I was sent a copy of Christopher Herz’s Pharmacology to review on FanaticSpace. After reading it, I’m not sure why. Most of the reviews on the site are genre fiction of some kind, but I couldn’t say what genre this story could be. It seems to be an attempt at literary fiction.

Perhaps it was my love of Ready Player One, because Pharmacology deals with a certain amount of nostalgia.

The problem is that RP1 did nostalgia right, with explanations of the more obscure references. I’m not sure if Pharmacology did anything right. It certainly didn’t do anything for me, other than annoy and make me wonder if there was supposed to be a point.

Was Not Impressed With Character Voice

The most annoying bit was the way the narration was structured. Sure, a bit of personality is a good thing with first person perspective. I can completely understand why the author chose to give the narrator a distinctive voice, I just couldn’t stand how it was done.

Was very hard to read. Had to re-read a lot of the sentences several times. Couldn’t make sense of them otherwise. Wouldn’t think dropping a leading pronoun would do so much damage. (For example.)

I think my enjoyment of the story would have been greatly improved if that had been restricted to dialog.

Unfortunately, while that was the the most annoying problem that I had with Pharmacology, it wasn’t the only one.

Story Structure and Character Growth

Problems with sentence structure made it difficult to read, but problems with story structure are what ultimately killed this book for me. The synopsis on the back describes, what sounds like, an interesting story. That description is flawed, because it focuses on a small part of the story that doesn’t really amount to much. I think that’s more of a marketing problem though. The real problem is a meandering narrative and lack of character growth.

At one point the main character flat out says she learned something, and then proceeds to make the same mistake. Not only does that go against the rule of “show, don’t tell”, it highlights the lack of character growth.

The only differences the events of the story seemed to have on the main character are the size of her bank account and the kind of cheese she puts on her sandwich.

Random Lyrics, Not Just For Fan Fiction Anymore!

The addition of lyrics placed seemingly at random wouldn’t have been so bad if it was consistent. It wasn’t. There was only one piece of narrative where a block of lyrics would have been appropriate, and they weren’t included.

In that scene the main character mentions a name that always reminds her of a song. Not only are the lyrics not included, the name of the song isn’t even mentioned.

Verdict

I can’t recommend Pharmacology in any way. Lack of growth combined with difficult to read prose is bad enough. Add to that the author’s apparent assumption that every reader is going to share his knowledge and you have a recipe for a book with a very narrow readership.

The only good thing I can say about Pharmacology is that it’s short.

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1. Frayed – A Madison Lark Novella by Blakely Chorpenning
   I’ve become more and more interested lately in good shifter stories, especially with a kick-ass heroine at the helm. So when I received “Frayed - A Madison Lark Novella” from...

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I’ve become more and more interested lately in good shifter stories, especially with a kick-ass heroine at the helm. So when I received “Frayed – A Madison Lark Novella” from new author (and fellow reviewer over at BookCountry), Blakely Chorpenning I was happy to find that kind of heroine in Madison “Fray” Lark, a leopard shifter. This novella starts off something that could turn into a long-running and interesting shifter series.

(Disclaimer for FTC regulations – I have received this Advanced Reader Copy at no cost)

Fray loves being a semi-pro fighter and free spirit. However, when a deadly faction begins abducting supernatural teens in the Blue Hills of North Carolina for excruciating experiments, she quickly learns there is more to life than glitzy opponents and late night trysts. Fray and a crew of unlikely allies must rescue the children before they are dissected alive. Being a leopard shapeshifter helps. Confronting personal prejudice and traversing feelings for a tempestuous ex do not mix. But Fray is willing to go all the way to stop her world from changing. That is, until the ultimate sacrifice forces her to realize just how overdue change is.

Her most shocking discovery: Everyone’s human. At least a little…

I think my favorite part of the novella really comes down to Fray. She’s not one for overly-sentimental fluff, but yet she still has a large, open heart. It’s not easy to run that fine line of making your heroines both without treading into trying to pander to both the extremes and making your heroine completely unsympathetic. Ms. Chorpenning doesn’t fall into that trap, and you still see a true growth in the character without throwing you out of the story.

The story holds up to its lead character quite well. She establishes the shifter world that Fray is a part of by addressing the main plot of the missing shifter children that come from different packs. I was pleasantly surprised to find such a well-detailed in in-depth plot from a novella, but I think it would have not been as well-paced as a full novel.

That said, I did have a few times of having a hard time following the story due to a bit of overwriting. I could carry through the plot without too many of these hiccups, but I felt as if these were the parts that could have completely blocked me from finishing the novella if the majority of the story weren’t so good.

