Greetings from the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando. This year's theme is Whimsy. You can read about the annual conference here:
ICFAI'll report on it next week.
Margaret L. Carter
Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.
The Hit List: Young Adult Series Favorites
{Put This One on Your TBR List}
Book Review: The Maze Runner Series by James Dashner
by Karen S. Wiesner
In the first half of the 2000s, Young Adult series were all the rage, dominating the attention of teenagers and adults alike. Several that became household topics at the height of their popularity, enjoying fame as both book and movie series, seem to have fallen by the wayside since. Even still, I find many of those unique tales are well worth returning to for a fresh perspective. Over the next month or two, I thought I'd revisit a few series that would make any hit list of past favorites.
Although this series has been around a long time and, if people wanted to read it, they probably already have, in fairness, I'm including this disclaimer because some of the newer entries in the series might be unfamiliar to readers who may want to read them first: Warning! Spoilers!
I'm not actually sure I remember what made me pick up this series in the first place, but the situation in the first story is very compelling. A group of teenage boys find themselves in a place they call the Glade. None of them can remember how they got there or who they are. Together, they work to make a life for themselves while trapped within four large doors--the Maze. The doors open every morning and close at sundown. These walls they live within change constantly, but there's a pattern to them that the "maze runners" have discovered. Those designated runners venture into the maze every day in order to map it, find a pattern to its workings, and ultimately to find a way to escape. Life in the Glade would otherwise be peaceful and quiet, other than the biomechanical creatures that come out of the maze and kill some of them. Each of these beetles has the word "WICKED" stamped on it. None of them know what it means. Newt is one of the most beloved leaders of the group.
One day, a teenage boy arrives in the Glade, and he's not alone. A girl--the first--emerges with him. The boy is dubbed Thomas, and his curiosity and need to understand what's happening is without limit. When he's the first to survive a night in the maze, several of them agree to support his quest to find a way out, including Newt.
The second book continues where the first left off. Having escaped the maze was only the beginning of understanding. WICKED is a militant organization, and the survivors are forced to undergo "the Scorch Trials"--crossing a barren wasteland populated with humans being consumed by an infection (the Flare) that pretty much makes them zombies. In this series, zombies are called cranks.
The third book sees the group become prisoners of WICKED. They learn that WICKED's goal has been to find a cure for the Flare--to that end, using those with natural resistance to it, namely children, as test subjects. The friends have heard of a resistance movement fighting WICKED, and it may be their only hope for survival.
All three of these initial books were made into faithful movie adaptations that were as enjoyable as the books themselves were. Despite finding myself embarrassed by some of the silly language the boys came up with while living in the Glade, I can find no fault with any of these stories. Standout characters were Newt, Thomas, and Chuck in the first book, Newt and Thomas in the second, and Brenda in the third.
The trilogy was followed with a book called The Kill Order, which was a prequel story, showing what happened in the world leading up to the Flare and how WICKED conceived its diabolical plans to discover a cure using their youth, morality be damned.
A fifth book was released later, and it was another prequel, set between the events of The Kill Order and The Maze Runner. The primary focus of the book is on the relations between the Gladers before Thomas was sent to them. I kind of got out of the series after the third book and so never read the two prequels, though I do plan to seek them out and read them sooner or later. However, when the novella "Crank Palace" was released, I did get back into it because Newt was a favorite character of mine, and this is his story, taking place during the events of The Death Cure. Within that story, Newt had contracted the Flare and had to leave his friends because it was the only way to protect them from himself. What happened to him after that as he tried to make amends for what he considered his sins is contained in this little book. I'd like to tell you I loved it, but honestly it just didn't quite have the same intrigue as the previous three books, not even with Newt as the lead character. It was good, just not great, and I'm not sure the story really needed to be told. Even without the novella, I'd already assumed everything he did with these pages was what he intended to do when he left the group.
In the process of researching for this review, I found out that the
author wrote what might be deemed a spin-off series called Maze Cutter. The
first book with the same name is set 73 years after the events of The Death Cure. Thomas and the others
immune to the Flare are sent to an island, where they and their descendants
find a new life. Then one day a woman shows up in a boat and tells them the
rest of civilization hasn't fared so well. The opposite, in fact. Another
corporation with crazy scientists and hidden agendas has risen and threatens
the future. The islanders feel compelled to help. There are two books available
with a third (and final) on the way soon. I intend to pick them up at the first
available opportunity and see what's happening in this intriguing world.
Ultimately, I recommend this series as some of the best young adult dystopian fiction available, especially when it comes to zombie and apocalypse stories. The twists and turns are constant, and you never know what the next surprise might be from one page to the next. Each story is filled with characters worth rooting for--and worth allowing them the chance to explain the decisions they've made. Given that I had such trouble putting the first three books down, I think it's time to get back into the series and catch up with the new offerings.
Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre
author of over 150 titles and 16 series.
Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/
and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog
Find out more about her books and see her art
here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor
Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/
Confronted with yet another stretch of several rainy days in a row, I'm reminded of the passage in the New Testament that illustrates divine impartiality with the statement that God sends rain equally on the just and unjust. We residents of the often waterlogged east coast of North America could be inclined to think the rain falls as a punishment, as in this humorous verse:
"The rain it raineth every day
Upon the just and unjust fella,
But more upon the just because
The unjust hath the just's umbrella."
On the contrary, though, in the arid Middle East of the original quotation rain comes as a welcome gift.
