Tag Archives: Leading Edge

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

06 Thursday Feb 2014

Posted by in 3.5 Stars, Book Reviews

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Star Rating

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I gave it 3-1/2 stars (rounded up to 4 on Amazon). I thought the book was good but when I was finished, nothing in the book left me hoping for book 2.

The world was very cool. David, the main character, was well-written. I liked Megan and Prof. I enjoyed the story line. I even enjoyed the plot (even though it’s David vs. Goliath theme was a repeat of the Mistborn theme).

Book Details

Steelheart by Brand Sanderson comes in at just under 400 pages and was published by Delacorte Press in September 2013 and distributed by Random House.

The novel’s premise

In a future world, Chicago is run by Steelheart, an Epic. (Epic equals ‘superhero’ minus the ‘hero.’) The world is in a post-apocalyptic turmoil. David’s father is killed by Steelheart in a bank. Steelheart supposedly cannot die, but David has seen Steelheart bleed. David will avenge his father.

Editing

Quality: High

I didn’t find any editing errors in this novel. Perhaps a content edit to suggest increasing the connection between David and Megan would have helped him pull off the ending and helped me get emotionally involved.

Imagination and Uniqueness

The imagination is phenomenal. This world just freaking cool. His imagination is really what made this novel fun for me. Usually, I love the characters, but this story is about the world. The settings. The imagined powers of the Epics. I almost want to go add another star to the rating just thinking about the awesome imagination in this book.

Characters

David is the main character. Megan is another primary character. Together, they are the heart of the book.

Unfortunately, I never got involved emotionally in this book. I think that is because the David/Megan romance was so slow developing. It seemed like Sanderson wanted there to be this strong connection between David and Megan so that the reader’s heart would wrench right along with David’s heart when the connection broke. But I think the romance was barely there and I just felt mildly disappointed when Megan died. This fell short for me.

In the end, David is still an expendable young man and nobody would care if he died. Sure, the team would be sad, but they would get over him quick.

The team of side characters (the characters not mentioned above) were a little vague for me and I never really got a visual for them or reached a point where I felt I knew each member of the team well.

It was definitely a David vs. Goliath story. I wonder if that is why he named the MC David?

Magic System

The magic system, or in this case the superpower system, seemed to take an easy road. I don’t remember the exact wording but a couple of times he made comments like: “Everything defies the laws of physics and can’t be explained.” To me that was taking an easy road. Don’t get me wrong. I loved the powers, but I wanted at least and attempt at scientific explanations.

eBook Quality

Quality: Average

Very few issues but there were a few. Some features that add quality were missing. The start of each chapter had one word in all caps. Which when that one word was simply something like I, it didn’t really stand out as a chapter beginning.

The ellipses were done wrong. No breaking space after them, made for some awkward spacing issues.

About the Author

Brandon Sanderson was born in December 1975 in Lincoln, Nebraska. He served a two year mission in Seoul, Korea for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. After which, he returned to BYU and changed his major from Biochemistry to Creative Writing. His pWith his amazing success as a writer, I am sure his parents have forgiven him by now.

While at BYU, Brandon volunteered for Leading Edge Magazine, and in his senior year, he was Editor and Chief. His time there helped hone his writing skills.

Read more about him on his web site at: http://brandonsanderson.com/about-brandon/

Fire Light by J. Abram Barneck

27 Monday Jan 2014

Posted by in 5 Stars, Book Reviews

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Fire Light

Star Rating

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This book gets five stars because it has great characters, real life, fun action, magic, and awesomely evil bad guys, all in a descent plot with plenty of twists.

Book Details

Fire Light is an young adult urban fantasy novel by J. Abram Barneck. It is 432 pages. Barneck is self-published, but he is a a self-published author that appears to have done a lot right.

The novel’s premise

Barneck’s story starts with his main character, Jacob Stevens, a 17 year old boy who finds out he is a druid and learns to cast some cool spells, like Fire Light and a Magic Missile.

Editing

Quality: High

This book is listed as being edited by Sarah Bylund. It also lists about a dozen proofreaders. Well, they all did a great job. I could not find a typo, or a missing word, or any of the other issues that are common for self-published works.

Imagination and Uniqueness

The imagination in Fire Light is stellar. The idea of young man casting fire light and a magic missile is thrilling.

This story has its own uniqueness. It is set in Salt Lake City and could possibly be the first urban fantasy that takes place there.

Characters

The characters are very well done. The main character, Jacob Stevens, is a high school geek turned football star (geek + jock = jeek) who turns out to be a druid. He also has an endearing relationship with his sister that really helps the reader see Jake as a real person.

The two main female characters, Kendra and Alexis, will polarize you as a reader. Kendra, just turning sixteen, is young and innocent. Alexis is eighteen and half-dhampir. She is the granddaughter of the Vampire King. There is definitely a love triangle between Jake, Kendra, and Alexis, but unlike other love triangles, this love triangle is permanent. What does permanent mean? Well, you’ll have to read to find out.

The nightwalker is vicious and evil and definitely unique. The Vampire King is eight hundred years old and completely void of any sense of morality.

Magic System

Magic in Fire Light is nothing more than a person’s ability to access and use the energy that is all around us. Druids have a connection to that magic that a person either has or doesn’t, like how some people can roll then tongues and others can’t.

There is a bit of science to the magic. It is energy and one of the magic systems rules is that it has to be scientifically plausible. A little bit of chemistry and elements and the ability to convert energy to matter and vise versa (ike E=MC2).

eBook Quality

Quality: High

His eBook is impeccably formatted. In fact, it is probably formatted better than many books published by the big publishers out there.

There were no flaws to his eBook. From the cover to the final About the author page, there was nothing that made this book look self-published. Of course, once you read “About the Author” below, you will understand why this is book is published with such high quality.

About the Author

J. Abram Barneck live in West Jordan, Utah with his wife and kids. He read the Hobbit in fifth grade and consumed fantasy books one after another thereafter. He started writing his own fantasy at age sixteen.

Barneck graduated from BYU with a degree in Creative Writing. While at BYU, he spent three years with Leading Edge, a science fiction and fantasy magazine, where he worked with great writers and editors, even becoming acquainted with great authors such as Brandon Sanderson and David Farland. In one creative writing course, taught by David Farland, J. Abram Barneck sat only a few rows away from another popular author, Stephenie Meyer, who he unfortunately never talked to. It seemed inevitable that Barneck would one day become an author.

However, Barneck is a Senior Software Engineer and is currently completing a Masters of Computer Science. He loves writing both code and fiction. His high tech skills explain why his eBook is such high quality.