Book Review: Cast of Stones

From the back cover:

In the backwater village of Callowford, Errol Stone's search for a drink is interrupted by a church messenger who arrives with urgent missives for the hermit priest in the hills. Desperate for coin, Errol volunteers to deliver them but soon finds himself hunted by deadly assassins. Forced to flee with the priest and a small band of travelers, Errol soon learns he's joined a quest that could change the fate of his kingdom.
Protected for millennia by the heirs of the first king, the kingdom's dynasty is near an end and a new king must be selected. As tension and danger mount, Errol must leave behind his drunkenness and grief, learn to fight, and come to know his God in order to survive a journey to discover his destiny.

The bad:

There are a lot of Latin terms in the book. It makes sense, as this is a very Catholic book, and it fits with the medieval feel, but kinda breaks the world-building. What's the history of the world that explains the latin terms? Is this then, more alt-history?

On the same note, the word "smallclothes" is used for "underwear".  I appreciate what the author is trying to do here, you don't want to use modern words that don't make sense for your story world (unless it's Latin, but I digress...), but the word "smallclothes" just doesn't work for me. Sounds weird.

The last thing I didn't like about the book is something that bothers me about a lot of modern fantasy. There's a bit of writing advice out there that says: "Find the worst thing that can happen to your character, and do it." I know, if everything went swimmingly, we wouldn't have a story, but it seems a lot of authors lately are taking this advice way too literally. The result is a somewhat depressing feel...

The Good:

... fortunately, though bad things happen to Errol, there is a sense of upward progression, and at least some good things happen to him.

I love the characters here. Errol goes from being a drunk, to a pretty good fighter (once he finds the right weapon...). All of this is felt out, and we're with him through the journey. None of it feels too rushed, and he's tempted even after he overcomes his alcohol addiction.

The other characters are just as layered. There's a bad guy who might not be a bad guy, and even our hero's friends have their own motivations that may or may not line up with his...

Despite the Latin, the world-building is pretty good. Sure, there's stew, and your drink choices are wine, water, or the ever-present "ale", but there's different population groups, different cities and villages, characters from back-of-nowhere are shocked by the city. Also, in keeping with the medieval feel, no one knows much beyond the kingdom's borders...

The plot is mostly politically based, with a hint of adventure and mystery. It kept me reading, and distracted when I wasn't reading it. ;)

Over all, I give it four stars.

One more thing I didn't like, and the only reason it didn't get five... it left off in the middle of the story. I know, it's part of a trilogy... but this still isn't my favorite way to read a series.

Cast of Stones, A (The Staff and the Sword)

Book Review: Finding Angel

From the back cover:

"Angel doesn't remember her magical heritage...but it remembers her.

Start with a struggle revolving around the source of magic. Is it genetic--or is it part of your soul? What if someone was using his powers to run experiments based on a complete misconception of the source of magic? 

Throw in a twisted family tree that's rooted in a centuries' old feud, a painting that (literally) holds the key to the truth, a mysterious and talkative beetle, and an Elven rocker who can play the songs of the stars on an electric guitar. 

This is the world Angel Mason was born into, thrust out of, and returned to seven years later. To top it off, she must rediscover her identity and save her home from a madman at the same time."

First, the few things I didn't like about the book (I always like to end on a positive note...) One of the confrontations with the minor bad guys at the end of the book happens entirely off-screen. It makes sense, and the main bad-guy is appropriately dealt with, but the whole book has been working toward who "the scientist" and who "the assistant" is, and that whole part is wrapped up in a sentence or two, and most of it summary by another character as it happened before our point-of-view characters arrive.

Another very minor gripe is the use of the word "Talent" instead of "magic". It's a perfectly legitimate word, and, in the case of most modern fantasy, actually a better word... it's just that it seems everyone is using it lately. Ah, the writers dilemma, over-use a word, or invent a new one that's original, but sounds funny... (more on that in my upcoming "Cast of Stones" review...)

On to the good parts.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I like the characters. Angel is believably confused, she about acts like one of us would, were we thrust into that kind of situation. Gregor is a nice guy, who's got a lot of secrets of his own... I kept hoping that the two leads would fall in love or something, but the author wisely chose a different romantic beat, as there's an age difference, and some spoiler-ish reasons for it not to happen as well.

