S.D. Reeves's Blog, page 8

Review of Erin Morgenstern’s The Starless Sea

Have you ever had a crush on someone that fell apart when chance came, and you were able to get to know them better? The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern was a bit like that, and it is heartbreaking.

A quarter of my way through this book I was enthralled. “This, this was the book I needed right now,” I thought. Morgenstern is a powerful wordsmith, a force of nature when it comes to imagery. However, I think she swept herself away with this one. The plot is meandering. It seems to lose itself in the author’s descriptions along with the reader. And then there are the characters…

There is nothing wrong with diversity. There is nothing wrong with having gay romances. Neither the former or the latter should feel forced. Rule number one of making any character, is to be able to believe they could exist.I want to think I could run into Zachary, or Dorian. None of those in the main, or supporting cast seemed “real.” They were all hipsters. Usually alcoholic. Worse, we never really dig beyond the surface. I think if the author spent less time trying to stuff this full of representation, and just focused on a few characters and fleshed them out, my rating would have went up another star.

In the end, I spent about an hour just trying to figure out where I was with this review. I was afraid it would be a random, meandering mess – and I suppose that is fitting. Beyond this, I can say the book is an experience. This is a novel that tries to be the modern day version of Narnia, but ultimately it never leaves the closet.

Dragon Kingdom & the Wishing Stone, a review

Chapters open with poetic whimsy, spill-over with jaunts of effective prose, get stuck to the roof of your mouth with their sprinkles of pictures, and skip around in a first-person narrative as merrily as a child through puddles in their fresh Sunday wear. Yes, yes, a run-on sentence – but this is a children’s book, so get out of bed you grump and follow along. Sing a nice little tune, too, for the Dragon Kingdom and the Wishing Stone is a happy little novel. And what is wrong with that?

The story follows a gaggle of children traveling around, trying to restore the broken pieces of the Wishing Stone, because a Dragon Queen asked them nicely to do so. Good enough reason for me. Through their journey they must face off with various dangers, and the evils that initially caused it to be sundered. Aiding them are their various abilities/powers, a scroll of riddles, and their dragon steads/friends. Also, pluckiness.

Now I should note that I handle children’s’ books a little differently than adult, or even Young Adult fiction. A junior reader typically isn’t jarred by the same things an old fogie like me might. That said, Eirich (author) and Hunt’s (illustrator) book is largely free of errors, repetition, and otherwise. There are a few issues with viewpoints – sometimes we are given descriptions that the character (especially in first person) would not be able to notice – but this doesn’t happen enough to warrant a knock. Also don’t expect anything revolutionary. There are the usual tropes one expects, but they are handled well.

All in all, I think the book is effective in what it tries to do. It is very episodic, however, and I believe this is best read broken up. Or better yet, read to a young-child over a course of a couple of weeks.

Review of Starship Eternal, by M.R. Forbes

The expanse of space is vast, cold and lifeless. Deep in a sense – or at least I am going to say that, to use in the next line: Starship Eternal is batting 0.500. Dare to guess which way? Don’t be an optimist.

The book follows a space marine fighter pilot (wait, what?) and god’s gift to women as he deals with the cost of fame for a heroic action that he did not commit. More or less he’s now a mascot for his Alliance, being used to drive recruits in a little interstellar spat with a neighbouring empire known as the Federation. After an attempted assassination, the microchip in Mitchell’s head is damaged and he starts hearing “find the Goliath,” at the most inconvenient of times. From here the book jumps down the trope ladder, plays with some time-travel concepts, and delves into the “race to save humanity” trip that probably intrigued you to take a look at this novel in the first place.

The expanse of space is vast, cold and lifeless. Deep in a sense – or at least I am going to say that, to use in the next line: Starship Eternal is batting 0.500. Dare to guess which way? Don’t be an optimist.

