Sarah Chorn's Blog, page 75

GUEST POST | Mazarkis Williams on Writing a Series, Gaming, and Slaying Dragons

Mazarkis Williams is finishing up her first series, and I am a huge fan of her as a person and as an author. I asked if she would be kind enough to grace my dusty corner of the internet with a guest post, and she kindly said yes. I’m thrilled to have her, and I hope you enjoy what she’s written as much as I have.

About the Author

Mazarkis Williams is a writer with roots in both the US and the UK, having worked in and been educated in both countries. Each year is divided between Boston and Bristol and a teleport booth is always top of the Christmas wish-list.

Mazarkis has degrees in history and physics, and a diverse set of interests accumulated while mispending a hectic youth. Cooking has always been a passion, and in addition to feeding six children and a sizeable herd of cats, Mazarkis regularly caters for crowds of permanently hungry friends.The Tower Broken was recently released and is the third, and final, book of her Tower and Knife trilogy.

Click here to visit her Facebook page, and here for Twitter.

—

There came a time, when I was finishing the Tower & Knife trilogy with The Tower Broken, when I realized I just wanted to slap all the characters and make them cooperate. From the high priest of the dark god, to the scheming general, to the displaced duke, to the charismatic leader of an outlawed religion, they all wanted something different – and some of their hostilities ran deep. At the same time there was a bigger problem to be solved, and none of them could save the world alone. I had to figure out how to make it all work. But how?

I believe I have mentioned a few times that I’m in a gaming group. We have been playing the same game consistently for eighteen or nineteen years. While some have joined and others have bowed out, the core group has been together a long time. I don’t have a lot of experience with other gaming groups – there is only one other game I ever played regularly before this one – but I think we are unique in that our characters often don’t like one another or are even actively opposed to one another.

Our gaming system comes with a Game Master Guide which helpfully describes all the different types of players. You are meant to think, which one of my players is the eagle? Which is the turtle? Which is the cow? Which is the magpie? But in our group, we are all eagles and magpies.

A couple of weeks ago I finally stated the obvious. At the end of a session, I looked around at the group and said what we had all known for a long time: “Not a single one of us sitting around this table is a follower.” Each of us thinks we know best; each of us chafes under the direction of others. Yet somehow we always arrive at a kind of haphazard success.

Take this, for example. Some of us had to talk to a mage about a thing. But she was obviously under the mind control of a dragon, and somewhat insane to boot. So we had to “subdue” her. Subduing, for us, is never easy. Usually the person ends up … shall I say, overly subdued. But this was different! Our mage had “charm” spells! Sleep spells! We had a guy with a magic sword who could make everyone calm down and stop fighting! … Except she kept resisting everything. We could not cast a spell on her at all, and she kept yelling and threatening us, so some of our group (who did not need to talk to her about anything) started attacking. Cue the confusing scene in which some of us are trying desperately to coax her while others are hitting her with the magical equivalent of tiny cannon balls.

So what had been a united fight to get her to answer some questions became a race against cumulative damage. In a desperate move to get her to drop before she was killed, my character tossed a magic coin that would suck the oxygen out of the entire area … knocking all of us out (except for the half orc, who can go for a long time without breathing). By some miracle, she dropped first. Well, after the guy with the magic sword, I think.

That’s how we play. So imagine our greater adventure, in which the detective had orders to kill someone; the scholar was recruiting people into a super-secret do-gooder network; the rogue was collecting money for a shady criminal organization;  the mage came to aid an underground rebellion; and finally, the minstrel was having disturbing dreams about bringing some unknown entity into being. Our gods are opposed to each other. Some of us have bitter histories. We never share all the information. But we also had to find, stalk, and coordinate an attack on a dragon.

So just as in Tower Broken, we have to wonder, how will this get done? Usually our characters just move towards their own goals until someone else steps in the way. Sometimes we take care of business secretly so nobody can step in our way. We don’t always care, or even want to know, what the others need to get done. But it is not all disaster. We are capable of talking, smoothing feathers, and compromising – that is, until someone gets impatient and starts barking out orders. Some of us might try to overwhelm the others with pure charm or reason, and if that fails, there is the last-ditch dramatic gesture. Dramatic gestures really count, and can get people to agree to things they might not have. Whatever we do, one thing I know: there will always come a moment when our group is (briefly) united.

So it was with these methods I learned from gaming that I got everyone in Tower Broken working towards their goals with at least some allies (the specifics of which I can’t reveal without spoilers). The book has some negotiating. It has some barking of orders. It has some obstinacy and some sneaking around, some charm and some reason. And it has its grand dramatic gestures. I think that, as a whole, if I didn’t belong to a happily dysfunctional gaming group, I would not have got it done. While it doesn’t read like a gaming story, on one level, that’s what it is. I hope you enjoy it.

Oh, and by the way, we killed the dragon.

Books I’m Eyeing

This week the genre has been reeling from the loss of Jay Lake. This has really inspired some authors in the genre to reach out and help any way they can. Ari Marmell is doing something very cool, and Michael J. Sullivan is doing a Ride to Conquer Cancer. It profoundly moves me to see these two authors who have inspired me so much, do what they can to help those who need it. It never ceases to amaze me how this genre reaches out to help those in need when the going gets tough. Regardless of our differences, we are a sort of odd, crazy, argumentative, powerful family.

I am giving away two copies of The Dark Between the Stars, and the winner was chosen for The Severed Streets. I’m just waiting for a response on that one before I announce who it is.

Otherwise, it’s been a kind of quiet week. I’m waiting to hear from the hospital regarding my next test, so I’ve been reading a lot and trying not to think much. As an added bonus, I managed to get stressed, which led to me getting some kind of plague. I kind of sound like a reptile right now. Oh well.

I wrote this post on Sunday. Currently I’m waiting for some tests, which is loads and loads of fun. I am dealing with it as well as I can. People at work are wonderful, and it’s nice to have a job to take my mind off of it. My family has been very supportive. It’s just a waiting game right now. I’m holding it together better than I expected (minus the stress). I’m focusing on the small things, and books. Books help a lot.

The wonderful people on the Three Hoarsemen podcast said some things that made me cry (in a good way).

Anyway, I’ve been reading a lot of The Dark Between the Stars, and I’m loving it. I really enjoy Anderson’s writing style, and it’s nice to be back in that world. The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley is… wow. Just wow. And I’m moving right along with The Boost by Stephen Baker. I am a total sucker for a good social SciFi, and I’m really into this one. The library just called today with The Martian and the new Nancy Kress book, so those will be added to my pile soon.

