Book Review: That Prince Guy and This Glass Heart by Mariah K. Porter

Snow White and Cinderella, not so much in retelling as in reweaving of motifs. Plus a lot of magical adventure fantasy.

Ms. Porter says retelling. I won't argue, but I think reweaving is more descriptive.

(I have my own retelling of Snow White, sitting out there unfinished. These are a different approach.)

That Prince Guy can definitely be considered a retelling, but the focus is not on the motifs from the fairy tale -- the wicked step mother, the magic mirror, the poison apple, etc. -- as on the context in which the elements are connected.

The motifs are there, but with twists: The wicked stepmother is somebody else's stepmother. The magic mirror breaks and is then used by the good guys. The poison apple is foreseen, and guarded against with partial success.

And the Princess is definitely not just passively enduring all the injustices of life. She may go along for the ride, but she takes her turn in the driver's seat.

Nor does she automatically trust her prince when she meets him.

And (drum roll) the kiss does get top billing, but even that has a twist. Or two. Or three. Not limited in effect to the Snow White character, but that's a spoiler, so I didn't tell you about that, okay?

This Glass Heart could be called a meta-retelling. There is no glass slipper for this Cinderella, only a glass heart. Or the idea of a glass heart.

And the Cinderella character is not being bullied by step-family. She feels ignored, slighted, and somewhat misused by her real family, but there is no step-family. That is, the step-family is not hers. And the wicked step-mother turns out not to be so wicked as all that, after all.

She does lose her real mother in the events of the first book, but  she gets her back in this book. And the fairy godmother role is taken in part by her real mother and in part by the stepmother (someone else's, as I say).

And the Cinderella character hardly makes any appearance at the ball at all, and she goes and leaves with her prince before midnight. (But is this a metaphorical prince or a real prince? And it's not a spoiler to tell you he can definitely do magic.)

Midnight plays a prominent part, but there are no magically transformed mice. (Is my memory right?) Magically transformed humans, yes.

If you're looking forward to the pretty wedding scenes, you may be a little disappointed with the endings. I did feel like the endings were a little sudden. But, on reflection, Ms. Porter ties up the necessary threads for each story. And she tells us up front it's a series. And pretty packages are an illusion, anyway. The reader's imagination is quite serviceable for those parts, if necessary.

The writing is a bit quirky, but quite readable, quite enjoyable, as long as you don't expect your fairy tales to conform to staid manuals of style.
 

These are also books I have had a chance to beta-read. I was going to wait until the third part of the series was done to write this review, but it seems Ms. Porter has hit some rough spots, at the time I post this review. Writing is a journey, an adventure of exploring the author's ideas and memories. If the writer herself does not take time to explore, the prose will lack. Rough spots can be good. They give the writer a chance to explore, and to add depth to a story.

But these reviews need to be posted, so more people can find her books and enjoy them.

Both books recommended, looking forward to the next book, when it's ready. (And not before.)

On Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B082XBLGVX?ref_=series_rw_dp_labf

Book Review: When Love Is Lost, by Kameo Monson

(This is another one I got to read at the beta stage, and I recommend it. Ms. Monson asked for opinions on a chapter in the middle, and I was hooked. When she asked for beta readers for the whole book, I volunteered.)

It's women's fiction, a love story, romance, inductive mystery, thriller, tale of stalking, tragedy, tale from an unreliable witness, ...

Potent mix.

Recapping the blurb:

Deb finds herself facing mid-life crisis, bored, questioning her own marriage, and tempted by a forbidden relationship, as two friends face much more difficult crises.

Her old friend Betty deals with old wounds from a love lost long ago, wounds which are reopened in a life-threatening manner.

Her new friend Mariah comes to grip with tragic loss when her husband suffers a disabling injury at the worst possible time, and then faces an even greater loss.

Betty and Mariah have hard choices forced on them, but are able to find a choice for a hopeful future.

Deb helps them both by just being there for them. But who will help Deb when she gives in to temptation?

