Java Davis's Blog, page 4
October 17, 2016
Book Review: Heir of the Hunted (5 coffee beans)
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Book Review: Heir of the Hunted (5 coffee beans)
Richard T. Drake has done a commendable job of presenting his readers with an amazing and dangerous fantasy world, The Hollow World, launched with this first volume in the series, Heir of the Hunted. It’s truly wonderful when a great idea and excellent writing skills meet, and this is certainly the case here. The author also does a smooth job of presenting an entire story and then setting the readers up for the next book in the series.
Radyn, our hero, never knew his father, and lost his birth mother at a young age. He and his mother had been invited to live with Uric, a stern foster father who runs a small traveling circus, and Orel, Uric’s kind-hearted merchant wife. Radyn is raised to be an acrobat and juggler in the circus, traveling under the watchful eye of Uric. Radyn’s birth is a mystery, and while great and strange things have been predicted for him, there was nothing in the young man’s childhood that would prove that to be true. He was an ordinary performer, getting in to trouble as young men typically do, usually in the company of his best friend, Cune, who later became a soldier, and his pet burveeg Grol.
One day, Radyn realizes that he’s lost a half-day of time, and that sometimes, time slows to a crawl, but only for him. About then, he finds out that he is the target of a cabal called the Kah, dedicated to magic and evil-doing. Radyn needs to discover: Why him?
Separately, we meet Kyna, a young Akalyte warrior, who decides that it’s her job to save the planet from the Kah and from another strong, overpowering race called theeds. Eventually, the paths of Radyn and Kyna converge.
Heir of the Hunted is well-paced, with enough dialog, but not too much, and a cast of interesting characters, among which are Loken, a half-god whose father hates him, and Dace, publically a famous bard, but secretly a master of the Alakytes and a mentor to both Radyn and Kyna. Any lover of fantasy will find this new series entertaining.
Heir of the Hunted, Book1 of The Hollow World
September 30, 2016
Bad News for Java
Two months ago, I thought I had a mild but painful foot injury that happened in the gym. This morning I found out from the podiatrist that it’s much worse. One of my toes has lost all its cartilege, making it very painful to walk. Seeing the x-rays made me uncomfortable.
The podiatrist and I are starting a low-level fix, but if the lower level fixes don’t work, surgery will be the ulimate answer. In the meantime: “Try to keep it straight.”
September 27, 2016
Book Review: Words' Worth, Jane Riddell
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Book Review: Words’ Worth, Jane Riddell (5 coffee beans)
Independent authors often don’t realize that they need help with self-editing. While using Strunk and White’s Elements of Style is the standard for syntax and grammar, there’s more to self-editing that the nuts and bolts. The independent author, while rereading their chef d’oeuvre, may not notice things like using passive voice too often, using stilted dialog and a number of other simple rules.
Enter Words’ Worth: a Fiction Writer’s Guide to Serious Editing, Jane Riddell’s short, quick list of typical flubs that can turn a great idea into a mediocre book. Her suggestion is to make a list from her categories that you identify as your typical sub-par writing habits, and make a checklist to use when rewriting. I certainly picked up a few tips when I read Words’ Worth.
The major topics, Overview Editing and Line-by-Line Editing, are broken down into smaller, bit-sized pieces. The author also includes a nice bibliography that offers a number of more in-depth books on the subject of good writing or editing.
If someone is unable to work with a good proofreader or editor, I highly recommend this guide to self-editing.
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September 22, 2016
Book Review: I Am the Ocean (4 coffee beans)
After graduating from college, author Samita Sarkar couldn’t find a job. She apparently sulked for a while and then decided to go on an adventure. This practitioner of Hare Krishna from Toronto, Canada, decided to couchsurf her way through NYC; Washington, DC; and Miami, Florida, carrying only what would fit into a backpack and small piece of rolling luggage. The one book she brought with her was The Bhagavad Gita, her spiritual guiding light. I’ve never read The Bhagavad Gita, and I was fascinated by the quotations which are sprinkled liberally throughout I Am the Ocean.
Samita planned an extremely frugal itinerary, flying to New York, and then bussing to her next destinations, couch surfing along the way with people she met online, and finally landing in a youth hostel in Miami. She was a very good tourist, taking in as much city culture as she could before it was time to move on. New York was fast-paced, Washington was inspirational, and Miami was crazy fun, tempered by the ocean and the beautiful beaches. Although Samita was cautious with strangers, she trusted that her “friend” Lord Krishna would send her where she needed to go and help her find who she needed to meet. In my opinion, Samita was an extremely lucky traveler, encountering very little unpleasantness. Later, she kept up electronically with many of the friends she made along the way.
