Alternate Angles: A Review of Blade of Dream, by Daniel Abraham

            Traditionally, writing a sequel requires a simple setup.  The author is continuing the story that began in the first book, most of the time following the same character, and sometimes introducing new point-of-view characters to expand the story and setting.  Sometimes, audiences will be treated to a more experimental take on the sequel.  Maybe the story is set in the same world, but features different characters in a different setting.  Maybe there is an intense time jump, where the status quo between books has changed drastically.  Or, very rarely, you find a story that is set in the same location, during the same period of time, just featuring different characters and a different perspective.  However, this unique style is not without risk.

Genre Tropes: A Review of Just Stab Me Now, by Jill Bearup

            One of the many tools of writing is the humble trope.  Commonly misunderstood, tropes are plot structures, themes, storylines, character traits, plot devices, or motifs that reoccur in all stories, whether the author intentionally includes them or not.  The term “trope” is sometimes used like a bad word when describing a story, but a trope existing in a story has no bearing on the quality or level of enjoyment to be had.  A mad scientist appearing in a science-fiction story is a trope.  In a fantasy setting, the characters may have to fight a dragon.  In romance novels, the main love interests may be forced to share a bed or cuddle by a fire.  Tropes are tools, and great authors can use these tools to tell great stories.  Sometimes, that means integrated the tropes at their most basic level, and sometimes that means inverting them and playing with their readers expectations.

Old Laws: A Review of The Narrow Road Between Desires, by Patrick Rothfuss

            Realism in a work of fiction is only as good as the book’s world building.  It is a common misconception that realism in fiction means that the events of the story, the characters, or the societal layout are comparable to that of our real world.  Realism in fiction is a measure of how real the author is able to make their fictional world feel to the reader.  A high fantasy story with dragons, magic, and faeries can be plenty realistic.  As long as the story and the world following the internal rules as set up by the author.  A story in which the internal rules the characters must follow are totally alien to our real world can still be called realistic if the rules are consistent and apply equally across all characters.  If the rules make sense to the fictional world, it is realistic enough.

Reading Nook: A Review of Bookshops & Bonedust, by Travis Baldree

            Transformation is an essential part of a good character arc.  In fiction, there are two types of characters: static and dynamic.  Static characters do not fundamentally change over the course of the story.  They may still encounter conflict, resolve plot, and develop relationships with the other characters, but they will essentially be the same person at the end of the tale as they were at the beginning.  It is very, very hard to write a static character well.  The vast majority of characters are dynamic, meaning they experience change, growth, and transformation throughout the story.  They meet other characters and are changed by those encounters, friendships, and conflicts.  They are a fundamentally different person at the end than they were at the beginning.  For most readers, we want to see characters change.  We want to see them grow and mature as they experience life.  Sometimes, that means overcoming trauma or defeating bad guys.  And, other times, it means learning that the world is much larger than they had realized.

Chosen Family: A Review of Magic by Any Other Name, by Alison Levy

            “Blood is thicker than water.”  For many people, this is a phrase meaning that nothing is stronger than familiar bonds.  That your blood bonds are the most important thing in the world, and will last longer than any bonds created with friends or loved ones.  This is also one of the most common misquotes in the English language, a phrase so poorly misquoted that its entire meaning has been changed.  The correct phrase is, “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.”  By simply filling in the missing words, the entire meaning of the aphorism changes in its entirety.  To be direct, the true meaning of this phrase is that the relationships you create, the bonds you choose, are stronger and more important than the familial relations that are forced upon you.  No one chooses the family to which they are born.  But we can choose the people we wish to spend our time with and share our lives with.  The idea of found family has long been an iconic trope in fiction, and it resonates with so many readers who struggle with problematic or abusive families in the real world.  By seeing fictional characters breaking free of those watery bonds and choosing to create covenants, readers can find hope for their own lives.

            Thank you to Books Forward for providing an advanced copy of Magic by Any Other Name, by Alison Levy, for this review. Magic by Any Other Name is out tomorrow, November 7th, wherever books are sold.

