J.B. Garner's Blog, page 45
March 3, 2015
Starving Review: Terror Beyond Measure: A Norton Pumblesmythe Short Story by Ian Clements
Terror Beyond Measure: A Norton Pumblesmythe Short Story by Ian Clements (Amazon, Goodreads)
Some literary foods are full meals, heaping quantities to be ingested and enjoyed at a table over a course of time. ��Others, however, are tender morsels, snacks meant to be gulped down quickly in this fast ‘on-the-go’ world we live in. ��Terror Beyond Measure��is one of those snacks. ��Does its small size mean it lacks flavor or is it a taste-filled delight in a minute package?
Before I answer that, let us remember the Starving Review creed:
I attempt to rate every book from the perspective of a fan of the genre.
I attempt to make every review as spoiler-free as possible.
The old saying, ‘It’s not the size of the tool but how you use it.’, is most fitting for this wonderful little romp. ��Terror��comes in like a bolt from the blue with excellent prose and doesn’t stop. ��What we are given is a microcosm of a larger piece: an interesting hook, character build-up, rising action, a fantastic climax, then a proper denouement. ��What is truly remarkable is that none of these bite-sized story elements is poorly executed. ��Everything comes off without a hitch.
The main character is cooked up with a sure hand and plenty of dashes of flavor, aided by an intimate first-person perspective, but the primary minor character isn’t left out either. ��Just this one adventure is enough that I hope to read more of Norton’s tales in the future … that’s how much this short story’s depiction of its protagonist impacted me.
The plot itself takes a careful blend of British wit, a classic time period, and some liberal dashes of Lovecraftian horror, gives it all a good stir, then gets it nice and hot in a short period of time. ��I would argue that the writer actually turns the short subject into an advantage here, as this one adventure would suffer from exaggerated and drawn-out pacing if it wasn’t tackled as a short subject. ��Very well done.
The framing device set up by the Prologue also works well here, providing some added world-building as well as giving the reader some fun interesting facts about some real-world events. ��Brilliant.
Just like the piece itself, I think it’s best to leave this review as a bite-sized morsel as well. ��There is little else to be said without dragging on for too long or giving away potential spoilers. ��Let’s just sum it up as this:��Terror Beyond Measure��is worth every penny of its cost and delivers wit, humor, action, and supernatural thrills in a snack-sized delight of a tale! ��I highly recommend this to any horror fan and, well, just about anyone who loves fantasy or adventure tales.
FINAL VERDICT: ***** (Wit, humor, action, and the supernatural in a snack-sized delight!)
Trope of the Week: Funny Fat Man
It’s time for Paige’s Trope of the Week and this one is particular near to my heart. Enjoy!
Originally posted on break the system:
Since he obviously can���t be attractive since he���s overweight, we���ll make this fat guy a funny dude! He���s kind of dumb, but that���s alright because he���s just so lovable. Can he be clumsy? Of course. Can he sometimes say the wrong thing? More like all the time! But don���t worry about him; he���ll end up with a hot chick in the end.
Why this can be bad: How many overweight male characters have you seen that don���t have ���funny��� or ���abusive��� in their descriptions? There���s not a lot. Since society finds fatness to be unattractive, a fat male character has to either have an awful personality (often reserved for characters who are abusive boyfriends for the main character���s mom or are the main character���s abusive father) or he has to be funny in order to ���make up��� for what he lacks physically. If he���s funny, then that���s really his only���
View original 280 more words
March 2, 2015
Review – Indefatigable
Here’s another honest review for Indefatigable! Enjoy.
Originally posted on 501 Realizations:
Another free book, another review. This isn���t going to be a thing, I promise. Also, I just got the review art for the Lillim Callina box set. It contains volumes 1-3 and is for those of you who don���t like to buy individual things. Because why would you?
Okay, let���s start out with the obvious. Indefatigable is a way less cool word than Indomitable, at least to me, in my infinite opinion ness. It is also the second book in the Push Chronicles. You can buy it on Amazon here.��The Author���s webpage is here.
Three months after the Whiteout spawned superheroes and villains, Irene Roman, a.k.a Indomitable, is near her limit fighting to protect the normal people. Now, what began as a simple kidnapping investigation catalyzes overnight into the worst threat the city of Atlanta has had to face. Will this finally be Irene���s breaking point���
View original 523 more words
Book News: Starving Reviews Open … For a Short Time!
