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Mekkin B. (122 KP) rated Writing Excuses in Podcasts

Feb 22, 2018  
Writing Excuses
Writing Excuses
Arts
10
9.5 (2 Ratings)
Podcast Rating
15 Minutes Long, Because You're in a Hurry and They're Not That Smart
I've been an avid follower of this podcast for years. Every episode is a concise 15 to 20 minutes surrounding a discrete topic on the subject of writing and storytelling. All four authors are fairly well known sci-fi, fantasy and horror genre authors, so the advice does tend to be more geared towards those interested in writing genre fiction, but perfectly applicable to anyone who wants to learn how to write a compelling story.

I love the format. I'm not a huge fan of the rambly format of some other hour + long podcasts. I feel like I zone in and out listening to podcasters attempt to make a point. That's never the case with Writing Excuses. Ironically, the short format that probably accounts for this also makes me wish there was more!


Plus they include a book recommendation and a writing exercise as "homework" every week, which I have found to be particularly useful.


If you're interested in writing, I would definitely give Writing Excuses a listen.
  
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Sarah (7799 KP) rated All the Birds in the Sky in Books

Sep 20, 2019  
All the Birds in the Sky
All the Birds in the Sky
Charlie Jane Anders | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry, Science Fiction/Fantasy
7
7.7 (6 Ratings)
Book Rating
A good blend of genres
All the Birds in the Sky is a rather difficult book to classify. It’s a rather good mix of sci-fi, drama, fantasy and romance, all under the guise of a battle between magic and science. I wouldn’t have thought such a mix of genres would work, but actually this does rather well. The two main characters, Patricia and Laurence, are well developed and enjoyable to read about, even if they are a little frustrating at times. The world of science and magic that they live in is an interesting idea and fascinating to delve into, although I did feel that the book didn’t quite go into as much detail as I’d like. I also felt a little disappointed with the ending. The entire book had been building up to this massive battle between science and magic, and it all turned out rather lacklustre and tame. It’s a shame really as until the ending, I’d rather been enjoying the story and couldn’t wait to find out what was next.
  
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Ross (3284 KP) rated One Word Kill in Books

Dec 4, 2019  
One Word Kill
One Word Kill
Mark Lawrence | 2019 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
7
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Nothing original but a good read
Mark Lawrence has stepped out of the fantasy bubble into this loosely sci-fi trilogy set in the 1980s. 15 year old Nick is diagnosed with cancer and while undergoing chemotherapy starts to have strange visions and deja vu. A mysterious figure seems to be stalking him and his D&D friends, and he ends up planning a siege to help this person from the future.
The story is very short (a little over 200 pages on kindle), but is quite heavy on the 80s references and D&D gameplay. The story itself is nothing new but with a little more head-scratching time travel/parallel universe pseudo-science crammed in. The twists throughout the story are fairly predictable and cliched.
The dialogue also doesn't feel like authentic 80s teenager speech to me, a few too many Americanisms ("hey" instead of "hi", "do it, already" etc).
A reasonably enjoyable short book, but a little Stranger Things bandwagon-jumping to me. I'm not sure whether the other two books carry on the story or how, so I will be interested to see where they go from here.