Book Review: Godblind by Anna Stephens

Wow. Simply put, Godblind by Anna Stephens is a whirlwind. The first in a trilogy and Stephens's debut novel, this adult, dark fantasy novel is packed full of everything that I love in a fantasy novel: gods and magic, struggling with destiny, and epic battles. But before I get too far ahead of myself, here's a summary of the book from Goodreads:

"The Mireces worship the bloodthirsty Red Gods. Exiled from Rilpor a thousand years ago, and left to suffer a harsh life in the cold mountains, a new Mireces king now plots an invasion of Rilpor’s thriving cities and fertile earth.

Dom Templeson is a Watcher, a civilian warrior guarding Rilpor’s border. He is also the most powerful seer in generations, plagued with visions and prophecies. His people are devoted followers of the god of light and life, but Dom harbours deep secrets, which threaten to be exposed when Rillirin, an escaped Mireces slave, stumbles broken and bleeding into his village.

Meanwhile, more and more of Rilpor’s most powerful figures are turning to the dark rituals and bloody sacrifices of the Red Gods, including the prince, who plots to wrest the throne from his dying father in the heart of the kingdom. Can Rillirin, with her inside knowledge of the Red Gods and her shocking ties to the Mireces King, help Rilpor win the coming war?"

Like I said, Godblind has everything on my list when it comes to a fantasy novel: some magical element/gods, struggles with destiny, and epic battles. I actually finished it in about a week which is the fastest I have finished a book in a very long time!

First, the classic man vs. god aspects of this novel drew me in from the beginning. I have always enjoyed stories where the Gods get more involved in the lives of the humans around them, like in some of the Greek myths. Stephens takes it a whole step further. I hate spoilers, so I won't give anything away.

Second, who doesn't love a story where some of the characters struggle and brood a bit? I know I definitely do. What makes it even better in Godblind? The characters actually react to situations they are in like normal people. As a reader, I find that approach refreshing.

Third, the battles in this novel left me feeling breathless. Stephens really goes above and beyond when writing her fight scenes. Each one is detailed, intricate, and full of gore; you can almost taste the blood and dirt in your mouth when you read. I also loved that there are also a bunch of badass female warriors in this novel!

While it had a lot of things I did enjoy, Godblind was not perfect. There were a few instances were I felt that certain relationships were a bit rushed and didn't feel as organic as I would have liked. 

And without giving anything away - I was totally thrown by the ending. It has been a day or two and I still don't know if I liked or hated the ending, so be prepared.

In all, I found Godblind to be a gripping, enjoyable read - if you can call a book about murder, a kingdom under siege, and such "enjoyable" - and I would highly recommend it to any fantasy lovers out there*.

7/10

*I will warn you, it is not a YA novel by any means. There is swearing, gory battles, and some explicit/graphic descriptions and possible triggers.

Currently Reading: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

The book is always better than the movie. Always. 

(Leave a comment if you have an example where the movie is better)

That being said, I always like to read the book before I see the movie version, so I had been putting off watching Ready Player One even though the movie looks really good! It just so happened that when my boyfriend and I went to Texas back in June, my best friend Liz was getting rid of some books - this one included!

If you didn't know, Ready Player One is a sci-fi novel from 2011 and the debut-novel of author Ernest Cline. Set in the not-so-distant future of the 2040s, we find ourselves in a dystopian version of our world where everyone's only escape is a virtual-realty program called the OASIS. Users log on with visors (not unlike VR gear we see already) and then they can go on quests, go to school, you name it. 

Aside from the similarities I see from reading, I really love the dorky protagonist, Wade Watts. Cline is able to perfectly capture Wade's dry sense of humor and wittiness. He actually reminds me of me when I was his age in a few ways because he's a nerdy high schooler and knows a lot of trivia about what he's obsessed with. In his case, that's 1980s pop culture. In my case, that's LOTR, Supernatural, and The Office knowledge.

I'm only a few chapters in, but I can tell I am going to really like this book, which is actually surprising. I've never been much of a sci-fi fan (except for Ender's Game), so to find one that I am really enjoying is such a treat. I can't wait to keep reading and then see the movie! 

Have you read or seen Ready Player One? What did you like about it?

The Life of a Moonflower

I have recently discovered this beautiful moonflower growing in front of my garage a few weeks ago and I have been obsessed with it since. One night, I caught one of them just as it was about to bloom and took photos of the transition.

Moonflowers are in the same family as morning glories*, but instead of blooming in the morning, these gorgeous flowers bloom right before sunset. It just baffles my mind that what starts as a tight bundle of petal becomes this huge open blossom (this one was as big as my hand, if not bigger).  Plus, they smell heavenly.

I always had an interest in flowers and gardening when I was younger, but I still haven't really gotten into it. However, the surprise of this flower and how much enjoyment I got out of watching it has really motivated me to want to get more plants!

What are your favorite flowers? What about houseplants?

*morning glories and moonflowers are extremely poisonous if ingested by you or your furry friends, so keep a watchful eye.

Writing Tip #1: Starting a Story

“I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they're going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there's going to be. They have the whole thing designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up. The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed, and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fantasy seed or mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don't know how many branches it's going to have, they find out as it grows. And I'm much more a gardener than an architect.” - George RR Martin

While lengthy, that quote gives me a lot of comfort as a writer and I hope it can for you. I always wanted to be more like the architect Martin described. In actuality, I tend to be more of the gardner, especially in regards to starting a story (the small bit of architect planning I have comes later on in my process, but more on that in a bit. 