We often hear about people morally "walking the straight and narrow." In the King James version of the Bible, Jesus' remark actually says that on the path to life "strait is the gate and narrow is the way." "Strait" means "tight," as in "straitjacket" (NOT straightjacket). And when you think about it in the context of the original quote, does a straight gate make much sense?
Nowadays the vast majority of educated people probably know Juliet isn't asking about Romeo's location when she says, "Wherefore art thou Romeo?" "Wherefore" means "why," a counterpart to "therefore." She's asking him to go by some other name instead of the one given by the family hers has a feud with.
The medieval expression "passing fair" sounds odd to us, like faint praise. Dorothy Parker wrote a sardonic poem on this topic that ends, "If minus D be passing, she is passing fair." Doubtless a brilliant writer such as Parker actually knew "passing" in this phrase is short for "surpassing"; a passing fair lady would have been a stunning beauty.
Mondegreens, misheard song lyrics, fall into a related but separate category. There's the probably apocryphal case of the child who named a teddy bear Gladly after the alleged title character of the hymn "Gladly, the Cross-Eyed Bear." I've often suspected many children, hearing the chorus of a favorite Advent song about the angel Gabriel's visit to the Virgin Mary, "Most highly favored Lady, gloria," may wonder why Jesus' mother is being called Gloria instead of Mary. Not a song, but church-related: One of our children once asked me whether "salvation" meant "wine." After all, the server offering the chalice at the Communion rail often recites, "The blood of Christ, the cup of salvation." Back to songs, after innumerable exposures to Creedence Clearwater Revival's lyric, "There's a bad moon on the rise," I still can't cure myself of hearing it as "bad moon on the right" (despite the implausibly political implication). WIth the mumbling way they deliver the line, "rise" really sounds like "right" even if I strain my ears.
Creative misinterpretations can be used to good effect in science fiction. For instance, in a STAR TREK episode the Enterprise discovers a planet with the rather silly premise that their societies evolved from a world identical to Cold War-era Earth, right down to the language they misread in their sacred document. (Maybe the Enterprise slipped into a parallel universe and didn't notice?) I once read a story of which I remember nothing except that a distant-future nation was named Tizathee, after their post-apocalyptic interpretation of "My country, Tizathee, sweet land of liberty." And in Jacqueline Lichtenberg's Sime-Gen series, the remains of Ancient highways are called "eyeways," because people assume they're named for the straight view of the landscape they offer.
Margaret L. Carter
The Hit List: Young Adult Series Favorites
{Put This One on Your TBR List}
Book Review: Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer
by Karen S. Wiesner
In the first half of the 2000s, Young Adult series were all the rage, dominating the attention of teenagers and adults alike. Several that became household topics at the height of their popularity, enjoying fame as both book and movie series, seem to have fallen by the wayside since. Even still, I find many of those unique tales are well worth returning to for a fresh perspective. Over the next month or two, I thought I'd revisit a few series that would make any hit list of past favorites.
Although this series has been around a long time and, if people wanted to read it, they probably already have, in fairness, I'm including this disclaimer because some of the entries in the series that follow the first four might be unfamiliar to readers who may want to read them first: Warning! Spoilers ahead!
I resisted this paranormal series much longer than everyone else. I'm
not sure why. I do remember for most of the years I'd lived in a town where
almost no one reads. I was one of the very few. I wondered how the library
survived. Given that, unfathomably I began seeing people reading these massive
books in public around town, as if they simply couldn't be parted from them while
devouring the stories. So I gave in. I quickly realized I was indeed missing
something, and I spend mere days finishing all four books, though I can't say I
loved the series from start to finish. The first one was the jewel in the crown
and for the first half of Book 4, I thought the magic might return, but it
never actually did.
By all rights, I think I should have liked teenage Bella. She's clumsy, a
loner, drawn to odd things, never quite fits in anywhere, and she's the
responsible, mature one especially compared to her mother. That she was a
caretaker was right up my alley. Yet I never could quite get myself to like
her, in large part because she starts out as an intriguing, unique character
and turns into someone who seems to disintegrate rather pathetically whenever
disaster struck. And it often did in this series.
I could completely understand why Bella felt drawn to Edward, a vampire. I even liked Jacob, who becomes a werewolf. It was a very cool concept. But when the author decided to make Bella fall in love with Edward and Jacob (though Bella ultimately--like me--came down on Team Edward), I found myself repelled. Edward wanted to love Bella for her lifetime. Though he would grieve when she died and he'd have to go on without her, he absolutely did not want to make her into a vampire. In the end, he agreed to it, but never willingly and he didn't actually go through with until there was no choice--Bella would have died otherwise. Jacob went all rage-wolf about the thought of Bella becoming a vampire because she would change. Not once was I convinced he cared what her opinion was about the whole thing. I found Jacob selfish and controlling. It was hard for me to like him when he decided he was in the best position to decide what Bella should do with her own life. But he ended up coming over to their side when he bonded with Bella and Edward's very strange, powerful child in a definitive way that meant he became her life-long protector, to the death.
The threat in the series was the Volturi, who made the laws for all vampires. This was an interesting, tense conflict, especially after Bella became a vampire. Ultimately, the four-book saga ended on a satisfying note. The movie adaptations were faithful. Kristen Stewart was about the only real problem I had with any of the installments. Something about the actress in all her films is off-putting to me. I wasn't crazy about Bella in the books and having Stewart playing her only compounded my issues.
Also included in the series (though maybe it shouldn't be) is a novella, detailing basically little more than the title: a short second life of Bree Tanner, a newborn vampire who came and went, disturbing tragedy, 'nuff said. No, literally, the title was all we really needed. I'm sorry to say that I found this novella nothing short of painful to read.