On the whole, I highly recommend this novella for anyone who loves a complex shifter story. I really enjoyed this novella, and I look forward to seeing more set in this world.

Blakely Chorpenning has all of the formats that you can purchase her novella listed on her site.

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A while back I was sent a review copy (Disclosure: At no cost to myself.) of The Settlers of Catan by Rebecca Gable (translated into English by Lee Chadeayne). To be honest, this review should have gone up already, but for some reason I thought it was coming out next week. Don’t ask me why, because I don’t know how I got that idea. My apologies to the kind folks at Wunderkind PR.

The book is based on an ingenious strategy board game called, duh, The Settlers of Catan created by Klaus Teuber. The game sets itself apart from other strategy board games by encouraging cooperation. Winning isn’t achieved by defeating the other players, but by working with them to grow your settlement.

Story

A raid on the coastal village of Elasund, followed by a particularly harsh winter, pushes the Elasunders to face some hard facts. Their village can’t support them all. The rocky fields and its poor soil can’t supply enough grain, nor the sea enough fish to feed them year round. If they face another winter as hard as this one, many will not survive. After seeking the wisdom of their gods, they decide to search for a new home.

My Opinion

I was a bit concerned that there would be references to the board game that I wouldn’t get, since I haven’t had a chance to play. There may be references to the board game, but I never felt like I lacked any knowledge while reading. You don’t need to be a fan of the game to enjoy the book, and you will enjoy the book.

There are a fair number of characters, but the book focuses on the choices and fortunes of a handful available, much like the TV series LOST. I thought this was a great way of handling what has to be a fairly large group of people.

Candamir and Osmund, foster brothers and close friends, are the main players. The pair, along with members of their respective households, set out with the other settlers to find a new home. These characters change quite a bit over the course of the book. Their decisions, and the motivations behind them, seemed very realistic. You could see the paths they were taking in life, and where those paths could have changed.

A large chunk of the book is devoted to the hard winter following a raid on the village of Elasund. Far more than I was expecting. I’m glad the story was structured this way. We get to see the characters in their native environment, and get to know them pretty well, before they find their new home. Giving us that background lets us see how the journey, and their new lives in Catan change each man. These changes really drive the book and make the characters seem real.

I only had 2 complaints about the book, but since the first was just a nit-picky problem with one instance of word choice, I’ll skip that one. The biggest problem I had with the story, is that there isn’t more of it. I’d love to see a series of books continue where this one left off.

Verdict

I loved The Settlers of Catan, it’s a great fantasy book. Elesund and the long voyage to Catan would have been a great book in and of itself. Rich description and realistic hardships combined with characters you get to know and care about make this one a winner.

Once the settlers reach Catan this story gets really good. As each character rebuilds their life along with the new village, conflicts spring up like weeds. New circumstances and old animosities make The Settlers of Catan a pleasure to read.

If there are any more books about Catan, and I hope there are, I can’t wait for the translations to be done.

I highly recommend this book.

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UPDATE: Added links to Ernest Cline’s Site, and a link to RP1 on Amazon.

UPDATE 2: Added a correction to the show notes of a mistake I made in the podcast.

This weeks podcast contains another interview. This time we talk to Ernest Cline. Ready Player One comes out August 18th, but you can listen to what the author thinks about the book now.

Geek TV Shockers

• I share a few of my thoughts on the news of Frank Darabot’s departure from The Walking Dead.




• A great article from The Hollywood Reporter about AMC’s efforts to undermine their own programs.




• I’m shocked by the news that SyFy canceled Eureka. (Watch out Warehouse 13!)
  Correction: Looks like they’re not even going to do the 6 episodes they had originally ordered, it’s just cancelled.

Ernest Cline Gets Geeky

• Ernest Cline stops by the show, in spite of major screw-ups on my part.




• Ernie talks with us about his book Ready Player One (coming out August 18th), and we discuss his movie Fanboys.

Spoiler File for Registered Members, Ernie talks with us about some of my favorite parts of Ready Player One.

(Log in if you don’t see the player below.)

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Interview With Revivors Series Author James Knapp

Our first Podcast interview and a great show. I got a chance to talk to James Knapp about his Revivor Series, which I loved, and I’m sharing it with you.

It’s the least I could do after all you and I have meant to each other, right?

• James Knapp shares some of the background of the story, and his efforts to get it published. I gotta say, I was surprised how quickly it sold.




• We talk about the Revivor Series’ similarities to some classic Science Fiction.




• James reveals that one of the characters may be returning for another story.




• James reveals a new pen name he will soon be using.

Extra: I even talked to him about my favorite parts of the series, spoiler filled goodness below (for logged in members [it's free]).

