J. Hamlet's Blog: Scarred Earth: A Serial Novel, page 5

MORE GUZHENG

Her covers just get better and better. Who even thinks to play Derezzed on a GUZHENG? More importantly, when will someone get her a record contract?!?!

Scarred Earth: My Coming Tumblr Novel

Very soon I will begin a journey that has been a long time in the making. Over the last two sessions of NaNoWriMo, I churned out two clumps of 50,000 words telling the tale of an alien invasion in a near-future earth. Sure, that's ben done plenty of times before by dozens of hack writers. My unique spin on it was to tell the story of this invasion from as many perspectives as possible. Mimicking the free-wheleling approach of novels like World War Z, I wanted to tell the big story through dozens of little stories. I wrote my chapters to be stand-alone fragments, most of them flash-fiction length. Some were not even in narrative form. Among the stories were transcripts, emails, forums, text message conversations, and government reports. 

I was proud of what I created, but it was obvious to me that such a novel would be impossible to work through traditional channels. That's true for most of my writing, but especially true of this thing. How would I even write a synopsis? How could I summarize the hundreds of characters that appear and disappear throughout its pages? Given these depressing and liberating insights about the difficulty of selling my own work, I decided to do something different. I won't be querying, publishing, or self-publishing this novel in any conventional way. Instead, in a flight of absolute lunacy, I'll be sending it out to the world via tumblr.

You can find the page for the novel that will be Scarred Earth here. Eventually, I will probably post it on this page as well, but for now, that is where the chapters will drop on a more-or-less weekly basis. I encourage you all to stay tuned and enjoy the ride. I have a feeling this will be very special or a catastrophic mistake. Either way, it should be fun to watch unfold. The first should chapter should drop on Sunday, January 4th, 2014, a day that may very well mark the beginning of the end of my sanity and career as an indie author. 

Cue Multiple Several Fandoms' Heads Exploding Simultaneously

I offer no words, for they cannot be expressed in writing. Or speaking. Or human language in general. 

X-Men Second Coming (Books Are My Favorite Movies)

X-Men: Second Coming by Matt Fraction

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I've always been a fan of x-books, but I haven't made a serious attempt to read them (or most comic books) since high school. Image Comics changed those habits, but also got me wondering what was up with all my old favorites, so I looked into the Marvel Now books and then this. They have been up to quite a lot, it seems! I only vaguely knew the lore leading up to this, and the prologue caught me up well enough even if there were scads of characters I had absolutely zero knowledge of. That said, this book captures a substantial crossover event that "kills" off a significant number of beloved X-book characters and features a blood-soaked tale full of conflict, drama, and real enemies that made the whole saga fairly gripping. Fraction shows that he can continue to breathe life and depth to these characters, giving the action weight and the characters' struggles and deaths meaning while putting a great bastard of a big bad, Bastion, in play in a way that makes the situation seem truly hopeless at several points.

Oh, and the art's good, too.



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X-Men: Second Coming

By Christopher Yost, Craig Kyle, Mike Carey, Matt Fraction, Zeb Wells

The Inexplicables by Cherie Priest (Books Are My Favorite Movies)

The Inexplicables by Cherie Priest

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Cherie Priest has gotten dumped on a bit for this one, with some calling it the weakest of the Clockwork Century books. I think that's a bit unfair. Even though it's clearly not the strongest entry by a long shot, I think I enjoyed its basic story (and certainly the back half) to be much more enjoyable than Clementine. That still remains the weakest entry for me.

That said, I think most people have issue with the main character, Rector. He's a whiny, angsty teenager with a drug addiction. This isn't a coming of age story, though. It's a redemption story. I applaud Cherie Priest for writing a protagonist that isn't likable from the word go and turning him into someone who eventually is. She's written her fair share of anti-hero protagonists, but all of them had a certain rogue charm as soon as the reader is introduced to them. Rector doesn't. His utter lack of charm as a thief and junkie makes the first few chapters of the book a big of a slog, but it creates a real arc for the character that moves slowly and has a payoff.

I enjoyed returning to the Blighted Seattle of Boneshaker (which will still remain an epic that's head and shoulders above everything else in Clockwork Century except for maybe Ganymede) and seeing all of the characters introduced in many of the previous volumes work together to take out a new series of threats to their poisoned but hard-earned city. Definitely a worthy volume to read if you're into the series, but I certainly wouldn't start here. You will be lost and perplexed. Definitely start with Boneshaker.



