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A book review? from me?
Dec. 14th, 2008 07:01 pmsoorta. I read Solstice by Ulises Silva this week, and I found it frustrating in a way. It was, in there somewhere, such a damn good, yummy story that I couldn't stop reading it. In spite of the fact that the style was really overdone, and the whole thing NEEDED a professional editing. Little things, when you are a word geek, can fuck up a book. Someone "peddling" a bike. Someone's "course" language. Using the term Abyssal to refer to someones eyes 2ce on one page. These things stick in my craw and mess with my suspension of disbelief, honestly. And the fact that the cover art contradicts things said in the book about the lead character. She has badly scarred legs that she never shows, but on the cover, the main focus is her legs in a short skirt.
Also, if you're writing a big Feminist book, don't have one of your characters major motivational traumas be that she can't have baybees. jus saying. And I'm prodescription, but not quite so much.
but the stry? Hot damn. I stuck it out through the style that was too much for me and the things that pinged my internal copyeditor, because I had to see where the story went. I'm giving away no plot, but I applaud. This would have been a FANTASTIC 200 page book, but the extra hundred pages of trimming weigh it down a little.
I found the author's blog, and he acknowledges that it could have used some editing, but it's self published, on a tiny budget, and he and his girlfriend were the editors. He can call me next time, I'll beta read it for 50 bucks and fix the grammar.
Also, if you're writing a big Feminist book, don't have one of your characters major motivational traumas be that she can't have baybees. jus saying. And I'm prodescription, but not quite so much.
but the stry? Hot damn. I stuck it out through the style that was too much for me and the things that pinged my internal copyeditor, because I had to see where the story went. I'm giving away no plot, but I applaud. This would have been a FANTASTIC 200 page book, but the extra hundred pages of trimming weigh it down a little.
I found the author's blog, and he acknowledges that it could have used some editing, but it's self published, on a tiny budget, and he and his girlfriend were the editors. He can call me next time, I'll beta read it for 50 bucks and fix the grammar.