Her help comes from a source she did not expect, although both she and the reader have a few hints along the way.

Dark in places, this is a heartwarming novel with a twist of an ending that reminds the reader that life can still be good.

The book listing on goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40977365-when-love-is-lost

Can be purchased on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/When-Love-Lost-Kaameo-Monson-ebook/dp/B07FMRG241

Book Review: Meet Me at Half Court, by Julie Spencer

Julie Spencer is an author of sweet romance ranging from teenage to adult. I think she writes other things as well, but that seems to be her focus right now. She likes to post some of her works in progress in her blogs as she writes, so that fans and other interested parties can get hooked read them.

I've been reading along and commenting on some of those, and she asked if I'd put up a review of Meet Me at Half Court.

The premise is simple. A tomboy high school girl with a genius for basketball and an eye for a college scholarship finds herself choosing between her old, good looking next-door-neighbor boyfriend from elementary school days with a bit of history, whose interests lie in something other than basketball, and an equally good looking new transfer student basketball player with an attitude and something of an excuse for it, and something in his garage that he probably doesn't want all the kids at school knowing he has. 

Let's see what else I can say without having to give a spoiler alert.

I find myself wishing Julie had been willing to draw the plot out a bit and give the story less of a binary ending. (I have friends who have been in the position of the less-favored boy, you see.)

I suspect it will be more interesting to middle grade girls than other audiences, generally speaking. There are a lot of fun scenes. The sports angle works, although it could have been worked harder if she had been willing to add chapters. There are some gooey romance scenes, but they stay appropriate for an audience not looking for steam.

Rating? Four of five, assuming the middle-grade audience.

I think I can also recommend it to Japanese high school students looking for something relatively safe and relatively simply and modern to build their English reading skills with. And for parents looking for something for their middle grade children to read.

Book Review: Fighting the Promise by F. Allan Roth

I've had to cut way back in my participation in the LDS Beta Readers group because of work, but F. Allan Roth was looking for someone to review his recent release, Fighting the Promise, and I had this feeling in my stomach that I should read it.

If you read the synopsis currently on Amazon, it sounds like end-times young adult action for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but it really isn't.

It's a thought exercise or experiment:

What if one of the enemies of the USA found a way to bring the country to its knees, and the leader of your religious community, in a religious address before the fact, told members of your religious community not to fight it -- not because war is wrong, but because it was the righteous judgments of God being poured out on a sinful nation?

But if he writes that as the synopsis, who is going to want to read almost 300 pages of preaching about how evil the USA has become in XYZ religion's point of view? (That's not what it is, but isn't that what you'd think?)

On the other hand, the way the synopsis stands, it kind-of sounds like Mormon end-times paramilitary fantasy. And I definitely do not think that is what it is.

Conundrum.

Yes, he is preaching -- a little bit -- through a story that doesn't quite fit in any genre, although it brushes with end-times fantasy and paramilitary thriller. But, no, he isn't really preaching that way. No Nostradamus. No picking Isaiah's prophecies apart. No predictions of dates and such. No dystopian views of depraved society.

I think he wants the reader to think about a couple of things, and he buries his premise and hypothesis in a novel that brushes with and ignores all those genre and more.

There is preaching by allegory, but I think it is skillfully done. He doesn't waste the reader's time trying to tell us every little thing we should not be doing.

I think, if I were Roth, I'd have put in a preface, something to the intent that it's just a story, not trying to predict anything, especially not dates or specifics about which ally-enemy of the USA everyone should be watching. But such disclaimers tend to be read as irony in some circles, so maybe it's just as well he didn't.

The writing is still a little rough, but you should know I am not a fan of polished saccharine sweetness. (Should we call that Aspartame™ sweetness these days?)

The first three chapters made me roll my eyes. Thoughts on my mind as I read them:

That sounds strangely like something the president of the Church said recently. (Russel M. Nelson, at a temple dedication in Chile. But the message was not about the kind of war you fight with guns. It was about the better kind of war, where you struggle with your own tendencies to do the lesser things.)

