violence – Page 2 – One Thousand And One Parsecs

Mr. Monster by Dan Wells

John Wayne Cleaver wants very much not to kill you. He wants it so much, in fact, that he’s made up a host of rules to keep his inner monster from taking over. The way he complimented your shirt, for example–he said that to counteract the delicious thought of you tied to a wall, screaming in terror while he skins you alive.

It’s nothing personal. He doesn’t hate you. He just has a need–or rather, his inner monster has a need–to take your life.

You see, John Cleaver is a sociopath with all of the psychological tendencies of a serial killer. Now that he’s killed once (albeit to save his community from an ancient demon), it’s getting very difficult for him to tell who he really is. Is he his addiction? Or is that a separate persona–one that he can control, suppress, and eventually overcome?

He’d better find out quick, because a new killer has arrived in town–a demon, just like the first–except this one is in touch with the Brotherhood.

This was a good book. I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed the first, perhaps a little more so. The ending was awesome–excellent lead-in to the last book in the trilogy. Too bad we have to wait a year to read it. <shakes fist at the universe>

Dan Wells is very good at writing strong, well-developed characters, especially with his main character, John Cleaver. This might sound bad, but as a Mormon I can relate with John’s personal rules to keep his stray thoughts under control. Not that I have a secret desire to murder people, but I’d be lying if I said that it’s easy to live a celibate, porn-free lifestyle as a twenty-something young man. But I digress.

The best part of this book was the way the romantic tension compounded the basic conflict of John vs. his need to kill. It’s not easy to date a girl when you have passionate dreams every other night of killing her. That tends to make things a little awkward (just a little). In spite of how sick that might sound, John and Brooke’s relationship is quite compelling, and I found myself instantly drawn to them because of it. Again, it makes it easy to relate–not that I, uh–yeah. Whatever.

Overall, the book is great. However, I do have one criticism, which may be more personal, but I’m sure it applies to others as well. When John confronted the killer, things got a little too disturbing for me–not the tense, wide-eyed, “oooh, what happens next?” kind of disturbing, but the “this is just wrong–why am I reading this?” kind of disturbing. It didn’t make me put the book down, and the resolution was quite satisfying, but I did step back and ask that question at one point.

The ending, though, is pure awesome. The last page–man, I’m looking forward to see what happens next! And if there are only three books in this series, John Cleaver has to come to terms somehow with his inner monster–he can’t continue in this way all his life. He just can’t. He’s got to find some kind of equilibrium. And him and Brooke–well, let’s just say I’m very eager to see how the series wraps up.

Mr. Monster comes out in the US at the end of September (I borrowed the UK edition from my sister). Like I said, it’s probably not for everyone, but if you can stomach a particularly gruesome episode of Law and Order: SVU, you shouldn’t have a problem with this book. Or should you? Guilt! Guilt!

Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia

Owen Zastava Pitt wants nothing more than to be a mild-mannered accountant with a comfortable, boring life. Unfortunately, fate has other plans. His father–a retired green beret–brought him up to be a killing machine, with or without a firearm. To pay for college, Owen worked alternately as a bouncer and a highly illegal cage fighter. But all that’s behind him now; he has a respectable job–one where he isn’t required to kill things for a living.

When his boss turns out to be a werewolf, however, and Owen single-handedly kills him, all of that changes. A guy shows up at the hospital with a business card for a company called “Monster Hunter International,” and promises to help him make a lot of money killing things for a living. It turns out that vampires, wights, werewolves, and evil tentacled monsters are real, and the business of monster hunting is quite lucrative.

At first, Owen is hesitant. But when an old Jewish man starts showing up in his dreams, telling him about an ancient, evil plot to subjugate the world, he realizes that he has little choice in the matter. Fate has given him a calling–or, as the old man likes to say, the “short end of stick.”

