Working for The Devil

Things have been a little quiet on the blog recently, and I'm afraid it's down to sheer laziness rather than a lack of interesting stuff going on. That doesn't bode very well for my efforts at NaNoWriMo, I suppose. You may remember that I was planning to sign on to www.nanowrimo.org  to join in a group effort to write an entire 50,000-word novel in a month. Well I signed up just after the site opened up to new registrations of the 1st of October, and I've since been happily puttering away on their forums asking questions and electronically mingling with like-minded aspiring authors. The mood is really supportive and the place is packed with constructive advice, so if, like me, you've been planning or writing that blockbuster for a few years now, I highly recommend you take a look.

 

As for books, I finished reading Air by Geoff Ryman and my opinion of it remains unchanged, even if I was a little disappointed by the ending. I'm afraid the whole concept of the main character having a baby develop in her stomach rather than her womb and then giving birth through her mouth (ick!) was a little too far-fetched for me. I can't really see how it was necessary to the plot and I'm afraid it seriously strained my suspension of disbelief. Nevertheless, it's still high-concept stuff that dares to be different.

 

I've since started reading Working for the Devil by Lilith Saintcrow. I suppose you could call it an "Urban Fantasy" in that it's set in the future and makes ample use of ultra-technology like plasma rifles and hovercars, but still incorporates magic and runes and more "traditional" non-human fantasy races like demons. It's certainly got plenty of action, but sometimes it's a little light on explaination and you're left wondering exactly what a "Skinlin" is, or what the difference is between a Shaman and Necromance. It's fast and punchy and fun in places, but I wouldn't rate the quality of writing all that highly. Saintcrow repeats things far too often and her dialogue is sometimes too implausible for comfort, but it's entertaining enough to keep me reading so far.