M.R. Graham's Blog, page 18

Mocking Sky – a poem

The Texas winter mocks

with dust instead of snow

and bare mesquite to testify with thorns

against a shred of weakness.

The Texas winter gusts

fiercely from the south -

grit on lips, in eyes, on tongues that wonder

where the deer drink.

The Texas winter sinks

in rust and blood and peaches

beneath the horizon. Sweetly, sweetly,

she sips the clouds.

The Texas winter clothes herself in cicada song,

and all the stars applaud.

Girl of Flesh – a poem

I am not so human as you think,

a girl of flesh with blood to bleed.

Credit me with greater subtlety;

can flesh approach the winter and the night?

touch the stars and breathe their misty chill?

stand before the ire of men?

My flesh is lightning, hot and sharp.
My blood is the thunder.
Cut me and hear my fury roar volcanic.
I am not so human as you think,
built as I am of word and time.

Review – His Majesty’s Dragon (Naomi Novik)

His Majesty’s Dragon

Temeraire, #1

His Majesty’s Dragon

ISBN: 9780345481283

353 pages

Goodreads

From Goodreads: “Aerial combat brings a thrilling new dimension to the Napoleonic Wars as valiant warriors ride mighty fighting dragons, bred for size or speed. When HMS Reliant captures a French frigate and seizes the precious cargo, an unhatched dragon egg, fate sweeps Captain Will Laurence from his seafaring life into an uncertain future – and an unexpected kinship with a most extraordinary creature.

Thrust into the rarified world of the Aerial Corps as master of the dragon Temeraire, he will face a crash course in the daring tactics of airborne battle. For as France’s own dragon-borne forces rally to breach British soil in Bonaparte’s boldest gambit, Laurence and Temeraire must soar into their own baptism of fire.“

The Good:

I think I’m developing a preference for black powder in my fantasy.

I really loved this book. I found it difficult to put down, which is an increasingly rare occurrence for me. This I think was due mostly to the excellent characterization and the very sweet, very true friendship between Temeraire and Laurence. It was very much unexpected, but I don’t think spoils to much to say, that for a fanged flying machine of destruction, Temeraire is completely adorable. Laurence is a gentleman through and through, and understands the true purpose of etiquette: to grease the workings of society. He is not the cold, arrogant ‘gentleman’ that sometimes appears in fiction.

I am an absolute sucker for beautiful, formal language, and Novik chooses a register that meshes well with the world she has built. It is just archaic enough to evoke the era, without becoming convoluted or stodgy.

I was also very interested in the fact that there seems to be no magic at all in Temeraire’s world. Dragons are just animals, albeit of human or near-human intelligence.

The Bad:

Not a turn-off for me, but something I know will disagree with some readers: the plot meanders. There does not seem to be a single, central problem for the story, other than perhaps Laurence’s problem of learning how to navigate the society of the Aerial Corps. The book is largely an introduction to the characters and world-building preliminary to the rest of the series. For some, that may be a dealbreaker. For me, just a reason to hunt down the rest of the series quickly.

In Conclusion:

Recommended. It has the feel of classical literature or a national epic.

*Note: I received a free review copy of this book via Goodreads.

Holly Jolly Winners!

Just in time for the new year…

Congratulations to Christina and Gemma, winners of my mini raffle thing. You’ll both be receiving emails shortly. 

 

Happy New Year, everyone!

The Obligatory New Year’s Post

It does seem to be the done thing, so I suppose I’ll jump aboard. 

2013 was pretty decent. I accomplished many of the things I wanted to – published The Medium, had a table at AggieCon, got most of the way through a master’s degree. It wasn’t everything on my list, but it was a fair chunk. 

I met new and interesting people and read new and interesting books. Both have been enlightening. Doctors C., M., and S., especially. (Hope to see them all soon.) 

I think that with a little effort, this coming year can be just as fascinating. Now, I don’t make resolutions, because just by virtue of being a New Year’s Resolution, they always tend to fall quickly by the wayside, but I do have some goals. 

In 2014, you can expect from me:

The Siren. I’ve had most of a manuscript sitting around for quite a while, and I mean to polish and publish by July. It’ll be a one-shot, not the start of another series, because I have quite enough series floating around in my head already. 
The Mora . I’m aware that The Medium ended on a bit of a low note, and so I don’t want to keep anyone waiting too long for the next book. It’ll introduce another of the series’ primary characters and pick up where we dropped Kim off. 
Increased Holmesian ramblings over at Always 1895. With the inimitable Mr. Les Klinger’s victory over the more dubious copyright claims of the Conan Doyle Estate, I feel I can start digging into that planned pastiche in earnest, without fear of licensing fees. This one may become a series, or at least a novel followed by a parade of short stories. 