If you’re a gun fanatic or a B-movie connoisseur, you’ll love this book. It’s basically Men in Black meets Van Helsing, with enough firearms and weapons to make Rambo look tame. Hundreds of mindless zombie wights? Bring out your automatic 12 gauge shotgun. Giant flying gargoyles the size of semi-trucks? Hope you brought enough RPGs and grenade launchers to go around. Hordes of undead swarming across Alabama? Better arm the 5-kiloton tactical nukes.

The story was quite entertaining, with enough comedic and romantic subplots to keep things interesting. The battle between good and evil was pretty clear cut and unambiguous, with evil being measured by how many tentacles a thing has, but some of the monsters (such as the vampires) were much more complex. When you have to decapitate your buddies after they die, to make sure they don’t come back as something that will kill you, that makes things interesting.

I felt that the second half of the novel lagged a little, especially with the number of false endings. However, the ending itself was quite satisfying, with an interesting twist that caught me a little by surprise. The quality of Correia’s writing was a little weak in places, but the story was more about killing the bad guys than crafting beautiful prose. In any case, I don’t think his intended audience will mind.

Overall, it was an entertaining, surprisingly fast read. It’s not the type of thing I usually read, but I enjoyed it. If you’re looking for deep, meaningful literature that changes the way you view the world, or a clean, wholesome read that’s free of excessive language or violence (Gamila, I’m talking to you), this book probably isn’t for you, but if you’re looking for an entertaining story about undead monsters where the good guys aren’t pussy-footing idiots, you’ll probably enjoy this book. If you own more than one firearm, it’s a must-read.

CONduit post coming shortly

Just a micro-quick update, since it’s 2:00 am and I need to meet up with friends tomorrow morning to carpool to Salt Lake.

The first day of CONduit was awesome–there were several excellent panels on writing, as well as many familiar faces from the local writing scene. I’ll blog all about it this weekend, after the big day tomorrow.

Wrote 3k words today and killed off a couple major characters. Invigorating, as always. Only 7k words to go to the end.

Goodnight.

With the Lightnings by David Drake

Daniel Leary, Lieutenant in the Republic of Cinnabar Navy, dreams of commanding a military starship one day. Unfortunately, as the estranged son of a corrupt senator, and with almost no money to his name, he has virtually no chance of ever seeing it happen.

While serving in an assignment on Kostrama, a neutral trade world between Cinnabar and her mortal enemies, the Alliance, he meets Adele Mundy, chief librarian of the Kostraman capitol. The title is virtual meaningless, however, as the uncultured Kostramans would give the position to anyone–even a political exile from Cinnibar such as Adele. Her whole family was assassinated by Leary’s father, and she has sworn to take revenge.

Little do they both know, the Alliance has other plans.

Ever since I met David Drake at World Fantasy 2009 in San Jose, I’ve been meaning to read one of his books. I must say, I picked a good one. With the Lightnings is the first book in his RCN Series, which is basically David Drake’s take on Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin novels. Think Napoleon-era naval battles and political intrigue…in space.

Does it sound good already? Yeah, I thought so.

I was a little surprised at first, because the first chapter started with a bunch of info dumps. It took until about the halfway mark for the action to really start, but when it did, it was awesome. A bunch of navy guys marooned on a hostile planet behind enemy lines, trying to survive a planetwide coup and blowing all kinds of stuff up along the way–yeah, it was cool.

The thing I enjoyed most about this book, however, was the insight into the minds of the officers and the way the officers and soldiers interacted. You can tell that David Drake has experience in the military–lots of experience.

It was evident in the little things the main character noticed–the colors and patterns of soldiers’ uniforms, competency among his own men and incompetency in men not under his command, leadership style and how he dealt with crises–stuff like that. The language was colorful, but when the soldiers swore, their language had a bite to it that went beyond the actual words. The people felt gritty, but very real.

At World Fantasy, I mentioned to David Drake that I’d read some of Joe Haldeman’s works, and knew they were both Vietnam vets. He remarked that Haldeman’s works are very much different than his own: Haldeman’s characters are constantly stabbing each other in the back, whereas in Drake’s works, there is always a sense of teamwork and unity, even when the going gets messy.