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FanaticSpace - Everyone loves something.

Epic fantasy, as a genre, usually runs either hot or cold for me. I would devour everything fantasy that came my way for decades until I hit, in my opinion, the bottom of the barrel, and ended up with a run of spectacularly bad epic fantasy.

So, in turn, I avoided picking up fantasy for many, many years, until I ended up reviewing Patricia Briggs’ reissue if her first book, Masques, here on FanaticSpace. That book reminded me how much I loved the genre, and it was time to give fantasy, in particular epic fantasy, another chance.

(Disclaimer for FTC regulations – I have received this Advanced Reader Copy at no cost.)

When I received The Last Four Things by Paul Hoffman as an ARC, I was ready to deep-dive into the second book of this series. As any time I’m presented with an established series, I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to get involved with it from the first page, but this did not disappoint in getting me caught up without being heavy-handed in the review of the first book, The Left Hand of God.

The epic story of Thomas Cale-introduced so memorably in The Left Hand of God–continues as the Redeemers use his prodigious gifts to further their sacred goal: the extinction of humankind and the end of the world.

To the warrior-monks known as the Redeemers, who rule over massive armies of child slaves, “the last four things” represent the culmination of a faithful life. Death. Judgement. Heaven. Hell. The last four things represent eternal bliss-or endless destruction, permanent chaos, and infinite pain.

Perhaps nowhere are the competing ideas of heaven and hell exhibited more clearly than in the dark and tormented soul of Thomas Cale. Betrayed by his beloved but still marked by a child’s innocence, possessed of a remarkable aptitude for violence but capable of extreme tenderness, Cale will lead the Redeemers into a battle for nothing less than the fate of the human race. And though his broken heart foretells the bloody trail he will leave in pursuit of a personal peace he can never achieve, a glimmer of hope remains. The question even Cale can’t answer: When it comes time to decide the fate of the world, to ensure the extermination of humankind or spare it, what will he choose? To express God’s will on the edge of his sword, or to forgive his fellow man-and himself?

The writing style is reminiscent of some contemporary accounts of historical record, which normally wouldn’t throw me off, but seemed to make things just a bit harder to sympathize with the character. The omniscient narrator in this book tends to throw around SAT-worthy words without actually connecting them to the context of the piece, but not enough for me to truly hate reading it, just enough to make me stutter while reading.

All of the characters are amazingly well-thought out, but my biggest complaint when I got to the end was that Thomas Cale, the lead character, is no more sympathetic there than he is at the beginning of the book where I knew nothing of him. I left the book caring not a hair more for him, as I believe I need to for a book to be engaging.

If given the opportunity, though, I do believe I’d read the next book in the series, just to see how Mr. Hoffman ends this grand story. Who knows, maybe in the last book of the trilogy will make the poor Thomas Cale more likable to me.

The Last Four Things will be available August 4, 2011 from Dutton Hardcover.

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My very first review here on FanaticSpace was for Kelley Armstrong’s Waking The Witch, the 11th book in her Otherworld series. It seemed like a natural fit for me to pick up the series’ newest release, Spell Bound (Book 12 in the Otherworld series), which picks up right where the last book ended, finally providing the needed answers to the questions that the previous book left me with.

And when I say that it picks up right where the last book ended, I mean it literally. I was afraid I’d need to go back and re-read Waking the Witch before heading back into the Otherworld series, but I didn’t need to fear. Within the first chapter, the reader not only gets that resolution that I was left hanging, waiting for, with the prior book, but you are also thrown directly into a natural progression of the series’ arc that Kelley Armstrong began with it.

(Disclaimer for FTC regulations – I have received this Advanced Reader Copy at no cost from the PR department, Wunderkind PR)

With no further ado, the blurb….

Savannah Levine is in terrible danger, and for once she’s powerless to help herself. At the heartbreaking conclusion of Waking the Witch, Savannah swore that she would give up her powers if it would prevent further pain for a young orphan. Little did she know that someone would take her up on that promise.

And now, witch-hunting assassins, necromancers, half-demons, and rogue witches all seem to be after her. The threat is not just for Savannah; every member of the Otherworld might be at risk. While most of her fellow supernaturals are circling the wagons at a gathering of the council in Miami, Savannah is caught on the road, isolated from those who can protect her and unable to use her vast spell-casting talent, the thing she counts on most. In a story that will change the shape of the Otherworld forever, Armstrong gathers Elena, Clay, Paige, Lucas, Jamie, Hope, and other beloved characters, who soon learn that the greatest threat to supernaturals just may come from within.

