"Starship Troopers" by Robert A. Heinlein

Publisher:New York : Ace Books, 1987.

Copyright Date:©1959

ISBN:9780441014101 

Characteristics:208 pages ;,18 cm
"Starship Troopers" is a book that I first read many decades ago. I loved it then, and I still think it is one of the best Science Fiction based war books around. Having just finished "The Forever War" by Joe Haldeman, I was drawn to read it again, and found the story to be good as ever.
The book was first published in the early 1960s, and while there has been tonnes of controversy surrounding it, it still remains a classic. The controversy primarily surrounds it's political views, which take on Marxism head on, and in my opinion wins. The story itself is set in the far distant future, where the only people with a vote in society (or hold political office, law enforcement positions, etc.) are those who have completed military service. Military service however is not compulsory, and is totally voluntary but if you don't serve you aren't a full citizen. Because of this the world is essentially politically stable, relatively crime free, and quite technologically advanced. Due to the political outlook, however some have labelled this is a fascist state, which I believe is a very simplistic way to look at things.
It is interesting to note that when this book was written (in 1959), Mr. Heinlein accurately predicted the state our society is currently in when he describes such things as street gangs, people being afraid to walk the streets at night, child crime, etc. I'm not sure how he predicted this so accurately, but he did.
The protagonist is Juan Rico (Johnny) who enlists shorty after his 18th birthday when he finds out his two best friends are planning on doing the same. The reader is then taken through Johnny's time in Basic Training, which some have said is overly harsh, but in actually is very realistic (been there, done that).
As many people know Paul Verhoeven adapted this book for a movie back in 1997. I've seen the movie, and the first thing that came to my mind when I left the theatre was: did Mr. Verhoeven do anything other than read the blurb on the back cover? It's true he got Johnny's name close to correct (but not as Juan), but the rest of the story is so totally different that he could have saved himself a lot of money purchasing the rights.
Highly recommended as a great story for all to read.

"A Legacy of Spies" by John Le Carré

Publisher: [Toronto] Viking, 2017
ISBN: 9780735234529
Characteristics:  264 pages

Once again Mr. Le Carré has written a superb novel. This story once again revolves around the the actions of the Circus and George Smiley, and fills in a portion of the back story that fans have likely been curious about for many years. While Mr. Le Carré hasn't written a Smiley novel in 25 years, the same panache and expert storytelling hasn't gone away in this page turner.

If you have never read any of the George Smiley novels - "Call for the Dead" (1961); "A Murder of Quality" (1962); "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" (1963); "The Looking Glass War" (1965); "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" (1974); "The Honourable Schoolboy" (1977); "Smiley's People" (1979); and "The Secret Pilgrim" (1990) - then you might want to tackle them first however this means you'll have to put off reading "A Legacy of Spies" until much later, which would be a shame. If however you want to read "A Legacy" right away then read "Tinker, Tailor Soldier, Spy" and you'll be in the groove.

While the Cold War subject matter is based of factual events and the world of George Smiley and his fellow clandestine operatives is fictional, I am in awe at the amount of research that Mr. Le Carré had to have done to make these novels seem so realistic is astounding. If on the other hand he did minimal research then it is even more amazing as this and the other novels in the series are so well crafted that they are very difficult to put down even for short breaks.

After reading this novel, I plan to go back and reread all the other George Smiley novels to refresh my memory of all the details. This will however take some considerable time. However seeing as there are likely numerous reviews of these great stories already it is unlikely that I'll review them on this blog.

I hope you enjoy this novel as much as I did!

Publisher: [Toronto] Viking, 2017
ISBN: 9780735234529
Characteristics:  264 pages

"From Here to Eternity" by Caitlin Doughty

Publisher:New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2017]

Edition:First edition.

Copyright Date:©2017

ISBN:9780393249897

I had eagerly been awaiting the release of this book since I first heard about it on the YouTube channel Ask a Mortician which is run by Ms. Doughty as is the website The Order of the Good Death. It definitely lived up to all my expectations as it was a fantastic read and definitely gave me insight into other cultures and practises of how they treat their deceased.

