Archive for June 2025
Justified
I read Justified by @jondelarroz, and I enjoyed it. Mr. Del Arroz has taken an interesting approach: Crusaders vs Jihadis in Space, and he does not pull his punches, nor adulterate his characters or plot with any anachronistic cultural self-castigation or other idiosyncrasies of our real modern West. The protagonist does suffer a crisis of…
Read MoreThe Water War
I read The Water War (Episode 1) by @ShirleyJwriter, and I enjoyed it. Ms. Johnson’s approach to the peri-apocalypse/fall-of-America genre is delightfully character-centered, and tightly focused on its ordinary folk. Rather than spending any time on the big movers and shakers, any reasons behind the events in question or powerful people exerting any influence over…
Read MoreReliquary of the Dead
I read Reliquary of the Dead by @DrDavidAFalk. Overall a delightful novel, and also one that gives me an excuse to talk about two potential pitfalls in fiction writing. The first is that specialists in any field other than fiction writing tend not to make very good fiction writers. They tend to be didactic regarding…
Read MoreThe Healing Stone
I read “The Healing Stone” by John Newton, and it is excellent. I have confession to rant: I hate “Young Adult” fiction. More generally, I dislike any fiction that centers on young people. I hated it when I was a young person. I once read of a YA author asked how YA fiction is made,…
Read MoreSt. George and the Dragon
I read “St. George and the Dragon” by Michael Lotti, and you should read it, too. It is excellent. Among the fallout from Tolkein, in his genius, is that ever since him, dragons have to be suitably epic. The little green dragon which fits under hoof in a medieval painting is no longer sufficient to…
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