April 2020 Roundup – Reading, Writing and Blogging… #BrainfluffApril2020Roundup

I’m conscious that I’ve never experienced a month like it in the whole of my life – and I’m not sure I ever will again… Or perhaps I will. Perhaps May and June will continue being in social isolation with lots of handwashing and staying at home. But what has kept my head straight is my love of reading and writing – thank goodness for both! I’ve also loved the wonderful sunny weather – it’s been a joy being able to sit in the garden and watch Spring springing… I’m conscious that I am very blessed. And given that none of us can guarantee if we will survive this, I’ve determined to be as thankful for every coming day as I can be. So despite everything, this has been a very precious April.

Reading
I read eighteen books in April, which isn’t quite as marvellous as it sounds, as one of those was a short story and another was a novella. This is the list:

The Book of Koli – Book 1 of the Rampart trilogy by M.R. Carey
The Last Emperox – Book 3 of the Interdependency series by John Scalzi
Shorefall – Book 2 of The Founders Trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett
Scythe – Dimension Drift prequel NOVELLA #1 by Christina Bauer
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker. This is my EBOOK read of the month
Dead Eye – Book 1 of the Tiger’s Eye Mystery series by Alyssa Day
Arkadian Skies – Book 6 of the Fallen Empire series by Lindsay Buroker
Q by Christina Dalcher
The Hedgeway SHORT STORY by Vivienne Tuffnell
A Little Bit Witchy – Book 1 of the Riddler’s Edge series by A.A. Albright
The Dark Side of the Road – Book 1 of the Ishmael Jones series by Simon R. Green
Firewalkers by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Mirror and the Light – Book 3 of the Thomas Cromwell series by Hilary Mantel. This is my AUDIOBOOK read of the month
The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing – Book 2 of the Vish Puri series by Tarquin Hall
The Palm Tree Messiah by Sarah Palmer – manuscript read
Witch Dust – Book 1 of the Witch series by Marilyn Messik
Girls of Paper and Fire – Book 1 of Girls of Paper and Fire series by Natasha Ngan
After Seth by Caron Garrod

Writing
I continued working on my Creative Writing How-To Book on Characterisation and I’m pleased with the progress, but I woke up on 11th April with an epiphany about some issues that had been niggling me with Mantivore Warrior – so I dropped my How-To book and immediately dived back into the manuscript to fix it. I’ve learnt from hard experience not to ever put those kinds of moments off – otherwise they pass and I forget!

I have also been working on another project that I’m hoping to be able to discuss in another couple of weeks. I don’t normally flit between so many different writing projects – but right now everything is extraordinary. So it makes sense that my writing patterns would suddenly go AWOL, too… Overall, I wrote just over 43,000 words in April, with just under 17,000 words on my blog and just under 25,500 words going towards my writing projects, which brings my yearly total to just under 180,000 words so far.

Blogging
I have found keeping up with my blog such a source of comfort and encouragement – I know social media can be responsible for some dark acts, but I happen to be fortunate enough to inhabit a really lovely corner, where I meet some of the nicest people on the planet. But that’s not a surprise, because they are readers, or writers, or both. I hope May is a good month for you and that you stay safe. Take care.xxx

*NEW RELEASE SPECIAL* Review of Shorefall – Book 2 of The Founders trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett #Brainfluffbookreview #Shorefallbookreview

I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in this series, Foundryside – see my review here – as the magic system in particular, was original and nicely complex. So I was delighted to have an opportunity to get hold of the arc of Shorefall.

BLURB: The upstart firm Foundryside is struggling to make it. Orso Igancio and his star employee, former thief Sancia Grado, are accomplishing brilliant things with scriving, the magical art of encoding sentience into everyday objects, but it’s not enough. The massive merchant houses of Tevanne won’t tolerate competition, and they’re willing to do anything to crush Foundryside. But even the merchant houses of Tevanne might have met their match. An immensely powerful and deadly entity has been resurrected in the shadows of Tevanne, one that’s not interested in wealth or trade routes: a hierophant, one of the ancient practitioners of scriving. And he has a great fascination for Foundryside, and its employees – especially Sancia.

For starters, if you haven’t yet had the pleasure of reading Foundryside, then park Shorefall and dive into the first book in this series, before going any further. I regularly crash midway into series, but this isn’t one where that tactic would end well. This book starts with a bang more or less immediately after Foundryside finishes – and with the complexity of the magic system and the fact it is essentially a continuation of the narrative arc from the first book, you’ll spend far too much time floundering to make such a strategy worth it.

It was a delight to reconnect with Sancia, Berenice, Orso and Gregory, all memorable and likeable protagonists with their own backstories and different voices – which isn’t always the case in an ensemble cast. I immediately reconnected to them all – which was important as things kicked off from the start of this one and didn’t calm down at all. Not even at the end… My favourite character, other than Sancia, was poor Clef, whose fate from the first book still reverberates through this one – and he is also involved in an amazing twist at the end that I didn’t see coming. There are some gory scenes, though nothing gratuitous, with quite a lot of dismembering going on – nothing I couldn’t handle, but I did think I’d mention it, in case you find such scenes objectionable.

The action scenes were well written, with plenty going on and a delightfully horrible antagonist I loved to hate. What I also enjoyed, was that we got see why our antagonist was quite so awful and what was driving him – I liked the fact that as far as he was concerned, the end absolutely justified the means. And he also put a strong case for it, too… He is definitely one of the more memorable villains I’ve encountered recently. The pacing issues I’d had with the first book weren’t present – fortunately Bennett took the decision to allow folks to pick up his magic system on the fly, rather than interrupting the adventure to explain it all, which I appreciated.

