Tag: books

Review: The Broken Earth Trilogy

Laura Highcove

My Review of The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin

Since I am writing a review of the entire series, there will be spoilers from here on out. This is your warning.

My summary: In a world where some people (called oroenes) can control the earth but are reviled for it, a mother searches for her daughter, taken by her husband after he kills their son for having this power. Also, the earth is broken, and can only be fixed by catching the moon and putting it back in orbit with the earth.

Why I picked up this trilogy: I’ve heard tons of great things about it, including it winning a Hugo. I’ve had several friends who throughly enjoyed it.

What I knew going in: Very little. I actually didn’t even read the back-cover copy. I bought it based on reputation alone.

My response: This is a very odd review for me. If I had known what this trilogy was like and the themes of it before I picked it up, I never would have. However, the writing was beautiful, and the first book was just interesting enough that since I already owned the trilogy, I started reading the second. The second book took me two months to read, not something that *ever* happens to me. Usually I finish a book in a few days or I never pick it up again. I finished the last book because I figured I might as well.

My problems with the themes in this book:

1) Essun loses two children, and while I knew intellectually that I should care and understand about the pain this causes a person, I didn’t. I don’t have experience with the parent-child relationship that is fairly standard in society.

2) This book delves deeply into the ugliness created in people based on fear (whether justified or not) and the resulting anger and hatred. I get enough of this watching the world every day, and I actively avoid books that focus on this because my reading tends to be escapism.

Despite that, the writing and world building were amazing and beautiful enough to pull me along despite my flat out dislike of the main themes and lack of connection to the characters. Not even Rothfuss’ Kingslayer series could manage that. (And man that world and his writing are beautiful.) I have marked places where I want to go back and review her writing. She also did beautiful things with the merging of magic and technology, which is something I am coming to see as a recurring theme in my own books. I am glad she, and many other authors, are paving the way for this type of book in general.

The onyx says, in its ponderous, wordless way: Execute Y/N?

Do I recommend this series?: If you’ve read my review, without having read the books, you likely have enough information about the themes to decide whether this is a book you would enjoy. They are good books, I just didn’t like them and I’m not arrogant enough to consider the fact that my not liking a book means it’s bad. However, I won’t be recommending these books unless it’s an example for writers.

Gryffins: In Books and Video Games

Laura Highcove

So in putting together a post containing my gryffin collection I made a discovery. My gryffin collection is large, and so I decided to create a few different posts to show it off, rather than trying to stuff everything into one post. So this is the first post of three.

Gryffins in Books

I mentioned last week that one of the things that started me on my love of gryffins was the Mercedes Lackey series starting with The Black Gryphon. This was one of the first fantasy series I ever read. I don’t remember if I picked up this series because of the gryphons, or if it was just a happy accident.

I also mentioned the Protector of the Small series by Tamora Pierce, which doesn’t feature griffins in the entire series, but does have the main character Kel take care of a griffin kit for a while before it’s parents come to take it back. This series I read because I loved the Lioness Quartet and it just happened to have griffins in it.

I have also picked up a few series because they feature gryffins:

The Fallen Moon series I wasn’t super thrilled with. It started out good, but I think in trying make both the protagonist and antagonist human, the author ended up making neither all that likable and I wasn’t sure who I was supposed to be rooting for by the end.

The Gryffin Mage series was a unique take on griffin mythology, where they were creatures of pure magic born out of fire (I think) and while they could think and speak, the author was successful in getting across their unique way of being.

And I have also run into them in other books quite by accident.

This gryffin pops up in the first volume of Magic Knight Rayearth (it’s a manga) where a wizard summons one for them to ride around on a bit.

And also in the book, the Copper Promise by Jen Williams where gryffins are featured as a plot point later in the book. (It’s not a spoiler.) No picture of this one because there’s no picture of a gryffin.

Gryffins in Video Games

Gryphons existed within the World of Warcraft MMORPG that was crazy popular many years ago. I was actually a hardcore raider for a number of years. Anyway, gryphons are used by the humans of the alliance for their flight paths. Ie, you would talk to a flight master and a gryphon would pop out and fly you to your destination. If members of the other faction try to kill the flight master, the second picture is what would happen.


