.

The Writing and Origin...

Book Review: This is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

This novel was all the rage a while ago, with rave reviews and an interesting premise. Took a while, but I was in the mood for something different.

What to Expect

A literary work on a sci-fi backdrop, telling a romance. It’s an epistolary novel, told in the exchange of letters between two operatives – known only as Red and Blue – from opposing factions fighting a war across time. Taunts turn to understanding turn to love, with the expected complications from their nebulous masters.

...

The Who, the How, and the Why of Literary Murder

While I was rereading my own novels as a prelude to finishing In Victrix, I was reminded of an old adage about genres:

Mystery is solving a crime, while thriller is racing to prevent the crime. Horror is watching the crime happen

(If anyone knows the origins of this quote, please tell me!)

We are also well conditioned by now about crimes, murder is particular, needing means, motives, and opportunities to prove. We’re used to out detective struggling with questions of How, Who, and Wh...

Book Review: Thraxas and the Warrior Monks, by Martin Scott

It’s, err… been a while since I read the first Thraxas novel. I did enjoy it, but didn’t get to the rest of the series till now. Still, the time is right for a quick and fun read.

What to Expect

Another case – actually several, interconnected – for our grumpy investigator. He just wants to escape the summer heat and have a beer, but clients keep dragging him away to look at anything from murder to talking dolphins. Things generally go downhill from there, to an explosive showdown befor...

Re-reading one’s own works

As mentioned in a previous post (the one with cats), in an effort to restart my writing habit and complete In Victrix I have re-read all my previous works. The idea is to get back into the world, and ensure a smooth continuations (culmination?) of the series.

Below are some observations, for the benefit of readers, authors, and my future self.

Gremlins

The books have been edited and proof-read repeatedly by professional editors. Also, close friends and random people pointed out typo...

Life and Sudden Death

There’s a meme that’s been going around for a few years, about the cast of a man who died in Pompeii at the 79CE eruption of Mt Vesuvius. Pundits are quick to point at the posture, with a “haha, he died with a bang!” and other jokes about his own eruption.

The reality is that the man’s posture is an artefact of tendons contracting violently in the wake of the pyroclastic surge. When temperatures suddenly reached 500°c (930°f) water boiled away from soft tissue and caused the contorted pos...