Author: RFG

SPSFC: My allocations

Within each judging team for SPSFC there are roughly thirty (30) books assigned as their ‘slush pile’ and teams with multiple members then split the pile between them to begin reading. In Wayward Stars we have split things so that every book is read by at least two people. We aim to read 20% of each book and decide whether it’s one to continue as a full group or not. Below are my ten (10) from the slush pile.

Sunborn by Kenneth Buff

Sudden Death by L.L. Richman

Viral by Tony Bennett

The Nothing Within by Andy Giesler

Across the Broken Stars by Jed Herne

Aztra’s Mirror by Charles Freedom Long

The Tide Will Erase All by Justin Hellstrom

Titan Hoppers by Rob J. Hayes

Pallas Lost by Jake Morrison

The Sequence by Lucien Telford

Some of these have their covers put forward into the people’s vote for the cover contest (see my previous post for a link to that). They spread over a variety of sub-genres, from military to sci-fantasy to weird to horror and I’m excited to get reading. I have high hopes for some of these.

I am not sure exactly what I will be posting during phase one as I don’t want anyone to misinterpret my positive or negative feelings as any guarantee of anything in relation to the competition. Remembering it’s not just me who is reading these books. Judges are asked to vote on each book with a Yes/No/Not-My-Style – Yes means we think the full team should read it in entirety; No means we don’t recommend it to the team for further reading; Not My Style means exactly what you think. Fingers cross I get a few ‘Yes’ out of this bunch!

31st August 2022
SPSFC 2: Intro

As I mentioned in my last post, I have joined up with some fellow book bloggers as a judging team for SPSFC 2! What is it though? It is a competition (free to enter) for self-published sci-fi novels, where 300 are whittled down to one winner. It’s the same format as Mark Lawrence’s SPFBO and is run/organised by Hugh Howey and Duncan Swan. There are 10 teams of judges, we each get a selection of books to read and recommend; then we later swap our top 3 with other teams until there’s a group of finalists. For full details, please check out the official site here.

We are team Wayward Stars and Jamedi put together a post over on his site to introduce the team: https://vueltaspodcast.wordpress.com/2022/08/19/introducing-wayward-stars-spsfc2/

He has also handily put together a Goodreads’ shelf including all of our team’s phase one slush pile: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/179207.SPSFC2_Wayward_Stars

Before reading officially begins all teams were asked to put forward 10 covers from their allocation for the Cover Contest, which is now open for public votes! Check out the covers and rate them online here: https://pollunit.com/polls/l5bh0v3k1tetxl-4ja0r4a

That’s all for this quick introduction to the contest – I will be back soon to show you my list of allocations for phase one.

Take care & keep reading!

28th August 2022
Breaking the Silence

I feel like every year I have to make one of these entries where I explain my absence and the quietness of the blog. This time I think I have a valid excuse or two.

Earlier in the year I joined Grimdark Magazine‘s online reviewer team and BookNest.eu‘s and agreed to do reviews for Black Dragon Books too. In an effort not to cross-post and detract from those sites, I haven’t been putting any of those review on here. I’ve also been working with team BookNest to read and review for Phase One of SPFBO 8 and so all of those have been on BN’s site. I have one book left to read and review for that.

Also, after I had COVID in March and a family bereavement in April I had a pretty prolonged reading slump, which peaked in June when I finished absolutely nothing. Indie Accords and The SFF Oasis Bingo readathons both encouraged me and I picked up the pace a little. While I still have quite a few buddy reads I missed and new releases sitting eye-balling me from the shelves, it’s a step in the right direction.

In amongst all that I was also finishing off my Master’s thesis, which I submitted on 31st July so getting that finished off has opened up my time too. I am debating turning some of it into a book proposal so that might re-absorb some of my time at some point in the future.

Hopefully I will be back to posting here a little more often as I am on team Wayward Stars for SPSFC 2! This will mean, as we are all separate entities with separate blogs, I’ll be talking about my reads on here and linking to the rest of the team’s posts. I will do another post shortly with more on SPSFC. Until then, happy reading!

22nd August 2022
‘Hands Like Secrets’ tour: Mariah Norris Interview

Welcome back to another stop for Escapist Tours! This time we’re celebrating Hands Like Secrets from Mariah Norris that was released earlier this month by Shadow Spark Publishing. I’ve had the pleasure interviewing Mariah for my stop on the tour where we talk about worldbuilding with diverse characters, designing festivals and the need for more cats in Fantasy!

