Silk

You bet!

Potential Spoiler Alert: I try to keep my reviews spoiler-free, but the summary paragraph of this review does contain a spoiler for the end of the first book, Soulless. In nineteenth century England, Lady Alexia Maccon is discovering that there are all sorts of inconveniences to being married to a werewolf—small ones, such as waking up to find an entire military regiment camped on one’s front lawn, and large ones, such as one’s husband taking off to Scotland to see to “family business” without so much as a how-do-you-do. Even more inconvenient, however, is the sudden inability of London’s supernatural creatures to use any supernatural abilities. With her (unwanted and unexpected) friend Ivy Hisselpenny and sister Felicity in tow, Alexia heads to Scotland to solve the mystery of what’s disabling London’s supernatural set—before this weapon, if it is one, can be used against them. Changeless is the second Alexia Tarabotti novel, and the setting is a lot of fun. The steampunk elements were just background in Soulless (the first book), but Changeless amps it up a few notches. There are some steampunk standards, like airships and seriously pimped-out parasols, but there are also a couple of unique gizmos that enhance the setting’s cool factor. The tone of the setting is also effectively established, both through the narration and the characters’ dialogue (even though “effectively established” sometimes means “wishing the characters would stop talking about their hats”). The novel sets up a number of great conflicts, but ultimately fails to deliver. There are some interesting and entertaining subplots throughout, but the main plot isn’t one of them. Alexia’s attempt to discover what’s affecting the supernaturals doesn’t pick up steam until the last half (at least!) of the novel. The stakes are never very clear, and there’s absolutely no new information revealed until near the novel’s end. The characters are clueless as well as changeless, and even the resolution happens through accident as much as action. The plots involving the side characters are much more successful, and are really what keeps the novel going. An entertaining (if somewhat silly—but that’s appropriate for a somewhat silly character) romance, a traitor in Alexia’s midst, and a leaderless werewolf pack mean that there’s still plenty to like. There’s only one exception to this, but it’s a glaring one. The novel introduces a new character, with much fanfare and much potential to go interesting places . . . and that character proceeds to do absolutely nothing. So far I haven’t mentioned any internal conflict. That’s because there’s very little of it, and it all occurs in a lump at the end. Alexia is altogether more confident in Changeless than she is in Soulless, and while the change is perfectly believable, a character who doesn’t experience a few low points is difficult to sympathize with. The change in character also affects the novel’s resolution—Alexia’s response to the punishment that the ending heaps on her is, again, perfectly believable, but it is also somewhat frustrating and abrupt. Changeless is a fun read even though I was disappointed in a number of places--and I should add that I really enjoyed Blameless, the third book in the series.

Yup, go ahead.

Yes, there's still room. Yes, personally I expect "busy with thesis" to define the next month of my life at least. Probably longer.

The superhero era has come and gone. The war has been won, the world’s villains are all behind bars, and the heroes are no longer needed. That doesn’t mean they don’t have problems, though ... and Dr. Eva Brain-Silverman, psychologist, is here to help. The world’s most powerful heroes have been ordered into therapy, and their jobs depend on the results. But therapy only becomes more difficult when Dr. Brain announces the death of the revered Hawk King, a personal mentor to many of Brain’s charges. Bad feelings erupt, dirty secrets emerge, and what seems like a crazy conspiracy theory suddenly becomes a very real threat . . . if only to the sanity of some of the world’s greatest heroes. There are some truly brilliant things about this book, not least of which is the premise. The novel is written and formatted as a self-help book for superheroes, authored by none other than Dr. Brain herself. The novel is interspersed with brief “psychological” interludes, but mostly relies on Brain’s observations of her case studies: the heroes who become this novel’s main characters and form the backbone of the plot. Oh, and don’t forget to read the advance praise for Unmasked, Brain’s fictional self-help book—it’s hilarious. The format is more than just a cool gimmick. One of the most impressive things about this novel is just how efficiently Faust uses the self-help format to portray Brain’s character. While I don’t like Brain (more on that later), I’m absolutely confident that I dislike her and doubt her in exactly the ways I’m supposed to. Although the novel isn’t really about her, she’s certainly its most engaging character. The other characters, unfortunately, weren’t portrayed quite so deftly. Let’s start with the small things: I hate them all. To be fair, readers aren’t supposed to like these characters. But even aside from spending a whole book with unlikeable characters, there are lots of problems here. For one thing, almost every character uses some kind of dialect. It’s a superficial problem, sure. But it’s also extremely prevalent, and seems to exist for the express purpose of making each character as annoying as possible. In fact, there’s so much emphasis on the characters’ various eccentricities, problems, and annoying habits that some of them initially feel more like caricatures than characters. They do become more believable as the book progresses, and some of them even become more likeable. Some of them, on the other hand, just become more disagreeable. The biggest problem with all of these unlikeable characters is that there’s just not enough payoff to make enduring them quite worthwhile. The novel’s ending is ambiguous, and while it’s appropriate in a lot of ways, it works more on an intellectual level than a visceral one. This applies especially to Brain herself—I was sure that Faust’s brilliant portrayal of the narrator was leading up to something spectacular, and in the end Brain’s role doesn’t matter all that much. Even so, this book is absolutely worth the read. There are some interesting ideas here, and some aspects are very well done indeed. At times, though, reading it might feel more like work than play, and you might experience a little disappointment along the way.

Sure. You're first up.

... my bad. I was so sure that I checked the date before I posted, too. So, err... carry on. Sorry 'bout that. >>;

You're on the list.

