A Memory of Light Review

 

 

Let me start this post by saying I don't plan on censoring myself as I talk about the book, so in other words SPOILER ALERT. Stop reading now if you don't want to find out details of A Memory of Light.

First let me say that I am having a lot of trouble writing this post. I have been reading The Wheel of Time for twenty years and having the series end has been an odd mixture of sadness and elation. One thing I was not counting on when I picked up the book was how much reading it would remind me of the reading the other books in the series.

It took me about a week or so to read the book and every time I sat it down I was forcefully reminded of reading the other books. I am sure remembering reading TEOTW at my grandma's house, or reading TGH sitting next to my dad (both of whom have passed away) contributed to the sadness I was feeling at the end of the series. Not to mention that the characters in these books have been an active part of my imagination for twenty fricking years. I knew I was losing something as I finished the story but I was very excited to do so.

Anyway, this book was epic in its…um…epic-ness. Most of the book was fight scenes, but when you read a book that is about the last battle between good and evil at the end of the world, what else do you expect. This was a great example of the kinds of books they wrote when I was a teenager, that just don't get published any more. Overall I enjoyed the book.

Everything happened as I thought it would. The bad ass character showed their badassery and killed like a billion trollocs.

Too bad there was five billion trollocs.

Eventually the heroes get worn down by sheer numbers and then characters both big and small start dying by the boat load. Oh, and to those of you that I had this discussion with before: Rand DID use the Dark One's own power against it, ah ha!

Okay, okay Rand did not kill the Dark One, letting Fain take his place…I'll give you that one.

The end was not what I expected but looking back at the series as a whole I think it was very fitting. My one gripe being that Rand sneaks off in his new body without letting his friends or his father know he is alive. I get not advertising the fact that you lived but come on, Tam deserves to know his boy is still (kind of) alive.

The novel wasn't perfect. There were a few plot threads that never got tied up. There were a few meetings between characters I wanted to see that never happened. And why did you have to kill Bela? That poor horse got dragged all over the world, you could have let the sad thing have a rest at the end of the series, but no you have to go and kill it. I mean damn that horse didn't do anything to deserve that I-

…okay…I'm okay. But Bela? That's messed up.

Anyway, it was the Last Battle I was hoping for though Rand's role was totally not what I was expecting.

Brandon Sanderson did a great job bringing Robert Jordan's series to its conclusion. The writing reminded me a lot of Mr. Jordan. I am curious how Jordan would have handled the descriptions and the characters, in my opinion he had a great way of making characters jump off the page, but after reading this book I think Sanderson might be better at writing action scenes.

I have some thoughts on series as a whole, but I think I will save that for another post, but until then

…it was not the ending. There are no endings, and never will be endings, to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was an ending.

Shadows & Light Volume II Reviewed

The first review of Shadows & Light Volume II is in:

This was originally posted at the Wandering Quill:

Taking a break from the "Sargas Chronicles" to applaud some hard work by Pill Hill Press.

I have always had a love/hate relationship with anthologies. Typically, in my experience, an anthology combines a plethora of bad to terrible stories, intermixed with a scant few good stories. I'm happy to say this anthology was the reverse.

When a writer friend of mine, Lydia Sharp, suggested I try it and mentioned her story was included in the collection, (Spread Your Wings And Die) I gulped and took the plunge with my Kindle. And was happily surprised. (Since I already have a pile of Noble-prize nomination anthologies in my "to-be-hurled-against-wall" stack)

Out of thirteen stories, I only found one that I disliked, and even that one was put together flawlessly, I just didn't like how it ended, as a reader. The anthology had a nice, slick look to it in the digital edition. Even though I missed out on the fancier font I've been told is in the print edition, the collection is so good that I'll likely purchase that one as well.

I am proud to say this anthology is the first book I've read this year to receive a 5-star rating from me. I actually had to make myself put it away before I didn't get any writing done for the day.

Definitely going to be looking for digital versions of the other anthologies by Pill Hill Press.

Thank you to Lydia Sharp for recommending it to her friend.

Book Recommendation

I am in a reflective mood today, and I began thinking about my rather uneventful high school days. I spent most of high school in my room reading a book, very different from my college days most of which I spent drinking large quantities of alcohol and making and ass of myself.

Anyway, I decided to post two book recommendations for books I read back in high school. So here are a few recommendations that have been colored by the years between me reading them and recommending them to today. Some might not be as good as I remember having been visited by the “suck fairy”. To read more about the suck fairy visit HERE, they may have also been visited by the super awesome fairy and are much better than I remember.

The books themselves are both about a distant future, which seemed oddly fitting. Reflecting about my past experience of reading about the future. Of course there is a slight chance that this blog post might tear the fabric of space and time. But I am willing to risk it.

Okay up first, The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

These books are about a distant future of earth where magic has returned. There are two magical races one evil and one good that lesser peoples worship as gods.

The good magical race sunders the earth into worlds based on elements and imprisons the evil magic users. The main character of the series is a scout for the evil magic users, they are returning and need to find out the state of the world.

These books are great, I love the characters and the depth of the world. I have been afraid to reread them because Book 3 Fire Seas is on my favorite books of all time list and I would hate to take it off.

Next up the Pern series by Anne McCaffrey

I started the series with All the Weyrs of Pern, the 11th book in the series. All the Weyrs of Pern starts with Dragon Riders unearthing a super computer.

This was the first novel I had ever read that really blended fantasy and sci-fi together. I remember being amazed that something so cool could exist. Basically the plot of the series is that humans colonize Pern in the distant future. As they are enjoying their new earth-like planet Thread begins falling from the skies. Thread is an unintelligent organism from outer space that eats all organic material.

