Book Review: The Name of the Wind

Book Review: The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss

The riveting first-person narrative of a young man who grows to be the most notorious magician his world has ever seen. From his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, to years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime- ridden city, to his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that transports readers into the body and mind of a wizard. It is a high-action novel written with a poet's hand, a powerful coming-of-age story of a magically gifted young man, told through his eyes: to read this book is to be the hero.

            -Amazon book description

Characters: Kvothe is our first person narrator (although in interludes the book moves to third person). He is a brilliant young man (child for much of the first third of the novel) who is trying to survive terrible circumstances. Despite his brilliance, his arrogance and youth often contrive to put him in peril. We know he survives; the story is in how he manages it. A wonderful cast of well-developed supporting characters surrounds him.

World building: A rich, well thought out world. It is a fantasy world, but you will not find hordes of goblins or tall, fair elves with bows. The world has a late Medieval/early Renaissance European feel to it. The otherworldly creatures that do exist do not steal the story, but do add flavor to it. The author has created a balanced system of magic with solid mechanics that do not feel overpowered.

Writing/Mechanics: Professional in every way. Beautifully written.

Engagement/Willing suspension of disbelief: Not once was I pulled out of the story with thoughts of “no way, that couldn’t happen”. Instead, I was pulled in and thoroughly engrossed the entire way through. I freely admit to moments where I laughed out loud and others where I teared up.

Impact: A wonderful fantasy novel. I immediately purchased The Wide Man's Fear, the second book in the series. I give The Name of the Wind my highest recommendation. 

Progress Report

Hi Folks!

Things are going great. Just hit 100,000 words and the writing is going very well. I expect the novel to weigh in at 115,000 words, so I am almost there.

I have six chapters left to write. My pace slowed down since the last progress report, but the finish line is in sight and I think my word count will pick up for the final stretch.

Right now I am in the middle third of Nidon's story line. I am having a lot of fun writing the current chapter and can't wait to get write its finale. I like Nidon. When he finds a locked door in his path he usually just knocks it down, but so far that isn't working out well for him.

Have a great weekend!

Progress Report

Just stopping by for a quick progress report.

Things have been going great on the writing front lately. I have written 25,000 words in the past 20 days, which is really terrific progress for me. By the way, 1,000 words is approximately 1% of a 300 page novel. I fit my writing in from 8:30 to 10:00 PM, as well as a little late afternoon writing if Amelia is involved in an after-school activity.

Here is a (probably overly hopeful) timeline of what is coming up:

28 days: Finish this draft of Child of the Knight as well as my revisions.
28 days: Time for my critique partners to read and comment on the manuscript.
21 days: Make revisions based on critique partners' comments.
21 days: Beta readers read and comment on the manuscript.
14 days: Make revisions and format the manuscript. Order proof copies.
14 days: Proofreaders read and make corrections on proof copies.
7 days: Correct proofs.
14 days: Final proofreader reads proof and tells me that everything is perfect! Right...
1 day: Launch Child of the Knight.

I have no idea how accurate the above timeline is. I just want to give you an idea of what steps I see in the process ahead. In my next blog post I'll write about the roles of my critique partners, beta readers, and proofreaders.

By the way, the free ebook giveaway has been terrific. I'm glad so many people have downloaded and read Eternal Knight. If you've read it, please tell someone about it! Nothing helps a book like word of mouth. And if you want to keep your author super-motivated, I love hearing from readers. Every nice note I get motivates me to go just a little bit further. 

Best,

Matt

Guest Review - The Lightning Thief

Today we have a guest review from my daughter, Amelia...

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My name is Amelia and I am nine years old. My favorite subjects are history and science. I also LOVE reading! Before this school year I never really read much at all. My classmate Robert said that he loved reading The Lightning Thief. It looked very interesting so I checked it out at my school library. Which brings me to this review…

Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1:
The Lightning Thief

Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson is on the most dangerous quest of his life. With the help of a satyr and a daughter of Athena, Percy must journey across the United States to catch a thief who has stolen the original weapon of mass destruction – Zeus’ master bolt. Along the way, he must face a host of mythological enemies determined to stop him. Most of all, he must come to terms with a father he has never known, and an Oracle that has warned him of betrayal by a friend.