—

Here are the books I’m eyeing this week. What books are you eyeing?

—

Long Hidden, Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History – Edited by Rose Fox & Daniel Jose Older

Discovery blamed on: Little Red Reviewer

About the Book

In 1514 Hungary, peasants who rose up against the nobility rise again – from the grave. In 1633 Al-Shouf, a mother keeps demons at bay with the combined power of grief and music. In 1775 Paris, as social tensions come to a boil, a courtesan tries to save the woman she loves. In 1838 Georgia, a pregnant woman’s desperate escape from slavery comes with a terrible price. In 1900 Ilocos Norte, a forest spirit helps a young girl defend her land from American occupiers. 

These gripping stories have been passed down through the generations, hidden between the lines of journal entries and love letters. Now 27 of today’s finest authors – including Tananarive Due, Sofia Samatar, Ken Liu, Victor LaValle, Nnedi Okorafor, and Sabrina Vourvoulias – reveal the people whose lives have been pushed to the margins of history.

—

The Devil in Marshalsea – Antonia Hodgson 

Discovery blamed on: A Fantastical Librarian

About the Book

It’s 1727. Tom Hawkins is damned if he’s going to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a country parson. Not for him a quiet life of prayer and propriety. His preference is for wine, women, and cards. But there’s a sense of honor there too, and Tom won’t pull family strings to get himself out of debt—not even when faced with the appalling horrors of London’s notorious debtors’ prison: The Marshalsea Gaol.

Within moments of his arrival in the Marshalsea, Hawkins learns there’s a murderer on the loose, a ghost is haunting the gaol, and that he’ll have to scrounge up the money to pay for his food, bed, and drink. He’s quick to accept an offer of free room and board from the mysterious Samuel Fleet—only to find out just hours later that it was Fleet’s last roommate who turned up dead. Tom’s choice is clear: get to the truth of the murder—or be the next to die.

—

Motherless Child – Glen Hirshberg

Discovery blamed on: SF Signal

About the Book

In his powerful novel, Motherless Child, Bram Stoker Award–nominee Glen Hirshberg, author of the International Horror Guild Award–winningAmerican Morons, exposes the fallacy of the Twilight-style romantic vampire while capturing the heart of every reader.

It’s the thrill of a lifetime when Sophie and Natalie, single mothers living in a trailer park in North Carolina, meet their idol, the mysterious musician known only as “the Whistler.” Morning finds them covered with dried blood, their clothing shredded and their memories hazy. Things soon become horrifyingly clear: the Whistler is a vampire and Natalie and Sophie are his latest victims. The young women leave their babies with Natalie’s mother and hit the road, determined not to give in to their unnatural desires.

Hunger and desire make a powerful couple. So do the Whistler and his Mother, who are searching for Sophie and Natalie with the help of Twitter and the musician’s many fans. The violent, emotionally moving showdown between two who should be victims and two who should be monsters will leave readers gasping in fear and delight.

Originally published in a sold-out, limited edition, Motherless Child is an extraordinary Southern horror novel that Tor Books is proud to bring to a wider audience.

—

Tigerman – Nick Harkaway

Discovery blamed on: The Speculative Scotsman

About the Book

Lester Ferris, sergeant of the British Army, is a good man in need of a rest. He’s spent a lot of his life being shot at, and Afghanistan was the last stop on his road to exhaustion. He has no family, he’s nearly forty, burned out and about to be retired.

The island of Mancreu is the ideal place for Lester to serve out his time. It’s a former British colony in legal limbo, soon to be destroyed because of its very special version of toxic pollution – a down-at-heel, mildly larcenous backwater. Of course, that also makes Mancreu perfect for shady business, hence the Black Fleet of illicit ships lurking in the bay: listening stations, offshore hospitals, money laundering operations, drug factories and deniable torture centres. None of which should be a problem, because Lester’s brief is to sit tight and turn a blind eye.

But Lester Ferris has made a friend: a brilliant, internet-addled street kid with a comic book fixation who will need a home when the island dies – who might, Lester hopes, become an adopted son. Now, as Mancreu’s small society tumbles into violence, the boy needs Lester to be more than just an observer.

In the name of paternal love, Lester Ferris will do almost anything. And he’s a soldier with a knack for bad places: ‘almost anything’ could be a very great deal – even becoming some sort of hero. But this is Mancreu, and everything here is upside down. Just exactly what sort of hero will the boy need?

—

Bird Box – Josh Malerman 

Discovery blamed on: Little Red Reviewer

About the Book

Most people ignored the outrageous reports on the news. But they became too frequent, they became too real. And soon, they began happening down the street. Then the Internet died. The television and radio went silent. The phones stopped ringing. And we couldn’t look outside anymore. Malorie raises the children the only way she can; indoors. The house is quiet. The doors are locked, the curtains are closed, mattresses are nailed over the windows. They are out there. She might let them in. The children sleep in the bedroom across the hall. Soon she will have to wake them. Soon she will have to blindfold them. Today they must leave the house. Today they will risk everything.

GIVEAWAY [USA/CANADA] The Dark Between the Stars – Kevin J. Anderson

I jumped on the bandwagon for this book late. I have no idea how I missed the fact that Kevin J. Anderson is writing another series set in his Saga of the Seven Suns world, but I did. I punished myself for it mightily.

The Saga of the Seven Suns, for those of you who pretend to care, is the very first science fiction series I ever read. Ever. I absolutely loved it. L-O-V-E-D I-T. This is the series that showed me that SciFi isn’t intimidating. Science fiction is accessible, and it can be thought provoking and fun while it blows your mind with its vastness. Anderson got me to think outside the box, and he made me daring enough to want to try more science fiction. From Anderson, I went straight to Peter F. Hamilton. Anderson did a wonderful job at presenting a future, sprawling universe with complex cultures and fascinating clashes of civilizations in a way that made me hungry for more.

When I noticed (last week) that he was writing another spinoff series set in this universe, I think I started salivating. I have a real soft spot for the “very first” authors and books that got me into this genre that devours so much of my time. And I still love Anderson’s writing. I was beyond excited about the opportunity to get back into this universe that impacted me so much.

I am pleased to announce that Tor sent me a review copy of this book. I am currently reading (read: devouring) it and I’m absolutely loving it.

