Suneé le Roux's Blog, page 3

Looking Ahead to 2023

As always, the new year fills me with hope and anticipation. I make my todo lists diligently, and I cross off everything I accomplished during the past year with a sense of achievement (while trying not to feel too bad about the things that didn’t get done). This year is no different, but what I’ve learned during 2022 is to be kind to myself. I still have the drive to get things done, but if they don’t – or if I have to move them out a month or two or three – then that’s also fine. The important things will get done on time, and the rest will get their turn when I have the bandwidth for them.

Janus, Roman god of doorways | Adolphe Giraldon, Wikimedia Commons

So, let’s see how things went with the writerly goals I set for myself for 2022. I divided them into primary and secondary goals, just to give myself some breathing room.

2022 Primary GoalsComplete Mythical Menagerie Series 2 and publish by June 2022 (or as close to as possible)

Yes! But also no! I finished the last instalment to go into Book 2 in mid-December (phew) and it’s currently with the beta readers. Having a June 2022 release would have meant compromising on the quality of the story, and I wasn’t willing to do that.

Continue writing a monthly flash fiction piece

Yes! My newsletter subscribers received a very short story every month this year (with one exception – the month in which the new collection was published).

2022 Secondary GoalsComplete 1 standalone short story / novella

No! I tried – sort of – by attempting NaNoWriMo (again!) and failing miserably at it (again!), but I decided the most important thing this year was to finish MM Book 2. Now that that’s done, I can revisit this goal.

Publish a second Reverie Spark flash fiction collection

Yes! The second book in my flash fiction series, A Flight of Reverie, was published at the end of October!

Publish one product for my PIP project

Nope. This goal fell away to make headspace for getting MM Book 2 done.

Continue blogging on my author website (when I have something interesting to say)

Not even a little bit! I was too busy working on MM Book 2 to worry about writing blog posts!

Revive blogging on my travel website (and bring the fun back)

Sort of. I did write a few blog posts in an attempt to document our Balkan Camping 2019 trip, but those posts have been few and far between, unfortunately. I also found it very hard to remember the trip – it’s been 3.5 years already! – and I had even less inspiration to write about travel when I didn’t have any travel prospects in sight.

Continue consuming non-fiction for inspiration (not limited to books)

Yes! I read 12 non-fiction books this year (and countless magazines). I’ll be changing this goal for 2023, though. Although I do enjoy reading non-fiction, I’ve realised that most of my story sparks come from shorter pieces, such as articles in the National Geographic or NG History magazines that I’m subscribed to. Therefore, I’m setting myself a different writerly reading goal for 2023.

All in all, I don’t think it went too badly this year. My primary goals were accomplished, and I even achieved some of my secondary goals. Additionally, I also did the following in 2022:

My Facebook following grew from 100 to 137 followersMy Instagram following grew from 198 to 282 followersI completed a Social Media Marketing course on LinkedIn LearningI took a year of beginner French classesI created 4 travel photo books and we went on 8 local South African family vacation tripsI read 48 books

I mixed some pleasure with the business of writing there, but it all goes towards filling the creative well and helps to keep me sane and influences my writing.

So these are my primary writerly goals for 2023:

Publish Mythical Menagerie Book 2Write and edit 2 instalments for Mythical Menagerie Book 3Create a Mythical Menagerie story bibleWrite a monthly flash fiction piece

As secondary goals, I have the following:

Write and publish 1 standalone short story / novellaGrow my email (263), Facebook (137) and Instagram (282) followingComplete the Balkan Camping 2019 posts on my travel blogComplete the Maggie Stiefvater writing courseRead John Truby’s Anatomy of Story (affiliate link)Read John Truby’s Anatomy of Genre (affiliate link)Read 12 classics

I’m ready for 2023! Let’s make our dreams reality!

How did you do with the goals you set for yourself for 2022? What is the one thing you HAVE to achieve in 2023?

My 2022 in Books

Before writers ever put pen to paper, they fall in love with stories by reading. Although I definitely think of myself as a writer, I’m a reader first and foremost. And everything I read shape the stories I write. So let’s have a look at what I filled my head with this year.

(PS: If any of these books interest you, please consider using my affiliate links. They won’t cost you any extra, but I will get a small commission to fuel my book-reading habit. Thanks!)