In the expansions, gryphons became mounts you could buy and use to fly yourself around. I count this as part of my collection because I did “acquire” all of the different types of gryphon mounts you could have and technically they still exist on my account even if I don’t play anymore. The first picture are two versions of the slower gryphon mounts, and the second picture is the faster armored version.


If you’re interested in seeing the other versions, here’s a link. I don’t have the High Priest’s Lightsworn Seeker (Though now that I see it, I’m rather regretful. My main was a priest.) or the two grand mounts. Those all came out after I stopped playing.

So there’s all my gryffins for this installment. More coming soon.

Review: The Fifth Season

Laura Highcove

My Review of The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

My summary: In a world where some people (called oroenes) can control the earth but are reviled for it, we follow three characters: A child, shunned by her parents and sent to the Fulcrum to learn to control her powers. A young woman is sent by the Fulcrum to train under a more powerful orogene. And a middle aged woman whose youngest child has just been killed by her husband who found out that child had the reviled power and then ran off with their daughter, just as the world has been split apart bringing a devastating Fifth Season.

Why I picked up this book: I’ve heard tons of great things about it, including it winning a Hugo. I’ve had several friends who throughly enjoyed it.

What I knew going in: Very little. I actually didn’t even read the back-cover copy. I bought it based on reputation alone.

My response: Overall I liked it, however it left much less of an impression than I was expecting. The biggest thing that stuck with me was the voice, which I liked so much I wish I could emulate it. Much of the book is written in second person, which also took a little getting used to. I very much like the ‘magic’ system and the feel of the world. Everything came very neatly and satisfyingly together in the end. The best thing I can say about it, however, is that it is very well written.

Will I pick up the next book?: I bought the trilogy together. I’m working very slowly through the second book because I’m not sure how attached I am to the actual characters. I think I’m more interested in seeing what the setting and the mysteries are going to do next. Unlike Rothfuss’ Name of the Wind series, however, I care enough about the characters to keep going. I just don’t have any overwhelming urge to sit down with it.

I Love Gryffins!

Laura Highcove

I have loved gryffins pretty much my entire life. While I love mythological creatures in general, gryffins have always held a special place in my heart.

One of the first fantasy books I ever picked up for myself was The Black Gryphon by Mercedes Lackey. It’s possible that part of the reason I loved it so much were the illustrations at the beginning of every chapter of the main characters. I will often pick up a book series just because it features gryffins. I’ve had varying levels of success with this, but I am always happy when a gryffin shows up in a book/movie unexpectedly.

So what is a gryffin? Wikipedia gives a good enough explanation. Basically, a gryffin is a magical creature that has the body of a lion, the wings, head, and front feet of an eagle. Some have feathered ears (I prefer it this way), some don’t have the front feet of the eagle and instead continue with lion for the whole body.

Two things influenced the way I saw gryffins early in my career. One is that there seems to be no ‘right’ way of spelling gryffin, and tons of ‘correct’ ways. As such, I decided to spell it gryffin because I like the letter ‘y’ (I think, perhaps, because it was the only ‘vowel’ in my last name growing up.) and I also liked the look of the double ‘f’ over the ‘ph’. As such: gryffin.

The second was Tamora Pierce’s Protector of the Small series, in which the main character, Kel, is forced to raise a baby gryffin for a while. When the parents finally come to get the baby, they give Kel some of their feathers which give truesight. I latched onto this idea of gryffins being the embodiment of truth as well as protectors (usually of treasure, but I took liberties with that.)

This is much of the way gryffins are portrayed in The Law of the Prince Charming’s world. Gryffins (Though we only meet one in the book.) have the Laws of Truth and Protection, as well as Wings and Wind. Though none of my other books have really made it ‘out there’, they tend to always have a gryffin in them somewhere. In fact, the first story I ever wrote that made it to 100 pages in a word document (I didn’t know about counting words back then) was about gryffins.

Stay tuned for more pictures (and explanations) of the gryffins I have collected. I have lots.