For me, starting a story isn't normally the hard part. A lot of the time I don't wait to have a solidified concept, I just get a sentence in my head and if I like the way it sounds, it might be the beginning of a new story and I just start writing and see where it takes me. I get some great things generated that way, but other times I don't. But hey, it's practice right?

However, this isn't the case for a lot of other writers. Some people really struggle with how to get a story started. Maybe they've got a great concept or one solid character, but when they open up that Word Doc? Nothing. Zip. Zilch. I have been there before and I know how frustrating it can be. But that is where my architect planning kicks in and my two takeaways if you don't know how to start your story: ask yourself questions and make lists.

Ask yourself questions about every aspect of your story: your characters, the setting, possible plot points, how you want readers to feel about your work. Write your answers down in a list, so if you get stuck again you have something to reference later (I like to make a folder in my Google Drive for each project I'm working on).

Some example question: What does your protagonist like to do for fun? How many siblings does your protagonist have? Do you have more than one protagonist? Where does it take place? Is it a real location or is it a fictional world?

Of course, I could keep going, but you get the idea. From there, you can always pick some answers you liked and start there. You don't have to use every single answer and don't be afraid to adapt them as you start writing. The whole point is to just get you started!

I also love to make character lists. I get anxious that I will forget about a character or over time, I won't be writing with their original personality in mind. So when I'm starting a story, I like to write down any characters I thought about in the question process and initial idea generation. From there, I write down any attributes I can think of that describe them. 

At the end of this process, I have a little bit better of an understanding for the nuts and bolts of my story, but there's still room for more creativity. Hopefully these tips help you too! 

How do you like to start a story?

Currently Reading: Behind the Beautiful Forevers and The Buddhist Way

So far this month it has been my goal to read three books. I finished reading Rainn Wilson's The Bassoon King (read my review here), so now I am working on completing the other two books for this month. I'll have to be totally honest, I don't think that I am going to make it, but this is the most I've read in a while.

The first book I am currently reading is Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo. It's a beautifully well-written piece of creative non-fiction dealing with the seedy underbelly of Mumbai in India. Each chapter follows the lives of a different person, usually people who are stuck living in one of the slums near the airport, and the changing perspectives keeps everything so interesting.

Boo is able to tackle challenging themes like religious differences, gender equality, and race in such subtle, yet meaningful ways. She really demonstrates that these things are ingrained into the culture of the people, so much so that it doesn't even really stand out to them that they are being treated poorly or differently.

The other book that I am reading is The Buddhist Way by Christmas (Last Name). While I don't have any interest in becoming a full-fledged buddhist myself (I don't think), I have always been interested in learning about different philosophies and religions.  The book itself is a little dense so far and reads like a textbook. However, I am hopeful that the more I get into it, the better it will get!

Any new books that you've started recently?

Music as the Muse

Writing is tough. Writing without inspiration is even tougher. Sometimes you will have a general concept or character in your head, but no idea where to start. Other times, you know what kind of vibe you want your story to convey, but you're missing something essential like plot or setting. When that happens, it helps to look for inspiration somewhere. 

One of the easiest ways I've found to get inspired is to listen to music (I know. Groundbreaking stuff right?). First, I will just listen to whatever comes up on my Spotify or I'll search for something that I used to listen to a while ago. From there, any song that makes me think about what story I'm currently working on, I add to a playlist. After that, any time I am working on that specific piece, I listen to the playlist and it helps me get in the right frame of mind to write.

My current Story Vibes playlist is only nine songs long so far, most of which are Lana del Rey, but each of the songs makes me think of a story that I am working on in some way. A few of the songs, like "Ordinary World" and "Creep", have a certain tone to them that conveys the mood I want to set for my story. Others, like "Drumming Song" by Florence + the Machine, make me think of a specific scene that could be pretty cool. 

Ultimately, you'll have to find what inspires you and don't be afraid to change things up every once in a while, especially if you feel stuck. Every writer is different and what works for me might now work for you!

What do you do to get inspired? Anything you've tried that hasn't helped?

Review: The Bassoon King by Rainn Wilson

I've been on a bit of a non-fiction kick lately and this amazing memoir is what sparked all of it. I came upon The Bassoon King in Barnes and Noble a few months ago when my boyfriend needed to find a book for his younger brother. Of course I can't go into a bookstore without looking around for  a while. I eventually made my way toward the bargain book section and after a few minutes of scanning, I was ready to walk away. That's when I saw a familiar face on the cover of a book sitting on the floor.

For those of you who didn't automatically recognize the author, Rainn Wilson, on the cover, have you been living under a rock? Maybe once you see who the foreword is by, you'll get it. IT'S DWIGHT FREAKING SCHRUTE PEOPLE! My obsession for NBC's The Office goes real deep, so I probably would've purchased the book anyway, but the fact that I found it for $7? Score.

I will admit that I was a bit uncertain before reading. I am not normally a fan of non-fiction, but I was determined to give this a try. As soon as I started reading, I was hooked. Wilson's style of writing is honest, funny, and heartfelt to the point where the reader feels like a friend. He shines a light on some of the moments and the people in his life, and what he has to say isn't always positive, but he says it in such a frank way that no judgment is cast. I value that as a reader. I don't want to read a memoir and just hear the author go on some moral tirades about why the people in their lives have done them wrong or how bad they've had it just to overcome. 

The Bassoon King is definitely not that. Wilson talks about his life from everything including playing Dungeons and Dragons as a kid (I'm proud to admit, me too!) to having struggles with finding faith to becoming a father - and yes, he does talk about The Office and what it was like to work with John Krasinski. 

I really cannot emphasize enough how much I liked this book. It's all done in such a down-to-earth, captivating way that any love of Wilson's work is sure to love it.