One of the hidden gems I read last year was a satirical science fiction called Mechanical Failure, by Joe Zieja. It was the story of a disillusioned and incompetent military vet, Rogers, being forced back into service on a warship where everything seems just a little off. The plot follows Rogers attempts to uncover what’s…
Continue reading ➞ Communication Failure – A More Clear Message
In an attempt to be more thorough in my understanding of science fiction, I decided I would look back at some more well-known books that I have yet to read. My Dad recommended Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's 1974 novel The Mote in God’s Eye, and I decided to crack it open and give it…
Continue reading ➞ The Mote in God’s Eye – Vision From The Past
One of the benefits of taking a vacation can be a lot of travel time - which in my case means a lot of reading time. I managed to knock out some of my bigger to-reads while I was out, so let's start with one of the densest books I have read this year, Ada…
Hi Everyone! Somehow we managed to have almost our entire staff on vacation this week and the next, so we will not have any new content until two weeks from today on September 19th. I apologize to those of you who like our pieces, but we promise to have a ton of new books read…
I have an interesting review for you today about a book (and series) that I am particularly attached to. Back in the blog's first year I was testing out ideas for thought pieces to complement my reviews. One of the first ones I did was this piece on perception. At the bottom of that piece…
Continue reading ➞ An Echo Of Things To Come – Time To Shine
Today I have a review on one of 2017’s big debuts, Blackwing by Ed McDonald. This is the first book of the Raven’s Mark series and it has been getting a lot of praise, and a little disdain, from a good deal of people in the reviewing business. As such, I was very excited to…
Series transitions can be rough. This year Sebastien de Castell stuck the landing as he wrapped up his astounding Greatcoats quartet and sealed it as one of my favorite series. Simultaneously he has launched the first book in his second series, Spellslinger. It is always interesting to see the direction that authors go post-series completion.…
I don’t talk a lot about Brandon Sanderson for two reasons. One, most people already know and read him. He is an extremely successful author, for good reason, and people don’t need me to help discover him. Two, I really, really like his work and I do my best not to review books I know…
We have something called the “20% rule” here at The Quill to Live. We believe that a sizable number of authors simply don’t know how to start a book. It is the single most common issue we find with novels; authors have great ideas and prose but just don’t know how to get the story…
Just a reminder that Red Sister exists and that you should go read it, and also a kick ass sequel cover.
