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What I Just Finished Reading: Rosemary and Rue (October Daye #1), by Seanan McGuire. So I thought I'd read part of the sample for book #2 in the series, but apparently not? I think I must have just dropped everything by the author in my library wishlist and assumed they were part of a series because that's the way they seem to buy books. But Sparrow Hill Road seems to be a one-shot and not part of any other series. Oops.
I wanted to like this book better than I did. Really, I did. There were a lot of reasons I didn't: one is not so much that it isn't terribly original - I mean, I've read literally (:P) thousands of stories at this point and there are only what? seven basic plots? - but that it didn't seem to reach it's potential with a half-human protagonist. The narration just fell flat for me, not that I wanted it to descend into superangst either, but...I don't know. I think it was supposed to be matter of fact but it felt more "...and this." than anything else. The integration of the fae world into the normal world was handled much better by The Dresden Files and Wicked Lovely, and both those series also gave me a much better sense of the city they were set in. In this, everytime I ran across a reference to San Francisco I went "oh, yeah! That's where we are!" Otherwise it could have been Anyplace, North America. It wasn't bad, more mediocre, right up until the end which took a sharp downturn into "was this even edited?" It really seemed like a first draft. I probably would have abandoned the entire book if it had all been like the end.
I went back and reread the Whyborne & Griffin series. They have a tag now. Have I mentioned how much I love Dr. Christine Putnam? She's assertive, direct, confident, and likes to solve problems by shooting and/or hitting things. I want to run off with her and have adventures in punching things.
The No B.S. Guide to Freelance Writing, by Ian Chandler. I got this free through Author's Publish, and while some of the advice in it was decent, I wouldn't have paid for it. Mostly it's anecdotes from the author about how he got into freelance writing and links to other reference sources, with the occasional writing sample. I'm also puzzled as to why someone who's an author would advise you to use a site to generate a resume from a template for you, and to have a general cover letter you can just drop names and keywords into. That's against the advice I've been reading and receiving over the past year. Mind you, none of said advice has done me any good, so maybe I shouldn't talk.
What I'm Reading Now: Sparrow Hill Road, by Seanan McGuire. So far, I'm enjoying this more than Rosemary and Rue. It's not an anthology, but it feels like one, as Rose Marshall, who died in 1952 and has been a phantom hitchhiker ever since, tells you about her encounters with the about-to-be and newly-dead, and how she came to be a ghost herself. It's definitely an interesting concept, and while Rose is matter-of-fact about being dead, her descriptions of it don't have the same flat "oh, yeah, and..." feeling to them that October's descriptions of being half-fae did. I'm just looking at it warily given how bad the end of Rosemary and Rue was.
What I'm Reading Next: Probably Discount Armageddon, also by Seanan McGuire, seeing as I have to return these to the library in a couple of weeks and don't want to forget about them. Then possibly more of the SERRAted Edge series, and Butterflies (The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal, by K.J. Charles. I wasn't sure what to make of Simon when he showed up in a Whyborne & Griffin crossover, so I decided to give him another shot when I found a free short story.
I wanted to like this book better than I did. Really, I did. There were a lot of reasons I didn't: one is not so much that it isn't terribly original - I mean, I've read literally (:P) thousands of stories at this point and there are only what? seven basic plots? - but that it didn't seem to reach it's potential with a half-human protagonist. The narration just fell flat for me, not that I wanted it to descend into superangst either, but...I don't know. I think it was supposed to be matter of fact but it felt more "...and this." than anything else. The integration of the fae world into the normal world was handled much better by The Dresden Files and Wicked Lovely, and both those series also gave me a much better sense of the city they were set in. In this, everytime I ran across a reference to San Francisco I went "oh, yeah! That's where we are!" Otherwise it could have been Anyplace, North America. It wasn't bad, more mediocre, right up until the end which took a sharp downturn into "was this even edited?" It really seemed like a first draft. I probably would have abandoned the entire book if it had all been like the end.
I went back and reread the Whyborne & Griffin series. They have a tag now. Have I mentioned how much I love Dr. Christine Putnam? She's assertive, direct, confident, and likes to solve problems by shooting and/or hitting things. I want to run off with her and have adventures in punching things.
The No B.S. Guide to Freelance Writing, by Ian Chandler. I got this free through Author's Publish, and while some of the advice in it was decent, I wouldn't have paid for it. Mostly it's anecdotes from the author about how he got into freelance writing and links to other reference sources, with the occasional writing sample. I'm also puzzled as to why someone who's an author would advise you to use a site to generate a resume from a template for you, and to have a general cover letter you can just drop names and keywords into. That's against the advice I've been reading and receiving over the past year. Mind you, none of said advice has done me any good, so maybe I shouldn't talk.
What I'm Reading Now: Sparrow Hill Road, by Seanan McGuire. So far, I'm enjoying this more than Rosemary and Rue. It's not an anthology, but it feels like one, as Rose Marshall, who died in 1952 and has been a phantom hitchhiker ever since, tells you about her encounters with the about-to-be and newly-dead, and how she came to be a ghost herself. It's definitely an interesting concept, and while Rose is matter-of-fact about being dead, her descriptions of it don't have the same flat "oh, yeah, and..." feeling to them that October's descriptions of being half-fae did. I'm just looking at it warily given how bad the end of Rosemary and Rue was.
What I'm Reading Next: Probably Discount Armageddon, also by Seanan McGuire, seeing as I have to return these to the library in a couple of weeks and don't want to forget about them. Then possibly more of the SERRAted Edge series, and Butterflies (The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal, by K.J. Charles. I wasn't sure what to make of Simon when he showed up in a Whyborne & Griffin crossover, so I decided to give him another shot when I found a free short story.