The truth remains that my pantries are still overflowing. ��I had originally intended to update the request hiatus dates, extending it through March, but I was in a hunger-induced stupor, fasting through Pensacon with no hand-outs save for a penny, and forgot to update the page. ��My famine is your feast however!
Because of my hunger, Starving Review requests will be open for a short time, until March 6th. ��This Friday night, we’ll be shutting the doors once more, at least until the end of the month. ��As I still have over 70 books in the pantry to go through, you can understand why, I imagine.
Expect your next Starving Review tomorrow!
February 27, 2015
General News: How to Identify a Starving Author at 20 Paces
It’s not much good to be in a crowd and not be recognized so I decided to utilize advanced pre-20th century technology to produce this incredible sandwich board device!
If you’re at Pensacon today, look for this and you’ll find me! ��Though starving, the smell of the delicious snack food in your hand won’t drive me to attack and I would love to chat.
February 25, 2015
General News: Pensacon Bound
Not in any official capacity (though late last year I had thought about getting a booth to sell books out of) but I will be heading out to Pensacon, Pensacola’s own sci-fi and fantasy convention, on Friday. ��I’m hoping to meet other authors, establish some connections, and generally have fun. ��I expect to be there the whole day Friday from open at 1 p.m. to shutdown at 7 p.m.
So, if you’re a fan or just want to meet and you are going to be there, let me know. ��I’ll be lugging around some of the excellent posters Felipe de Barros wrote up as well as some copies of my books that might very well be given away if someone asks nicely enough.
Good luck and good writing!
February 24, 2015
Trope of the Week: Creepy Children
It’s time for Paige’s Trope of the Week. Always a treat!
Originally posted on break the system:
Let���s be real: there is nothing creepier than children. Clowns? Nope. Ghosts? Not unless you���re talking about ghost kids. No, when you���re watching or reading something in the horror genre and a kid shows up, you know that shit is about to go down. They���re considered the pinnacle of innocence, and therefore are the best way to make people incredibly scared and uncomfortable. d
Why this can be bad: This is so common a trope that we always expect it when we���re watching anything even remotely scary. This means that your audience has time to brace itself before the real scare happens, ultimately undermining the horror of the piece. I can tell you from experience that every time I see a child appear during a horror film, I tense up a bit and prepare myself to not be scared. And this helps! Because I know those kids are going���
View original 118 more words
February 23, 2015
General News: Sick Day. @_@
It’s all in the title. ��To be honest, though, it’s more like ‘sick half-week’. :P
I’ve just been a bit under the weather for the past few days and am only now starting to recover. ��Don’t worry, things will get back on track here tomorrow.
Until then, good luck and good writing!
February 19, 2015
Ileandra’s December Indie eBook Review: Indomitable
I always appreciate fair reviews! Here’s one I totally missed when it came out.
Originally posted on Writing: A Conversation Without Interruptions:
Author:��JB Garner
Title: Indomitable (The Push Chronicles, Book One)
Genre: Superhero / Sci-Fi / Fantasy
ISBN: 9781310234958
Words: 65,000
���Irene Roman never wanted to be a hero. She was a scientist living an otherwise normal life and that was enough. One fateful evening, though, Irene discovers a betrayal that undermines everything. One event that, in a literal blink of an eye, changes not only her life, but the future of the entire planet.
Now the world is inhabited by people with powers and abilities far above those of mortal men and women. The repercussions of superhuman battles on the Earth are great and terrible as lives are shattered, communities destroyed, and mankind���s destiny is plucked from its grasp. At the center of it all is Irene, who not only is one of two people on the planet who knows the cause of this unbelievable change, but is one of the���
View original 707 more words
February 18, 2015
Starving Review: Organ Reapers by Shay West
Organ Reapers��by Shay West (Amazon, Goodreads)
The life of a Starving Reviewer is one of chance and charity. ��We rely on the kindness of others to fill our literary bellies and we never know what we may find on our plates. ��Sometimes, though, fortune favors the hungry, dishing out what looks to be a delightful blending of mystery and urban fantasy, a fusion of flavors that promises delights a plenty. ��Such a treat was plopped before me with Organ Reapers. ��Did it happily fill my belly or feel like a load of lead in my gut?
Before we find that out, let’s review the Starving Review rules:
I attempt to rate every book from the perspective of a fan of the genre.
I attempt to make every review as spoiler-free as possible.
