SFReader.com : Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Book Reviews & more      SFWatcher.com : Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Movie Review



  Home | Log In | Register | Calendar | Search | Help
   
SFReader Forums > SF Fiction and Art > Right Now I'm Reading.... > May Book Club Suggestion: Sojourn Chronicles  Forum Quick Jump
 
New Topic Post Reply Printable Version
[ << Previous Thread | Next Thread >> | Show Newest Post First ]

Lyn
Adopt



Email Address Not AvailablePersonal Homepage Not AvailablePrivate Messaging Not AvailableAIM Not AvailableICQ Not AvailableY! Not AvailableMSN Not Available
Date Joined Sep 2007
Total Posts : 1278
 
   Posted 4/14/2008 11:45 PM (GMT -4)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Anyone up for reading Book One of the Sojourn Chronicles by Crystalwizard in a sort of virtual book club for the rest of April and May? It's 35 chapters long, just under 600 pdf pages. So that means 6 chapters a week - we read it, and post our thoughts and reactions in this thread every week. Thoughts?

www.ebookgiant.com/author/Crystalwizard-/4354


Lyn from ResAliens
Own a copy of Strange Worlds of Lunacy - Galaxy's Silliest Antho today!

Back to Top
 

Jack Windsword
Stablehand

Email Address Not AvailablePersonal Homepage Not AvailablePrivate Messaging Not AvailableAIM Not AvailableICQ Not AvailableY! Not AvailableMSN Not Available
Date Joined Mar 2008
Total Posts : 33
 
   Posted 4/16/2008 12:36 PM (GMT -4)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
I'm down.
Back to Top
 

Lyn
Adopt



Email Address Not AvailablePersonal Homepage Not AvailablePrivate Messaging Not AvailableAIM Not AvailableICQ Not AvailableY! Not AvailableMSN Not Available
Date Joined Sep 2007
Total Posts : 1278
 
   Posted 4/16/2008 1:24 PM (GMT -4)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Okay, Jack, does that mean you'll read it? Since I asked if anyone was "up" for it, you said you were "down." lol Well, regardless - or irregardless (which did not get a red-underline like the word okay did, hmm, something's wrong with this automatic spell check that firefox browser uses) - I'm going to read CW's novel (book one: Wizard's Bane) 5 or 6 chptrs at a time and post some thoughts here in this thread. She might not like my interaction - I tend to get a little snarky and talk back to the author at times! lol But there you have it. See you Saturday. :-)


Lyn from ResAliens
Own a copy of Strange Worlds of Lunacy - Galaxy's Silliest Antho today!

Back to Top
 

Nathan Jerpe
Acolyte



Email Address Not AvailablePersonal Homepage Not AvailablePrivate Messaging Not AvailableAIM Not AvailableICQ Not AvailableY! Not AvailableMSN Not Available
Date Joined Nov 2007
Total Posts : 203
 
   Posted 4/16/2008 4:57 PM (GMT -4)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
I'm interested, although I'd be more interested if we waited a couple of weeks to start? I'm still kinda worn out from the Ouroboros read...

(Edit: on second thought don't let me hold you up! I can always post a thread or two back if I get behind)


http://roguelikefiction.com

Back to Top
 

Lyn
Adopt



Email Address Not AvailablePersonal Homepage Not AvailablePrivate Messaging Not AvailableAIM Not AvailableICQ Not AvailableY! Not AvailableMSN Not Available
Date Joined Sep 2007
Total Posts : 1278
 
   Posted 4/16/2008 6:27 PM (GMT -4)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
No prob, Nathan. Read when you can. I'll start next week and post some reactions by Sat April 26. That still puts us close to finishing the book just after the end of May. Here's a possible reading/discussion schedule based on about 80 pages a week:

by Apr 26, chapters 1-6, pages 1-84
by May 3, chpts 7-11, pgs 85-172
by May 10, chpts 12-15, pgs 173-260
by May 17, chpts 16-20, pgs 261-342
by May 24, chpts 21-25, pgs 343-418
by May 31, chpts 26-30, pgs 419-501
by June 7, chpts 31-35, pgs 502-583 (end)

Of course, I have no idea where the actual "story breaks" occur - so if chapter 7 just begs to be read before it's scheduled to appear, then go with the flow. :-)

Next question - should all the discussion be here in this thread? (and it may just be me posting my thoughts, lol) Or should we break it up by section like you all did with Ouroboros? Personally, I'm inclined to keep it in this thread, unless there's strong opinions. At any rate, see you back here next week!


Lyn from ResAliens
Own a copy of Strange Worlds of Lunacy - Galaxy's Silliest Antho today!

