The Alchemist ~ Paulo Coelho Supposedly a 'must read' — I'm most of the way through it. Granted it's a translation but I can't see what the fuss was about unfortunately. Been a good sleep aid mind.
You kind of mirror my experience, but that's the joy and despair of reading sometimes, a book everyone else thought was great may not gel with you. Decided to give the second portion of the Commonwealth Saga a seconds reprieve and read a Claire Short novel, 84K. Really amazing writer who seems to ignore all the normal literay rules and do her own thing. But I find you do have to be in the right mood to read her stuff.
Children of Nazis: The Sons and Daughters of Himmler, Göring, Höss, Mengele, and Others— Living with a Father's Monstrous Legacy by Tania Crasnianski and Molly Grogan
Just finished Danger in the Shadows by Dee Henderson. Wouldn't have pushed past Chapter 5 if it hadn't been "homework" for the writing class I'm currently taking. (We were directed to go to the library and check out some books in our genre, to see how successful writers do it.) The initial premise is good: two people "obviously" meant for each other are kept apart by external threats. But the author's style is atrocious. Short, choppy declarative sentences with plenty of filter words. Telling, telling, telling, with constant use of the past perfect tense. No sense of place at all; a lot of crucial locations are left unnamed, so you have no idea how close or far the danger to Our Heroine is. Oh, and if something can be shown by a bit of dialogue, the author avoids it. Telling, telling, telling . . . What's more, the whole setup is phony. One man being US ambassador to Great Britain for 25 straight years, despite all the changes in administration? The FBI assigning one woman (said ambassador's grown daughter, who was kidnapped and recovered as a child) her own 24/7 security detail? The still-at-large kidnapper obsessed with stalking this woman for the past 25 years--- why? Because "crazy"? Was the original kidnapping political, or just for the cash? Even the author doesn't seem to know. And that doesn't even get us into the lack of chemistry between the "lovers." The author is always having them tell us (though not necessarily each other) how they feel, but we never see it or feel it ourselves. And the ending? If a guy who claimed to love and respect me pulled a cheesy trick like that, I'd take him out and shoot him. Well, not really, but you get the idea. Sorry about the rant. Not the usual format for this thread. I'm just depressed and a little angry because out of 519 Amazon reviews of this book, 72% of them are five-star and 13% are four-star. If putting out dreck like this is what I need to do to become a popular award-winning author, I might as well give up writing now.
I went to her website and read the sample chapter of that book, and I think I finally understand the whole show/tell thing. She's a terrible writer and the constant injection of religion makes her prose even worse. Congrats to you for finishing the book; I couldn't have. Her average rating of 4.3 stars on Goodreads is incomprehensible.
I think if you are going to rant this is the place to do it. I just looked up the book you mentioned, the O'Malley series? I only saw 12 reviews, am I looking at the right thing? I did read a little of the Look Inside, there's quite a bit there, hard to tell from that about the showing/telling part you mentioned. I think becoming a popular author is often as much about luck than it is about anything else. Plus there's a difference between popular and award winning, in my book.
The author calls this one, Danger in the Shadows, a prequel to the O'Malley series, "Book 0." But reviewers who'd read the O'Malley books said this one has nothing to do with them. I'm wondering if it's an attempt to piggyback on their popularity. (Cynical, aren't I?) Apparently she's won some Christian book award or other. Obviously, I never will. My book's got too much cussing, alcohol, and my FMC griping at God for reminding her she's not allowed to get the hot hero into bed unless they get married. Whereas the "lovers" in DitS can, repeatedly, cuddle for hours on the sofa watching a video--- and not once do either of them feel the least temptation to take things farther.
Bold print mine. I guess that goes to show that Dorothy L. Sayers was right: Even bad writing can (occasionally) serve a good purpose. Gonna be frank with you: My own female MC is a Christian, she "walks with God," as we say, and if she didn't get strength in her troubles from quick little prayers and snatches of Bible verses and hymns, it would be unnatural. Her spiritual development (and that of the male MC) is a major part of the plot. But I make it obvious in my Amazon blurb and in my back cover copy that that's what you're gonna get. Moreover, I've tried to show and hope I've succeeded in showing that their faith does develop. Whereas by the end of the DH book it seems like the FMC is in exactly the same place with God as she was years ago when she was first trying to recover from her kidnapping. I finished it not because I wanted to see how the characters got out of their dilemma, but how the author got them out of it. Big difference. And what she did was a major cop-out and anticlimax.
