Warbreaker by: Brandon Sanderson Review

Synopsis:
Warbreaker is the story of two sisters, who happen to be princesses, the God King one of them has to marry, the lesser god who doesn’t like his job, and the immortal who’s still trying to undo the mistakes he made hundreds of years ago. Their world is one in which those who die in glory return as gods to live confined to a pantheon in Hallandren’s capital city and where a power known as BioChromatic magic is based on an essence known as breath that can only be collected one unit at a time from individual people. By using breath and drawing upon the color in everyday objects, all manner of miracles and mischief can be accomplished. It will take considerable quantities of each to resolve all the challenges facing Vivenna and Siri, princesses of Idris; Susebron the God King; Lightsong, reluctant god of bravery, and mysterious Vasher, the Warbreaker.  

Review:
    Lately, I've been in a reasonably pleasant mood where my mind incidentally becomes overcharged with energy. With this unused energy, I become tense and need some immediate academic outlet to exhume it from my body. In this case, writing a review of a book I had finished six months ago seemed to be the wise choice amongst many other favorable activities. "Warbreaker," has always struck me as being a divergent book when compared to other fantasy novels. First of all, Brandon Sanderson has always won my favor for including strong females who rely on their prowess and wit rather than their beautified bodies. They conceal their personal strength and intrinsic intelligence to manipulate the political happenings set before them. Working incognito allows them to bring forth more lasting results to the political arena because no one's even aware of their secret agenda. Basically, the patriarch of Brandon Sanderson's world cares more about notoriety than bringing about effective, beneficial change to their government. Similar to Elantris and Mistborn, women and men whom work about change in hiding are championed as the heroes of his story.

  Wisely, though  the elements of his characters cannot be purely categorized under restrictive moral definitions. Brandon Sanderson keenly pays attention to the diversified views of his characters without judgment. He allows them the opportunity to freely voice their distinct views on several issues in the book. Even things which should be overtly amoral such as the using the life force of individuals to promote several Gods' immortality appears in the book as a very complicated issue. Dissecting the various views contained in this issue requires careful attention to the various backgrounds and titles a number of characters have. Because these various elements unconsciously influence their current views on a certain issue, like taking advantage of a nation's populace to help the Gods to endure. In other words, they rely upon the life forces or breath of the citizens whom sacrifice that in order to reap heavenly rewards afterwords.

Allegorically, this book reflects the Machiavellian use of religion to assert a ruling class's power over a certain number of lower citizens. In typical fantasy fashion, the metaphysical becomes manifested and helps display this intricate relationship between politics and religion. With regards to my mention of the diverse number of perspectives, there still exists a strong moral message contained in the ambiguity of the nation's politics. As always, a few members are sanitized from the impurities of political conflict. In their arsenal lies intellectual autonomy which helps them to sift through the various layers of complex issues and focus upon universal truths to aid them in their  mission. 

Overall, I love Warbreaker far more  than Mistborn because the story's elements are unconventional and do not use many fantasy archetypes. Additionally, the eventual story lead up to the climax contains some pivotal plot elements. Whereas Mistborn contained many unneeded plot elements that ended up bloating the book with unnecessary scenes which could have been excluded. Actually, this proves that Brandon Sanderson scrutinizes his writing and improves his writing based upon these former mistakes. Though, there still exists a band of mercenaries who are nearly indistinguishable from the ones in Mistborn. Strangely, their personas closely match each other which resulted in my own personal confusion between the two sets of mercenaries. 

Even with these minor drawbacks, the story still remains a personal favorite of mine due to the creativity of the magic system, the witticism, and endearing female characters. I believe a part myself remains slightly more critical of Brandon Sanderson's writing due to my high respect for his meticulousness. He is truly endowed with a gift for writing structured fantasy tales with very interesting characters. Also, his fight scenes are actually necessary and do not exist as interim between the more important scenes of character development. A part of me envies his ability to control a myriad number of story elements and still have a book remain extremely entertaining. Perhaps envy would not be the appropriate word choice here;instead I have great respect for the author's propensity to write novels with well shaped female characters, fascinating political intrigue, mesmerizing action sequences, and personable characters. But most importantly his books are entirely free of any uncomfortable sexual elements and can be easily recommended to  any type of reader.  All the while, the book contains an innumerable number of layers that very few fantasy novels overlook.

Symphonic Metal

     Symphonic Metal greatly confounds people, the concept itself. Typically, people associate metal music with a wholly discordant sound with guttural voices. The orderly structure of this music vanishes entirely or at least they believe so. But the real question these individuals need to ponder is, " why should art abide by preformed structure?" Doesn't the structure of art come from the minds of individuals with a creative bent. In their minds, the disorderly fashion of the music has a structure of being disorderly. By being disorderly, it's offering an insight into the workings of society or the human psyche. All this extrapolation though is spoken in the language of music, an unspoken expression of the inexpressible. Through the minds of diversified listeners, the meaning can be altered, according to their difference in beliefs or ideals. 

     The word "symphonic," exudes a feeling of lavish Mozart compositions and lustrous environments. Normally the aforementioned metal fans cower in fear because this music relies entirely on an ordered, mathematical system of music creation. Even worse, the stereotyped listeners of this genre are normally affluent members of society or openly pretentious people. Truthfully, the very concept of musical creation derives itself from the workings of classical music. Consciously or unconsciously, musicians use the techniques of classical music creation when creating supposed works of "chaos." Basically, even chaotic music has some semblance of structure or order. Because any human creation has some base layout to construct upon. Though the following levels may be unwieldy or contain a lesser amount of the initial layer of pure order.

