Review: Relic by Renee Collins

Relic is a fantastic, fun read from a talented new author, Renee Collins. The plot is fast-paced from the first page, and there wasn't a moment that dragged. For the most part the characters are vivid and realistically written, and the dialogue was western-flavored without being overwhelming. In fact, it was a serious contender for my best-of-2013 shelf.

One of the strongest aspects of Relic was the setting. The Western spin is an angle that's not too common in fantasy, and it provided a rich backdrop for the action of the novel. I loved the atmosphere of the book - Collins did a great job.

I was also glad to see a premise/magic system that hasn't been done before. The idea of Relics (bones of magical creatures) providing people with magical abilities is - as far as I know- unique. Considering how much they featured in the plot, however, I would have liked a little more explanation as to how exactly they worked - it seems to vary based on what's needed for the plot. Individual relics seem to work on contact, or by ingestion, but there are also guns which are somehow powered by relics, and that's never really explained at all.

Considering he was the major love interest, I would have liked to have seen more of Landon. I also would have liked him to be a bit more involved in the investigation of the burnings/mystery of the unknown relic/something! There's a scene were he chastises Maggie for getting caught up with Alvar and life at the hacienda, but it's not like he's doing much of anything either...plus, his relationship with Maggie felt a bit rushed.

There were a few hints that Maggie might see Yahn as a potential love interest as well, which I thought was silly and unneeded, but that's probably just my bias (I strongly dislike multiple love interests).

I liked that I couldn't figure Alvar out - one moment he was kind, the next entitled and demanding. However there were some moments where I felt his characterization was a bit too inconsistent...and the explanation felt like a bit of a cop-out.

I prefer my villains not to be 'evil'...to have some sort of motivation, however twisted, for what they are doing. That doesn't appear to be the case for the ultimate antagonist of this book.

Despite these nitpicks, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Relic, and if there is a sequel - the ending seems well set up for one - I will certainly read it!

Full disclosure: I received an eARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Who's talking?

I don't have anything profound to share today (then again, when do I ever say anything profound?). I think tomorrow or whenever next I blog I will talk about rereading books, and revisiting books with a new perspective. But for now, I will just say that unattributed dialogue is a serious pain.

I'm currently reading Plato's Republic for a class. No, I'm not the kind of person who reads Plato for fun. I'm writing novels about princesses, for goodness' sakes! I'm much more likely to pick up a book with a dragon on the cover.

But I digress.

The Republic is actually a fairly engaging book, as "serious" books go, and I find myself getting rather drawn in to the dialogue. Then I discover that I've read four pages and no longer have any idea who's speaking. The book is almost exclusively dialogue, with few attributions and no quotation marks. It gets rather difficult at time to keep track of who is saying what.

I find myself with a new appreciation for dialogue tags and quotation marks and all those wonderful conventions of our time. Yes, grammar and punctuation rules require effort to learn. But they pay off a thousandfold when your reader can effortlessly understand your meaning, without having to backtrack to remember who is speaking.

P.S. An aside: This is actually the basis for a very important plot point in one of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next novels (I forget which one...the second, maybe?) I'm not going to spoil it, but just say that I highly recommend the series to any avid reader or writer. They are engaging, witty, clever, and contain many inside jokes for those of a literary bent.

Shameless!

That, my friends, is a book trailer for the book By the Pale Moonlight, by Jennifer Hendren, who is one of several lovely authors blogging over at All the World's Our Page.

I haven't read the book - it hasn't come out yet - but I have read the excerpt and it looks pretty good!

Now, why am I shameless?

Because Jennifer Hendren is giving away two digital copies and two paperback copies of her book! And you know me, I love books. I always want more books. So I'm entering the giveaway by blogging about the contest and embedding the book trailer, above.

Go enter. Also, read the book when it comes out when it comes out October 18th!

Choose Your Own Adventure

I always thought those kinds of books were rather stupid, while at the same time really wanting to read one.
 
But that's not really the point of this post. Remember this post where I mentioned a series of blog posts about NaNo? No, probably not...anyway, looking around the rest of that site, I discovered that the Author was in the process of writing Choose, which the author calls an "interactive web serial".

It's not so much a choose-your-own-adventure as it is an interesting, well-written story developed with the input of the readers. Basically the author, one Tami Moore, writes until she feels there is an important (or not-so-important; once the poll had to do with tea flavors) choice to be made regarding the narrative, at which point she posts a poll. The readers then vote and the winning option is included in the story.

Aside from the fact that you have to wait two weeks between installments - and yes, I understand that time is necessary! Things have to be written and edited! It's hard! But readers are by nature impatient creatures, or at least I am - it's a really engaging story and you should all go read it now.

In other news I'm currently working on two stories for the princess contest I mentioned in my last post (are there enough links in this post yet?) because I can't decide which one to use yet. One is a new idea about a princess whose kingdom is in the midst of a military coup pretending to be bringing democracy and her entire family has been slaughtered and she's running for her life. Not sure where that's going yet. The other one is an idea that's been on my list for a while, about a girl who kisses a frog prince and then discovers that he's not the only one under a spell...I think that's what I'm going to use for this year's NaNo, regardless of what happens with the princess contest.

Alright, I'm going to wrap up this post now. In summary: Choose is really good go read it; I did a lot of writing today; I'm starting to think about NaNo and it's got me really excited.