Ms. Doughty wrote about eight different funerary practises in six different places, three of these were in the United States, but they were different enough from each other to make them worth including. The ones outside the United States were South Sulawesi, Indonesia; Michoacán, Mexico; Barcelona, Spain; Tokyo, Japan and La Paz, Bolivia. The three United States visits were in Crestone, Colorado; Cullowhee, North Carolina; and Joshua Tree, California. In the epilogue Ms. Doughty also treats us to a view of some of the practises in Vienna, Austria.

Despite what some may expect or want this book is not a simple travelogue designed to shock the reader into what people do with bodies in other cultures. Instead it is an insightful look into different cultural practises surrounding death, in cultures that treat death not as something to be afraid of (as it is typically in the Western World), but as something to celebrate both the life of the individual as well as the ongoing lives of the rest of the deceased's family.

It is my sincere belief that everyone should have this book (and her first as well "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - Lessons from the Crematory) on their to-be-read list, and if it's already there move it further up on the list so you can get to it sooner rather than later. Westerners for the most part are scared of death and all it's ramifications, due primarily to in my opinion the hold organized religion has on our culture. It's about time that we started to think otherwise, as whether you like it or not you will die.

Having been trained as an anthropologist, I can see the value of this book a either one of the texts in an introductory anthropology course, or as the main one in a senior course on death acceptance and practises. As I also hold a degree in Education, I would like to see this subject taught in schools as well, however I realize this will likely never happen, after all we still have many who oppose the teaching of sex education in schools.

I do hope that Ms. Doughty will consider writing a sequel to this book, and explore even more cultures and their death practises.

"The Forever War" by Joe Haldeman

Publisher:New York : St. Martin's Griffin, [2009]

Copyright Date:©1997

ISBN:9780312536633 

Characteristics:xviii, 264 pages ;,21 cm
The Forever War was a very well written book based on the authors experiences in Vietnam. It was written in 1974, and as the author explains in his introduction as long as you can get past the part where the beginning of the novel is set in the late 1990s then you're good to go.
The premise of the book is that a new recruit William Mandella is one of the first troopers to be dispatched to fight what turn out to be a clone warrior species named the Taurans. What I found to be one of more interesting aspects of this story is the fact that Mr. Haldeman actually did research on relativity and took this into account. The vast majority of Science Fiction stories don't do this and assume Einstein's theory is somehow gotten around. Not so in "The Forever War" as while Mandella's first deployment takes 2 years his time, 10 years have passed on Earth.
Other things on good ol' Earth are different as well, the population is growing at an alarming rate, and this has led many people to develop same-sex relationships in an attempt curb the population. Later on we find that this is encouraged by Earth's authorities, but that nobody bothered to tell the troopers who are still heterosexual. Needless to say this causes a number of problems for Mandella, and he therefore re-enlists spending more years in the service, in ever longer voyages which results in even more time dilation.
In many instances there isa great deal of humour in the story, though possibly not intentionally as at one point Mandella comes back to Earth to find that virtually the entire population in homosexual, and in a total reverse heterosexuality is now considered to be aberrant behaviour and he's labelled the "old queer".
A very good read - not sure why it took me so long to read it!

"American Gods" by Neil Gaiman

Publisher:New York : William Morrow an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2011]

Edition:Tenth anniversary edition.

Copyright Date:©2011

ISBN:9780062059888 

Characteristics:xiv, 541 pages ;,24 cm

American Gods was a very interesting story, that was well crafted, a very good read and kept you turning the pages. This is only the second of Neil Gaiman's books that I've read (the first being "Norse Mythology" which was reviewed back on July 17, 2017.
There were a couple of times in this story where I was a little confused as Mr. Gaiman does bring in a lot of his back story from Norse and other mythologies, but this lack of understanding was totally my fault as I simply had never heard of some of the other deities that were introduced.
Mr. Wednesday (who I knew to be Odin) from the very first time he was mentioned was a good character to have the story revolving around (yes, I did listen in my Norse Mythology class at University), even though he isn't the main character (that's Shadow). With the antagonists being more modern gods (credit cards, television, etc.), you get an automatic conflict that produces some interesting twists.
Throughout the book Shadow (who is now Wednesday's bodyguard, is introduced to a number of Wednesday's friends (and a few enemies) who turn out to be other gods that have been brought to North America in the minds of immigrants. There are some strictly American gods as well such as Johnny Appleseed, too that he encounters. The antagonists as mentioned above are the newest gods on the scene, and are what people worship today the internet, television, unending credit, etc. - don't believe me just look around you everybody has got their nose pointed at a little screen.
All in all this is a very good read. I recently noticed that there was a television series made of it, but whether I get around to watching is will be another story entirely as one thing I don't do is worship the idiot box.

