Shift by Kim Curran

(Cover picture courtesy of Iceberg Ink.)

When your average, 16-year old loser, Scott Tyler, meets the beautiful and mysterious Aubrey Jones, he learns he’s not so average after all. He’s a ‘Shifter’. And that means he has the power to undo any decision he’s ever made. At first, he thinks the power to shift is pretty cool. But as his world quickly starts to unravel around him he realises that each time he uses his power, it has consequences; terrible unforeseen consequences. Shifting is going to get him killed. In a world where everything can change with a thought, Scott has to decide where he stands.

[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]

I honestly don’t know how this book could have gone wrong, but I just couldn’t get into it.  The premise was fascinating and well executed and the plot was reliably fast-paced throughout the entire novel.  Shift had the potential to be an absolutely amazing book, but it was the characters that fell flat for me.

Scott is your average YA protagonist: he accidentally stumbles upon his powers, is seen by someone with the same powers and is taken to a secret location to learn about them, only to discover that he is more powerful than most people with the same powers.  Without spoiling much more of the plot, let’s just say I could predict most of his actions throughout the novel, which I don’t like to be able to do as characters should surprise readers once in a while.  Of course, since it’s a girl that finds him, you know that they’re going to fall in love eventually.  Aubrey is another cardboard cutout and the other characters in the novel really aren’t much better.

However, I absolutely love the explanation for why and how shifting occurs.  Kim Curran has actually taken the time to come up with a believable, scientific explanation rather than just saying that it’s magic and leaving it at that.  She also wrote a very fast-paced novel, which somewhat makes up for her poor characterization.  If Shift had not been fast-paced, I never would have been able to finish it.

I give this book 3.5/5 stars.

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The Best and Worst of June

Well, it’s that time of month again.  The time for the recap of my 5 best and 5 worst posts of June.  The statistics are wildly different than they were when I did my May recap, as you’ll notice.  So here are the five best articles, not counting my homepage or site announcements.

1.  Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

2.  The Giver by Lois Lowry

3.  The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome

4.  City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

5.  The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

It’s hard to believe The Giver is right up there because school’s been out in America for a month, which is where most of my traffic comes from.  But what’s really surprising is that The White Queen cracked the list while The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome article fell to third place.  Now, here are the surprising five worst articles of June:

1.  Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

2. YA Release Dates to Look Forward To

3.  Skinned by Robin Wasserman

4.  Graceling by Kristin Cashore

5.  Isabel: Jewel of Castilla by Carolyn Meyer

What’s surprising about the five worst articles and book reviews is that not one of them appeared on my May list, which means that the worst articles are at least rotating every month.  However, I’m surprised none of the Pauline Gedge books appear on the list because she’s not exactly a well-known author outside of historical fiction circles.  C’est la vie.

Another Book Reviewing Milestone

So not only is today Canada Day, it’s also the day I’m posting my 150th book review!  Seraphina by Rachel Hartman is definitely a book worthy of the #150 title because Rachel Hartman is an amazing debut novelist who’s Canadian.  Well, I didn’t think I’d make it to 50 reviews, let alone 150, but here I am at 150 and with no plans of quitting.  So let’s drink (Coca-Cola since I don’t drink alcohol) to 150 book reviews now and hopefully at least 150 book reviews more.  And I propose another toast to you, my amazing readers, for getting me through the tough times and encouraging me to keep posting.

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

(Cover picture courtesy of Rachel Hartman’s website.)

Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend the court as ambassadors and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty’s anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.

Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen’s Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift—one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.

In her exquisitely written fantasy debut, Rachel Hartman creates a rich, complex, and utterly original world. Seraphina’s tortuous journey to self-acceptance is one readers will remember long after they’ve turned the final page.

[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]

Rachel Hartman’s debut novel has received quite a bit of attention, and rightly so.  Which is why for Canada Day (and review #150!), I’m reviewing Seraphina as it is a novel written by a Canadian author that I actually like.  I’ve probably just jinxed Ms. Hartman now because excellent mainstream novels rarely win literary awards.  Oh well, I’m still predicting that Seraphina will be a bestseller.