Sounds gut-wrenching. I'm a 'fraidy-cat and generally don't like to subject myself to stories like this. But I was praying for those girls while their ordeal was going on, and it's only right I should find out what happened to them. Thanks for mentioning the book.
I guess a lot of successful writers capitalize on the fact they have become popular. I used to say of the visual arts that once you become well known for a certain style or subject it's then a matter of rinse and repeat. It sounds like your writing is more connected to the way real people live and interact in this world. I'm a Christian myself and now read only non-Christian books, because sometimes I think Christian novels don't operate in the real world, and also because I find better quality writing in secular novels.
I totally know how you feel. Most of the time I do the same. Notice I had to go to the library to get this book and the others in the CRS genre. I have plenty of secular romantic suspense already. That said, check mine out, if you want what I hope will be an exception. It's called The Single Eye, and it's up on Amazon in ebook and paperback (Catrin Lewis is my pen name, BTW). I'm working on the sequel, and there is one negatively good thing the Dee Henderson book is doing for me. It's making me look more closely at how my MCs have been affected psychologically by the ordeals they faced in TSE. It's possible I may be going too far towards the PTSD side, but too much of that (as in DitS) just gets whiny.
Oh.. I read that one. It was one of the shortest novels ever and I think it was OK. One point it made : the journey is more important than the arrival. And the other message was something like.. to discover the philosophers stone you need have no immediate concern for the gold. Also, I really liked how the word “omen” was used to describe a positive sign (as opposed to like a curse). Also, do you hear the pure innocence radiating in the writing? Pure simplicity. That’s what makes it beautiful.
Yeah, plus I love Science Fiction and Fantasy, albeit the more modern variety, and sometimes feel the Christian community isn't exactly ok with all that - don't find much Christian Sci-Fi, that's for sure. I will have a look at your book, thanks for the heads up. Good luck with your sequel.
Took a break from my break book, 84K (the original break book being Judas Unchained), and purchased the latest short story collection from Ted Chiang, Exhalation. So far really enjoying it. Long been a fan of the author.
I just started reading that as well. I really enjoyed the first story in the book, but the second story is proving to be page after page of technobabble.
I know the story you are talking about, it's the Exhalation that the title alludes to. It is a bit technically hard to read, mostly because it doesn't make so much sense when you compare it to modern technology. At the end of the day it's about a story and that doesn't always make sense when it comes to hard Sci-Fi, but I totally understand where you are coming from; I also found it tougher to read, and I'm a techie! When I finished it I understood he was talking about energy, air equals energy.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Barnard Eldershaw. It's actually for my thesis at university; I'm doing a study of the utopian/ dystopian elements in this novel. The book is a bit dry and dense and right now I can't wait to just finish it and work on the third chapter of my thesis. Funnily enough, I just feel like I'd enjoy the literary criticism books better than the novel. I guess it's just overwritten. Umm... actually I also have been struggling to connect to any new story recently... It just feels like any novel I pick up has nothing new to offer me. I know it's a false impression, but it still feels like this.
Frustrating, isn't it? I have maybe eight to ten novels I've gotten partway through, and none of them is calling to me. For some, I had good reasons to stop reading them. For others, well, I'd probably get reimmersed in them if I gave myself the time, but maybe that's it. I'm too focussed right now on my own writing and feel I don't have the time. Maybe that's your situation as well.
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Well-written. Definitely has the old-fashioned humourist's touch, and I like the subtle but effective use of historical language in the narration as well as dialogue. Would make a good doorstopper, if you know what I mean. There's a peculiar sense of being both slow and fast in the way some real fictions of the period are like.
I can so relate to that. I think some times when you have a particular idea in mind for your own novel, stories that are in one way or another irrelevant to that idea don't pick your interest. Like I want to write stories about gangsters but I've gotta read a highly literary book written in 1947... It's also that this particular book has already shown to me its highest level of emotional depth in the first few chapters, and frankly, it wasn't enough... Anyway, I have to read the book for my thesis, but every page is torture. Hope you wouldn't be facing the same issue and can leave those books behind easily
