Roxanne Crouse's Blog, page 37
July 20, 2012
What I’m Reading Now= The Other Covenant (Vow of the Seven) by Caroline Crosby
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The Other Covenant (Vow of the Seven)
Caroline Crosby (Author)
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Length: 377 pages (estimated)
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I’ve read the first chapter so far. It’s a little hard to follow what’s happening at this point. I can tell this book will have a bit of a learning curve in the beginning, a lot of things getting mentioned, and as a reader, I have no idea what they are talking about. As long as everything gets explained as I read along, it should be fine. Time to start a new reading adventure!
Book Description
Publication Date: January 22, 2012
As are few others, Elizabeth Mitchell has been aware of the black occult lodge named “the Covenant” since childhood. Its unpublished chronicles describe events not found in American history classes. She trusts the veracity of the Covenant chronicles far more than that of the history books, though in her heart of hearts she would rather believe accepted history.
The history books do not say that four of Elizabeth’s ancestors brought the Covenant into being in 1633. Psychic adepts fleeing accusations of witchcraft in England, they ended up on the emigration ship Neptune. Outward bound on the North Atlantic passage to the Massachusetts Bay colony, their plotting succeeded in creating a near-flawless conspiracy which allowed themselves and their descendants secretly to rule the Massachusetts Bay colony and eventually the United States.
Elizabeth despises everything about the Covenant. Trained by her cousin, a renowned occult enforcer, she has vowed to fight evil magic. She knows that, with her bloodlines, if the Covenant realizes that she possesses psychic abilities, she would either have to become a member or lose her life.
Careful to keep her world apart from the high social realm where the present-day members of the Covenant exist, Elizabeth lives a quiet life as a clinical psychologist until she receives the phone call which summons her into the midst of the Covenant’s world.
Even though it is taken for granted that renowned philanthropist Richard Bennett died of a heart attack, Elizabeth knows that he was murdered—and that no law enforcement agency on earth could ever find out the truth.
She also knows that it is her duty to hunt down those responsible, all the while protecting Richard’s young widow from the Covenant, the black magic cabal that has ruled the destiny of America from behind the scenes.
Elizabeth must fight her own terror as well as sort out the suspects, who include the leaders of the Covenant and others less obvious. She finds allies from an occult hunting lodge, who have hunted the lesser type of psychic criminal, and her cousin, a former Marine Recon.
The solution of Richard Bennett’s murder is the basis of this 122,400 word novel. It continues the tradition of Algernon Blackwood’s John Silence, Dion Fortune’s Dr. Taverner and the Adept series written by Katherine Kurtz and Deborah Turner Harris. This book is written for all those who enjoy reading dispatches from the front in the age-old war between white magic and black.
FREE Book For Friday= The Soul Sphere: Book 1
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The Soul Sphere: Book 1 The Shattered Sphere [Kindle Edition]
David Adams (Author)
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Length: 317 pages (Contains Real Page Numbers)
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Today this fantasy book is being offered FREE on Amazon. Of the hundred or so books I found being offered free today, the description of this one interested me most so I thought I’d share it with everyone else. I got it myself. Perhaps in the future, once I get through my book request list, I’ll write a review. My fear for this book is that it’s a rendition of someone’s D&D game which wouldn’t be good. Hopefully I am wrong.
Book Description
Publication Date: September 10, 2011
Evil has been unleashed in Arkania. The mage Solek, hungry for power, has smashed the Soul Sphere, an ancient device created to contain the Dark One, the very embodiment of evil. The shards of the Sphere have been scattered, and fearsome guardians stand watch over them. The free lands are now battered by attacks from armies of resurrected dead—The Dead Legion—and demons and other foul creatures roam the world.
The last hope for Arkania’s salvation falls on an unlikely band: Demetrius and Corson, long-time friends from Corindor; Rowan, a paladin from Delving; Tala, an elf from the Eastern Forest; the goblin Lucien; and Alexis, a warrior from the northern land of Lorgras. Together they must gather the shards and reform the Soul Sphere, thereby imprisoning the Dark One and restoring hope to their world.