No! Stop! Someone researching devices to detect the portable nuclear bombs that are the holy grail of terrorists everywhere would not let the border patrol agents demand that trunk to be opened!

No! The president of the US would not just roll over like that. And I don't want to sit through another top-secret action thriller tracking all the bombs down and kicking the enemy out.

Wait! When are we going to track all the bombs down and start kicking the enemy out? (Heh.)

After that, the delivery is something like what you'd expect from an old warhorse with war stories to tell. Parts of it even sound like war stories, how deep the snow was, how they got through the underbrush, how they took the helicopter down, ..., but now I'm treading on spoilers.

(If you can stand a little testimonial kind of thing, I find the portrayal of the main character and his wife encouraging and sort-of-applicable to my personal situation.)

I were the editor-in-charge, maybe I'd give it a preface, disclaiming intent to predict future events, etc., especially disclaiming intent to pick which of the ally-enemies of the US are most to be concerned about.

The story is a good story, there are memorable moments and gripping sequences. It's not a fun read, although it has fun moments and ends at an upbeat point.

And the thought experiment is a very useful one. Worth reading.

How many stars? Somewhere between 3 1/2 and 4 1/2, I'd say. YMMV.

Book Review -- Diving for Love by Jenny Flake Rabe

Yeah, it's a quirky title. Not exactly the worst choice for the title, and I'm not sure I could have chosen a better title, but it might make you expect it to be about pearl divers. 

Or about snuba divers.

Oh. Wait. It is about snuba divers.

Or about one part-time snuba diver guide, negotiating deep and dangerous waters of personal and social relationships during one summer of high school. And about her summer job helping her uncle with his snuba business.

You can read the official blurb on Amazon or Goodreads or, say, the Balanced Writer. My summary follows:

Mariana takes us on a tethered dive through a slice of her life that skirts ethnic issues and plows through moral and economic issues as she solves several mysteries in her life, the most important of which is why her best friend doesn't seem to want to be her boyfriend. Most important, that is, until her uncle's busines and her grandmother's house become targets of sabotage and her own life is endangered.

Now, Jenny never took any of my advice when she was writing it. (Well, just once.) And that's actually a good thing. If she had written the first two chapters my way, the story would have been over before it began. The other young lady would never have had a chance with the best friend, and neither would the mysterious other guy with Mariana. And that unscrupulous businessman would have been dead meat within a week of Mariana's arriving at her Grandmother's house and her uncle's snuba outfit, I'm pretty sure.

So we get to enjoy watching Mariana solve her mysteries and untangle that very important tangled relationship, with the help of her grandmother, uncle, uncle's girlfriend, mother, and others close to her. And of course with the help of her best friend. And Abuela's wonderful cooking.

Fun reading.

Book Review: Spinning Silk by Taya Cook

I'm on the train recently, and I have the remarkable fortune of sitting across from a youngish woman who could make the cover of a leading fashion magazine.

Courtesy forbids that I describe her makeup and the style of her costume in too much detail for the same reasons I shouldn't just take a photo and post it without her permission. Perhaps I can say it reminds me of some of the older traditional Japanese styles. Or it makes my think of a mythical Jorogumo spider-woman. I wonder whether she is on her way to some cosplay event.

There are such writing prompts on the train every day, really. But I don't dare use them, at least not directly in my writing. Too much possibility of causing someone harm.

Common courtesy.

But this woman who was sitting across from me that day makes me think of characters from another novel I have recently had the privilege of reading at beta through the LDS Beta Readers group: Spinning Silk.

In Spinning Silk, Taya Cook creates a mashup of the oriental Tanabata/Qixi Festival myths of the cattle-herder and the weaver with the attractive and powerful shape-shifting Tsuchigumo and Jorogumo, whose creature forms are arachnid. What she produces should be considered a love story similar in substance to, and borrowing from the Tanabata myth.

As a child, Furi, the protagonist, is a member of the lower castes of a kingdom that looks like feudal Japan. Think parallel worlds or alternative realities.