Books on Writing and Marketing

I’ll always try and up my writing skills, but I’ve made a deliberate decision to read less about writing and to write more instead. Intuitive Editing turned out to be a fantastic read, and I would highly recommend it to any writers out there, no matter where you’re at in your writing journey. The Negative Trait Thesaurus is also a pretty handy resource. I was incredibly excited to learn more about writing short stories, but unfortunately Taking the Short Tack, although great if you’re fresh into writing, didn’t teach me anything new.

Other Non-Fiction BooksRemasterDirector_V0

This year, I challenged myself again to read 12 non-fiction books. Some of them were fairly disappointing, while others were absolutely fantastic.

I loved Jane Austen’s World, a gorgeous coffee table book that managed to give just enough information about the Regency period to entertain rather than bore. Likewise, The Great-Scientists in Bite-Sized Chunks was a short and succinct overview of the most important scientific minds since people had time to think about things (and it even sparked one of my favourite flash fiction stories this year) and if classic world exploration is more your thing, The Book of Marvels was just as delightful. If you’re a tree hugger like me, then you should definitely get your hands on a copy of Into the Forest as well! For Tolkien fans, The Song of Middle-Earth gives some great insights into the themes of his beloved tales. And lastly, Simon Reeve’s memoir, Step by Step, was just riveting.

Books that were Okay

Meh. Most of these books were fine, but just not enough to get me excited. I liked the short stories in the Sticky Fingers 2 collection, but the endings of most of them fell flat for me and left me unsatisfied, unfortunately. And although I really like Neil Gaiman the writer, I just don’t care much for his stories. Likewise, all the other books in this group fell short of my expectations in one way or another. I’m sure there are people who loved them, but they just weren’t for me.

Books that I Liked

If you enjoy literary Gothic or atmospheric books then Pandora and The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock won’t disappoint. I actually also quite enjoyed The Great Gatsby (although I think the movie was better – I know, sacrilege!). However, my favourites in this category are hands-down A Darker Shade of Magic and Rivers of London, both of which are series starters but can be read as standalones. One day I might take them up on that promise.

Books that I Loved

It’s not often that this category contains the most books! I discovered JA Andrews this year and went on a little reading binge: I actually started with her epic fantasy prequel series, The Keeper Origins, and was hooked from the start. Then I moved on to her first fantasy series, The Keeper Chronicles, and I loved them just as much, and then I ended off the year with her Christmassy short story, The Candlelight Gifts.

After many years of them moving up my TBR pile, I finally also read The Winternight Trilogy, fantasy based on Russian mythology. It started off very slow for me, and I nearly put the first book down after an arranged marriage, but I’m so glad I persevered! The series as a whole was amazing, and I really want my own Solovey!

But my absolute favourite books this year were The Witch’s Heart (a feminist retelling of Norse mythology from a lesser known character), The Keeper of Lost Things (so cosy and feel-good), and Ninth House (gritty and dark and delicious!), with book of the year going to The House in the Cerulean Sea (cosy and feel-good, but with fantasy and myths – what more could a girl want?!). You should read all of them!

You can also have a look at 2021’s books here.

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? What was your favourite book of 2022? Do you have any recommendations for books I should read in 2023?

What I’m Currently Working On: Drinking a Celebratory Milkshake

Wow, it’s been a while since I wrote one of these posts! The last time I was busy plotting Book 2 of my Mythical Menagerie series, and a year or so later I was feeling overwhelmed and decided to hone everything down to just the most important bare bones.

And today, I’m drinking a celebratory milkshake (well, technically a celebratory chocolate Steri Stumpie, because I happened to have one in the fridge!). Because, dear friends, today I finally finished the second draft of the last instalment going into Book 2!

I won’t lie, it’s been a slog. In my previous post I’d said I wanted to have six instalments for Book 2, but then plot things happened and cliffhanger endings presented themselves and one thing led to another and the last instalment grew to a monstrous 43k plus word count – and now we have a book!

(And I apologise profusely upfront for the cliffhangers, but it will al be worth it in the end, I promise!)

Technically, I’m not 100% finished. I want to take this last story through another round of edits, just to make sure the pacing is fine and I have all my facts straight and there aren’t any awkward phrases lurking about. Then, I’ll send it off to my betas (two of which happen to be editors as well) for feedback, which I’ll work into the final edits. And then I’ll work through all everything going into Book 2 to make sure it’s all coherent.

And then! Then the publishing phase starts. Exciting!

So, if all goes well, we’re looking at a publication date early March 2023 (cue fanfare!).