July 19, 2012
Roxanne Crouse’s Reviews= A Fairy for Bin Laden by Stephen M. Holak
A Fairy for Bin Laden by Stephen M. Holak
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
What can I say? A Fairy for Bin Laden by Stephen M. Holak was not a story I was expecting to get when I put out the request for self-published books to review, but I’m glad I got to read it. It’s well written and edited, and the story engaging.
This short work that you can read in an hour or two starts with the main character, Peter Durrani, being brought on to Project Neverland where he learns he’ll be the handler of a real life, foul-mouthed fairy named Tinkerbelle. Their mission, to take out Bin Laden. As the two work together, they form a romantic relationship. As strange a combination as this sounds, the tale is well developed, humorous, and entertaining. It leaves you hanging at the end, but gives you just enough to imagine your own conclusion.
The editing and formatting for this work was well done. I only found two typos in the whole story. Not bad for a self-pub work. The writing style is clear and easy to follow, always remaining in scene mode and never telling. If you enjoy works like Pride and Prejudice with zombies, then I think you’ll enjoy A Fairy for Bin Laden.
So, if you’re in the mood for something short, humorous, and a bit unexpected, then I would suggest Stephen M. Holak’s story A Fairy for Bin Laden.
FREE book to check out!
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Beautiful: An Urban Fantasy (The Blood Divided, Book 1) [Kindle Edition]
I haven’t read it yet, just picked it up for free. It sounds interesting and I liked the very human sounding description below. The reviews are all positive as well. I may have to check out this guy’s blog and get to know a little more about Joshua Guess.
Joshua Guess (Author), Annetta Ribken (Foreword)
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Length: 196 pages (estimated)
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Book Description
Publication Date: July 19, 2011
Hi. I’m Dan. I’m all snarky and stuff.
I’ve always thought life was exactly what it appeared to be. Normal. Routine. Dull.
Safe.
I’ve worked to get by, paid my bills, and made sure the mortgage was (usually) in on time. That’s how I’ve lived from day to day, enjoying the small wonders in life and being happy with what I had.
Until one winter night when the universe pointed a finger at me and laughed at my stupidity.
Without word or warning I found myself in the middle of a struggle older than human civilization between warring factions of vampires. At every turn I discovered new horizons, both horrific and lovely.
A hidden world opened up in front of me, full of magic and mayhem, vampires, faeries, dragons, even unicorns. UNICORNS.
I know, right?
Uh, anyway…
I’ve chronicled the struggle to save my friends, family, loved ones, and maybe even myself. It’s a tale full of comedy and fear, adventure and sex.
Like life itself, every moment has the potential to be beautiful.
July 18, 2012
What I’m Reading now= A Fairy for Bin Laden
This one definitely sounds different. I’ve read a small part of the beginning and so far it appears to be well formatted and well written. It’s short, only around 6000 words so it should be a pretty short read. It seems the title alone should sell this book, but I do wonder if readers will find it disrespectful of the troops who actually took part in the mission? I don’t know. I will find out as I read on.A Fairy for Bin Laden
by Stephen M. Holak (Goodreads Author)
“Osama Bin Laden is dead, and unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know the story: the long search, the discovery of his hideout in Pakistan, the helicopter assault on the compound, the headshot, the quick burial at sea.
What you certainly don’t know is that we brought him to ground with the help of a foot-tall fairy named Tinkerbelle.”
When Army Lieutenant Peter Durr…more
Kindle Edition, 38 pages
Published June 2nd 2012 by Stephen M Holak
ASIN
B0088IBE3I
edition language
English
July 15, 2012
Novel Updates
It’s been a while since I’ve talked about Saving Avalon, my fantasy novel about the fey. I’m still in the process of content editing. I’m up to chapter 16. Progress has been slow. I had hoped to be done by June, but that self-imposed deadline came and went. It saddens me that I still haven’t finished it, but I do believe the changes I’m making will make it better.
I think the next novel I write I will outline it even more extensively to try to avoid so much rewriting. Although I find editing easier than writing from scratch, it’s still daunting to me. I worry the changes I’m making won’t be better’ or I’ll change a part and forgot to make the change throughout.