Her life is cruel in the way we understand life in those lower castes was; she exists essentially as non-family chattel, spinning and weaving silk for her masters.  And what passes for her daily happiness is constantly subject to the whims of jealous members of the households in which she lives, until a deadly epidemic completely alters the patterns of her life.

Her work is beyond exceptional, and provides her with opportunities for impossible upward social mobility, ultimately into deadly contact with levels of society she never dared dream of.

Her mobility also brings her into contact with a mysterious young man of obscure and dubious origin, and this young man informs her of the truth of her own unbelievable heritage.

Gradually she develops deep feelings for the mysterious young man as she is brought into an intrigue to reform the shogunate from within, bring the military and imperial seats of power together, and bring a new era of peace unknown in the history of our world. And those feelings bring her into conflict with her role in the intrigue.

Equally gradually, she discovers a dark and deadly secret about herself, a secret which both enables her part in the intrigue and threatens the relationship she desires with the mysterious young man, repeating patterns of her own heritage.

Similarly to most fairy tales in their more primitive forms, Spinning Silk contains elements which may not really be appropriate for general audiences.

In her tale, Taya demonstrates typical consequences of a society in which power is accepted as the underlying principle of relationships between sentient beings. Her conclusion defies that acceptance, but the cost of that defiance turns out rather violent.

There is also a sexual element integral to the plot. Taya does not indulge in direct depictions of the sexual element, but she doesn't hide it. And her use of that element could be considered an implicit argument that sex has never been, and should not be considered, a safe form of recreation.

I don't believe in the moral-age-appropriateness rating system, so I won't say you should consider this a PG-13 work, but I do think you should not give it to younger teenagers without reading it first. And it may provide a springboard into discussion of important and meaningful matters, even for adults. Real literature can be difficult to read at points, and many readers will find parts of this story at least somewhat uncomfortable -- and, equally, thought-provoking.

Did I enjoy the book? Mostly.

For me, it hits a little close to home. But the pain I feel reading certain parts of it is evidence, rather, that she has captured something deep, real, and hard-to-capture about the culture.

Well worth reading.

Beta Reading and Unpolished Gems

I've spent much of this past Golden Week vacation, more time than I could afford, really, beta reading for friends from the LDS Beta Readers writers' group.

One manuscript was a billionaire romance in early beta condition. It was very entertaining, and the story itself was rather well laid out. My primary suggestion was that I wished the pace had been slower. But slowing it down would require altering the premise significantly, potentially making it less interesting. Anyway, this author is experienced, and I am confident she will get this one on the market in good shape and good order.

Another was a tale of leprechauns, witches, dragons, and some other more exotic creatures, from a less established author. The tale was engaging and even somewhat instructive. It was significantly better than most of the fantasy that gets turned into published anime. I am procrastinating the feedback because I like the story and the execution, but I know I have to tell the author it's not very marketable as it is. I want the author to be able to bring this book to publication.

A third was a Regency period romance, a tale of innocent deception in the face of sibling rivalries that go too far. It is in a close-to-period vernacular, but the reader's modern vernacular shows through at distracting points. I like the story and the layout, but the execution gets in the way a little. And I am procrastinating this one, as well, although I think I know what to focus on, to encourage the author to finish.

I hope, eventually, to be able to post reviews of the published versions of these (and many others that I have beta-read since joining this group). They have great potential.

These are beta level, so execution issues (grammar, word choice, phrasing, some minor structure issues, etc.) are to be expected. This is always something of a quandary, because we have the instinct to offer editing services and opinions that the author has not requested, and that we cannot afford to give. And if we start offering unsolicited editing, it's easy to start trying to re-write.

But rewriting somebody else's work without permission is rather a breach of ettiquette and even a discourtesy. (Publishing such rewrites could even constitute a crime against copyright law, is how discourteous.)

Beta reading is a privilege with accompanying responsibility.

