be the story

Night Echoes by Holly Lisle Book Review

I just read Holly Lisle’s novel Night Echoes. I put up a quick video review of the book, which is below. (Read more…)

Online Fiction Tuesday #1

Most fiction is not worth reading, because 90% of everything is crap. This rule clearly applies to online fiction. Yet, I love to read a good story, and plenty of them are indeed published online. But it’s often hard to find them amongst the rest. Therefore, now wearing my editor’s cap, I present to you some online stories that I would categorize not-crap. (Read more…)

The Speed of Dark (Review)

I recently finished The Speed of Dark, by Elizabeth Moon. This is a futuristic science fiction story with a twist I like: a sympathetic character who is nothing like me.

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Justice, Masthead Style

Magazine Man recently posted a particularly good story on his blog Somewhere on the Masthead. Actually, everything he posts is particularly good, and we’re fortunate to have him in the blogosphere. But this story, in particular, is particularly good. It’s the true story of a bully, a hero, and a jackass with a little power and a lot of empty where his self-esteem ought to be. This story made me fume. It made me cry. It made me smile.

Six parts:

1. In Which McGruff Takes A Bite Out of My Ass…
2. In Which I Cross the Line…
3. In Which Justice Is Blind, Deaf, and DUMB…
4. In Which Scrappers Show Their Scars…
5. In Which No Good Deed…
6. In Which Everything Feels Normal…Almost TOO Normal…

-TimK

Spotlight: Holly Lisle’s Website

Do you love good writing? Do you want to learn to write? Check out fantasy author Holly Lisle’s website.

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What’s So Great About the X-Men? (Astonishing X-Men Review)

My first exposure to the X-Men was on a Saturday. I was watching the movies, directed by Bryan Singer, both X-Men and X2 in a mini-marathon. Sometime in the middle of the first film, I remember leaping from my seat in a fit of upset over the way our heroes were being treated. Now, reading the Astonishing X-Men comics reminds me of all those same feelings.

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Inexcusable (Review)

Beautiful does not mean wishy-washy.

Today, I’m posting a rant. I don’t usually rant, but this is a story rant. And I’m fired up enough that I can’t concentrate on anything else until I get this out of my system.

On the adbooks list, we’re discussing Chris Lynch’s novel Inexcusable. It’s a literary novel, with one feature that literary novels are allowed to have: You can’t figure out what it means.

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Spotlight: A Certain Slant of Light (Review)

“Someone was looking at me, a disturbing sensation if you’re dead.”

If I tried really hard, I might be able to find something wrong with this story. But why would I want to work that hard? After just finishing A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb, already I want to start over again from the beginning. So seldom do I run across a story this well put together, I can’t help but gush a little. I even emailed Laura Whitcomb to tell her how much I enjoyed it.

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Spotlight: Walk Two Moons (Review)

A review of Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech.

When I first read the first chapter of Walk Two Moons, the Newbery Medal award-winning juvenile novel by Sharon Creech, I didn’t quite realize what I was getting into. You can read it yourself, preview the first chapter at Amazon.com. Now after having read the whole book, reading these first few pages makes me tear up a little.

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Ender vs. Anakin

Orson Scott Card’s classic award-winning novel Ender’s Game features Ender Wiggin, a six-year old boy genius who saves the world. Ender has superhuman talents that enable him to accomplish great feats, just like Anakin Skywalker from George Lucas’s Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. But unlike Ender, Anakin Skywalker is more cutesy than heroic and more annoying than inspiring. What did Orson Scott Card do right that George Lucas didn’t?

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