The novel is also getting longer. When I wrote the outline, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with Lilly while she was in the mental hospital and so came up with the details as I wrote. Now I wish I would have outlined that section better because it is the part of the novel I’m spending the most time rewriting. If the mental hospital section gets larger, and I believe it will, then I may end up splitting the novel in two and the first book will end on a cliffhanger, something I don’t like doing. I’d prefer the first book to be a complete story that can stand on its own. That’s the kind of trilogy I prefer reading.
Last Sunrise
Last Sunrise is the first novel I ever wrote. I haven’t worked on it in a long time, but I keep thinking about it. I am toying with the idea of releasing it chapter by chapter on my blog. I do still love the idea of the Last Sunrise trilogy. I don’t know. It irks me to think of it sitting on my hard drive never getting read. I did make use of one of the chapters from the book, The Monster. That short story is actually chapter 6 in the novel. I really loved that chapter and felt it could stand on its own so I released it as a short story.
I’m also still mauling over, The Phoenix. I haven’t written an outline yet, but ideas continue to pop into my head. I may write it as my nanowrimo book this year in November, if I get it developed enough in time.
July 12, 2012
Roxanne Crouse’s reviews= Moonlight Dancer by Deb Atwood
31/3 out of 5 Stars
Moonlight Dancer by Deb Atwood is a story about Kendra MacGregor who is immediately attracted to a Korean doll she happens upon in a store. She must have it and makes many sacrifices to buy it. Turns out the doll is haunted by the spirit of a 16th century woman named Nanju, who imposes her needs on Kendra. Hiro, the man who sells her the doll, helps Kendra deal with the demanding ghost while struggling with his own dark past. Will the couple resolve their problems and appease the restless spirit from the past? You’ll have to read the book to find out.
This book, which is set in modern time California, but bounces back to 16th century Korea in certain sections is an interesting read for its Asian culture atmosphere, but other than that, there is nothing really groundbreaking or unique about this ghost story. A possessed doll and ghost demanding closure are familiar themes. I hoped some new twist or character development would be added to the plot to make it unique, but there wasn’t. I guessed the direction of this book about 25% of the way in and it followed that guess to the end. No surprises. It doesn’t mean that will be every readers experience. I’m a writer. I read a lot. I understand plot devices and it’s hard for me to come across a novel, movie, idea, etc that surprises me. But when I do, boy do I fall in love!
The book was well formatted. I only found a few areas where sentences cut off and continued on another line, two places I believe. I wasn’t sure if it was intentional or not. I saw no reason for it. The writing style was interesting, minimalist is the word that comes to mind. After a chapter or so I grew used to it and it no longer drew attention. Location 121 on my kindle was a bit hard to follow, but other than that everything happening was clear. I found around 23 typos, which is not bad. This book isn’t released yet so the author may want to consider one more pass before putting it out. This novel was also free of many of the issues I’ve read in other self-published works, long passages of telling, passive writing. I feel this book is of publishable quality.
Some small things that irked me that might not bother other readers, the main character, Kendra, came across to me as extremely melodramatic. Every mundane action comes across over dramatized and emotional. Perhaps she felt that way to me because the novel I read before this one was lacking any emotional content and all the emotion in this one came across stronger because of it. I don’t know. It just felt overdone at times, not all the time. Also the 16th century parts moved a bit slow for me. The prologue gives away what Nanju does at the beginning so dragging it out for so many chapters seemed unnecessary. Get rid of the prologue and it might work better to create the suspense I think the novel is aiming for. There was something redundant, especially in the middle of the novel, about the 16th century parts that made me want things to move along faster. I found myself thinking, yeah, yeah, I know this let’s get on to the good part, but I am an impatient reader.
Even if the above doesn’t sound like it, I do recommend giving this book a try when it is released. It’s well written and the plot is tight. The author did her research on Korea so if you find the Asian culture interesting like I do, you will enjoy these parts of the book. If you enjoy ghost stories then this is one you should at least get the free sample of and give a try and buy if the beginning intrigues you.
July 11, 2012
Bad Writing Warning
Just started a new book. The first 4 chapters, not a single line of dialog, all telling. Geeesh. If you think you are the writer who’s good enough to get away with this. You are not! GO back and edit NOW!
