Fantasy books, terrible advice, and random silliness
Commentary on reading and books.
A week ago I wrote a post that was not a book review of The Star-Touched Queen. On a similar vein, this isn’t a book review of The Obelisk Gate, by N. K. Jemisin. And if you can’t figure out why I’m suddenly (not) reviewing books, it’s all explained here.
The Obelisk Gate is the second book in the Broken Earth series, and almost anything I can say about the plot will be a spoiler for the first book, so I won’t say anything.
This is not a book review, but if it were it would be a review of The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi.
You may recall that in my last post I committed to reading four recent (in a loose sense of the word) fantasy novels in February.
Easy, right? It’s not uncommon for me to finish a book in a day or two, so four in a month gives me 22 days’ leeway. Except February is a short month, which takes me down to 20 days, and I didn’t start until the 7th, so 14 days.
I also have two books I hope to beta read this month, which takes much longer than normal reading, so say 5 days apiece, and I’m down to 4 days’ leeway.
Continue reading “Not a book review of The Star-Touched Queen”
Stephen King has it right when he says, “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
I read a lot, but the past few months I’ve been slack about reading recently released fantasy novels. This month I’ve set myself the goal of reading four new fantasy books. And because I know you love books as much as I do, if you sign up for either of my mailing lists by the end of February you could win one of them – your pick of the title in paperback or ebook form.
Continue reading “Win a fantasy book I’m reading this month”
Today is book-hunting day! That wasn’t a thing until today, but now it is.
Book-hunting day means I go to Amazon and search for fantasy books with key words like “chosen one” or “elemental magic” (just, because). When a book entices me, I’ll start reading the preview until I either decide it sucks (ahem, I mean, decide it’s not for me) or buy it.
Of course, I’ll give you a commentary as I go. It’s mean to make fun of people in public, so I won’t name names and I’ll disguise some of the details. (I’ll use * to indicate the detail has been changed.)
Shall we head into the jungle?
Don’t get me wrong, kindles (or your e-reader of choice) are a wonderful invention. I love paying $3 for a book instead of $30 and getting it in 5 minutes rather than 5 weeks. Kindle books are also easy on my bookshelves, which groan under the wonders of culture.
But there is one area in which ebooks fall short and interfere with my reading experience: they almost never have easy-to-find blurbs.