1984

There are many definitions of humanity different to each person, group, or belief that separate us accordingly.  In George Orwell’s 1984, what it means to be human is brought to life in various scenarios through different personalities.  The protagonist, Winston, seeks out humanity through individuality.  On the other end, the antagonist, O’Brian defines his humanity in terms of the group.  The focus of this novel is the discovery of humanity in a world where people are little more than animals to the powers in charge.  Using this totalitarian society allows Orwell to examine humanity in its basest forms while crossing the group dynamic of the Party which serves as an antagonist throughout the story.

Winston Smith, the protagonist for this work, takes a strange, lonely journey to figure out what his humanity is worth, what humanity even means in the larger scheme of things.  The society Orwell creates for this dystopia is oligarchical in nature, leaving little to the establishment of individuality.  Because of this, Winston has to define himself as a human without knowing what it really means to be human.  In the beginning of the book, he only understands humanity as its role in the collective, the Party, and not as an individual state of being.  He struggles with his disdain of the Party and how it has, in his opinion, warped society beyond compassion, which can be argued as a root of humanity.  Winston records his observations, experiences, and general horror regarding the totalitarian regime he’s stuck in illegally in a diary.  While this practice does not necessarily span the entire novel, it does help the reader to understand who Winston Smith is within the context of the dystopia he’s forced to endure.  “It was not by making yourself heard but by staying sane that you carried on the human heritage,” Winston realizes after briefly coming to terms with his own mortality in terms of a legacy he’d leave after the Party inevitably killed him.  Like most modern humans, Winston does not want to die and does all he can to avoid that fate, his very existence depending on his ability to hide his deepest thoughts.  Winston notes on several occasions the control of the Party over the perception of the populace.  By extreme censorship, the Party is able to control not only perceptions and observations, but the nature of truth and history itself.

““Who controls the past,” ran the Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.”” The Party has made history an alterable state, leaving nothing to contradict societal beliefs, in a sense destroying the legacy of humanity so that only slaves to the Party are left.  Staying in third person limited, Orwell is able to focus wholly on Winston and his journey to understanding and his inevitable fall.  With this technique, Orwell is able to express how Winston sees these orthodox Party followers, often debasing them to speaking in animal noises or behaving as something less than human.  To that end, the proletariats, or proles, are seen as little better than animals by members of the Party, but to Winston they seem like hope.  To him, the freedom of thought the proles seem to enjoy is the greatest luxury available in their society.  From the point of view of a rebel inside the Party, the reader gets a true sense of how society really works, and in the observation of childhood within the Party, Orwell is able to drive home the point that humanity is a secondary or even tertiary role of the Party members.  In this respect, the definite challenge of the protagonist is his struggle to define his humanity in terms of himself and not the Party.  When Winston is captured and tortured by O’Brian, the reader gets a real sense of how his journey has come to a head.  He is finally able to define his own humanity and in the end understands the necessity of dehumanization within the context of the oligarchy.

Ender's Game/ Maze Runner

For many reasons, science fiction has stood the test of time, branching across decades and even centuries for the simplest of reasons: common human themes.  The commonality of purely human themes from classic to modern science fiction is evident in Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card and The Maze Runner by James Dashner.  These two novels are on different edges of the science fiction spectrum and so show the ease of evolution within the primary genre through subgenres.  It also allows the commonalities mentioned to hold fast vastly diverse audiences.  The Maze Runner, a 21st century dystopic science fiction work, presents the primary theme of society using a group’s purpose to define the relationships most prevalent.  Ender’s Game, by contrast is a modern, “pure” science fiction novel that uses a single protagonist to help define the society within the story.  Card uses a distinctly sparse dialogue style in his narration to help speed the reader along and emphasize a specific theme.  He also has a unique dual point of view between third person limited and first person for Ender’s thoughts which helps in making his themes more organic.  Dasher, on the other hand, is very specific in his narration.  The reader understands only what he wants them to understand, and he designs his scenes around the themes he’s presenting.  But both works have isolated societies as a main feature complete with language, culture, and customs.  Each author arrives at the theme a little differently, but the theme remains the same in both works.