I am also thrilled to tell you that Tor is letting me do a giveaway for The Dark Between the Stars, to two lucky winners. Here are the rules: 

1. Giveaway is open to residents of the United States and Canada.

2. This giveaway is open for entries until midnight, Mountain Time, on Monday, June 16. 

3. You can enter by leaving a comment under this post. 

Note: You may only enter once. Also, due to the fact that my website has a spam filter (me), if your post doesn’t show automatically, it’s waiting for me to approve it. Be patient. I’ll get there soon. 

4. The winner will be randomly chosen and notified by email. You have 48 hours to respond to my email before I choose someone else. 

Good luck to all who enter! 

(One last note: While I don’t think it is absolutely necessary for readers to have read The Saga of the Seven Suns before they read this book, I will say that having read that series first will dramatically impact the enjoyment/understanding of The Dark Between the Stars. Many of the characters are revisited, and it helps to understand the previous conflict(s) because it (/they) is(are) referenced a lot.)

 

An Ode to Miriam Black

DISCLAIMER

This isn’t a review. I sat down and started to write a review for The Cormorant, and quickly it turned into an ode to Miriam Black and Chuck Wendig.

Then I went on Goodreads and saw that, while I thought this was a trilogy, there is a fourth book planned? I probably missed the news somewhere along the way. Anyway, I have to go to bed and I don’t have time to edit this so it doesn’t read like I don’t know what I’m talking about.

Enjoy a peek into my sleep-deprived mind. Here’s how I think of books… before I boil those thoughts down into a review. Also sans editing. Remember that last bit.

UNCENSORED SARAH.

BRACE YOURSELVES.

I don’t know what this rambling diatribe is. I hope you enjoy it anyway.

—

I bought The Cormorant as soon as I could. I put off reading it as long as possible. I refused to review it until now. Why? Because this series was so incredible it hurt. Miriam Black is one of my favorite characters in the history of ever. Her story is so captivating, and so deliciously raw. I didn’t want it to end.

Goddamn it, Chuck. Why did it have to end?!

The thing about Wendig is, he’s crazy talented, and he is not afraid of the darker side of human nature. Indeed, he seems to flourish there. Take a character and twist them, then add some Wendigian darkness and humor and you have… well, something only Chuck Wendig can write.

Miriam has always been a rather dark, tortured, tormented character, and that’s a big reason behind why I love her so much. She has no filter, and life has done her no favors. The moments where the rest of us think, “I probably shouldn’t say that out loud,” Miriam Black says it out loud. It’s a twisted, delightful, and absolutely candid character study.

It’s rare that a book or series focuses on the mental backlash a person would have if they carried these extra, supernatural abilities with them. Most urban fantasy books are full of characters who were born with these super abilities, and they carry along like all is normal. No therapy needed. Of course, there are those characters who do suffer from some stress, some inconvenience, some life abnormalities. But none of them, as far as I’ve run across, are quite as challenged emotionally and socially as Miriam Black.

It is an ode to Wendig’s incredible talent that Miriam Black manages to be both captivating and repulsive at the same time. It also says a lot for the author that he is willing, and thrives, when he gets into the darker recesses of what a talent like Miriam’s would do to a person. She’s been twisted by life, and Wendig isn’t afraid to show his readers just how twisted. He ventures where many authors wouldn’t dare.

And oh, how I love it.

The books in this series are short and sweet, quick to sink into and ending way too soon. The plot continues at its incredible pace, and Miriam never stops developing. Wendig’s writing is raw and to the point, but there are a ton of quotable passages, and hilarity throughout. The darkness and the humor balance each other out nicely throughout the series.

So, what’s the problem? Why have I put off reading and reviewing this last book?

Well, as with The Eternal Sky trilogy by Elizabeth Bear, I just didn’t want it to end. That last book tied up ends nicely, and it left enough room for Wendig to comfortably return to Miriam Black and the world he has created. I want him to very badly.

That’s why I didn’t want to read The Cormorant.

I didn’t want to review it (and I’m not really reviewing anything here) for a completely different reason.

I don’t know how to put into words how absolutely genius I think Miriam Black is, and I hate reviewing the last books in a trilogy because how in the hell am I supposed to do that without giving anything away?

Books in a series usually wind down toward the end. There’s the middle-of-the-series hump where everything feels like it’s a bridge to something grand but there’s really no point. Then there’s the end book, where the author and readers are holding their breath and waiting for that last 100 page HOLY SHIT that the series has been slowly building toward.

Wendig’s series didn’t follow that path. Each book was fairly self contained (thought you do need to read previous books before you read this one). The books all nicely built off the previous one. Each installment in the series develops the characters further. The world, while remaining fairly narrow and focused throughout the series, gains some depth and quality that it lacked in the previous books. This trilogy is one of those rare trilogies that builds itself in layers in every aspect. Miriam, oh, darling Miriam. What can I possibly say about her? Dark, tortured, and so painfully real. Miriam made my heart hurt and my head throb. She made me really think about just how these gifts that we read about so often in speculative fiction, would psychologically make a mark. Miriam Black made me think about SpecFic differently.

Wendig made that possible.

Because Chuck Wendig is a freaking genius.

Miriam Black is like cake. Only this cake isn’t sweet, and there’s no frosting, and no filler – but you can’t stop eating it. It is absolutely impossible to get enough.

The Three – Sarah Lotz

About the Book

Four simultaneous plane crashes. Three child survivors. A religious fanatic who insists the three are harbingers of the apocalypse. What if he’s right?

The world is stunned when four commuter planes crash within hours of each other on different continents. Facing global panic, officials are under pressure to find the causes. With terrorist attacks and environmental factors ruled out, there doesn’t appear to be a correlation between the crashes, except that in three of the four air disasters a child survivor is found in the wreckage.

Dubbed ‘The Three’ by the international press, the children all exhibit disturbing behavioural problems, presumably caused by the horror they lived through and the unrelenting press attention. This attention becomes more than just intrusive when a rapture cult led by a charismatic evangelical minister insists that the survivors are three of the four harbingers of the apocalypse. The Three are forced to go into hiding, but as the children’s behaviour becomes increasingly disturbing, even their guardians begin to question their miraculous survival.

480 pages (Hardcover)

Published on May 20, 2014

Published by Little, Brown and Company

Author’s webpage

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

—

Horror is a genre I struggle with. The things that are supposed to scare me, don’t. I never really jump and scream. Books don’t keep me up at night unless they are too good to put down. I don’t have nightmares. I don’t feel scared. In a genre that I read to feel scared, the not-feeling-scared thing is a huge letdown, so I just don’t do it.

