The StormHunter Mark Robinson was the Science Guest of Honour at Can-Con. He had just returned from shooting footage in the Arctic, which will be playing the week of November 10-15 on The Weather Network, so check it out when you get the chance! He was an incredibly dynamic panelist, so to any teachers in the Toronto region, email him because he does presentations at schools and he’s totally worth it!
Matt Moore is the Communications Director for ChiZine Publications in Ottawa, and he writes science fiction and horror. He was nominated for an Aurora Award in the Short Story category. I enjoyed the panel he moderated, and wished I could have seen more of him.
Martin Bueno is the author of The Rainbow Alchemist.
If you’ve been following my book reviews. You know that I have a soft spot for Urban Fantasy. I also have a soft spot for interesting female characters. Discount Armageddon delivers both and does it well.
Below is my review. For more information on how and why I review books read my posts Part 1 and Part 2.
At the center of the story is Verity Price, a tough ballroom dancer who’s been trained from birth on how to kill things and study them. Unfortunately she isn’t the most interesting character.
The supporting cast from religious mice to a shapeshifer cousin truly makes the book. There is a wide and varied group of people. I loved both the interactions and dialogue between the characters.
Again, unfortunately Verity Price isn’t the most interesting of characters, falling into the girly tough girl stereotype. She loves to dance and seems to have a love hate relationship with her life. She wants to dance but also wants to follow in the family business.
To ignore her own inner struggle she tries to continuously meet the world with sex appeal and one-liners. She played dumb, when she obviously wasn’t, too many times.
For characters, I give it 3 out of 5
The author isn’t afraid to go on small tangents to explain the world. I really enjoyed the history and Price family life. It’s a great world with all kinds of interesting people and events.
Despite what people often think, writing first person is more difficult than third and if done wrong makes the story sound like “than guy” at a party that wants to tell you all about his d&d character or cat.
Ms. McGuire makes the story flow quickly, smoothly and keeps all the action tight.
The language bugged me a little. I understand first person characters using slang and odd turns of phrase but sometimes it felt discordant. The writing had a strange juxtaposition of British and American slang.
I give it 3 out of 5.
The flow of the story was wonderful. Never leaving us in the same place long enough to get bored. The story shape is extremely simple but works wonderfully. Never leaving me annoyed with what was happening.
This is the first in a series and with that there are a lot of details added that don’t directly impact the story. Relatives that weren’t essential, and plot points that won’t be important until later books.
It’s not that I didn’t enjoy reading about her grandfather stuck in hell and her grandmothers quest to find him but I would have liked to learn more about the characters that were important to the story.
I give the story 4 out of 5
Despite her clichés and often bad one-liners I like Verity Price. She perfectly personifies that struggle and lost feeling that I had in my twenties.
It also has a few steamy scenes that made me blush.
I often would have like more in depth descriptions or interactions. It would have slown down the story pace but it would have given the book more substance. However I realize that this is an action book and not an epic.
I give it 5 out of 5 for fun
If you like fast paced action and fun characters thrown into ridiculous situations I recommend you pick this up.
Final score is 75%
Ira Nayman is one of the funniest people, especially in a panel! I was very happy to meet him at Can-Con. He has many books, and we bought too many of them. (“too many books”…odd concept, and it does not apply here!)
Victoria and Meghan have become a staple at Ottawa’s geeky events, and I love talking to them. Their book, Alice Hearts Welsh Zombies by Victoria Dunn, is going to be read at Halloweenie Reading Night on October 24th at Venus Envy at 7:30pm. Be sure to check it out for a Halloween treat!
S. M. Carriere is an amazing writer, and she will be at Ottawa Geek Market at Table 110, so go and say hi and buy one of her books! She has a new book coming out on Halloween called The Summer Bird and it looks so good!
The Renaissance Press (two links to follow there) table was manned by Caroline Frechette (middle), the author of the new book Blood Relations. Super fun to talk to, and very awesome to listen to in a panel. You can find Renaissance Press at Ottawa Geek Market at Table 807.
I met Linda at Can-Con the first weekend in October, and she was awesome to talk and listen to.
Linda Poitevin is a Dark Urban Fantasy author. Her book Sins of the Lost is the third in a series and it is coming out October 15th! So you have just enough time to pick up the first two and read them over the weekend…good thing it’s a long weekend!
Michell Plested wrote a book about a boy who wants to be a superhero. It’s easy to read and beautifully written.
This is one of the novels nominated for this year’s Aurora Awards.
Below is my review. For more information on how and why I review books read my posts Part 1 and Part 2.
Writing from a child’s perspective is difficult. It’s tempting to try and write the way a child would speak, or what we think a child speaks. Plested didn’t fall into this trap he used a vocabulary and writing style that was elevated but accessible. The greatest strength of this novel is how authentic it feels. Mik is believable as a character because of his thought process, logic, and reference points.
If I have one complaint about the book, it is its lack of fleshing out all the characters. I feel I understood his parents, and a few of his teachers but it was hard for me to fully understand the other secondary characters. I would have liked to know more about them. Especially the librarian.
For characters, I give it 4 out of 5
The book was structured around a series of events that form Mik’s personality and show his quest to be a hero. With that structure, it felt like a series of short stories about the same character. Despite its modular feel I never lost interest. I was impressed how well the author wove the stories together.
There was a certain frustration I had while reading. I kept trying to decide if this was speculative fiction or just a coming of age story. It was never clear until one particular point and when that point arrived I had already decided the opposite and I found this a little jarring.
I give it 4 out of 5.
The biggest pet peeve I have with YA writing is the stereotype that parents are not only the enemy but stupid. It happens more often in Horror, or urban-fantasy but it happens a lot in superhero stories too. Plested took this stereotype and stripped it down to its simplest form. That being that parents aren’t stupid but they are biased, and fallible. It also helps that Mik tries to protect his parents and often has to worry about them figuring him out. Never does he treat them as a villain but as an obstacle.
The story flows well and the general suspense of whether he really is going to get powers is written perfectly. There was a point of the book that I just stopped worrying about it and let things happen.
Several Story points weren’t finished, which is fine considering he’s writing a sequel.
The problems with a modular style is separating the stories in the readers head. Everyone is looking for Chekhov’s gun and we’ve been trained by the stories we grew up with that things come back. So when characters that seem important don’t come back it’s disconcerting.
I give the story 4 out of 5
This book was a fast and fun read. I felt drawn into the story and the character. I enjoyed it all the way through.
The worst thing about this book was that it ended.
I greatly anticipate the sequel.
I give it 5 out of 5 for fun
I highly recommend this to anyone who likes superheroes, coming of age stories, or reading.
Final score is 85%
