Recent Adventures

This is a photo dumb that I'll try to make interesting. ;)

William (2, almost 3, years old)
Jacob (5 months old)

An X-Wing replica at Wings Over the Rockies

Daniel pushing William around in a peddle plane at Wings Over the Rockies.
He tried nearly every plane they had.

Me in a tiny plane named The Cricket.
We thought it would be fitting. ;)

In other news, I got my hair cut and dyed this weekend. I'm still trying to take a good self portrait so I can share it but my face just doesn't want to be photogenic today.

Thanks for reading! Happy Monday!

Book Review: Seer of Sevenwaters

Picture & Information taken from Amazon

1 STAR

Get swept away in the romantic fantasy of this national bestselling author's world of Sevenwaters

The young seer Sibeal is visiting an island of elite warriors, prior to making her final pledge as a druid. It's there she finds Felix, a survivor of a Viking shipwreck, who's lost his memory. The scholarly Felix and Sibeal form a natural bond. He could even be her soul mate, but Sibeal's vocation is her true calling, and her heart must answer.

As Felix fully regains his memory, Sibeal has a runic divination showing her that Felix must go on a perilous mission-and that she will join him. The rough waters and the sea creatures they will face are no match for Sibeal's own inner turmoil. She must choose between the two things that tug at her soul-her spirituality and a chance at love...

~~~

It hurts me so much to give this book such a low rating, but I couldn't even force my self to finish it. I barely got 10% of the way through it. I normally love Juliet Marillier. The first three books of the Sevenwaters series is great but I realized as I was reading Heir that she was slipping.

So why did Seer get just one star? I found the main character, Sibeal, boring. Yeah she's a seer and a Druid in training but I just couldn't get my self to care about her. Nor could I care about the shipwrecked boy, Felix.

And even though I didn't finish the book I can tell you how it ends. I'd bet $100 that Sibeal will chose to be with Felix instead of becoming a Druid. I hope someone could tell me different, but I doubt it.

So 1 star for being predictable and boring. :(

Book Review: The Sandman Vol. 1

Information and Picture taken from Amazon.

5 STARS

New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman's transcendent series SANDMAN is often hailed as the definitive Vertigo title and one of the finest achievements in graphic storytelling. Gaiman created an unforgettable tale of the forces that exist beyond life and death by weaving ancient mythology, folklore and fairy tales with his own distinct narrative vision.

In PRELUDES & NOCTURNES, an occultist attempting to capture Death to bargain for eternal life traps her younger brother Dream instead. After his 70 year imprisonment and eventual escape, Dream, also known as Morpheus, goes on a quest for his lost objects of power. On his arduous journey Morpheus encounters Lucifer, John Constantine, and an all-powerful madman.

This book also includes the story "The Sound of Her Wings," which introduces us to the pragmatic and perky goth girl Death. Includes issues 1-8 of the original series with completely new coloring, approved by the author.

~~~

I'd like to begin this review with a warning to my younger and/or more sensitive readers. If this book got a movie rating it would be rated R, and more like a horror movie R than an action movie R. There's some scenes and some images that might disturb you and there's a whole chapter that had me a good bit troubled, although it ended on a good note.

Anyway, I am becoming a pretty big Neil Gaiman fan. This is the 3rd book of his I've read and I really like him. He's a little dark sometimes but it works.

And I loved The Sandman. The world Gaiman created is fascinating and I didn't want to leave. I now think the Sandman is pretty much one of the coolest characters ever. The writing was great and the art was good too. I'm not sure how to judge the art, most of my graphic novel reading comes in the form of manga and that's a totally different art style.

My favorite part is the last chapter where you meet the Sandman's sister. I love the idea of Death being a goth looking girl with crazy bedhead. If that's who comes to get me in the end I'll be pleased. :)

I've now got the next couple volumes of this series on hold for me at the library. One thing I love about comics is that it's a fast read. So, yes, I'll be reviewing the rest of the series as well.

Books I Couldn't Finish

So I've had two books recently that I just couldn't finish and it makes me sad. I'm not sure if I should really review them or not. One of them I think I'll pick back up here soon, but the other I just don't care about.

