This one is a trip, let me tell ya. Eric Flint and David Drake seemed to have decided that they want to fix history and this is the result. With a bit of sci-fi twist as a catalyst.
Action Scenes Don’t Have to be Scary
To write, at any rate. Atmosphere is up to you.
I have a theory based on…not much, to be honest…that a lot of writers stick to, say, college or coffee shop stories or such because writing action scenes scares them. (This is an epidemic in some corners of fandom.) This limits you as a writer and there is no reason for it. You can learn how to write at least tolerable action sequences.
Continue reading “Action Scenes Don’t Have to be Scary”Book Review: The Shikari Series
When it comes to ‘ye olden times in space’, things have grown repetitive for frequent readers of science fiction. How many times can one read ‘Horatio Hornblower in SPAAACE’? Most of the subgenre seems to fall into that category.
I never had much stomach for that and I’m one of the few sci-fi readers who has never touched an Honor Harrington novel. I got my fill with the old Mech Warrior books many years ago. It would take something really different to take me back to the subgenre.
The Shikari series by Alma Boykin are very different. Take a bit of space opera, a bit of colonial England, a bit of Jane Austen, and you have these delightful novels.
Continue reading “Book Review: The Shikari Series”Writing Dialogue
We all know how people speak. It’s messy, more rapid-fire than you realize at the time, and conversations seem to flow in one long string.
This is not how you write dialogue.
Continue reading “Writing Dialogue”Book Review: The Clone Wars: No Prisoners
In the spirit of the moment- admittedly an iffy spirit these days- I figured I’d tell you about another awesome Star Wars book, this time one based off the cartoon based off the prequels based off the legendary movie trilogy, Karen Traviss’ The Clone Wars: No Prisoners.
Continue reading “Book Review: The Clone Wars: No Prisoners”In Memoriam: Gene Wolfe
Everything Gene Wolfe wrote was weird.
I mean this in the best possible way. His worlds were expansive and strange. He had a gift for understanding how the man in the street felt and thoughts about the weirdness in his world. His passing means that something great has gone from sci-fi, though we will have his books always.
Continue reading “In Memoriam: Gene Wolfe”Book Review: The Marcus Corvinus Series
I’m actually not one for historical novels much, though I love history and I especially love Roman history. However, Roman historical novels tend to…over-modernize. For a period of which we have extensive but hardly compete records, many authors decide to be too anachronistic in any number of ways. Sometimes it’s as bad as having the main character be an anti-slavery crusader, which is so historically absurd that you might as well include airplanes, sometimes it’s so subtle as just the wrong words or tone (garnered from some badly, badly taught history classes). Then there’s the “he-he sex” genre that takes on many different skins.
The Marcus Corvinus series by David Wishart has none of these problems. They are not only my favorite Roman historical novels, but they are my favorite mysteries and frequent comfort reads. I can’t recommend these books enough.