I could definitely see that in With the Lightnings–it’s one of the things that made the book so fun to read. Yes, things get pretty tough and a lot of people die, but there’s always a sense of loyalty within the platoon (or whatever the unit is called).

With the Lightnings is a great space opera action/adventure story. After reading it, I really want to read more books in the RCN series. If you want a good, fun military sf adventure story, this is a great one to pick up.

Battle scenes are HARD

I’m in the middle of revising a major battle scene right now. This is supposed to be one of the more important climaxes of the book, adding a lot more tension and emotion as the novel approaches the main climax.

Let me just say, writing a good battle scene is tough. The first version of this one…yeah, it sucked. Hardcore sucked. I’m cutting whole sections at a time–five hundred words, eight hundred words–and completely rewriting them from the ground up. I’m not sad to see these sections go, either–they were BAD.

I think the most difficult thing is to keep the pacing up without confusing the reader. For that reason, I reconceptualized most of the action here and made it simpler. I also repeated several times the main point of tension–basically, will we get out of here before reinforcements come and kick our trash? I hate it when a fight scene is so confusing that the tension just leaks out. I don’t want that to happen here.

At the same time, I’m trying to filter everything through the viewpoint character. Too often, I’ll read an action scene that’s just a blow-by-blow of the physical action. That gets boring REALLY fast. Without character, you have no stakes. I want the stakes to be high from the very onset.

Still, it’s hard. I don’t know if I’m succeeding yet. I probably won’t until I distance myself from what I’ve written tonight and take a good, hard look at it.

Since I can’t do that until the third revision, I’m not going to worry about it. Better to write it out now and move on than to try so hard to get everything perfect that I can’t see the story for the words.

On the plus side, I’ve been listening to a LOT of Star Wars battle music while writing this. That’s always fun!

Conversations with a pedestrian

People in Utah are generally nice and easy to get along with…until it comes to traffic. That’s when all the jerks come out. I’ve seen the finger more times here in Utah than anywhere else in my life–even as a missionary in California. After living here for a while, it starts to irk you.

So tonight, as I was waiting to turn left on the corner of Canyon and Bulldog, just as the light turns green a jogger runs out in the road. Predictably, the oncoming traffic honks at him, but what does he do? He flips them off.

I turned left to cut through the RB/SFH parking lot on my way home, and realized that the jogger was running the same way. Since his disrespectful gesture had rubbed me the wrong way, I decided to slow down, roll down my window, and confront him.

So, while he continued to run, I drove parallel to him and we had this conversation:

Me: Hey, why did you flip that guy off?
Jerk: Because he was being a prick!
Me: But you were the one who ran across the road.
Jerk: Yeah, but I have the right of way!
Me: Not when you’re running a red light.
Jerk: Oh yeah? Pedestrians always have the right of way, retard!
Me: So I’m a retard? Is this how you plan to get through life, by being rude to everyone?
Jerk: <laughs> EXACTLY. That’s exactly how I plan to get through life.
Me: That’s not a very good way to live. You should control your temper.
Jerk: Yeah, whatever. <waves me off> Later, dude.
Me: So now you’re just going to run away from what you did?
Jerk: <runs up to car window> Look, do you want to make this a little more serious? <threatens to punch>
Me: Not really. I just want to hold you accountable for what you did.
Jerk: <runs off again> Whatever, dude. I’m just trying to exercise.
Me: And I’m doing you a favor. You should learn to control your temper. <drives off>

I don’t know if I accomplished anything by this (or even what I wanted to accomplish), but it felt satisfying knowing that one less jerk in Provo got away with his rude and disrespectful behavior. I hope that guy remembers this conversation for a while, even if it only makes him madder. One day, he’ll learn.

Hero in the Shadows by David Gemmell

Waylander gave up his dark life as an assassin years ago–or so he thought. When an ancient magic gateway begins to break down and evil beings from another world set out to reconquer the lands of Kydor, Waylander finds himself caught up once again in the cycle of war and bloodshed.