-From the back cover

Characters: Percy Jackson is a twelve year old who goes to a reform school. He has ADHD and dyslexia and always seemed to get in trouble. I loved the way he solved problems. He was very clever ands smart. Annabeth is Percy’s friend. Her mom is Athena (goddess of wisdom). Annabeth is very smart. Her weapon is a special knife that can kill monsters. Percy’s protector is a satyr (half man, half goat); satyrs help protect soon to be demigods from monsters.

Setting: I love the setting! It is mordern day New York City and it’s mixed with Ancient Greece. Some of the places are mordern day tourist attractions but they have a Greek secret hidden in them!

Genre: It is a mixture of fantsy and Greek mytholgy. It has lots of adventure and magic.

I would give this book 10/10 or 5 stars! It is a young adult novel, but I think anybody can enjoy it!

Review of The Red Knight

Twenty eight florins a month is a huge price to pay, for a man to stand between you and the Wild.

Twenty eight florins a month is nowhere near enough when a wyvern's jaws snap shut on your helmet in the hot stink of battle, and the beast starts to rip the head from your shoulders. But if standing and fighting is hard, leading a company of men - or worse, a company of mercenaries - against the smart, deadly creatures of the Wild is even harder.

It takes all the advantages of birth, training, and the luck of the devil to do it.

The Red Knight has all three, he has youth on his side, and he's determined to turn a profit. So when he hires his company out to protect an Abbess and her nunnery, it's just another job. The abby is rich, the nuns are pretty and the monster preying on them is nothing he can't deal with.

Only it's not just a job. It's going to be a war. . .

-from the book description

The Red Knight, by Miles Cameron

Characters: The Red Knight features a wide cast of characters, with each chapter giving us a different point of view. Our primary point of view is the Red Knight himself, a young mercenary commander. The Red Knight might be young, but he knows his business. I don’t put spoilers in my reviews, so I’ll just mention that there is more to the Red Knight than (of course) first meets the eye. Besides the Red Knight we have a rich cast of characters, including the novel’s primary antagonist. I enjoyed getting both the “good guy” AND “bad guy” point of views.

World building: This had to be one of my favorite elements of the novel. Cameron has taken Europe (circa 1450, I estimate) and tuned it to his own fantasy setting. You’ll recognize names and places from European history, some straight out of the history books, some given interesting twists. The book combines the author’s deep knowledge of history with a truly refreshing, well thought out overlay of magic and fantastic monsters (some you’ll recognize, some you won’t). It is a gritty, highly realistic setting.

Engagement/Willing suspension of disbelief: Cameron is a historian and a reenactor. Both come through in spades when it comes to engagement. Small details of everyday life create a rich, believable atmosphere. And Cameron certainly knows how to write a gripping combat scene. Knights in other fantasy novels wear the same armor, but in the Red Knight you really get to know what is means to be in a full suit of plate. It is obvious that the author has spent his fair share of time in full harness.

Writing/Mechanics: The Red Knight is a professionally written novel. Besides getting an exciting story, you are getting a well-written story. It is not all blood and guts, Cameron takes time to smell the roses. Love and hate, the nature of good and evil, the meaning of loyalty and friendship... Cameron writes them as well as he writes a deadly battle with a wyvern.

Impact: A terrific fantasy novel. It isn’t a YA fantasy, this is a tough, realistic telling of a bloody war in a  fantasy setting. It also isn’t a Dungeon’s and Dragons knock off - which is a great relief. It has the depth, complexity and realism of GRR Martin in a world where magic and monsters are more the norm. I can’t wait for more. 

Holy Smokes

Ok, people like free stuff.

Apparently they REALLY like free stuff.

In my last blog post I mentioned that I had set the ebook price of Eternal Knight to free. On Tuesday I took a look to see how many downloads there had been.

In ten days 2,100 people had downloaded Eternal Knight on Amazon. WOW! In the month of December I had one (1) $.99 cent sale on Amazon.

I tried to figure out how they learned about it. I'm still not sure. If you sort Amazon books (Fantasy) by price (low to high) and rating (high to low), Eternal Knight comes out pretty high on the list. Do a lot of people do that? Or is there a website that automatically promotes free ebooks? Or is something else going on?

In any case it is pretty exciting. Right now all I want is for people to read Eternal Knight. As many people as possible. Hopefully some of them will write reviews. Hopefully many of them will tell their friends how much they liked it. Word of mouth starts big things rolling.