Except, however, for those books that aren’t scary in the slasher-movie way, but scary because they get into your psyche and weird you out in profound ways. My health education background makes books dealing with diseases, the contracting and spreading of them, and the annihilation of societies absolutely soul-jarring, and thus, scary.

But it’s a different kind of scary, because epidemics could happen. People will have to react to said epidemic, and the believability of those plots hooks me and really twists me in the ways I like horror to twist me.

The Three is one of those kinds of horror books. Things don’t jump out and say, “Boo!” However, things happen, and slowly twist, and the dark plot gets darker and darker, and more psychological as it progresses. Furthermore, The Three takes place all over the world, with focus in many major world cultures. That’s both refreshing, but also unique. Most horror books I read are located in one specific area. Readers never really find out what’s happening in the rest of the world. Lotz obviously decided that the world is a big place, so it’s time for someone (her) to show just how psychological and global an incident could be. Everyone is effected, not just a group of people in (insert country/geographical location here).

The Three does have some speculative aspects, but by and large, the “creepy” part of the plot is the plane crashes themselves, and the things that unfold after the planes have crashed. Yes, some rather beyond-reality things happen, but the human dynamic is creepy enough. The Three is absolutely human in so many ways. The cultures are real and obviously well researched. The world is ours, but Lotz really worked hard to make it believable in the context of the events that transpire. She takes advantage of social media, and instant news. The global sharing of information is both a positive quality for those impacted by what happens, and a negative in the fact that it helps events and understandings spiral before people even realize they’ve spiraled.

All in all, the world was absolutely incredible, and the research that went into crafting it, and all the real world cultures, boggles my mind.

It’s the way the story is told that really got my attention instantly. This isn’t really told from any one person’s perspective, nor any two people’s perspectives. In respect to the globalization and instant information point I made above, Lotz capitalizes on it ten fold by making news the way she tells the story.  This book is told from bits and pieces of interviews, news articles, conversations, eye witness reports, internet conversations in chatrooms and whatever else you can possibly think of. There aren’t any main points of view, so readers don’t really get too engaged with any one person. You’d think that’s a bad thing, but in reality, it just made this book so much more fascinating. It was so incredibly thought provoking and interesting to see how the people who aren’t really directly involved in a situation, but are somewhere outside of direct events (and usually aren’t even related to each other), can compile one cohesive, interesting, and believable story.

However, this adds to another import aspect of Lotz’s book. Have you ever played the game Telephone? You whisper a word or sentence and it is whispered down a line of kids, by the time it’s at the end of the line, the word/sentence has changed in unbelievable ways. There’s some doubt about what was first said, and what the word/phrase ended up as.

Well, that’s also a huge part of Lotz’s book. The way she tells the story keeps readers wondering just how much of the outsider’s information and perspectives are actually true, and how much has been changed and altered by time, misunderstandings, and whatever other human conditions typically warp stories. It’s really well done, and adds a dark and uncertain note to a story that is already so unique, so human, and so dark and delicious.

The plot moves really fast, and it will take readers almost no time at all to get used to this absolutely captivating way of telling a story. The Three is equal parts creepy and genius. I was absolutely captivated by it. This is an absolutely human book. It’s raw, and real, and believable. The research that went into it is staggering. The writing is fluid and perfect. The developments are surprising. The characters, the incident, the impact it had on the world, kept me engaged because it felt so real to me. This isn’t just some book about some obscure thing that happened somewhere. This is a book that felt like it was happening to me right now. Furthermore, The Three is shockingly thought provoking for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the way Lotz chose to tell the story.

Basically, what I’m getting at, is this book blew me away. I couldn’t stop reading it. I still can’t stop thinking about it. I don’t really like horror books, but this is an example of horror done right.

Wow. Just wow.

 

5/5 stars

Prince of Fools – Mark Lawrence

About the Book

Hailed as “epic fantasy on a George R. R. Martin scale, but on speed” (Fixed on Fantasy), the Broken Empire trilogy introduced a bold new world of dark fantasy with the story of Jorg Ancrath’s devastating rise to power. Now, Mark Lawrence returns to the Broken Empire with the tale of a less ambitious prince…

The Red Queen is old but the kings of the Broken Empire dread her like no other. For all her reign, she has fought the long war, contested in secret, against the powers that stand behind nations, for higher stakes than land or gold. Her greatest weapon is The Silent Sister—unseen by most and unspoken of by all.

The Red Queen’s grandson, Prince Jalan Kendeth—drinker, gambler, seducer of women—is one who can see The Silent Sister. Tenth in line for the throne and content with his role as a minor royal, he pretends that the hideous crone is not there. But war is coming. Witnesses claim an undead army is on the march, and the Red Queen has called on her family to defend the realm. Jal thinks it’s all a rumor—nothing that will affect him—but he is wrong.

After escaping a death trap set by the Silent Sister, Jal finds his fate magically intertwined with a fierce Norse warrior. As the two undertake a journey across the Empire to undo the spell, encountering grave dangers, willing women, and an upstart prince named Jorg Ancrath along the way, Jalan gradually catches a glimmer of the truth: he and the Norseman are but pieces in a game, part of a series of moves in the long war—and the Red Queen controls the board.

 

368 pages (hardcover)

Published on June 3, 2014

Published by Ace

Author’s webpage

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

—

Lawrence established himself as a force to be reckoned with when he wrote his books about Jorg. Dark, captivating, and absolutely addicting, he managed to write something new and completely different in one of the most layered, dark worlds I’ve run across in fantasy in a long time.

I was thrilled when I heard he was writing a new series, but less thrilled when I learned it took place in the same world. I was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to break away from the Jorg-like voice from his previous series. I was afraid that it would feel very same-old-same-old. Jorg 2.0, if you will.

Never fear, dear readers. If you were afraid that Lawrence wouldn’t be able to break away from Jorg, his voice, his tone, then you’re completely wrong.

The world that Lawrence has created is so vast, and so full of complex cultures and sprawling history, that it is easy to picture him setting another series of books in it. There’s plenty of room for everyone to play. The book is centered in different locations, with the protagonist, Jalan, only converging with some characters from Jorg’s books briefly. Furthermore, it was very refreshing to see how Lawrence expanded his world rather than treading too far in lands and cultures that we’ve run across before. The map is large, and it feels large, because readers will experience so much of it.