            Society can be defined in part as an organized group of people who live within a standard set by leaders of the group.  Within the International Fleet of Ender’s Game, the children in Battle School evolve their own speech patterns and slang which Card uses to help differentiate not only between the children and adults but between groups of children and how they interact with each other.  From the beginning, this establishes the theme of society, without letting Ender define himself.  He can’t really fall into the role of “hero” that people are so eager to see.  This arc is due in large part to a sort of domino cause and affect scenario set up by Graff.  Ender is isolated purposefully by the adults in his life, and what they do or say has very calculated results, and the definition of the plot points are very individualistic.  The reader sees a few different levels within the social network of the IF starting with what they call “launchies” who are the youngest students in the school.  Launchy society is defined primarily with innocence initially, with few attempts at friendship within the small group.  Ender is instantly set apart from the other boys by Graff, forcing the boys to take their own action for peace within the group, but Ender is always above and out of reach it seems.  The establishment of Ender’s isolationistic role in launchy society is his first trip to the game room.   He promptly separates himself from his classmates to challenge an older boy to play him two of three on a harder game in the room.  The soldiers hold launchies in such contempt, however, that it takes some manipulation on Ender’s part.  By implying the other boy is scared of loosing to a launchy, he forces the boy to play him in order to save face, and masters the game by the third turn.  This scene is an important set up for when he becomes a soldier in salamander army and is recognized by the encounter by the boy who would soon be training him in combat, Dink Meeker.  When Ender finally manages to bridge the gaps in his group using his classmate Alai, he’s made a soldier with almost no training, isolating him further.  This leads him to start a free practice with the launchies, which is unheard of in the Battle School since soldiers do not associate with launchies.  It is through this isolation that the society really takes hold, with Ender at the center.  As the structure within the Battle school breaks down due to administrative interference in the game, Ender begins to understand that he will never be able to form friendships with his soldiers.  He will always and forever be the commander.  This draws Ender out from the society of Battle School and Command School isolating him in many ways but often allowing the group to define his personality, even if it is as a reluctant leader.  But because of this forced isolation whether emotional or physical, he brings a society to peace within the Battle School.  He brings together his most trusted comrades.  He succeeds in all he was trained to do.  And then, he’s shipped out.  After a particularly unrealistic game set up by the school’s administrators, he gets promoted to Command School, but during the short leave he’s allowed on earth to prep the larger vessel, he withdraws from the IF.  He comes to a realization about his teachers and the adults who are supposed to protect him, the crux of which is they will do nothing save lie and cheat.  The world treats Battle School and Command School like a game, as the teachers and students do.  Ender knows it’s not a game, but he finds out too late to save a planet and an entire species of intelligent life.  He banishes himself, colonizing a new planet with his sister.  His individual decision changed not only his small world but the larger concept of humanity.  The Maze Runner, on the other hand, develops a completely codependent society that the protagonist contributes to not merely taking over.

            In The Maze Runner by James Dashner, the Gladers have developed their own society and culture over the course of two years before the protagonist, Thomas, comes into the story.  Rather than take over, as some “heroes” tend to do in science fiction or speculative fiction, Thomas tries to assimilate.  He essentially attempts to stay on the sidelines while trying to figure out the idea of the maze.  He wants to help, but he has a hard time figuring out his role in Glader Society until he goes into the maze when the doors are closing, locking him and two other boys out of the safety of the glade.  Like Ender, Thomas is put into a completely foreign environment and has to make something of it.  Unlike Ender, Thomas is allowed to depend on others for help.  He’s not forcibly isolated as Ender is.  Rather than becoming the linchpin, Thomas becomes a support, essential for point of view and moral dilemmas.  Arriving in the glade, Thomas knows nothing about his life before.  He soon learns this is the case with all the boys occupying the glade and his brain asks questions he knows will likely not be acknowledged, secrecy being oddly important to the Keepers, who serve as a ruling body for the Gladers.  In fact, Thomas is not considered important, little more than a new kid on the block so to speak until Teresa arrives.  The last arrival and the only girl in the glade, Teresa makes quite the impression even though she’s in a coma for several days mostly because of her apparent connection with Thomas, which neither of them are able to explain.  At this point in the story, Thomas, somewhat molded by the glade society has to find his feet, has to come to understand who he is not only in terms of the glade or the experiment that keeps it running but of his own existence.  Ender longed to be part of the group, a soldier, a comrade, a friend, Thomas already was and his friends trusted him enough to follow him.  They follow him into the maze, into darkness, and amazingly, back into the world they came from standing in front of those who put them in the maze in the first place.  It’s an oddly empty victory to Thomas though after all those who’ve been killed in the process.

            Societies develop in different ways for different reasons.  Speculative and dystopic science fiction use small closed off societies to establish and develop a protagonist and theme.  In Ender’s Game, Ender is isolated from his society in the Battle School which develops their group dynamic and his own personal commander persona while still solidly establishing the society and how it is different from Earth.  The Maze Runner, however, has a codependent protagonist in Thomas.  The Glader society is already fully established and has been for two years before he gets there, and he has not interest in standing out.  Gladers work together to achieve the goals that define the themes of the story, even if the reader only sees it from Thomas’s point of view.  Common themes bringing science fiction back to the forefront of literature.  Ender’s Game and The Maze Runner proving that societies vastly different with protagonists vastly different can reach that audience in similar ways.

