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Category Archives: 4 Stars

Got Luck by Michael Darling

07 Thursday Jul 2016

Posted by J. Abram barneck in 4 Stars, Book Reviews, Fantasy, Urban

≈ Leave a comment

Got Luck
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Star Rating

starstarstarstar

4 stars

I read this book twice. Once before it was anywhere near being published and again as just before it was published. For full disclosure, I am noted in this book’s acknowledgments. An author in a writing group gave Michael Darling my email. I’d received and read the first copy long before I ever met the author. So I would consider this review unbiased.

This book earned the four stars. It is a pretty good debut novel. Both times I struggled with the beginning. The cliche of starting in the office of a private eye didn’t escape me. But how many debut novels don’t have a less than ideal beginning. Even J. K. Rowling’s first chapter from Uncle Vernon’s point of view is criticized heavily. Needless to say, I forgive rough beginnings for debut authors.

Why did it come up short of 5 stars? Well, both times I struggled with the beginning. The cliche of starting in the office of a private eye didn’t escape me. But how many debut novels don’t have a less than ideal beginning. Even J. K. Rowling’s first chapter from Uncle Vernon’s point of view is criticized heavily. Needless to say, I forgive rough beginnings for debut authors.

Also, at times the writing of the character movement and descriptions seemed stiff. Fortunately, he had just enough humor and tension for me to mostly ignore that, but for some, this stiffness might be an issue that pulls them from the story too often.

Book Details

Got Luck was written by Michael Darling and was published by Future House Publishing on March 16, 2016. It is 330 pages long. This is Michael Darling’s first novel.

The novel’s premise

Goethe (Got) Luck is private investigator about reach his 10,000th day of being alive and find out who he really is. He can use magic. He is the first to have strength in earth magic for hundreds of years. And it just turns out that the case he is working on just happens to more about him than he every would have realized.

Editing

Quality: Above Average

The published version is far more polished than the early version I read. I found less that two errors per 100 pages. In fact, I only noted four things.

  1. She gently rolled up my pants leg (pant leg?)
  2. Never apologize.”” (Two end quotes)
  3. *** (More than one of the section breaks were not centered, though most were.)
  4. certain . . . activities . . . that (The ellipsis are formatted wrong. See: How to write an Ellipsis in a Novel)

Imagination and Uniqueness

The author’s imagination is definitely not lacking. Getting that imagination onto paper was mostly executed well. I already discussed the struggle with the beginning and some of the stiff descriptions and character movement. Despite that, the world was vividly depicted by the author. I never struggled with imagining the characters, the setting, or the action.

I wouldn’t be able to call it extremely unique. Jim Butcher starts off Harry Dresden as a Private Investigator and wizard. This is pretty similar, but not the same. Got doesn’t know who he is, he just knows that magic and weird stuff exists.

However, despite the lack of apparent uniqueness, the story held up quite well.

Characters

Goethe “Got” Luck is the unusual name of the main character. The feel of the writing suggests this guy is approaching forty, but we quickly learn her is only twenty-seven. Despite the inconsistency of the age in feel versus reality, Got was a very likable character. The hints of his past and his lack of heavy emotional reaction to weirdness were foreshadowing us to understand who he really is.

Erin is a drop dead gorgeous county coroner who doesn’t really give Goethe too much attention until they meet up in the Behindbeyond and are unexpectedly paired together. Her character is very deep and we only just start delving into it when the novel ends.

Got has a best friend, who is a stiff and easy to write one-dimensional filler character. He doesn’t talk or say much, yet seems to be a chick magnet. A conflict, perhaps. But he is in the novel little enough that it works.

The bad guy, I loved to hate. Which is all one can ask for, right? I’m not going to tell you who it is because that is revealed later in the novel and I wouldn’t want to give it away. His motivations are real-world, or real for the Behindbeyond, anyway.

Magic System (fantasy)

Magic

The magic system is heavily based on the Fae and the Behindbeyond. Humans don’t have magic, the fae do. The magic didn’t have anything unique. Normally I would bash the magic system for the lack of uniqueness. There were different powers for the different elements, but somehow, I despite its lack of uniqueness, I found little complaint in the magic system.