That being said, I found Lawrence’s brief encounters with a few characters from his previous books to be a delightful addition. New readers will easily be able to pick up this book and start fresh without being confused or lost. Readers who are returning to this delightful world will find the encounters with people we’ve met before to be endearing and a nice, soft touch to a new series. It reminds readers that this world has already been developed, while giving some perspective as to just how Jalan fits with everything we’ve already read about. It’s well done, but it’s not oppressive.

Jalan himself is a character I instantly fell in love with, for several reasons. First, his voice is so completely different than Jorg’s voice ever was. Jalan loves himself. This guy thinks he is the shit, and he is also keenly aware of his failings. He cuts corners, cheats, steals, and tries to get to the best end the easiest ways. He’s not afraid to use his princely status to gain the results he wants the easiest way possible. He enjoys his vices, and sees no problem with gambling, whoring, or anything else. Basically, Jalan is a gutter rat in a prince’s high position. It’s a fantastic juxtaposition of traits, and Lawrence really does it well. Jalan is a bright, almost oblivious character, and he’s absolutely addicting for it.

Jalan’s own bright and rather humorous personality is nicely balanced by Snorri, who is a man with the worries of the world on his shoulders. The dark sorcery that  ties the two of them together is fantastic, and very true to the darker characteristic’s of Lawrence’s world. Furthermore, this dark sorcery, and the long journey these two (nearly complete) strangers are forced to undertake together strikes off some absolutely awesome personal growth for both characters, and their relationship to each other. While Snorri is darker than Jalan, they both have their demons they are fighting, and they both face these demons in very different ways. I appreciate balance in my books, and Lawrence’s balance between dark and light is perfect, and deep, and fascinating.

The plot moves really quickly, and Jalan is such a fun character to learn about and engage with, that even the slower moments are fast feeling. The world is large, and the action is almost nonstop. There are twists and turns, and plenty of unexpected moments throughout. The ending is perfect to tie up the events that happened, while leaving readers hanging on for more. I enjoyed the fact that Lawrence managed to keep me guessing throughout, but reveled information (and questions) at a nearly perfect pace. He’s learned a lot in his time as an author, and he really pulls out all the stops with Prince of Fools.

Lawrence is an author that matters in the genre. He is powerful and his writing is unique. I honestly wish I had a fraction of his talent with word manipulation. Jorg was a huge chance he took that paid off in a big way. Jalan is a completely and absolutely different sort of character that is just as addicting as Jorg for very different reasons. Prince of Fools is a fun, fast, dark, and deceptively deep book that will engage readers instantly. All of the Lawrence trademarks are here. This book is full of quotable passages; the characters are a fascinating mix of dark and light. There’s optimism here, but it’s sort of hidden around the edges. The personal growth the characters undergo is just as interesting as unfolding plot. It’s completely Lawrence, but absolutely different from his previous series. New readers will be delighted, and the tried-and-true fans will be immensely pleased.

Congratulations, Lawrence, you’ve hit another homerun.

 

5/5 stars

Cancer. It’s on my mind.

Life is measured by a series of moments.

Today, Jay Lake died. Yesterday I was diagnosed with cancer for the third time.

I never met Jay Lake in person, and we had a grand total of three or four private conversations. However, he wrote this post for my Special Needs in Strange Worlds series when I first started it on my website and I loved him for it, especially since he was just about to start another round of treatment. He didn’t have to do it. He probably didn’t have the energy to do it, but he did it anyway, and it has been one of my favorite posts because of that.

I read his books. I loved his writing. I appreciated his impact on the genre, and I took his very public battle with cancer as a lesson for how I’d handle my own. The man was a true inspiration in every sense of the word, and his loss will be felt keenly, even by those who never knew him personally.

In recent months, Lake’s battle with cancer has taken on a more somber tone. Cancer had him in its grips, and many of his posts and comments were very introspective and often moved me to tears, because they resonated with me so profoundly. Our cancers are very different, but in many ways, the emotional struggles a cancer patient feels are very similar. It was fantastic that he was giving my own personal thoughts and feelings such a loud, powerful, and attention-grabbing voice.

Yesterday I spent two hours talking to my neighbor, who is going through chemo and radiation for breast cancer. I sat her down in my kitchen, we ate half a cake and talked about the emotional battles we are going through. There are some emotions a cancer patient feels that no one but another cancer patient can understand and it is nice to share those emotions. She told me at one point, “I hear people complain about being bored, or hating work, and I just want to scream. I’d give anything to be bored or hate work. They don’t realize how lucky they are.”

Cancer is a horrible thief that sneaks into your most private places and steals the things you love the most. They are gone before you even realize it. Cancer has the power to take your health, your hope, your happiness, your innocence, and your life.

Some of the things that cancer takes are absolutely impossible to ignore. Regardless of what my PET scan comes back with, I will, in some ways, lose my health. I know it. I am emotionally preparing for it. It’s horrible, and absolutely terrifying, but it will happen.

Other things that cancer takes, your happiness and your hope, your innocence regarding the fragility of life, are optional.

The first time I went through cancer, I was fighting it while I was pregnant, and I think it was some of the hardest, emotionally raw times I’ve ever been through. I still don’t know how I survived, and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I probably have some PTSD from it all. The second time I was incredibly depressed and that depression absolutely overwhelmed me and launched me into this realm of hopelessness and anger I didn’t know existed before. On Friday when the bad news started to roll in, I drove around my city for an hour and a half pulling into random parking lots when I was crying too hard to see the road. Yesterday I got my blood work done and my doctor officially moved my status from an “inactive” cancer patient to an “active” cancer patient.

Today Jay Lake died.

All I can think about is some of the things Jay has said in past months. So much of how we handle these horrible things that happen to us is a choice. We can either let life beat us down and break us, or we can accept the burden on our shoulders, and try to walk through those dark valleys as unbowed as we possibly can. Jay gave cancer a hell of a run, and I admire him for it. I admire, more, how he never seemed to let it steal his soul. He remained a shining light throughout, and a true inspiration for me during my own impending battle.

I made an important decision yesterday. My husband was working so I spent the day with my two-year-old, the one who, despite all odds, is perfectly happy and healthy despite the fact that she fought cancer with me before she was even born. I spent the day with her, we sang silly songs and played games and had a lot of fun. I realized that cancer can have my neck. It can, for a time, steal my health. I know it will, occasionally, impact my happiness, but I will never let it steal my soul.