I’ll start with Draft 3 tomorrow, but for now, I’m just savouring this victory. And this chocolate milkshake!

I think celebrating the victories, no matter how small, is incredibly important. What do you do to celebrate your achievements?

Release Day: A Flight of Reverie

As it turns out, if you write a monthly flash fiction story for your email subscribers, sooner or later you’ll have enough stories for a new collection. That new collection is called A Flight of Reverie and is now available in e-book format from all your favourite online retailers!

This collection contains twenty deliciously dark and dreamy micro fiction stories just long enough to read while you’re waiting for the kettle to boil or the microwave to ping. Ranging from around 500 to 1000 words each, these very short tales are brief but satisfying, and will sweep you away for just a moment at a time.

Will Flavian, paparazzi to the gods, finally do the right thing in Flavian’s Redemption?Meet the most ferociously adorable predator in Jodi’s Cat.A hunter corners a blood witch in Hunted¸ but should he show her mercy? In Don’t Touch My Cheese, John confronts a stranger rummaging through his fridge.See what happens when an agoraphobic genie is summoned in Careful What You Wish For.Christmas will never be the same when Nic’s New Year’s Resolution changes everything.

Follow along on these and many more flights of fancy and buy this fantasy flash fiction collection NOW!

Looking Ahead to 2022

Naively, I thought 2021 was going to be the year in which I made up for 2020… but that didn’t happen. I was fairly on track during the first half of the year, until I got a case of the plague (over my birthday, no less!) and since then, not a lot as happened (and we won’t talk about the train-wreck December has been!) Thinking about it now, I probably still have post-Covid fatigue, six months later, and I should probably be a little easier on myself. It’s been a tough year, in many ways much worse than 2020 ever was, and I think we all deserve to cut ourselves some slack.

Janus, Roman god of doorways | Adolphe Giraldon, Wikimedia Commons

But, as ever, I am optimistic about 2022. Once the sun rises on that first January morning, the air will be fresh with possibilities again, and we can once again aim for the stars.

But first, let’s have a look at the writerly goals I had set for myself for 2021, and how many of them, if any, I managed to achieve.

Primary Goals for 2021Complete and edit the rest of the Mythical Menagerie Series 2

Nope. I’m about 50% through, and with a self-imposed publication deadline of June 2022, I’d better pull my socks up.

Write and publish at least 1 standalone short story / novella

Nope. I planned three short stories, wrote the first draft of one of them, and realised that all this was doing was just distracting me from my main goal, which is getting MM2 out.

Create at least 1 product for my (super-secret) PIP project

Nope. PIP1 is stuck at around 70% at the moment, just needing some creative flourishes and final touches before it’s ready to get published.

Continue writing a monthly flash fiction piece

Yes! I didn’t write a piece every month, but some months I wrote more than one, so it all evened out.

Read 12 non-fiction books

Yes! I read 15 non-fiction books, and 4 on writing and marketing.

Secondary Goals for 2021Grow my email (380), Facebook (100) and Instagram (198) following

Kinda. I culled my email list to remove some people who never opened anything I sent them, and decided not to put too much effort into growing it again until I have more to offer to potential readers. So my email list is down to 288 subscribers at the moment, but my Facebook followers stand at 111 people, and Instagram at 227 followers.

Continue blogging on my author website

Nope. I wrote a piece here and there, but my aim with this goal was to write something on a weekly basis, and I definitely didn’t do that.

Continue blogging on my travel website

Nope. It’s hard to be enthusiastic about travel when you’re stuck at home.

Additionally:

I completed a Udemy course on Content Marketing.I completed a Udemy course on Affinity Publisher for Beginners.I read 66 books.

So, all in all not a great year for achieving goals.

Unsurprisingly, this year’s goals therefore look much the same. My primary writerly goals are:

Complete Mythical Menagerie Series 2 and publish by June 2022 (or as close to as possible)Write a monthly flash fiction piece

And that’s it! If I can get those two things done, I’ll be happy.

But if time and energy allows, here are my secondary goals:

Complete 1 standalone short story / novellaPublish a second Reverie Spark flash fiction collectionPublish one product for my PIP projectContinue blogging on my author website (when I have something interesting to say)Revive blogging on my travel website (and bring the fun back)Continue consuming non-fiction for inspiration (not limited to books)

I’m confident 2022 will be a better, more productive, happier year. Of course, I say this every year and every year there are still many nopes on my to-do list. But I believe we have to set ourselves goals or the year (years, your life!) flies by with absolutely nothing to show for it. And nobody wants that.