Now, if you understand the Japanese principle of wabi-sabi, you might understand my following comments on the privilege:

These are all unpolished gems. Very rarely do I get to do a beta read of a manuscript that does not need editing. Often, the various errors of execution make it difficult to get started into a story.

But once you get into the flow of the author's story, the rhythm of the author's voice, the story itself comes into focus, and finishing the manuscript is usually a pleasure.

Preparing a manuscript for market almost always requires "cleaning out" the rougher aspects of the author's modes of expression. Sometimes it requires cleaning out substantial parts of the author's vision for the story, and worse.

Editing a manuscript to make it marketable requires denaturing the story.

Think how it would be if all restaurant food were subjected to the same marketing processes as the McDonalds' menu.

Do I need to map this allegory? No? You do see it, right?

Sometimes, it almost breaks my heart to beta-read. Not because the writing is bad. I haven't yet seen a manuscript that is that bad, though I have seen some that need a lot of work.

Now editing can be done with light hand. Not all edited works are comparable to McDonalds' food. But market forces tend to motivate the heavier hand more often than not.

That means that, even if you do get a chance to read the novels I have beta read this week, you will not see the rough beauty I see. It will probably be polished and palatable -- easy to read. And it may have lost significant portions of the meaning that I enjoyed reading in them.

Sometimes, the difference I expect almost breaks my heart.

Do I recommend joining a beta readers group? It depends. They do require time -- and learning to read through rough writing.

Two Book Reviews: The Witch's Reward and Beyond the Sands by Liz McCraine

Liz McCraine is another author I met in the LDS Beta Readers group on Face Book. She let me help beta read her novels The Witch's Reward and Beyond the Sands, from her Kingdom of Aggadorn series.

These are both medium light fantasy romances with some medium heavy and dark parts, no sex. Fun reads. As a sort of spoiler, the girl does get her guy in the end. But you knew that.

The Witch's Reward begins in a small kingdom patterned after medieval European kingdoms, in which magic is an operational principle, but it's practice is strictly forbidden to humans.

Lara, a farm girl whose mother was visited by a fairy before meeting a terrible fate has been raised by her grandmoher. When the men of the village go hunting, she takes her neighbor's young daughter Kiera out to gather berries.

Not unpredictably, they are attacked by a fearsome beast. But at the brink of death, Lara's unknown and innate gift from the fairies awakens and saves them, restoring both to life and health.

The villagers, duty bound, report Lara's magic to the authorities, and Lara, also duty bound, goes docile but captive to meet her fate. Her fate comes in the form of the Crown Prince and a small band of soldiers sent to escort her to the capitol for trial, and the novel tells how the Prince wins her trust and love and how she wins her freedom and her Prince.

In the process, hints of a terrible intrigue are uncovered, and an evil wizard is defeated.

The characters are likeable and fairly real, and it is with some regret that the reader leaves Kiera behind when Lara is taken away.

In Beyond the Sands, we get to mostly ignore Lara and her Prince, and follow a young adult Kiera in her own adventure.

Her adventure starts with tragedy when her father and her brother's best friend are killed by a pack of depraved formerly human kind of creatures. And we learn of Kiera's skill with the bow and her fearlessness as she dispatches these creatures in time to save her brother, if not her brother's leg.

Of course, she determines on her own to use her skill with the bow in finding where these creatures come from and put an end to the evil.

But the brother's best friend was also the best friend of a high-ranking warrior of an allied Kingdom, and this warrior, feeling guilt that he had let his friends go without him, perceives Kiera's intent at the funeral. Quite unilaterally, he determines that he must join forces with her in spite of their inauspicious first meeting.

The novel then tells of their forced partnership and their trek. Together, they gather information and make friends among the mountain villagers and help the mountain people defend themselves from the creatures while they learn to work together and defend each other.

Crossing the desert sands, they face severe tests in which they forge strong bonds and the ability to trust each other in battle. Their friendship and partnership is tested further in the enemy kingdom beyond the desert sands, as they resolve a significant part of the intrigue uncovered in The Witch's Reward.