Another review I've read complained that the book felt too slow around the middle part. I couldn't disagree more. It's true that not much physical action occurs, but there's lots of character development, and a wonderful feeling of whimsy and wonder.

I give it four stars:

 

Finding Angel- Toch Island Chronicles, Book 1

Book Review: Heartless

From the back-cover:

"Princess Una of Parumvir has come of age and will soon be married. She dreams of a handsome and charming prince, but when the first suitor arrives, she finds him stodgy and boring. Prince Aethelbald from the mysterious land of Farthestshore has traveled far to prove his love--and also to bring hushed warnings of danger. A dragon is rumored to be approaching Parumvir.

Una, smitten instead with a more dashing prince, refuses Aethelbald's offer--and ignores his warnings. Soon the Dragon King himself is in Parumvir, and Una, in giving her heart away unwisely, finds herself in grave danger. Only those courageous enough to risk everything have a hope of fighting off this advancing evil."


The Bad:

About the first half of this book sounded like it was trying WAY too hard to sound like a fairy-tale. I like fairy-tales and all, but the word choices got in the way. Fortunately, around half-way through it stops trying so hard and gets caught up in the story. That's where I got really interested.

The book's also got some bad poetry. Disclaimer:  I'm not a poet, and in general, I don't like poetry, so I can't really tell if it's good or not. In an interview I read, the author stated that at least some of that is intentional, as she thought it'd be funny if one of the most famous poets of the land wasn't terribly good. And that does fit the character...

The other thing that annoyed me was the main character, Una. Boy is she whiny and stupid...

The Good:

Once the story forgets it's trying to be a fairy-tale, it really gets rolling. The pace and plot both pick up, and I was really hooked from there.
As far as characters go, yeah, I didn't like Una, but just about every other character was awesome. One of the minor villains was almost a cardboard cut-out, but then he was supposed to be as the real villain using and manipulating him.
Prince Aethelbald is a fascinating character. At first, I wasn't sure if he was the good guy just because the story said so, or if he was going to turn out to be a cheap Aslan clone.... then we got out of Una's viewpoint and into his and Una's brother's... and we get all kinds of character complexity.

Said bad poet from above is also a fascinating character, and funny too. Can't say much more about him without giving away spoilers, but I want to read more about him.

At the beginning of the story, I wasn't sure if I was going to give it two stars, or stretch for three. After about that halfway point (possibly a tad before it), I'm comfortable giving it four, and now I really want to see what the rest of the series has to offer. It helps that Una's character does develop by the end of the book...

I give it four stars:

Buy Heartless (Tales of Goldstone Wood)from Amazon

In case your curious, here's how I break down my ratings:
1 star: I hated it, loathed it, and didn't finish it. Possibly even burned it. (Example: Rhapsody)
2 stars: Meh. Nothing really wrong, but I just didn't like it. Probably finished it, but might not have.
3 stars: I liked it, but thought it was just average. Might or might not re-read, or get more books by this author.
4 stars: I really liked it, enjoyed reading it, most likely will get more books by this author. Only one or two things in the book I didn't like.
5 stars: Congrats, you've joined the ranks of Anne McCaffery, Jules Vern, et al. The book is very close to perfection. I WILL re-read this book, and buy everything you sell. (Examples: Dragonflight, I, Jedi, Armored Hearts, Remnant in the Stars)

Book Review: Warbreaker, by Brandon Sanderson

Last's month's book club book was Warbreaker, by Brandon Sanderson. I had mixed feelings for this, as I loved Elantris, and the first Mistborn book... but by the last Mistborn book Sanderson was almost added to my "Never read anything by this author again, EVER!" list. (I like happy endings. If you want to lose me as a reader forever, just kill off one of my favorite characters... or all of them...)

The beginning of the book wasn't that gripping, for me. We start off in one characters viewpoint, then jump right away to someone else's.
It's a tad jarring, and the first character just wasn't working for me.
After we meet Siri and Lightsong, though, things start picking up. Like most Sanderson books, there's almost constant switching of veiwpoints. This technique really works for me, as it allows you to get to know multiple characters. It's just about the only way you can do that, now that omniscient point of view is considered a big no-no. Another plus, is that you're not stuck inside the head of a character you don't like for too long. Case in point, I couldn't stand most of the Vivernia scenes (until almost the end). My wife, on the other hand, thought she was one of the best characters.