"The Ancient Engineers" by L. Sprague de Camp

Published:

New York, NY: Ballantine Books

Year:

1986

Other Physical Details:

450 p. : illus

ISBN:

0345320298

Bibliography Note:

Includes bibliography and index.

Back when I first read this book (or at least portions of it), I was an undergrad student at the University of Alberta. The class I was assigned this in was a overview of classical technology. I don't remember the actual course designation anything but it was a very good course and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

At the time I did not know L. Sprague de Camp as anything other than a science-fiction writer. I was soon to find out that he worked alongside other great authors such as Robert A. Heinlein and Isaac Asimov and numerous others who also became famous science-fiction authors.

This book is an overview of the history of engineering from pretty much the very beginning until approximately the 1960s. It was written in 1960 and this therefore limited the author in what he could talk about. In some places I felt Mr. de Camp tended to skip over or at least gloss over some of the pertinent details that led to the invention being discussed but for the most part he gives a very good review of how engineering developed, the people in involved and the historical events that were occurring at that time.

The only major criticism I have of this book (which quite likely may be a minor one for many readers) is that they were nowhere near enough illustrations and other graphical forms of information to allow the reader to understand what is being explained. However, if these were included the book would need to be expanded to multiple volumes.

The book itself is organized by time period, and this does cause some confusion when speaking about certain types of inventions, as there is significant overlap in most of these sciences. I believe it might've been easier to read if the book was to be organized based on the given type of invention and proceeded from the very beginning street to the modern times.

It would be great to see a new edition of this book be published that takes up where Mr. de Camp left off, unfortunately he died in 2000 so it will have to be by someone else.

"Rendezvous With Rama" by Arthur C. Clarke

Publisher:New York : Bantam Books, 1990.

Edition:Bantam edition.

Copyright Date:©1973

ISBN:9780553287899  

Characteristics:243 pages

Rendezvous with Rama, is one of the classics of science fiction. For those who have not read the book it describes a first contact situation in the year 2130 when a new celestial object is discovered in the solar system heading towards the sun. It is named Rama after the Hindu god, who is the seventh avatar of Vishnu.

This object turns out to be a gigantic spaceship some 50 kilometres long and 20 kilometres in diameter. The story revolves around a brief three week investigation by "The Endeavour" commanded by William Norton which is the only ship able to reach Rama while is approaching perihelion with the sun.

The book itself is extremely well written as are virtually all of Arthur C. Clarke's works.

I first read this book many years ago, back when I believe I was in either high school or possibly even junior high. When I first read this book I enjoyed it quite a bit but don't know if I really grasped all the nuances of the story itself.

On my second reading (yes, it took me  a while to get around to reading it again) I found that it is well-crafted and quite suspenseful, even though the characters themselves are a bit two-dimensional (at least in my opinion).

In today's style of writing it probably would not be considered suspenseful or adventurous as authors now-a-days tend to lean more towards battle sequences and the like whereas this story is essentially more of a traditional mystery. I'm not sure why author's today seem to intentionally neglect more thoughtful stories, but it may have something to do with the way everyone today is wired, and on-line all the time (but who really knows as I didn't take many psychology courses).

Two or three books followed this one a number of years later, and they will be reviewed at a later date, as I've not read any of them so far.

"How to Fake A Moon Landing: Exposing the Myths of Science Denial" by Darryl Cunningham

Publisher:New York : Abrams ComicArts, 2013.