 

At least, that’s the plan. We’ll see how it goes. Happy 2014, everybody.

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas…

Dear readers, it is a time for gifts and giving. Elizabeth Barone has assembled a questionable posse of gift-giving authors, including myself. Take a look at what they have to offer. I received something unexpected, this Christmas season, and if you’ll read all the way to the end, I have something for you, too!

On the twelfth day of Christmas, early in the morning, a knock came at the door. Thinking it might be the UPS man bearing some last-minute holiday cheer, I belted on a bath robe, stuffed my feet into my fluffy owl slippers, and shuffled to crack open the door and let in the grey pre-dawn.

It was not the UPS man.

He stood there smoking, six and a half feet of tweed and cigarettes, glaring down at me through his spectacles as though I had done him a personal wrong. Come to think of it, I’ve done him a number of personal wrongs, but I can hardly be held accountable – that’s what authors do.

I glared right back at him. “Daniel Leland! Do you have any idea what time it is?”

“A time when all respectable people are up and out making their way in this world.”

There wasn’t much I could really say to that. “I’m sorry, did you want something?”

He shifted uncomfortably, expression turning mildly apologetic, and attached his cigarette to his lip so he could sort through his jacket pockets. “Actually, I, ah…”

“Oh, hell, there’s not someone after you, is there?”

“No, no, I, ah… I have something for you.”

He pulled out a small, thin book in a clear plastic sleeve. The cover showed a man in red rising from a chair to light a lamp amid the words A Study in Scarlet. Beeton’s Christmas Annual, 1887. I knew better than to suppose it was a reproduction.

“Daniel? You got me a Christmas present?”

He blinked, momentarily confused, then nodded a bit too hurriedly. “Well, naturally, Miss Graham. I do owe you quite a lot, don’t I?”

“It’s actually a bribe, isn’t it?”

“Possibly. But your suggestion gets me more points, doesn’t it? Happy Christmas. Do try not to torment me quite as much this next year, would you?”

I snorted into my sleeve and stood aside. “Come on in. I’ll make tea.”

He treated me to one of his rare smiles and ducked inside.

Interested in winning ecopies of The Books of Lost Knowledge?

I’m giving away two complete sets: In the Shadow of the Mountains, The Wailing and the newest book, The Medium.

Here’s how to win:

1) Sign up here for my mailing list to receive (very, very occasional) information about events, new releases, special offers, and freebies.

2) Like my page on Facebook OR follow me on Twitter OR become a fan on Goodreads.

3) Leave a comment on this post – anything you like – so I can verify your email address. Your email address will not be made public.

4) Two winners will be randomly selected on 31 December and notified via email shortly thereafter.

Bear in mind that you don’t have to have an ereader to read an ebook. If you don’t have an ereader, I can show you what programs to use to read on your computer.

Happy Christmas!

Review – The Thousand Names (Django Wexler)

The Thousand Names

The Shadow Campaigns, #1

Django Wexler

ISBN: 9780451465108

528 pages

From Goodreads: “Enter an epic fantasy world that echoes with the thunder of muskets and the clang of steel—but where the real battle is against a subtle and sinister magic….

Captain Marcus d’Ivoire, commander of one of the Vordanai empire’s colonial garrisons, was resigned to serving out his days in a sleepy, remote outpost. But that was before a rebellion upended his life. And once the powder smoke settled, he was left in charge of a demoralized force clinging tenuously to a small fortress at the edge of the desert.

To flee from her past, Winter Ihernglass masqueraded as a man and enlisted as a ranker in the Vordanai Colonials, hoping only to avoid notice. But when chance sees her promoted to command, she must win the hearts of her men and lead them into battle against impossible odds.

The fates of both these soldiers and all the men they lead depend on the newly arrived Colonel Janus bet Vhalnich, who has been sent by the ailing king to restore order. His military genius seems to know no bounds, and under his command, Marcus and Winter can feel the tide turning. But their allegiance will be tested as they begin to suspect that the enigmatic Janus’s ambitions extend beyond the battlefield and into the realm of the supernatural—a realm with the power to ignite a meteoric rise, reshape the known world, and change the lives of everyone in its path.”

The Good:

I dig it. I really do. This was my first introduction to flintlock fantasy, and I loved it.