Waylander joins forces with Kysumu, a rajnee warrior who has been training all his life to be the best swordsman, and Ustarte, an escaped changeling experiment who has come from the demon world to organize a resistance. But when the spirit of Qin Chong comes from the past to aid the fledgling resistance, he comes to the unlikeliest person of all–the ditch-digger Yu Yu Liang. As Kysumu wrestles with envy over the spirit’s choice, he comes to understand what it truly means to be a hero.

This book was good. Way good. Not only was it a thrilling action/adventure story, it was full of deep, wonderful insights into the nature of courage and cowardice, life and death, good and evil, and true heroism. David Gemmell’s books are full of wonderful insight, and deliciously complex in the way they deal with life’s most important and meaningful questions.

I read the last hundred pages at a breathless sprint. So many of the characters died! Yet even though the story was very violent, I didn’t feel that it was excessively so. The violence always had a reason to be there, and added something to the story.

What really surprised me was how Gemmell redeemed even some of his most evil characters. Just when you think one of the main antagonists is soulless and outright evil, he shows you another side of the character and makes you rethink him/her entirely. Amazing.

Not only where the “good guy” characters imminently likeable, they were surprisingly relatable. I felt like I understood exactly how Kysumu felt, having spent his whole life training to be the best warrior, only for the spirit of Qin Chong to choose a clumsy, shameless commoner. As he struggled with his jealousy, I felt I knew exactly what he was going through. Interesting stuff.

Waylander, too, was very interesting. Even though he was the best warrior out of anyone in the book, he was far from invulnerable or perfect. He had a dark side that was very believable–not too gritty or over the top. In fact, I think Waylander was originally an antagonist in the earlier books in the series.

When I read White Wolf, I had issues with the plot structure and excessive use of flashbacks. Not so with this novel. The plot progressed wonderfully, keeping me engaged and interested the whole time. The twist ending was delicious! Wonderfully satisfying.

Above all else, this is a book that means something, that actually says something. I came away from this book satisfied, not only because of the excellent, entertaining story, but because of the way the story made me think. Gemmell is an expert at creating depth to his characters and his stories, pulling you beneath the surface to glimpse at things that are really important and meaningful.

Miscellaneous news updates

I’m so bad at writing catchy titles for my blog posts. CORRECTION: I can come up with catchy, sexy, exciting titles for my blog posts, it’s just that the first one that comes to mind is always dull and uninteresting. Well, too bad. To quote my mother: “suffer!”

Item One: State of the summer plans

Real quick: still haven’t heard back from the guys at JABberwocky. I’m starting to think their either really disorganized (not out of the realm of possibility), or they’ve picked someone for the internship and it’s not much of a priority for them to get back to me. I’ll email them tomorrow or Friday and ask what’s going on; probably I’ll stay in Provo, at least for spring. But you know what? I’m actually okay with that.

Lately, I’ve been staying at my sister’s apartment, hanging out with her and her husband, and spending most of the day at the HBLL writing (and chatting with Charlie, who seems to be perpetually bored at her nine-to-five job). Should I end up staying in Provo, I don’t think that’s going to change much. I might work a couple part-time and/or temp jobs, and definitely attend a few cons and writers’ conferences, but that’s about it.

Oh, and maybe go on a random road trip every once and a while. Fun! 🙂

Item Two: State of Genesis Earth

The rewrite is coming along very well! I’m over 80% finished now and I think it’s getting better. Incrementally, certainly, and there remains a lot of room for improvement, but at least it’s headed in the right direction.

I’ll probably write a different blog post on this, but I got Brandon’s comments back on the first three chapters (I submitted those for the final) and his comments were…interesting. Helpful, certainly, but a lot more negative than I thought they would be. Basically, he got really confused in chapter 2, and that ruined it for him. I’ve got to completely overhaul a couple of those scenes to make sure they’re clear. Fortunately, he really liked chapter 1, so if I can fix chapter 2 in the same way I fixed chapter 1, I think I’ll be in business.

