Sarah Chorn's Blog, page 113

The Magicians – Lev Grossman

About the book

Quentin Coldwater is brillant but miserable. He’s a senior in high school, and a certifiable genius, but he’s still secretly obsessed with a series of fantasy novels he read as a kid, about the adventures of five children in a magical land called Fillory. Compared to that, anything in his real life just seems gray and colorless.

Everything changes when Quentin finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the practice of modern sorcery. He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. But something is still missing. Magic doesn’t bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he though it would.

Then, after graduation, he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real.

402 pages (hardcover)

Published on August 11, 2009

Author’s webpage

Click on the following link to purchase this book: The Magicians: A Novel, The Magicians: A Novel (Kindle)

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The Magicians has been on my to-read list for quite some time. I’ve seen a ton of reviews for it and somehow that converted to, “This book is overhyped. Avoid at all costs.” Finally I decided to just get over myself and read the damn thing already. I’m glad I did. The Magicians amazed me. It took one chapter for me to realize that this book was unputdownable (is that a word?).

The thing that first got me was Grossman’s captivating prose. His words fly off the pages. He uses descriptions that bring the world, plot and characters to life in such a vivid, incredible way that the line between reader and character completely blurs. Suddenly, you aren’t (insert your name here) but you are Quentin. Grossman’s ability to completely absorb the reader with his dynamic, lyrical and flowing prose will surely astound readers.

The Magicians is an interesting fantasy. While it is fantasy, I could easily see this novel attracting readers who aren’t that familiar with speculative fiction. Grossman’s writing really absorbs the reader, and Quentin is a unique, fascinating character that dreams of magic and suddenly finds himself immersed in a world where magic is very real. It’s the plight of Quentin that really makes this book shine. He’s a brooding genius who is always looking for something more, which is something everyone can relate to on some level.

Quentin has a childhood obsession which is the novels of Fillory (think The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe). Grossman uses Fillory as a really interesting focus point for readers in the fact that he really explores how books can change, impact and influence people’s lives. For an obsessive book reader, I felt that Grossman’s use of the Fillory novels was a nice spice and allowed me to understand and sympathize with Quentin in a way I probably wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.

Part of The Magicians is Quentin’s captivating coming-of-age tale. The book begins with Quentin as a senior in high school and then quickly moves to the specialty magic college he attends in upstate New York. The college is reminiscent of Harry Potter. Rules like “lights out at 11:00” make me feel like the school is geared toward a younger group than the college aged variety, but otherwise the college is a wonderful and vibrant place to watch Quentin grow from a teenager into an adult.

About halfway through The Magicians, the book takes a turn from coming-of-age with some adult Harry Potter feel to a plot steeped in fantasy. I expected this part of the book to really captivate me because I really enjoy my fantasy. That being said, I was rather surprised when I found that this was the part of the book where I struggled the most. Part of what is so compelling with The Magicians is Quentin’s struggle to find his place in the world, and that really takes a back seat when the situation dramatically changes in the second half. In fact, I was rather disappointed with how Quentin seems to be a victim of his circumstance more than the architect of his fate that he was before, and I missed that dearly.

Secondly, I felt that the secondary world lacked a well thought out feel that the first half of the book contained and I had a harder time believing in the setting or feeling as emotionally involved in the characters or situations that were introduced in this portion of The Magicians. Furthermore, while I’m sure that many of the revelations that take place toward the end of the book were supposed to be surprising, they had a rather contrived feel and lacked the element of surprise I’m sure I was meant to feel.

That being said, The Magicians is one of those books that I devoured purely because of Grossman’s incredible talent with writing. His prose are pure artistry and I devoured every last word with a voracious hunger. The plot is compelling and the plight of Quentin is surprisingly human and emotionally compelling. Though I did struggle a bit more in the second half of the book, that really didn’t dramatically impact my overall enjoyment of this book. No matter what your flavor, The Magicians has the power to dazzle you.