Forbes has some interesting ideas, but the novel is hampered by a lack of execution. The writing while technically adequate, it is bland and banal, and the storytelling and characterization is awful. Mitchel is insufferable, and cliché. All of the other characters are forgettable. Moreover moments which are supposed to have emotional weight, or be triumphant, just come across as cringey. Wading through those scenes where the crew of his adopted home and space ship scream “riggah” made me want to eat my own arm to escape.

Still all of this would be forgivable if the action – something that should be the meat of a novel like this – was less skip-worthy. Going a bit meta, per the tagline “eternity would be boring, so is this,” it’s not that there isn’t action. There is plenty of action. Boring, unbelievable, nonsensical action that rips from Gundam as much as it does Groundhog’s Day. Stay with me on that last remark. I am not saying that Mitchel is waking up constantly being serenaded by the same Sonny and Cher song over, and over. More or less all the battles seem copy and pasted.

Starship Eternal is cartoonish, clumsily plotted, and borderline misogynistic. And really, the only thing more unbelievable than the science is the interactions of the characters. My final suggestion for those looking for good space opera is to wait, rather than spending eternity trying to enjoy this starship ride.

Review Request: Sangre: the Wrong Side of Tomorrow (4 stars)

A vampire book with bite…I need to work on these titles

A newspaper article is the first thing we read: a bit of a dry prologue, setting up what appears to be the common tropes. Beheadings? Check. A gritty atmosphere? Check. That palpable sense of decay and the dark stirrings of a city’s underbelly? Check, and check! Yep, we are in a noir/vampire novel folks. But that’s where the similarity between this and those other glorified fanfiction dredges you may have been subjected too, end. Sangre, the Wrong Side of Tomorrow is good. Quite good.

Carlos Colon’s story opens in a flash-back to a New York of the 1960’s, seen through the eyes of a Hispanic kid named Nicky Negron. Right off the bat he’s involved in something precarious: he’s pining after a record department cashier. The scenes are believable and helps to ground the character. This will be the first of many such chapters, splicing up the current timeline action. In lesser hands such jumping around would throw off the rhythm completely, but Colon’s turn here is vivid and compelling. These pages simply live. You see New York. You smell it. Moreover, this is an author that understands loss and the murk of human emotions surrounding it, as seen through the eyes of Nicky as he lives navigates an emotionless parent left broken by the death of his sister.

In the present day we find Nicky dealing with more internal problems – and by internal, I mean the disembodied and violent thoughts of Simone, his expired vampire sire and psychopath from the previous novel. Turns out Simone is not quite dead yet. Worse, our protagonist’s “genetic resistance,” a quirk that keeps him from degenerating into a feral vampire, also makes him a prime target. For what, you may ask? Well the answer to that has Nicky terrified. It seems the vivid dreams and memories he is having are the first steps of Simone’s attempt to take full possession of him. In order to prevent this from happening he seeks out Dr. Gunder, a vampire researcher and doctor looking to avenge the death and wipe out vampire-kind. This includes Nicky.

Sangre: the Wrong Side of Tomorrow is a compelling, action packed adventure that is deeper than it appears, and more fun than it should be. Sure, there are some problems. The time-jumping can be confusing at first, sometimes causing a break in the budding tension. These moments are few, however. Also, in my opinion the ending of the story, while good, drags on longer than needed. But the characters are believable, and the setting brilliantly established. All together this a solid Vampire, noir, paranormal, whatever-the-hell-genre-these-are-called-now, book.

The Melody of Three now available, and other updates

Hey folks,

It’s been awhile since I have done an update, but things have been very busy. The biggest news is that The Melody of Three is now available both in kindle, and paperback (https://www.amazon.com/Melody-Three-E...).

In January I will be doing an interview with DJ over at MyLifeMyBooksMyEscape. Also, work on the sequel continues unabated! There will be some lovely prizes and other things planned after for a giveaway in February, so stay tuned for that.

For now, I am off to the States to visit my parents. I should be back around January 4th. Till then, I hope you all have a happy holidays!

Promotions: From the Writer’s Drawer

Originally published on Sulis International’s Blog. I felt that this needed to be touched upon in a little longer of a post, so I will be expanding this into several posts.