Item Three: Other projects

With all this free time, now that school’s out, I think I should take on another writing project. Back in the fall, I tried to do this and utterly failed at it, but now that I’ve got the time I think I can manage. The question is, which project should I choose to work on first?

Option 1: Bringing Estella Home

Summary: When their home system is conquered by the ruthless Hameji barbarian warfleet, James leaves his home and sets out to rescue his older brother and sister, who have been captured and enslaved. Little does he know, his brother is being turned into a Hameji killing machine and his sister has become one of the Hameji overlord’s personal concubines.

This is the most recent project. It’s about half finished, but it needs some major revision work before I can comfortably continue where I left off. It’s got a lot of action, but it’s also pretty dark and tragic. Not a happy space opera, that’s for sure.

Option 2: Hero in Exile

Summary: Tristen (lamest name ever–I’m totally going to change his name if/when I pick up this project again) fell from the sky in an escape pod when he was only eight years old and was raised in the desert of Nova Gaia by a clan of desert tribesmen. When he sets out with Mira, the chieftain’s daughter, for the legendary Temple of a Thousand Suns to ask the keepers of the Holy Archives of the Earth of Legend about his true parentage, he has no idea of the disparity, depravity, and danger he will meet in the world outside the small, isolated community of local tribesmen–or of the corruption and intrigue within.

I started this one in the fall, planned it out extensively, and then, halfway through…realizing I was writing a completely different story. If I pick up this project, I have virtually no idea where I’ll end up with it. However, it’s a fun space opera with a lot of action and a fair amount of romance (unlike Bringing Estella Home which has virtually zero romance. No, slaves and concubines don’t count).

Option 3: The Phoenix of Nova Terra

Summary: When Ian finds himself stranded on a distant planet, the only thing he wants is to meet up with the rest of his crew and go home. Little does he know, the native humans already venerate him as their chosen savior and their king has selected his daughter to be his wife. When his journey takes deep into the forbidden lands, from which no-one has ever returned alive, Ian begins to uncover the secrets of this long-lost world, and the alien artifacts that will forever alter the paradigm of galactic human civilization–for its good or its destruction.

Gosh, how do you write a paragraph summary for a 168,000 word epic? This is the first complete rough draft of a novel that I’ve written, and it is HUGE. It spans dozens of worlds, six separate civilizations (including one alien and one AI), seven or eight viewpoint characters, and a friggin boatload of internal and external conflicts. INSANE. What’s more, it requires a lot of work–the rough draft was REALLY bad. But you know what? It might be kind of fun to try out. It’s definitely a very fun, very positive story, with lots of intrigue and lots of romance.

So, the question is: which one should I pick up first? Which ones should I work on this summer? I’ll probably only be able to do two, plus Genesis Earth; which ones should I choose?

Item Four: Looking for Beta readers

This last item is pretty brief: I’m about to finish up with the Genesis Earth rewrite, and I need some beta readers to help out with it. I’ve already got about a dozen people or so, but it wouldn’t hurt to have some more. I’m looking for as much criticism and feedback as you can give me–anything helpful, including specific problems as well as your broader, overall impressions.

Who wants to help out that can read this story by the end of May? I really appreciate it! Email me or post a comment if you want in (but please don’t ask to read it unless I already know you from real life).

Aaaaand…this post is almost 1,100 words long. Yikes! See y’all around!

(images courtesy Inkygirl: Daily Diversions for Writers)

Dreaming up steampunkery

I had the coolest dream last night.

I dreamed that I was in some kind of a steampunk/regency universe–basically, everyone dressed up like the Victorian era and fought with fencing sabers. I was contracted to go and fight the phantom of the opera, who for some reason was holed up in the JFSB (except, it wasn’t exactly the JFSB, just somewhat analogous). The phantom had a whole bunch of cronies and thugs, and I had to fight them in order to get to him. Unfortunately, I lost, and his thugs disarmed me and took me prisoner.