The Murdstone Trilogy Review

A satire in the spirit of Christopher Moore, The Murdstone Trilogy by Mal Peet takes a stab at the writing industry as it is focusing on the High Fantasy genre, bringing humor to a process that is usually much more painful than it should be. 

Peet distills the process early on, skipping quickly to the bureaucratic aspects of the industry through Philip Murdstone’s agent, Minerva.  With her perspective in play, the reader can easily discern the misunderstood nature of the writer as recluse, as artist, even introvert.  Philip has to very quickly divest himself of not only his comfort zone as far as genre for the sake of staying legitimate as a writer, but his personal comfort of sequestered bliss in the English countryside.  He has to step into the public and be known, and neither he nor Minerva are prepared for what happens as a result of that role adjustment.

This is why the chosen POV, third person limited, works so well.  In social situations, the focus tends to be on Minerva, while the writing process sequences focus on Murdstone.  This is a practical approach to structure but it also lends insight to Murdstone and his writing career as each of them see and deal with it.

The point when Philip’s fiction world crosses over into his reality is something of a climax, but he becomes afraid of the ramifications, as many would.  I know I speak for many writers when I say this happens to all of us in one form or another and too often leaves us questioning our sanity.  But I think for that level of artistry, that detail of creating an alternate reality, one has to be at least somewhat insane.  Peet takes this to the extremes as is fitting in a satire and brings the insanity forward just a nudge more than any reader has seen.

Anyone not familiar with the process of writing or the business of writing will find this book informative to the point of hilarity, and for those of us who are in the writing business, well if you can’t make fun of yourself, you’ve no right laughing at others.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Review

              Ransom Riggs makes what could be a normal coming-of-age story a little peculiar.  He utilizes a cinematic style that focuses on the image projected.  Possibly due, in part, to the fact that he started out on this project with his collection of antique photographs.  Riggs started with a simple image, a single moment that had been captured and built story around it connected the images together with narrative.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen that done.  The affect is this amazing vintage cinematic parallel world that Jacob escapes to, where he’s the hero.  It’s a book you’ll want to read over and over.  I couldn’t put it down even when I thought it was going to be a psychologic awakening type of fantasy, because really who wants to live in this world when you can escape into another?

MemoRandom Review

MemoRandom by Anders de la Motte is an intricately webbed thriller you have to read in one sitting.  It comes off to a slow start, but after about chapter nine, it picks up and you can really see the connections.  The only real problem I had when reading it, and this may be because I don’t read a lot of mystery/ thrillers, is the multiple plotlines.  There were just too many characters for me to follow after a while, which can be good for a thriller or a complete mess of character arcs.  But like I said, if you read in in one sitting, you’ll get it and it cleans up nicely.

Artful by Peter David Review

 

              Artful by Peter David combines classic storytelling with modern style.  Some years after Oliver Twist left his company and Fagin had been executed, Dodger finds himself among new friends.  After all, who else would the son of Van Helsing go to if he needed help in London?

              Dodger will always be Dodger, a rogue element, but he certainly gained hero points in this narrative.  First, he saved a princess without knowing who she was.  When he found out her lineage, he and the Van Helsing boy use The Artful’s talents to save Buckingham palace, and indeed, the whole of England.

              What I liked most about this book is that it wasn’t a classic with vampires stuck in random places.  This work is intelligent and well written based on some of the characters in Dickens’ classic that David took efforts to flesh out and build a proper plot around.

              Though it is not a steampunk novel per se, Artful can stylistically fit into that category, probably owing to the mix of classic and modern literature and legends.

It’s fun, frightening, action packed and edgy, but it will sneak past you if you’re not careful.

Make sure all your friends pick this up it’s a worthy read.

Rules For a Knight Review

              Formatted as a letter from a knight on the battlefield to his children, it describes virtues of the life of a knight as he learned them followed by brief anecdotes to complement the importance of such rules. 

              What I found interesting is that the narrator intended these rules, this final letter, for all of children, even the girls.  Not only so they would know how to behave, how to treat others, but they in turn should expect to be treated.  Although this letter was written in the 15^th century, it reads, to me at least, like modern self-help books.  These rules are applicable to anyone in any walk of life.  I think many would benefit from reading Rules For a Knight.  We can all use guidance, and we all have a knight in us somewhere. 

Dean Koontz Interview

Dean Koontz Interview

Becky: When and why did you start writing?

Dean Koontz: at the age of eight, I was writing stories, making them into little booklets and peddling them to relatives for a nickel.  Which was odd considering that there were no books in our house, and reading wasn’t considered a sensible use of time.  I was a regular presence at the library by ten.  As a college senior, I sold a short story, and thereafter never looked back.  But why?  I’ve long been compelled to write, no less than to eat.  I don’t really know why.  It’s just the way I’m made.