I have a hard time going on Twitter these days. I interact less and less with some people in the genre, not because I don’t admire and respect them, but because the small squabbles and the constant petty drama that circles is just exhausting. I’m in speculative fiction because I love it. I love the authors, and the power they can bring to me with their crafty use of words. I love the way these books make me think and feel. I love the fact that, no matter what, this genre always pulls together and pushes each other to be better. I love how friends are made, and kept, and loved. I love how SpecFic challenges our world, and our own predispositions. I love how this progressive genre is always fighting for the rights of someone, whether it be women, or races, or sexuality. Someone always has a voice, and is always empowered enough to make their voice be heard.

But, as with any group, there is always petty drama, small backbiting conflicts that just exhaust me. There are power struggles and underhanded maneuvers. There are people who would do anything for some limelight, and people who would do anything to undermine others who are “more popular.”

It exhausts me. I don’t know how people find the energy. Life is so fragile, so small, and so beautiful. We should cherish the beauty, not focus on the schisms, and poke them to make them larger.

I regret the fact that it has taken me three diagnoses with cancer to realize that life is a series of small things that matter so much, and even smaller things that shouldn’t matter at all, intermixed with some large glorious, and soul-wrenching moments. Life is defined by how we choose to approach it, and fighters like Jay Lake have shown just how incredible and powerful a life can be when a person chooses honesty, compassion, and positivity over the negative. Lake had some serious dark moments, but who wouldn’t? What really impressed me was how his positivity, and his introspective life observations far outweighed any negativity.

Cancer is a thief, and it has the potential to steal everything.

If you let it.

Yesterday I was diagnosed with cancer again. Today, Jay Lake died.

Two sides of the same, very difficult coin. An unjust coin that so many of us are holding in our hands right now.

However, this is my third time on this carnival ride, so I kind of expect a lot of it now. Things change as soon as I get diagnosed. I seem to prioritize all of my thoughts. I don’t have room for that petty negativity anymore. I can choose how I want to face this, and I choose to face it with positivity. Sometimes life is hard. Sometimes the good die young. Sometimes bad things happen to good people, and good things happen to bad people. There isn’t much we can do about it. The wheel of life turns and we turn with it. We can let these bad moments bend and twist us, or we can use them to empower us. Hey, shit happens, but it never broke Jay, and I refuse to let it break me. Life is a series of small moments that can make us so strong. Or small moments that can break us. We decide.

That’s what Jay Lake taught me in his very powerful, very public cancer battle.

We decide how we face these demons that haunt us.

Speculative fiction has always been a refuge for me. That’s why I read so much. That’s why, no matter how unpopular my website it, I will always write reviews on it. That’s why I try to make my passion infectious. Authors are so much more powerful than they realize. They speak to our souls, they can cause social changes. They can liven a person’s world, and connect with readers in ways that no one else will be able to.

Speculative fiction makes me happy.

If there’s one thing I can share with the world from my own personal battles, and from watching Jay’s battle, it’s that the small things matter so much. The small things make all the difference. We choose how we want to approach life. We can choose to focus on the petty details, or we can celebrate the glorious moments that make everything brighter.

Life is measured by a series of moments. How we handle those moments defines everything.

I don’t have the energy for the drama, and neither did Jay. I regret that it’s taken me three diagnoses with cancer to realize that it’s okay to not get involved in it, whatever “it” is – whether in the genre or the petty things in life in general. I just don’t care. I enjoyed a year of feeling bored and cancer free, and it was one of the best years of my life. Now I learned that I’m not cancer free, or bored anymore. I could let that break me, but I won’t. I could lament the loss, and focus on “poor/why me” – but I won’t. There is no reason behind these things, and that’s okay. Some things don’t need a reason. We need to deal with them anyway.

I want to follow in Jay Lake’s footsteps.

Life, no matter what is handed to you, is glorious. A friend of mine just had his first baby. I got four books in the mail yesterday. My daughter is amazing. My husband and I are celebrating our seven year anniversary tomorrow. My camera works. The sun is shining. The tree outside of my living room window is huge and a vibrant, healthy green. My kitchen floor is clean. People are laughing. My bed is made. The water I’m drinking is cold.

Small things. They matter so much.

That’s probably why I choose to focus my bookish energy on things like Special Needs in Strange Worlds. I choose to focus on the moments that make things brighter, and the projects that, hopefully, make life a bit better for those who need it. This genre has, and does, mean so much to me. These books empower me, challenge me, make me think.

I can approach this new diagnoses with fear and anger, and let that overwhelm me. Or I can face it with positivity. Sometimes bad things happen, but the small, lovely, wonderful, happy moments so far outweigh the bad. The world, no matter what is happening in it, is still a beautiful place. Life is precious. I can choose to try to give something back to the genre that has given me so much, or I can focus on all the drama.

We all have that choice, whether we have cancer or not.

Raise a glass to Jay. He taught us all so much. His memory will live on through those of us who have been touched so profoundly by a struggle that no one should have to face. He is a giant. He taught me so much, and I will take it with me into my third fight with a disease no one should have.

Thank you.

Books I’m Eyeing

This week has been exciting. I was interviewed on Hide and Create about writing characters with disabilities. I started an international giveaway, and I came home from a wonderful vacation.

I’ve also been working on a few books that are astoundingly good so far.

The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley, The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey, and The Boost by Stephen Baker.

Now, onto Books I’m Eyeing.

What books are you eyeing?

—

Speed of Dark – Elizabeth Moon

Discovery blamed on: Civilian Reader

About the Book

In the near future, disease will be a condition of the past. Most genetic defects will be removed at birth; the remaining during infancy. Unfortunately, there will be a generation left behind. For members of that missed generation, small advances will be made. Through various programs, they will be taught to get along in the world despite their differences. They will be made active and contributing members of society. But they will never be normal.


Lou Arrendale is a member of that lost generation, born at the wrong time to reap the awards of medical science. Part of a small group of high-functioning autistic adults, he has a steady job with a pharmaceutical company, a car, friends, and a passion for fencing. Aside from his annual visits to his counselor, he lives a low-key, independent life. He has learned to shake hands and make eye contact. He has taught himself to use “please” and “thank you” and other conventions of conversation because he knows it makes others comfortable. He does his best to be as normal as possible and not to draw attention to himself. 