And then, their first quest solved, as they return to their heros' welcome, they face the ultimate test of their friendship -- with a little help from Lara and her Prince.

Both novels stand on their own, but are even better together. I quite enjoyed them, and look forward to reading more in the series. (The Pirate and the Princess is already out.) I think many readers will enjoy them as well.

Book Review (w/ mine): Something Lost, LDS Beta Readers Flash Fiction Collection Part One

It seems like I'm doing a lot of book reviews lately. I guess that's because I've joined some writing circles.


This one is a little different from the previous books. It's a small anthology of short-short pieces in a format called "Flash Fiction", where we write a complete story in 1000 words or less. It has an introduction, some sort of plot element, and a resolution. 

This anthology includes women's fiction, a lot of family fiction, several small pieces of love stories, social commentary, dystopian vision, fairies, a princess, two pieces on interrupted interstellar exploration, a bit of looking beyond the grave, abusive relationships, and even a street racer with too much lust for speed.

The common theme is loss, and there are people suffering serious loss in these stories. But many of them contain a bit of finding, as well, so it's not going to be a total downer to read. I'd even venture to say there's an overall positive feeling to it, a sense of finding in the midst of loss.

But the real difference is that I have a piece in here. It's called "First Cut". I was thinking of a song by Cat Stevens, covered by Rod Stewart and (I didn't know this 'til just now.) Sheryl Crow. I sort of ask the question, is the first cut really the deepest?

The writing is good overall, the themes meaningful, and the stories short, so these would also be good practice reading for students of English as a second language.

It goes live on Amazon tomorrow.

New Book -- The Witch of White Lady Hollow -- by C. David Belt

Some might question whether a good Mormon could write real horror novels.

But many good Mormons read horror novels. I think I might suggest that is at least one good reason why we need good Mormon authors to write in the horror genre.

The Witch of White Lady Hollow, by C. David Belt, is a new novel in the horror/fantasy genre. When it is published, you will be able to find it in the usual places. (I had the opportunity to beta-read it through the LDS Beta Readers group on Facebook.)

The setup has a Mormon divorcee, Molly Moonshadow, moving to a 1970s backwater town in Missouri with her high school-aged daughter Tabitha, to teach, and to escape from an abusive ex-husband. She has found a cheap house outside city limits where she can live with her daughter.

That the house is haunted is probably not surprising, but what--or who haunts it, and how dangerous the haunting is, is a very interesting story that takes much of the novel to unfold.

Whether the haunting is limited to their house or extends beyond it is another question of interest, as is the involvement of the local police, other high school staff, students, and even the local branch of the Church.

Belt uses the tools of horror fantasy to explore some very real issues of abuse. Sexual preference, gender identity, power relationships, and rape are also touched on. Innocent people do get hurt, but abusive people get their just deserts (sometimes in ways that are graphic enough to turn more than the stomach -- be warned).

If you are lookig for light fantasy, this is not. But it's also not a one-way trip down.

I am not a fan of horror, so it's a little out of my genre. But I think it's a good read, and thought-provoking. I suspect that some of my friends and family who are fans of horror will find it a very good read, too.

New Book -- Off Script -- by Liv Bartlet: Contemporary Love Fantasy

Again, being a member of the LDS Beta Readers Group on Facebook has given me a chance to review a new book: Off Script, by Liv Bartlet (Rebecca Charlton and Sarah McKnight). This is a book I read in beta versions and was gifted a copy of the published version.

From one point of view, the story is a modern interpretation of a Regency-style romance -- how a pair develop their relationship while threading through the unwritten rules of upper-class (modern) society.

From another point of view, it's an examination of violence and power in relationships, and something of an implicit advocacy piece, especially for women, providing an LDS/Mormon female protagonist as a proxy for women's issues and other characters as proxy for other current social issues. (The advocacy does not qet in the way of enjoying it as a novel.)

The context is an intersection of LDS and non-LDS adult society, but the LDS society seems to be a proxy for pious society, and is not crypticaly LDS. I think the LDS references will not be opaque to non-LDS readers -- the reader will find them similar to references to Catholicism or any protestant sect as plot devices in many novels.