Unfortunately, tragedy didn't end there. To coincide with the tenth anniversary of the series, the publisher released a staggering, 400-page reimagining of the initial story with Edward and Bella's genders swapped as Edythe and Beau. I tried, I really tried, to read this but I died a little with each subsequent page. I never finished it. There are simply some things that should never be done, kind of like the whole Frankenstein debacle, and this is certainly one of them.
I remember when the Twilight Saga was at its pinnacle of popularity, someone illegally released a version of the first book written by the author in the perspective of Edward Cullen instead of Bella. I never felt right about reading it when it was available that way--in a forbidden way. So I never read it, but when Midnight Sun was officially released as a legit book in its own right, I tried to read it. I thought I'd love it because I loved him in Bella's point of view. Instead, Edward came off as the most frightening kind of psycho--and a vampire to boot. I never finished it because the Edward I'd come to love in the original books would have been ashamed for anyone to see him in this disgraceful way. I couldn't do that to him. I slammed shut the book, and it's stayed sealed ever since.
After Midnight Sun came out in 2022, the author announced she'd outlined two new Twilight novels. She planned on working on them after she'd completed an original book first (presumably The Chemist, released in November 2016). As of this review, nothing Twilight Saga related has appeared on the horizon.
Ultimately, I recommend this series, mainly for the first book and the first half of Breaking Dawn. Would I read anything new in the series? Probably, especially if it is actually something new, not shocking character swaps or alternate viewpoints, or not-short-enough tragedies that simply shouldn't be told. I give the author kudos most of all for a really cool concept that, though many tried, no one else managed to duplicate in terms of execution and success.
Next week, I'll review another favorite YA series published in the early 2000s.
Karen Wiesner is an award-winning,
multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.
Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/
and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog
Find out more about her books and see her art
here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor
Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/
Another post by Cory Doctorow about how good platforms go bad and, by extension, how the internet goes bad:
IntermediationWhy didn't the internet, as promised, "disintermediate the world"? Because in many situations we NEED "middlemen." Doctorow cites publishing as an example. While some authors self-publish and accomplish all the steps of the process themselves or directly pay others to do them (such as cover artists and freelance editors), most of us prefer to have someone else handle those tasks. And even the totally independent self-publishers typically need platforms such as Amazon, Draft2Digital, etc. to sell their work; very few earn money solely by hand-selling their books one by one, like the eccentric wordsmith Doctorow describes in his essay.
"The internet did disintermediate a hell of a lot of intermediaries –- that is, 'middlemen' –- but then it created a bunch more of these middlemen, who coalesced into a handful of gatekeepers." The gatekeepers, as he sees it, are the problem. Online sales of almost anything we might want or need on a single, convenient website is a service most customers value. The problem arises when a giant internet retailer locks out its competitors and/or restricts what customers and third-party sellers can do with the products. We don't hate intermediaries as such, according to Doctorow; we hate "powerful intermediaries." His solution -- for governments to enforce competition-supportive laws.
While I can't deny monopolies are generally a bad thing, except in public service spheres such as utilities and roads, I also highly value the convenience of being able to buy almost anything from Amazon, a website that remembers my address, past purchases, and payment methods and that has been reliably trustworthy with that information so far, as well as fast and efficient. Moreover, I like the capacity to sell my self-published e-books on a site that most potential readers probably use regularly. I love knowing I can find almost any book ever published, a cherished fantasy of mine in my pre-internet childhood and youth. I'd have a hard time getting along without Amazon if it vanished. Yet doubtless the abuses of which Doctorow accuses it are real, too.
As for one area in which powerful middlemen exploit their near-monopoly to perpetrate blatant ripoffs: In the Maryland General Assembly's current session, they're considering a law to forbid companies such as Ticketmaster from buying up most of the tickets for a high-demand event and reselling them at extortionate prices, among other protective measures:
Ticket-Scalping BillDespite such abuses, I endorse Doctorow's conclusion that, overall, "A world with intermediaries is a better world." In past centuries, people "in trade," who at first glance seem to add no value to products they profit from through their own middleman activities, used to be scorned by the upper class and regarded with suspicion by their customers. (We encounter the stereotype of the cheating miller in Chaucer's CANTERBURY TALES.) But what would we do without them?
Margaret L. Carter
Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.
Some superstars get to trademark a word and buy themselves trouble, and others have to persevere for many years before their brand and image is shielded.
As far as I know, no one has trademarked "Begotten" (if you noticed my text link), but I believe that the chorus of that hymn and the lyrics of many others contain the word "evermore".
Writers may remember extreme concerns a few years ago when either a publisher or a best selling author appeared to attempt to trademark a term which was widely used by most romance novelists. In fact, at least as of a review in 2017 on FindLaw, publishers and novelists may trademark a book title or the name of a series.
Lawyer and legal blogger Monifa Hall of the GreenspoonMarder LLP Intellectual Property blog describes the heroic saga of how it took Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson until very recently to acquire full ownership rights to “The Rock” trademark. One of many fine points she makes is:
"Johnson’s proactive approach to trademarking “The Rock” demonstrates the importance of taking decisive steps to protect valuable assets from potential infringement or misappropriation"
https://www.gmlaw.com/news/can-you-smell-what-the-rock-is-trademarking-a-look-at-ip-protection/
Meanwhile, legal influencer Igor Demcak of the trademark lawyers group Tratmatm has written two interesting blogs that are well worth reading.