Perhaps the story of the magic system was unique enough. The author told the story of the first half-fae half-human born with earth power. And supposedly most with earth power die the first time they tap into the earth.

It also probably helped that we didn’t have a movie montage of him learning spells, though there definitely were some learning scenes, however, those all served the dual purpose of adding sexual tension, too, so they weren’t boring.

Stain

There was a second magical element to Got. I really liked that Got could see colors swirling around certain people. I really hated that it was called a “stain.” That word just didn’t fit, especially when the colors were beautiful. It seemed to me like “stain” would be a good name when a person’s colors were corrupted, but when not corrupted, there should have been a different name.

However, the name aside, it was a unique take on seeing someone’s aura. This wasn’t in the early copy of the book, the first time I read it, but was in the second copy and made the book much better.

eBook Quality

Quality: Average

There weren’t any problems with the eBook quality, which is good.

Parental Guide

Profanity: Zero F-words. There was very little profanity. I’d have to search the book to figure out
Sexuality: There is a fair amount of sexual tension. There is one description of a fae who was barely covered (mostly naked)
Violence: The violence involves fighting and magic and demons. It is mostly gore-free, with some descriptive blood and frightening scenes.

The author toned down some extremes. I remember a scene in the early copy of this book where, the author described one of the Fae standing naked in all her womanly glory, without an ounce of shame. While that made a statement about the fae and had an edge to it, I might have said readers of this book had to be fifteen or older. However, in the published release, that scene was cleaned up by partially covering her up. It seems much cleaner than I remembered it. Any child twelve and up could read and enjoy this book.

About the Author

Michael Darling graduated from Weber State University with a degree in English Literature and loves to blend the classic with the contemporary in his writing.

He has worked as a butcher, a librarian, and a magician. Not all at the same time. He nests in the exquisitely beautiful Rocky Mountains with his equally breathtaking wife and six guinea pigs, one of whom thinks she’s a dog and three of whom claim to be children. Michael’s award-winning short fiction is frequently featured in anthologies. Got Luck is his first novel, which is scheduled for publication in March 2016.

Please visit Michael at http://www.michaelcdarling.com where you can find links to stock him via your favorite soical media outlets.

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

24 Monday Feb 2014

Posted by J. Abram barneck in 4 Stars, Book Reviews

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Illinois, Review

Allegiant
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Star Rating

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A lot of people are giving this book low stars. I gave this 4 stars because . . . well, Veronica Roth must have iron writers armor and a keyboard of steel. She wrote with power and wrote the story exactly how it should of ended. I know a lot of people complain about the ending, but sometimes, well-written and real life endings are extremely hard for some readers.

Book Details

Allegiant by Veronic Roth was published by Katherine Tegen Books in October 2013. It had 545 pages.

The novel’s premise

Tris and Tobias leave Chicago, everything they have ever known, and see the surrounding world only to find out the people outside their windy city are not quite as oblivious of Chicago as they were led to believe.

Point of View

Quality: Needs Improvement

So in this third book, Veronica switches points of view between Tris and Tobias. This was not executed well. The only difference between the points of view was that under each chapter heading, the point of view character was listed: Tris or Tobias.

This POV switching didn’t work well for me. After two books of exclusively Tris’s point of view, Veronica needed to write in some obvious tag at the start of each Tobias chapter. Multiple times I was pages into the chapter before I realized the point of view was Tobias’s.

Also, I didn’t get the feel that Tobias had his own personality. In writing his chapters, Veronica really needed to give him his own voice. It seemed like we were getting Tobias’s point of view from Tris’s voice. To make matter’s worse, Tobias’s voice wasn’t exactly a man’s voice.

Editing

Quality: Standard

I highlighted a single comma overuse issue.

However the content editor should have helped with the point of view issues.

Imagination and Uniqueness

The imagination seemed quite limited. Veronica let us out of Chicago but she didn’t seem to be able to show us the world very well. We got to see a single government facility and a single fringe neighborhood.

There were a lot of ways the outside world could have gone. Being stuck in a government facility the whole book, except for Tris’s single trip to the fringe, which while good, was not enough on its own.