This is a first part of a two, or three point posting about…Marketing. Yes, that which every author likes to put out of sight, and out of mind. Today, though, we will be specifically talking about promotions.

Promotions are almost an eldritch evil (deadlines are another, but let’s not load up on shouldn’t-be-named subject matters) that can’t be ignored for long. Like that pile of clothes in the corner, or that persistent smell whenever you eat beef. Because whether we do a promotion or not the costs are unavoidable.

Yes, it is unavoidable. Don’t do a promotion? Well, it will make selling that book even more difficult. Run a promotion? Choose to spend either money, time, or both. And no matter the choice, sales during the first go around will undoubtedly trend red, sometimes quite red. To maximize a return, it will be necessary to compare results, and tailor a marketing strategy—involving promotions—to a novel’s niche. But to do so, there are a few points that need to be thought about.

• Be realistic. Landing a Bookbub Featured Deal is unlikely without a lot of reviews, and even then, expect a monthly dance with rejection. Outside of this unicorn, there are a plethora of other sites—some free, some paid—that will be happy to blast all about Grandpa’s Socks, An Adventure in Smells. The trick is to find which ones work best. To do this, set up a longer burn time on the first few runs. Run that promotion for a week or two, mixing in some paid sites, along with free. Curses of Scale, my recent A Young Adult Fantasy novel, for example, had decent results with the following freebie marketing campaigns: EbookSaurus, Ebooklister, and Discountbookman. Others worth trying, depending on genre, might include Debutcity, BookoftheDay, Digital Book Girl, and Pretty Hot. It should be noted that the list of wannabe marketers grows every day, and while tracking numbers remember that Amazon sales trail anywhere from seven to eight hours behind.

• Paid promotions for trial runs, on the other hand, should be well-spaced, to give enough room for any tail (these are after the promotion purchases, or day late shoppers). These should always be considered the heavy hitters, or anchors of any run. Of these Bookbub and ENT (Ereader News Today) are always priorities, as they give solid results regardless of the subject, though the competition for spots is fierce. Second tier marketers for Curses of Scale included Bargainbooksy, Book Gorilla, Ebooksoda, and Bookbub’s pay-per-click ads, and a fiver campaign (costing 5 per day) from BkKnights. Others that might turn out for different books, such as The Fussy Librarian, Book Barbarian (for fantasy novels), EbookStage, Booksends, Booktastic, HotZippy, and Snicklists did nothing for Curses of Scale. The best use in-house newsletters, while the weakest rely only on social media blasting.

• Once you have established a solid group, plan any upcoming promotions well in advance. The dates considered the most profitable include Thanksgiving, early June, and early September. I believe it may also be advisable to try the early part of February to cut into the lull time of March and April. Schedule at a week for each run and pick a stack of three-four profitable paid sites with a smattering of freebies. Prioritize Tuesdays and Wednesdays and try to avoid Saturdays for main stacks. This will allow the previously mentioned tail to kick in, as well as pick-ups from any newsletter post. Absolutely do not waste money on Banner ads for single sites, outside of Amazon, Google, and Bookbub. Magazine spots bought for Curses of Scale brought negligible returns.

• The last item is to always consider building your newsletter. This is something that every writer seems to neglect (including this author), but which will have the greatest of effect on sales. Facebook ads are good drivers for newsletter signups, and there are some solid list builders like Booksweeps, Authorsxp, and self-controlled setups like Kingsumo. Goodreads giveaways are not worth the time or effort. More about newsletters in a follow up post.

Whatever the circumstances, the main thing is not to get discouraged. It is all about that trial and error, but with enough planning, foresight, and effort anyone can put together an effective campaign and negate some of those early growing pains. Outside of a Faustian deal, this is always the best strategy.

Review Requests

From time to time I get contacted to review books from authors and publishers, and up to this date I really have had no formal review policy – or really any information on this site saying I am open to inquiries.