July 4, 2012
What I’m Reading Now= Moonlight Dancer by Deb Atwood
When a 16th century ghost demands help, a Korean/Caucasian woman must risk her love and her life to prevent murder. This book has not been released yet. I get the privileged of reading an advanced copy which is exciting. So far I have read about 20% of the book and am intrigued by it.This book is set to be released July 27, 2012 if I remember right. I sadly accidentally deleted the email with that information. So much for being organized, but I did find the author’s blog and found a post with the prologue and a bit of the first chapter. You can read it here. Vacation and a 3 day power outage has left me disoriented. The review for this book will come out shortly. I hope everyone enjoys the post.
July 3, 2012
Roxanne Crouse’s Reviews= First Enlistment (War for Profit)
First Enlistment (War for Profit)
Jed Fisher (Author)
2 out of 5 stars
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Length: 218 pages (estimated)
First Enlistment (War for Profit) by Jed Fisher is a Military Science Fiction story about Galen and his two friends who have just graduated from mercenary school and set out on their first assignment. Their first assignment is with the Jasmine Panzer Brigade on an alien planet. Galen hopes to be assigned as a tank commander, but soon learns he will be joining the on-planet mechanized infantry battalion. A series of battles ensue proving the value of Galen and his friends as soldiers and leaders. Galen reluctantly accepts a promotion not in the direction he intended and finds himself in a position he wasn’t ready for. He must choose to act as the mercenary he was trained to be or become a part of a sinister plan with the enemy.
After I read the description for this story and started reading it, I became quite hopeful. The writing style was clear and easy to follow. The story stayed in engaging scenes and only slipped into telling when it was appropriate. There were some passages with passive writing and luke warm descriptions of people, settings, and situations, but not enough to discourage me from reading on. Not until I got further into the novel.
Quickly, I realized this novel wasn’t benefiting from the most import advantage novels have over other types of media, the inner voice of the characters. The reader rarely gets to read the inner most thoughts of the characters and know how they are feeling. Is Galen scared, frightened, frustrated, etc. We never get to read his opinions of what’s happening that he would never say aloud. We never learn of any internal struggle he is facing. Without this crucial element, reading this novel is like reading stereo instructions. The reader is unable to connect with the characters on a personal level and so never cares what happens to the characters. There is just no personality to love or hate.
Maybe this is normal for military sci fi, I don’t know, other than maybe Orson Scott Card novels, I’ve never read anything so military heavy. But Orson Scott Card books have tons of inner dialog helping the reader to understand what is driving the characters to act the way they do. First Enlistment does not. The reader wants more emotion to connect with. Other than Galen became a mercenary to make his mother proud, we know nothing about this character and what drives him. He just follows orders and fights well and knows a lot about military hardware. This got boring quickly.
I found the prologue completely unnecessary. If it were me, I’d cut it and start with chapter one. There are a lot of missing commas throughout as well that cause the reader to have to stop and read again to make sure the meaning is clear. There are also typos a copy editor could help you find, such as typing you when it should say your. This happens several times. I found the typo tress. I think you meant trees. I’d do a double take through the whole work. The passive writing I talked about above is when you use “was standing” instead of “stood” or “was running” instead of “ran”. Getting rid of the “was” makes it sound more immediate and brings the reader closer to the action of the character. Some other passive writing I found was how other characters are described. The reader is given stats and clothing, but nothing that really characterizes. Also, in my opinion, the story lacks a plot arch. The main character proves himself in battle many times and gets promoted, then stumbles upon a conspiracy at the end, a series of events that don’t make an arching plot.
I think this book will have more potential if you add in character histories, conflicts, and inner thoughts. In the military they train you not to be emotional, but in a novel you need it, even if it’s only inside the character and other characters never perceive it. Without it everything is too dry and matter of fact. At least this is the opinion from a girl who doesn’t read military sci fi regularly. If you enjoy chit chats about military gear and vehicles and the descriptions of battles and don’t want all that mushy emotion and character problems, then you may enjoy First Enlistment and should buy yourself a copy.
