Word Count (What I’m Writing)
- Project Paradise Word Count: 357
- Project Skye Word Count: 1617
- Project Independence Word Count: 3041
- Project Ship of Shadows Graphic Novel Page Count: 12
0. Zero. Nada. Zilch. That’s my level of production since Tuesday of next week. What happened? Bad day on Wednesday and a realization that I’m still not focusing on enough on characters when I sit down to “plot” out my stories. To be fair, school and reading for school interrupted as well as I should write after class (about 4:15), but usually end up spending the time in the sun outside watching YouTube videos instead.
Currently Reading (What I’m Reading)
- For Fun:
Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson (Fantasy Novel, Stormlight Archive Book 3) - For School:
Rhetoric in the European Tradition by Thomas Conley (A Book on the History of Rhetoric)
Rereading the Sophists: Another book on the history of Rhetoric - For Research/Personal Development:
Great Aircraft of WWII by Alfred Price and Mike Spick (for Project Skye)
I wanted to read Oathbringer over the summer break before classes started again, but BS said that it might be helpful to read a Novella entitled, Edgedancer, before starting on Oathbringer. I finally found a copy at MTSU’s library and I’m reading it now. X gives a history of Rhetoric. Great Aircraft of WWII is a book that I’ve had in my collection for sometime–I’ve glanced at it periodically, but never read it cover-to-cover. Now, with Project Skye, I intend to do just that.
Game Mode On (What I’m Playing)
- Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands (Ubisoft Multi-platform): Open World, Third Person Tactical Shooter–About ¾th of the way through. Special Ops/Military combat in a fictional Bolivia taken over by a Mexican drug cartel. Difficulty is auto-leveling to its hardest difficulty (Tier One status) and it is slowing down my progress in the game as enemies take more hits to die, but you take far fewer hits to die. Difficulty is currently set to ADVANCED–the game’s doing, not mine. Very irksome when all you want to do is finish the game.
- Until Dawn (Sony PS4 Exclusive): Third Person, Horror– branching storyline game that features a variety of choices that affect the outcome of the story using a system call the “Butterfly Effect.” As I’m writing this, I haven’t put any time into this game as of this weekend because of E3.
A Bite-Sized Interlude
So, last week I finished EdgeDancer by Brandon Sanderson after a bad day of classes (I won’t go into the particulars, but it was one of those “Bear Eats You” days). In a nutshell, I thought it was a good story. It is one that I wish that I’d known about before buying/starting Oathbringer by Sanderson as it is a prequel of sorts and it delayed my beginning Oathbringer until I finished reading it. It is part of the new trend of authors releasing “side” stories in-between entries in the mainline series. Tad Williams has done it–in fact, I still haven’t had a chance to buy the actual new”mainline” novel in his Osten Ard series because I only just bought his novella and finished it earlier this spring. To my knowledge Elizabeth Moon hasn’t done that with her Vatta series, but Diane Duane has done it with her Young Wizards series (and for this one, I bought the mainline entry, not realizing that their were two side stories available that I’m going to have to go back and get at some point). In the mid-80’s, EdgeDancer might have been a full novel as it clocked in at about 200 pages. However, as Oathbringer is approximately 1,000 pages in length (and is in the general range of Sanderson’s normal length), this book is only about 20% of what the author is capable of writing.
A New Character and a New Power
EdgeDancer focuses on a new character, Lift and her new abilities. I’m actually not sure if we’ve seen Lift before–I somewhat feel that we might have seen her (or maybe it was the characters she interacts with) in an Interlude to the main story, so if she isn’t completely new, please forgive my memory (I haven’t read Bks 1 & 2 recently). I found the story to be pretty good. The main character’s characterization was excellent and the setting was well done. I felt the ending seemed to veer slightly as it has a misdirection that I’m not sure completely works (no spoilers), but the resolution of the story was strong enough that I immediately jumped into Oathbringer. I love Lift’s powers and can’t wait to see if they will be worked into the mainline story. The antagonist of the story was well done, if off the stage for most of the story and I have to say that even with the ending lurching wildly, I did still enjoy the final confrontation scene.
Overall Grade: B (Above Average): This story is a good set up for Oathbringer. Is it necessary? No, but it is fun and if you enjoy the world of the Stormlight Archive series then it gives you a new character with new powers in a setting we haven’t seen much of in the series. It is available in either a standalone volume or in a large volume, Arcanum Unbound with novellas from his other fantasy series.
Sidney
- Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
- Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
- Read Faerie Knight in the anthology Fae, Rhonda Parrish, Ed. or the Kindle Edition
- Read Ship of Shadows in the anthology Visions IV: Space Between Stars, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
- Read WarLight in the anthology Visions VI: Galaxies, Carrol Fix, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
- Read Dragonhawk in the magazine Tales of the Talisman, Vol. 8, Iss. 3, David Lee Summers, Ed. or the Kindle Edition.
Amazon Associate Disclaimer:
I earn a small commission on the purchase of these items.
OtherWorlds: A Science Fiction & Fantasy Web Journal 