Homeland by R.A. Salvatore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Fantastic gateway into what I expect to be and many others claim is one of the best characters in the fantasy genre. I devoured this book and cant wait to continue the series!"


“To lose is to die! You may win a thousand fights, but you can only lose one!”

Homeland is the entryway into a...30-something? book long series about the Drow Drizzt Do'Urden and his many adventures. You see his birth, childhood, and young adulthood in this book and I enjoyed almost all of it.

One thing I've noticed about this series so far, is the relationships. I don't think the characters themselves are particularly deep, nor is the plot very original or exciting, but the relationships between characters, good and bad, are outstanding.
Drizzt and Guenhwyvar is one of the best partnerships of man/beast that I've read in quite a while. Not on the level of Fitz and Nighteyes, but still a great and enjoyable duo to read about.

Things I loved:
* Drizzt's relationships to other characters in the world.
* The idea and plotline behind someone raised in an evil culture/society who realizes that it's wrong.
* Zak was an awesome mentor, resigned to his fate but not mentally given into evil.

Things I liked:
* Learning about the drow elf society.
* The trials during Drizzt's academy years.
* All of the various magical artifacts/spells/locations.

Things I didn't like.
* The underdark. That place was boring as hell to read about.
* The characters all were very predictable on the surface level and one dimensional. Fortunately this was only individually and the relationships between them (I know, I'll keep saying it) were great.
* For a race of supremely evil people who would kill you as soon as look at you for speaking out of turn, disobeying, etc. Drizzt sure got a lot of "exceptions" or "passes".

Overall it was a fun light read, with nothing incredible nor nothing absoulely horrible. I wouldn't recommend it over my giant list of INCREDIBLE fantasy books, but I definitely wouldn't tell anyone not to read it if interested.

“more than survive, my son, as I have survived. Live! Be true to the callings in your heart.”
4/5 stars.


View all my reviews

And it’s here! There is always time for touchups, but I’m really happy with the result for book two’s cover art! It has a much more fantasy feel than The Red Heir. It has a lot more character, in my opinion. It definitely has a different feel/theme/air to it, if you will. But I am very excited about it and can’t wait to see it next to The Red Heir on my shelf.

New Website in progress!

I will be using this as my main website until my new website in finished! Just a quick update in case you were wondering where it went =)

Bloodline by Claudia Gray
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely fantastic.

While i'll admit, the action wasn't non-stop, nor was the insight into some of Ben or Luke's training that I had been hoping there, This book was amazing.

Claudia Gray works magic with her characters and their dialogue and relationships. Getting into some of the characters heads in Bloodline made me genuinely feel for them. Hating someone at the beginning of the book, only to become probably their biggest fan by the end is an awesome feat.

I would love to read any book that Claudia Gray writes.

View all my reviews

Progress

Draft 2.0 Progress Update

Chapters 12/41

I have made lots of progress story wise, and edit wise. I have completed a base for my world map, as well as for character Bios.

2/18/2016

2/18/2016
Lots of edits and rewritten scenes have been done so far this week. I intend to keep up the pace, until draft version 2.0 is complete. I still need a cover artist, as well as to format my book correctly.
Now the question remains, however, do I submit to publishers at least for a try? Or, do I just self publish right away?
I guess we will see what happens.

News Update 2/16/2016

Today is the first day of my new website. I am probably going to keep it simple and have links to various social networking pages, my book(once it's on Amazon), etc. I will want to mainly use it as a hub/portfolio for my work and hobbies.