I’ll tell you though, I’m glad that I began when I did, long before this dreadful economy.  It’s much more difficult these days for a young writer to build a career.  In the last few years, the average family has lost nearly $15,000 in disposable income, which means a lot less money for books and other pleasures.  No one ever imagined that the paperback market would collapse to 15% of its former size, but people without jobs won’t buy any books.  It really isn’t primarily the internet that’s eating away at the audience for books, it’s the lack of economic growth.  Until that changes, it is going to be a cold market for everyone but especially for new writers, which is a terrible thing for the culture

B: How have you managed to produce such a large, successful, and diverse amount of work in a relatively short amount of time?

DK: I spend on average 60 hours a week writing, and I’ve been doing that for over 40 years.  It’s hard work but at the same time it’s play.  A long writing session flies by, whether I get six or seven pages out or only one.  When you stay at it like that, it’s surprising how much you can produce.  And I’ve come to the conclusion that the imagination is like a muscle, that it grows stronger the more you use it; over time your ideas get better, your execution gets better… the success of the work depends on how in tune you are at any moment with the culture at large, by which I do not mean scoping the market and writing what is wanted.  You can strive to connect with the culture only so long, only with limited success; the connection has to be natural, a consequence of who you are, of what you’ve read and seen, of what you’ve thought and dreamed.  Diversity?  I bore easily.  So I like to go from flat-out scary, like The Taking, and then do a change-up with a comic novel that is full of heart, like Life Expectancy.  I read everything.  I have no prejudices about genres of fiction, and I find “literary” fiction to be just another genre.  I also read a lot of science—especially quantum mechanics, molecular biology and associated subjects—poetry and philosophy, and I particularly enjoy really intelligent cultural theorists and critics like Philip Rieff, whose book My Life Among the Deathworks is brilliant.  If you take in a variety of material, you’re almost certain to produce a diverse body of work.

B: How do you manage such seemingly effortless transitions?

DK: Do I?  Does it seem effortless?  Hah!  I conned you.  What I already said about packing your brain with a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction is key to being able to shift gears.  It also helps to set challenges for yourself, take on a story or an approach to storytelling that you’ve never tried before.  Risk falling on your face in a public way.  That tends to inspire the extra effort that might make the change-up look effortless.  With Innocence, because of the nature of the narrator (as it is ultimately revealed), I had to a lyrical voice that from start to end spoke in luminous prose that suggested transcendence.  In The City, I chose to tell the story through the first-person narration of a 57-year-old piano man who tells about a wondrous, scary, and amazing chain of events that occurred when he was only 8, 9, and 10.  I’d never done a looking-back kind of first-person narration, which allows an adult voice to recall the conditions of childhood, sort of like Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird, looking back as an adult to those key events in her past.  There are great advantages to this, but there are also limitations and traps that make the task challenging and exciting.

B: If you could choose one book that defines your personality, not necessarily one of your own, which would it be and why?

DK: The book that is most like me,  that is infused with my own take on life is Life Expectancy.  As Jimmy Tock says in that story, “No matter what happens, no matter how bad things get, there’s always cake.”  I’m no Pollyanna, but I’m an optimist, and I find humor in almost everything.  The character that I like to think is most like me is, strangely enough, a young girl with a disability, Leilani Klonk in One Door Away From Heaven.  Every moment I spent writing her scenes was a dream, and I felt as though I knew her as I know anyone in real life.

 

Forget Tomorrow Review

This is going to be an incredibly brief review since I could not even finish the book, which dissapoints me. 
There were so many great ideas in the plot and in the characters, but the author chose to weave in a romantic storyline and every move of the protagonist became predictable.
If that storyline was dropped completely this book could be an epic science fiction thriller but as is it's barely a decent crossover romance.

Seeds:

1. Future memories
2. government manipulation
3. psychic abilities

Then Logan drops in out of nowhere to be a prince charming saving the day.  Why couldn't Callie save herself?  This plot move weakens the character and makes me as a reader distrust her.  If she couldn't even rescue herself, protect herself, how can she protect her sister?
It broke the whole wall for me then they spend every moment they can in Harmony making out like there's not more important things they need to worry about.
That's about when I dropped the book all together.
Great potential poorly maximized.

The Scorpion Rules By Erin Bow Review

I try not to get too engrossed in politics, and while I use technology on a daily basis, I don’t trust computers, as a rule.  The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow is a book I could have written.  Anything along these lines that I would attempt would fall short of the genius behind this creation.  So let’s break it down shall we?

Right out of the gate the reader gets a detailed explanation of the political weather.  Bow goes into the history of the AI, Talis, how he took control and how he kept it. 