Hands Like Secrets is the first instalment of The Seven Strands, a new adult epic fantasy series that follows a young autistic woman who joins an assassin on a hunt across worlds for a god-killing immortal. Along the way, she’ll have to come to terms with love, loss, betrayal, and the shifting nature of good and evil itself.

Mariah Norris

Interview with Mariah Norris

Rai (R): Hands Like Secrets is your debut, how does it feel having a novel out in the world?

Mariah (MN): Surreal…especially since this particular novel is the first I ever wrote from start to finish, twelve years ago. If I’m being honest, this wasn’t the one I thought would get published first, which is why I’m so glad that Shadow Spark saw this story’s potential and wanted to pick it up.

R: The cast of characters features some diversity – a non-binary character, a neurodiverse character, an asexual and a bisexual – how did you like writing these characters?

MN: Very much. Hands Like Secrets was one of several early stories I wrote and ended up going back to later, in order to take a good look at each character and ask myself, “Okay, but what if they were ____, how would that make their arc more satisfying?” It’s neat to add layers and see how they shift the decisions a character makes and how they move through their world.

I’m always a little nervous about getting the representation right, but I think as long as I do my research and hold these characters in my mind as people who are not entirely defined by any one thing, they will come across in a way that’s authentic.

R: In a world other than our own, how did you get around differences in language for describing these diverse characters and their identities? Was that a tough process?

MN: To me, it was a lot like any other worldbuilding. I had to place myself in the world and think the way these people thought…how would they describe, for example, someone who’s gay versus someone who’s straight? I ended up with these almost clinical descriptions: opposite-gender attracted, same-gender attracted, and then I reduced those to the acronyms OGA and SGA. The students at Aschamon already shortened “High Priestess” to “HP” in casual conversation, so it made sense that other acronyms would also be in use.

I had characters descriptively talk around specific terms like non-binary, asexual, and autistic, my reasoning being that if the world doesn’t have a word for it, then neither would they. I didn’t want to resort to making up a fantasy word for a real-world phenomenon and then have to use more words to explain what that word meant. Ideally, my job is to show what’s happening in the character’s head, and the reader will assign the appropriate word to it….or not. To me, the term is not as important as the lived experience of the character.

It was also helpful to consider how certain words (or lack of words) could be reflective of the cultures’ larger views, and how those views might coincide with or diverge from our society’s views. For example, I couldn’t think of a way to incorporate bisexual students into the Aschamon dorm setup…so I decided Mantle culture does not recognize bisexuality as a thing, and that this will likely cause problems down the road.

R: If you could design a festival line-up to fit the vibe of the book, who would be your headline acts?

MN: The Birthday Massacre and Within Temptation would have to co-headline. Evanescence, AFI, Red, and Breaking Benjamin would also be there. There would likely be wine vendors and a lot of lighters.

R: Finally, a little more whimsical, as a fellow cat lover, how much does speculative fiction need more cats?

MN: There can never be enough cats in SFF. They already exist halfway between worlds anyway, staring at stuff only they can see. If the world of Verre hadn’t evolved reptiles and birds as the primary niches instead of mammals, there would have been cats all over Aschera 🙂

Many thanks to Mariah for answering my questions and to Escapist Tours for facilitating the tour! Don’t forget to check out Escapist Tour’s Twitter and Instagram for a chance to win a copy of Hands Like Secrets!

31st May 2022
Review: Gunmetal Gods

Gunmetal Gods by Zamil Akhtar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

NB: This review is also available on Black Dragon Books. Please consider using them for your SFF and Horror book purchases.

What use is winning if we lose everything in the process, even ourselves? This is the question that runs central to Gunmetal Gods by Zamil Akhtar. We see a war brought to the doors of Sirm; one that has been hundreds of years in the making led by a man, Micah, who is driven as much by vengeance as faith. On the other side, we have Kevah, a retired Janissary famed for his daring victory over a deadly mage ten years prior to the events in Gunmetal Gods. Both Kevah and Micah have lost loved ones, both have suffered and among all the parallels between them it is hard at the start of the book to know who to root for.

While the similarities between the two men continue throughout the book, the way they define themselves shows in their actions and after certain events, you’ll know which you’re meant to be backing. Nevertheless, Akhtar has done an amazing job at demonstrating how the two sides of any disagreement will make sense to those who are fighting over it.

There is loss and death in this story as well as love, friendship and hope. Where it differs from other dark fantasy I have read is in the systems of magic and gods, which is where Akhtar has let his imagination run wild. From Eldritch-looking, giant, physical gods, to goofy looking Kinn, the chicken-eagle-boy (you’ll see), there’s a lot that’s visually exciting to get your mind into with Gunmetal Gods.

