Reflections in the Ink

As part of the 10-year anniversary, I (Alex) wanted writers at QTL to talk a little bit about the things they’ve written. To make it easy, I figured it would be fun to look at our first ever review for the site and really sit in our own cringiness. Then, they should take a little journey into their most popular or most viewed review. Lastly, I wanted us to engage with what we consider to be our favorite work, the one we might be most proud of. I’ll be the first one to smash that bottle of champagne against the ship and see what kind of horrors we can discover on this journey into our past. 

 

Alex

First Review: Altered Starscape 

I know I had helped Andrew here and there with a few pieces leading up to my debut, but just everyone give a Hoo Boy for this piece. I knew this was sitting there waiting for me and as much as I want to praise myself for some of the clarity within the piece, it is a bit of a mess. I jump around to different ideas with very little transition. The writing feels a little cold and detached, as if I was restraining myself from really digging in. I think there was some trepidation about reviewing a book I had received an ARC of, and saying it was bad. I find it charming that I tried to keep my frustration with aspects of the book to a minimum. But I can see the beginnings of my ultimate frustrations within the science fiction genre (I love you sci fi). Once a hatchet man, always a hatchet man I guess (not to be confused with Hachette). I’m just glad I’ve learned to be a bit more precise in my handling of that all too brutal tool, and be more cohesive if even less concise in my takedowns of books. 

Most Popular Review: To Sleep In A Sea of Stars 

I wasn’t sure if this or Project Hail Mary was going to be top dog here, but it looks like To Sleep in a Sea of Stars won out. And honestly, I’m okay with that. Similar to Altered Starscape, this was a trip down memory lane with regards to my more critical side. While the previous entry was an introduction into the world of reviewing books, TSIASOS was a deliberate choice to dive deeper into a book I was sure not to like. It’s a choice that feels a little cringey as I am older and more seasoned, but one I still feel a little proud of. I don’t necessarily choose to do it as much these days, but I do occasionally feel the pull towards more popular authors and books that I might be able to add a more critical perspective to.

What I wasn’t particularly ready for was just how much self-deprecating humor was interlaced in the review. It feels like a manic idiot yelling into the camera, “don’t do what I just did,” after the mistake yielding foreseen consequences. The coherence of my arguments is really distilled, even as I try to make outrageous fun of the book and my choice to read it. I don’t want to give myself too much credit here, but there was a really nice blend of taking the critique seriously, while trying to take piss out of myself for embarking on such a task. While I think I can crack a joke or two in my critiques, I don’t think they are as interlaced with humor in this fashion. I don’t know if I take things too seriously for humor these days, but it was a good reminder to ease up even when providing a deeper, cynical eye towards science fiction. 

 

Favorite Review: The Witcher Series

I’ve thought long and hard about what to highlight here. I’ve gone through several different reviews of books that have stood out in my head, re-reading them to understand what makes me read, think about books, and write about them on a public website. And I think this piece really highlights to me what makes this whole process so appealing to me. Reading it again brought up the thoughts and emotions I grappled with reading that strange and adversarial series. I love and adore the books, but it’s one of the few places I dig into the frustration with coming to love the books. It’s a journey that requires patience, and the few moments that feel revelatory or “nice,” get countered with grim realities. 

It’s also part of a larger piece that I felt I had a lot of creative control while we examined The Witcher as a multimedia IP that does not have a singular identity. I didn’t write it all, but I got to write the majority of the book section. I had a lot of fun trying to wrestle with my emotions and whether they were something I wanted to recommend. Obviously, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t enjoy trying to build expectations for books, but it felt really good to do it for a series that I came to adore, and still cherish to this day. This rings truer because I has a special knack and get enjoyment out of dissecting the problems within a book, and being a voice of dissent and frustration within the genre I love. But here I got to be positive about something while recognizing some of its faults. It’s one of the few places I get to express the entirety of my experience with a book. It’s so easy to get lost gushing about something that hits just right, even when you’re detailing all the little bits. But this piece reminds me I should also be willing to point out things I don’t like or were frustrated with while growing to love something. I only hope I can pull from this energy and apply it to stuff I like in the future. 

 

Andrew

First Post: The First Post – Part 1: What Makes the Great Great?

I feel I am being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment. Unlike these other incredibly talented writers on the site, I didn’t have the chance to watch someone blunder and fumble their way through posts for years until I made my debut. I was instead the one doing all the fumbling. Being forced to look back and read my earliest posts on this site is psychological torture because, dear god, have I improved a lot since March 27th, 2015. I have slowly been updating old posts on the site to our new formatting to make things easier to find and read, but ‘The First Post – Part 1: What Makes the Great Great?’ shall remain untouched as a time capsule to remind me how far I have come.