ISBN:9781419706899  

Characteristics:172 pages, 4 unnumbered pages :,color illustrations

Alternative Title:Previously publushed as: Science tales: lies, hoaxes, and scams.
This book explores eight common science denial areas in cartoon format, and does it very well. Mr. Cunningham deals with the topics: The Moon landing hoax, Homeopathy, Chiropractic medicine, Vaccinations, Evolution, Fracking, Climate Change, and General Science Denial as does so in a way that will appeal to people of all ages.
A quote from Michael Specter a staff writer for the New Yorker as well as an author states the overall thesis behind this book on page 2 by saying:
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion; however, everyone is not entitled to their own facts."
The eight myths contained within this book are all refuted, by reviewing them in a rational, and logical way with simple explanations as to why they are false and providing the scientifically based reasoning behind the evidence.
While I'm sure this book won't convince the die-hard science denial fans, it will hopefully at least start to drive a wedge into their armour and therefore show everyone that their one sided opinions are not sustainable in a rational discussion.
Another quote, this time from the preface:
"... [T]he universe has amazing and strange qualities anyway for those who care to see them. There is no need to believe in fantasy in order to see the extraordinary in the world, when reality offers up so much that is astonishing." (pg. 6)
Pick this book up, and enjoy it.

"Unmentionable The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners" by Therese Oneill

Publisher:New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2016.

Edition:First edition.

Copyright Date:©2016

ISBN:9780316357913 

Characteristics:viii, 307 pages :,illustrations
Unmentionable is a fascinating look at what the Victorian Age. Ms. Oneill gives you the unvarnished truth behind what life back then was really like. The premise behind this book is that a modern woman takes a trip back in time, and lives in the 19th century, with Ms. Oneill as her guide. She does the whole thing with a humorous twist that keeps you reading, long after the light should have been out.
Many people believe they know what the 19th century was like from watching movies, and reading popular novels, and romances. However reality was much different, as the author reveals interesting items such as bathing habits (pretty much none), using arsenic as a facial cleanser, lead based cosmetics made from lead and lard (that isn't a typo), diets, courtship, what a woman should expect on her wedding night, birth control (or lack thereof in most cases), public behaviour, how to be a good wife, etc.
Now as a male, I was not the intended audience for this book, but I still found it absolutely fascinating. It is true my conceptions of the 19th century were totally skewed, but now I have seen the light. While I haven't written any historical fiction set in the the 19th century, I believe I would like to give it a try someday, but the amount of research needed to make it authentic would be mind blowing. Luckily, Ms. Oneill gives a detailed bibliography.
This book would be a fantastic resource for any writer of historical fiction, historical commentary, science-fiction (for those into time travel). In addition to this you can add students of history, anthropology, politics, gender studies, etc.

"Wonderbook" by Jeff VanderMeer

Publisher:New York : Abrams Image, [2013]

ISBN:9781419704420 

Characteristics:xix, 323 pages :,illustrations (chiefly color).
Wonderbook is another book I read recently on the craft of writing, and it compares to last weeks review of "The Art of Fiction" in that it too imparts valuable information for the inspiring writer, however in this book this is done with what I consider to be the younger writer in mind as there are many illustrations to give the reader further information and reinforce the subject at hand.
This book is in fact very visually oriented, which in my humble opinion means it should appeal to many of today's young writers in that they themselves are very visually oriented. The illustrations are extremely well done, and in many cases make the topic at hand much easier to understand. While reading I wished in fact that my English teachers in school had, had a resource such as this to give us all a fuller understanding of the art of creative writing.

"The Art of Fiction: Notes of Craft for Young Writers" by John Gardner

Publisher:New York : Vintage Books, 1991.

Edition:Vintage Books edition.

ISBN:9780679734031 

Characteristics:xii, 224 pages :,illustrations
This book is extremely well written, and gives the reader an in-depth examination of the processes behind writing fiction. While the title says it is for the young writer, the valuable information contained with this book is actually suited for writers of all ages.
John Gardner gives detailed explanations of the theory behind the principals he teaches, and gives concrete examples of authors who use these exact same techniques. Hewas teacher of writing for many years, and this book while while written at what some may consider to be a college level.
A must have book for any inspiring writer.