 

4.5/5 stars

Thoughts on Writer’s Block | Bryan Thomas Schmidt

About the author

Bryan Thomas Schmidt is the author of the space opera novels The Worker Prince, a Barnes & Noble Book Clubs Year’s Best SF Releases of 2011 Honorable Mention, and The Returning, the collection The North Star Serial, Part 1, the children’s book 102 More Hilarious Dinosaur Jokes For Kids from Delabarre Publishing and editor of the anthology Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6 which he edited for Flying Pen Press, headlined by Mike Resnick. As a freelance editor, he’s edited a novels and nonfiction.  An affiliate SFWA member, he also hosts Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Chat every Wednesday at 9 pm EST on Twitter and is a frequent contributor to Adventures In SF Publishing, Grasping For The Wind and Hugo nominee SFSignal. He can be found online as @BryanThomasS on Twitter or via www.bryanthomasschmidt.net.

Thoughts on writer’s block

I did a post on this, in fact, http://bryanthomasschmidt.net/2012/08/20/write-tip-10-tips-for-getting-through-writers-block/ where I solicited advice from SFF pros. But here’s my own approach.

1) Blocks almost always happen because you took a wrong turn. It may not be in the spot where you are stuck. Something you did earlier may be at fault. But it’s important to figure out what that is and fix it, and then you’ll be able to move on. Step outside for fresh air and take a walk. Turn off the cell. Avoid music if you can do it. Just clear your mind. Think through the plot and story. See if anything strikes you as wrong. Which points directly lead to where you are and might effect it? Don ‘t make notes. Do it all mentally, as relaxed as you can. Even if you don’t come up with an immediate solution, it gets the subconscious wheels turning to sort it out.

2) Have something else to work on. I often have short stories, blog posts, or other writing going. I have editing on another project, etc. When I get stuck on one, I move to another. Not only does it help to shift gears but psychologically it keeps you feeling positive because you’re still writing and being productive, thus cutting down on some of the stress of the block. You can’t fix it and clear your mind to do so when you’re tense, so relieving tension can be a big help to progression past it.

3) Make what notes you can on that scene and skip to another one that’s clear in your mind. The only person making you write linearly is you. No one will be the wiser. So if there’s a scene past the point where you’re blocked of which you have clear vision, hop to it. Write that. You can come back to this later. Getting beyond the block is what matters and you’ll probably figure out the stuck part as you move along.

I could go on but those are three core tricks I use. Many more, of course, can be found in the post. http://bryanthomasschmidt.net/2012/08/20/write-tip-10-tips-for-getting-through-writers-block/

Anna Dressed in Blood – Kendare Blake

About the book

Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story…

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.

316 pages (hardcover)

Published on August 30, 2011

Published by Tor

Author’s webpage

This book was send for me to review by the publisher.

You can purchase this book by clicking on the following link: Anna Dressed in Blood, Anna Dressed in Blood – Kindle

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I usually struggle a bit with young adult books, however, Anna Dressed in Blood was a book I was really excited to see in my mailbox. First of all, the title is catchy and so is the cover. But it was the idea that really caught me – a teenage boy falling for a serial killer ghost. Interesting. How on earth could an author turn something like that into a book geared toward teens?

Blake does a great job at creating a world that is both familiar and different for readers to immerse themselves in. Cas, the protagonist, moves around the country (violently) sending the ghosts that linger into the beyond. The world itself is familiar, because it’s our world. However, Blake adds a nice layer of supernatural to things with Cas’ wiccan mother and Cas himself, who can see and talk to ghosts. The normal and supernatural really blend seamlessly.

Along with this is Blake’s incredible talent for storytelling; writing for a young adult audience seems very natural to her. That’s something I struggle with regarding a lot of young adult. Some young adult books feel as though the author is struggling to address a younger audience, and that struggle causes the prose to never flow as naturally or effortlessly as Blake managed to make hers. Aside from some cheap one-liners that seemed a little easy compared to the rest of the narrative, Blake really makes Anna Dressed in Blood a true gem in the young adult genre.