Review: Oathbringer

Laura Highcove

Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

My basic summary: In a world plagued by regular hurricane-like storms and made mostly of stone, our intrepid heroes (Established in the first two books) continue on their path to try and reform the Knights Radiant. This book focuses on Dalinar and his purposely hidden back-story as he leads the charge with the Knights Radiant, tries to bring together the monarchs of the world, and figure out who he is, all while exploring a ancient city none of them understands. Then they find out who they’re really fighting.

Why I picked up this book: It was written by Brandon Sanderson.

What I knew going in: I knew Oathbringer was going to focus on Dalinar.

My response: Overall, I really enjoyed this book. Because of its length, I had to read this book over a much longer time period than I usually read books, and as such I think I had far more time to mull over what I was reading before I was finished. This resulted in my stepping back and seeing the writing more than with other books. (Well I suppose it could also be that this book was more poorly written and thus more transparent, but I’d rather liken it to my being more aware of writing instead.)

There were certainly some plot choices where they left me scratching my head, and others that made perfect sense. As always, the climax pulled everything together pretty perfectly. And I am so happy with where Adolin’s story arc is going. I was really worried about him after the end of Words of Radiance.

Also, because these books are so large, I made sure to mark places I wanted to go back to before I left them because I don’t see a world in which I have time to read these monsters more than once. Though most of these were for picking apart his writing at a later date.

Sanderson also did some beautiful things regarding depression and ones view of themselves in this book that brought me to tears. Nothing heavy-handed, but just a reminder that we humans always feel so alone and yet there are other people out there who have experienced what you have.

Will I pick up the next book: While I know it will be at least two years, yes. And I am following details about it closely. (Though truthfully, I am following details about most all of his books and their release schedule.)

Review: Jade City by Fonda Lee

Laura Highcove

Jade City by Fonda Lee

My summary:

On an island nation where jade (the stone) gives magical powers to those sensitive to it, clans fight for territory, honor, and jade. Lan inherits the position of Pillar (Leader-man of his clan) from an ailing grandfather who has dementia and doesn’t want to let go. He’s supported by his brother Hilo, who is his Horn (Lead fighty-man for the clan) and a hot-head. His sister Shae comes back after time spent abroad (which was not looked on favorably by the family) and refuses to get involved in the clan and wear her jade. Lan struggles to earn respect in his position, and then he finds out his Weather Man (Business-man for the clan) may be conversing with an enemy clan.

Why I picked up this book:

Truthfully? I saw enough ads for it. And I read this which got me involved in the story around the book as well.

What I knew going in:

Asian style story involving family, honor, and magic. Which, let’s be honest, is all on the front cover.

My response:

Overall a good read, though nothing mind blowing. I gave it three stars. It has a steep learning curve (ie: There is a *lot* of vocabulary to learn.) and it took a while to get used to that, added to the fact that people can be referred to by first or last name. It has all the feel of a culture where family is *everything* and honor fills in whatever gaps are left.

I stopped to think about my favorite character in Jade City and in my mind I said: “Well I love Anden, and Lan, oh and Shae, and I really like Hilo …isn’t that like, all the main characters?”

As per usual, I love seeing strong relationships between characters and them being loyal to each other. There were enough un-reasonable people around to keep things interesting, but even the “bad guys” aren’t just bad. They’re all real characters and have legit motivations for what they’re doing, which I appreciate.

Will I pick up the next book:

I’m not waiting on bated breath, but I will if I see it.

World Fantasy Con 2017

Laura Highcove 4 Comments

So a week ago I went to San Antonio for World Fantasy Con. It’s my first year going, and I basically decided to go because I heard it mentioned on Writing Excuses and I wanted to get some experience with specifically fantasy focused conventions.

I was rather apprehensive because, while I’ve been rockin’ the convention scene since 2000, with Otakon and a few other anime conventions, I’ve never been to one focusing on books and truthfully I didn’t know what to expect. Otakon is huge and so my biggest change in expectation is that I knew it wasn’t anywhere near that large.

On the first day I was able to talk to someone who had been there before over breakfast, and she told me a few things to expect, like there is very little cosplay at WFC, (which is a change from Otakon) about the con suite (where the serve you food), and the readings.