The one I'm having a really hard time with Stephen King's The Gunslinger. (And today's his birthday and everything, sorry Mr. King) I'm not really a fan of King, mostly because I don't read horror, but I know he's an amazing writer. In fact, my first book about writing was On Writing and I've read it many times. I respect him as a writer, but this book is just not for me.

I feel no connection to the gunslinger and I just find my self caring less and less about his story and whether or not he'll get to the "Man in black". Everything just feels real distant to me in this story and I don't like that. It's like I can't get a clear vision of the story, everything is fuzzy around the edges. So even though I'm 87% (according to my Kindle) of the way through the story I have no desire to finish it. It was a struggle just to get this far.

So I'm not sure if I should really rate/review it. If I did, I'd give it maybe 3 stars for it being okay but not my cup of tea, kind of like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. If you're already a fan of King then I'm sure you'll like this, but I was less than impressed.

Book Review: Pandora's Star

(Info & Pic taken from Amazon <--- Buy the book!)

4 STARS!

Critics have compared the engrossing space operas of Peter F. Hamilton to the classic sagas of such sf giants as Isaac Asimov and Frank Herbert. But Hamilton’s bestselling fiction—powered by a fearless imagination and world-class storytelling skills—has also earned him comparison to Tolstoy and Dickens. Hugely ambitious, wildly entertaining, philosophically stimulating: the novels of Peter F. Hamilton will change the way you think about science fiction. Now, with Pandora’s Star, he begins a new multivolume adventure, one that promises to be his most mind-blowing yet. 

The year is 2380. The Intersolar Commonwealth, a sphere of stars some four hundred light-years in diameter, contains more than six hundred worlds, interconnected by a web of transport “tunnels” known as wormholes. At the farthest edge of the Commonwealth, astronomer Dudley Bose observes the impossible: Over one thousand light-years away, a star . . . vanishes. It does not go supernova. It does not collapse into a black hole. It simply disappears. Since the location is too distant to reach by wormhole, a faster-than-light starship, the Second Chance, is dispatched to learn what has occurred and whether it represents a threat. In command is Wilson Kime, a five-time rejuvenated ex-NASA pilot whose glory days are centuries behind him.

Opposed to the mission are the Guardians of Selfhood, a cult that believes the human race is being manipulated by an alien entity they call the Starflyer. Bradley Johansson, leader of the Guardians, warns of sabotage, fearing the Starflyer means to use the starship’s mission for its own ends,.

Pursued by a Commonwealth special agent convinced the Guardians are crazy but dangerous, Johansson flees. But the danger is not averted. Aboard the Second Chance, Kime wonders if his crew has been infiltrated. Soon enough, he will have other worries. A thousand light-years away, something truly incredible is waiting: a deadly discovery whose unleashing will threaten to destroy the Commonwealth . . . and humanity itself. 

Could it be that Johansson was right?

~~~

This book was pretty much amazing. So why 4 stars instead of 5? Well it ends in a literal cliff hanger. Actually, more of a waterfall hanger, but same difference. I'm going to have to read the next book to finish the story. Which is okay, I was going to read the second book anyway, but I just do not like that kind of extreme cliff hanger.

Anyway, like I said this book is great. It's very complex. The universe is massive, the character list is large and the scale is epic. Within the first few chapters you are introduced to at least 5 major characters. So there is a lot to keep track of, but Hamilton handles it beautifully. He's great at creating distinct voices for all the characters.

This book was a slow start for me. But I think that was mostly due to me not being used to reading science fiction. I'm used to reading about horses, swords and magic, not wormholes, laser pistols and quantum physics. But I still got pulled in so hard and the characters were so well established in my mind that even after taking a two week break from the book, I could jump right back where I left off and still love it.

Also, this story covers every classic scifi theme possible. There are wormholes, spaceships, aliens, artificial intelligence, robots, people living forever, war, politics, terrorism, everything. It's a complete, living breathing world.

Overall, 5 stars, minus one for the mean cliff hanger ending, for a total of 4 stars. And yes, I will be reading the next one, Judas Unchained, as soon as I can get my hands on it.

Book Review: Assassin's Apprentice

(Info and Pic taken from Amazon <-- Buy the book here)

5 STARS

Young Fitz is the bastard son of the noble Prince Chivalry, raised in the shadow of the royal court by his father's gruff stableman. He is treated like an outcast by all the royalty except the devious King Shrewd, who has him secretly tutored in the arts of the assassin. For in Fitz's blood runs the magic Skill--and the darker knowledge of a child raised with the stable hounds and rejected by his family. As barbarous raiders ravage the coasts, Fitz is growing to manhood. Soon he will face his first dangerous, soul-shattering mission. And though some regard him as a threat to the throne, he may just be the key to the survival of the kingdom. 

