Posts Tagged ‘novel’
Travel by Star
I read Travel by Star, by Paul Scott Grill, and I’m giving it my first five-star review. Now, what does that mean, “five stars?” For our purposes here, the scale is this: Three stars is a book you could miss and not miss anything. Four is a book you should read. Five is a book…
Read MoreAfter Moses
I read “After Moses” by Michael Kane, and it was a delight. This is a good novel, and I expect a good series, to share with your teen boy. The author calls it space western, in the vein of Firefly, but I also got distinct Cowboy Bebop vibes. However, the hero is a very welcome…
Read MoreThe Novel as the Foundation of All Art
Check out the new article on Hollywood in Toto on the importance of reading novels in the popular culture to such wide-ranging cultural artefacts as movies and music.
Read MoreThe Sapphire Prince
I read “The Sapphire Prince” by Casey West, and it was cute. It also gives me a chance to talk about two subjects which have been on my mind lately. First, the story itself. Book 1 of the “Loyalty Fallen” series (everything’s a series, these days, and I’m just as guilty), here we have a…
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 MoreSample Chapter: Discoveries
The next morning, they both braced themselves for awkward questions, challenges about their precipitous exit, but they encountered none, principally because the rest of the household slept late into the morning and emerged, when they finally emerged, in slight and fragile capacity. The day after the ball was as quiet in the manor as they…
Read MoreSample Chapter: The Dinner
Upon entering the grand foyer of the house, Lilani spoke a series of quick orders to the butler in Faenish, which he received with nothing more than a stiff bow, and then he turned to address Josheb, who despite himself was still staring at the towering luxury around him. “Josheb, yes?” “Yes,” said Josheb, tearing…
Read MoreThe Ride
An excerpt from the new novel, Outsiders, by William Collier It is one of those peculiarities of military air travel that, in a cargo aircraft, one often sits with one’s back to the side bulkhead, facing perpendicular to the aircraft’s direction of travel, such that as it accelerates or decelerates, one is thrown sideways into…
Read MoreThe Mission
An excerpt from the new novel, Outsiders, by William Collier Bulbous, faceted eyes, blown wildly out of proportion, huge, reflecting an oily rainbow of green, orange, and brown hues, leaving room only for the tiniest bit of head to support them—just enough head to attach also what it had in place of a mouth: this…
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