This book took me by surprise quite a few times. I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy it as I’m not too fussed about Lovecraft, nor have I read much matchlock/flintlock fantasy. On both counts, my doubts were assuaged. The plot and pacing also surprised me a few times, bringing events that I was expecting to be end-of-book forward left me wondering where we’d go next: never was I disappointed. This is a well-written dark fantasy that will take you on a hell of a ride.

4 Stars

1st March 2022
Guest Post: L.L. MacRae on ‘Dragons: Friends or Enemies?’

As part of the Escapist Book Tour for The Iron Crown, I asked author, L.L. MacRae, for her thoughts on dragons.

Dragons.

Love them or loathe them, they’re a staple of the fantasy genre (and to be honest, one of my most favourite things in the world!).

Whether it’s a tiny, palm-sized dragon fiercely guarding a single gold coin (its entire hoard!), or a titanic behemoth whose wings blot out the sun, dragons inspire awe and wonder in equal measure. Even if they can be somewhat clichéd.

In early stories, they were usually some faceless threat that had to be defeated by a brave hero. From Humbaba being slain by Gilgamesh to Maleficent turning into an all-powerful green fire-breathing dragon end boss, or a major antagonist like Smaug, they were often painted as the enemy of people, or simply a natural obstacle that our protagonists had to overcome/outsmart/outright defeat.

There has been a shift in the reasoning for slaying dragons; something more than simply rescuing some poor princess. Now, they’re hunted for their scales/bones/blood—for use in magic spells, potions, alchemy etc.—or they are the perfect chance for an upcoming young warrior to prove themselves in a battle to the death.

Whatever the reason, dragons have a history of being humanity’s enemy.

But even as an enemy—be they nothing more than apex predators or worshipped as gods—dragons can either influence a story in a significant manner or be relegated to window dressing in the fantasy world.

Personally, I love when they impact the world, and in my own writing (Dragon Spirits series, World of Linaria series), this is very much the case! In fact, in The Iron Crown, the magic-drenched world of Tassar simply wouldn’t function without them!

I’m grateful that the time where dragons existed solely to be slain by the hero on their way to rescue a princess is over. Authors are discovering and adding more facets to their draconic stories, and these days you can find stories where they add far more to the plot, or even take centre stage as a character.

And these are the stories I love.

Far more interesting is when dragons impact the world—be it in a magical or ecological sense (Dragons of Terra by Brian Naslund is a great example), are shapeshifting, dominating creatures that run business empires (Heartstrikers series by Rachel Aaron excels at this), are more animal and naturalistic, with their own hierarchies and castes (E.E. Knight’s Age of Fire series), or are the classic animal companion (everything from His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novak to Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb, and countless books in between!)—when this happens, you know you’re in for a great read.

Dragons are a force to be reckoned with. Magical or not, they are powerful creatures in whatever format they appear, and this makes them formidable enemies allies when stories turn the “dragon/evil monster” trope upside down and explore new paths.

Friendly dragons—Haku (Spirited Away), Toothless (How To Train Your Dragon), Falkor (Neverending Story)—who befriend protagonists and aid them in their journeys, or help provide character growth and development, have created generations of dragon lovers (myself included)!

Sometimes, they are used as a trump card in violent conquest, such as Drogon/Viserion/Rhaegal (G.R.R.M.’s A Song of Ice and Fire), which leans more into their destructive, powerful nature, and reminds us that despite being on our side, they are still creatures deserving of respect.

Turning dragons into allies always makes for a great story, especially when authors delve into reasons why, and methods how. Whether it’s training wild dragons, bonding with and riding dragons, or even saving the “last” dragons to protect or save the world.

Dragon riding schools are just as exciting as magical schools, same as fighting atop the back of a dragon is just as thrilling as charging into battle as part of a larger army!

For me, stories where the motivations of a dragon are stronger than the, “angry monster to be eventually killed,” are far more interesting.

Of course, there are always dragons who are indifferent, too, and that’s another curve ball.

These dragons are simply an awesome force of nature, acting in their own interests, and see themselves above the petty disputes of people. Allying with dragons (even temporarily) can throw in brilliant twists to the story. Shenron (DBZ), a magical, wish-granting dragon, is just as likely to aid an antagonist as much as a protagonist, and cares very little for either side.

This indifference provides a unique flavour to any dragon, and thus makes the story more compelling any time they appear.

Whether they’re with people or against them, dragons add that special something to a fantasy story, and I adore them in all their alignment flavours.

P.S. I HIGHLY recommend every dragon mentioned in this post!

Lauren is a fantasy author of character-driven stories and epic adventure. Her books usually contain dragons, eclectic characters, and are typically fun and hopeful.

