Today in Fantasy: June 22, 2009

FBNR News:

Things at work havent slowed down yet as much as I had hoped by now, so my reading and blogging continues to be pretty sporadic. However, i have a hard deadline of getting everything done this week, so one way or another, I have to get my work done by week's end. Thus, reading and blogging should resume normal operation as the week progresses, or by next week at the absolute latest. Thanks for hanging in with me while I've been gone.

I tried my first small press/self-published book last week: Union of Renegades by Tracy Falbe. I read about 10% and had to put it down. The writing wasn't horrible, but it wasn't really working for me either. I got a sense that it had potential, if a good editor made some changes. But the bigger problem to me was the believability of some of the characters. The main female character went off on her own, while caring for a young girl and an infant. The problem I had was that how does a woman ride a horse for 2 days straight while trying to take care of a infant. At least the little girl I can rationalize. But I have an 18 month old daughter, and she still takes a lot of attention. No way does the character travel on one horse with the 3 of them, without making any concessions for the baby. Maybe its just me, but that bugged me. Also the other main character, Dreibrand, also seemed to act inconsistently. And I know its useless to make this claim without giving more examples, but I just cant recall them in enough detail a week later. In summary, though, the book didnt feel "professional" to me and it was distracting. I do think the author has potential, but overall it just wasn't working for me. With a good editor, the story could turn into something interesting.

Thanks also to all who left comments on my post about reviewing small press and self-published books. I actually thought I would receive more submission, as I have only totaled 5 so far I believe.

Reviews:

-Unbound!: Second Skin by Caitlin Kittredge, Curse of the Necrarch by Steven Savile

-Flight Into Fantasy: Pure Blood by Caitlin Kittredge

-My Favourite Books: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

-Bookgeeks: Johannes Cabal: The Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard

-BSCReview: Corambis by Sarah Monette, Doc Wilde and the Frogs of Doom by Tim Byrd, Eternal Vigilance by Gabrielle Faust

Authors/News:

-Larry, at OF Blog of the Fallen, has an interesting post about whether some blogs are "whoring themselves out" with lots of giveaways and less than critical reviews. I have noticed quite a few giveaways, especially if you check out weekly Mulluane's giveaway roundup. I personally don't do many giveaways, because I don't have the chance to. I would be interested in more of them, but only for under publicised books. I felt a bit dirty after the World of Warcraft book giveaway, since it seemed like 10 other blogs were also giving away the book. I'm sure if we had all known that was going to happen, many of us would have declined the giveaway (I know I would have).

-S.L. Farrell (pen name) is done with the first submission draft of A Magic of Dawn.