"The Complete Book of Papermaking" by Josep Asunción

Publisher: New York : Lark Books, [2003]

ISBN: 9781579904562 

Characteristics: 160 pages :,color illustrations ;,30 cm

I found this book to be fascinating. I didn't realise there was so much involved in this process, and now that I've finished it I'd really like to try my hand at making some paper. I know some people who do this as a hobby, and they produce some very high quality products, but I never realized it could be as easy as outlined in the book. I originally got interested in this when I obtained a set of construction plan for replica of the Gutenberg press, which I would also like to try building. When this feat is accomplished, what better thing to pair a manual press with, than homepade paper? I believe it would be a very good partnership, that might be desireable for someone who has just written a family history.

However in the mean time ... back to the book in question. This work goes into great detail on the history of paper, and how it was developed then deals with the characterists of different types of paper. The rest of the book gives detailed instructions on the processes and equipment required. It even has samples of the end product for you to touch so you can compare your result to what the author based his instructions on.

With a guide such as this anyone can easily make their own paper, and feel it would be an excellent project for schools to undertake.

"Wiseguy" by Nicholas Pileggi

Publisher:New York : Pocket Books, 2010.

ISBN:9781439184219 

Characteristics:383 pages ;,19 cm

"Wiseguy" by Nicholas Pileggi

I read this book after watching the 1990 movie “Goodfellas” by Martin Scorsese which was referenced in the 2013 movie “The Family” by Luc Besson (confused yet?).

The book is the biography of Henry Hill (1943-2012) who joined the Mafia when he was 12, and worked his way up through the ranks. It details his exploits, the jobs he did, how things worked etc. As an unnamed reviewer in Cosmopolitan wrote "'to be a wiseguy was to own the world,' who grew up to live the highs and lows of the mafia gangster's life--has been hailed as "the best book ever written on organized crime."

Eventually his friends became his enemies, and fearing his impending doom he turned states evidence, and was put into the witness protection program. While in this he was visited by the author Nicholas Pileggi.

This book was fantastic and was well worth the read. It too is comparable to “The Godfather” by Mario Puzo, but was much more realistic in the way it was told (likely because it is true—go figure).

Nicholas Pileggi has another book entitle “Casino”which I'm hoping to read in the near future. This too has been made into a movie by Scorsese, which I'm also looking for.

“Malavita” by Tonino Benacquista

Publisher:New York : Penguin Books, 2013.

ISBN:9780143123859

Characteristics:275 pages ;,20 cm

“Malavita” by Tonino Benacquista

This book forms the basis of the 2013 movie “The Family” by Luc Besson (who unfortunately didn't do a great job, but this isn't a movie reviewing blog, so enough said). The story follows a family from New York where the father is a Mafia boss, who turns states evidence and goes into the witness protection program. However, the family does not exactly play by the rules, and keephaving to be moved from town to town. They wind up in Normandy, and once again break the rules except that this time the other Mafia types from back in the US find out where they are, and send some people to pay them a visit.

There is one scene in the novel where the father who is in the process of writing his memoirs is invited to comment on a movie at the local film club thinking it is a war picture (he has told people he is writing a novel about WW II), but when they arrive they find the movie that was shipped was the 1990 “GoodFellas” by Martin Scorsese. This leads the father to start reminiscing about his time in the Mafia much to the regret of his handler who keeps trying to keep him out of trouble.

The story itself is very well written, and gives one a lot of insight into what Mafia life might be like, etc. It is a short book (275 pages), but is a good read and very hard to put down. It is nowhere near as violent as say “The Godfather” by Mario Puzo, but is well worth your time.

"Heinlein in Dimension: A Critical Analysis" by Alexei Panshin

An in depth look at the career for the science fiction author Robert Anson Heinlein, that reviews his various stories and give some insight into his personality. This book was published in 1968, and this does limit it's scope somewhat as Heinlein published a number of books after this.

I found the Mr. Panshin's critique to be extremely harsh, and got the feeling that he had a general dislike for Mr. Heinlein for some reason other than his writing. He belabours his points continuously, and while it is true that some of Heinlein's stories were rather simplistic, you have to take into account the fact that some were written for young people (primarily boys at this time in history), and were published by magazines that didn't pay very well. Whether this was a factor in the types of stories I can't say as I wasn't alive when these stories were first published, but I have read most of Mr. Heinlein's books, and found them to be quite entertaining.

