What’s your favorite genre? I’m partial to young adult books, but I’ll read just about anything. One of my favorite authors is Ann Rinaldi. She writes young adult historical fiction novels and got me hooked on historical fiction pretty early on. Most of the HF I buy has to do with Shakespeare or early modern England, but what else would you expect from someone with a master’s in Shakespeare? Loren DeShon contacted Hazard Editing few weeks ago looking for someone to critique his HF novel, Redemption on the River, and I was pleased to accept the assignment.
Redemption on the River takes place in 1848 on the Missouri river. The story follows roughly eight months in the life of a young man named Silas as he travels up and down the river. Have you ever noticed that the worst times of your life are the most dramatic? The most interesting stories usually come out situations that cause deep pain. That’s certainly true for Silas. His life prior to this book was spent on the family farm, moving through life rather uneventfully, getting by and following the normal course for a man in his town. Then, after a freak accident, he knows it’s time to leave the farm and escape the memories haunting him there.
The problem with that idea, as I’m sure you know, is that memories never stay where you put them. Silas gets on a riverboat, makes some friends, and learns about splurging in the “big city.” His friends have his back as he learns to fight and uses those skills to save his life. He meets a family with a beautiful daughter that takes his breath away, usually when she’s berating him. Every time he thinks he has a bead on the people around him, he finds out he’s wrong. So much happens to Silas that I’ve barely scratched the surface summarizing the plot of Redemption on the River, but I don’t want to give away too much. What you really need to know about this book is that it’s good.
One of the things that impressed me the most was the obvious research DeShon put into his story. Silas learns to gamble on the riverboats, so the reader learns to gamble to. I may know the basic rules of poker, but I surely don’t know what playing poker was like on a riverboat in 1848. I don’t know how DeShon found the sources for his research, but he covered everything from how to play to how to cheat. He wove in “suckers” and slang, bringing the gambling rooms to life in my mind. I could smell the smoke and the fear of the slaves brought up from the hold as collateral for their master’s bets. He wrote in dialects so that I could hear the difference between the rich Southern gentlemen and the polished Brit, the slave and the mountain man. He even included real historical figures and challenged me to find them. I’ll admit that I failed at finding most of them, but maybe you’ll have better luck.
Unlike most books, Redemption on the River doesn’t have a cheap ending. There’s no “happily ever after” or tying up of loose ends. Yes, some of the loose ends get tied up, but, like in real life, the most important ones are left hanging. All you get to know is that Silas makes a choice and takes the first step to follow it. I love epilogues, but I didn’t miss it in this book. I liked knowing that his story was longer than the last page of the book.
Redemption on the River hasn’t been published yet, but I look forward to seeing it for sale. When it is, go buy it. Even if you’re not crazy about historical fiction, Silas’ story is entertaining, full of danger, love, questions of morality, and gambling. The only thing missing is a Fire Swamp full of Rodents Of Unusual Size.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Renegade by J.C. Fiske
One of the best things about my editing job is that I get to read books that I wouldn’t normally buy. Renegade by J.C. Fiske is a great example of that. I am definitely not the target audience for Renegade and I probably wouldn’t have noticed it on an e-book shelf, but I’m glad I got the opportunity to read it. Renegade revolves around a community of warriors called Renegades with a focus on a young man named Gisbo. Gisbo was raised in another community and had no idea he was destined to be a Renegade. When he leaves his childhood home and becomes a Renegade, he finds the friends and support he never had before as he learns how to fight and think.
Renegade is a YA novel and I suspect one has to have a Y chromosome to really appreciate it, but us ladies can still find good things in it. For example, the author clearly has a great respect for women. The Renegades include women in their ranks, unlike another group of warriors called Strifes. Gisbo’s mentor, Falcon, tells Gisbo that the Strifes are missing out because women, while not as strong as men, bring their own strengths to battle and provide balance to male strengths. Renegades form their own relationships and it’s entertaining to read about Gisbo’s first romantic encounters with the opposite sex. Poor Gisbo has no idea how to deal with the games 14 year old girls play, but it was funny to watch him try. I also enjoyed seeing five Renegades clean an apartment to avoid the wrath of one woman. Yes, we women have power. Grr.
As a person who believes in spirit animals, I loved how Fiske worked animals into the book. Every Renegade warrior has a Boon, an animal that is a physical representation of their inner self. Of course, as I read the book, I thought about what my Boon would be. I would be disappointed if my Boon was anything other than a bat. You can imagine my squeals of excitement when a blind Renegade later in the book reveals his Boon is a bat (although bats aren’t blind.) Gisbo’s Boon is a beautiful white wolf named Fao and she kicks some butt from the first page we meet her.
Renegade reminds me a lot of a YA warrior version on Atlas Shrugged. If you know me at all or have read my profile, then you can probably guess that I just gave Mr. Fiske a huge compliment. If you are like me and have read and loved Atlas Shrugged, I cannot imagine that you wouldn’t like Renegade. You’ll probably want to buy Renegade for every young man in your family. The community that the Renegades live in is a valley in the mountains protected from the outside world by an illusion screen. Sound familiar? What’s even crazier about that is that Fiske hasn’t read Atlas Shrugged yet. Don’t worry, I’m still working on getting him to read it. One of the other similarities is that Renegade gets a bit preachy sometimes (no 30+ page speeches, though). I agreed with just about everything Fiske preaches, so I enjoyed those speeches. If you don’t agree with him, then you probably won’t enjoy the philosophy Renegade espouses.
Renegade is officially for sale and available here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005FG1JRC/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=jcfi05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B005FG1JRC
Renegade is a YA novel and I suspect one has to have a Y chromosome to really appreciate it, but us ladies can still find good things in it. For example, the author clearly has a great respect for women. The Renegades include women in their ranks, unlike another group of warriors called Strifes. Gisbo’s mentor, Falcon, tells Gisbo that the Strifes are missing out because women, while not as strong as men, bring their own strengths to battle and provide balance to male strengths. Renegades form their own relationships and it’s entertaining to read about Gisbo’s first romantic encounters with the opposite sex. Poor Gisbo has no idea how to deal with the games 14 year old girls play, but it was funny to watch him try. I also enjoyed seeing five Renegades clean an apartment to avoid the wrath of one woman. Yes, we women have power. Grr.
As a person who believes in spirit animals, I loved how Fiske worked animals into the book. Every Renegade warrior has a Boon, an animal that is a physical representation of their inner self. Of course, as I read the book, I thought about what my Boon would be. I would be disappointed if my Boon was anything other than a bat. You can imagine my squeals of excitement when a blind Renegade later in the book reveals his Boon is a bat (although bats aren’t blind.) Gisbo’s Boon is a beautiful white wolf named Fao and she kicks some butt from the first page we meet her.
Renegade reminds me a lot of a YA warrior version on Atlas Shrugged. If you know me at all or have read my profile, then you can probably guess that I just gave Mr. Fiske a huge compliment. If you are like me and have read and loved Atlas Shrugged, I cannot imagine that you wouldn’t like Renegade. You’ll probably want to buy Renegade for every young man in your family. The community that the Renegades live in is a valley in the mountains protected from the outside world by an illusion screen. Sound familiar? What’s even crazier about that is that Fiske hasn’t read Atlas Shrugged yet. Don’t worry, I’m still working on getting him to read it. One of the other similarities is that Renegade gets a bit preachy sometimes (no 30+ page speeches, though). I agreed with just about everything Fiske preaches, so I enjoyed those speeches. If you don’t agree with him, then you probably won’t enjoy the philosophy Renegade espouses.
Renegade is officially for sale and available here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005FG1JRC/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=jcfi05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B005FG1JRC
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