Warnings up front, there are several make-out or similar scenes, terminated by one or the other protagonist's sense of morals, or especially by the authors' sense of modesty in one case. There is one date rape scene, curtained by the female protagonist's delirium and loss of consciousness. There is also some violence. These elements are not gratuitous, but integral to the plot.

It should be considered oriented towards a mature reader.

The authors are intentionally provocative, and provide a list of topics of discussion at the end.

You can find the book at Amazon, at least. (Google search as https://www.google.com/search?q=off+script+liv+bartlet.)

My personal evaluation:

It is carefully crafted and flows well, and is not too long. (There were several scenes cut from the beta version I read which I admit I missed in the published version. But cutting them does make for a better read.)

The parts that are supposed to be enjoyable are enjoyable, those parts that are supposed to evoke other emotions are somewhat modulated, so as not to cause the reader to want too much to throw the book at a wall. (The beta copy was a bit more visceral.) Overall, it is both enjoyable and thought provoking.

I'll give it at least four out of five.

New Book -- Love Undefined (Anthology)

The LDS Beta Readers group that I've been participating in lately has released several anthologies of short-short stories written by members.

The most recent is called Love Undefined. (No, I haven't got a story in it.)

If you are interested in Mormon versions of condensed sweet romances where the girl gets her guy, these tales will be interesting.

And if you enjoy clean, short romances of love, with a hint of O. Henry-esque twist, you'll enjoy them:

* A blood-sucking immortal night-flyer finds repentance, family, and salvation.

* A teenage girl in a clan of were-creatures finds that love is more than a prop for her ego and salve to her wounded pride, when an enemy saves her life.

* Two journals record two series of dreams running in parallel in reverse.

* Christian traditions and symbolism bring a soldier back to life twice under an alien sun.

* A single woman finds love looking through her list of old flames and crushes.

* Two tartaned warriors find a way to end the bloody conflict between their clans.

* A pimpled musical prodigy finds a blind fan for her music, who inspires her to excel.

* A soldier cruelly disfigured by war wins more than friendship with the congregation's chorister.

* An inhabitant of a cold, gray and blue world unwisely leaves the protection of her world and her pack, and goes through a magic portal to a bright, vibrantly colorful, and too warm world, only to discover she can't return in her new human form. But she finds a place in her new world with her new human friend.

* A mail-order bride escaping a brothel on a slum planet finds two kinds of welcome when she arrives at her new home under two suns.

* When the reasons for a father's odd arrangement for his son to spend summers with the widow and daughter of his father's deceased business partner become clear, he rebels against the arrangement so she can have her freedom.

* And a couple celebrates their feelings for each other with a dinner and a surprise diamond ring.

Twelve authors, twelve excellent stories. Judging from activity in the group, at least some of these will turn into sneak previews for coming novels. I kind of hope they all do.

In the meantime, the anthology is available on Amazon, or direct if you know a member of the group.

New Book -- Grace from the Fall by Mike Mabe

An authors' group I have been participating in recently was invited to review a new book by Mike Mabe called Grace from the Fall. When I saw the title, I half-expected it to be a light young adult or teenage romance about a girl named Grace getting over some social embarrassment. I'm sure that had something to do with the predominance of light teenage/YA romance being written by members of the group. :-)

The title, being an inversion of the over-used title (and philosophical term), "Fall from Grace", interested me, so I read the blurb.

Teenage/YA, yes.

Light? Prison is not expected to be a light topic, although the movie, We Are Not Angels is not extremely deep.

Romance? This book could almost be classed as roman à clef.

But grace is definitely not a young woman in this story.

So now you know how I got interested in the book. I checked my schedule and thought I could squeeze in two reads and a review, so I signed up and got an advanced readers' copy.