Characters

This is the third book, so by now we are all familiar with Beatrice Prior (Tris) and Tobias Eaton (Four), and their budding romance. Though the relationship wasn’t as awesome as it could have been after last been when it seemed so stressed. There relationship was once again stressed.

The addition of a few characters from outside helped this book along. However, Tris and Tobias remained the focus.

There were a lot of side characters and that made it hard to focus on any particular side plot and this story really needed some better side plots.

eBook Quality

Quality: High

Very high quality eBook and extremely easy to read.

About the Author

Veronica Roth is from Chicago, in fact, she and her husband still live there.

While a student, she often chose to work on the story that would become Divergent instead of doing her homework.

I am going suggest that you do your homework first and stay in school.

Apart from writing and reading, I like to cook.

— Quotes form Harper Collins web site

After this series we know that Veronica has no qualms about killing characters and we love to hate her for it.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

05 Wednesday Feb 2014

Posted by sffradmin in 4 Stars, Book Reviews

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Tags

Illinois, Review

Insurgent
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Star Rating

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This one is 4 stars because it didn’t keep me up reading, but I still liked it. I would have liked to see Tris overcome her PTSD a little better and not freak out constantly. The idea that she couldn’t use a gun just wasn’t believable to me. The paintball guns didn’t affect her and they should have either affected her or helped her get over shooting Will.

The relationship between Tris and Tobias was done pretty well but wasn’t enjoyable because it was the crappy keep-secrets-and-drift-apart part of the relationship. Very believable and well-written, but again, not fun.

The plot was pretty cool. Divided factions, rise of the factionless, and an interesting ending.

Book Details

Insurgent by Veronica Roth is published by HarperCollins and released in 2012. Having reviewed, the first book, we decided to review the second book. The book is 544 pages and may have been just bit too long for the content.

Like in Divergent, the story is told from Tris’s point of view and is in present tense, which after reading Divergent, I am already accustomed to.

The novel’s premise

With the attack on Abnegation by the Erudite leaving most of the political leaders dead, Tris and Tobias must find a way to protect those around them in the midst of war.

Editing

Quality: High

I highlighted two obnoxious comma issues where the comma should not have been there. Other than being disrupted by these two commas, the book was pretty well edited.

Imagination and Uniqueness

I think she struggled to be imaginative in this book a little. She rode her imagination from Divergent, which fortunately had big enough shoulders to ride on.

The Erudite headquarters could have been described a bit better. A lot was left to my imagination, and fortunately I have a good one, which is why I like books better than some who don’t have their own huge imagination.

Characters

Beatrice Prior (Tris) is a no longer a simple character. She is a short blond girl who now struggles with PTSD. I still liked her, but I started to feel a hit of annoyance directed at her.

Tobias Eaton (Four), son of Marcus Eaton (the last living political leader) and Evelyn Johnson-Eaton (leader of the factionless) becomes a leader himself. He doesn’t trust his mother or father.

The side characters need some descriptive work. I am confused with Christina’s character. Sometimes she writes her like a pretty blond but she was described with short black hair and dark brown skin. I think she needs to do a better job with the side characters.

eBook Quality

Quality: Average

Except for one huge editing issue, the eBook was pretty good. Unfortunately the editing issue occurred over and over again. The problem was that every time a new section (chapter’s in Veronica Roth’s books seem to have sections) starts, there should be a divider. It could be a space, or a symbol or three asterisks *** or something. Unfortunately there was nothing. So the start of the new section was just the next paragraph. However, there is no indent at the start of a new section. So it looked like she had about 45 paragraphs missing an indent. Oops!

I almost dropped a star for this, but didn’t quite feel this eBook issue was bad enough to warrant a dropped star. If this issue isn’t fixed soon, I may come back and drop at least a half star.

About the Author

Veronica Roth is from Chicago, in fact, she and her husband still live there.

She studied creative writing at Northwestern University. While some who study creative writing, never learn to actually write a good book, she seems to have figured it out.

In an interview posted on GoodReads, Veronica said: “When I was 16, I would have chosen Candor.”

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