Forged Heroes: A Review of Bound by Sword and Spirit, by Andrea Robertson

            Everyone loves a hero, and stories about heroes saving the world continue to be the most common story there is.  There is something romantic and hopeful about experiencing a tale where the good guys beat the bad guys, save the world, and are allowed to go home at the end of the day.  Sometimes authors explore what it means to be a hero, or examine the idea that there are no true heroes in the world.  But, as intriguing as stories like that can be, audiences still crave classic heroic fiction.  But there is a caveat to making a hero story interesting and engaging, capable of standing the test of time.  We want to sympathize and relate to the hero, and with the idea that no one is born a hero.  Rather, anyone can choose to do the right thing and make themselves into a hero.

Strive for Freedom: A Review of Savage Crowns and the Savage Rebellion Trilogy, by Matt Wallace

            Sometimes a story arrives that just takes you on a ride from the beginning to the finale, and you are almost sad when the ride finally stops and you have to put the book down.  Which is really just the sign of a well-crafted story.  Characters you want to follow across the pages, a world that feels real and lived in, and a plot that hooks you from page one and never lets you go.  In so many ways, the Savage Rebellion trilogy by Matt Wallace is one of those stories.  Once the plot starts moving, it does not stop, while allowing the characters to breath and grow between crises.  Writing it in the present tense, an unusual choice for a novel, certainly brings an element of urgency as it feels like events are happening to the characters in real time.  As soon as you put down one book, you want to immediately pick up the next and continue the story.  However, the trilogy has finally come to an end with the latest novel, Savage Crowns.

            Thank you to Simon & Schuster for providing an advanced copy of Savage Crowns, as well as Savage Legion and Savage Bounty for this review. Savage Crowns is out now, June 13^th, wherever books are sold.

Land of Fabrication: A Review of The Lies of the Ajungo, by Moses Ose Utomi

            Civilizations are built on a certain degree of falsehood, shared beliefs that allow a society to function.  Laws, currency, national identify—these are all creations of the human mind that are not based as much in reality as they are in a need to keep everyone living alongside one another.  However, sometimes that fabrication is taken to an extreme in order to control a populace.  This has been a favorite subject in literature for as long as there has been literature.  We love stories where lies are exposed and truths are uncovered.  Sometimes this is a joyous occasion, but, more often than not, this type of plot lends itself to tragedy.  Either the truth is too harsh for the world, or our heroes fail to expose the whole truth, or they give their lives in the service of their mission.

Eat. Dance. Fight.: A Review of Daughters of Oduma, by Moses Ose Utomi

            Young adult fiction is one of the cornerstones of the literary world and, too often, gets a bit of a bad rap.  At one time, YA fiction dominated the market.  Books turned into series, which turned into best-sellers, which turned into the sale of movie rights and the establishment of franchises.  But then, something happened.  The established authors lost their footing, and cast a black mark which affected new authors as well.  At its core, YA fiction simply means books that are aimed at readers between the ages of 12 and 18.  However, there have come certain tropes and plot points that readers now associate with this broad category, which can contain every genre in existence, for it is not a genre in itself: it is a target audience.  To truly succeed in this area, the story needs to be something different than what came before.  It needs to take risks, to break from the established formula, and, above all, it needs to treat its target readers like actual people rather than the bundle of stereotypes some YA stories saw them as.

Postgrad: A Review of The Golden Enclaves, by Naomi NovikPostgrad:

            It can a difficult task to introduce an entire world or setting in a fiction novel, or really any fictional story medium.  We see the cracks especially in movies, when taking the time to fully immerse an audience in a world can end up slowing down the pace, while skipping over world-building can lend to a feeling that things do not make sense.  Books, on the other hand, allow for other options, specifically in a multi-book series, such as a trilogy.  Some series, such as Naomi Novik’s Scholomance trilogy, take the path of keeping the setting relatively contained at first, then opening up the world to the readers and characters as a payoff after spending so much time immersed in a single locale.