I loved Winter Ihernglass. She’s a strong female protagonist without being a “strong female protagonist.” Call me revolutionary, but I love it when authors write women as people. She works hard to pass for a man. She is strategically competent. She can fire a musket and wield a sword, but she never strays into the frigid automaton territory that often consumes “strong” heroines. She is also a caregiver, insecure, devoted to her friends, paranoid about blowing her cover, and trying desperately to cope with the crap life keeps throwing at her. Most importantly, she is defined by her circumstances and her actions, not by her relationships with men.

Colonel Janus Vhalnich was pretty awesome, as well. I have a thing for emotionally detached, scholarly, brilliant characters, and Janus struck me as particularly Holmesian. I’d say he almost seemed to be borderline Asperger’s – hyperattentive, obsessive, with some trouble expressing his interests in ways other people can understand. I was wary of the character at first, because he came off as the setup for some deus ex machina, but my fears were unfounded, and he grew into something very, very interesting. I’d like to see passages from his perspective in future books.

The system of magic was extremely cool, and treated very originally. Actually explaining why would stray into spoiler territory, though.

Lastly, I loved that, though this is the first in a series, it ended with pretty thorough closure. All the major plot points were resolved, and though the end set up the basic conflict for the next books, there’s no teeth-grindingly heinous cliffhanger. You could read it as a stand-alone.

The Bad:

The naming conventions. They felt very arbitrary to me, as though Wexler didn’t bother to assign a set of phoneme frequencies or an orthography to each culture. The Vordanai have given names like Winter, Marcus, Jen, Janus, and Fitz, while the surnames that accompany them are Ihernglass, d’Ivoire, Alhundt, bet Vhalnich, and Warus. The Khandarai are Feor and Khtoba and Onvidaer and Jaffa. Neither set of names sounds as though it can be attributed to a single language or language family, and there was no cultural information given that could explain the disconnect.

In Conclusion:

Recommended for those who dig A Song of Ice and Fire and other such military-political fantasy.

*Note: I received a free proof copy of this book and was encouraged but not required to review. Said copy, being a proof, had not undergone final edits, and was a bit typo-laden. I assume most or all such errors have been rectified in the final publication.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s a blog hop!

Elizabeth Barone, author of Crazy Comes in Threes, is hosting a Holly Jolly Blog Hop this holiday season! It’s a chance to win nifty stuff from snazzy authors, and I’ll be participating! Check out her lineup here.

I’m reading again! (Also, books you should look at.)

For pleasure!

I can’t articulate how fantastic that feels. I mean, it hadn’t been that long, in actuality, but a month and a bit feels like forever, for a book nut. (And I suppose that a writer should never admit that she doesn’t have time to read for pleasure, but bear in mind that I’m also a student, and a student has a darn lot of her own reading to do. Plus, the collected works of Maria Montessori weren’t really a drag to read, just not what I would have chosen to pick up if it were up to me.)

But the upshot is, now that I’m reading fun things, I can recommend fun things.

I’m currently working on  by Django Wexler. I understand it’s pretty hot stuff, but having been out of the scene for a while, I don’t really know what’s ‘in’, reading-wise. All I know is that high fantasy and gunpowder mix really well.

I also had an opportunity to beta-read Titan Magic: Body and Soul by Jodi Lamm some time ago. It’s not out yet, and I won’t be leaving any reviews until I’ve had a chance to read the final version, but I guarantee that I will be reading the final version, and loving it. (Body and Soul is the second book in the Titan Magic series. Pick up the first book [also called Titan Magic], first.)

And while shuffling around my local Barnes & Noble, I chanced to pick up The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. It’s a picture book, and I read it in its entirety while I stood there, and it touched me deeply, as I expect it will touch all true Book People. I set it down and walked away, but I kept coming back to it, and I finally bought it because I really didn’t have any choice in the matter. It wanted me to take it home. So I did.

Here it is! The Medium is out!

A little bit behind schedule, but I prefer to think of it as fashionably late.

The Medium is now available digitally from Amazon (and that link will take you to the page for whatever Amazon region you’re in), Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. Paperback soon to come. (And if you live in the US, go check out the Goodreads page, because there will be a giveaway for two signed paperbacks posted there at some point over the next couple of days.)

Links, blurb, and an excerpt can be found on the book page at the Books of Lost Knowledge site.

In the mean time, In the Shadow of the Mountains is on sale for $0.99 for the month of December. Purchase links can be found on the book page. As always, reviews are appreciated. (And it may take a little while for the discounts to show up; Amazon and B&N both take a while to think about any changes made.)

Go forth and read things!

EDIT: And for those interested, the giveaway is now live.

Goodreads Book Giveaway


The Medium
by M.R. Graham

Giveaway ends January 10, 2014.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter to win