Early Poll Results and Future Changes

Although my polls about people’s favourite posts, least favourite posts and what they’d like to see more of in the future are only two days old, the early results are interesting.  None of them are truly shocking, but some were a little surprising.

Poll #1: What are your top 3 favourite posts on The Mad Reviewer?

You guys all shocked me by picking ‘rants’ as the number 1 favourite post here on my blog.  (Sarcasm)  I rant because I need to rant sometimes and because when I rant my statistics take an upward spike.  I also get far more comments and followers, so there is a little more incentive to vent.

The number 2 favourite type of post was surprising because it was Discussion posts.  In the beginning I didn’t really get many replies on these types of posts and would have actually discontinued them like my Spotlight feature if the last one hadn’t been so successful.  I’d still like people to engage with other commentors more, but it looks like Discussions are here to stay!

Book reviews was the #3 favourite, followed closely by non-ranty, informational articles.  Since I obviously have to do book reviews and I actually like not ranting sometimes, both are going to be continued.

Poll #2: What are your three least favourite posts?

I noticed that not as many people voted in this one as they did the first one, so I’m going to be an optimist and say that’s because they couldn’t pick three things about my blog to dislike (at least out of the options I had).

Tied for #1 least favourite are book blast posts for blog tours and my upcoming books posts.  I can completely understand the former, but the latter is interesting considering that while my regular readers aren’t so fond of such posts, I get quite a bit of search engine traffic from them.  I don’t think I’ll be doing them as often as I used to, but yes I’ll still be doing book tour posts.  Why?  Because I like doing book tours.

Guest posts came in a close second, surprisingly.  Which is interesting because every internet blog traffic expert says you should guest post a lot for your readers or to get more traffic to your own blog.  I don’t do many guest posts, so I don’t think I’ll be eliminating the ones I am doing anytime soon.

Spotlight, my now officially discontinued Saturday feature, is an unsurprising third.  I wasn’t really fond of that feature to begin with, but that was my try at doing a meme.  It seems you guys don’t like my feeble attempts at memes and I don’t particularly like writing them so let’s just pretend that never happened, shall we?

Poll #3: What would you like to see more of in the future?

Can you guess what #1 is this time?  Rants.  Why am I not surprised?  Believe me, I’m not going to stop ranting anytime soon.  There’s no need to worry.

To my eternal shock giveaways are the #2 answer.  (Again, sarcasm)  People like getting free stuff, so guess what?  I’m going to give away more free stuff in the next few months!  In September alone I’m doing one giveaway for sure plus another two possible giveaways.  The difference is that from now on instead of just doing straight giveaways with no background, all giveaways I do will be accompanied by an interview with the author.  So in the future if you see an interview with an author, there’s very likely going to be a giveaway to follow!

Tied for third is book reviews and reading challenges.  That’s actually more than a little surprising, at least in regards to the latter.  I’m pleased with the success of my current first reading challenge and I know that I’ll be doing another Mad Reviewer Reading and Reviewing Challenge for 2014.  But I think in conjunction with that one I may possibly do another one with more of a focus (i.e. read and review 12, 26 or 52 books in one genre).  I don’t like challenges that have reading lists, but I do like the idea of going for a focused challenge while also getting credited for my big, year long challenge.  We’ll see at the end of the year when I draw my winners.

You Are Mine by Janeal Falor

You Are Mine by Janeal Falor(Cover picture courtesy of Crash Boom Bang.)

Serena knows a few simple things. She will always be owned by a warlock. She will never have freedom. She will always do what her warlock wishes, regardless of how inane, frivolous, or cruel it is. And if she doesn’t follow the rules, she will be tarnished. Spelled to be bald, inked, and barren for the rest of her life—worth less than the shadow she casts.

Then her ownership is won by a barbarian from another country. With the uncertainty that comes from belonging to a new warlock, Serena questions if being tarnished is really worse than being owned by a barbarian, and tempts fate by breaking the rules. When he looks the other way instead of punishing her, she discovers a new world. The more she ventures into the forbidden, the more she learns of love and a freedom just out of reach. Serena longs for both. But in a society where women are only ever property, hoping for more could be deadly.

[Full disclosure: You Are Mine caught my eye on a blog a while back so I requested a review copy from Janeal Falor in exchange for an honest review.]

I thought this was going to be a wishy-washy romance with some good fantastic elements when I requested You Are Mine.  I was willing to ignore the romance in exchange for a well-developed world, but Janeal Falor completely blew away my expectations.  Trust me, the romantic elements don’t pan out like you expect them to.