Cas, Thomas, Anna and Caramel are entertaining and engaging characters to follow. Despite the fact that Anna is what she is, she’s a very unique character with a lot of depth that will tug at reader’s hearts nicely. Cas is rather complex. He lives a very layered life, and he remains true to this. On the surface, Cas is the typical emotionally wrought teenager trying to fit into a new town and a new school. It quickly becomes obvious that Cas’s life in the supernatural world affects him dramatically. He’s a little bitter, a little confused and a lot different from his fellows. On the surface he knows how to play the game, but Blake does a wonderful job at showing how conflicted he is, and how is secret life has dramatically effected him.

On the flip side of this, I did find myself lacking a bit of history or description regarding Cas’ ability to kill ghosts that I never got. Several times during Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas discusses how his family is the only family that can do what they can do in this respect. I found myself often wondering why that is the case. What makes them so unique? I never got the answers to these questions, and I missed them. A little more background with Cas and perhaps some explanation as to why he can do what he can do would have been helpful, and also would have added a bit of depth and realism to many of the situations Cas finds himself in. Another area where background would have helped was with Cas’ knife. Knowing the mythology behind it might have helped me understand why it was so incredible and why it was able to do what it did.

I think the area where this book might lose a lot of readers is regarding Anna herself, and the romance. First, let me address Anna. This book is billed to be pretty scary, and perhaps it’s just me, but I really didn’t find it scary at all. Interesting, yes. Unique and captivating, yes. Scary? No. The lack of scary might disappoint some readers. Secondly, the romance is different, and in that Blake really succeeds. This is the kind of romance you won’t see anywhere else. Is it completely believable? Not really. Anna is billed as some killer ghost, and though she does gain depth and emotionally haunting qualities as the book progresses, I’m not exactly sure where the romance was supposed to go. I had a hard time believing that Cas would fall in love with a ghost that kills people in such a violent way.

Anna Dressed in Blood is a fascinatingly unique young adult horror novel that is sure to pull at the heart strings of anyone who reads it. The book is rife with emotion, tension, and plenty of surprises. Blake’s writing, and her ability to gear a novel like this toward a younger audience as comfortably as she does should really be noted. Her blending of normal and supernatural is seamless and will engage audiences easily. However, there are flaws. The romance wasn’t completely believable, and some readers might be disappointed with how not scared they might be. I also felt that a little more background and mythology in some cases would have added a wonderful punch to the book. However, despite that, Anna Dressed in Blood is unique, believable and a young adult success.

 

3/5 stars

Thoughts on Writer’s Block | Carol Berg

About the author

Former software engineer Carol Berg never expected to become an award-winning author.  But her thirteen epic fantasy novels have won national and international awards, including multiple Colorado Book Awards and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature. She’s taught writing in the US, Canada, Scotland, and Israel, and received reader mail from the slopes of Denali to beneath the Mediterranean.  All amazing for one who majored in math and computer science to avoid writing papers.  Her novels of the Collegia Magica have received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews, using words like compelling and superbly realized.  Learn more at her website.

Thoughts on Writers Block

I would love to say my stories blossom fully formed, and the words always flow like water from a faucet, ready to fill the empty vessels of scenes and characters, ever easy to turn on and off.  But, alas, not so.

My definition of writers’ block is:  the inability to move forward, ie. produce new words, with a writing project.

Does this occasional incapacity mean I’m a bad writer?  No.  I produce books that I’m happy with.  Yet still, from time to time, I get stuck.  (It helps to know it happens to people who are much better and more experienced writers than I am!)

Does it mean I have a bad process? No.  It happens to writers who use all kinds of processes, from rigorous outlines to purest develop-as-you-go.

Does it have one particular cause?  Heck no.  Maybe we shouldn’t call it writers’ block at all, as if it is a single disease or something outside of ourselves.  Blockages stem from our own particular circumstances, and identifying the cause is the first step to getting over it.  In my case, the inability to move forward on a writing project usually has one of two causes.

First Cause: Fragmentation

Point one.  I wish I could work on multiple projects at once, but like an old dog with a bone, my brain wants to be occupied with only one story idea (or work project or remodeling job, or whatever I’m doing) at a time, and finish it before starting something else.