After I got my badge they directed me to a room where I got a shoulder bag full of books. I was pretty surprised and happy, even though I couldn’t take them all home on the plane. I read several of them before I left and had to leave the others behind. The ones I did keep/read were enjoyable, and it opened me up to some books I wouldn’t have picked up on my own.

I went to the Opening Ceremony Panel where they had their guests, Martha Wells, Tananarive Due, Karen Joy Fowler, Gregory Manchess, and David Mitchel, all talk a bit about secret history, which is the theme of the con. It was a good introduction.

I then went to a reading by Curtis Craddock, who read from a swashbuckling style book called An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors which was a very intriguing read. I went to his reading just because there wasn’t a panel I wanted to attend at that time and I wanted to experience some live readings so I have ideas for mine in the future. And now I am adding that book to my ‘to read’ pile.

There was a panel called Beards and Intrigue: Queering the Historical Fantasy where the discussion was on LGBTQ+ protagonists in fantasy. The panel itself was great and the panelists included in their introductions their gender and sexual preference and it wasn’t until question and answer time that someone pointed out how cool it was that they had done that, and the entire audience just accepted it.

But that really was an overall theme that I noticed for the weekend. Fantasy people …I dunno, we’re just hardwired to accept things. We’re so used to reading about protagonists that are different, if they’re even human at all, and then being drawn into a story where we sympathize with those characters. So it gives us a leg up on the ‘live and let live’ style of existence.

The next day there was Exploration of Gender in Fantasy panel, where I found out about the Tiptree Award, which is “an annual literary prize for works of science fiction or fantasy that expand or explore one’s understanding of gender.” (from wikipedia).

And there was a panel Hild and Hilt: the Female Monk, the Lone Woman Protagonist where they talked about what it took to be a ‘lone woman protagonist’ and how that was different from a male protagonist.

I went to a number of other panels and readings and really enjoyed most everything I interacted with. And at the end of it all, when I was at the Awards Banquet and I was listening to Martha Wells speak, I realized something about the weekend that had sort of flitted at the edges but not really hit me. Unlike writing conferences I’ve been to, these were my people. I could feel it in the air and in the way everyone interacted with each other. Everyone was interested in fantasy books, they read them and brought them up as examples, and talked about them with such fervor; unlike at conferences where I feel like genre sort of sits on the sidelines and sometimes gets mentioned and usually by lumping fantasy together with science fiction. (Not that I have anything against science fiction, but it is different.)

After the Con was over, I had some extra time to go around San Antonio and experience the Riverwalk, which was amazing. Unfortunately I got sick on the way home and I still can’t breathe through my nose, but it’ll pass. But all in all, I was very glad I went and experienced it, and not only because of the free books.

Analyzing Howl’s Moving Castle (And Why I Liked the Book Better than the Movie)

Laura Highcove

Next in my series of analyzing my favorite media is Howl’s Moving Castle. I saw the movie before I read the book, mostly because I watch all of Hayao Miyazaki’s films. I loved the movie and so I went out to buy the book. I also loved the book.

Over time, when I would pull the movie out to watch, I found myself instead watching a few minutes of the movie and then going and getting the book to read instead. Howl’s Moving Castle is only 329 pages, so it’s a quick read.

Reasons I Like the Book

1) Character:
I love Sophie and Howl’s relationship and how it develops so naturally between them as they snipe back and forth. Especially! the tiny bits of care Howl displays between his irresponsibility and arrogance that gradually grow more frequent. In fact, I love this so much about the book, that it’s the biggest the reason I don’t watch the movie anymore, because it is practically non-existent there.

Howl said. “I think we ought to live happily ever after,” and she thought he meant it. Sophie knew that living happily ever after with Howl would be a good deal more eventful than any story made it sound, though she was determined to try. “It should be hair raising,” added Howl.
“And you’ll exploit me,” Sophie said.
“And then you’ll cut up all my suits to teach me,” Howl said.

2) Voice/Plot:
Both of these have to do with the book being well written. The narrator is so delightfully playful and the dialogue is witty and appropriate.

