After another long haitus, I've returned to my blog! I know it's been ages, and to be honest I've been busy enough (more on that in a minute) that my posts will probably continue to come out only every couple of months or so, but I promise I'll keep putting out content when I can.
Before I delve into more of my reviews, a bit of personal news as part of the reason I've been so busy: in addition to my day job as a software engineer and some freelance work I've been doing, a bit over a month ago I finally finished the manuscript for my next novel, R.A.C.H.E.L. Undying! Check out the cover art below and a link to the book itself here!
I spent a few weeks once the manuscript was done getting materials ready for querying publishers and agents (things like the synopsis, query letters, elevator pitches, etc.), and finally started sending them out a few weeks ago in time for #PitMad! PitMad is a Twitter event that happens quarterly every year as an avenue for unagented authors to pitch their manuscript to agents and publishers in 3 tweets in a single day. You can read more about it in the link above, but essentially if an agent or publisher likes your tweet, they're extra interested in your novel and want you to send them a query ASAP. It doesn't guarantee they'll accept it, but it does mean you'll probably bypass a lot of the slush pile and get closer to the front of the line than with traditional querying.
Anyway, I participated for the first time on December 3rd, and not one but TWO publishers liked my tweets! I sent those query letters out as fast as I could, and am currently working on sending out more to other publishers and agents. With any luck, I'll be a traditionally published author in no time!
In other book news, for my novel Unbounded, I hit over 2000 followers on my Twitter, and was interviewed by the wonderful science fiction blog Warp Speed Odyssey, which you can read here!
Now that I've gotten all my exciting author-y news out of the way, enough about me. It's time for reviews!
As I promised last time back during the summer, here's a review of the newest book by the author of the Broken Earth Trilogy, N.K. Jemisin: The City We Became.
The City We Became revolves around a New York City that is more than just a concrete jungle; in Jemisin's world, cities become alive and are born once they reach a certain threshold of population, age, and culture (there's more to it than that, but that's a spoiler. Let's just say it involves a theoretical physics concept popular in science fiction). When a city is born, it usually turns a single person who embodies the city into its immortal, human avatar. New York, though, gets 6 - one for each borough and a primary avatar. Unfortunately for them, there isn't a rulebook that comes with being an avatar of the Big Apple, and an ancient entity known as the Adversary is rather eager to take advantage of the avatars' initial weakness to, you know, casually erase the concept of NYC from reality. No big deal. The book is a great read, with a wonderfully diverse cast, an epic scale that is slowly revealed over time, and wondeful pacing, imagery, and thought put into every word. And as a native New Yorker, it definitely hits the spot :)
In other book-related news, I'm currently reading Brandon Sanderson's newest book Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive Book 4). It's sucked me in just like the first three books of the series, and the I'll be posting a review for it in my next post.
Stay tuned, and stay safe out here! And happy holidays to all of you who celebrate, and have a wonderful, safe, and healthy New Year!
Cue Arnold Schwarzenegger voice I'LL BE BACK!
-- Bradley