My thoughts? I really, truly loved the pace of this. Every time you thought you had a handle on the story arc, it would throw you for a loop. I really love Savannah as the narrator in this book, because you are right in her head as her character is finally, truly growing up. It was a pleasant surprise for me not to know within the first few chapters exactly how it was going to end.

The problem? The ending.

While Kelley Armstrong has posted on her Otherworld forums that she’s ending this series with Book 13, and Savannah will be the lead for the last three books, I was seriously disappointed to be sitting there, at the end, realizing it was yet another cliffhanger. The main story arc was never anywhere near completed for this book, with the assumption that the arc will be completed with the next and final book in the series. While the subplots seem to have a good handle on the wrap-up for the series in the next book, I didn’t feel like I was any closer to understanding the larger story arc at the end of this book.

But please don’t think that I’m not going to be salivating for the next book in the series. I’m actually a little happy that she’s decided to announce the end of the series, with only a few anthologies and short stories set it in the Otherworld series coming out after Savannah finishes up with Book 13. While I don’t enjoy being left to dangle at the end of the book, I really think that this series is well worth that discomfort for a fabulous story.

Spell Bound (Otherworld, Book 12) will be available on July 26, 2011 from Dutton in hardcover and on the Kindle.

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“Russ Reynolds, that’s me. You probably remember my name from when I ran the country for three days.”

Wikiworld is a quirky short story that doesn’t play around with throwing you directly into the world that Paul Di Filippo has created.

I started following 40kBooks, the publisher, on twitter a while ago, and I saw one day that they were offering a free short story for the first person to respond. I love a good story, and I couldn’t pass up the chance. I was fortunate enough to be the first person to respond, and the next time I turned on my Kindle, this amazing and just plain fun short story was in my TBR pile.

Wikis have taken control of a post-climate change world, where the lines between cyber reality and physical reality have been shattered. Russ, our narrator in this world, leads you through the set up to his three day stint as the jimmywhale (leader) of the post-US government, giving you a glimpse of a not-so-distant future that is reminiscent of Cory Doctorow’s “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom” but completely his own amazingly quirky and a little frightening world.

I enjoyed this story so much, I was more than a little disappointed when it ended. I wanted to see more of this world, especially all of the side characters. Mr. di Filippo is a real artist, sliding you right in the story and not letting you go.

Wikiworld (one absolute knock-out story) is available on Amazon for $2.99.

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Copyright © 2011 Jason Wigley

This is how Zombie Movies Start

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FanaticSpace - Everyone loves something.

Wunderkind PR sent me an advance reader copy (at no cost to me, full disclosure) of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One. I enjoyed his movie Fanboys, and started to read it as soon as possible. I’m very happy they sent it to me, RP1 is a book full of nerdy goodness.

Story

From the synopsis on ReadyPlayerOne.com

It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.

My Opinon

The Good

This review was a hard one to write. I enjoyed so much about Ready Player One that I want to share it all with you. Like the part where [Spoiler Removed] and [Spoiler Removed]. Even [Spoiler Removed]! That was simply awesome.

If I had to describe RP1 without getting spoilery, I’d call it a novelization of Cracked.com. The only thing that’s missing is Teddy Roosevelt and a comment section where people can complain about research inaccuracy in a humor article. Oh… and bitch about how it’s not funny. (Fact: According to comments left on the site, 98% of Cracked’s regular readers have yet to find anything funny.) It’s like Ernest Cline went through all the articles about 80s Movies, Video Games, the Internet, Mega-Corporations, and Epic Douchebaggery and arranged them to form a story. Then he filled in the gaps with a thick layer of Science Fiction.

I loved Ready Player One. If it were any better I would have loved it in ways that are still illegal in 42 states.

The Bad

I can only see a couple of possible problems.

I loved the book, partially because I knew a lot of the Geek Culture referenced. I won’t claim that I caught everything, but the bits that slipped past me were negligible.

Yes, I am a Giant Nerd.

Lesser Nerds will also enjoy the book, I’m sure of that. I am concerned that these “Normal People” I’ve heard about may miss most of the coolest bits, though there’s enough Pop Culture that even they won’t be entirely left out. The folks that wouldn’t get anything? I doubt they read anyway. They can watch the movie, which is already in the works.

The only other thing I didn’t love, I disliked nothing, was the ending. Apart from the reality that it had to end, which sucks, the last bit seemed like an odd fit with the rest of the book. The timing was off, for me at least. I thought it should have either ended a half chapter or so earlier or gone on to fill in some details. An epilogue would have fixed that up.

Verdict

Ready Player One can be enjoyed by anyone, but will only be truly appreciated by those who were geeks, nerds, spaziods and those palest of basement dwelling gamers of various and sundry ilk.

You know… us.

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