There's also a lot of quotable dialog in this book:

"There's one thing I haven't figured out. How juggling lemons fits into all this."

"What in the name of you are you doing?"

... and tons more.

The ending is where I think this book really shines. (we do lose one character, but it'd been forecast enough that I didn't mind it... that much...) There's a whole bunch of twists in the story that seem to come out of nowhere, but the more you think about them, you can see the clues were there from the beginning.

I give it four stars.

Buy Warbreaker from Amazon

Armored Hearts Interview

The Christian Book Lovers Hop is still going on!

Last time, I told about Armored Hearts, and that I'm giving away a copy.

Today, we have an interview with the authors.

- Was collaborating frustrating at any point?

Pauline: Not particularly, Missy Lee and I get along well and I didn’t feel that we argued about any particular point at all…

Melissa: I don't think it was frustrating. Pauline might say differently. Some ideas she had or I had, we didn't always agree on but I think we compromised well. At least I hope so.

- I love the historical detail in the book. How much research did you do for it? What kind of research did you do?

Pauline: We researched the time period to make it as historically accurate as possible – even though it’s alternate history.  Wikipedia was very helpful :)

Melissa: I had to research English Peerage and how titles worked, were handed down and how people were addressed. It was all so formal. I also researched what actual women were doing as far as seeking rights. At that time, a woman with a brother could not inherit an estate. She could not own property if she was married or had a living father or brother. I researched what they believed about women's education. Girls in noble families did not go to school. That were taught just enough at home by a governess because it was thought that study was unhealthy for women. The medical books taught it would make a woman sterile if she studied difficult subjects such as science or math.

- At least one review I've read said they didn't like the book because it was way too feministic. I don't agree, but I do see where they're coming from. It seems like, in the world of Armored Hearts, it's mostly just the females who invent things. Did you write it that way on purpose, or did someone just get there shorts in a twist because we've just seen that issue through one or two characters viewpoints?

Pauline: In true history, women were put in their place which is to say they were not at all prized for their intelligence.  So as we wrote AH, we wanted to show that they were inventors alongside men – and in further episodes, I’m sure we’ll show just that.

Melissa: The book is set in Edwardian England instead of Victorian England. Progress and automation was already happening...by men. We mention automobiles are parked outside the house in preparation for the wedding. It wasn't my intention to make it look like only women were inventing but that women and men see things differently and that perhaps if the women had a say in the process too, there would be more variety in what was being automated and how during that time. I am not a feminist in the sense that women should rule over men etc. I do think according to the Bible, women are equipped to do much more than cultures have allowed due to picking and choosing certain verses over others to stress as important. Parts of the Bible clearly show women served in the early church. Proverbs 31 shows that a woman can have a mind for business and it is a good thing. There is a verse addressing an issue in one church that tells that church to have the women causing problems in that church to "keep silent." We need to read all the Bible and look at context.

- I loved the balance of steampunk tech, romance, and fantasy, but I see some fans wanted more devices. Will we see more tech, fey magic, a continued balance, or all of the above in Armored Hearts 2?

Pauline: There will be all of the above :) no one will be neglected!

Melissa:  That is the plan. I really hope we do not disappoint.

Minor spoiler (highlight to read):

- It was a little unclear if Gareth and Jess ever consummated their marriage. The way that topic was approached and worded was period accurate. But it's got me wondering. I got the impression that they did, but my wife thinks they decided to wait until Jess was feeling better. Who's right?

Pauline: Your wife is right, they decided to wait.

Melissa: You know, I don't know. I was scared to go there. I had some people quite upset with me about how I handled a honeymoon in another book (It was not graphic. Would never write that.) Jessamine was so flirty that I was afraid that might already be over-the-top for some folks. And I did get messages that it was for some. I can't please everyone. I think they are waiting on Jessamine to recover. We will find out. 