“Go to bed, you fool,” Calcifer said sleepily. “You’re drunk.”
“Who, me?” said Howl. “I assure you, my friends, I am cone sold stober.” He got up and stalked upstairs, feeling for the wall as if he thought it might escape him unless he kept in touch with it. His bedroom door did escape him. “What a lie that was.” Howl remarked as he walked into the wall. “My shining dishonesty will be the salvation of me.” He walked into the wall several times more, in several different places, before he discovered his bedroom door and crashed his way through it. Sophie could hear him falling about, saying his bed was dodging.

I also appreciate how well the plot is explained to Sophie in the end. Howl does a lot behind her pov and the Witch of the Waste’s plot is rather complicated, but at the same time I never remember feeling confused about what was happening and why.

Reasons I liked the Movie

1) Bishounen:
Bishounen is a Japanese word that literally means ‘pretty boy’. I grew up watching a lot of anime and this is a trope that is quite prevalent in anime. I love men who are classified as pretty over handsome. Howl is a bishounen.

2) Sense of Wonder:
Hayao Miyazaki knows how to add wonder to his movies by just showing the beauty of nature. It’s probably why I like most of his movies.

Why I Like the Book Over the Movie

1) The movie plays Howl up as noble, with his ‘saving’ Sophie from the soldiers at the beginning and his rampant disapproval of the war. This overshadows his being an irresponsible, arrogant womanizer. I can see why I liked the movie so much at first, because who doesn’t love a beautiful, noble character? Then I fell in love with the flawed Howl. I read the book to watch Howl become a better person through his interaction with Sophie.

2) Sophie does not have any magic. At least not that’s obvious. The one bit of ‘overt’ magic that she does do, in returning Howl’s heart, is in no way foreshadowed, so it’s easy to say Sophie can do it because she loves Howl. I suppose this is rather petty, but I feel like the magic was so naturally a part of who Sophie was that its absence gives her a different feel.

3) The whole war, which was there to create conflict instead of the Witch of the Waste …perhaps because her plot was too complicated? In the end the war didn’t mean anything except there were bombs dropped during the climax. (That and it reveals that Suliman was apparently covertly creepy/evil what with her mini-Howls and the implication that the war was just an excuse for her to gather and strip the powers of witches and wizards.)

4) The Witch of the Waste being horribly ineffective. She curses Sophie, admits she can’t undo the curse, can hardly walk up stairs, gets her magic taken away, and then turns into a senile invalid.

Now I’m sure a lot of parts of the movie suffered because, well, it was a movie and not a book. Books just have more time for detail and character arcs. What I can’t forgive is just how different the Howl from the book felt than the Howl from the movie. I could have been fine with the war subplot if Howl could have just been himself. But since one of the things I enjoy the most in my media are the characters and their relationships, I’ll just continue reading the book and using the movie for character designs.

What’s Your Favorite Type of Story?

Laura Highcove

Another prompt from the DIYMFA.com. To find out more, you can check out the DIYMFA.com’s instigator, Gabriela Pereira’s new book DIY MFA.

QOTW 15: What’s Your Favorite Type of Story?

My favorite type of story is one that has a theme of camaraderie, either a pairing or a team of some kind. This does not (necessarily) mean an ensemble cast. I am a fan of characters interacting with each other in a place of teamwork and/or trust. It can be romantic or not. (I am always a fan of a good bromance.) I also like it when it starts out as hate or reluctance.


The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Examples across media include:

Castle: The four main characters are willing to do anything for each other, even if it’s sometimes outside the law.

Psych: Shawn and Gus seem to know what each other is thinking and are always together, have each other’s backs, and the jokes they pull off together are amazing.

Suits: In the cutthroat lawyer world, the two main characters are seriously loyal to each other.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (TV Show and Movie): In the TV show, the two main characters are partners and work very well together. In the movie they start out hating each other and come to a sort of grudging respect.

BBC’s Merlin: The two main characters start out hating each other and eventually develop into friends AND in later seasons get a whole team that works together on trust.

Speed Racer This movie has a theme of family, and plenty of times when everyone has to work together to get stuff done.

The Avengers: More an ensemble cast, but they all have to learn to work together

Blue Exorcist: Team of students that bond through their adventures enough to keep them together when they find out the main character is the son of the devil. (This one’s an anime.)