But then his quiet life comes under attack. It starts with an experimental treatment that will reverse the effects of autism in adults. With this treatment Lou would think and act and be just like everyone else. But if he was suddenly free of autism, would he still be himself? Would he still love the same classical music–with its complications and resolutions? Would he still see the same colors and patterns in the world–shades and hues that others cannot see? Most importantly, would he still love Marjory, a woman who may never be able to reciprocate his feelings? Would it be easier for her to return the love of a “normal”?

There are intense pressures coming from the world around him–including an angry supervisor who wants to cut costs by sacrificing the supports necessary to employ autistic workers. Perhaps even more disturbing are the barrage of questions within himself. For Lou must decide if he should submit to a surgery that might completely change the way he views the world . . . and the very essence of who he is.

Thoughtful, provocative, poignant, unforgettable, The Speed of Dark is a gripping exploration into the mind of an autistic person as he struggles with profound questions of humanity and matters of the heart.

—

Radiant – Karina Sumner-Smith

Discovery blamed on: Fantasy Book Critic

About the Book

Xhea has no magic. Born without the power that everyone else takes for granted, Xhea is an outcast—no way to earn a living, buy food, or change the life that fate has dealt her. Yet she has a unique talent: the ability to see ghosts and the tethers that bind them to the living world, which she uses to scratch out a bare existence in the ruins beneath the City’s floating Towers.

When a rich City man comes to her with a young woman’s ghost tethered to his chest, Xhea has no idea that this ghost will change everything. The ghost, Shai, is a Radiant, a rare person who generates so much power that the Towers use it to fuel their magic, heedless of the pain such use causes. Shai’s home Tower is desperate to get the ghost back and force her into a body—any body—so that it can regain its position, while the Tower’s rivals seek the ghost to use her magic for their own ends. Caught between a multitude of enemies and desperate to save Shai, Xhea thinks herself powerless—until a strange magic wakes within her. Magic dark and slow, like rising smoke, like seeping oil. A magic whose very touch brings death.

With two extremely strong female protagonists, Radiant is a story of fighting for what you believe in and finding strength that you never thought you had.

—

Son of the Morning – Mark Alder

Discovery blamed on: Grimdark Reader

About the Book

Edward the Third stands in the burnt ruin of an English church. He is beset on all sides. He needs a victory against the French to rescue his Kingship. Or he will die trying.

Philip of Valois can put 50,000 men in the field. He has sent his priests to summon the very Angels themselves to fight for France. Edward could call on God for aid but he is an usurper. What if God truly is on the side of the French? 

But for a price, Edward could open the gates of Hell and take an unholy war to France . . .

Mark Alder has brought the epic fantasy of George R.R. Martin to the vivid historical adventure of Bernard Cornwell and has a created a fantasy that will sweep you to a new vision of the Hundred Years War.

—

Half Way Home – Hugh Howey

Discovery blamed on: Nerds of a Feather

About the Book

Less than sixty kids awaken on a distant planet. The colony ship they arrived on is aflame. The rest of their contingent is dead. They’ve only received half their training, and they are being asked to conquer an entire planet. Before they can, however, they must first survive each other.In this gritty tale of youths struggling to survive, Hugh Howey fuses the best of young adult fantasy with the piercing social commentary of speculative fiction. The result is a book that begs to be read in a single sitting. An adventurous romp that will leave readers exhausted and begging for more.

 

 

—

 

Some Fine Day – Kat Ross

Discovery blamed on: Over The Effing Rainbow

About the Book

Sixteen-year-old Jansin Nordqvist is on the verge of graduating from the black ops factory known as the Academy. She’s smart and deadly, and knows three things with absolute certainty:

1. When the world flooded and civilization retreated deep underground, there was no one left on the surface.

2. The only species to thrive there are the toads, a primate/amphibian hybrid with a serious mean streak.

3. There’s no place on Earth where you can hide from the hypercanes, continent-sized storms that have raged for decades.

Jansin has been lied to. On all counts.

—

The Memory Garden – Mary Rickert

Discovery blamed on: Stainless Steel Droppings

About the Book

Nan keeps her secrets deep, not knowing how the truth would reveal a magic all its own

Bay Singer has bigger secrets than most. She doesn’t know about them, though. Her mother, Nan, has made sure of that. But one phone call from the sheriff makes Nan realize that the past is catching up. Nan decides that she has to make things right, and invites over the two estranged friends who know the truth. Ruthie and Mavis arrive in a whirlwind of painful memories, offering Nan little hope of protecting Bay. But even the most ruined garden is resilient, and their curious reunion has powerful effects that none of them could imagine, least of all Bay.

 

 

—

 

 

 

WORLDWIDE GIVEAWAY | The Severed Streets – Paul Cornell

I just got home from vacation and I’m fairly exhausted. I have to work in the morning, and I’m not in the mood to write a review.

Therefore, GIVEAWAY.

Last week the good people at Tor sent me two hardback copies of The Severed Streets by Paul Cornell. I really only need to read one. That leaves me with one extra book in a series I am absolutely in love with, and a bunch of readers who I want to share my love with.

Therefore, GIVEAWAY.

Here are the rules:

1) Giveaway is open WORLDWIDE. 

CONGRATULATIONS CITIZENS OF PLANET EARTH.

2) You have until midnight, Mountain Standard Time to enter on Wednesday, June 4. 

3) You can enter once, and you can enter by leaving a comment on this post. 

4) The winner will be randomly chosen and notified by email. You have 48 hours to respond to my email before I choose someone else. 

—

If you need a reminder, The Severed Streets is the second book in Paul Cornell’s Shadow Police series. Here’s the blurb:

Desperate to find a case to justify the team’s existence, with budget cuts and a police strike on the horizon, Quill thinks he’s struck gold when a cabinet minister is murdered by an assailant who wasn’t seen getting in or out of his limo. A second murder, that of the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, presents a crime scene with a message… identical to that left by the original Jack the Ripper.

The new Ripper seems to have changed the MO of the old completely: he’s only killing rich white men. The inquiry into just what this supernatural menace is takes Quill and his team into the corridors of power at Whitehall, to meetings with MI5, or ‘the funny people’ as the Met call them, and into the London occult underworld. They go undercover to a pub with a regular evening that caters to that clientele, and to an auction of objects of power at the Tate Modern.

Meanwhile, the Ripper keeps on killing and finally the pattern of those killings gives Quill’s team clues towards who’s really doing this.