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The Inexplicables (Clockwork Century)

By Cherie Priest

Handmaiden's Fury by J.M. Guillen (Books Are My Favorite Movies)

Handmaiden's Fury by J.M. Guillen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This novella got a little repetitive, but I have to give a round of applause for anyone that can mix BDSM, sex magic, and horror into a coherent narrative. Sometimes the world-building seemed a little outsized for the story this was attempting to tell, but it compensated for that with some steamy scenes that were surprisingly skillfully juxtaposed with horrific violence. The characters seem a little one-note, but it is a novella, so that's to be expected.



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Handmaiden's Fury (The Paean of Sundered Dreams)

By JM Guillen

Self-Inflicted Wounds by Aisha Tyler (Book Review)

Self-Inflicted Wounds: Heartwarming Tales of Epic Humiliation by Aisha Tyler

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I've enjoyed Aisha Tyler's many works (the olden days of Talk Soup, Girl on Guy podcast, Archer, etc.) and this one is no exception. Tyler has eschewed the structure of standard celebrity memoirs and, instead of telling us all about the key milestones in her life, has told the structure of her life and career via her greatest humiliations. Even more so, she has provided a personal takeaway or lesson from each one. Some of these lessons contradict each other if you think about it too much, but this isn't the sort of book to devote too much mental real estate to. Tyler's storytelling skills are are sharp and her capacity for self-awareness great. She writes very closely to how she speaks, but with a touch more focus. The end result is a fusion of memoir, self-help, and general comedy that is very entertaining. If anyone doesn't remember similar episodes in their life when reading about Aisha's greatest failures, well, you lived a very different life than most of us.



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Self-Inflicted Wounds: Heartwarming Tales of Epic Humiliation

By Aisha Tyler

St. Croix: Part Two (The Aporkalypse)

One chalk menu. And yes, they're all amazing. This is from Eat@Cane Bay. Fantastical place. 

AWWWWWWW PORK OUT (with sweet potato fries)

This is not Gertie. She is far too shy to be photographed. 

The Sandman. He comes for you when you're sleeping. 

When I came to St. Croix, I expected nice beaches and such. I did not expect to have a bacon-infused pork burger complete with cole slaw, Jim Beam barbecue sauce, and jalapeño cream cheese that would send me into a tasty coma. That certainly happened, though. No question. Eat@CaneBay was a magical restaurant. But there are so many others. Rowdy Joe's. Pier 69. Off the Wall. The list goes on. 

The food has been a slap in the face, but like a good slap in the face, especially everything involving Mahi Mahi. They should send every line cook in every "seafood" restaurant in America that can't get Mahi Mahi right here for training. Because fucking up Mahi Mahi here is clearly forbidden. It may even be punishable by death. But it hasn't been all food shots, amazeball burgers, and spectacular beaches. 

There were also ghost crabs. They're everywhere on these beaches, fighting each other to the death over fragments of coconut. I formed a special bond with one that I named Gertrude. Don't joke, man. What Gertie and I had was real. She taught me important life lessons as I watched her shovel a tunnel through the sand one thimble-full bit of sand at a time. It was a grim testament of what we can all accomplish with some determination. Until high tide, that is. 

Then, of course, there's Point Udall, the easternmost point in the U.S. Going there is a long drive across the island, but worth it for the sweeping views (looks sort of like a tropical version of Scotland) and the island cacti. Surprisingly large numbers of island cacti. 

St. Croix: Part One

 

It was raining buckets at times, but there were still many amazing sights to take in. And rums to try.  After leaving Carambola, it was off to Sandy Point, only open on weekends. It was a US National Park and was a true wilderness beach. Frederiksted was also an interesting little town since a cruise ship was in, including the rundown historic fort, but I can see how it might be dead if no ships were coming in. Pier 69 had some breathtaking Fish Tacos with poblano sauce. Also fun? Watching NFL teams play in the snow on TV. Puts the whole rainy morning thing in perspective. Even more fun? CHICKENS! LOTS OF CHICKENS. CHICKENS AND PIGEONS LIVING TOGETHER! I also highly recommend getting your hands on some Cruzan Black Strap Rum if you find it. It reminds me of THE KRAKEN but smoother. 

 

St. Croix - Part One

 

It was raining buckets at times, but there were still many amazing sights to take in. And rums to try.  After leaving Carambola, it was off to Sandy Point, only open on weekends. It was a US National Park and was a true wilderness beach. Frederiksted was also an interesting little town since a cruise ship was in, including the rundown historic fort, but I can see how it might be dead if no ships were coming in. Pier 69 had some breathtaking Fish Tacos with poblano sauce. Also fun? Watching NFL teams play in the snow on TV. Puts the whole rainy morning thing in perspective. Even more fun? CHICKENS! LOTS OF CHICKENS. CHICKENS AND PIGEONS LIVING TOGETHER! I also highly recommend getting your hands on some Cruzan Black Strap Rum if you find it. It reminds me of THE KRAKEN but smoother.