Do you set yourself goals for the new year? Did you achieve your goals for 2021? What are your goals for 2022?

My 2021 in Books

You know the old adage “you are what you eat?”, right? Well, books are food for the mind, so they shape the way you think. They allow you to live vicariously through the good and bad experiences of the characters, they present you with places and ideas new to you, and they broaden your horizons. This year, my thoughts were shaped by 66 books, most of which I thoroughly enjoyed.

(PS: If any of these books interest you, please consider using my affiliate links. They won’t cost you any extra, but I will get a small commission to fuel my book-reading habit. Thanks!)

Books on Writing and Marketing

This year I decided I needed to read less about writing and actually write more instead, so there aren’t many books in this category. The two craft books were tremendously insightful: Fight Write is a great resource for anyone writing fight scenes, and I cannot recommend Creating Character Arcs enough for any budding writers out there.

Other Non-Fiction Books

I set myself the challenge to read 12 non-fiction books again this year, and I managed to squeeze 15 in. The idea behind this challenge is that non-fiction inspires me and broadens my mind. Unfortunately, I fell into a bit of a self-help trench which, although interesting and useful, didn’t really do much for kick-starting story ideas. Nevertheless, there were some fantastic reads this year.

I read Always Italy during the week after my birthday, when I was stuck in a room on my own isolating after a bout of Covid-19, and it was just the most wonderful way of escaping (read my review here). I also really enjoyed Walking the Nile for its insights into the history of the more war-torn parts of my home continent. In the self-help section, honourable mention goes to both Atomic Habits and Twelve Rules for Life, the one tremendously applicable and the other thought-provoking.

Books I read for Nostalgia

The Lennet series of books were childhood favourites of mine and I have been buying their first (and only) editions from bidding websites as they become available. These two are pretty rare, so I was very chuffed to find them. Only one more to go to have the complete collection!

Books that were Okay

I’m a huge fan of Joanna Penn, but I am not her target audience. I keep reading her books because I like to support her, and because she loves to travel as much as I do, and her books are all deeply inspired by archaeological relics that fascinate me, but I am just not in love with her characters or writing style, sad to say. The other books in this list all fell short of my expectations in one way or another. I’m sure there are people who loved them, but they just weren’t for me.

Books that I Liked

Unsurprisingly, this category has the most entries and they are all books that I would recommend one way or another. Firm favourites were the King of Scars duology, as well as The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo, and Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. If you enjoy gaslamp urban fantasy then you’ll love Suzannah Rowntree’s Miss Sharp’s Monsters series, or if you prefer historically accurate drama with a dash of the supernatural, then her Watchers of Outremer books will also delight. Surprisingly enjoyable indie author contributions include Nils Odlund’s Emma’s Story, Once Upon a Short Story by AG Marshall and the Mapweaver Chronicles by Kaitlin Bellamy.

Books that I Loved

I recommend every book in this list! Lore was a fabulously fun take on the Greek myths, The Once and Future Witches is a feminist triumph, and The Ten Thousand Doors of January a delightfully unusual portal fantasy. I devoured P Djeli Clark’s urban fantasy detective series set in 1920s Cairo, starting with the short story A Dead Djinn in Cairo and culminating in the full-length novel, A Master of Djinn. But my absolute favourite series this year was Neal Shusterman’s Arc of a Scythe series – go read it!

You can also have a look at 2020’s books here.

Which book did you enjoy the most in 2021? Which of the books I’ve read have you also read – and what did you think of them? Do you have any recommendations that I have to add to my TBR pile for 2022?

To Reread or Not to Reread

There was a time when I read nothing new. I had a few favourite books that I would systematically reread each year, and I was quite content with that. I was wrapped in a warm bubble of comfort reads, blissfully ignorant of anything new being published while I stuck with my familiar favourites.

Book love | © Kate Ter Haar / Flickr

But people kept on asking me if I’d read X or what I thought of Y and, I won’t lie, I started suffering from a serious case of FOMO. It was time for me to let Frodo go and embark on a new adventure, one that might sadly not live up to my expectations, but that might just surprise me.

And as I started reading some of these recommended books, albeit years later than their release dates in most cases, I realised that life’s too short to be rereading the same books over and over again. Over 2 million new books were published in 2020 alone (including mine!), and although only a few those appeal to me, and an even smaller number of them are so good that they mess with my sleeping patterns, I just can’t see myself falling back into that habit of rereading books I’ve read before.