Starting into the book was a little rough for me. I kept looking for a girl named Grace, and the writing style is definitely on the younger end of the generation gap. :-/

And the opening scene is a painful one, the start of a foot race. (Track was anything but my forté.) But something in the writing kept my attention, and Mike's description of sports from the point of view of a de-motivated youth is accurate, and not excessively painful.

I didn't put it down until the next morning.

About a week later, it held my attention just as well for the second read. (I did put it down twice, for work and to eat.)

The blurb pretty much tells you what is there -- Mike gives a very readable account of how his fall gave him the opportunity to feel and accept the Lord's grace in his life, which opportunity he had somehow been missing on his way through high school. And he shows us a sympathetic view of the people who find their way into prison without romanticizing prison or crime culture.

This is a book that should enlighten the national discussion on crime, prisons, and recidivism. I recommend it, if you have even a passing interest in the subject, and perhaps the more if you don't.

You can find it on Amazon by searching their books for "Mike Mabe Grace from the Fall", or even searching the web for the same.

I'm told that it will be available through other distributors soon.

Ender's Game -- エンダーのゲーム

[Update, 17 July 2015 -- There are many things I want to say about Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. Too many things. Could not get everything I wanted to say into a single post, so I ended up saying almost nothing beyond noting that the book was engaging enough to keep me up all night for a re-read. I'll add a few comments, mixed into the original weak post.]

I was at Kinokuniya on a Friday night a couple of months ago looking for some new teaching materials and thinking things like, "I could make something better than this if I had the time." and "Would this save me enough time to be the limits it imposes?"

And I found a novel from deep in my past.

A really good friend gave me a copy of the original novelette more than twenty-five years ago, so I picked it up to read a few pages. I ended up reading it until closing time, buying a copy, reading it on the train, and finishing it, standing up in the light by the ticket machines at my station, before I went home at about 3:30 Saturday morning.

[One of the less important thoughts I had was to compare the relationship of the original novelette to the novel by offering a parallel with Arthur C. Clarke's Against the Fall of Night and The City and the Stars. But all that really does is to point out that authors do, sometimes, re-write their own works.]

I get lonesome for English, and, in truth, if I don't read, my English goes downhill.

But I can put Harry Potter or Heinlein or even Bradbury down. [Or Clarke.]

Ender's Game is a good book, very thought-provoking, and not badly written at all.

Orson Scott Card's prose is reasonably clean, so it should also be a good novel for non-native students of English, as well.

[I have noticed a trend, as personal computers allow people to write more and write more quickly, away from the careful editing and honing that used to be a part of the publishing process. 

Scott acknowledges the imperfections in the novel. Some of them were partially addressed, to varying effect, in producing the movie.

No literary work is perfect. So what? Go read Wuthering Heights, and think about what we'd miss if we insisted on perfection.

I'd still prefer to use Word Perfect 3 for serious writing, rather than any of the word processing software we have available today, but that thought has nothing to do with Ender's Game.]

The novelette and the novel are not the same. Some differences are minor, some not so minor. But it's the same story.

I also rented the DVD. Showed it to my daughter. She thought it was interesting, but not as interesting as her anime. She isn't going to suddenly decide to try to read the novel in English, at least, not until she's finished with The Wizard of Oz.

The movie is significantly different from the novel. Some of the differences are substantial.

[But they do not interfere one of the more important messages of the book, one which becomes more and more important as our modern society becomes ever more "modern". Bad things happen when people manipulate people, even with good intent. And then we have to let the world go on without what might have been.]

The DVD shows some cut scenes that I think I agree should not have been cut. It might have made the ending more readable, but the ending should be readable to any serious science fiction fan.

[Those scenes would have made the movie more satisfying, and more understandable, I think. Spoiling the ending should not have been a concern.]

Movies do not always have to have O'Henry-style surprises.

[I think I want to emphasize one message from the book: Failing banks, failing nations, marketing wars that destroy the foundations of the industries the markets were founded on. Why are we so sure have to win it all?

And I recommend the sequel, Speaker for the Dead, as well. It is not the usual more-of-the-same that you have in sequels.]