PROS: It was truly charming to see these major U.S. cities through the author’s eyes. But even more than her story, I found Samita Sarkar herself to be a charming and charismatic figure. I felt like she was someone that I would really enjoy knowing. This was her journey of discovery and growth. Along the way, Samita realized that her original life plans were not going to work for her, and she needed a flash of inspiration to direct her next moves upon her return to Toronto. This extended vacation took place in the 1990s, so I don’t know if the trip lost its impact later.
CONS: Editing on the fly often results in the dread “double period,” where the author has added something to the end of a sentence and automatically gives the sentence a period where one was already there “..”. There were so many of these, it was annoying. And sometimes, the language felt like the book was written by a non-native speaker of English. Some sentences just sounded “off.”
Overall, I think this is a wonderful example of a true journey, not just a tourist’s log.
September 10, 2016
Book Review: Washing the Dead (5 coffee beans)
Michelle Brafman doesn’t need my 5-coffee-bean review because she is a multi-award-winning author, including for Washing the Dead, her debut novel. But it’s an extraordinary debut novel, several years old now, and I’d like to share a good story with you.
“Washing the Dead” refers to the Jewish ritual for washing the dead, “tahara.” But the acts of tahara appear at the end of the story, the cleansing part. The story is about Barbara, whom we see as a child, a young adult, a mother, and a teacher. She is consumed with trying to know the story of her distant mother’s life, and the search literally drives her crazy. Eventually, Barbara is brought back to earth, to be in the moment with her husband, her special-needs daughter, her brother, her ex-rabbi’s wife (“rebbetzin”), and her mother’s lover. The final steps to losing her obsession with her mother’s life is the washing of two bodies, the first being a teacher and mentor whom Barbara loved dearly, and the second being June, her mother.
It wasn’t the story of June’s life that made Barbara crazy; it was the “checking out” times, when her mom would disappear, or take to her bed, or sit in the dark room of an indoor swimming pool, or run off to be with her lover. It was the times that June was unavailable to her daughter that seemed both devastating and unforgiveable to Barbara, who desparately needed her mother’s attentions. In Barbara’s eyes, June was the most important person in the world, with the rest of the world pale by comparison.
The story flips between time periods, which normally annoys me, but it is done beautifully in Washing the Dead. A couple of things, literally, two things, confused me. One was when Barbara visited the indoor pool room and says that her mother drowned in those waters. It’s supposed to be metaphoric, but I took it literally and later realized my mistake. The other was the name of her mother-in-law. The woman’s name is Rose, but sometimes she is called Grose. I thought it was a typo until I understood that “Grose” was short for Gramma Rose.
If I have to be true to my website and talk about the story’s travel adventures, well, twice, Barbara leaves her home in Milwaukee to become a nanny to a couple in California. California changes her outlook and her clothes from a frumpy, Orthodox Jewish girl, to a jeans-and-bikini young beachcomber.
There is much more to Barbara’s story in Michelle Brafman’s Washing the Dead, but NO MORE SPOILERS! All I’ll say in conclusion is that I found it fascinating, and, sometimes, I just wanted to scream in frustration.
September 3, 2016
Book Review: The Gallery of Missing Husbands (5 coffee beans)
Although this story reads beautifully, it is difficult to review The Gallery of Missing Husbands, by Lawrence J. Epstein. First, it is short, so it is necessary to write delicately so as not to give anything critical away here. Second, it is dense, with many interlocking pieces.
The atmosphere can be compared to an old black-and-white, film noir movie, featuring an ethnic New York City neighborhood, tenement housing, people struggling to get by, and people with something to hide. This is where protagonist Daniel Levin lives,renting a room from a retired, elderly rabbi and his wife, in their own apartment. Daniel doesn’t need to live here. He could move back to his comfortable family home, except that he hates his father and can’t bear to be near him.
Daniel Levin is a lost soul searching for … what? He’s not sure what. Meanwhile, he gets a reputation for solving local mysteries. One day, he sees someone fall from the roof of a building, namely Ezra Kaufman. Mr. Kaufman is known to be a successful psychic, someone who can find men from The Gallery of Missing Husbands, which is a list of men who have disappeared. Once Daniel determines that this is a murder instead of a drunken accident, he promises Mr. Kaufman’s widow and sister-in-law that he will find the killer.
The mystery is now afoot, and author Lawrence Epstein weaves a cunning tale, where no one is who they appear to be, and everyone’s got secrets. No one is more surprised than Daniel with the story’s finale.
September 1, 2016
Twentieth Anniversary
I need to give a tip of the hat to my husband and me for celebrating twenty years of married life. We haven’t killed each other, we still love each other, and we both over-indulge our pets. It’s a good life.
August 28, 2016
Book Review: Facing Cancer as a Friend
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