Fantasy - A Writer's Short Guide
Linda McNabb
Amazon Digital Services
Nonfiction, YA? Writing
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Fantasy author Linda McNabb presents an overview of fantasy, with workshop activities to spark story ideas.
A Kindle exclusive title.
REVIEW: As stated in the title, this is a short guide... so short I managed to read it in under an hour. The advice is so basic that I wonder if her target audience was people who hadn't read fantasy, and/or those who have never attempted writing at all. What is here isn't bad for an introduction, but it paints its subjects with such broad, simple brush strokes that no details can be discerned at all. (At the very least, McNabb could've offered a "Further Reading" section at the end, for those who wanted to learn more about fantasy and writing in general.)
If you were trying to organize a simple writing workshop for school or some manner of young adult club (an after-school book club, a Scout group, etc.), this might be an ideal course outline. Otherwise, aspiring fantasy writers would probably get much more out of Gail Carson Levine's Writing Magic.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
(A Sherlock Holmes collection, Book 1)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Public Domain Books
Fiction, Anthology/Mystery
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: For several years, the London doctor and war veteran John Watson was privileged to be a companion and friend to Sherlock Holmes, the greatest detective of all time. Following along on his investigations, he chronicled their various adventures - the scandalous, the dangerous, even the occasional minor diversion - in these stories.
REVIEW: After the character Sherlock Holmes proved wildly popular, Doyle featured him in several short stories beyond his novels. This, the first collection of those stories, includes many titles made famous by various interpretations through the years. Sometimes Holmes seems a little too brilliant to be believable, and one story at least - the infamous "Case of the Speckled Band" - simply could not happen in our universe, but even at their most implausible the characters remained interesting and singular. Given my notoriously poor luck with anthologies, I gave it an extra half-star for not boring me to tears or making a mockery of its stated subject matter. I expect I'll be reading more of Holmes in the future, especially as the originals have lapsed into public domain (and are therefore available free on my Kindle.)
(I've also greatly enjoyed the latest BBC revival of the character; the more stories I read, the more references I'm finding in the new Sherlock episodes.)
(A Sherlock Holmes collection, Book 1)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Public Domain Books
Fiction, Anthology/Mystery
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: For several years, the London doctor and war veteran John Watson was privileged to be a companion and friend to Sherlock Holmes, the greatest detective of all time. Following along on his investigations, he chronicled their various adventures - the scandalous, the dangerous, even the occasional minor diversion - in these stories.
REVIEW: After the character Sherlock Holmes proved wildly popular, Doyle featured him in several short stories beyond his novels. This, the first collection of those stories, includes many titles made famous by various interpretations through the years. Sometimes Holmes seems a little too brilliant to be believable, and one story at least - the infamous "Case of the Speckled Band" - simply could not happen in our universe, but even at their most implausible the characters remained interesting and singular. Given my notoriously poor luck with anthologies, I gave it an extra half-star for not boring me to tears or making a mockery of its stated subject matter. I expect I'll be reading more of Holmes in the future, especially as the originals have lapsed into public domain (and are therefore available free on my Kindle.)
(I've also greatly enjoyed the latest BBC revival of the character; the more stories I read, the more references I'm finding in the new Sherlock episodes.)
Saturday, December 31, 2011
December Site Update, Reviews Archived
So long, 2011!
I've archived and cross-linked the previous nine reviews at the main Brightdreamer Books website. I also rotated the site's Random Recommendations again.
Enjoy, and have a happy New Year!
I've archived and cross-linked the previous nine reviews at the main Brightdreamer Books website. I also rotated the site's Random Recommendations again.
Enjoy, and have a happy New Year!
Sunday, December 25, 2011
The Dragon Book (Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois, editors)
The Dragon Book
Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois, editors
Ace
Fiction, Anthology/Fantasy
**+ (Bad/Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Fierce, proud, magical, majestic... Few fantastic creatures have infiltrated the human imagination like the dragon. This short story collection contains 19 tales from some of the top names in fantasy and science fiction literature today.
REVIEW: After finishing this book, I started wondering if, perhaps, my problem with anthologies isn't with the stories, but with me. Maybe I don't understand what a short story is. I always thought that a short story was a condensed tale, either taking place in a very short time or simply distilled into its purest form, without the subplots or scenery or false starts or deadweight characters that populate longer works. After reading this collection, each one written by a best-selling author who presumably knows more about writing and stories than I could begin to comprehend, I've been forced to conclude that I was mistaken. Apparently, most short stories are about unlikable characters doing unlikable and uninteresting things which only rarely advance whatever passes for a plot, only to end with either a non-event or an out-of-the-blue twist that feels like it was spliced in from another work of fiction. "Short" also apparently can be expanded to cover forty or more pages worth of this aforementioned meandering prose.