But last month, I reread Dune (because I wanted a refresher before I saw the movie at the cinema). I remember liking it as a teenager – and I have paperback copies of the first four books on my bookshelf to prove it – but this time around? I feel kind of meh about it. The world has evolved since this novel rocked the sci-fi scene in 1965. I’m sure it was groundbreaking then, and there is an element of the timeless classic to it, but as a modern reader, I found it problematic and, even worse, boring.

The same happened a few years ago when I reread The Belgariad series by David Eddings, one of my all-time favourites. These books were the reason I started writing in the first place, but now I see so many issues with them and I don’t think they’ve aged well at all. I didn’t even go on to reread The Mallorean. Some books, it seems, are only meant to be remembered fondly.

It’s not all bad, though. The Lord of the Rings still holds up for me, and although I despised To Kill a Mockingbird when they made me read it in school, I loved it as an adult. And of course, you can never go wrong with Jane Austen!

So, here’s my question to you, dear reader: do you reread books? If you do, which ones have disappointed you later in life, and which ones have stood the test of time? What do you think makes a timeless classic? Please let me know in the comments below!

PS: This post contains affiliate links. They don’t cost you any extra, but they’ll fund my reading addiction if you choose to buy something with them.

My Thoughts on No Time to Die

When we heard that the last James Bond film with Daniel Craig in the titular role would be showing at our local cinema, I reluctantly agreed to a movie marathon. “Just the Daniel Craig movies!” I insisted. Life’s too short to re-watch the entire franchise, especially some of those older, campy installments.

And so, for 5 nights over two weekends we watched 007 grow from naïve recruit in Casino Royale to embittered revenge-seeker in Quantum of Solace to disillusioned company-man in Skyfall and unsanctioned rogue hunter in Spectre, culminating in his final appearance in the latest movie, No Time to Die.

When you follow a character’s life story in such a short timeframe, you inevitably become quite attached to them, even if you’re not really that big a fan of the genre. What I enjoyed about these Bond movies is that they have an overarching storyline, and we see Bond mature from a rash and brash killer into someone who suffers both physically and emotionally because of the life he’s chosen to lead. Aside from all the explosions, million-dollar car crashes and high body count, these films are really just about a guy looking for love and life handing him lemons instead.

SPOILERS FOR NO TIME TO DIE BELOW – READ AT YOUR OWN PERIL!

Stoic, suave, sophisticated… sad?

No Time to Die will not disappoint Bond fans. It checks all the expected boxes and doesn’t disappoint if you’re looking for excitement and thrills. The locations are gorgeous, and the story is intriguing and, as a final installment, it provides closure to a main character who has grown and suffered much during five movies.

However, I left the cinema feeling disappointed.

After a heartbreaking and nearly lethal breakup, Bond goes dark and loses his 00-status to a new agent. Nomi, the new 007, is sassy, arrogant, and can kick a whiny scientist off a platform like a pro. And yet, she doesn’t even come close to filling Bond’s shoes. I feel like they did her character a disservice. She’s always one step behind Bond and, at the end, is sent off in the lifeboat with the women and children, instead of staying to help save the day. She would have been so much more effective as Bond’s replacement if they’d given her more agency and let her help him more, perhaps even changing the outcome of his last fight. Whether they plan on keeping Nomi as the new 007 in future reboots, I don’t know, but at this point she seems less capable than the cute Cuban agent who’d had three weeks’ training. As it stands, it seems like she was never meant to live up to the alpha male she’s supposed to replace – which is fair enough for Bond, but doesn’t leave us with a lot of hope for MI6’s future.

As the mother of a 5-year-old, I watched the latter half of the movie in a state of constant dread. I kept fearing something awful was going to happen to that little girl, but thank goodness, they never went there. It was bad enough that we had to see how a young Madeleine had to deal with her mother’s murderer.

One of the movie’s themes is how the death of a parent affects children. Bond lost both his parents when he was young; Madeleine lost her mother as a child, Blofeld murdered his own father at a young age, and Lyutsifer (the principal antagonist of this film) lost his entire family as a child. None of them handled it very well: Blofeld became the megalomaniac head of a worldwide terror syndicate, Lyutsifer attempted to exterminate large swathes of the human population while creeping the hell out of little girls, and Bond left a trail of bodies and seduced women in his wake. Madeleine is the only exception, and there is hope that her little girl will have a more stable childhood, despite the death of her father.