Back to Top
 

Lyn
Adopt



Email Address Not AvailablePersonal Homepage Not AvailablePrivate Messaging Not AvailableAIM Not AvailableICQ Not AvailableY! Not AvailableMSN Not Available
Date Joined Sep 2007
Total Posts : 1278
 
   Posted 4/16/2008 7:48 PM (GMT -4)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
About a month ago in Crystalwizard's thread, MysticWino said...
I just finished Wizard's Bane. It's a good read. Excellent world building via story-telling versus info-dump! Kudos.
Cool, then you can simply add to the discussion as we read through it for this 'virtual book club' during May. Those who have read it, feel free to jump in with comments when the time comes. Thanks!


Lyn from ResAliens
Own a copy of Strange Worlds of Lunacy - Galaxy's Silliest Antho today!

Back to Top
 

Lyn
Adopt



Email Address Not AvailablePersonal Homepage Not AvailablePrivate Messaging Not AvailableAIM Not AvailableICQ Not AvailableY! Not AvailableMSN Not Available
Date Joined Sep 2007
Total Posts : 1278
 
   Posted 4/26/2008 6:10 PM (GMT -4)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
April 26, 2008 - Lyn's Comments on Wizard’s Bane – Book One of the Sojourn Chronicles
(And I’m going to pretend I don’t know the author. Yeah, rots of ruck with that! lol)

Formatting issues:
Some of these may already be resolved but the PDF version I downloaded from eBookGiant had a few formatting issues.

First, picayune as it may be, an ebook does not need blank pages at the beginning – it should start with an illo or the title and leave no blank pages for computer readers to scroll through. Following the big house tradition of blank, blank, title, blank, copyright is needless, imo. In fact, ebooks should really be laid out landscape instead of portrait, but that’s another issue.

Again, no big deal, but I would eliminate the three blank pages (two are roman numeral numbered and one is blank) after the ToC. Plus, the Table of Contents should be separate from the acknowledgments. Then I noticed that Chapter Ten is missing (in the ToC, not the book) and was probably overlooked because Chpt 10 starts a third of the way down on page 146. So the proofer needed to catch that (and I think it happened one other place as well).

As for the break between paragraphs and no tab indent for paragraphs, that wasn’t bad – and for reading it on a computer screen was actually helpful.


Lyn from ResAliens
Own a copy of Strange Worlds of Lunacy - Galaxy's Silliest Antho today!

Back to Top
 

Lyn
Adopt



Email Address Not AvailablePersonal Homepage Not AvailablePrivate Messaging Not AvailableAIM Not AvailableICQ Not AvailableY! Not AvailableMSN Not Available
Date Joined Sep 2007
Total Posts : 1278
 
   Posted 4/26/2008 6:11 PM (GMT -4)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Discuss Chapters 1 to 6

Initial impressions:
I liked the opening hook – strange occurrence in a strange city. As per the discussion elsewhere, I wasn’t too concerned that it was unnamed, but I did have trouble deciding how large the town was – a city implies one size, but the presence of a single town drunk implies another. So I settled on a European style earth village from the 1400s in my mind. And so when “Dale” showed up I figured he was from the future with such a nondescript name. (I’m still getting used to the protag’s name; I personally don’t like it, but I’m not the author.) Kheri is a good name and spelling, adds to the fantasy style setting.

The story telling is fairly solid overall – the characters get some development by way of dialog and the story moves predictably to the farm where I’m expecting something to happen – and it does. So that’s good if basic plotting: Introduction, set up, new character (the aunt), then crisis. I enjoy the no nonsense approach to getting into the story. It’s interesting, well written, and has me guessing already (which is a good thing – in good books I’m always trying to anticipate what’s going to happen next – in bad books I don’t care or already know, lol).

Couple of mistakes already though. Three or four miles wouldn’t be a couple hours walk – in that age of walking everywhere it would be less than an hour (I walk 15 min miles). So the time line is off a bit already, as they arrive after sun up. (Cows, btw, are milked before sunrise). Then, Dale not knowing what chickens are is a bit unbelievable. He knows what farm is, he knows what pigs are (his earlier reflection upon arrival in the garbage-strewn ally of the village), so he’d know chickens. Makes for a cute scenario, but threw me out of the story for a moment.

More later...


Lyn from ResAliens
Own a copy of Strange Worlds of Lunacy - Galaxy's Silliest Antho today!

Back to Top
 
New Topic Post Reply Printable Version
 
Forum Information
Currently it is Saturday, July 19, 2008 12:32 PM (GMT -4)
There are a total of 78,633 posts in 6,154 threads.
In the last 3 days there were 17 new threads and 101 reply posts. View Active Threads
Who's Online
This forum has 1189 registered members. Please welcome our newest member, jonnydolphin.
11 Guest(s), 1 Registered Member(s) are currently online.  Details
SJHigbee