Just then, my wife (future wife–I’m not married or engaged right now) came in to rescue me. The dream panned out so that I was seeing it from her perspective (previously, it had been a sort of detached 3rd person). She snuck up on the guy guarding the door and stabbed him in the back with a dagger. Leaving him to die, she jumped into the JFSB where I was (you know the part underneath the big glass facade, three stories below the English department, where the spiral stairs are…except there were no spiral stairs in the dream, just some old dirty couches), and started this awesome swordfight. She cut down a couple of guys, then attacked the guard holding me captive–and killed him by thrusting her sword through his throat.

It was pretty cool. 😛 Totally reminded me of Vin from Mistborn. What a woman!

When I woke up from the dream, I wanted to go write some steampunk. If/whenever I get around to writing a steampunk novel, I definitely want a strong female character who can do that kind of stuff. Through the throat. What a way to go! Suffocate on your own blood while your opponent walks away, leaving you to die. It’s bad enough getting stabbed in the stomach, but the throat–that takes style. And improvisation. Cool.

White Wolf by David Gemmell

Skilgannon the Damned is one of the mightiest warriors in the world, yet every day the memory of the innocents he has killed haunt him. He seeks solace in becoming a monk, but as alliances break down and wars sweep the land, mob violence comes to the monastery and Skilgannon once again takes up the swords of Night and Day. The swords, however, are cursed with an enchantment that corrupts the soul of the one who wields them, and the old witch who gave Skilgannon the swords–and who cursed them–is behind the political machinations that threaten to drive Skilgannon into the hands of his greatest enemy: his old lover, the queen of Naashan.

I’d heard about the Heroic Fantasy subgenre from English 318 last year, and thought I’d try it out. I’d heard a lot of good things about David Gemmell, both from Brandon Sanderson and Orson Scott Card, so I kept an eye out for his books at the used bookstore and found this one.

White Wolf was an enjoyable read. I particularly enjoyed the moral and ethical questions that Gemmell raised, both during the fight scenes and between the fight scenes in the dialogue between the characters. Gemmell will often come right out and have his characters directly address issues like bravery and cowardice, death and sacrifice. Far from sounding strained or pedantic, these were my favorite parts of the novel, mostly because the characters were struggling with these issues themselves. Druss and Skilgannon, of course, have a little more experience and know the answers to these things, but the boy Rabalyn, a recently orphaned boy who has nowhere to go but follow the warriors and become one of them, goes through a very interesting growth cycle.

Gemmell also did a very good job creating an evil villain and raising the stakes. As Skilgannon’s adventure winds in and out, he finds himself on a mission to save a girl who has been tortured to the point where she may lose her very humanity. However, the villains are not all black and white. Technically, Skilgannon himself is a villain, or maybe a post-villain, and the queen of Naashan is a similarly complicated character. Gemmell’s world is populated with uber-heroes and uber-villains, but there are plent of people who fall in the middle as well.

The biggest issue I had with this novel was the plot. It seemed to follow a loose quest structure, but it had a weak beginning and middle. Skilgannon is supposedly onthis quest to resurrect this girl he once loved, but prior to this he’s been living the monastic lifestyle, trying to escape the world. There is no clear moment where he says “I’m going to resurrect this girl,” yet supposedly this is supposed to drive him to travel hundreds of miles to get somewhere and do something.

The middle is littered with flashbacks–they are everywhere. While the flashbacks are interesting and engaging, they interrupt the action in the present of the narrative, which often gave me the sense that nothing notable was really happening. I started to lose motivation to read the book somewhere in the middle, just because I had lost that sense of plot progress. If it weren’t for the characters and the conflict, I probably would have given up on it altogether.

However, I really enjoyed this book. The last third was really good, and the epilogue was fantastic! Probably the best epilogue I’ve ever read. I wish I could say more, but it would give out major spoilers. It was just a very well written, very well done epilogue.

I’d definitely be interested in reading some more Gemmell, though he’s not on the top of my list right now. When I do pick him up again, I’d like to start with Legend, the novel that launched him into the big time. I hear that’s a good one.