It might be quite strange jumble as my blog is partly about reading books, partly about hiking and partly about writing. It might seem that this trio does not come together that much. Yet, for me, it does. In this post, I will share how.
Stories and emotions
Some recent ‘events’ led me to think about the emotions created by stories, in any form. Be it a book, a movie, or even a video game; a good story should probably create some emotions in those who ‘consume’ it. But, is there a thing like going too far?
Book review: The White Song
After taking a two-week break from reading, I finally returned to the fifth and final book in ‘Chronicles of the Black Gate’ series. The grand finale. So, without much fumbling around, I go for the review.
Writing update: First beta draft complete!
I’ve reached another major milestone. The first beta draft (sixth draft by my own weird numbering) was completed some minutes ago. The largest changes were massive cuts in the early parts (something I wrote a blog post about a few days ago), the later parts being mostly rewording of sentences and other such smaller changes. Because I did major grammar pass between draft 5.4 and the sixth draft, this draft’s grammar pass was quite fast (it seems I’m learning something in this regard as well, hooray).
So, what’s next?
I’ll give the updated version to the people that were my ‘alpha testers’ and my first beta reader. In the meantime, I’ll play some games (World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth launching just in a few hours) and try to weave in the fifth book of ‘Chronicles of the Black Gate’ series after the two-week break from reading caused by my work on the beta draft.
I guess that by the end of the month or the beginning of the next one, I might try to find more potential beta readers in the few Goodreads groups I am a member of, though I’m not decided yet on the exact timing. Anxiety/stage fright is still a thing – as is the feeling that anyone reading will be like “what the hell is this?”.
I’ll also give some more details soon, this time for real. I have some of them prepared but still deciding what exactly to share at this stage (as the final version won’t be ready sooner than spring 2019). I’ll most likely give some details about genre and such + show some sample(s).
So, that’s my quick update. See you next time!
Writing: choosing a sample
As I mentioned before, I am getting ready to get to beta with my fantasy story. There’s some more editing and fluff removal to be done. What I’m thinking about these moments is something I’d use as a sample people could freely have a look at and decide whether my story is something they should give a try.
It’s quite a difficult decision.
Writing: drafts retrospective
In the last post, I looked back on how my (lack of) ambition changed since the first ideas to the moments I was actually writing.
Now that I am doing the finishing touches on the sixth draft which is to be the first beta draft, I decided to look back on the individual drafts and the story’s state in them.
Writing thoughts: goals and ambitions
I’m now quite close to having the beta draft complete (more on that in a few days) and start looking for the first beta readers and so I’ve decided to make a post that’ll look on how I saw the potential finish line, so to say. It surely changed over the years, the question is: how much?
Book review: The Iron Circlet
As with the previous books, the fourth directly follows the third. Defense of Abythos ended up being a total failure due to all the creatures Tharok had enslaved and sent the humans scattered from the battlefield.
Those who survived and are capable of leading the remains are trying to create a working strategy to stop the kragh hordes yet find themselves unable to choose something they would all agree on and they’d all believe to work.
Meanwhile, Audsley is getting deeper into the secrets of the Fujiwara, secrets that are often gruesome. His path will take some twists as well, maybe more than the others.
Now, a bit more detail about the individual plotlines.
Tharok
Tharok’s conquest seems unstoppable at first, yet the warlord is surprised by something he’d not expect: the White Gate. Its power knocks him out temporarily and one of the others takes the mantle of a warlord – as well as the circlet and weapon – from him, leaving him to create a plan to get them back without their help, something he eventually succeeds in doing. Then, he launches his most devastating attack on the humans who prepared their last defense. It does not go as well as he thought until he uses something that no one could be prepared for.
Tiron
Tiron and the young nobles following him are one of the few that left Abythos by ground instead of portals and are moving, seemingly without a destination, through the land. That is until they encounter a group of kragh that separated from the main army. They eventually join forces with Nok and Shaya who were sent to warn and help the few remaining shamans that Tharok sent away so the medusa can’t get a hold of them.
This journey shows the contrast between Tirn’s harsh realism and the ideals of the nobles and even Tiron is shown that his approach might not be the best one – that a dream or hope can be a goal to go for, despite all the losses they face. With the help of the uncorrupted kragh, they eventually help the final battle in a way no one could expect.
Iskra
Iskra does not get that much action. Instead, she’s mostly seen trying to keep things together, often being against the plan the Ascendant suggests – only to be shown that they both made mistakes.
Asho and Kethe
The two finally meet again, only to start quite cold as Kethe is still struggling with her new role as a virtue – only to be the last one standing. Both she and Asho are again forced to fight to the limits of their abilities and not always side-by-side as they defend different places against Tharok’s forces. The situation between them changes when Asho saves Kethe and they eventually fight the final battle together.
Also, Elom appears again and shows his skill in fixing things, especially fixing massive things that make massive damage.
Audsley
This was probably the most interesting part of the book. Audsley, once hungry for knowledge, is now struggling with his inner demons as he delves into the dark secrets of the Fujiwara. With Zephyr, they plan to eliminate their leader and while creating the plan works well, it all goes down horribly. Audsley is given more facts than he’d like – facts that are too hard to swallow for him, a revelation about the Ascension’s dark background and how the faith he believed so much was nothing but a scheme built on a desire for vengeance.
It eventually goes down horribly and even the fact that his firecat Aedelbert finally returns or that he is finally rid of his demons are just a small consolation in what turns to be much worse than the kragh, the medusa, or the massive worms she summoned.
Read date: 26.-30.7.2018
Published: 13.4.2017
Goodreads / Amazon rating: 4,34 / 4,8
My rating: 95%
Length: 438 pages (Kindle edition)
Going 5% up compared to the previous two books.
A great part of me hoped that Asho and Kethe would finally rid Tharok of his head and get done with the kragh for all they caused. How the Fujiwara substory went down was something I did not really expect and if there’s something I am really curious to see in the final book, it’s what will happen with the Ascendant empire. As the characters were considering destruction or reformation, the situation changed many times. Now that all the dark background was revealed and everything is going down even worse than expected, the change will be most likely in some other direction.
What I missed compared to the first three books was saying at the beginning of a chapter from whose PoV the chapter is told. Sometimes it was a good idea for where to end the day’s reading.