The Legend of Eli Monpress: The main character and his team are already established at the beginning of the books, but it’s their bonds to each other that keep them from failing.

Brandon Sanderson novels: He likes to have a tight knit team that works well together and gets along (fairly well) in most of his books.

As you can see, it’s a wide variety of different types of relationships and teams that gets me interested, but it’s no surprise that I have a similar theme in all of my own stories.

Why does this archetype appeal to me so much?

Because I inherently want to trust people.

Because these are the kinds of relationships I want to have.

…it’s something like that I’m sure.

I don’t like books where everyone betrays everyone else all the time and are just out for themselves. I like to see people willing to go to the mat to defend a friend. I like to see people throw it all on the line for something they might not even understand because it’s important to the person they trust. I never get more teary eyed than when two people (especially who hated each other previously) go back to back. It’s about that connection. It also tends to result in some pretty awesome dialogue as friends snark at each other.

Out of this I am planning on doing a series of blog posts going into more depth with what I like about my favorite media, and what I didn’t like about media I consumed and didn’t like. I expect I’ll find that a lot of the things I like about the media I consume end up in my own stories, like this one, but there may be some that I’m not even aware of right now, and if I become aware of them, then I can manipulate them to better effect in my own storytelling.

Mistborn (Part One) Story Structure

Laura Highcove

In our most recent DIYMFA call, we were challenged to take a short story or children’s book and see if we could identify the parts of story structure within the book.

This fell right into a question that had been pushing around recently in wondering if, when a book is broken into parts (common in Fantasy), each of those parts also follows basic story structure.

So I decided to make the challenge a little harder on myself and see if I could figure out the story structure for Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson, Part One. (I used the paperback version to get the page numbers.)

Here’s what I found:

Opening Image (Part One): Description of Vin’s crew’s safe house. (pg 19-21): Seeing Vin as the main character, I made this decision based on the fact that the first part takes Vin from where she is, to bring a part of Kel’s crew, so her opening image is her little world.

Inciting Incident (Part One): Vin’s crewleader kicks off his plan. (pg 25): This is why the story starts here, because this plan is what leads Vin to being found by Kelsier.

Opening Image (Mistborn): Description of Luthadel by Kelsier. (pg 28-30) The overarching plot of the novel is the caper, so Kel’s description of the city seems a much better “opening image” for that story.

1st Reversal (Part One): Vin decides to use her “luck” on the High Prelan. (pg 39) This is the choice Vin makes that causes everything after to happen.

Inciting Incident (Mistborn): Kelsier and Dockson observe Vin using her “luck” on the High Prelan. (pg 40): This event is what brings Vin into Kelsier’s noticing.

Temporary Triumph (Part One): The crew members saying they’re in after hearing Kelsier’s plan. (pg 79-81): Getting the crew to agree to the plan is a triumph, even if it doesn’t mean things go smoothly.

2nd Reversal (Part One): Kelsier and the crew outline the steps of the plan, everyone really sees what an impossible task this caper is, and Yeden wants to pull out. (pg 122): I had trouble with this because there isn’t a *ton* of conflict considering it’s the beginning of the book.

Dark Night of the Soul: (Part One) Vin doesn’t want to trust Kelsier (or any of the crew for that matter) (pg 156-157) At this point, Vin almost leaves the crew due to her inability to trust.

1st Reversal (Mistborn): Vin actually agrees to be part of Kelsier’s crew (pg 158): Vin makes the decision here. She has an out and chooses to stay anyway.

Crisis/Climax (Part One): Vin has to fill in the role of a noblewoman for the caper to work. (pg 165) Vin finds her role will be larger than she thought.

Closure (Part One): Vin settles into the idea of Kelsier being a good man (trustworthy). (pg 168) Vin has changed just a little bit, in that she’s willing to trust Kelsier.

I’m not sure if people more studied in story structure would think that my interpretation is sufficient, but I feel like all the beats are there. At the same time I could be grasping at straws because I went into this wanting Part One to follow basic story structure. Either way, I think the exercise is helpful and if anyone would like to challenge what’s here, I would love to discuss it.