The Failed Technomancer and Other Writing Projects

First bit of great news out of last week: I finished up on The Failed Technomancer‘s proofs! Now, so far as I am aware, that just means I need to wait for the files to be finalized and sent to me, than I can go and slap them up on Amazon and absolutely everywhere else. Despite being far behind my intended schedule, this actually works out pretty well for my actual schedule, as I haven’t had time to do the market research I would like on Amazon and the other big vendors—I spend a significant chunk of my time watching online classes on how to self-publish, but that ends this week. Which means next week I can take that time and convert it to the business side of self-publishing, at least until I’m caught up.

Second bit of great news: Grand Odyssey is moving ahead! I hope to start providing word count updates again next week. This week I’m working on revising the first third of the book (about 60,000 words), then I’m going to jump into new stuff.

All in all, feeling good! “Soon” The Failed Technomancer, this exciting bit of dark science fiction, will be out in the wild, and I’m excited to see what happens.

Connected Authors

I have a good friend in my writing group (I won’t mention her name here in case she decides to go for a pen name) who may be published “soon”! Her book, Take Yourself With You, is a semi-autobiographical account of her mother’s experiences living in Iraq just before the revolution that deposed the Shah. Definitely not the kind of fantasy/sci-fi reading that I focus on here, so take that with a grain of salt, but I found it an enjoyable slice-of-life that nicely humanized the Iraqi people while also providing a tense (and satisfying) conclusion. If her current negotiations go through it will be published through Shadow Mountain, and if I hear any interest from y’all I’ll give more details (and even drop a purchase link) when the time comes. It’s a pretty quick read—roughly 60,000 words.

Although 60,000 words is considered full novel length, so for some that might not be a quick read. It just feels short to me because I love doorstoppers.

“Bloggyness”

Remember my quick review on Half a King? Well, since then I’ve finished Joe Abercrombie’s Half the World and am now halfway through Half a War. (Lotta halves going on, and the books aren’t afraid to mention something being half of something else all over the place. Consistent branding, that.) Long story short, if you like fantasy, especially if you like grimdark worlds with a viking flavor, you’re going to have a good time. If you get depressed easily by consistently pessimistic themes, you might want to steer clear—unless you like being depressed. If you do, I also recommend Schindler’s List, although that’s not a book nor fantasy.

Half the World is currently my favorite of the trilogy. Abercrombie surprised me by replacing the lead character of Half a King with two much more likable new ones in this book—Yarvi is still present and a major player, but Half the World instead chooses to focus on Thorn, a female berserker with a chip on her shoulder, and Brand, a male warrior who also breaks the norm by unwittingly wanting to be a pacifist. The plot is pretty simple: the main characters need to move from point A to point B and then back, with much of the book focusing on how they change along the way. There’s a “but also C!” that happens at the end after they return home, and after some of the inter-character conflict gets resolved following the journey, making the last fourth or fifth of the book feel like a really long epilogue. Honestly, without the “but also C!” chapters I could have really enjoyed this book on its own as a standalone, but that final addition is absolutely vital to help tie the trilogy together into a cohesive narrative. The characters were easy to get to know, like, and root for, and by the end I felt really satisfied with their journeys.

So that’s my super vague, non-spoilery review. If you don’t like the risk of any spoilers, don’t read on!

Half the World picks up some time after Half a King with Yarvi pulling together a crew of hardened warriors to make a long diplomatic voyage to a distant nation. The goal of this voyage is simple: most local nations are preparing for war against Gettland, Yarvi’s home country, so Gettland needs to find allies elsewhere. As mentioned above, our main characters are Thorn and Brand, who get recruited largely by happenstance, but as we learn by the end of the book Yarvi had larger, long-term plans in play when he hired these young warriors.

The trip down to the distant nation is fraught with danger, but also gives the reader a lot of time with Thorn and Brand, getting to know their interests and quirks, character foibles, and watching them crash into each other like rocks in a blender. Much of what I found most interesting in this book revolved around Brand constantly trying to do what was right, to understand what it meant to “stand in the light,” and revolved around Thorn learning both to be a better warrior and a stronger, more confident person. Both characters also provide interesting viewpoints where they clearly think very poorly of themselves and very highly of the other character; they are parallels in the perfect areas, opposites in the others, and watching them grow together is very satisfying. There’s also some fun romantic tension between Thorn and Brand.

As far as the world-building is concerned, I had moments in Half a King where I began to wonder if this trilogy was set in a post-apocalyptic world (but not seriously enough that I particularly cared), whereas this book did an extremely good job at complicating the issue in the background, at times making it feel like these books had to be set on a post-apocalyptic earth, while at other times making me go, “No, that’s magic, and it can’t be anything else—right? There’s no way this is post-apocalyptic.” Of course, technology—once far enough advanced beyond what someone is able to comprehend—is indistinguishable from magic, so there’s always a grey area that left me wondering. This is largely done very subtly and in the background, and I commend Joe Abercrombie for his subtlety and elegance. (The curtain veiling the answer to this question is ripped away entirely in the third book, but I won’t tell you what’s right or wrong here, just that it becomes a major plot point.)

I liked Half the World enough that I would recommend the series for this book alone.

And, as a final side note, no long review since I choose to focus on books here, go watch Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. Gorgeous animation, incredible villains, compelling main characters, very tight and fast-paced. The first Puss in Boots movie is completely forgettable, but you don’t need to watch it (or any of the Shrek movies, for that matter) to fully get and appreciate this movie.

All right, that’s enough bloggyness. Go enjoy your Monday.