Oh, and this post is full of run-on sentences with too many clauses, but I seem to be in that kind of mood today.

Oh, I also just tagged this post with 10001 different things.

Summer Reading

Sorry for the neglect - I'm at a summer intensive and for the past week I've barely had enough energy to drag myself into bed, let alone write a blog post :)

But, I have been reading a lot. My level has these very inconvenient 3 hour breaks, so since last Sunday I have read:

The Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett, 375 pages (he's always funny - I recommend Good Omens, which he wrote with Neil Gaiman)

Dark Lord of Derkholm, Diana Wynne Jones, 517 pages (a favorite of mine. I like Diana, although her books are split fifty-fifty for me. Half I really like, half I really don't get. This one I really like)

The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins, 374 pages (I've been resisting for a long time - I don't like books in present tense - but I finally bit the bullet and it was really captivating)

The Iron King, Julie Kagawa, 363 pages (liked it, although the story is not perhaps as resolved as I'd like it to be, even in the first of a series)

My friend offered to lend me her Harry Potters so I could reread them before the movie comes out...hopefully that will keep me occupied...

Also, JulNo starts today! I need some motivation to keep writing here while I'm SO tired.

Pickiness, and Sympathetic Characters

Ugh, rehearsal schedule is reaching new heights of craziness, hence my blog neglect.

I may be picky about food - yes, I admit it freely- but there's a lot I'm not picky about. And sometimes it's almost to the point of not having an opinion, or not wanting to be decisive and commit to one, but often it's just because I happen to like a variety of things.

Like music. I am decidedly unpicky when it comes to music. I like a LOT of different styles, genres, artists, whatever. Except I don't really like rap. Or country. Sorry Rat. (She really likes country)

This is relevant because I was reading Johannes Cabal the Detective the other day - the second in a series, and you should read them...the first is Johannes Cabal the Necromancer - and I was thinking about the main character, the titular Johannes Cabal. Wow that was a long sentence. He's...interesting. He's not your typical good guy. He's selfish, he's not very nice, he doesn't play well with others, his motives are not always pure, and yet you find yourself rooting for him.

I'm not going to analyze this too much, but basically my point is it takes a lot of skill to write a character like that in such a way that he's sympathetic to the reader. Hm. Something to work on.

Tomorrow, provided I remember, I debrief Screnzy.

EDIT: So I said that my not being picky was relevant, but then never actually said why...the connection is that I'm not picky about the characters I like. They've got to be well written, interesting, fleshed out - the usual. But they don't always have to be the "hero". I like variety in my characters, just as I like variety in my music. And my ice cream. Besides, always reading about the same sort of character gets booooooring, right?

Game of Thrones

Alright, so here's the story. It's a bit of a long one, so bear with me.

Once upon a time I was at Barnes and Noble with Blue, hunting for books. After a lot of hunting, I pulled Game of Thrones (George RR Martin) off the shelf. It looked pretty good, the usual stuff I'm in to, although I was a little hesitant because it was really long and although I like to read series (what's the plural of that?) I'm leery of  7/8/9 book epics and that's what A Song of Ice and Fire was shaping up to be.

I bought it anyway.

I started it. But GoT is a bit on the dark side. I wasn't prepared. 80 pages in and a whole bunch of really nasty stuff had happened to the characters I liked...so I stopped.

A couple of weeks ago, HBO debuted their new TV series based on the books. I watched it. I liked it. I
restarted the book.

I really like it! It's still dark, and still a bit upsetting, but I like it. I definitely recommend it.

That's all I really have to say for now.

It's Been a While Since I Read Something This Good

So, no post yesterday but that wasn't my fault - the internet wasn't working and then I was at a concert.

Two things happened today: Script Frenzy officially started, yay, and I finished Mistborn (the Brandon Sanderson book I was reading).

Oh my god.

Incredible. I mean, I read Warbreaker and I liked it, but this book is just mindblowingly stunning. First of all, the setting. The premise is good, and the magic system is incredibly inventive and well defined. The plot is interesting and there were several twists I didn't see coming - actually, there was one in particular that completely blew me out of the water. The characters are fascinating, deep, complex, and well developed.

I'm starting to sound...well I don't know. But I'm being totally honest - I loved this book. Wow. I'm always reading, but it's not often I find something that engages me so much. I highly recommend it.

I finished reading, and felt like I was coming up for air.

I will, of course, immediately request the second book from the library.

And now, back to work...have to take care of all the ideas bouncing around my head.

Oh my goodness.

College decisions later...I don't think I'm going to be able to focus much on writing today.

Let's talk about reading instead. Namely, a certain author recently discovered who I like. Brandon Sanderson.

I really like epic fantasy. To be fair, I also really like regular fantasy and urban fantasy and some science fiction and also a whole bunch of other kinds of books. But I really, really like epic fantasy. And I like the way Brandon Sanderson writes. I read Warbreaker, which is a stand-alone, and LOVED it. Loved it. The magic system is so cool, the characters are interesting, the plot is full of twists, and the world is just completely and utterly fascinating. So now I'm headed to the library to get the first book in the Mistborn trilogy.

That's it. Although, before I go, I will mention that Brandon has posted the entire text of Warbreaker as a PDF on his website, as well as sample chapters for his other books. That link goes directly to the PDF, or you can click here to go to his website.