This is a real problem since they were trying to build a low-tech society and did not bring most of their technology from Earth. The solution? Genetically engineer dragons, which they ride, to fight Thread. How awesome is that?

There you go to book series from my distant past that helped shape what I read today. If you haven’t tried them go out and do so now. Anyway see you next time.

Getting Book Reviews

Okay, I thought I would do a post about getting book reviews. Before I start I have to say that I am not an expert, but I have tried to get reviews for every novel Pill Hill Press has published and I marketed the heck out of the anthologies I have edited. So this is just what I do, after much trial and error.

Getting book reviews can be a frustrating thing, and often times does not lead to any apparent sales. But getting the word out there is improtant, and there is no telling if some of the later sales come from these reviews or not, plut once you can quote one or two good reviews it is easier to get reviews in larger places that will get sales.

First of all I use Google to find book reviewers. Terms such as "sci-fi book review", "fantasy book review blog" or "horror news" will give you a bunch of sites to email. I make a list as I go and then send out emails once I am done. News sites might not do book reviews but they will post that the book is available, usually including the blurb.

There are tons of book reviewers online. The bigger review sites might not ever get to your book. We have sent out dozens of books to larger reviewers, and have only gotten a few reviews from them. Of course a large reviewer will mean sales, while a small reviewer probably won't. So far for us the best results have come from medium size review sites, with followers in the hundreds. A review on one of them will sell enough copies to pay for postage, and the cost of a book, the first day the review is posted.

This does not mean that we don't send out a couple of review copies to larger places. We just pick two or three to send books to. Maybe someday the copies we send to Locus, or Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine will garner a review. If they ever do I will post if it is worth it sales wise, I don't see how it couldn't be.

How many requests for book reviews do I send out? That depends on the book, I have sent at least fifteen requests for everyone of our novels. For Zero Gravity I have now sent out sixty emails, which is the most I have sent out for any book. I sent out about thirty the first weekend the book came out, and then I send a few more very week.

From those sixty emails, I sent out 12 PDF copies and five hard copies. I always offer the book in both formats. Emailing a PDF is free, and some book reviewers prefer them, of course some don't so be sure to check what the reviewer prefers.

In my email I always start by telling them who I am and who Pill Hill Press is. Then I tell them right off what the subject of my email is. Something like Dear (insert name) My name is Alva Roberts, I am an editor at Pill Hill Press, a small publisher of speculative fiction. We have recently published a sci-fi anthology, Zero Gravity: Adventures in Deep Space, and I was wondering if you would be interested in a review copy, in either PDF or paper formats.

Then I try to hook the reviewer in. This is a lot like hooking a reader with the beginning of a story. For Zero Gravity it was pretty simple, many of the authors published in the anthology had novels already in print. So I looked for book reviewers that liked their novels and mentioned that the author had a story in Zero Gravity. Or I looked for reviewers that liked "Adventurous Sci-fi". The point is you need to find some way to get a reviewers interest.

Book reviewers are much more likely to review a larger press publication. And through trial and error I have found reviewers prefer novels to anthologies or single author collections. The hardest thing I have found to get review for are novella collections. I am not sure why this is, but its true. So if you are trying to promote an anthology, novella collections, or single author collection the hook is much more important. On the other hand if you are not confident that you can hook them in a couple of sentences then skip it. Just a simple request and book information will get some reviews.

After the hook, I paste in the book blurb, the ISBN, and a link to where they can purchase the book, usually Amazon, I also mention where else the book is available. Pill Hill Press books are distributed through Ingram, so they are available through most online retailers. Book reviewers like to know the details of a book, and the like to know it is readily available. The Amazon link also lets them see the cover which is why two of the book reviewers said they would review Zero Gravity.

Next I will put in a snippet of other reviews if I have them. Here is one I used for Zero Gravity:

If you love stories about lone-wolf pilots, sentient spaceships, interplanetary power politics, rogue computers, lost colonies, and Terrors From Beyond, Zero Gravity, a new anthology of science fiction adventures from Pill Hill Press, will light your boosters and shove you deep into your acceleration couch- Fred Warren- Residential Aliens.

This is a great quote, I absolutely love it. Many thanks to Fred Warren and Residential Aliens for it. Read The Whole Review Here

I always end the email formally, and thank the reviewers for their time. Time is one of the most precious commodities that people have, and them taking the time just to read my email is, at the very least, worth a heartfelt thank you.

I also reply with a thank you to everyone who emails me back. Of those sixty emails about ten of them never got answered. So a polite I am too busy right now, gets another thank you.

I send out review copies immediately, if it is a hard copy I send a press release and a letter with the book. The letter reminds them who I am and thanks them once again. Reviewers are very busy people, who get tons of books. Being polite never hurts anything, and reminding them who I am might remind them why they wanted to read the book.

Finally don't get discouraged if you don't get any reviews at first. The first volume of Shadows & Light came out in September and we immediately sent a copy to Midwest book review. The review didn't come out until April. A copy of Twisted Legends that we sent to Bitten By Books got reviewed almost a year after we sent it, and resulted in new interest in the book.

Like I said before book reviewers are busy people, authors really need to understand that, and not hassle them.

A final note, some book reviews have resulted in noticeable sales, others have not. But each one gets the word out there and that is a good thing even if you can't see the results.

As far as book promotions go it is a pretty inexpensive thing that seems to work. The only other thing that has worked better so far, at least for Pill Hill, is when an author arranges a book signing or gets a local book store to carry their novel, author interviews have also worked but that totally depends on the venue, but those are topics for other blogs.