End spoiler

- It seems like AltWit Press has a few novels that show the whole of a romantic relationship, instead of portraying just lust and calling it love. Is this on purpose? What are your thoughts on this issue?

Pauline: Society certainly has a lot of lust without us adding to it.  While at the same time people are starting to disbelieve in love itself.  Our goal is to show that love exists and is still alive and well, and our hope is that by reading the kind of stories we publish, people will learn the difference.

Melissa: I'm not sure what AltWit's view is. I have always seen a parallel between romance and how God pursues us. There is a special connection between a husband and wife that mimics that spiritual connection. It tells a story to the soul about The Ultimate Love Story when you tell a genuine love story. I'm not a prude and I don't think God is either, given that He created intimacy and included a whole book of the Bible devoted to the physical love of a groom and bride the draws a comparison Himself. I don't want to feed what the world is tainting, but I also don't want the world's view to taint our view of the whole picture of love between a husband and wife. 


Enter to win the copy of Armored Hearts:

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Christian Book Lover's Hop - And Giveaway!

For the blog hop, I've giving away a copy of Armored Hearts... signed by the authors!

From the back cover:

"Part Steampunk, part Fantasy, all Romance...

When a crippled young lord rescues a girl falling from a tree, it reveals a secret about himself and his mother's side of the family that could put him at the center of a war with beings he thought only existed in fairy tales. Tristan Gareth Smyth lived his entire life stuck at home at Waverly Park and left behind while his Grandfather makes trips to London, all because of his blasted wheelchair. Then an American heiress falls in his lap, literally, and he must find a way to keep her at a distance to protect not only his secret, but everyone around him from an assassin sent to kill him."

I read this book a few months ago and loved it, you can read my review here.

Click here for an interview with the authors!

Enter to win here:

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Be sure to check out the other sites in the hop to win other cool stuff!

Cover reveal for "Secrets Kept"

With a curse, she will build an army. With the dagger, she will undo the last sacrifice. But first the sorceress must find the secret keeper.

From the back of the book: Torn from her homeland and thrust into a betrothal against her wishes, Ayianna learns her family has a deadly secret that now has her on the run. She joins forces with Kael, an embittered half-elf, and Saeed, an elderly High Guardian, to seek answers to her father's death, the destruction of Dagmar, and the plains people's bizarre behavior.

Ayianna discovers there is more at stake here than just her mother's disappearance and her familial duty to her betrothed. The sorceress has cursed the plains people, and it is a race against time to release them before the sorceress resurrects an ancient evil.


This is the full-length novel by J.L. Mbewe set in the same world as the Desert Rose and Dragon Thief short stories. If you haven't read those yet, go do so!

Enter to win a bookmark!


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I write like...

So there's the "I write like" site (http://iwl.me/) I've done it before, and it's told me Author Clarke. I decided to try it agian.

"A New Threat" still gives Arthur Clarke.

"Wings of Truth" gives Issac Asmoiv

"An Unwanted Apprentice" gives J.K Rowling. (Personally, I think this is because the site has never heard of Piers Xanthony....)

Blind Taste Test: Mountain Dew vs imitators

Blind Taste Test: Mountain Dew vs imitators

Mountain Dew is my favorite soft drink (around here, it's called pop, down south, soda. More on that here.)

Everyone knows that Mountain Dew is the best, right? Or do those commercials just make us think that. I mean, the only reason we buy off brand is because we can't afford the real thing, right?

Well, a few of us Mountain Dew lovers decided to find out. We did a blind taste-test.

Products Tested:

 

What was tested:

• Mountain Dew in a plastic bottle
• Mountain Dew in a can
• Mountain Dew Throwback in a can
• Mountain Dew Throwback in a glass bottle
• Diet Mountain Dew
• Rocky Mist (Meijer)
• Sun Drop
• Citrus Drop (Kroger)
• Moon Mist (Faygo)
• Mountain Lightning (Wal*Mart)
• Mello Yellow (Coca-Cola)
• Mountain Holler (Save A Lot)

Each of these is marketed as a competitor (or at least store-brand knock-off...) to Mountian Dew. But are they really any good?

The Method

My wife mixed up the order of the product, then poured the same amount of each of these into identical glasses, labeled A through L. None of the tasters was in the room when this happened.