Serena is one of those characters that you’re not sure how you feel about her in the beginning, but you learn to love her after the first few chapters or so.  What I like is that she rebels against a male-dominated society in her own ways and yet doesn’t go into stereotypical girl power mode that would be completely unbelievable considering her upbringing.  When you’ve been tortured by your own father for minor infractions like she has, you’re not exactly going to be ecstatic about marrying some wretched barbarian who killed your admittedly horrible intended.  Understandably, she’s more than a little terrified of Zade especially when he doesn’t punish/torture her like her father does even though he technically owns her and that kind of behaviour is expected of him as a warlock.

The plot of You Are Mine is not fast-paced, but that’s really not the point of the whole story.  I’d say this is more character-driven and that makes it a much better book than it would have been if it were plot-driven.  We get to intimately know the world of Chardonia through Serena’s eyes and get a little outsider perspective from Zade, the ‘barbarian’ foreigner.  I love how Zade really isn’t all that he appears to be and that his real character is revealed by the end of the novel.  It’s plot twists like that rather than crazy pacing that made me like You Are Mine.

Where do I start with the world-building?  The warlocks completely dominating women by making them less than human, the tarnished outcasts, the magic?  In short, Janeal Falor has created a patriarchal society that is both believable because of the power warlocks have and is terrifying because of how women are treated like property.  And of course warlocks are allowed to destroy their property any time they see fit, which leads to women being tarnished (aka hexed into being bald, tattooed and barren).  It’s a horrible society and you can definitely see why Serena acts the way she does around Zade even when it’s obvious to the reader that Zade isn’t like Serena’s sadistic father.

I thought that the plot dragged a little too much in some places (even if it was primarily character-driven), but that’s my only real complaint.  Other than that, Janeal Falor has written an amazing debut novel and I can’t wait to see more of her work in the future.  Especially with that huge cliffhanger ending!

I give this book 4.5/5 stars.

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Help Me Improve The Mad Reviewer

It’s been a while since I’ve done a survey of you guys, so I thought I’d do yet another one.  As always, writing a blog is a constant journey and you’re always finding ways to improve your readers’ experience.  When I look back at some of the early posts and reviews I did it’s a wonder I got as many followers as I did.  Yet I feel I’ve improved over time and have found ways to add new blog features without changing The Mad Reviewer all that much.

I digress, as usual.  Basically, if you’ve taken the time to read that reflective paragraph, please take the time to answer these questions so I can improve your blog-reading experience:

Just as a note if you voted and feel comfortable discussing your choices, I would definitely love to hear the reasons why you voted the way you did.

King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence

King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence(Cover picture courtesy of The Streetlight Reader.)

To reach greatness you must step on bodies, and many brothers lie trodden in my wake. I’ve walked from pawn to player and I’ll win this game of ours, though the cost of it may drown the world in blood…

The land burns with the fires of a hundred battles as lords and petty kings fight for the Broken Empire. The long road to avenge the slaughter of his mother and brother has shown Prince Honorous Jorg Ancrath the hidden hands behind this endless war. He saw the game and vowed to sweep the board. First though he must gather his own pieces, learn the rules of play, and discover how to break them.

A six nation army, twenty thousand strong, marches toward Jorg’s gates, led by a champion beloved of the people. Every decent man prays this shining hero will unite the empire and heal its wounds. Every omen says he will. Every good king knows to bend the knee in the face of overwhelming odds, if only to save their people and their lands. But King Jorg is not a good king.

Faced by an enemy many times his strength Jorg knows that he cannot win a fair fight. But playing fair was never part of Jorg’s game plan.

I believe I said this before, but it bears repeating: Jorg is like Genghis Khan if he’d gotten started on the whole conquering business in his teen years.  Trust me, King of Thorns and the whole of The Broken Empire trilogy is brutal in terms of blood, guts and gore.  It’s not for the faint of heart.

With that said, I still love Jorg as a character.  Mark Lawrence has managed to create a character that is far from sympathetic, but is more empathetic.  Readers get an in-depth understanding of who Jorg is and why he is the way he is, but it’s hard to feel sorry for him very often.  Rather, he’s an interesting character so you can’t help but keep on reading to find out what happens to him.  Although the narrative was a little more disjointed, you can certainly tell how Jorg has changed from the first book now that he’s eighteen years old.  Is he any less ruthless?  No.  But he does feel at least a little sympathy for some human beings by this point.