One is about trademarked keywords, and the pitfalls of using other peoples' words, especially on Amazon.
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=6ef78412-5971-4977-a3ff-0982b5dc70b9
For a relatively unknown vendor (debut author, for instance), it is tempting to get noticed and to show up when readers search for specific words by using the names of more famous authors or books or series. Indeed, and as Igor Demcak says,
"The use of appropriate and well-researched keywords can lead to higher visibility, more clicks, and ultimately, increased sales."
The bother comes when one chooses inappropriate or shoddily researched keywords.
Igor explains Amazon's policy, and then discusses the risks of trademark infringement, which might include their product being removed, their account being suspended or closed, and legal action taken by the trademark owners.
The other blog by Igor Demcak that I wish to recommend today concerns trademark bullying.
It's a What-To-Do if you used a trademarked word in your promotion, and face overly aggressive enforcement.
He writes:
"One of the defining features of trademark bullying is the imbalance of power between the parties involved. Typically, the bully is a large corporation or well-established entity with significant financial resources and legal firepower, while the target may be a small business, entrepreneur, or even a non-profit organization. In many cases, the mere threat of litigation is enough to coerce the weaker party into compliance, regardless of the validity of the trademark claim."
Igor goes on to describe some interesting real-world cases where a trademark owner overstepped, but the legal process was cripplingly expensive for the little guy, and also to offer good advice for persons who feel that they are being bullied unreasonably.
"Document Everything: Keep detailed records of all communications, including cease-and-desist letters, emails, and phone conversations. Document instances of abusive behavior or unreasonable demands, as this information may be useful in defending against future legal action or filing counterclaims."All the best,
The Hit List: Young Adult Series Favorites
{Put This One on Your TBR List}
Book Review: Divergent
by Veronica Roth
by Karen S. Wiesner
In the first half of the 2000s, Young Adult series were all the rage, dominating the attention of teenagers and adults alike. Several that became household topics at the height of their popularity, enjoying fame as both book and movie series, seem to have fallen by the wayside since. Even still, I find many of those unique tales are well worth returning to for a fresh perspective. Over the next month or two, I thought I'd revisit a few series that would make any hit list of past favorites.
Divergent captured me the very moment Four (Tobias) made an appearance. Before that point, only the very unique, unexpected plot kept me turning the pages. The basic story here is set in a dystopian future where society is divided into each faction, each dedicated to a particular virtue in order to remove any one person exercising independence and freewill, which is seen as a threat. Those who don't fit nicely into any of the factions, or refuse to, are factionless and live on the fringes of society, poor and shunned. Those who are divergent are required to hide within their chosen factions because such a thing is illegal and feared. As one might expect, in this series, one of the factions wants to dominate all the others and set up their own leader.
Although this series has been around a long time and, if people wanted to read it, they probably already have, in fairness, I'm including this disclaimer: Warning! Spoilers ahead!
I didn't find the initial chapters particularly well written, though I didn't notice that as much as my first taste was of the audiobook of the first book in the series, listened to nearly from start to finish on a trip across the country. After that, I knew I had to read the rest of the series, but I started by reading Book 1 myself. The beginning was underwhelming, but I kept reading more out of intrigue of the faction concept until Four became the highlight of the book and, in my opinion, the series. The main character, Beatrice (who becomes Tris after she makes the choice to join Dauntless instead of remaining in Amity), never won me over. There was almost nothing likeable about Tris after, in the first few chapters of the first book, she stood up bravely and changed her whole life to join the faction that best fit her, even when it meant leaving her family. In fact, the major issue I had with the series was that this weak-playacting-strong heroine who turns into (sorry for the bluntness but it's the most accurate description) a total bitch and basically disintegrates her way through the series until she just gives up at the end and sacrifices herself needlessly, making everything they'd fought for worthless. Tris and Four's romance in Divergent, Book 1, is beautiful, passionate, worth every effort they made to be together when it was forbidden. It was simply breathtaking. But that fragile miracle was destroyed by the author's mistreatment after the initial series offering, and the relationship was hard to even look at in what followed.
Four was the whole reason for following the story to its bitter, disappointing conclusion. His character was complex, admirable, strong and yet vulnerable. If this series had been written from his point of view instead of Tris's, it could have been all it was meant to be. I think the author must have agreed with that because she followed up the trilogy a year later with a collection of short pieces (a prequel and disjointed other not-quite-a-story offerings, retelling parts of the first book) from Four's viewpoint. Unfortunately, this set of contributions felt too little, too late for me, after the crushing letdown of the last two Divergent books, which, albeit exciting, suspenseful, and very readable, did little but show us Tris shattering beyond repair when Four's love and their efforts leading the rebellion should have been able to heal her. Always, she was stuck in Book 1--in all she'd lost instead of finding any new motivation and purpose in her life. How unfair to Four and all who followed her lead.
A movie adaptation was made with the intention of it being four movies--the final book Allegiant was split into two (just like for Hunger Games' Mockingjay). However, the second part of the film was never completed, for which I've always been grateful. The Allegiant movie ended on such a high note. For the first time, we see Tris in a good place, finding strength and healing with Four, proud of their accomplishments and ready to begin a new life, rebuilding their world, for all. Why would fans have wanted to see the outcome of the second part of the book, where Tris sacrifices herself for absolutely no reason and leaves Four grieving? The end of the book relegates the reader to a sense of such devastation that there seems no reason to go on. I prefer to accept the movie's conclusion as the proper ending that should have been provided by the author.