After the samples were poured, we came back in to sample each product. Judging solely by taste, we had to rank the samples from Best, to Worst, in order. Bonus points if we could correctly identify a sample.

Our tasters were four males who's favorite drink was Mountain Dew. My Mom was also curious, so she tried them as well.

The Prediction:

Each of us pretty much expected the different Mountain Dew varieties to be clustered together at the top, with the wanna-bees trailing after... and diet Mountain Dew as dead last (None of us like diet soda.. at all. It was tossed in as a control worst.)

Is that what happened? Keep reading...

The Results:

This is why I love science. It's fun, sometimes surprising, and, in this case, tasty. The first thing we all noticed was the variation in color (very close, all yellow. All oddly packaged in green containers....). There are also variations in carbonation, cloudyness, and scent.

Oddly, there are flavor variations as well, from subtle, to drastic. At one point, I wasn't sure we'd have a clear winner. A lot of the samples did taste nearly identical, with a few standing out as pretty good, and a few we didn't like. These results did vary by person, though.



Fortunately, a clear winner did emerge. More on that later...


Here's the results for each taster. The key is down below. Remember, we didn't get to see what product each sample was until after we'd turned in a sheet with our picks.

Aaron	Joe	Benny	Phil	Ranee
C	C	C	E	C
K	H	F	C	I
E	D	J		G
D	J	E
J	E	D
L	K	I		H
H	I	B
G	G	A
I	A	G		F
B	F	K	F	D
F	B	L	K	B
A	L	H	H	L

Note: Un-ranked samples for Phil and Ranee were declared too close to call.

So, what were our mystery samples?

A. Rocky Mist (Meijer)
B. Sun Drop
C. Mountain Dew Throwback - can
D. Citrus Drop (Kroger)
E. Mountain Dew - plastic bottle
F. Moon Mist (Faygo)
G. Mountain Lightning (Wal-Mart)
H. Diet Mountain Dew - plastic bottle
I. Mountain Dew - can
J. Mountain Dew Throwback - glass bottle
K. Mello Yellow -  (Coca-Cola)
L. Mountain Holler - (Save A Lot)

So, we have a clear winner, Mountain Dew Throwback in a can!

But, which one was worst? At first glance, everything but the winner is all over the board. This is probably due to us drinking cheap pop too often. Or, possibly the imitators do a really good job. Also, the sample size for this study is very small, and taste is a subjective thing too. Also, we're not trained tasting scientists, just average Mountain Dew fans.

The weirdest result is that diet Mountain Dew came out about in the middle of the pack. Remember, all our tasters hate diet pop. (It's that nasty aspartame aftertaste.) We all commented that it was very different from all the other samples, but not bad. A few moments later most of us were able to identify it as diet. And yet, it still only ranked dead last on one taster's list.

Let's assign points to each product, then add the points together, and see if that gets us some more useful data. Like in golf, a low score is better here. If a taster ranked it as their number one pick, it gets one point, if they ranked it their worst, it gets 12 points. With five tasters, the best possible score is 5, worst is 60.

Product	Points
Mountain Dew Throwback - can	6
Mountain Dew - plastic bottle	19
Mountain Dew Throwback - glass bottle	24
Citrus Drop (Kroger)	28
Mountain Dew - can	30
Diet Mountain Dew - plastic bottle	33
Mountain Lightning (Wal-Mart)	34
Mello Yellow -  (Coca-Cola)	35
Rocky Mist (Meijer)	41
Moon Mist (Faygo)	42
Sun Drop	45
Mountain Holler - (Save A Lot)	47

Or, in chart form:

Well, now we're a little closer to our prediction, but you can see that the small sample size does some interesting things to the bottom and middle ranked contenders.

I also wish that I'd been able to find Mountain Dew Throwback in a plastic bottle. At the beginning of the test, we all had our favorite storage medium, but weren't sure if it actually effected the taste or not. You can see from above that just by being in a can, Mountain Dew got bumped down out of the pack from the other Dew. Of the four of us that state that Dew is our preferred beverage, canned Dew was at exactly in the middle of the pack. Only the tester that likes, but does not prefer, Dew, gave canned Dew a bump up. Just being stored in plastic bumped Dew up four rankings. That's got me wondering if Throwback in plastic might just be the best beverage ever. Only one tester ranked Throwback in a can as a number two, and he vacillated a bit.