To answer that critical question, let’s pick apart this cake and look at its components. ��As a fusion recipe of urban fantasy and mystery, we’ll begin with the genre ingredients before we tackle the critical foundations of any good literary recipe: characters and pacing. ��However, before we can even look at the genre fusion, we need to tackle one fundamental aspect of the book: the plot structure.
Organ Reapers��is, for the first half or more of the book, two parallel plots running course side-by-side, touching but never merging. ��Each plot follows the activities of each pair of protagonists, one in modern Earth, one in a fantasy world (the tagline talks about other worlds so it’s not a Spoiler!). ��Now, each plotline is paced and structured well enough (we’ll talk about the actual ingredients of each plot later), creamily sliding from plot to plot with little issue.
There is a small problem though and that comes in regards to the first genre flavor, mystery. ��You see, the second plotline reveals every critical aspect of the first plotline (the one with the real mystery) well before the mystery itself is solved. ��In essence, the big thing the cover and book blurb hints at, the whole mystery of these��Organ Reapers��(TITLE DROP!), is a total give away. ��There is no mystery at all and this … this is not good.
On the urban fantasy side of things, Shay West’s writing fares much better. ��The alien world is fairly interesting and the fantasy elements are, on the whole handled decently. ��The biggest issue that is encountered is world-building. ��The technology, magic, and cosmology of this world are inconsistently described and lead to many logical quirks that continue to strain the suspension of disbelief. ��We’ll talk about those little packets of quirky ingredients later but I will say the fantasy aspects are much better handled than the mystery.
How about characters, those vital ingredients for any good book? ��These are probably��Organ Reaper‘s best elements. ��Though some classic tropes are touched on, they are used lovingly and properly fleshed out, letting the major characters shine. ��Even some of the minor characters are well-rounded and interesting. ��I’m loathe to find faults here but there are two things that went sour in my gut. ��One is pretty minor and I won’t quibble with in this review. ��One is strange and mildly offensive. ��In the last act, Ms. West introduces a stereotypical Asian old lady/busybody who talks in broken English, just there in one or two scenes that are pointless save for, I assume, an attempt at comedy relief. ��The scenes are out of nowhere, discordant, and, well, could be very easily considered offensive to anyone of that ethnicity. ��It’s certainly an innocent mistake, considering how well the author handles other ethnicities in the book, but it is a mistake none the less.
The plot. ��The plot is where things get a little under-baked. ��This is another case, one of many I have tasted, where the core plot structure is sound but things go sour at the scene level. ��Outside of the issue of the mystery being spoiled so early, most events make sense in the context of the world. ��Unfortunately, there are many logical inconsistencies that crop up, both in character actions and especially in the lack of fantasy world-building. ��Having these logical issues might be acceptable in smaller numbers but there were rare chapters after the first act where I wasn’t finding myself questioning how or why events were happening. ��Waiting patiently to have some of these things cleared up or explained through the fantasy elements bore little to no fruit. ��Some later facts even caused logical gaps to grow wider. ��To give examples would lead us heavy into Spoilerville, so let me try to put it like this:
It’s like eating a delicious cake that was mixed with a batch of just-slightly-overdate-blueberries in it. ��A bite may be quite good or you might just bite into an off-tasting bit of fruit. ��You can ignore some of those nasty bites but, eventually, you’ll eat enough of them that you just lose your love of the cake and won’t want another slice.
One last twist on things before we wrap up: The climax and denouement. ��These deserve a quick mention. ��The climax is very logical and went down exactly as I thought it might but there’s a last minute reveal that … goes nowhere. ��It could have turned into an impressive event that explained so much of the plot but just went flat almost immediately. ��The denouement was very well done, however, well, for one of the two pairs of protagonists. ��One set was basically ignored after a brief mention. ��I thought it might have been a set up for further books but there’s no mention of a series involved. ��Very puzzling.
Now, to sum this up, you might think that this Starving Reviewer was wanting to spit this piece of cake out all over the table. ��That’s not true. ��There are many solid elements to this book. ��Even with its logical yuck bombs of sour,��Organ Reapers��remains a fairly decent urban fantasy book with some excellent characters and a great core premise. ��The problem is that it fails to take its premise to the heights of flavor it could reach, letting it remain a tasty but unfulfilling bit of creme fluff.
FINAL VERDICT: *** (The promise of fascinating flavors trips over underdone plot points to become tasty but unfulilling.)
