Alexander Pyles's Blog, page 2

Review: Snow Over Utopia

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I read a lot of books throughout the year, but there are only a handful that make me take a step back and say “What the F.”

SNOW OVER UTOPIA by Rudolfo A. Serna was one of those books. Loaded to the very brim with genre-melded, blended goodness, and richly poetic prose, Serna challenges the most well-read to pierce his narrative.

Combining elements of frenetic apocalyptic fantasy, psychedelic science fiction, and dashes of doom metal, SNOW OVER UTOPIA is a visceral, but deeply emotional...

Review: The Violent Bear It Away

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I’ll come clean and say that I haven’t been reading any books for my local men’s book club over the past few months, but I could not stop myself when they chose a Flannery O’Connor novel, THE VIOLENT BEAR IT AWAY. There’s so much that has been said about this novel already, but I can’t help, but leave some notes for it here.

A revered classic of Southern Gothic, O’Connor’s novel of bracing satire, prophetic rantings, and whisperings of demons is a rough journey of a novel, not for the faint...

Review: Record of a Spaceborn Few

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I’ve been reading the Wayfair’s series over the past few months and I finally got around to wrapping up the last in this loose trilogy of books. The Hugo nominated, RECORD OF A SPACEBORN FEW by Becky Chambers, feels like both an homage to humanity and a hopeful look to the future.

The Exodus Fleet is a working ruin. Humanity has spread across the galaxy in various frontier planet settlements, or joined the galactic community at large, but the Fleet remains as does it’s former way of life....

Book Release: Apocalypse

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Another month, another Black Hare Press anthology drops! This one is filled with all kinds of world ending calamities and both figurative and literal fallout.

I experimented with a couple different forms of narrative for my handful of drabbles. They range from climate change catastrophes, to the quiet struggle of surviving amidst complete annihilation.The list of all those stories will be at the bottom here. As with the other anthologies, I’m alongside 100+ other authors and their...

Review: Semiosis

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This one had been on my TBR list for a while, and I finally got around to it, and it is a strange and wonderful ride! SEMIOSIS by Sue Burke, her debut and Arthur C. Clarke Award nominated novel, is pure brilliance.

When human colonists, who seek to flee Earth’s violent ways settle on a planet they were not ready for, they struggle to survive. Only by careful and cautious communication does humanity find a strange ally on this alien world. It will be up to these would be colonists to forge...

Nanowrimo: Recap

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Well, I did it! I regret to say that I lowered my goal from 60k to 50k in the second to last week of Nanowrimo, but I still completed the baseline challenge of Nanowrimo! For a first timer, I’ll take my laurels and bask in that for at least this next week. I’m exhausted and I’m partially spent by the incredible task, but overall I’m happy I did it.

I’ll post my last week of word counts along with some charts for all you data junkies as well. You can see where I struggled and how I kind of...

Review: The Fearing Pt. 4 – Earth & Ember

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Late on this, but you know #Nanowrimo. Anyway, we finally have the climatic finale of John F.D. Taff’s epic serial novel, THE FEARING, with Part four: EARTH & EMBER. And this book, folks, is a lot. The longest of the installments and of course the one that holds (almost) all our answers is here. With such an ambitious project, it is hard to pin down what Taff was building at first, but finally coming to EARTH & EMBER, it all comes together.

We pick up with the cultish leader Tim Jacoby, who...

Nanowrimo Update #3

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Update #3 and I’ll be honest, this is starting to suck. I mean, it’s not totally bad, I have enjoyed exercising this way, writing-wise. It has been great for my motivation in getting words on paper and it has been awesome seeing this story take form under my fingertips, but overall it is arduous, especially when you’re doing as much as I have been on top of just writing.

Sorry for the lack of book reviews, those should be returning either later this week or next. I just haven’t had a lot of time to...

Nanowrimo Update #2

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Okay, so this is update #2 obviously and this week has been much more of a slog than the first couple days, but I’m getting it done! I’m exhausted and I’m getting words on paper, in fact I just got done with my session tonight.

Here are my daily counts for this week with the current total:

11/6 – 2,105
11/7 – 2,381
11/8 – 1,073
11/9 – 2,217
11/10 – 2,055
11/11 – 2,130

Total: 23,272

Like I said in the last post if real-time updates, please follow me on twitter at @Pylesofbooks. Otherwise, just keep yo...

Review: The Warren

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Brian Evenson’s THE WARREN was one story I have been waiting to get into for a long time. After reading it, I’m left with so many more questions, than how it began and for its brevity, I wish there was just a little bit more. Evenson does not seem hung up on giving the reader what they need, but more relies on giving them just enough.

The reader follows a person named X. He doesn’t have a name, nor does he have any memories of  himself. He does have a multitude of personalities and memories bound w...