I fell in love with fantasy with the Red Fairy Book and all the others like it. To this day I remember the Dewey call number for fairy tales is 398. My favorite Christmas present when I was 9 or so was the book Fifty Famous Fairy Stories. The cover had a lush picture of a knight holding back a drape of rose vines. Gorgeous book and my favorite for years.
When I was 11 or 12 my brother got the Heinlein book Have Spacesuit Will Travel out from the library. The title seemed funny so I read it. And was then hooked on science fiction.
For years it seemed science fiction – good, enjoyable science fiction – was readily available and fantasy was limited to dreary Tolkein wannabes plus the few authors like Roger Zelazny. I’m not sure when it happened, but I started noticing entrancing fantasy popping up in the late 1970s. The quality of the fiction, the writing skills, character development and world building have improved and I now find many excellent fantasy books.
So, should you bother to read this blog? Will my tastes match yours in any way? I don’t know. What I can do is tell you what I like and don’t like and you can decide from there. Deal?
I like books that are well written, or at least competently written. Please, use spell checker; use grammar checker. Long-winded, flowery sentences filled with adjectives turn me off. That said, I will read mediocre writing if everything else is good.
Writing that evokes imagination and emotion always gets a plus.
Plot is important. So are characters, settings and dialogue. Please no rent-a-villian or sappy heroes. People should have motives for what they do, even if the motives don’t make sense to anyone except themselves. Random behavior is annoying.
Magic and technology don’t have to make a ton of sense outside the novel, but they should be internally consistent.
I read for fun but a few thought-provoking points along the way are fine. Modesitt does this well in many of his books.
And for the practical matters, I’m female and probably older than you. I am Catholic and cringe at some novels that include pantheons, but can still enjoy them as fiction.
Many of the links used here are affiliate links, which means I get paid a small commission if you click on the link to buy the book. The opinions are all mine.
Welcome to my world and remember, there are so many books and so little time. Let’s read the good ones, shall we?
My name is Joel Horn, a self published author, and I see that you do book reviews. Would you be willing to let me provide you with the first two ebooks of a series in hopes that you would consider reviewing one or both? So far the first novel in the series, Lost Coast Rocket has received a 4.5 star average on Amazon from reviewers ranging from YA to a retired Harvard physicist despite what their genre tastes were.
In 2004, I started the first novel while deployed to Iraq, and a year and a half ago, I picked it up again and finished it. It is not about the war but was, rather, an escape from the war. It was written with no genre in mind and only afterwards did I try to figure out the genre. My best guess is YA/science fiction that includes a love story.
Book two, Hatching the Phoenix Egg I published last year and it takes the story started in the first, more in an adventure science fiction direction as the characters are no longer young adults and the material is more adult. So far it has a 4.6 star average on Amazon.
Although I am seeking reviews on my first novels, I am not a brand new author. Impossible Beyond This Point, the true-life adventure of my family building a remote homestead in the wilderness nearly fifty years ago, has been out a few years now and has a 4.5/5 average star rating on Amazon. I still live at the homestead this book was written about.
I want to send you ebook copies of my first novels.
Of course, I understand that you are under zero obligation to review my books, and if you do review one or both, you can leave good or a bad reviews. I am simply looking for the opportunity to have you consider them.
Thank you. I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Joel Horn
Joel Horn Author
Goodreads
Below are the Amazon blurbs.
Plausible Science Fiction, Adventure, Mystery, Love, Danger…
This story has it all!
Rockets are in Ken’s DNA. At an early age, he develops a friendship with Akira, a boy who shares his passion for astronautics. While both are child prodigies, Akira does well in private school but Ken rebels against structured education. The unlikely duo draws together a small group of rocketeers, meeting in the shop behind Ken’s house.
A tragic event at eight years of age haunts Ken through his growing-up years and shapes his destiny. As fate would have it, the girl at the center of the traumatic experience joins Ken’s rocket club, unaware of their shared history. Will Ken tell Dawn that he is the boy she seeks?
As the group reaches their teen years, their rocket designs start pushing legal boundaries, culminating in an event that puts them in the crosshairs of an FBI investigator. To protect his friends and seek refuge from his past, Ken devises an escape plan that confounds the authorities and the world.
Would You Travel a Half-Billion Miles to Escape Your Past?
That’s exactly what Ken O’Brien does in this sequel to Lost Coast Rocket.
Driven by a broken heart and a mysterious compulsion he can’t understand, Ken launches himself into space. During this one-way trip, he has just ten years to answer as many cosmic questions as he can before his body succumbs to the hostile space environment.
But he’s given an unexpected gift and his life is extended. How he spends this gift, however, makes him the most hated man in history. Will the world absolve Ken of his extreme sin? More importantly, will the green-eyed girl who broke his heart forgive him for what he was driven to do?
Hey, thanks for the great, in-depth review of Piercing the Veil. It was a pleasant surprise to read this morning. I’m glad you enjoyed and and really glad you’re looking forward to the sequel which looks to be heading for and April release.
Cheers