She lives in a tiny village in the UK, has a degree in Psychology, and was a professional copywriter before going full-time as an author—swapping corporate copy for magic and dragons!

She has previously published under the name L.L. McNeil.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20896392.L_L_MacRae
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/llmacrae
Twitter: https://twitter.com/_LLMacRae
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_llmacrae/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LLMacRaeAuthor

The Iron Crown, book one in the Dragon Spirits series, qualified as a finalist for SPFBO 7 and signed copies of The Iron Crown are available directly from MacRae’s site: https://llmacrae.com/shop/p/theironcrown or at The Broken Binding: https://www.thebrokenbinding.co.uk/product-page/the-iron-crown-l-l-macrae

22nd February 2022
Writing: Grasmere

For National Storytelling Week, the library at my university held a flash fiction competition for entries that were 100 words or under and inspired by the painting ‘Grasmere’ by George Fennel Robson. Below is my entry.

I left a piece of myself in Grasmere, atop Helm Crag to watch the Lion play on cloudless nights. To remember flying higher than kites and flowing through the world like a stream beneath the peaks. To see the jigsaws in the land and the lambs as they mow. Most of all, I left a piece to remember you, to remember us, as we ascended through madness and broke petty illusions. To hold our hearts in mind and memorise the strength we forged. I left a piece of us in Grasmere. [91 WORDS]

This was given second place in the competition and I won the prizes of a bookish t-shirt and two books! The t-shirt was from Out of Print and is inspired by Kafka’s Metamorphosis, the two books are Thin Air by Michelle Paver and The Therapist by B.A. Paris. I’m very pleased to have won second with this dinky little microfiction piece and hoping it’s a good sign for future writing.

Prizes: T-shirt and paperback books

20th February 2022
Review: Brave New World

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Brave New World was first published in 1932 by a man who was nominated for a Nobel Prize on nine separate occasions, so you can imagine that much of what can be said about Brave New World has already been said. It is used as set texts in school curricula and has had innumerable books, articles and research papers written about it. In context, this review is but a drop in the ocean. Nevertheless, I’ll do my best to express my thoughts on this, one of the top three dystopian classics.

I am always wary around titles that have been deemed ‘classics’ as history has taught me that I usually find them quite disappointing. There is an element of that here as my immediate thoughts upon finishing the book were to wonder if it were really a dystopian novel or just a philosophical thought-experiment from the 1930s. I found the treatment and portrayal of women in the book to be quite frustrating and very misogynistic. Huxley seems scared stiff of women and their potential for sexual liberation and so paints them in an damning light and punishes them terribly.

Huxley’s misogyny has been criticised and acknowledged on a much wider scale, for example, Higdon wrote that it plagued much of Huxley’s work pre-1931 and continues on to summarise exactly what I was feeling:

A careful consideration of Lenina’s attitudes, decisions, and actions shows that the overlay of misogyny careened Huxley into contradicting his ideas, into failing to see that Lenina is more heroic in her resistance to the Fordian world than are the men his narrative praises, and into taking an unearned and mean-spirited revenge on Lenina. In brief, Lenina’s resistance goes unnoticed in the novel because of the novel’s misogyny. (Higdon, 2002)

Higdon also brings in criticism from other scholars, including Deanna Madden:

…in an enlightening general discussion of misogyny in dystopias, Deanna Madden concludes that the men in Brave New World “have a spiritual dimension that the women lack … mired in the physical, the women interfere with or prevent the men from achieving spiritually” and that “Huxley’s misogyny has its obvious roots in a more general inability to accept the body.” (ibid.)

All this leads to bitter aftertaste from reading Brave New World but isn’t the only reason I didn’t get on with it.

Huxley attempts to paint a dystopian society as one that is anti-technology, anti-war, pro-happiness, pro-eugenics, pro-sexual freedom and pro-heteronormativity. It’s a complicated set of contradictory values, particularly when he introduces John the “Savage” from a reservation with no technology, plenty of violence, racism, zealotry and good-old misogyny. Both worlds in Huxley’s novel are unpleasant. Both are dystopias, but in Huxley’s rationalising we should want to live in the world with shame and violence because that’s were God lives. John’s moralising and evangelising are both ham-fisted and tedious. He has grown up in a world where his mother was an outcast who was beaten and slandered for her ‘promiscuity’; where John was an outcast because he was fair-haired and the son of the “she-dog”. Yet he believes his world is better because it contains God and Shakespeare. It’s not a convincing argument.