Good luck to all who enter. May the odds be ever in your favor (or however that’s supposed to go).

Meditations on My Real Children by Jo Walton

About the Book

It’s 2015, and Patricia Cowan is very old. “Confused today,” read the notes clipped to the end of her bed. She forgets things she should know—what year it is, major events in the lives of her children. But she remembers things that don’t seem possible. She remembers marrying Mark and having four children. And she remembers not marrying Mark and raising three children with Bee instead. She remembers the bomb that killed President Kennedy in 1963, and she remembers Kennedy in 1964, declining to run again after the nuclear exchange that took out Miami and Kiev.

Her childhood, her years at Oxford during the Second World War—those were solid things. But after that, did she marry Mark or not? Did her friends all call her Trish, or Pat? Had she been a housewife who escaped a terrible marriage after her children were grown, or a successful travel writer with homes in Britain and Italy? And the moon outside her window: does it host a benign research station, or a command post bristling with nuclear missiles?

Two lives, two worlds, two versions of modern history. Each with their loves and losses, their sorrows and triumphs. My Real Children is the tale of both of Patricia Cowan’s lives…and of how every life means the entire world.

320 pages (hardcover)

Published on May 20, 2014

Published by Tor

Author’s webpage

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

—

I knew I was in trouble when I was less than one chapter in. The thing is, this book is written by Jo-Freaking-Walton. Talent oozes from her pours like a thick perfume. She could bottle and sell the stuff and it wouldn’t impact the amazing quality of her work at all. When her name is mentioned, people anxiously wait to see what is happening.

Her name is powerful, and it’s powerful because she’s one of those writers that you never forget. She’s earned that power, and she’s worked hard to keep it. By damn, she deserves to be center stage.

My Real Children is a powerful book. Part of the reason it hit me so hard, and in such an emotionally raw spot, is because dementia is something that is near and dear to my family. I grew up on the East Coast, and my grandparents were all out west, Seattle and Phoenix, to be exact. Furthermore, I was born when my parents were older, and my parents were both born when their parents were older. The age gap is phenomenal (For example, my great grandparents were born in the 1860’s, and my grandparents were born in 1905 or thereabouts. I was born in the 1980’s).

When I first met my grandparents, they were all in care centers. My only memory of my father’s mother is of a frail, confused woman in the grips of dementia. I think I met her two or three times before she died. The first time she kept showing me her balcony and telling me if I jumped off, I’d die. The second time we took her out to eat and she was wearing someone else’s jewelry and she thought it was her own.

I was so young at the time I wasn’t sure if any of this was terrifying or hilarious. Kids can be cruel, and I was no exception. I didn’t understand, but it has always been a shroud that’s hung over my parents. My father’s sister died with dementia, his brother has it. His aunts all had it. He’s spent a large chunk of his life doing everything he can to keep his brain active to try and stave off the curse that seems to flow through the blood of his family so strongly. So far, so good.

The point is, dementia is something that people struggle with, and it’s been a sort of strong background noise in my family most of my life. I’ve always been interested in it. I studied it in my undergraduate courses. I did projects on it. I’m really into it. So a book with a main character who has issues with being “confused” absolutely hooked me instantly. It tore at my heart, because I’ve seen it, and so, one chapter in, I already knew I was onto something that I’d never forget.

My Real Children is the story of Patricia, and the memory(ies) of her two very different lives, and her children. Patricia is considered confused, but in reality, she’s remembering her lives perfectly, she just isn’t sure which one was “real” and which one wasn’t. They both seem real to her, and that’s the power of it. It reminds me of that Robert Frost poem, “two roads diverge in the wood…” only she didn’t choose one road, she chose both, and you, dear reader, get to learn about both.

This isn’t just some story about some woman, though. Her two lives are vastly different from each other, but the thought that Walton had to put into the rhythm and flow of her book is absolutely staggering. Both of the lives parallel each other in absolutely haunting ways. Both lives are filled with tragedy, loss, and plenty of love and fulfillment. Both lives are so fascinating, and while Patricia is different in each life, her voice is no less compelling for it.

This isn’t just an interesting story. Patricia comes of age during a time of incredible social changes, both for society itself, and for women in general. There are a lot of abuse, sexuality, woman in the workplace, and other important issues that Walton addresses with poise and grace, and turns these issues into absolutely memorable and powerful learning moments for her readers. The thing is, Walton makes the struggles of women in these historical times real. Patricia isn’t just some compelling voice, she’s part of you, and so you will feel her struggles, the realities of the world(s) she lives in, very keenly.

This book will probably be put on the speculative fiction shelves at bookstores, but it could easily fit anywhere. Aside from the fact that Patricia is remembering two separate lives, the speculative fiction notes are incredibly subtle. Some of the world events in each life memory are different. In one life there is a colony on the moon, and a bomb kills JFK, etc. In the other life, things seem pretty typical to how we know they happened. This isn’t in-your-face, and it’s not the least bit jarring, but I do think that handling history in this way was pretty essential so Walton could really set each of Patricia’s lives apart and make them feel absolutely independent of each other while, in some ways, being codependent on each other.

I’m sitting here, at this point, wondering what else I can possibly say about this book and I have no idea. I really don’t have a clue. This book moved me more than any book has moved me in a very long time. It touched a place in me that makes me wonder and dream of possibilities. Patricia wasn’t just a character, but she was me, and she educated me about the power of choice and the importance and power we all contain as individuals, and more importantly, as women. I found this book to be equal parts somber, and celebratory. It was educational. It was a journey and a destination all in one. And Walton somehow managed to take a problem that many of our elderly face, something so absolutely dehumanizing and so incredibly depressing, and make it pure poetry.

I brought this book down to Las Vegas when I visited my parents, and I am leaving it with them because I think they will find comfort in its pages. Dementia happens, and it hurts, but Walton gave it purpose, and she gave those that suffer from it power. Maybe I am reading too far into things, but My Real Children rocked me to my soul. It shows Walton at her absolute best.

I don’t make award predictions often, and I hate doing it because if I’m wrong I’ll feel like a total asshole, but the truth is, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if My Real Children wins awards. This book (and this author) deserves awards. Walton put her soul into this one, and she profoundly touched mine with it. I have a feeling she’ll be impacting my parents as well.

Educational, soft, emotional, and powerful beyond measure; My Real Children isn’t just a book, it’s a force of nature, and it is something that everyone should read.