And lastly, let’s talk about the thing that upset me the most in this film…

I often get emotional when movies have sad endings, but it’s not every day that I walk out of a cinema bawling. Why couldn’t they just have given this character his happily ever after?

There is a trend in storytelling that a bad guy who redeems himself must die in the attempt – think Kylo Ren or, more recently, Xu Wenwu (Shang-Chi’s father in Chang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings). And I get it. I mean, they’ve committed so many atrocities, there’s no way they can live a normal happy and guilt-free life after they’ve finally seen the light. It’s better for them to die and leave the audience morally satisfied, even if a little sad at what could have been.

Bond, although a heroic character, is a killer, no doubt about that. He even calls himself that when asked what his occupation is. So how does someone like him suddenly settle down with a wife and child into a happy a suburban life? Can Bond even exist like that? Does he deserve that?

I think he does. And I think after all he’s been through, it would have been a fitting reward for a man who had given his all for queen and country. If the excuse is that his family would never have been safe with him around – I call bullshit. The only one who ever went after him personally was his adopted brother, Blofeld – and he’s dead, along with everyone else who ever worked for him. If Bond were to retire, I think the world’s collective bad guys would leave him be and go after the new 007 instead.

In the second-last scene, M talks about a life lived well – and again I call bullshit. Bond was never more than briefly happy. In his action-packed life, he watched everyone he cared for die violently. He had some short-lived contentment with Madeleine, until they became estranged because of their mutual trust issues, and apparently no one can listen to someone else explain anything either. It saddens me so much to think that so many years were wasted, for nothing, and that when Bond finally has a chance at happiness, at a life worth living well, it gets taken away from him for the sake of a spectacular ending.

He didn’t need redemption. He needed restitution.

And I think James Bond deserved better.

What are your thoughts? Did you enjoy this movie? Is there something you would have changed too?

My Thoughts on Masters of the Universe: Revelation

As a child of the 80s, I grew up watching He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and it was, along with Gummi Bears, my favourite show. I didn’t have any of the figurines to play with and it was always a treat to visit a friend who did. We’d make up stories where He-Man and his team always defeated Skeletor and his bad guys. I never missed an episode if I could help it, and when we finally had a VCR I recorded as much of it as I could so that I could watch it over and over again until those old Beta tapes needed to be rewound manually.

What was it about He-Man that I enjoyed so much when I was in my pre-teen years? As an adult today, I would say it was the sense of wonder I had in a world in which magic and technology co-existed, the adventures with a character who shed his vulnerable persona to become the strongest man in the universe, and the female warrior fighting by his side. Ultimately, these were stories of hope: hope that we could be heroes too and the knowledge that good will always vanquish evil.

This new incarnation of the series gives me none of that.

[Spoilers for the first series of Masters of the Universe: Revelation follow.]

Although Masters of the Universe: Revelation had lured me in with nostalgia, I expected modern computer-generated animation to go with a plot that would be updated for a contemporary audience, but that would still follow the general principles that had made the original series so great. Instead, the animation has that same 80s retro feel, but the story is most definitely a thing of the 2020s. If you’re looking for hope here, you’re in the wrong place.

In the very first episode, He-Man is killed. Many of the series’ negative critique is based upon the premise that the hero everyone expected the story to revolve around is now gone, and instead we have a disillusioned Teela as the main character. I think that’s a valid response and doesn’t necessarily need to indicate misogynistic viewership. I get that women and LGBTQ+ characters were minoritized previously and that the scales need to be rebalanced, but does this need to happen at the cost of established stories? Why can’t He-Man remain the hero, especially in this day and age where white men are vilified at every opportunity? Surely straight white boys also deserve someone to look up to? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to keep He-Man as the main character, but stripped of the patriarchal biases of a bygone era and equipped with more modern values?

As shocking as He-Man’s death was, I continued watching because the story question intrigued me: what would happen to Eternia if He-Man died? I was willing to accept Teela as our MC, but the way her character was handled turned me off from the start. Her overreaction at the revelation of He-Man’s secret identity was too melodramatic, and her choice to reject her friends and family and run off to become a coin-grabbing mercenary made no sense. Writers these days seem to think that a strong female character is one that has biceps the size of He-Man’s thighs and a fondness for punching everyone who gets in her way. Instead, I would have liked to see her fill the hole left by He-Man’s demise and become the hero the people need in this time of crisis. I would have her prove that evil can still be defeated without a god-complex and with the support of friends and family. Instead, they gave her an edgy haircut and a chip on her shoulder.