That is the main problem I have with Brave New World: none of it presents a convincing argument. In any direction. His “civilised society” is at odds with itself as he’s thrown all his own fears into the mix and with them his biases and illogical reasoning. The same thing is true of the “savage” society, which leaves the reader with no real side to settle on. The most sympathetic characters are the ones most maligned by the author (the women), so you find yourself constantly reading against the flow of the narrative.

Overall, yes, it was well-written for the time. It has tried to bring voice to the concerns of a rich, intellectual man in a time where a eugenics movement was taking hold in Britain, technology was advancing owing to the events of a World War, while the whole region was brewing towards another one. I can understand those fears in that context but Brave New World is not nearly as relevant today owing to it’s major flaws in both narrative and the values it espouses. For these reasons, I can’t give it a higher rating than I already have.

3 stars

References:

Higdon, David Leon. “The Provocations of Lenina in Huxley’s Brave New World.” International Fiction Review 29.1/2 (2002): 78-83.

17th February 2022
Review: Dreams of the Dying

Dreams of the Dying by Nicolas Lietzau
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Some of you may have spotted on Goodreads that I read Dreams of the Dying and never reviewed it. Don’t worry, I have reviewed it and a full and comprehensive review can be found at Grimdark Magazine, here: https://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/review-dreams-of-the-dying-by-nicolas-lietzau/

I’m very pleased and excited to say I’m joining the Grimdark reviewer team with this, my debut review!

13th February 2022
Writing: NYCMMF250 2021 – Round 2

Following on from my post with Round 1’s story, here is Round 2’s entry and feedback! Sadly, I didn’t advance into Round 3 but nevertheless I’m quite impressed I got as far as I did for my first attempt at any of NYC Midnight’s challenges. I hope to revisit this story and maybe expand it, and correct a couple of parts. My Round 2 prompts were:

Genre: Sci-fi
Action: Opening a refrigerator
Word: Tail

Welcome Home
by Rai Furniss-Greasley, 2021

Rin and Char were throwing a party to celebrate their new home planetside after years of juggling their relationship between two different ships. Rin was buzzing with a nervous excitement; her crew had been happy for her when she’d left but this would be the first time they’d met Char in person. She knew they were accepting of inter-species couples nevertheless she wanted them to like Char too.

Only two of Char’s younger siblings were coming. Their family didn’t approve of a relationship with a human and it had been a secret from their last crew. Char was a quiet, private sort and while they had a few good friends no one was close enough to their new home to make it for the party. Char didn’t mind, as long as Rin was happy.

They were both in their new kitchen preparing far too much food for their guests, Rin with stacks of covered dishes tottering towards the refrigeration unit. Hands full, she nodded towards the door,

“Would you?”

Char grinned, they were busy chopping ingredients but an ambulatory tail came in handy sometimes. They opened up the fridge and Rin half-placed, half-dropped the food onto the shelves with a clatter.

“Thank you, darling.” Rin beamed and came over behind Char to give her a hug. It felt so good to be together finally. Char wrapped her tail around Rin to hold her close as they turned away from the food to steal a kiss.

Judge’s Feedback

What the judge’s liked:

Judge A: The reader is drawn into the story by Rin and Char’s interspecies relationship. The closeness of the two characters is illustrated as the events unfold. Then that leads to the heartwarming ending.

Judge B: There are few things sweeter than two lovers cooking together in their new kitchen. I thought the simple gesture of opening the fridge door was a sweet, strong choice for a focal point in their interaction, really driving home their relationship’s kindness and mutual care.

Judge C: The acceptance of inter-species couples as a contested, complicated issue is a relatable parallel situation for any reader, which helps define a world otherwise different from reality in terms understandable to anyone.

What the judge’s feel needs work:

Judge A: To add to the overall impact of the story and clarity for the reader, consider being clear Rin is the human and indicating Char’s species early on. As an additional suggestion, consider adding another element of controversy with Char’s family. To find some additional word count for those things consider reviewing for low impact descriptive words/phrases to eliminate. Just as an example, the phrase “far too much” in the sentence that begins, “They were both in…”

Judge B: To me, the first half of the story took a little too long, compared to the party prep. I think that perhaps weaving the back story into the present moment would give readers an anchor point to move from right out the gate while still allowing for you to shine a light on the essential parts of their history.

Judge C: Though this is but a brief moment between Rin and Char as they prepare for their guests, drawing out their differences as two separate species, as they work together functionally, complementing each other to the increased benefit of their relationship as a whole, would help solidify the presented idea that love is love, and others’ opinions only tangentially matter. Char has a tail, and Rin is human, but how else are they different, and similar? More details could be expressed through the little actions they take while preparing for their guests.

10th February 2022