Now I first started reading books by RAH when I was about 13 or so. I don't remember what it was that I read first, but all of his stories to me were fascinating. I began reading what are now considered to be his juvenile stories such as (in no particular order) Red Planet (1949), Space Cadet (1948), Tunnel in the Sky (1955), Star Beast (1954), Between Planets (1951), Revolt in 2100 (1953), etc. Some of these I read multiple times, and I still read them now and again because they are simply good stories. Methuselah's Children was one of the ones I read a little later on, and a few years later (about 1979 or so) I read Time Enough for Love (1973).

As he went on Mr. Heinlein's worldview started to show up more in his writing, which is to be expected. And this in the end influenced my worldview as well. Some of his later works were a little difficult to understand, and need to be read a couple of times to get the underlying themes, but it is time well spent. As I mentioned above Mr. Heinlein's book make you think, even his so called juvenile novels typically have a message.

What this comes down to, in my opinion, is that Mr. Panshin's critique which I can only assume he thought was well written, I can only see as a thinly disguised rebuke at both Mr. Heinlein's success, and his outlook on life in general.

"On Paper: The Everything of Its Two-thousand-year History" by Nicholas A. Basbanes

Publisher:New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2013.

ISBN:9780307266422 

Characteristics:xvi, 430 pages :,illustrations ;,25 cm

A very good overview of the history of paper making, and how it was developed. The detail that the author goes into was appreciated, and the fact that he toured many of the places that are mentioned in the book give you a good insight into the history.

"Lexicon" by Max Barry

Publisher:New York : Penguin Group (USA), 2013.

ISBN:9781594205385 

Characteristics:390 pages

Overall this is a very good novel, but the characters in the beginning are somewhat one-dimensional (but not for too long). The author weaves two story lines together to explain what in happening, however at first you aren't aware they are two story lines, so this tends to be a little confusing.

I read some on Mr. Barry's book “Jennifer: Government” some time ago and found it to be not to my liking (so never finished it), but this one while it was the opposite and it was very hard to put down. Well written and is worth your time.

"My Word is My Bond: A Memoir" by Roger Moore

Publisher:New York : Collins, 2008.

Edition:First Collins edition.

ISBN:9780061673887 

Characteristics:336 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates :,illustrations ;,24 cm

An insightful look into the career of a well known actor. He is definitely more than "James Bond" and his long history of work for UNICEF shows this well. In fact he is way more famous throughout Europe as "The Saint" which ran for quite a number of years.

This memoire takes the reader through Sir Roger's early life and his struggles to find work in the theatre, and movies.

"Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman

Publisher:New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2017]

ISBN:9780393609097 

Characteristics:293 pages

A very good retelling of Norse Mythology. The author covers the stories in sequence, which is something that is not frequently done. Most authors emphasize certain stories, and exclude other entirely but this volume was fairly complete. 
The majority of what we know about Norse Mythology / religion has been related to us in "The Prose Edda" by Snori Sturluson, these stories aren't the easiest to read as they are translations from Icelandic, but are quite enjoyable. Mr. Gaiman has adapted them and brings them to life with his typical writing style.
I would like to see companion volumes on Greek & Roman Mythology from Mr. Gaiman as well as I believe this would be invaluable.

"On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century" by Timothy Snyder

Publisher:New York : Tim Duggan Books, [2017]

Edition:First edition.

ISBN:9780804190114 

Characteristics:126 pages

A very good overview of humans passion for inflicting suffering on other humans. Timothy Snyder is a professor of History at Yale, and this book is geared specifically at all the fun and games the American people are being put through by their new president. When Dr. Snyder writes it is really obvious about whom he is speaking about. The links he makes to other historical figures are quite chilling to say the least.

While this book may seem small (it's only 128 pages) each story is packed with references to all the bad stuff you learned in your world history courses in school. Most of which you have probably forgotten or suppressed if you've been out of school for any length of time.

The parallels that Mr. Snyder draws between the Trump administration, and some of his predecessors in other countries such as WW II Germany, Stalinist Russia, etc.

