Book review - Infestation: A Small Town Nightmare, by Tanya Taylor

Sloppy grammar, wooden dialogue and lecturing by the author made this book a missable experience.

It isn't a complete book, but stops abruptly with an invitation to purchase the next volume; normally I'd find that a grave fault, but in this case it was a happy release.

Book review - Children of Fire, by Daniel Ferguson

I just didn't like this book much. It isn't really that it's very badly written; it's more that the way it was structured didn't really work for me. It seemed like a never-ending series of fights, the outcome of which is at no time in real doubt. Basically, the work lacks dramatic tension, and the lack of development of characters gave it a flat, comic-book feeling that I didn't enjoy.

A lot of this criticism is of course a matter of personal taste, and I feel sure this book will appeal to many people, especially those who like manga and RPGs. But for me, it just wasn't a good read.

Children of Fire is available from AMAZON.

Book review - Naked News for Indie Authors: How NOT to Invest Your Marketing $$$$

The title of this book is a little misleading, since, although it truthfully promises to show you how not to waste your money on ineffective marketing strategies, it doesn't say anything about the fact the book is stuffed full of sound, practical advice on how to construct effective marketing strategies to drive your book sales without spending any money at all. So it really turned out to be far more useful than the title indicated to me. I'd actually had this book for five months without reading it because of this, and I am so glad I finally did.

The word 'Naked' in this line of books refers to the fact that the books are straight talking, without any fluff or padding, and I must admit I find Hausmann's approach so very refreshing in this regard. There is none of the usual puffery one finds in these do-it-yourself books; she gets straight down to brass tacks in the first chapter.

This book isn't an exhaustive text, of course, but it is a very useful guide to getting oneself started on book marketing, and to avoiding the snares cast by unscrupulous companies. A valuable addition to every new independent author's toolbox.

Available from AMAZON in both paperback and Kindle editions.

Book review - The Black Swans, by N. W. Moors

This modern adaptation of the Children of Lir story was a delight from start to finish. All too often this kind of fantasy book is weak in the characters, but there was nothing cardboard about Moors' people - they live, they breathe, they are real. Even the minor characters have been carefully constructed - there are no stock figures here.

I do think that it is the character development above all that makes the difference between the ordinary and the special in this genre. It seems to be a strength of this writer's, although this is the first of her books I have read. I look forward very much to further offerings.

SPOILER WARNING
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The one criticism I had was that I felt there was insufficient drama around the initial discovery of Taisie's pregnancy. Finding oneself pregnant for the first time, especially when unmarried and most especially when one's future with the child's father is very much in doubt, is a massively world-shaking experience, and I felt much more should have been made of it - of her own discovery of it. This was, however, a small part of the book.

The Black Swans is available from AMAZON and SMASHWORDS.

book review - The Roses Underneath, by C. F. Yetmen

This is an utterly brilliant debut novel. I see it has won many awards and this doesn't surprise me at all. It's a fine piece of work that catches the reader on the first page and doesn't allow him to flag until the very last page. A great start to a promising career for this emerging writer.

In historical writing about this place and time we don't often see a focus on the complex issues faced by the German survivors, and this was beautifully and sensitively handled. The slow emergence of the mystery was beautifully done, and the author has managed to avoid any trace of facile sentiment while invoking a deep sympathy for the trauma and shame of the conquered German people as they deal with the aftermath of the Reich.

The one criticism I really have was that there were several instances in narrative of 'lay' used intransitively. Jutting out from such beautifully competent writing, these stuck out, if I may use a popular expression, like dogs' balls. I was very sorry to see this, and thought long and hard about awarding the fifth star, but in the end I could not withhold it from a work as talented as this.

The Roses Underneath is available from AMAZON in kindle, paperback and audio formats.

Book review - The Molecular Slaves, by Biju Vasudevan

 

With all the independent books that I review, a book of philosophy is indeed a rare pleasure.