Just as disappointing was Evil-Lyn’s character arc. She joins the band of reluctant heroes and proves herself trustworthy time and again – even if this is only for selfish reasons as she fights to get her own power back. She is often introspective and at one point openly questions her life decisions, regretting the fact that she had chosen to become Skeletor’s henchman rather than trying to seize the power to become a Master of the Universe herself. As she grudgingly becomes friends with the band of misfit heroes, there is even hope that she might do better in future. This hope is killed as soon as Skeletor is revived. Let’s face it – I never expected her to give up her evil ways, but after the journey she’d been on, I was hoping she’d cast him aside to become a full-scale villain in her own right. Perhaps turn the tables even more and have him be her lackey for a while as he slowly regains his powers. Alas, it seems like women who are not leading ladies are forever destined to stand in a man’s shadow.

Another concept that had potential to be really interesting but failed epically was Triclops’ technocult. It makes sense that a world suddenly bereft of magic would turn to technology for salvation. What doesn’t make sense is the magical elixir that acolytes need to drink to transform them into crazed cyborgs. Apart from the logical flaw, why would anyone even do that? What do they gain from this? And what does it add to the story? As far as I can tell, this cult only exists to show up at inconvenient moments and get dismembered during last-minute rescues. They have no motivation of their own, nothing they’re trying to achieve, and were probably just added for cool-factor.

And finally, let’s get to Adam. He-Man dies in a blaze of exploding magic and Adam is sent to Preternia, also known as Heaven in this series. This is a physical place exclusively set aside for dead heroes of the Sword of Power (I think, there’s an unintelligible Sorceress in there too). Teela and the gang find Adam there and paint a picture of the post-magic world that convinces him he needs to go back to the land of the living. The other dead heroes warn Adam that if he dies again, he will not be returned to Preternia, but will die a true death like any other mortal. And because Adam is a genuine hero, he doesn’t let that stop him. He goes back, and is promptly killed (maybe) by a revived Skeletor. At this point, I was ready to fling my phone across the room. There are countless ways in which Skeletor’s rise to power could have been achieved without this bookend death. The previous two episodes also ended in the death of beloved characters, and although theirs were sacrifices made to save their friends, Adam’s death was pure shock value.

In the 80s, each story ended with victory and hope for a better future, and maybe it was the retro animation that tricked me into thinking it could also end with that happy moral here. 

But I guess in 2021 we can’t expect the same, can we?

Masters of the Universe: Revelation left me disillusioned, disgruntled, and disinterested. I doubt I’ll watch the second series. I have no hope of it being any better than the first.

Have you seen this new series yet? What did you think of it? Did you love it or hate it?

Eight of My Very Favourite Mainstream Fantasy Reads

When you read a good book, you want the whole world to know about it and read it too. The books on this list are all relatively well-known already, but I loved them so much that I’m here to tell you the hype is all true and that you should definitely bump them up higher on your TBR pile.

The Final Empire (Mistborn Series) – Brandon Sanderson

An intriguing concept and a compelling magic system. This is the series that introduced Sanderson to me and I’ve never looked back.

For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the “Sliver of Infinity,” reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler’s most hellish prison. Kelsier “snapped” and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark.

Kelsier recruited the underworld’s elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Only then does he reveal his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot.

But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel’s plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she’s a half-Skaa orphan, but she’s lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets, and gotten it. She will have to learn to trust, if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed.

This saga dares to ask a simple question: What if the hero of prophecy fails?

The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle) – Patrick Rothfuss

One day Rothfuss will write the third book in this series and I’ll be able to die contentedly, but for now, I reread the first two books sporadically to keep them fresh in my mind so that I’m ready when that promised day comes.

“I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.

My name is Kvothe.
You may have heard of me.”

So begins the tale of Kvothe – currently known as Kote, the unassuming innkeeper – from his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, through his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-riddled city, to his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a difficult and dangerous school of magic. In these pages you will come to know Kvothe the notorious magician, the accomplished thief, the masterful musician, the dragon-slayer, the legend-hunter, the lover, the thief and the infamous assassin.