Enter the Preceptures, akin to monasteries where the children of world leaders are held hostage to keep peace.  If war is declared, the children are forfeit.  These children are called the Children of Peace.  Greta was such a child and had come to terms with her imminent demise, or so she thought, until a new hostage arrives and changes everything she understood about the Precepture. 

Elián Palnik arrives at the Precepture in chains and spends most of his time there bound to one AI or another designed to discipline troublemakers.  Greta sees Elián’s arrival, sees his “discipline” and begins to question the sanctity of her own life.  Elián fought so hard for freedom, so hard to live, and she had simply accepted her own death.

When Elián’s grandmother Wilma Armenteros takes control of the Precepture, Greta understands who she is and what she is willing to fight for.

Greta fights for control of her body, her mind, but most importantly to her, her love.  She wants to live.  She wants to live because she is in love with Li Da-Xia, her best friend, because she wants to change how the world works.  Because she wants a true peace.  So when it comes down to it, she has a choice, become AI, or die as a hostage of war.

She becomes AI.

She saves the Precepture, saves Elián, Da-Xia, all of her friends and thousands of civilians who would have been killed in attacks from Talis and Greta’s mother, the queen of the PanPol Confederacy.  She sacrifices her humanity for peace.  She is a Child of Peace, the very embodiment of the title.  A slave to a crown, a hostage to a treaty, yet she chose her own fate, and it saved countless lives.

Every moment is a choice.  Our lives are not as dramatic as Greta’s.  We may not be children of important people, but we could become important people.  Look at the sacrifice Greta made and think if you would do the same to save lives of strangers.

Choose your own fate.

Legend By Marie Lu: Review

June and Day

Two prodigies, two resulting fates.

The soldier, the criminal.

Revenge brings them together.  The truth can save them both, or it could destroy all they have left.

Lu uses carefully crafted point of view shifts to shift the story from point to emotional point.  She uses two characters and switches between them in first person POV.  It’s risky, but in this case it worked.  Using physical cues, slang, and sentence structure, Lu managed to create two easily distguishble characters.

June, for example, is very precise in her speech and direct in her actions.

Day is rough, using more regional street slang and at times talking to the reader, which pulls you in further. 

I think this is why Lu chose to open with Day.  It gave the reader an emotional attachment to the character, but is also provided an easy platform for world building and plot setup.  June’s POV on the other hand works well for exposition since she’s investigating her brother’s murder, tracking Day.

This is a thriller that leaves nothing to chance. Everything leads somewhere.  The story is crafted to fit together perfectly.

This is my first look into Marie Lu’s work and I can’t wait for more.

The Girl Without a Name

The Girl Without a Name by Sandra Block has the potential to be an engaging psychological thriller if not for a few speed bumps in the narrative.

The first speed bump is the use of the first person which severely limits the available plot twists. Also it makes the book seem more like a correlation drama between a doctor and a patient.

The second speed bump is the medical jargon that's thrown around. This takes the reader out of the story if they don't know or understand abbreviations and shorthand used by health care providers. But this is something that could be fixed with a point of view shift as well.

Finally, the build is too slow. The big drama doesn't happen until the last few chapters and the resolution is extremely watered down, leaving the reader dissatisfied. Yet another issue that could be resolved by switching to a third person narrative.

What it comes down to is I see this book being so much better than this. I'm sorry for hurt feelings, but when I review a work I try to be as honest as possible.

Maybe that makes me an arrogant ass, but if the only reason I'm turning a page is to see if it gets better then I think the writing speaks for itself.

Secondhand Souls Review

"Are you fucking with me?!"

-Sophie Asher

Christopher Moore has done it again with this run away sequel to A Dirty Job, Secondhand Souls.

With the same cast of characters and a few new faces, including cameos from the Emperor of San Francisco and Abby Normal. Moore takes the reader on a wild ride from page one. He has lost none of the humor that has become the staple of his work, continuing the modern satirical style that cannot be duplicated. 

It's a fun, funny, and raucous ride that sometimes leaves you saying "what the fuck" and always leaves you wanting more.

Proxy Review

There are three primary factors that contribute to the singularity that is Alex London's Proxy: characters, setting, and style.

I could spend a lot of time breaking apart and analyzing London's choices, conscious or not, regarding how each of these aspects affect the story.

The simple fact is London wrote a book that has a great plot and steady action. Since I have to blog from my iPhone for this book I am going to keep it brief.

The dynamic between Syd and Knox is really the backbone of the story.  They are almost always polar opposites in every aspect and it makes for a great launch pad for the world and the conflict. Everything is built around this relationship between Knox and Syd, patron and proxy, and everything comes down to that relationship in the end. London does such a great job of developing these two and their relationship that just about any reader is going to be surprised by the ending.