While researching this review, I found that yet another story was added to the series four years after the last. We Can Be Mended was a short-story epilogue taking place 5 years after the final book in the trilogy. It's Tobias's redemption story--along with another character from the original trilogy, in a romance that I'm not sure I could feel right about accepting. As much as I disliked Tris, the thought of her best friend taking her place in Four's life just seems like a tragedy pile-on. I do intend to read it, but I don't have high hopes for being satisfied by this ending any more than I was with the previous.
Ultimately, I recommend this series, mainly for the first book, for the strong, admirable hero, for Four and Tris's early romance, and for the unique story introduced here.
Next week, I'll review another favorite YA series published in the early 2000s.
Karen Wiesner is an award-winning,
multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.
Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/
and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog
Find out more about her books and see her art
here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor
Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/
One of my publishers hosts weekly author chats. I recently read the transcript of a chat that warned against "overwhelming" the reader. Specifically, it discussed the hazard of overwhelming the reader in the opening scene of a book or story.
We know the importance of quickly hooking the agent, editor, or reader. We've heard that an agent or editor has to be reeled in with the first page or sometimes the first paragraph (depending on the giver of the advice) to avoid rejection. What pitfalls loom in that first look? By "overwhelming," the editors in the above-mentioned chat referred to inundating the reader with either unnecessary details or too many characters, especially named characters, right off the bat. The reader needs to know the setting (place and time), important details that "move the story along," and maybe a selection of secondary characters. Above all, the protagonist must be introduced in a way to make the reader care about her.
Another caution mentioned was not to plunge into an "action" scene right away. We need a reason to care what happens to the protagonist before seeing him or her in a crisis or life-threatening situation. A violent fight scene doesn't mean much if we don't know the participants or the stakes involved. The same principle applies to starting with a sex scene, unless writing erotica or erotic romance, and even then the scene will appear pointless if it doesn't reveal character and advance the story.
Before the inciting event, the big change in the protagonist's life, occurs, there should be a glimpse of her normal life, even if very brief. Especially if it's a violent or otherwise shocking event. I have slight reservations about this guideline. We could think of successful novels that deviate from it. One that leaps to mind for me is MISERY.
King's novel starts with the protagonist already injured from a car accident, waking to consciousness in the home of his "number one fan."
A big pitfall to avoid: Starting with backstory. The early pages should always move forward. Frontloading backstory is a besetting authorial sin of my own. I've read books by prominent authors that violate this one, too. A brief opening shows the hero in some dire plight. Then they answer the rhetorical question, "How did I get here?" with several chapters of backstory. Techniques like this probably shouldn't be tried until the author has attained a similar level of expertise and popularity.
One of my favorites of my own works, FROM THE DARK PLACES, originally started with the heroine's gazing at a photo of her late husband and immediately falling into a reverie that leads into a whole chapter about their meeting, their marriage, the birth of their daughter, and the husband's untimely death. Fortunately, I received and followed the advice, "Don't do that!" The book as published begins with present-day action and gradually weaves in, when appropriate, the only parts of the backstory the reader needs to know, the crisis birth and the husband's death.
My husband and I violated the "don't plunge straight into action" guideline in the second volume of our "Wild Sorceress" series by starting in the middle of a battle. In this case, I believe the problem is slightly mitigated by the fact that this is a sequel to a book any reader who buys the sequel has probably read. In the first volume, we transgressed a no-no the chat doesn't mention, starting with a dream sequence. In our defense, it's clearly a dream, not a bait-and-switch, and it has an immediate, clear bearing on what the character is now facing in real life. Still, I would probably resist doing it that way today. It also commits another alleged fault that many editors and readers detest, starting with a character waking up and preparing for her day.
One of my favorite bestselling fantasy authors begins a novel published a few years ago with a life-threatening battle that turns out to be a simulation! I'm astonished that the publisher let her get away with that blatant bait-and-switch!
Margaret L. Carter
Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt
The Hit List: Young Adult Series Favorites
{Put This One on Your TBR List}
Book Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
by Karen S. Wiesner
In the first half of the 2000s, Young Adult series were all the rage, dominating the attention of teenagers and adults alike. Several that became household topics at the height of their popularity, enjoying fame as both book and movie series, seem to have fallen by the wayside since. Even still, I find many of those unique tales are well worth returning to for a fresh perspective. Over the next month or two, I thought I'd revisit a few series that would make any hit list of past favorites.
What an odd idea for a series! As a very basic summary, kids from each district are forced to compete in violent, brutal "games" to the death as punishment for the past sin of rebelling against the controlling state--all for the entertainment of Capitol citizens. When I first heard about this series--the first three books published between 2008 and 2010--I just could not buy the premise. The concept was beyond ridiculous to me. Parents would never allow it, and who the heck did the Capitol think it was to punish anyone for anything? They participated in the same wars in the past. Active and ongoing retribution following a war is just not done after a succession of fighting and a peace treaty is agreed to by both sides, is it? I admit to being the opposite of a war buff. Also, that people in the future could be as barbaric as in the times of the Roman gladiators didn't sit well with me either. I read the trilogy the first time, never buying the premise for an instant. I had a visceral reaction, especially, to how the author treated Peeta. I wasn't a fan of Katniss. Only one decision she made was one I could agree with--and that was how she handled the poor, pathetic rulers in Panem after the war. I remember writing a violent review that I've since lost.