Anyone who has read my reviews knows that I have notoriously bad luck with short stories; Bruce Coville, who seems to rely more on story integrity than celebrity name-dropping, seems to be the only safe bet, in my experience. But I've read and enjoyed books by several authors included here, such as Naomi "Temeraire" Novik, Jonathan "Bartimaeus" Stroud, and Tad "Shadowmarch" Williams. (It was also at Half Price Books for a very good price.) So, I figured I'd make an exception to my standard No-Anthologies-Edited-By-Anyone-But-Bruce-Coville rule. Sadly, the stories by two of my favorite authors, had I read them alone, would've turned me off of their larger, better books completely: Williams gets too clever for his own good with malapropisms and other English language maulings in "A Stark and Wormy Knight," while Novik's "Vici" - about the beginning of the dragon-human bonding that forms the heart of her alternate-universe series - lacks the character depth and sense of historic realism that I so love about the Temeraire books. Out of the whole book, I only enjoyed maybe three or four of the stories (including the one submitted by Bruce Coville.) The rest varied between pointless and boring, lacking sympathetic characters or situations I gave a rat's tail about, and often relegating the titular dragons to bit parts. Once again, this seems to be a case of editors (or, I suppose, publishers) collecting Big Names to drop rather than good stories. Lesson learned the hard way... again...
Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois, editors
Ace
Fiction, Anthology/Fantasy
**+ (Bad/Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Fierce, proud, magical, majestic... Few fantastic creatures have infiltrated the human imagination like the dragon. This short story collection contains 19 tales from some of the top names in fantasy and science fiction literature today.
REVIEW: After finishing this book, I started wondering if, perhaps, my problem with anthologies isn't with the stories, but with me. Maybe I don't understand what a short story is. I always thought that a short story was a condensed tale, either taking place in a very short time or simply distilled into its purest form, without the subplots or scenery or false starts or deadweight characters that populate longer works. After reading this collection, each one written by a best-selling author who presumably knows more about writing and stories than I could begin to comprehend, I've been forced to conclude that I was mistaken. Apparently, most short stories are about unlikable characters doing unlikable and uninteresting things which only rarely advance whatever passes for a plot, only to end with either a non-event or an out-of-the-blue twist that feels like it was spliced in from another work of fiction. "Short" also apparently can be expanded to cover forty or more pages worth of this aforementioned meandering prose.
Anyone who has read my reviews knows that I have notoriously bad luck with short stories; Bruce Coville, who seems to rely more on story integrity than celebrity name-dropping, seems to be the only safe bet, in my experience. But I've read and enjoyed books by several authors included here, such as Naomi "Temeraire" Novik, Jonathan "Bartimaeus" Stroud, and Tad "Shadowmarch" Williams. (It was also at Half Price Books for a very good price.) So, I figured I'd make an exception to my standard No-Anthologies-Edited-By-Anyone-But-Bruce-Coville rule. Sadly, the stories by two of my favorite authors, had I read them alone, would've turned me off of their larger, better books completely: Williams gets too clever for his own good with malapropisms and other English language maulings in "A Stark and Wormy Knight," while Novik's "Vici" - about the beginning of the dragon-human bonding that forms the heart of her alternate-universe series - lacks the character depth and sense of historic realism that I so love about the Temeraire books. Out of the whole book, I only enjoyed maybe three or four of the stories (including the one submitted by Bruce Coville.) The rest varied between pointless and boring, lacking sympathetic characters or situations I gave a rat's tail about, and often relegating the titular dragons to bit parts. Once again, this seems to be a case of editors (or, I suppose, publishers) collecting Big Names to drop rather than good stories. Lesson learned the hard way... again...
Friday, December 23, 2011
The Art of War (Sun Tzu)
The Art of War
Sun Tzu
Pax Librorum
Nonfiction, History/War
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Since before the dawn of history, war has been an integral part of mankind. A wise general, however, does not simply rely on tribal chaos or pure chance to dictate the outcome of a battle. Based on the 1910 English translation by Lionel Giles, this edition of the classic Chinese text offers timeless advice on the subject of war.
(NOTE: The Amazon link is not the exact version reviewed.)
REVIEW: Though the identity - and even the existence - of Sun Tzu is a matter of scholarly debate, the book attributed to him offers basic, sound advice on the matter of warfare and troop movements for rulers, generals, or would-be writers of fictional rulers and generals. While the weaponry and technology of warfare have advanced considerably since this was penned, the basic logistics and strategy remain much as they were when Sun Tzu lived (if he, indeed, lived at all.) I might have hoped for a little more depth, but on the whole I can't complain... especially as it was a free, public domain download for my Kindle.
Sun Tzu
Pax Librorum
Nonfiction, History/War
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Since before the dawn of history, war has been an integral part of mankind. A wise general, however, does not simply rely on tribal chaos or pure chance to dictate the outcome of a battle. Based on the 1910 English translation by Lionel Giles, this edition of the classic Chinese text offers timeless advice on the subject of war.
(NOTE: The Amazon link is not the exact version reviewed.)
REVIEW: Though the identity - and even the existence - of Sun Tzu is a matter of scholarly debate, the book attributed to him offers basic, sound advice on the matter of warfare and troop movements for rulers, generals, or would-be writers of fictional rulers and generals. While the weaponry and technology of warfare have advanced considerably since this was penned, the basic logistics and strategy remain much as they were when Sun Tzu lived (if he, indeed, lived at all.) I might have hoped for a little more depth, but on the whole I can't complain... especially as it was a free, public domain download for my Kindle.
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