Erin Kellison Interview

Erin Kellison author of the Shadow Series

 

Becky:      Have you ever thought of any of your stories being adapted to film or TV?

 

Erin:       Not seriously. It’d be fun, of course, and often blogs will ask, “What actor would play such-and-such character?” So I have thought about it a little, but I don’t think of film as I write.

 

B: Why or why not?

E: I’m a word person. J I don’t know how that medium is structured or how the story comes together. Would be cool to learn, though!

 

B: Who would you want to write the screenplay if not yourself and why?

E: No idea. I’d probably want to tackle it myself.

 

B: Most writers have a habit of putting a “self” character in each of their stories.  Which of you characters in each book do you most identify with and why?

E: Shadow Bound, Talia (I had recently finished grad school, so felt comfortable with an academic.)
Shadow Fall, Annabella (My teen years were spent in a ballet studio. I was a wili in Giselle, so I knew the ballet inside and out.)
Shadowman, Rose Ann Petty (I had too much fun writing her.)
Fire Kissed, Ferrol Grey (I invested a lot in making the antagonist my friend and understanding what he wanted.)
Soul Kissed, Mason (I’m a parent, so his concerns resonated with me more.)

 

B: When you get an idea for a story, how does it come to you?  Does it start as an idea you then build on of does the story come to you in complete detail?

E: I usually start with the fairy tale I’m going to build the story on, and then I work with the characters to develop it in a new and twisted way. When I write, I don’t know the details of each scene—I’d lose the magic of the moment—but I do know where I am going. I know where the characters need to be emotionally at the end, so I write toward that and discover the rest along the way.

 

B: What sort of books do you enjoy reading?

E: I read everything (lit major here), but I love genre fiction the most. Fantasy has always been a favorite, obviously. Love Bujold. Urban Fantasy, too. Gobbled up Night Broken by Patricia Briggs. And romance. I just finished a new adult by Beth Hyland, Fall into Forever.

 

B: Do you model yourself after anyone as a writer, or aspire to be like any writer you read?

 

E: Nope. I’m pretty much myself (I think every author has to be). I pay attention to how other writers do things, but everyone’s process is individual. Every book is its own monster. But I admire many authors for their awesome ideas and craft.

 

B: Were you aiming for a specific genre or did the crossover happen on its own?

 

E: That was intentional.

 

B: Aside from your aspirations as a writer, what do you hope to achieve in your life?

 

E: I want to be a great wife and mom. Aside from that, I am open to possibilities.

B: What are your highest expectations for your work?

E: I try to write the best book I can. I read craft books to keep learning. I take apart books I love so that I can figure out what makes them work so well. And then I try to do my best again. And again.

B: Would you say you’ve met or exceeded them yet?

E: Nope. Still learning.

B: What do you see in the future of sci-fi/ fantasy literature?  What’s the next evolution?

E: No idea. Which is a wonderful thing.

B: Where did you get the original idea for the Shadow Series?

E: I was looking for a kind of supernatural being that was different from the shifters and vampires that were (are) so popular at the time. I was reading a book on mythology, and my attention snagged on a banshee. I did a lot more reading, and Talia’s character developed from there. I wanted to discover how she came to be born (as well as what her nature was), and so wrote the prologue, which informed a lot of the world and the story that was to come. 

B: How long did it take to develop the idea into a full blown story?

E: The sense of the story happened in a flash (always does), but it took seven months on and off to complete.

B: You have a unique view of death and the process of loss which in the prologue is juxtaposed with the creation of life.  How did you bring that passion and fear to the foreground of the story?

E: The prologue was never supposed to be part of the story. It was an exercise to figure out Talia’s origins and see if I could put on the page what was in my head about a person straddling the boundary between life and death. I wanted to know what that felt like so I enacted it with her parents. I think that sense of exploration was what helped shade the tone.

 

B: Do you have personal experience with death and/ or loss?

 

E: Yes. It impacted the writing of Shadowman in particular.

 

B: What was your process in bringing Adam and Jacob forward as brothers?

 

E: I needed Adam’s conflict to be very personal. He had to be at a breaking point, and it was his brother who had driven him to it.

 

B: Is there a specific ideal you were trying to convey with this relationship?

 

E: Monsters. Jacob was a monster by choice, and Adam (though still human) was becoming a monster while trying to find a solution. He was at the end of his rope, embracing violence.

B: When a wraith feeds off of life energy, killing its victim, would you think that the more pure the soul the more energy the wraith gets by feeding on it?

E: Nope. I generally don’t think in terms of purity, and definitely not in a world as dark as the Shadow world. My good guys have the potential to be as dark as my bad guys. It’s the choice in the moment, not the degree of purity, that decides who they are.

