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#WIARTW
Books I am reading:
Partials (Partials Sequence Book 1)
by Dan Wells
Grabbed this from FANX from Dan himself, and wow has it been a crazy ride. I’m 50% done, and it’s got an amazing female lead and a very compelling and fresh post-apocalyptic United States.
Humanity is all but extinguished after a war with Partials—engineered organic beings identical to humans—has decimated the population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island. But sixteen-year-old Kira is determined to find a solution. As she tries desperately to save what is left of her race, she discovers that that the survival of both humans and Partials rests in her attempts to answer questions about the war’s origin that she never knew to ask.
Altered Perceptions
by Various Authors
Got this for my birthday/Christmas from Holden Johnson, you should be checking out his blog. This anthology is a collection of short stories dedicated to those suffering from mental illnesses, or know those who are. I wanted to spend another post talking about how amazing this book is, but for know, trust me, it’s amazing. Also, I am on a hunt to get all the authors who contributed to the anthology to sign it. Five down, only 20 more to go!
Altered Perceptions is the anthology put together for the IndieGoGo campaign to benefit Robison Wells, who was crippled by debt caused by his mental illnesses. Sales of this ebook edition will go to charity, with 90% of the net proceeds benefiting Bring Change 2 Mind.
This anthology contains original stories, deleted scenes, and essays from the contributors about how mental illness has affected their lives and the lives of their loved ones.
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace broadly focuses on Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 and follows three of the most well-known characters in literature: Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a count who is fighting for his inheritance and yearning for spiritual fulfillment; Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, who leaves his family behind to fight in the war against Napoleon; and Natasha Rostov, the beautiful young daughter of a nobleman who intrigues both men.
A s Napoleon’s army invades, Tolstoy brilliantly follows characters from diverse backgrounds—peasants and nobility, civilians and soldiers—as they struggle with the problems unique to their era, their history, and their culture. And as the novel progresses, these characters transcend their specificity, becoming some of the most moving—and human—figures in world literature.
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
The go to book for world building, culture creating, etc. The affects of continental shape and the expansion of culture. Natural selection of crops and animals and the effects on developing warfare and a post-industrial societies. And that’s just the first half! Definitely a non fiction book that every fantasy/sci-fi author planning to create a 2nd World needs to have on their shelf.
In this “artful, informative, and delightful” (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed religion –as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war –and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, the Rhone-Poulenc Prize, and the Commonwealth club of California’s Gold Medal.
Pieces I am reviewing
Maybe if I put this down, I will remember to actually finish them. Obviously a writer wants to be part of the writing experience, and that means reading others work and offering advice.
- “Untitled” a post apocalyptic story from Bryce Perkins (Bryce, why is this not titled!)
- “Deputy Stevens” a crime thriller from my long time friend, Zach Stookey
“A young Sheriff’s deputy unwittingly becomes the prime suspect of an FBI manhunt for serial killer. On the run, he will try to prove his innocence, despite a sinking suspicion that he is in fact, guilty. Likewise, the veteran FBI agent on his trail starts to question everything he knows.”
- 2 pieces from Caroline Bliss Larsen
Pieces that need Readers
In the World of Afin, every person, at birth, is given God’s love in the form of Affinity, an elemental magic that determines their place in society, their propose in life, and their spiritual devotion. It also determines how they will serve their respective countries in their long standing conflicts to control the Gates of Afin, relics left behind from the age of antiquity. Since war is an institution of both the state and the church, immense academies of war teach Young boys and girls how to fight according to these traditions from a very young age. One boy is born without this Affinity. An outcast, heretic, and iconoclast, Noble TrueMatch is destined to change the way old wars of formation will be fought, and he will start when he enters the Academia des Affinetes.
If you are interested in being a reader, contact me at mjmbacera@gmail.com with subject “Alpha Reader: Reign of Fire”
Read on friends!