~~~

I really enjoyed this book. I adore and sympathize with Fitz all the way. Which is surprising because in the past I don't do so well with a male first person POV. I have a harder time connecting. I think it worked this time because we start with him as a little boy at the age of 6. Overall, this is a sad story, Fitz goes through a lot of loss. But he keeps going and he keeps trying to find his place in the world. I like that about him.

There is a good deal of political intrigue, but I found it interesting and easy to follow. And I did not see the Big Bad Guy coming. At least I knew he was Bad, but not Big Bad.

This is the first in a series and I really want to read the rest, mostly just to see if Fitz does get some more happiness in the end.

~~~

Happy Friday and Happy Three Day Weekend to my American readers. :)

Trolls, Unprofessional & Drama Llamas

So a while ago I mentioned some drama that was going on in the book community that was pitting reviewers against authors. This problem has not gone away. If anything it's gotten worse.

Now I'm not going to try and document this whole drama llama, but if you're interested, just Google "authors behaving badly" or "stop the goodreads bullies". Or, there is a great thread on Absolute Write that documents a lot of this. But I'll try to summarize it for you.

There are two major parties involved, the Author and the Reviewer. The Author writes a book, the Reviewer reads the book and then post a review of it somewhere on the great Internet. Pretty nice arrangement right? And if the Reviewer liked the book and does a positive review then all parties win. Author adds a good review to their resume and Reviewer read a good book and gets to recommend it to others.

Where this all starts getting ugly is when there is a Negative review. From this point on our two parties get separated into two smaller sections. There becomes Troll Reviewers and Honest Reviewers. And then there is your Professional and Unprofessional Authors. (I use Professional as in the way they act, it has nothing to do with how they were published).

First, let's talk about the Honest Reviewer. An Honest will read a book and if they didn't really like it, will give it a low rating and then explain why they gave it that rating. They will talk about the problems they had with the book and try to be fair with their critique. They are simply sharing their opinion.

On the other hand, a Troll will give a negative review whether or not they've read the book. Their review will be overly nasty and sometimes talk about the author personally. Trolls are all over the internet. They live to be mean and make people miserable. And sometimes, good normal people can act like trolls. Emotions, they make us crazy.

Now what Author does about the Negative review is what divides them into Professional and Unprofessional Authors. A Professional Author will do one of two things with a Negative review, no matter if it's Honest or a Troll. They will either not respond at all, or thank the Reviewer for taking the time to review their work. Minimal drama.

The Unprofessional will respond in anger, no matter if it's Honest or a Troll. They will tell Reviewer they are wrong for having an opinion and make all sorts of accusations. This is where the Crazy Drama Llama comes in and starts shitting on everything.

So what parties are in the wrong here? The Troll and Unprofessional. The Troll is of course wrong because they're just trying to hurt people and summon the Drama Llama. Trolls live for this stuff. And in the grand scheme of things they're just little people who have no control over anything and need to get laid more.

The Unprofessional Author is a whole other creature. They get angry about a Negative review (which they have a right too) and then take that anger out on other people. When they get angry at a Troll it's simply a waste of time. Most people who've been on the internet a while know that you Do Not Engage The Trolls. You're just giving them what they want.

And then the Drama Llama has a good ol' time when an Unprofessional acts out against an Honest Reviewer. The UnP will whine in the comments of a review and then go onto their own blog and talk bad about the Reviewer. This is where the UnP shows their true colors and their thin sensitive skin. And this is where the Internet steps in and starts making people look like fools, because the Internet is For-ev-er.

So, how do we keep the Drama Llama at bay? If you're a Reviewer, be fair and honest with your reviews. Don't attack the author, keep everything focused on the book and try to be objective. If you're an Author, your best bet is to not respond to bad reviews, even the Trolls. Having one or two bad reviews is a lot better than the career suicide you'd be committing by battling it out on the web.

There's my two copper colored round metal objects worth. :)