 

B: What’s a primary motivation for becoming a wraith, abandoning love, life, and hope?

 

E: Immortality and power. Someone who feared dying would find becoming a wraith compelling.

 

B: How would you define “soul”?

 

E: The immortal part of a human being.

 

B: Shadow Bound seems to focus a lot on desire.  What was your mental process to bring this into the story so vividly without losing the essence of the plot?

 

E: Desire goes hand in hand with Death. There’s a natural tension there—it’s how Talia came to be born, and it’s what saves Adam at the end. In a way, desire drives the plot.

 

B: In Shadow Fall, the bridge into Shadow is more clearly defined in passion, creation, imagination.  What helped you in the creation of this major plot point?

 

E: I was able to expand the world in the second book through Annabella’s artistry. The story of Giselle, the ballet she was performing, is about the boundary between this world and the next, so it was an ideal means to show how the veil is thin, and that it’s permeated all the time through acts of creation. When I was a teenager, I was utterly taken with the story, and it has stuck with me since.

 

B: You very clearly write in the 3^rd person limited point of view.  In Shadow Fall, you chose to focus and alternate between Custo and Annabella.  What led you to this choice?

 

E: They’re the lead characters. I needed both of their viewpoints to develop both the love story and how each internalized the supernatural events that force them to change.

 

B: How did you manage the transitions so seamlessly?

 

E: Transitions are hell. I stare at the computer screen until my brain bleeds.

 

B: How did you land in young adult/ middle adult language for Shadow Fall?  It’s somewhat more of a grown-up feel to the language of Shadow Bound.

 

E: Hmmm… Not sure. I didn’t know I used different language except that the character’s voices were unique, as was the wolf’s. Could be I changed. Could be the story needed something different.

 

B: What led you to return to the story from the prologue of Shadow Bound in the conception of Shadowman as a close to the series?

 

E: When I first sold Shadow Bound, the editor was interested in more of Shadowman’s story initiated in the prologue. I knew he would be the hero of the third book while I was writing Shadow Fall.

 

B: Do you have any new concepts in the works that steer away from the Shadow Series?

 

E: Yep. Aside from the SFR novellas I’ve written, the first in a new series, Darkness Falls, will be released inside the Dark and Deadly bundle on April 14. It’ll also be released shortly after on it’s own, along with the second in the series, Lay Me Down.

B: Do you anticipate a potential genre crossover for yourself or do you think you’ll most likely stick to the sci-fi/ fantasy romance?

E: Laughing. I’m also working on a fantasy I hope to release later this year. It has a romantic component, but it’s not the dominant arc. I’ve wanted to write a series with a continuing character, and I have found her at last. I’m very excited.

 

 

B: If you could pick one book that defines your personal style which would it be?

E: Soul Kissed, my latest full-length novel. It most represents my current approach to character, structure, and craft. I’m proud of how it came together. That said, the next book will probably redefine my personal style. And the one after that…

Ender/ Maze Runner Analysis

For many reasons, science fiction has stood the test of time, branching across decades and even centuries for the simplest of reasons: common human themes.  The commonality of purely human themes from classic to modern science fiction is evident in Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card and The Maze Runner by James Dashner.  These two novels are on different edges of the science fiction spectrum and so show the ease of evolution within the primary genre through subgenres.  It also allows the commonalities mentioned to hold fast vastly diverse audiences.  The Maze Runner, a 21^st century dystopic science fiction work, presents the primary theme of society using a group’s purpose to define the relationships most prevalent.  Ender’s Game, by contrast is a modern, “pure” science fiction novel that uses a single protagonist to help define the society within the story.  Card uses a distinctly sparse dialogue style in his narration to help speed the reader along and emphasize a specific theme.  He also has a unique dual point of view between third person limited and first person for Ender’s thoughts which helps in making his themes more organic.  Dasher, on the other hand, is very specific in his narration.  The reader understands only what he wants them to understand, and he designs his scenes around the themes he’s presenting.  But both works have isolated societies as a main feature complete with language, culture, and customs.  Each author arrives at the theme a little differently, but the theme remains the same in both works.