Shadow and Bone (The Shadow and Bone Trilogy) – Leigh Bardugo

For everyone jumping on the Netflix bandwagon, I read this series long before it was cool (I can also say that about Game of Thrones, by the way). It’s a coming-into-power story with a distinct Slavic flavour and I loved it.

Soldier. Summoner. Saint. Orphaned and expendable, Alina Starkov is a soldier who knows she may not survive her first trek across the Shadow Fold – a swath of unnatural darkness crawling with monsters. But when her regiment is attacked, Alina unleashes dormant magic not even she knew she possessed.

Now Alina will enter a lavish world of royalty and intrigue as she trains with the Grisha, her country’s magical military elite – and falls under the spell of their notorious leader, the Darkling. He believes Alina can summon a force capable of destroying the Shadow Fold and reuniting their war-ravaged country, but only if she can master her untamed gift.

As the threat to the kingdom mounts and Alina unlocks the secrets of her past, she will make a dangerous discovery that could threaten all she loves and the very future of a nation.

Welcome to Ravka . . . a world of science and superstition where nothing is what it seems.

Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles) – Marissa Meyer

I’m not really one for fairytale retellings, but Meyer can do no wrong in my eyes. The entire series is deftly written (and should technically be considered a sci-fi, but to me it’s less about the science and more about the fantasy, so it made the list) and a whole lot of fun.

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Renegades (Renegades Trilogy) – Marissa Meyer

Superhero stories count as fantasy, don’t they? If you like the X-Men, then you’ll love this trilogy. It absolutely wowed me with creative powers, intriguing yet relatable characters and an interesting premise.

Secret Identities.
Extraordinary Powers.
She wants vengeance. He wants justice.

The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies—humans with extraordinary abilities—who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone…except the villains they once overthrew.

Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice—and in Nova. But Nova’s allegiance is to the villains who have the power to end them both.

Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer Duology) – Laini Taylor

One day when I grow up, I want to be able to write as beautifully as Taylor does. This story is magical, mesmerizing and utterly unputdownable. Read it!

The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around–and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was just five years old, he’s been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the form of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance or lose his dream forever.

What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? And who is the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo’s dreams?

In this sweeping and breathtaking novel by National Book Award finalist Laini Taylor, author of the New York Times bestselling Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy, the shadow of the past is as real as the ghosts who haunt the citadel of murdered gods. Fall into a mythical world of dread and wonder, moths and nightmares, love and carnage.

The answers await in Weep.

Circe – Madeline Miller

I love all things Greek myth and Miller wove a tail so evocative that it rekindled my obsession for the classics. It was high time these tales were told from a feminine point of view.

Woman. Witch. Myth. Mortal. Outcast. Lover. Destroyer. Survivor. CIRCE.

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. Circe is a strange child – not powerful and terrible, like her father, nor gorgeous and mercenary like her mother. Scorned and rejected, Circe grows up in the shadows, at home in neither the world of gods or mortals. But Circe has a dark power of her own: witchcraft. When her gift threatens the gods, she is banished to the island of Aiaia where she hones her occult craft, casting spells, gathering strange herbs and taming wild beasts. Yet a woman who stands alone will never be left in peace for long – and among her island’s guests is an unexpected visitor: the mortal Odysseus, for whom Circe will risk everything.

So Circe sets forth her tale, a vivid, mesmerizing epic of family rivalry, love and loss – the defiant, inextinguishable song of woman burning hot and bright through the darkness of a man’s world.

Uprooted – Naomi Novik

I first read Novik’s Temeraire series long ago (which I enjoyed immensely), so I knew I was in for a treat, but this was so much more than I’d expected! A wonderfully immersive story that will appeal to all high fantasy lovers. (Her other standalone novel, Spinning Silver, was also a fantastic read.)

Agnieszka loves her village, set deep in a peaceful valley. But the nearby enchanted forest casts a shadow over her home. Many have been lost to the Wood and none return unchanged. The villagers depend on an ageless wizard, the Dragon, to protect them from the forest’s dark magic. However, his help comes at a terrible price. One young village woman must serve him for ten years, leaving all they value behind.

Agnieszka fears her dearest friend Kasia will be picked at the next choosing, for she’s everything Agnieszka is not – beautiful, graceful and brave. Yet when the Dragon comes, it’s not Kasia he takes.

(PS: This post contains affiliate links. They don’t cost you any extra, but if you buy something with them I will get a small fee to fuel my reading addiction. Thanks!)

Have you read any of these books yet? Did you love them as much as I do? What would you have added to this list?