Over the past month or so I have been really enjoying David Wellington’s Thirteen Bullets, a serial novel being published via RSS. With the impending release of his novel Monster Island, Backstory gives him a chance to voice his inspiration for writing it. If you like action packed horror Wellington is definitely worth reading as his writing is crisp and his characters flawed and believable. Good stuff.
Tag Archive for 'Books'
Often I think my sister is too generous in her praise, likely she is stroking my ego and bolstering my confidence as recently she floated the idea that maybe I should seriously pursue my dream of writing and pontificating on a more serious and hopefully paid basis. I, however, have no illusions about my talent as a wordsmith and do not see that as a viable venture beyond thinking about it in that smiling twilight state just before sleep. If I had any illusions about my success the recent write up about profit and loss in the publishing industry, “P&Ls and how books make (or don’t) money: part the first: the mass market original complete failure“, will anchor me to reality, especially when read with “The life expectancies of books” which will remind any aspiring or working author that the memory of your works will fade quicker than O-Town’s last single. [For those of you playing at home it was "I Showed Her" from their sophomore follow-up, 02, and yes it sucked but it's O-Town. What did you expect?]
Don’t get me wrong, I certainly think it is commendable that there are people willing to take the plunge and make their livelihood off writing–those people have a greater drive and are less risk averse than I. For me, it is a nice fantasy to have in that I really do enjoy writing and the sites have given me an outlet and an opportunity to think critically and creatively, something I was sorely lacking after I finished grad school. But writing for a living takes a thick skin and a will to see your product through to the end. I get distracted easily, often running after the next shiny thing that glints in the corner of my eye–never did find a way to reign that monkey in–so the idea of a steady flow of income being dependent on my attention span is a frightening notion.
I would like to branch out into more creative writing and I did try that briefly here but scrapped it before long for a lack of time and focus. The GMing experience sort of dredged up the desire again and got me thinking about how I might do it with an eye on keeping things short, tight, and focused. I’m at a loss though seeing as my workdays are long and my nights even longer, finding time to grind out three reviews at Pop and a handful of posts here is challenge enough let alone pounding out short stories as well. However, if it is something that I want to try I really should at least make an effort to even capture scraps of thought and ideas. Letting them flit away seems like such a waste.
Maybe I’ll return to the more creative aspects to 0.333, as long as my attention can remain focused long enough. It was exhilarating conceptualizing a world filled with characters and intersecting plotlines while I briefly GMed, which if anything showed me that I’d would make a better writer than GM–focus thing again. So I suppose I should thank my sister for the gentle kick in the pants to think a little bigger than I normally do but I won’t be quitting my day job anytime too soon.
Conceptually, I loved this book. The notion that high technology could offer portals into alternate universes where science was magic and that millennia would pass by in seconds is an intoxicating blend. However, where things fell short in execution was in the overall layout of the narrative.
The main tale spans some fifty plus years twining about the lives of three main protagonists and several peripheral characters all the while straddling a world of high fantasy while dipping its toe into the realm of science fiction. The trouble is that this grand narrative sweeps over on a scant 600+ pages which means that Franklin is darting through time, often making leaps of a decade or more. The leaps, in of themselves, are not a bad narrative device but I was left with the feeling that I was losing out on the background of the characters. What were they doing? What was shaping them, driving their motivations, or crippling them with inhibitions? It removes the reader from the evolution of each character and in the end reduces their personality to something less than paper thin.
Overall, I enjoyed the Taormin but was left with the feeling that Franklin should have taken more time to explore the narrative of each character. In particular those from the science fiction setting who presence at the start of the second half was jarring only to have the memory of them fade until the very last few pages where she introduced some of more mind twisting concepts about the actual reality of the world she had put into words. If you can track it down pick it up as it is a solid read and a good way to pass the time and I do sincerely hope to see more of her work in the future.