Note however, that this may be co-incidence, as the small sample size is throwing results here, as well. One tester rated Dew in plastic as number one. No one else rated it as a one, or a two, but it did get a three, four, five, and six.

I also regret not being able to test more product in glass. It's just not available. Note that Dew imitators were only tested in plastic, two-liter bottles. It was hard enough ranking these... (and that'd add more expense.) We can see from the data that we do have that, though packaging does effect flavor, the formula used effects it more.

Another conclusion is that Pepsi shouldn't have switched from cane sugar to High Fructose Corn Syrup in the late 80's/early 90's. (For those that live in a hole in the ground, that's what's different about Throwback. It uses real cane sugar.)

I'm sure there's stuff I've done wrong in the above. Feel free to point it out to me in the comments (nicely!)

Do you like Mountain Dew? Prefer one brand/package/variety over another? Are you sure you do, or is it all in your mind? Feel free to try this experiment at home. Test your friends. Let me know what you find out!

Book Review: Son of Truth

I just finished Son of Truth, the eagerly awaited sequel to Morgan Busse's Daughter of Light.

The sequel starts out right where Daughter of Light left off. Nierne's story continues as she her situation gets even worse. Caleb struggles with what happened to him in the first book.
We get a tensy bit of romance, but Lore and Rowan are... well, not much happens here yet...

Spoilers ahead. 

You've been warned... If you don't want the spoilers, my over-all take is: if you haven't bought this already, wait for book three, then read the whole series in one sitting.










(scroll down)










The Good:
The story picks up right where Daughter of Light left off, and picks up on all the loose ends from that book. Well, if you can call it a loose end if it's an over-arching plot threat meant to span multiple books in a series. I don't.
This is a great story, and it's shaping up to be a great series.

The Bad:
When all's said and done, not much happens in this whole book. Sure, it's a great read, I stayed interested until the end (more on that later), and it did follow up on plot threads, but that's about it. Not much happens in the whole book, except getting characters in place for book three. Granted, we need this to happen, and the character development is great, but still.
In the first book, we have introductions, characters get into position, and world-changing things happen, then the end. In Son of Truth, we have just the first two things.

The ending. Oh my. I was reading along, flipped the page.... and it was over. The whole book is awful things happen to Nierne (how does one pronounce that, anyway?), Calab tries to figure out what how to be a good guy, awful things happen to Rowen, Lore finally arrives, then everyone heads off (via different means) to fight the big bad first mentioned in book 1... then it ends... That's right... it ends with everyone in transit.

I think the problem here is that there are basically two ways to write a series of books (well, probably more, but they boil down to two.):

1. Stand alone books with over-arching themes, characters, etc.
2. Basically one big book broken into parts.

I'm a big fan of the first type, and really only like the second type if I discover the series after it's all been written. I don't like reading part of a story, then waiting FOREVER for the rest to come out.

I also think the only reason the second type of series exists is because people try to imitate Tolkien. The problem is that The Lord of the Rings was written as one book. The only reason it's three books is because it wasn't physically possible publish that big of a book in one volume (still isn't, in most cases...)
It's purely my opinion, but I feel that this type of series also encourages sloppy writing. It's possible to get the same characterization and plotting for most of these types of series in about half the amount of books.

I don't really know what to rate this. I'd give it a three just for the ending and lack of goings-ons... but then I really did enjoy every minute of reading it. I think I'm going to rate this whole series as one big book (and in the future, re-read it as such.) In that case, I give the series over-all a 4, with the possibility of moving to a five, depending on what happens.

I'm going to keep an eye on this series, and not review any more books in it until the series has ended, then re-read it in one big chunk and rate it as such. This might be a bit of an odd way to do it, but thinking about it, it's what I've done with The Lord of the Rings. I'd give that series a five, but each of the individual books (except book three) only gets three stars. Book one started very slow, and nothing really happened in book two (sound familiar? ;) ), and book three got a four. Yet, taken together, the whole series was.... well, it created it's own genre (with an assist from Chronicles of Narnia...)