The novel starts out rather slowly, but this is a good thing because otherwise readers would be completely overwhelmed by the well built fantasy world it takes place in.  Somehow Rachel Hartman is able to convey enough information so readers know what’s going on, but not too much so readers will keep reading to find out more.  Seraphina’s incredible backstory is revealed to us gradually and could probably be used as an example of how writers should develop backstory.  She is no Mary Sue and will go down as one of my favourite female leads ever, so hopeful writers take note!

And unlike in most fantasy novels, there is diversity.  She has obviously put immense effort into her world building because of all the different peoples, religions and countries.  Some of the government is based on feudal Europe, but it is not nearly as in-your-face as it is in many fantasy novels.  Also, the people of Goredd are not homogenous and we actually see people who worship different gods (or “saints” as they’re called) and speak different languages.  As for the coldly rational dragons…they’re incredibly unique and I mean that in a good way.

Technically Seraphina isn’t out yet (I got an early ebook from NetGalley), but I already can’t wait for the second book.  Rachel Hartman is a new author with enormous potential, so it will be interesting to see where she takes the series.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction by James Alexander Thom

(Cover picture courtesy of Heritage Key.)

While a historian stands firmly planted in the present and looks back into the past, a historical novelist has a more immediate task: to set readers in the midst of bygone events and lead them forward, allowing them to live and feel the wonderment, fear, hope, triumph, and pain as if they were there.

In The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction, best-selling author James Alexander Thom (Follow the River, From Sea to Shining Sea, Sign–Talker) gives you the tools you need to research and create stories born from the past that will move and inspire modern readers.  His comprehensive approach includes lessons on how to:

  • Find and use historical archives and conduct physical field research
  • Re-construct the world of your novel, including people and voices, physical environments, and cultural context
  • Achieve verisimilitude in speech, action, setting, and description
  • Seamlessly weave historical fact with your own compelling plot ideas

With wit and candor, Thom’s detailed instruction, illuminating personal experience, and invaluable insights culled from discussions with other trusted historical writers will guide you to craft a novel that is true to what was then, when then was now.

Well, to close off History Month here on The Mad Reviewer, I decided to review this non-fiction book on how to write historical fiction.  Because why not?  I picked this book up on speculation because I’m an amateur writer in my free time and I love to write historical fiction (which ends up being utter crap).  So now I can review it from a reviewer’s and a writer’s perspective.

James Alexander Thom is a man that doesn’t fool around when he writes; he never sugarcoats the truth.  The truth is, you will have to do you research on somewhere besides the internet, you likely will have to talk to experts and your journey to writing your novel will be a long one that isn’t always rewarding.  To help readers understand what writing in the past is like, he uses a wonderful ‘river of time’ analogy that is surprisingly helpful.  He gives practical advice on how to find good sources, dialogue (which always seems to be a problem in historical fiction), setting and historical accuracy.  In my opinion, he gets a bit too high-and-mighty when it comes to historical accuracy, but that’s to be expected when you’ve been writing historical fiction as long as he has.

The best part of The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction is the real-world examples of the lessons he’s trying to teach prospective writers.  One of the best examples he gives is when his wife was writing about her girlhood hero and got frustrated halfway through the research because she wasn’t the perfect hero she thought she would be.  But when she researched more, she realized that the woman was flawed, imperfect, but tried to make the best of her situation and do what was right for her people.

That brings up an important point: historical figures likely are not who you thought they were once you start conducting research.  For example, when I wrote a short story about Cleopatra, I did a lot of research.  At first I despised her for being so stupid as to lose Egypt to the Romans, but when you look at her whole situation, it was amazing she held on as long as she did.  That’s why James Alexander Thom emphasizes the importance of research both online and offline.

This is probably the best book I’ve read on writing historical fiction.  I’d highly recommend it.

I give this book 4.5/5 stars.

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