Overall, an entertaining and well written continuation to this memorable dystopian fantasy adventure and I’m looking forward to the final book in the series. Highly recommended for fans of well-constructed magical systems and engrossing high-octane adventures. The ebook arc copy of Shorefall was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest opinion of the book.
9/10

Sunday Post – 12th April, 2020 #Brainfluffbookblog #SundayPost

This is part of the weekly meme over at the Caffeinated Reviewer, where book bloggers can share the books and blogs they have written.

Like so many others, we’re in Week 3 of Lockdown and the outside world is beginning to feel rather unreal. At least the beautiful weather has helped. I’ve been taking coffee, tea breaks and lunch outside in the garden. As you can see, it’s been hectic… And the sun has brought out the flowers… Unusually, I haven’t read much this week, as I’ve been writing hard and making good progress on my How-To book. However yesterday, I woke up with some insights into aspects of Mantivore Warrior, so – uncharacteristically – I dropped everything and spent the day editing the manuscript and tightening up one of the major subplots.

On Thursday, my sister took her car for a service before work, so she was wearing her work tunic – she works in a chemist’s. In the middle of the afternoon rush, she looked up to find her car mechanic had queued to give her the keys, as they’d parked her car in the nearest car park rather than make her walk back to the garage. And when she got home and had a chance to look at the paperwork, she discovered the lovely people had billed her for the MOT and parts, but hadn’t charged her for the labour. What a lovely thing to do!

My father-in-law is now busy making masks for the NHS with his 3-D printers, putting in about 40 hours a week, which doesn’t sound all that impressive. Until you take into account that he is now 83, caring for his wife, and battling cancer… Some people are remarkable.

I’m making Running Out of Space free until Tuesday – if you would like to dive into an escapist read, please click on the cover in the sidebar and it will take you to your nearest Amazon store

Last week I read:
Shorefall – Book 2 of The Founders Trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett
Having narrowly saved the metropolis of Tevanne from destruction, Sancia Grado and her allies have turned to their next task: sowing the seeds of a full-on magical-industrial revolution. If they succeed, the secrets behind scriving—the art of imbuing everyday objects with sentience—will be accessible to all of Tevanne’s citizens, much to the displeasure of the robber-barons who’ve hoarded this knowledge for themselves. But one of Sancia’s enemies has embarked on a desperate gambit, an attempt to resurrect a figure straight out of legend—an immortal being known as a heirophant. Long ago, the heirophant was an ordinary man, but he’s used scriving to transform himself into something closer to a god. Once awakened, he’ll stop at nothing to remake the world in his horrifying image.

And if Sancia can’t stop this ancient power from returning? Well, the only way to fight a god…is with another god.
This one started with a bang and continued full-throttle right until the end. Sancia and her band of companions use their ingenuity and courage to face yet more overwhelming odds. Bennett is good at creating those… I found this an entertaining foot to the floor adventure with a great magic system. Review to follow.



Scythe – Dimension Drift prequel NOVELLA #1 by Christina Bauer
Truth time. I go to a Learning Squirrel High School. Don’t judge. On second thoughts, judge away. Learning Squirrel is one step above attending class in a junkyard. But what do you expect? Everything’s made out of garbage these days. At least, I have my freelance work to keep Mom and me housed, clothed, and fed. How? I’m your regular high school science geek for hire… only my work manipulates space-time. These gigs pay really well, but the government wants people like me dead. Good thing I’m super careful about hiding from their detection systems.
As you can see, the first-person narrative voice is strong and this was an entertaining adventure – though I felt the story was just gathering momentum just as the book came to an end. Review to follow


My posts last week:

An Easter Present from Me to You

Friday Face-off featuring The Wise Man’s Fear – Book 2 of the Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss

Review of AUDIOBOOK The Scorpio Races by Maggie Steifvater

Can’t-Wait-Wednesday featuring The Dark Side of the Road – Book 1 of the Ishmael Jones by Simon R. Green

*NEW RELEASE SPECIAL* Review of Death of a Bean Counter – Book 12 of Maggy Thorsen mysteries by Sandra Balzo

Sunday Post – 5th April 2020

Interesting/outstanding blogs and articles that have caught my attention during the last week, in no particular order:

Mending the Cosmic Egg https://zenandtheartoftightropewalking.wordpress.com/2020/04/10/mending-the-cosmic-egg/ A wonderful article on mending an ostrich egg and the current situation by a highly talented writer…

Women in SF & F Month: Jennifer Estep http://www.fantasybookcafe.com/2020/04/women-in-sff-month-jennifer-estep/ An inspirational article by a best-selling author…

Fiction Must Make More Sense Than Real Life https://jaceybedford.wordpress.com/2020/04/06/fiction-must-make-more-sense-than-real-life/ Jacey’s articles are always worth reading – and I really enjoyed this one…

Aquí hay una vida que vivir https://applegategenealogy.wordpress.com/2020/04/11/aqui-hay-una-vida-que-vivir/ What a wonderful example – so helpful right now…

Apologies for not having visited more – I had major technical issues where I couldn’t leave any comments on Blogger sites, for some reason. Thank goodness, it’s now fixed, although I’m not sure why…

Thank you for visiting, reading, liking and/or commenting on my blog – I hope you and yours have the best possible Easter and a peaceful, healthy week. Take care.