Advance Review (or sometimes called Reader) Copies are books released to reviewers ahead of publication. These reviewers then post their honest opinions about the book on release day across multiple platforms (like Amazon and GoodReads). Whether it’s a 5 or a 1 star, an honest review is worth it’s weight in gold—which is one of the reasons ARC editions are free to the reviewer.
Our first read is FOURTH WING, by Rebecca Yarros! Book club starts today, but if you're seeing this after Sept. 1 2023 don't worry: you have until the end of October to join and finish the book!
Life has been a little all over the place for the past couple months. I had surgery, my sister had surgery, my husband was let go from Twitch, and now we're in the middle of moving! So with all that excitement, the newsletter and Book of the Month went to the wayside.
I want a way to continue Book of the Month, but in a way that lets me get to know you all better, and lets you see what an author looks for when analyzing and learning from a novel. That means, Book Club Time!
1. Sign up for a Fable.co Account
2. Join the Sword & Board Discord
3. Click on the Fable Link pinned in #Book-Club
4. Follow the Fable instructions on how to pick up the book.
As an author, my mantra is to tell challenging stories and minimize harm. The major failing I see with sexual violence in many media forms is where the point of view and gaze fall. Particularly in western media, that gaze is often heterosexual masculine. That means sexual violence comes from that same perspective, and makes grotesque GoT Sansa scenes where her rape is all about the men (either perpetrator or witness). The violence is there to horrify and titillate the viewer. We should be horrified. We should never be titillated. Respect for the survivor is missing in these situations. I could break down where this failing is in a lot of media, but I don’t think that is the most important conversation to have. I think the more important questions are: 1) should sexual violence be included in stories for shock value, and 2) how can sexual violence be written.
If you’re looking at this before May 1, 2022, we’re currently running a special promotion on our Patreon where when you sign up at any tier, you receive the patron-only Gods Chronicle Anthology, volume 1. It is an alpha read edition that gives a great deal of backstory for characters within The Dying Sun, such as Merikh, Loralee, and Nikias. It also gives perspective to oft talked about characters Mansur and Rajiya.
Below are snippets from each of the shorts within the anthology. If you’d like to read them in full, please consider becoming a patron. Tiers start at $5/month. Thank you!
If you’re looking for books to read to help support Palestine and Palestinians through this current aggression and genocidal actions, I’ve created a list for you to look through. These books are all available through Bookshop.org, and may be available through your local libraries.
Shepherd.com is the up and coming new book site for excellent book recommendations. I was approached by them at the end of last year with a request: what book list would I like to make? And naturally, the first list that came to mind was The Best Non-Western Fantasy Books. How could I not write it?
I picked up this book over 10 years ago while working at Chapters. It was placed in the bargain section and normally, I’m a book snob and don’t tend to buy from there. The stickers on the books drive me more than a little insane when I try to pull them off. But a book with a name like The Household Guide to Dying is one I simply couldn’t resist. If nothing else, the author and I clearly share the same sense of humor.
I just finished Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty yesterday, so I don’t have a blog post reviewing it. That one will be in 2 weeks. But until then, I thought it might be well worthwhile recommending several books to read while you’re social distancing or self-quarantining. Each of these books can be found either for order on Amazon (U.S.) or on Audible. They may also be available as ebooks at your local library.
Note: I am not affiliated with any of these authors, nor sponsored by Audible or Amazon. These are just books I’ve read and loved, and hope you do too!
It’s hard to believe that it’s autumn and almost Halloween living in near-seasonless SoCal, where the high today is 95F (a balmy 35C). The high wind warning, at least, is creating obliging scratching at the windows from branches and leaves all tousled about. It’s a far cry from my childhood, where costumes were made to fit over snowsuits. To feel a little more seasonable, I’ve joined in on the tradition of ready spooky books: The Woman In Black by Susan Hill, and I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. Both of these stories have been made into movies, but if you think you know the stories you’re wrong.
It feels fitting to listen to Les Miserables while writing this. Two stories of an unjust, relentless pursuit. Underground Airlines is set in an alternate United States where slavery was never truly abolished. While most states have made slavery illegal, the Hard Four have not. It should come as little surprise to the reader who the Hard Four are: Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and a unified Carolina. The story follows Victor, a professional tracker set to find the location of the runaway slave Jackdaw. In doing so, Victor infiltrates an Underground Airline operation, and finds much more than he bargained for.
I have read less of Neil Gaiman’s work than I would like. My first introduction to him was through Neverwhere (if you haven’t read it, you should). The Ocean at the End of the Lane is my fourth read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The story is told through the memories of a middle aged man returning to his childhood home. Forty years prior, a suicide was committed at the end of the lane. It set in motion a series of events that would forever change the protagonist’s life.
