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!
I used to finish every book I picked up. Whether I loved it or hated it was immaterial, it was a book and it was sacred. A person had poured their heart into paper and I was going to honour that by reading to the end. I wasn’t hugely critical of books beyond “Do I enjoy this or does it bore me?” There was only one book I rage quit (A Feast for Crows, because the only perspective character I cared about wasn’t in it).
Thunder Dog is the dual story of Michael Hingson and his guide dog, Roselle, surviving the descent from the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. It is also the biography of Hingson living with a disability in the United States and the challenge of living blind in a world designed for the sighted. It is a moving biography worth reading in and of itself. But perhaps it has come back into greater relevance with today’s discussion of emotional support animals and service dogs in the news.
The Song of Achilles is told from the perspective of Patroclus, Achilles’ most faithful of companions. It is the story of their lives, a deeply personal retelling of The Iliad.
Circe gives us the life story of the witch and goddess Circe of Greek myth and of The Odyssey infamy.
Both books are written by Madeline Miller. Both tell brilliantly personal stories that reintroduce the reader to characters they think they already know.
It’s been a while since we had an update and for that I apologize. The end of 2018 hit like a freight train. Primarily due to disabling health issues, I was unable to keep with the schedule started in October. My service dog, Boo, retired and our prospect arrived. So, without further ado, meet Chekov.
The Poppy War follows the story of war-orphan Rin as she wins entry to the most prestigious military academy in the Nikara Empire. At first, Rin’s priorities are purely on getting away from her old life. A life of drug trafficking and abuse. When war breaks out, Rin finds herself wrapped in a world of opium haze, shamanistic magical powers, gods, and incomprehensible human terrors.
Love it or hate it, politics informs how we live within a society. Now, the ‘Politics’ page outlines the hierarchy of how the nobility and ruling class fit into Shai’Khal.
Stormdancer, by Jay Kristoff, is the first book in The Lotus War. It is a steampunk novel set in alternate-universe Japan. The blood-lotus weed blights the county, pushed by the Lotus Guild as the only fuel for the grand machines. The weed is a balm for the masses, allowing for civilian complacency under the tyrannical Shogun.
A ringing bell dragged the Grand Vizier reluctantly from his sleep. It’s frantic trilling bespoke urgency not reflected by the listener. Nikias rubbed his eyes and groaned loudly. Whatever it was, surely it could have waited until morning? Mansur had kept Nikias working late, it felt as if he’d only just fallen asleep and now this? The only person he should be calling on at this hour is a courtesan, Nikias thought.