A decade passed and a new book was released--a prequel to the series. Though I had very bad memories of the original trilogy, I thought I'd give it another shot. My perceptions about everything changed. Buying the premise still wasn't easy, but I managed this time, and I found Katniss a much more sympathetic protagonist this time around. Here was a mere girl with so few choices in her life. Everything she did was so that those she loved could survive. I still didn't like what was done to Peeta, but I was grateful, as before, that he at least had something of a happily ever after here. I even enjoyed all four of the movies, which closely followed the books, at this point.
Although this series has been around a long time and, if people wanted to read it, they probably already have, in fairness, I'm including this disclaimer because The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is fairly new: Warning! Spoilers ahead!
I went into Ballad… eager to figure out what the heck was wrong with President Snow, how he could possibly justify all the horrible, selfish things he did, what explained his madness. I didn't get anything I was looking for, other than more questions, more shock at just how abysmally the author failed at trying to explain Snow's behavior. The book is, wrongly in my opinion, written from Snow's point of view. While I believe that antagonists should be well-rounded, with strong justifications for any evil they've perpetrated, as well as good traits, the author immersed us too far into Snow's character to ever see him as a villain. He wasn't at all … until he was. And then we were left wondering, what the hell? What changed that this young, seemingly virtuous person who seemed on the edge of starting a revolution in the Capitol that he suddenly turned his back on worthy ideals? Everything he did for most of the book seemed to be pointing us toward him finding a way to change the constant penance visited unfairly upon those who lived in the districts and were barely getting by, treated like animals and mere entertainment. Now this person we thought we knew as good abruptly became such a heartless monster. How was it that Lucy Gray's plight hadn't made any impact on Snow if he could leave behind anything resembling a conscience in order to do what he ultimately did, turning against everything he'd seemed to stand for in the first three-fourths of the book?
Instead of answering the questions the Hunger Games Trilogy left us with, we were overloaded with even more. I can't understand the motivation of the author to write a story about Snow that doesn't really explain what motivated his lifelong cruelty after he betrayed everything he was moving toward in redeeming the districts. Could it really be that everything he did all along was simply because he couldn't bear to be hungry, couldn't stand the thought of allying with those he considered beneath him? When the truth about his two-faced betrayal became clear to me, reading the book, I felt sure I must have missed something. I went back and restarted the chapter only to come to the same end. My niece had the exact same reaction, went back and re-read…nope, Snow is proving he's a traitor to the districts, has been all along. What?!?
I didn't want to watch the movie when it came out in November 2023, but I couldn't resist. The movie was a very faithful adaptation, with some of the most beautiful music imaginable. Even though I remained confused about why the author bothered writing a book that didn't answer any of the questions that needed logical reasoning, I admit I enjoyed the movie. Despite my reservations, I also enjoyed the first three-fourths of the book. I just don't understand. It's all senseless to me. But I easily recalled my deeply disturbed reaction the first time I read the trilogy. When I came back to it a decade later, my perceptions were radically changed. Maybe the same will happen if I come back to Ballads years from now.
In any case, I'm left with recommending this series for the reason that anything that inspires such a passionate response in me is worth my time, even if I'm not fully satisfied by it and I wish the author had done many things differently. Even long years after the first publication of these stories, their impact is undeniably powerful.
Next week, I'll review another favorite YA series published in the early 2000s.
Karen Wiesner is an award-winning,
multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.
Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/
and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog
Find out more about her books and see her art
here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor
Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/
This week T. Kingfisher's new horror novel, WHAT FEASTS AT NIGHT, was published. Sequel to WHAT MOVES THE DEAD (a retelling of "The Fall of the House of Usher"), it features the same narrator, "sworn soldier" Alex Easton. The language of Alex's homeland, Gallacia, a tiny imaginary country in central Europe, has at least six personal pronouns. In addition to the typical masculine and feminine, they have a pronoun for rocks (and inanimate objects in general, I assume) and one applied only to God. Pre-adolescent children go by a special non-gendered pronoun, which is also used by most priests and nuns. Someone learning the language who accidentally calls a child "he" or "she" must apologize profusely to avoid suspicion of being a pervert. Sworn soldiers adopt a nonbinary identity and the pronoun "ka" (subjective) or "kan" (objective and possessive).
The idea of having a unique pronoun for God appeals to me. It would avert controversy over whether the Supreme Being is masculine or feminine. In much of Madeleine L'Engle's nonfiction work, she uses the Hebrew word "El" as the divine pronoun for that very purpose.
The masculine, feminine, and neuter system familiar to us is far from universal in real-world languages. French, of course, has only masculine and feminine, no neuter. Even "they" is gendered. Recently I was surprised to learn that Mandarin has no gendered pronouns at all. Japanese, on the other hand, has a daunting variety of pronouns with diverse shades of meaning. There are first-person pronouns used primarily by men and others primarily by women. I've read that Japanese women in positions of authority face the double bind of either referring to themselves in the feminine style and appearing weak or using a male-type version of "I" and sounding masculinized.
A chart of Japanese personal pronouns:
Japanese PronounsUntil the 19th century, their language didn't even include a term for "she." A word was adapted for that purpose to provide an equivalent for the same part of speech in European languages.
As far as imaginary foreign or extraterrestial languages in speculative fiction are concerned, some authors embrace the concept of inventing pronouns, while others actively dislike and avoid it. At the time of writing THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS, Ursula Le Guin fell into the latter category.
Le Guin discusses the gendered language she used in THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS, on pages 16 and following of this essay:
Is Gender Necessary? ReduxThe italic passages on the right sides of the pages express her later, revised thoughts about the topics covered in the original essay.