Please see below:

Genres I Read

YA

– YA fantasy

– YA historical fiction

– YA science fiction

Adult:

– Fantasy

– Historical fiction

– Literary fiction

– Mystery/thriller

What Forms I Will Accept

– Physical copy (ARC or hardcover)

– Digital copies (pdf, or kindle

– Audio-books

What should be included

– Blurb/Summary

– Release Date

– If you have a time frame for when you expect the review to be posted.

What Happens If I Accept Your Book For Review?

Please understand that by accepting to review a book, I do not guarantee that it will be read immediately. Real life keeps me busy, and I usually prefer to be between stages of my own writing before I touch someone else’s. I will try my very best to read and review in a timely manner but it’s not always doable.

All reviews will be posted here, on Goodreads, and Amazon.com. However, I reserve the right to relegate it only to my blog if I deem it would fall below three stars in my rating system. My reviews will be my honest opinion and it is quite possibly that I won’t enjoy your book. I don’t dally with words.

In addition to reviews, what else are you open to?

– Author interviews

– Blog Tours (very limited)

– Cover reveals

– Guest blogs.

Please see my contact page for the form email.

The Melody of Three

Hey folks! The pre-order of The Melody of Three, a continuation to Curses of scale, is now available. And the best part? From now until release the eBook is discounted from $6.99, to $3.99 as a thank you for all those folks who stuck with my crazy self. https://tinyurl.com/y252jj8e

Review of Bear and the Nightingale

A gripping retelling of an old Russian story…

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Bear and the Nightingale is a gripping retelling of an old Russian story that is neither weighed down by the historical source material or carried away by the more mythical touch of lore. It is a solid start to a trilogy that will inspire research and birth daydreams.

The book is set in the 14th century and has its roots in the fairy tale of Vasilisa, here called Vasya. She is the wild daughter of a Boyar and possesses the site and ability to speak with nature and household spirits from her Grandmother, a rumored witch. Something which is important to the Winter King, Morozko’s, plans. He fills the early role of antagonist, and odd benefactor. But not is all as it seems.

Speaking of him, I found the the use of the Winter Demon, Morozko particularly intriguing. In the old Rus folktales Medved and Morozko appear to be largely depicted as one and the same, with separate aspects, demeanor. Arden separates the two. Morozko is winter, and death – taking on the form of a reaper, or guide to the afterlife – though mostly benevolent, while Medved is the Great Bear; war, rage, fear, and chaos. The story’s main plot centers on the latter’s escape, and the danger it causes to the world of men and Cheryti (a sort of Russian fairy, or spirit).

The nature of the conflict also sets it apart from similar retellings. Outside the fight between brothers, spirits of Winter and Death respectively, and the clash of the pagan world against waxing Christianity, is another that is less obvious, but just as important; Vasya’s often chaotic, freedom seeking nature versus the traditional roles of women in fourteenth century Russia. Even separated by all those centuries, and by genders, I found myself constantly at war with her predicament.

And it is an unforgiving world she lives in. Outside the limitations of a patriarchal society, Vasya must navigate a world that is as deep as any of the other characters written here. The bitter cold. The lonely forests. They all teeter out of the folds of imagination to bring a real sense of foreboding, and depth. Arden’s descriptive writing and ability to set a scene is refreshing in a world of authors that seem to forgo such in favor of plain action.

Final Thoughts: there is plenty to love in this piece, as the prose synchs nicely with the plot, and flavor. It is at times complex, others simple, but always enjoyable. Bear and the Nightingale is an excellent first part to what I expect will be a thrilling trilogy.

View all my reviews

Interview with Leticia at “Shh I am Reading” Blog

I am always wI am always worried about doing interviews, because I am a bit of a weirdo. Any who, Leticia over at “Shh I am Reading” was kind enough to feature me for her blog. Check it out her blog, read her great book reviews, or try to picture me having conversations with my characters with a straight face here:

https://shhiamreading.weebly.com/home...

Thanks, and have a great weekend :)orried about doing interviews.