It was incredibly naive of me to start my first post of this experiment of a site with a sweeping statement that I knew the secret sauce that makes a good fantasy book good. I know so much more today than I did back then, and I feel it would still be presumptive of me to make a claim like that. A large lesson I have gained in my journey over the last ten years is that you shouldn’t make large, sweeping statements about the fantasy and science fiction genre until you have read a lot of the fantasy and science fiction genre. There are so many great and interesting books lying right below the surface of mainstream slop for you to discover. Amazing books are doing all sorts of innovative and interesting things; you just have to find them. Hopefully, we can help.

 

Most Popular Post: Why You Should Read Malazan – Part 1: The Introduction

As for my most popular post, Why You Should Read Malazan, I must admit I am cheating a bit. While I am the lead author on that post, equal effort came from the brilliant Alex Tas, so it is a shared achievement. I love the Malazan post because it represents a microcosm of one of the major objectives I set out to achieve when I started The Quill to Live: helping people enjoy books more. Over the years, I have been contacted by almost a hundred people who have told me that the Malazan guide helped them find the time and energy to dig into the series and that they loved it. While ~100 people might not seem like Earth-shattering numbers, I have always adopted the ethos that if a post can help even a single person find and enjoy a book, then it was time well spent.

Our Malazan project has also helped set the standard for major series tribute pieces going forward. Other series that we have similarly covered include The Black Company, The Culture, The Witcher (see Alex’s section of this post), and we are currently working on one for the Vorkosigan Saga. Each of these pieces has been a monumental labor of love, and it feels wonderful to spend some time giving back in some extremely small way to series that we love and cherish.

 

My Favorite Post: City of Stairs – The Whole Package

Finally, my favorite post on this site has got to be my review for City of Stairs, by Robert Jackson Bennett. Because I have been doing this the longest out of the reviewers at the QTL, I had an absolute boatload of reviews to choose from. I have reviews that I think are really well written, reviews that I think are really funny, and reviews of books that I really liked–so it was extremely hard for me to pick out one favorite one from all of my metaphorical children. Instead, I decided to take a look at reviews that represented big shifts in how I approached the site, and through that lens, there was one review in particular that stood out to me.

When I first started posting reviews on the QTL, I was mostly just trying to find ‘good’ books. This meant beginning first with giant genre staples like The Name of the Wind, Mistborn, and The Lies of Locke Lamora. These are all well and good, but most of these authors absolutely do not need additional people championing them. Instead, it was when I read and started championing a little-known book (at the time), City of Stairs, that I found a calling in digging up lesser-known books and recommending them. Few things give me greater joy than handing someone a recommendation for a book they have never heard of and them loving it. My review of the incredible City of Stairs represented a shift in how I approach books–find the incredible gems that the marketing and conversation around the genre are overlooking and push them to the top. If this style of review sounds like something that might interest you, you might want to check back tomorrow as well.

 

Cole

First Review: A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

I tried to fetch the first email exchange I ever had with Andrew because I remember him saying something along the lines of “I’m the nicest guy you will meet.” It was part of his response to my first QTL review after being brought to the site by former reviewer Will Klein. Did Andrew live up to this claim? Overall, yes; he is indeed a nice guy. Whether he’s the nicest is still up in the air. 

That trademark Andrew niceness carried over into his constructive criticism on my first review: A Darker Shade Of Magic by V.E. Schwab. I didn’t love the book, nor did I hate it. Andrew helped me thread the needle and condense my thoughts into a cohesive review. 

Reading it again seven years later (holy shit), I think the review has many of my trademarks. It opens with an analogy to set the stage. It dives into the issues I had while praising the good parts. 

It’s funny to me that I remember my email exchange with Andrew more than the book at the heart of that exchange. My review score of 5.5/10 helps hammer it home. A Darker Shade Of Magic was a mediocre book, but it was my own special kind of portal fantasy. It brought me to this wonderful site.

 

Most Popular Post: Welcome To The Cosmere!

There’s one QTL post that far outpaces every other on the site. While I’d love to tell you this is thanks to the post’s incredible content and needle-sharp writing, my creative genius is only a small part of its success. Welcome To The Cosmere: A Brandon Sanderson Reading Order is my most popular post, and it’s not close. I haven’t done the math, but I’m willing to bet it has more views than all of my other posts combined times three.  

Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere interconnected universe is at peak popularity right now. It catapulted him to the tippy top of Kickstarter record books. He has his own convention (which I attended and reviewed) and releases books faster than any other fantasy author of equal renown. It’s no surprise that our suggested Cosmere reading order has garnered so much attention.

Even so, I don’t want to sell us short. I worked closely with Andrew (what a nice guy!) on the reading order. We handpicked each placement to set readers up for the best reveals as they journey through the Cosmere. It’s not just a Cosmere reading order. It’s the Cosmere reading order. If you disagree, that’s okay! Just submit your feedback to my suggestion box, which looks remarkably like a trash can! 

 

Favorite Post: The Road – Worth The Trek

Early on in my QTL tenure, I struggled to find my voice. Re-reading old reviews for this reflection was an exercise in humility and regret. Everything felt sterile, like my personality had been spirit-punched from my body and left a husk of a reviewer.

Something clicked with Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. I remember writing a specific line nearly seven years ago, and it sticks with me still: 

“‘Okay.’ The boy says. ‘Okay.’ The dad says. It may be less than they need, but it’s the most they can manage.” 

Reviewing The Road gave me clarity and freedom. I understood how to cherry-pick the parts of a book worth discussing and, conversely, what could be cut. Getting my message across was no longer about saying everything I thought, but instead about saying what was crucial. 

Now, when I struggle with a review, I think back to my experience with The Road. The spark returns, and I welcome it like a cherished friend (aka the nicest guy I’ve met).

 

Brandee

First Review: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

Well, how odd is it that Cole and I both began our tenure at The Quill To Live with a V.E. Schwab book? That was completely unplanned, yet this synchronicity is very fitting and an unintentional, but nice little homage to Cole, my dear friend who introduced me to Andrew, Alex, and the incredible world of content created on QTL.

It’s easy to travel back in time and remember my experience while writing my first review. I was beyond nervous and spent hours agonizing over my draft. Even though I am a writer by trade, all my work is done through a corporate lens. It had been years since I had written for enjoyment, and I had not spent any time writing about a topic I really loved. Sure, I recommended books and discussed them with my friends, but I never reviewed or analyzed them deeply. Joining QTL has been incredible because I have brilliant friends who have helped me grow and evolve how I think and write, and I’m so much better because of them. 

And as for Addie LaRue, I adore this book, and I can feel that love for the story when I read this review. The review reads like it’s been lovingly crafted, as if I’m trying to relive the book more so than convince you to read it. I think this can be said for all my highly-rated books. I may not agonize over my drafts now, but I like to think I always bring that deep appreciation and passion for the incredible books I review. 

 

Most Popular Review: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

I don’t know if you can hear me over the laughter from my fellow contributors when it was discovered that my most popular review belongs to Fourth Wing, a book that continues to grate my nerves since it debuted in 2023. 

By the time I wrote this review, I was feeling much more comfortable being critical about the books I did not enjoy, and I remember Fourth Wing pushing me out of my comfort zone. I was very conflicted when I started writing this review because it was a book I enjoyed for at least a moment before it all soured. I remember my early draft was much more subdued and tried to soften my frustrations. However, the longer I thought about this book, the angrier I became, and I didn’t want to beat around the bush when I realized I had some serious issues with the story.

Alas, I stated that my minority opinion was being shouted into the void, which remains true to this day since I recently stumbled upon an explosion of Onyx Storm (book 3) merch and decor at my local Barnes & Noble. Part of me wants to believe this post is so popular because other readers experienced similar frustrations and wanted to see that voiced among the outpouring of love this series has received. But in reality, I probably just lured in Fourth Wing fans and then scared them away from the site with my vitriol. 

 

Favorite Post: Soundtracking a Story

The most fun I have ever had writing was this piece, and it’s because it combines two of my most favorite things in the world: books and music. I connect deeply to both these media, and I engage with them to help me process emotions and interpret the world around me. 

I can hear one line of a song, and it immediately conjures up a book scene in my head. So I wanted to put this experience to paper. Book playlists are so popular these days, so I know I’m not the only one who makes these connections. But I especially loved writing this piece because it was so personal and a unique way for readers to get to know me better when I first joined QTL. 

I look back at this piece and long for that time when I was feeling more creative and had more space to come up with fun posts. Graduate school and several life events really took their toll on me these past two years. But I’m in recovery mode and working hard to get back to that creative space again.