She critiques her own refusal to invent new pronouns for the alien society in the novel: "I still dislike invented pronouns, but now dislike them less than the so-called generic pronoun he/him/his, which does in fact exclude women from discourse; and which was an invention of male grammarians, for until the sixteenth century the English generic singular pronoun was they/them/their, as it still is in English and American colloquial speech."
This 2020 article by Ryan Yarber analyzes Le Guin's essay in depth, going into detail about the issue of personal pronouns:
Beyond Gender: Exploring Ursula K. Le Guin's Thought ExperimentAs for this issue in real life, people have tried to introduce invented third-person pronouns in order to get away from the awkwardness of "he/she" or using "they" as singular. No such system has widely caught on. While languages freely borrow nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs from each other, the basic structural components are far more stubbornly resistant to change.
Margaret L. Carter
Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.
"Two wrongs don't make a right," directly contradicts "An eye for an eye", which notion of equal justice predates Exodus, and is thought to come from the ancient Mesopotamian Hammurabi's Code of justice.
On the other hand, two negatives, sometimes make a positive... and sometimes they are just emphatically, doubly negative, as in "I can't get no" which is followed by a consummation devoutly to be wish'd, be it peace, respect, sex, relief.
Take "not bad". It is a grudging way of saying "good". "Not terrible", "not useless", "not without merit", "not wrong", "not incompatible" etc. also do the same thing. The figure of speech is Litotes. Sometimes described as verbal irony, litotes is when an affirmative is conveyed through the use of two negatives.
"It is not that I don't want to do it..." is a cautious preamble to an excuse. In other words, I would perhaps like to do something, but I cannot or won't follow through. "It's not unusual" is usually followed by a "but" clause. It's not unusual to see a cow, but it is unusual to be attacked by one.
"You can't say that I didn't warn you," is a gentler way of saying, "I told you so!"
If a person is "not unknown" to the authorities, it probably means that that person has a history as a troublemaker, at the very least.
All the best,
{Put This One on Your TBR List}
Book Review: Fractal
Noise, A Fractalverse Novel
by Christopher Paolini
by Karen S. Wiesner
In the previous two weeks, I reviewed Christopher Paolini's previous Fractalverse novel, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, in an article called "Combating Big Book Overwhelm with Audiobooks"; I also reviewed "Unity", An Interactive Fractalverse Story. The Fractalverse Universe encompasses all known space and time, binding everyone everywhere as fellow travelers.
Before we get started, a word of explanation about the order of this series is necessary. Here's what's currently available in the order the stories were published:
1.
To Sleep
in a Sea of Stars (2020)
2.
"Unity" (2021)
3. Fractal Noise (2023)
Influenced by an intense nightmare he'd had while writing Inheritance, the fourth in his Inheritance Cycle, Paolini wrote an initial draft of Fractal Noise (originally a novella) but wasn't happy with it and set it aside. Eventually, he moved on to To Sleep…, also set in the Fractalverse Universe. This project took him much longer than he intended to finish--years--and only after he completed that did he go back to Fractal Noise. With new ideas and direction, he did a major revision and it became a 300+ page novel. It's unclear when "Unity" was written but I'm going to guess soon after To Sleep… was completed, probably before he revised Fractal Noise into a novel. In any case, the chronological sequence of the three stories is the exact opposite of the publication order:
1. Fractal Noise
2. To Sleep in a Sea of Stars
3. "Unity"
According to the timeline included on the fractalverse.net website, the Great Beacon on Talos VII, which is the focus of Fractal Noise, was discovered between 2234 and 2237. It was the first alien artifact discovered in the universe. Twenty-three years later, between 2257 and 2258, the events of To Sleep… took place, starting on the moon Adrasteia. "Unity" follows To Sleep… chronologically, and within the "Unity" story, on a doctor's report, the date is listed as "2335" so it's been just over 75 years.
As for suggested reading order, I would have to say either Fractal Noise or To Sleep… should come first; it doesn't actually matter which. "Unity" should follow the reading of To Sleep… regardless of what order you read the two novels. I prefer following chronology as a general rule for all series, but the author felt that To Sleep… "would be a better introduction to the Fractalverse". I read To Sleep… first because it was published first. I followed that with Fractal Noise because it was published second. I only found out about "Unity" after going to the author's website. If I'd had a choice, I would have read Fractal Noise first, then To Sleep… and finally "Unity". Make of that what you will.
I have to comment on the fact that I didn't understand the connection between the two novels published in the series beyond that they shared the same world. I wasn't sure if there were characters in common, a plot, place, or something else. It wasn't until after I read both books (and the short story) and then listened to the audiobook version of To Sleep… that I finally figured out the connection between the two novels: Alien artifacts. That's what ties the two books together, other than the shared universe. The first alien artifact was discovered in Fractal Noise, the second in To Sleep… The question whether the same alien species created both artifacts is much tougher to answer, and I couldn't find a definitive answer to that anywhere online and it's lost in the combined 1,184 pages of the two books. But at least I discovered that there really wasn't any other connection between the two novels beyond the shared universe and ancient alien relics. Sounds simple, but it was frustrating not knowing that. I always feel like crucial information that most readers will wonder about needs to be included in the series blurb. Saves on wear and tear of reader nerves to know something unifying like that upfront.
