More book reviews!

So after a weekend of semi-relaxation, I've finished reading a couple of nice stories: The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer, and Escape to Malmillard by K. G. McAbee.


The Sea of Trolls

This young adult fantasy/period piece is heavily influenced by Norse Mythology in a time where multiple religions were commonplace in Europe. The story focuses upon Jack, a young farm boy that has dreams of a better life for himself that slowly come true when he comes to become the apprentice of an old man known simply as "The Bard." The Bard shows him the world of nature and magic through song and contemplation as Jack slowly grows in power and confidence. His life gets turned on its ear however, when the village is set upon by berserkers from the north, led by a giant of a man named Olaf One-Brow. Along with his little sister Lucy, and a crow named Bold Heart, Jack faces many grand perils and fantastic monsters in this coming of age story. Nancy does an excellent job portraying the people of that time period, which is set around the 800s AD. The mythology references are used tastefully without being too over the top and there's just enough magic to make things interesting. My only real complaint, though it's not much of one, is that the ending seemed a tad unsatisfying. I don't know, it just seemed that it could have been executed a little better and felt a bit more dramatic, even though it is written for a younger audience. If you like mythology, especially Norse mythology, give it a read, I don't think it will disappoint.


Escape to Malmillard

The first in this series of books, this high fantasy tale tells the story of a young boy named Erek, a mage in training. His parents long dead, Erek is in the care of his aunt Ivera, who only looks upon him as a tool, hoping the boy will learn just enough magic to be useful to her. It's soon discovered by his new tutor, Andru, that he has the potential to become a master adept, which is the highest rank a mage can ascend to. Such knowledge if it got out would surely mean the end of his studies, and soon Erek finds himself whisked away to Malmillard with Commander DiaVandryn and her captains Vlad and Ursyn. As is the way of such novels, they face plenty of twists and turns along the way, so that Erek can realize his true potential, though there are doubts brewing in his mind of whether he really wants such a life. The characters are well-developed and the setting is well-crafted, though sadly, the book was far too short for me to really care about what happened to them. Not that quantity is important for such a book, but I would've liked a bit more to flesh out the story, since it seemed like things progressed a little too fast. All in all, it did leave with me a desire to read more of her works, I can only hope the second book makes things far more interesting.


Now that I've finished up these books, I'll be continuing catching up on The Wheel of Time series with Crossroads of Twilight, the tenth book in the series. I'll be reviewing that next when I am finished. Thank you and good night.

Stuff

Just your regular blog update just so all five viewers of my blog know that I am still alive. I guess I'll kick things off with a novel update...

Cutting Teeth is coming out better and better with every scene I write if I do say so myself. Our adventurers find themselves in Felshor, mystical city of the elves, where a lot of plot is revealed amongst other things. This part sets the tone for the rest of the book as things both good and bad start to happen. The two empires (Otaria and Melora) feel great tensions as a mobilization of soldiers from Argentum, the free city that has kept the peace between the two, head to Kjeldor, the Land of Ice. Conspiracies involving the Council of Felshor start to trickle out of their ivory tower, and Glenn's group heads to the Hammerfall mountain range to ask the assistance of the dwarven king to keep Argentum safe.

Book Review
Yes! I am reviewing books now! Basically it's going to cover anything that I just finished reading and find worthwhile to talk about, whether it be good or bad. Today's book is a collection of short stories by K. G. McAbee, a woman I had the honor to meet at the local author showcase a couple weeks back, called Bewitched by Darkness.

This collection is primarily of a fantasy bent, with some pulp stories, and a nice homage to Lovecraftian horror. As a whole, I enjoyed every story; at no point did I want to put the book down unless I really had to. My biggest problem with it, though it isn't much of one, is the fact that most of the stories are told in the first person. I don't know, it works fine with short fiction, but I find it very limiting when it comes to developing a story, especially when you have a lot of characters. Any fan of fantasy should give it a look. It's not very expensive and it's a fairly short book, so you can go through it in a couple of lazy afternoons.

Gaming Club Update

Not much to talk about on this front, though I AM in love with the Pathfinder rules system. It's everything 4th edition should have been as a friend of mine so eloquently put it. The group page on Facebook isn't very big yet, but it is there for people to talk about club activities and for planning the eventual jump into a non-profit organization. The website has taken a slight back seat for now as I've been focusing more on my writing, but I haven't forgotten it. I am going to have a talk with the library people about setting up some sort of local gaming events there on either a Friday or a Saturday. I'll probably start with Magic: The Gathering since I don't have any of my role-playing books down here yet.