Point two.  I write complicated stories.  They focus on one or two principal characters, but deal with multiple plot lines and the characters’ shifting understanding of the events, mysteries, and other characters that surround them.  These stories are set against the background of great events in worlds that are not this one.  Worlds I have to invent.

Point three.  I also use what many people call an organic writing process.  (I hate the word pantser).  I begin with some very specific ideas about characters, situations, and world, but develop detailed plot, settings, and characterization as I write.

The combination of these three points means that I need extended periods of concentration to hold all these ideas in my head and produce new ideas for scenes.  When my days are chopped up by visitors, unusual business demands (eg. come up with cover suggestions for the book you haven’t half finished yet or prepare a point-of-view workshop for an upcoming writers’ conference), traveling, home projects, or even the best kinds of distractions like holidays or vacations, it limits my “clear space” for work and I often find myself unable to get moving again, even when life calms down again.

Sometimes I just have to keep inching forward for a while, defining progress as something other than new words–refining a plot idea, perhaps.  Cleaning up a scene that is rough.  Reviewing proof pages for other projects.

But when I’ve been really fragmented and progress has ground to a halt, there are two drastic things that help me get moving again.

Immersion: If I foresee a period of relative calm – like January – I do a complete reread of the “story so far” and all my pages of notes and ideas.

Displacement: I get out of my usual work space (at home).  The most effective displacement is a retreat to my favorite little hotel in the mountains with some writer friends where I have nothing to do but focus on the story. (And I have eyes to notice and voices to scoff if I sit there playing spider solitaire.)  Second best, a visit to a coffee shop with only pen and paper.

Second Cause: Wrong Turns

This is the most frequent cause of my failure to produce new words.  The way I develop my stories means I start out writing a scene–or a set of scenes–with a particular expectation of where they’re going.  But I bring in details of action and emotion, twists and turns along the way.  Sometimes, I just hit a wall.  It could be in page three or chapter 18.  I can’t push on no matter how many hours I sit at the computer.  Yes, I deny it, and continue to allow distractions like solitaire or email or facebook to hide the problem.  But once I admit that I’m stuck, I have a few tried and true strategies.  I pull out the analytical side of my brain and:

Look at structure.  Where was I last happy with the way the story was going?  Where was the last decision point?  The last plot twist?  Did I go somewhere unexpected and end up at a dead end?  Where did I veer off into the weeds?

Make lists.  Sometimes it’s simple confusion that gets in my way.  For the Collegia Magica books, the mingling of double-agent mysteries with fantasy, I had to write out parallel lists of what my investigators knew and when, what my villains knew and when, what my renegade sorcerer knew and when, and such like.  Following the threads, allowed me to figure out what was missing.  Sometimes I need to work on a timeline.  Sometimes I need to follow through what I’ve said about certain characters because I can’t figure out their motivations.

Ask questions.  Hard thinking is usually the answer to any story development problem.  If I can’t figure out where to take the story next, I try to ferret out fundamental questions of goals and motivations.  What does he want?  Why did she do that cool thing I just invented.  Whose portraits have been altered?  Maybe I’ve made the wrong person the villain.  If not the one I chose, who else might it be?  Even if you are a strict outliner, you might come to realize that the choices you made are the wrong ones.

Call for help.  Every writer should have someone – spouse, writer friend, first reader, muse – to bounce ideas off of.  It doesn’t make the work less “your own,” but serves to stimulate sticky thinking.  I am fortunate to have a most excellent friend who allows me to bombard her with the current state of my WIP, including the circumstances of the current snag.  Often it is the very act of explaining with my voice instead of my fingers on keyboard that allows me to see the problem.  Sometimes it is the simple questions she asks that illuminate the dilemma.  “But what if it wasn’t?” or “Is that the only reason he chose that way?”

And very often, I find that the answers and insights I gain from this hard thinking, are exactly what I need to take the story to a higher level.

Good luck with your own blocks.  Happy writing!

The Last Page – Anthony Huso

About the book

The city of Isca is set like a dark jewel in the crown of the Duchy of Stonehold. In this sprawling landscape, the monsters one sees are nothing compared to what’s living in the city’s sewers.