            Society can be defined in part as an organized group of people who live within a standard set by leaders of the group.  Within the International Fleet of Ender’s Game, the children in Battle School evolve their own speech patterns and slang which Card uses to help differentiate not only between the children and adults but between groups of children and how they interact with each other.  From the beginning, this establishes the theme of society, without letting Ender define himself.  He can’t really fall into the role of “hero” that people are so eager to see.  This arc is due in large part to a sort of domino cause and affect scenario set up by Graff.  Ender is isolated purposefully by the adults in his life, and what they do or say has very calculated results, and the definition of the plot points are very individualistic.  The reader sees a few different levels within the social network of the IF starting with what they call “launchies” who are the youngest students in the school.  Launchy society is defined primarily with innocence initially, with few attempts at friendship within the small group.  Ender is instantly set apart from the other boys by Graff, forcing the boys to take their own action for peace within the group, but Ender is always above and out of reach it seems.  The establishment of Ender’s isolationistic role in launchy society is his first trip to the game room.   He promptly separates himself from his classmates to challenge an older boy to play him two of three on a harder game in the room.  The soldiers hold launchies in such contempt, however, that it takes some manipulation on Ender’s part.  By implying the other boy is scared of loosing to a launchy, he forces the boy to play him in order to save face, and masters the game by the third turn.  This scene is an important set up for when he becomes a soldier in salamander army and is recognized by the encounter by the boy who would soon be training him in combat, Dink Meeker.  When Ender finally manages to bridge the gaps in his group using his classmate Alai, he’s made a soldier with almost no training, isolating him further.  This leads him to start a free practice with the launchies, which is unheard of in the Battle School since soldiers do not associate with launchies.  It is through this isolation that the society really takes hold, with Ender at the center.  As the structure within the Battle school breaks down due to administrative interference in the game, Ender begins to understand that he will never be able to form friendships with his soldiers.  He will always and forever be the commander.  This draws Ender out from the society of Battle School and Command School isolating him in many ways but often allowing the group to define his personality, even if it is as a reluctant leader.  But because of this forced isolation whether emotional or physical, he brings a society to peace within the Battle School.  He brings together his most trusted comrades.  He succeeds in all he was trained to do.  And then, he’s shipped out.  After a particularly unrealistic game set up by the school’s administrators, he gets promoted to Command School, but during the short leave he’s allowed on earth to prep the larger vessel, he withdraws from the IF.  He comes to a realization about his teachers and the adults who are supposed to protect him, the crux of which is they will do nothing save lie and cheat.  The world treats Battle School and Command School like a game, as the teachers and students do.  Ender knows it’s not a game, but he finds out too late to save a planet and an entire species of intelligent life.  He banishes himself, colonizing a new planet with his sister.  His individual decision changed not only his small world but the larger concept of humanity.  The Maze Runner, on the other hand, develops a completely codependent society that the protagonist contributes to not merely taking over.

            In The Maze Runner by James Dashner, the Gladers have developed their own society and culture over the course of two years before the protagonist, Thomas, comes into the story.  Rather than take over, as some “heroes” tend to do in science fiction or speculative fiction, Thomas tries to assimilate.  He essentially attempts to stay on the sidelines while trying to figure out the idea of the maze.  He wants to help, but he has a hard time figuring out his role in Glader Society until he goes into the maze when the doors are closing, locking him and two other boys out of the safety of the glade.  Like Ender, Thomas is put into a completely foreign environment and has to make something of it.  Unlike Ender, Thomas is allowed to depend on others for help.  He’s not forcibly isolated as Ender is.  Rather than becoming the linchpin, Thomas becomes a support, essential for point of view and moral dilemmas.  Arriving in the glade, Thomas knows nothing about his life before.  He soon learns this is the case with all the boys occupying the glade and his brain asks questions he knows will likely not be acknowledged, secrecy being oddly important to the Keepers, who serve as a ruling body for the Gladers.  In fact, Thomas is not considered important, little more than a new kid on the block so to speak until Teresa arrives.  The last arrival and the only girl in the glade, Teresa makes quite the impression even though she’s in a coma for several days mostly because of her apparent connection with Thomas, which neither of them are able to explain.  At this point in the story, Thomas, somewhat molded by the glade society has to find his feet, has to come to understand who he is not only in terms of the glade or the experiment that keeps it running but of his own existence.  Ender longed to be part of the group, a soldier, a comrade, a friend, Thomas already was and his friends trusted him enough to follow him.  They follow him into the maze, into darkness, and amazingly, back into the world they came from standing in front of those who put them in the maze in the first place.  It’s an oddly empty victory to Thomas though after all those who’ve been killed in the process.

            Societies develop in different ways for different reasons.  Speculative and dystopic science fiction use small closed off societies to establish and develop a protagonist and theme.  In Ender’s Game, Ender is isolated from his society in the Battle School which develops their group dynamic and his own personal commander persona while still solidly establishing the society and how it is different from Earth.  The Maze Runner, however, has a codependent protagonist in Thomas.  The Glader society is already fully established and has been for two years before he gets there, and he has not interest in standing out.  Gladers work together to achieve the goals that define the themes of the story, even if the reader only sees it from Thomas’s point of view.  Common themes bringing science fiction back to the forefront of literature.  Ender’s Game and The Maze Runner proving that societies vastly different with protagonists vastly different can reach that audience in similar ways.