The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century by Ian Mortimer
I read this as research for all the fantasy books I write. It’s pretty good, but don’t expect it to take command of the premise, which is pretending that you’re a time traveler. It doesn’t act like a fun travel guide for places to go and people to see. It’s more of a non-fiction reference document.
I was able to incorporate a few juicy tidbits into my writing. It’s not too dry, but it is mostly text. It stays squarely in a 1300-1399 timespan. And it’s a good resource for learning how to world-build, but with a real world. But it does get detailed. It gets into the weeds on some things like prices and lists of clothing. There were points when my eyes glazed over, and I zoned out.
It didn’t one hundred percent fulfill my hope for the book, which was to tell me what a typical daily life would be like. Instead, it broke it down into different facets, like health & hygiene, social class, and relationships between different groups (aristocracy, ministry, and peasants). What I would have liked is a story or multiple POVs from people in this time. Like a day in the life of a peasant girl, a religious clerk, a lord, etc. Something with a narrative around it so I can see cause and effect.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by John Tiffany, J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne
I figure Rowling’s not getting any money from this anymore, so it was okay to read it, as long as it came from the library. It’s like a short version of a regular Harry Potter novel. It’s structured the same way, with lots of meandering plotlines and unnecessary sequences and twists you can see a mile away. It’s condensed, limited to only dialogue and a few scant action cues. Maybe this is the future of writing prose, given kids’ attention spans these days.
It’s primarily about Harry Potter’s middle son and Draco Malfoy’s only son (who may or may not actually be Voldemort’s secret lovechild). It fast-forwards through four years and any scene-setting or characterization to get to an inciting event. But that doesn’t mean it’s fast-paced. It means that it more closely portrays the back of an HP book where there’s a mystery and lots of wandering and unnecessary chapters.
The kid’s story is all right, but there’s also a subplot about Harry lamenting his parenting skills and his lot in life after having so many adventures and changing the world. Harry is a whiner. “Oh, I’m a bad father.” In some scenes, he just sits on the bed, complains, and then the scene ends.
And it’s all about time travel, which is confusing. Combine time travel and magic, you might as well put the story in a programmer’s sandbox. Now there are no guidelines–anything can happen. The world barely had any rules to begin with, so it’s like nothing matters.
The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction by Philip Athans
Nothing about this book really jiggled my balls. It was full of things I’ve already read and incorporated. Nothing tuned me into something I haven’t learned already about fantasy or science fiction before. The only real difference is world-building, and for that you should look at a dedicated volume, since that’s such a big part. All the information within is stuff you can find online and in YouTube videos. There are plenty of resources out there. At least it’s short.
A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan #2) by Robert Jackson Bennett
Better than the first. This time, Ana and Din travel to a kind of “Aztec”-ish colony of the empire where they have to solve another murder. This time it seems there’s a conspiracy afoot, as the colony provides a singularly valuable resource to the empire, and that resource might not be so valuable anymore. At least, not so the colony can/must join the empire.
Less political intrigue in this one (at least in terms of “the houses of power”, wealthy families trying to screw each other over kinda stuff) and more down and dirty in the weeds “oh crap, there’s some s**t going on here”. It amazes me that I am still able to be surprised sometimes by fantasy. Maybe it’s because I haven’t read a lot of biopunk, but this author does things that still make me scared for the characters and the world. The best part is the “artifacts” that the author invents, like moss that preserves bodies.
Moreover, the relationship between Ana and Din grows stronger/more fleshed out. It’s not a romantic relationship, and I don’t want it to be romantic. It’s a working relationship, like Mulder and Scully, except not that. More like Holmes and Watson if Holmes were an autistic shut-in vulnerable to overstimulation and he had to send Watson out in the world with a camcorder. But using this narrative technique, the writing divides itself neatly into “observation-deduction” scene-sequel format, which is easy to follow. Din goes out, makes the observations, then reports back to Ana, who deduces the conclusions. It’s such a clever engine, and it nestles neatly into novel format.
Anyway, highly recommend, especially if you liked the first one. Second one doesn’t disappoint. No sophomore slump here.
Slayers of Old by Jim C. Hines
It’s fine, but there’s not much “promise of the premise”. Its elevator pitch is “The Golden Girls meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer“, but there are only two girls and they’re not very much like Blanche or Rose. One is a slayer that’s in her fifties, but because of her powers, she doesn’t suffer much of the aches and pains of aging. The other is a former succubus, now grandmother who runs a quaint bookshop–that’s nothing I haven’t heard before. And they mostly have adventures and action scenes. Not much in the way of “shards of glass” that they need to pull out of their hearts. Or at least they don’t bleed much.
The Golden Girls was a sitcom, meaning it was about situations. The comedy came from the four differently-backgrounded women riffing off each other. Dorothy’s the hardass, Rose is spacy, Blanche is a slut, and Sophia’s the anti-kindly old lady (with mob ties). There’s nothing like that here.
It’s a plot-heavy story. They are old, but they’re middle-aged, so nothing’s too big a deal, other than bum knees and family drama. There’s no clashing of two worlds, like what if Buffy had to apply for Social Security? Or Xander joins the AARP? Willow’s eyes get too bad for her to drive? Both sides have issues to explore, but they don’t really go together. There’s no real “fun” to be had combining the two. At least not here. It’s a solid 3 out of 5.