That's all for this one, so have a good night everyone!

Short Story completed

My first short story for submission is finally complete! I'm going to start sending it out to publishers tomorrow. Cutting Teeth made some good progress today as I was sitting around for a good hour at the start of work. It won't be too much longer at this pace before it's ready to be typed out. Terracats might be something I start this weekend, but I don't know just yet. Now I'm off to bed to get some more reading done, so catch you all later until then.

My first manuscript

I've come to the conclusion thanks to a meeting with some wonderful authors at the local author showcase, that in order for my name to start to circulate amongst the community, I need to get myself published. Soon. The best way to get my feet wet is a short story, something I can crank out in a few days. I've done some research on proper manuscript layout and applying that to how I'm presenting it. I'll locate a publisher probably tomorrow that accepts fantasy short stories, and see about getting it submitted A.S.A.P.

The name of the story is one that my fellow gaming friends will be familiar with: The Blue Lupine. It encompasses his first real fight against injustice that takes place shortly after the Yakuza burned down the village he had been staying at for the past two years. It's a character close to my heart, and a setting that's very familiar to me; write what you know as they say. I'll probably be finished with it by the end of the week at the latest.

I'd also like to take this time to announce my young readers book idea. I've decided to actually DO something with the Battlecats characters and call them Terracats: Defenders of Humanity. Nothing solid on paper yet, but I'd been brainstorming the few scenes of the book in my head at work today.

The Chronicles of Gaia has had its name changed. I've decided on something to call the series that's a bit more appropriate: The Wintermoon Legacies. The first book in the series will be called Cutting Teeth, since the main character is on his first adventures away from home.

That's all for tonight, time to write some more of that short story, then curl up on my bed to read for an hour or so. Thank you and good night.

Novel Progress

The title says it all. I'm currently at a point in the story where the party just defeated an animated suit of armor with a massive black greatsword made to look like a wavy flame. I won't spoil how they defeated it, you'll have to find out for yourself when the book gets published.

On a sidenote, my gaming club/charity organization is starting to get off the ground. I currently have nine people including myself on board. Granted, they may just be my gaming buddies, but you gotta start somewhere right? For those of you who don't know, please check out Argent Fangs for more information. It's a work in progress so be patient. Drop me a line if there's anything you'd like me to put up.

Battlecats!!!

This is sort of a random thought that I had at work today while brainstorming ideas for my book. For whatever reason, I thought back to when I was about 11, and I had come up with a version of Battletoads called Battlecats. Instead of Zitz, Pimple and Rash, I had Claw, Fang and Tails. I made a little comic strip about them on my old IBM 486 that was pretty lame, but hilarious to me looking back on it. Claw was a gray tiger cat with a blue belt and black metal boots and gauntlets, Fang was a muscle-bound orange cat with a green belt and metal teeth, and Tails was a lanky black cat with a red belt and a metal spike on his tail. I'm half-tempted to give them a real go and give them some backstory, but I doubt I will. It's fun to think back to my childhood characters that I made up.

New World Musings

I've been thinking about my campaign world a bit more, thinking about the shape of it, the days in the year, the types of classes I want in the game, things like that. Most of the core classes from 3.5 translate perfectly into this setting, though I'll have to use the alternate rule system for the defense skill, since armor usage isn't very common and I don't want players getting hosed ten minutes into a session. I'll probably drop the spellcasting from the Ranger class and either up its hit die to a d10, give it more skill points, or give it some other little ability to make up for the loss of magic. The Sorcerer is being melded with the Favored Soul and I'm making a sort of "Shaman" class out of it, not too sure about the intricacies just yet, but I'm thinking of elemental masteries and a unique spell list. Duskblades will be in the game, but I'll probably just call them Mage Knights or Swordmages or something along those lines. The Blackguard prestige is coming out since I'm making a Dark Knight base class which is basically the Paladin of Tyranny from the Unearthed Arcana, perhaps with a little more flavor to it. Swashbucklers are a perfect fit for the world, but there is no culture in the world that even remotely resembles Asia, so the Wu Jen, Shugenja and Samurai are not going to be playable, though there is the possibility that I'll use the Nezumi (rat people) race in the game.

There's other stuff, but that's all I can think of off the top of my head. Thank you and good night!