Twenty-three-year-old Caliph Howl is Stonehold’s reluctant High King. Thrust onto the throne, Caliph has inherited Stonehold’s dirtiest court secrets. He also faces a brewing civil war that he is unprepared to fight. After months alone amid a swirl of gossip and political machinations, the sudden reappearance of his old lover, Sena, is a welcome bit of relief. But Sena has her own legacy to claim: she has been trained from birth by the Shradnae witchocracy—adept in espionage and the art of magical equations writ in blood—and she has been sent to spy on the High King.

Yet there are magics that demand a higher price than blood. Sena secretly plots to unlock the Cisrym Ta, an arcane text whose pages contain the power to destroy worlds. The key to opening the book lies in Caliph’s veins, forcing Sena to decide if her obsession for power is greater than her love for Caliph.

Meanwhile, a fleet of airships creeps ever closer to Isca. As the final battle in a devastating civil war looms and the last page of the Cisrym Ta waits to be read, Caliph and Sena must face the deadly consequences of their decisions. And the blood of these conflicts will stain this and other worlds forever.

431 pages (Hardcover)

Published on August 17, 2010

Published by Tor

Author’s Webpage

Click on the following link to purchase this book: The Last Page

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The Last Page is a book I kept putting off reading. Then Tor sent me the other book in that series, The Black Bottle, and I figured it was time to start reading the series I kept putting off. I didn’t put off reading The Last Page for any real reason. I just never seemed to get around to it. So this was the push I needed, and I’m glad I got it.

The Last Page is a little steampunk and a lot of epic fantasy complete with witches, kingdoms, and trains. Glen Cook described this novel as “science fantasy” and that’s really an accurate description, as it seems to blend two very different genres almost seamlessly. If you are one of those speculative fiction readers who is constantly looking for something new and different, The Last Page will probably fit your bill based on the worldbuilding alone.

The Last Page opens up with Caliph Howl, a young student at a university who is called away to be the king of Isca, a position he really doesn’t want. Caliph meets Sena, another student who also has a unique story and the two quickly form a bond. Now, it should be noted that part of this book is a love story of sorts, and that’s pretty much expected. However, despite the romance in the plot, Huso really does a good job at downplaying it a bit. There are other factors that impact this relationship. Besides that, Huso keeps the relationship’s development and evolution over the progress of the novel very natural and believable.

In some ways, Caliph Howl reminds me a little bit of Jorg in Prince of Thorns, only without all of the madness. Caliph is an incredibly intelligent character who is thrust into a role he doesn’t want. He deals with this masterfully, by making mistakes but learning from them. He’s proud and rather sure of himself in many ways, but Huso also shows the character’s more fragile moments while he deals with issues weightier than he is prepared to deal with.

Sena, on the other hand, took some time for me to warm up to. She’s a bit of a mystery and part of this is due to the language that Huso uses frequently in her sections (also used frequently elsewhere, but I seemed to struggle with her language more than the others). Huso created a vibrant and wonderful world, and along with that he created very unique languages, some of which require footnotes to understand what the words mean. While this is fine, I felt that it did impact how I related to Sena especially, as I frequently had to look at footnotes to understand portions of her activities.

The invented languages that Huso uses are wonderful and add a real unique flavor to the world as a whole, but it can also be incredibly frustrating. There were words whose meanings I never figured out thoughout the book, and I found myself frustrated with having to look at footnotes frequently. On the one hand, Huso is a genius worldbuilder and his languages really underscore that. On the other, I kept wondering when inventive ends and annoyance beings.

It should also be noted that, on occasion, Huso can dip into quite a bit of detail dealing with machines and things of that nature. While fans of K.J. Parker will probably be used to this and rather unfazed by it, other readers might find the extensive detail a bit much.

Despite the issues with language and excessive details with machinery and inventions, The Last Page was a real page-turner, which made me wonder why I put off reading it so long. It’s filled with complex politics, a bit of a mystery, some war, and some romance thrown in for good measure. However, aside from all of that, where The Last Page really shines is the characters, and the marvelous way Huso develops and builds them with added complexity along with the plot. The Last Page is sure to please.

 

4/5 stars