Eschewing the dry, Germanic approach of today's metaphysicians, The Molecular Slaves, with its playfully lyrical style, harks joyfully back to the approach of philosophers of yore. Although taken as a work of metaphysics, the work lacks the rigour we expect, taken as an introduction to metaphysical thought it is a pure delight.

Starting with a startlingly idiosyncratic presentation of the world of phenomena, we are led, skipping and dancing, along a star-sprinkled path into mysticism. I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed ever step along the way.

Vasudevan has a pleasant, light, engaging style that captivates the reader from the first page. There are some small infelicities of language that a rigorous edit could have smoothed out, but this does not interfere with the reader's enjoyment.

A delightful read!

The Molecular Slaves is available from AMAZON in both Kindle and paperback editions.

Don't Force-Lend Books

I never lend my books. Never never never. Don't even ask, I'm serious. As they say in shops, a refusal often offends, and I am willing to offend the hell out of you before I will lend you a book.

I think we all know, don't we, why that is. You lend a book to a trusted friend, a person for whom you'd go through fire and water, a person you would trust to go away for a weekend with your husband, a person you would trust with your life savings or your just-completed manuscript or your dog.

And then you wait. You wait and wait, telling yourself that this time it'll be different.

But it isn't. You will never see that book again. Depending on how good you are at not resenting things, you may be able to salvage the friendship, but the book was gone forever at the moment you handed it over.

So, don't lend books you want to see again. You didn't need me to tell you that.

But if, despite all this, you are an inveterate book-lender, consider it from the other point of view. I'm going to assume now that the person to whom you lent the book did not actually ask to borrow it. People who casually ask to borrow your books, well even the most trusting and hopeful of us knows what that means. So, let's look at how it is for the other person, when you force-lend a book to him.

1. Your target, let's for the sake of argument call him Tom, is either a reader or he is not. Believe it or not, reading is not a big part of many people's lives. If Tom is one of them, being suddenly force-lent a book will baffle and irritate him. He may intend to read the book, since you obviously want him to, but consider - Tom's life is already full, and none of it is allocated to reading. Therefore, reading your book gets relegated to that mysterious category of 'when I have time'. This time will never come, because if Tom is not an habitual reader, bits of free time that he finds for himself will be spent on other activities, things Tom really enjoys.

Time passes and Tom feels more and more guilty every time he happens to see the book. He tells himself he must read it and give it back. Subconsciously if he's a nice guy, or consciously if he's a bitch, his resentment towards you grows. Why couldn't you mind your own business, he thinks. After a while, the book disappears under a pile of other clutter, or gets put 'somewhere safe' and is completely forgotten.

Do you see how this works? Tom didn't mean to steal your book. He had the best intentions. You forced him into this situation. If you have done this, you should blame only yourself for the loss of your book.

2. If Tom is, in fact, a keen reader and likes the type of book you have lent him (for if he doesn't, then for the purposes of this book he is effectively in Category 1 with the non-readers), he almost certainly has a big TBR, which is probably full of things he is actually looking forward to reading. He may in fact also look forward to reading your book, but just think what you have done. You have interfered with his reading plans. Over many instances of being force-lent books, I've noticed that somehow the lent ones always seem to jump the queue, because I want to get it back to the person. This is nearly always because I didn't want to read the stupid thing in the first place and for whatever reason was too polite to say so. If there is anything more arrogant than stomping into a person's mind and dictating what he is going to read next, I can't offhand think what it might be. Again, subtle resentment creeps in. Not everyone, of course, lets these force-lent books jump their reading queue. Why, indeed, should they? I only do because I've an obsessive horror of not returning them. That means there is always going to be something at any given time that Tom would rather read than your book.

People. Readers always have the books they want already. If they don't have it, there is the library, there is Gutenberg, there is Amazon.... we don't need your help. We really don't. If you keep forcing crap on us that we didn't want to read, sooner or later we'll snap and tell you a few home truths about your interfering ways. At the very least. We may or may not also throw your book in the trash.

OK, so there you have it. Don't force-lend books. You will lose your book, and possibly your friend.