So, the focus of Fractal Noise
is the anomaly found on Talos VII, an otherwise uninhabited planet. From space,
the stellar survey crew onboard the SLV Adamura
sees a pit fifty kilometers wide, definitely not natural. This giant abyss is
broadcasting a signal, to whom or what, is unknown. Eventually (in To Sleep…), this hole is called the
Great Beacon. A small team is sent out to check it out, and most of their
journey has to take place on foot with limited supplies and protection. The
group of four consists of (to be blunt):
1)
A stereotypical religious fanatic who believes
no one and nothing matters other than divine will. This woman is one crack away
from becoming the next Interstellar Psycho. Bad luck for everyone involved:
She's made the team leader.
2)
An opinionated tough guy with a chip on his
shoulder who starts out as fun and personable, but then becomes the religious
fanatic's archenemy as he vies for control of the team and the mission.
3)
A spineless weakling who will cave to whoever's
strongest at the moment, incapable of doing anything but flying into the wind
from one moment to the next, especially after he's injured so badly, he has to
be carried the rest of the way.
4) A scarred-from-childhood man so immersed in his grief from losing the woman he loved--the woman he's only realized in retrospect that he mistreated before her violent death by a tigermaul--that he doesn't really care about anyone or anything except in reflex. This person is Dr. Alex Crichton, a xenobiologist.
Alex is the main character. None of the other three major characters are really given more than a brief sketch in terms of fleshing out. We learn very little about them, beyond what's absolutely needed to tell the story, and so the book always felt a little lopsided to me. I might have learned too much about Alex, who became a little sickening since he was a train wreck personality, and not nearly enough about the other three pivotal characters. The loss of personal information became harder to take especially as the first two characters disintegrated in their escalating conflict with each other, the third became less and less useful to the team as he cringed away from their ongoing battle, with only Alex trying to keep the peace--mainly by staying out of the argument altogether. Alex is also the one who ended up picking up the pieces in the fallout and kept them moving forward steadily toward their goal. Clearly, he should have been team leader, but until someone is under duress in the field, I guess it's hard to know who might crack first. I suspect the captain of the ship believed he'd chosen the last person who seemed capable of falling apart as the team leader. Bad call leads to big mistake.
The conflicts with each other, the conflicts of their individual pasts that are motivating and driving each of them, and the conflict with the relic they're moving toward steadily despite all that's preventing them from reaching it are intriguing. The tension culminated, small outbursts becoming bigger and bigger, the results of the team’s in-fighting and bad luck making the journey even more stressful. I truly enjoyed the trek across the planet to the beacon, providing constant suspense with the internal conflicts of the team, physical injuries, the mission in jeopardy nearly from the beginning, and the things thrown in their way, like the growing, deafening noise, "turtles"--creatures that were obviously guarding the broken beacon's equipment, and numerous equipment failures.
Earlier, I said that the *focus* of Fractal Noise is the beacon. However, it's in no way the *purpose* of the story. If you don't want spoilers, don't read the next two paragraphs bracketed with asterisks:
**Within the pages of this book, you don't ever learn what the beacon is, who put it there, why it was constructed, what it was supposed to do or supposed to contact. You learn nothing important about the Great Beacon by the end. It's simply a relic that might have been covered over by the sands of time if not for the signal it was sending out that unfortunately captured attention from this crew and later the world. By the time the story To Sleep in a Sea of Stars rolls out, humans still don't know anything solid about that ancient artifact. In that book, it's revealed that they're called whirlpools by the Wranaui and that there are many of them around the universe. The Wranaui allies believe the Vanished created them but even they don't know for sure. But none of the species can even venture a guess what they're for.
Anyone reading this would have found it frustrating not to learn anything worthwhile about the relic. Initially, it seemed like the point of the story, though the back cover blurb did make it clear that the "ghosts of the past" following the members of the team were the true focus. In the end, Alex came to grips with his past and his grief. That's the best thing that happened--the only bit of closure provided. I presume he made it back to the ship, maybe with the weakling still alive, and that's how Kira and the other characters in the time period of To Sleep… know the beacon even exists.**
Despite a bit of annoyance about not getting any part of what I felt the story was building toward, I did find the story worthwhile reading. I savored the journey, weathering the disappointment in the end, yes, but I remained excited about where this series could be leading. Of the three Fractalverse stories I've read thus far, Fractal Noise was my favorite. Maybe in subsequent books, we'll learn what the beacon in Fractal Noise was intended for. At the end of To Sleep…, Kira learned that the Maw had left seven other parts of itself in different locations within the universe, and she intended to track them down alone. Perhaps we'll learn more about the rest of her journey to either kill or convert those seven fragments, as she did before.
As a reader, I look for closure in a story and series, and I felt both Fractalverse novels left a lot of the opposite, though not in a way that could be described as a deal breaker. I accepted the loose ends, though I'm not sure all readers would be as forgiving, because I'm eager to know more about this world. I suspect the author will produce many other stories that are connected to the universe but not tied closely to them, leaving even more fragments littered around the Fractal galaxy. Eventually, there may be a way to tie them all together--what I'm ultimately hoping for. In the meantime, there has been talk about either a film or TV series adaptation of To Sleep… with the author and his sister already writing scripts and presumably too occupied for Paolini to work on the next installment in the series. I look forward to hearing more about whether the visual adaptation goes forward, assuming that, in some way, the events of Fractal Noise and "Unity" will be included in that. At this point, until the author gives us a clue, who knows what might happen next in the Fractalverse? If you have any conjecture, leave a comment.
Karen Wiesner is an award-winning,
multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.
Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/
and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog
Find out more about her books and see her art
here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor
Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/
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