Totally fine. Go right ahead.

Sounds good. You're on the list.

I should probably do one of these too, hey? Right. I'm Silk, also known as Raethe and occasionally even as Natalie. I'm currently completing my MA in English (not creative writing, although as an undergraduate I double majored in English and creative writing), and the fact that I'm aiming to have a final draft of my thesis by this time next month is my excuse for being so scarce around here. I also work as a teaching assistant and a tutor, which is my excuse for being so pedantic. But, that's kind of a lot of excuses. Moving on! I write mostly fantasy (surprise!) but I do a lot of hopping around. I write both urban fantasy and traditional fantasy, with occasional forays into science fiction and literary fiction. My current project, which is still in the planning phase, is a superhero novel. So far I've completed one novel, one novelette, and several short stories, with several more of each in various stages of writing and planning. I've also written a couple of stage plays, and I write music as well. (One of these days I'll get around to writing that musical...) A curious and unfortunate side effect of being a Master's in literature student is that I no longer have time to read for fun, and in any case when I DO read I read pretty broadly, so attempting to list "favourite" authors would result in all of us being here all day. I will say that I'm currently reading Cat Valente's Habitation of the Blessed, and it's a beautiful book. Also, I'm probably the only person here who hasn't read Way of Kings yet, but before you all come after me with pitchforks you should know that I was in a boxing club for over five years. (Yes, really.) Oh, and I occasionally write book reviews, so I suppose if you're desperate to know what my reading tastes really are, there's always that. I really hope to be more active around here soon--I keep saying that, don't I?--but in the meantime I should probably stop rambling and go plan those classes I'm supposed to teach tomorrow.

So far no problem.

Hubay and Skyhunter are up for Monday.

I have no idea, actually--must have something to do with the way permissions work on this forum? That's something that I would have to bounce to the admins.

Yes, go right ahead and submit this week. On the last forum we had a "Your background" thread where people introduced themselves. I've not gotten around to starting a new one, but feel free to just start one if you (or anyone) get to it before I do. Genre information with the submission always helps, but I don't think anyone's going to complain if you don't include it.

I don't think that should be a problem. I did have two new people email me asking to get on the list this week, so if they both want to submit this week's submissions could fill up fairly quickly. So, keep an eye out just in case, I guess.

Shouldn't be a problem. You're the first one to ask.

Thanks for posting about this opportunity, Peter.

So, from people's responses re: keeping submissions open on January 2, it sounds like we have a few people interested for the upcoming week: Kate, Austin, Asmodemon, and Skyhunter. Am I right so far? Missing anyone who wants to submit?

Well, it seems like enough people are interested in reading and submitting that we might as well just open things up for Jan 2. I know a couple people weren't sure they'd have time to critique, but remember that you don't necessarily have to critique every week. So I'll go ahead and say that we're open for Monday. If anyone is terribly, horribly opposed ... well, speak now or forever hold your peace.

Not so far--unless someone develops a sudden objection I'm thinking we may as well say we're closed for the upcoming Monday. As for Jan 2, we can always wait until next week and see if a few more people weigh in before making up our minds.

Thanks for the feedback, guys. Anyone else?

Hey all, a question for you regarding submission dates. Our next two submission dates fall on Dec 26 and Jan 2--in other words, our next two submissions come right after a major holiday. So I'm wondering, is it worth leaving submissions open for these two weeks? I know this is looking a bit ahead, but does anybody think they'll be interested in submitting on these dates? And for that matter, are people going to be available and/or willing to critique that week? It seems a bit pointless to let people submit if they're only going to get radio static. So, what do you guys think? Should we just continue as normal? Or should we take one or both of these dates as a holiday?

It's rather late in the week (partially my fault, sorry) so I'm gonna ask you just to hold off until Monday. How long are the chapters? Any chance of submitting them both at once? ACharles and Rayonn, I'll add you guys to the list for the upcoming week. Kate, you're probably good to go as well, but since you submitted this week I might ask you to hold off if there's a sudden explosion of interest.

Other Resources: Because it's not necessarily feasible to pin every thread that might be useful, I'm going to put a list of links up to other non-critique threads on RE that we might want to keep track of. So, if you're looking for a thread on this forum that's buried under a mountain of critiques, this is probably a good place for it. RE Administravia Email List and Submission Dates The RE Transition Topic - for those of you wondering about the move from TWG to 17s. Who Are You? - Inquiring blue caterpillars want to know! Extra Credit Lounge - A place for general discussions. Alpha Readers Thread - Some of our members also participate in an informal alpha reading group. This may be especially interesting to those of you who already have finished novels. Thanks to JamesW for setting this up. RE Does Write About Dragons - an informal group for those wanting to take Brandon Sanderson's online course Write About Dragons. Details at the link. Your Opinion... ...is important to us. Here are links to some ongoing discussions of different RE-related topics. Critiquing Guide - A detailed critiquing guide is a work-in-process. What would you like to see in the finished product? Workshopping Outlines? - Interested in submitting or critiquing outlines? Let us know your thoughts. Submission formats - At least a few people are critiquing on e-readers these days. (Those people are jerks, by the way. Wait, what are you talking about? I'm not jealous.) Is a .doc file format still the best way to go? Do you have other preferences? The Writing World Queries, Synopses and Submitting - Posts about the submission/querying process. Conventions, Workshops, Etc - Conventions and workshops that you've been to, are going to, or want to go to. Internal Editors and How to Critique - a thread for discussion about, and a link to, Mary-Robinette Kowal's video about critiquing and internal editors.