In my last post I also mentioned that a lot of downloads would light a fire under me.

Mission accomplished.

Eternal Knight ebook is FREE

Hello!

Yes, I am a bad blogger. What have I been doing? Being a dad, teaching, reading, making bows, some gaming.

Bad author.

Time to get back in the saddle again and finish off Child of the Knight. To get me fired up I've decided to set the ebook price of Eternal Knight to FREE. So if you know anyone who recently received an iPad, Kindle, or Nook, let them know about Eternal Knight.

An uptick in sales (can you call them sales if they are free?) will definitely light a fire under me.

Best,
Matt

No, she's not Katniss...

Apparently any girl with a bow is now Katniss. That's what you call success!

But this isn't Katniss... it's Hadde.

Here she is in action.

But that wasn't her costume this year. I just wanted a fun Hadde photo. Here was Amelia's costume this year:

She saw the helmet in the costume store and just had to be a viking. The helmet was a souvenir from Epcot (I was so proud that our daughter's only Disney World memento was a viking shield). The sword was from an old pirate costume of mine.

Speaking of Halloween archers, here's a "Fire Bow" I made for my nephew.

Here are the flames:

It draws 25 pounds at 25 inches. I'll post a few pics of the archer himself as soon as I get them.

I've gotten back to writing. I'll post a progress report soon!

Review of Tom Swan

Tom Swan and the Head of St. George

A serialized ebook novel by Christian Cameron

1450s France. A young Englishman, Tom Swan, is kneeling in the dirt, waiting to be killed by the French who've taken him captive.He's not a professional soldier. He's really a merchant and a scholar looking for remnants of Ancient Greece and Rome - temples, graves, pottery, fabulous animals, unicorn horns. But he also has a real talent for ending up in the midst of violence when he didn't mean to. Having used his wits to escape execution, he begins a series of adventures that take him to street duels in Italy, meetings with remarkable men - from Leonardo Da Vinci to Vlad Dracula - and from the intrigues of the War of the Roses to the fall of Constantinople.

-from the “back cover”.

Characters: As with all of Cameron’s novels, we get characters out of history, not modern people in costume thrust into a different age. The characters’ behaviors and actions are true to the time period and this has the effect of making the book seem more real. The book opens with Tom Swan as a helpless captive, and given his desperate situation, he immediately gains the reader’s sympathy. He is a likeable, resourceful protagonist surrounded by an interesting cast of supporting characters.

World building: Cameron is unmatched when it comes to world building. He is both a historian and a reenactor and it comes out beautifully in his novels. Cameron has a wonderful way of adding rich details to his historical fiction, without sounding like a professor giving a college lecture. Tom Swan immerses the character in the world of late medieval France.

Engagement/Willing suspension of disbelief: This is not a fantasy novel, it is historical fiction. Given this, I expect realistic depictions of events while at the same time a story filled with enough action to keep me engaged. Again, Cameron does not fail. The fights are brutal and realistic, with genuine danger for our protagonist. Tom Swan is no Conan, able to charge into a horde of enemies. In fact, he reacts to surviving combat in a very human, realistic manner. At no point did I want to pull back in disbelief. Cameron kept me fully engaged in the story.

Writing/Mechanics: Tom Swan is a professionally written novel. Cameron writes excellent prose, but I’ll warn you that he doesn’t shy from historic terms for clothing and equipment, and you’ll occasionally run into non-English words or phrases. But for me, this just adds to the richness of the experience. The context of the story tells us what the items are and what the words mean.

Impact: I read the novella in one sitting and loved it. Actually, it is not a novella, but one part of a serialized novel. And this is my one disappointment. Now I have to wait a month to be a part of Tom Swan’s next adventure.

Bow Number Two

Thought I'd show you my second bow. It is another American longbow/flatbow. Overall length is 6' and the draw weight is 45 pounds at 28 inches.

Once again, I "backed" the bow with brown craft paper soaked with wood glue. I painted the paper black and did another swirling design on it. (I need to work on some new designs.)

Here's the bow at full draw. I enjoy shooting it more than my first bow, although I am far from a good shot. At this point I am willing to admit that I am definitely addicted to making bows (number three is well along).

Now that the school year has started it is time to focus on my real job. And now that I will have a normal (non-summer) schedule there will be more writing going on. I suppose bow making and archery will have to move a couple of steps down the ladder.