Many people might dismiss the comparisons that Mr. Snyder uses for his examples, but I personally find them chilling and having studied a fair amount of history (as well as taught it in school) I find them quite accurate.

Mr Snyder gives his readers 20 important lessons, that are easy to implement and designed to prevent or at the very least open the minds of the American public how the freedom they famously boast about  could easily be taken from them.

This is a book that I believe all peoples should read (especially those living in the United States). Here's hoping that what could happen, never does!

Create You Writer Platform by Chuck Sambuchino

I recently stumbled upon a book by Chuck Sambuchino, who works for Writers' Digest.

This is an excellent book that will help you get on your way to promoting your book. It is mainly geared towards non-fiction writing, but with a little adaptation all the information is completely transferrable to fiction.

Publisher:    Writer's Digest Books 2012
ISBN:          9781599635750

The review on the Edmonton Public Library website says:

"Creating a platform isn't just beneficial--it's essential ! In today's world of blogging, websites, Twitter feeds, and Facebook updates, building a writer platform from the ground up can seem a daunting task. Never fear--author and editor Chuck Sambuchino provides expert, practical advice for increasing your visibility, selling more books, and launching a successful career. In Create Your Writer Platform , you'll learn: The definition of a platform--and why you should start building one now . How to harness the 12 Fundamental Principles of Platform. "Old School" and "New School" approaches to platform, from article writing and conference speaking to website development, blog posts, and social media avenues. How to develop a platform for nonfiction, fiction, and memoir. In addition to Chuck's invaluable insights, you'll also find 12 case studies from authors with effective platforms, as well as professional advice from literary agents. If you're serious about building a platform tailored to you and your writing --a platform that's going to help you succeed as a writer--look no further than Create Your Writer Platform ."

I found this to be a very helpful book, and can't wait to implement some of Mr. Sambuchino's suggestion when I redesign my website.

Happy Reading!

The Fantasy Dilemma - Is There A Solution?

I originally posted this on the Edmonton Writers' Group Blog way back in January 2012. And while a couple of members (Natasha and Simon) were kind enough to comment on it, I still believe it is a question that needs solving. I haven't posted to this blog in a year, as nothing much has happened, and  I find writing about day-to-day events rather boring, after all this is Twitter.

So anyway here is my question ...

Having just finished the fourth book in the series by Chris Paolini I must say it was an interesting read. I found the world to be fairly well designed, but for the most part the story was way too long. Which brings to mind a bit of a curious question, that has been bugging me for many years and that so far nobody has ever been able to adequately answer. So now that our group has this little blog running, I thought I try once again to solve this little mystery.

Now I realize we don't have a whole lot of fantasy authors in the group, and while this message is directed at this genre, I trust that others will chime in.

So here it is:

"Why is it that fantasy authors (in general) seem to feel the need to create multivolume stories when just about every other genre seems to be able to tell a story in one book?"

Now I know the first thing your going to say is "because they are creating a whole new world" - okay fair enough, but so does every science fiction author, most mystery, adventure, and romance authors. In fact with the exception of historically based novels every author creates a new world to some extent. So why aren't these all multivolume tomes? Are they all trying to emulate J.R.R. Tolkien, or is it something else?

I agree that the Asimov's Foundation Trilogy; A. C. Clarke's 2001, 2010, 2060, & 3001; as well as the series by Ben Bova (one book for each planet) exist. However these are the exception, and I'm not whining about books set in the same universe (like those I just mentioned), I'm talking about those 3+ book series that are essentially one continuous story, sometimes with little or no break between volumes. Virtually every fantasy author seems to churn out multivolume sets - some to ridiculous lengths such as those by David Eddings and his ilk.

So why? Is it a bad case of authorial diarrhea?

Anyway getting back to Chris P. there are numerous examples in this last book where he spent inordinate amounts of time (writing wise that is) detailing each and every movement, that each person made during a fight sequence. This was unnecessary, and at times downright boring to read. In fact it reminds me somewhat of when I used to play Dungeon and Dragons and the rules say that during a fight sequence each round is 10 seconds long - think of life going in slow motion.

So that's my question. Anybody got any words of wisdom that'll solve it?

TTFN