My only complaint about King of Thorns is the disjointed narrative.  We get treated to excerpts from Katherine’s diary, Jorg’s point of view four years ago immediately after the events of Prince of Thorns and the current wedding day/battle.  During each of these points in the narrative there are flashbacks within the flashbacks, so I admit it did get a little confusing.  Could Mark Lawrence have written this in a better way?  Probably.  Does it still work out?  Yes.  The plot is tied up nicely by the final battle and even though Jorg has changed, his last main action at the end of the novel is so completely in character you can’t help but laugh.  Then again, maybe you won’t because I personally have a morbid sense of humour.

What I really liked about this second book in the trilogy is that Jorg is an even better character than before, but also that we got to see more of his world.  This post-apocalyptic quasi-Medieval world is absolutely fascinating!  You can tell Mark Lawrence really put effort into world-building because we get all kinds of subtle hints at the events that brought along the apocalypse as well as how it changed the world.  I don’t want to give things away, but from the sounds of the Builders and the political strife that occurred after their fall it’s no wonder Jorg is the way he is.  It’s a brutal, cruel world and seemingly good men like the Prince of Arrow are swallowed up by it.

Overall, I absolutely loved King of Thorns.  It was fast-paced if a little disjointed at times, the characters acquired more depth and the world-building was expanded upon.  If you like dark fantasy/post-apocalyptic fiction you’ll love The Broken Empire trilogy.

I give this book 4.5/5 stars.

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The Devil Incarnate by Jill Braden

The Devil Incarnate by Jill Braden(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

There’s no rest for the wicked… especially the Devil.

While QuiTai recovers from her last adventure, Levapur is turning into a police state. The Ponongese are pushed to the brink of rebellion against their colonial masters, the Thampurians – but who is behind it, and why? As the new Devil, QuiTai must wield her power and use her brilliant mind to outsmart her mysterious nemesis before a bloody uprising erupts.

[Full disclosure: After seeing that I loved The Devil’s Concubine so much after reviewing it for NetGalley, Jill Braden’s editor contacted me and sent me a free paperback copy of this second book in exchange for an honest review.]

After The Devil’s Concubine was so good, could The Devil Incarnate live up to my expectations?  Or would it suffer from the dreaded Book 2 Syndrome?

Once again, Jill Braden blew away my expectations.  I won’t say that the second book in the series was any better or worse than the first book, but it was certainly different.  Different in a good way.  In this second book, there was a much bigger focus on the world of QuiTai in regards to the geography as well as the history.  We get to learn so much more about how Ponong was conquered by the Thampurians as well as QuiTai’s life before becoming the Devil’s concubine as we met her in the first book.  The thing with this backstory is that it’s spread all throughout the book so I didn’t feel overwhelmed at any point in time.

Of course we have our old favourite character QuiTai and Kyam, who spend most of their time apart in this book.  Consequently, we’re introduced to a lot of interesting new characters both directly and indirectly like Grandfather Zul (Kyam’s grandfather), Ma’am Thun and Lizzriat.  Each of these new characters have very different personalities, motivations and backgrounds so they add to the overall plot rather than just existing so the main characters have someone to talk to.

The thing that constantly impresses me about The Devil of Ponong series is the beautiful imagery Jill Braden uses.  When QuiTai roams the streets of Levapur, I feel like I’m there.  I can feel the hot, humid air as she strolls among her people and Thampurians; I can taste the rice and see QuiTai stumbling along in her Thampurian disguise on her way to The Dragon Pearl.  Since Jill Braden chose to write a fantasy set in a non-Eurocentric world, she really did need to convey the completely different atmosphere of tropical climates and cultures.  She most definitely succeeded in that regard.

As always with her writing, I never saw her plot twists coming.  Especially the huge one regarding poor Kyam at the end and QuiTai’s secret victory over her new nemesis.  The plot was a little slower in this book than in the first one, but there’s no point where it really drags, even in the middle.  Instead, Jill Braden chose to slowly ratchet up the tension and wrote from a few different points of view to give us a glimpse at the larger politics taking place on Ponong.  It kept me up reading into the early morning hours, at any rate.

I’m constantly impressed with Jill Braden’s writing and still can’t believe that this is her first published series.  Her third book, Tempt the Devil isn’t out yet but I can’t wait to see her writing improve even more.  If you’re looking for non-traditional fantasy, this is definitely the series for you and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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