   Enough philosophy, if anything the philosophical content proves that all works of art even the loud metal music must be taken seriously. Back on topic, symphonic metal's unique styling offers a clearer picture of the true complexity and richness of metal music. Beethoven and Mozart, upon hearing symphonic metal music would be speechless because so much of the genre's contribution involves the same technique and system of creation as these two composers.  

    Epica,for example, appears on the surface to be largely unstructured and uninspired. Careful detail would unwrap these assumptions and show them for their falsity. Underneath the surface of chaos, lies a ordered and ingenious mathematical structure. Mark Jansen, the genius behind Epica's music, deceives most listeners by making them believe the music is mostly moronic drivel. Some could go further and say that the use of gutturals are placed there in order to conform to the expectations of metalheads.  Close scrutiny reveal a deeper layer or a battle waged between order or chaos. Simone Simmon's ethereal voice struggles to overdominate the chaotic guttural voice of Mark Jansen. Sometimes Mark Jansen triumphs until the music segues back to Simone Simmons who contradicts the chaos and provides the listeners with a semblance of order. 

Symphonic Metal, the name itself, proves to be a contradiction based on surface level analysis of these respective genres. Remember classical means "order," for most, and metal music provides listeners with the sensation of uncontrollable, unwieldy chaos. Therefore Epica's use of soprano singing and guttural screeches are intentional on the part of the creators of the music. In some ways, they are subliminally informing people of their misconceptions of these genres. If one were to listen and recognize the various layers involved in this music, they would recognize that both genres respectively have the opportunity to be completely ordered or chaotic. Of course, this depends entirely on the mood that the music strives to create. Normally, this mood, as with the workings of music are hard to pinpoint.  

Weirdly, symphonic metal serves a role to pay homage to the rich knowledge of preceding civilizations. The symphonic sound works to preserve the archaic while also combining contemporary, innovative sounds. Gregorian Chants are normally used in order to remind music listeners of their effectiveness of driving powerful emotions through a song. Instead of a weakened emotion, middling through the music, the Gregorian Chants bolsters a certain emotion and makes it more pronounced. 

Various symphonic metal bands engineer their own unique stylization of the genre's most recognized sound. Kamelot, for example, combines the atypical sounds of power metal and symphonic metal then permit Roy Khan voice to fuse them together expertly. Speaking of Roy Khan, an important component of symphonic metal happens to powerful vocalists. Most bands incorporate vocalists with rich operatics to bridge two seemingly divergent sounds. Either it be a mix of symphonic, metal, power metal, Arabic, or other unqiue sounds, the strong vocalists augments the power of the sound and finalizes it. 

Roy Khan stands as the most skilled vocalist of the many symphonic metal vocalists out there. Expectantly, the vocalist reputation remains low due to his genre of choice. Again, people's confusion  over the implications of the genre's name creates a trepidation from the safehold of safe sound. No one really wishes to deviate themselves from the normalcy of safe music techniques. Because the genre has a low reputation and much hate among many metal or classical elitists, tactful musicians are greatly underappreciated. In my personal opinion, Roy Khan can sing far better than many rock vocalists but because his voice involves operatics. People overlook his vocal skills and instead looks for someone who half heatedly sings a very generic rock song.

After reading this article, if you're interested in seeking out more substantial information about this unconventional genre. Please check out the listed bands below  whom I find to be very skilled in their interpretations of this sound. Feel free to comment any critiques or other pertinent comments!!

Reccomended Symphonic Metal Bands:
Xystus
Kamelot
Nightwish
Within Temptation
Delain
Epica
Stream of Passion
Leaves' Eye
Apocalyptica
Sonata Artica
Avantasia
Symphony X
X Japan



 Recommended Video Links

"I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER" Review

Synopsis: 
I Am Not a Serial Killer is the story of John Cleaver, a 15-year-old sociopath who works in a mortuary, dreams about death, and thinks he might be turning into a serial killer. He sets strict rules to keep himself “good” and “normal,” but when a real monster shows up in his town he has to let his dark side out in order to stop it–but without his rules to keep him in check, he might be more dangerous than the monster he’s trying to kill.

Review:


       Upon gaining detailed information about Book Expo America, I immediately latched  onto the name "Dan Wells," because the name had a certain feeling of familiarity. Wracking my brain for the source of this association, I summoned thoughts related to "Brandon Sanderson." And then drew the final connecting thought that Brandon Sanderson had been referring to this book on occasion upon his blog. And for some reason the title "I am not a serial killer," greatly interested me because the book seemed to be a person's weak defense of not being a serial killer. Even when the proof of nearly five grisly murders were incontrovertible. Especially since the DNA found on each of these cadavers matches the main characters. How then could the main character assert such a fallacious point when the scientific facts shows he was not only disrespectfully handling these bodies. He had caused their immediate deaths in manners that are unheard of to those with strong consciences. 

   Disregard the past few sentences because this summation comes directly from my hypothesis about the book's storyline. Differently, the story actually acts as a combination of a science fiction novel, a psychological thriller, and a CSI related crime show. Strangely, the book can work as all three simultaneously and still compel us effectively to continue reading. Strikingly, the author utilizes my favorite brand of humor to allow the sensitive, death related material to be approachable. He uses a unique brand of sarcasm spiced with a good heaping of intelligent black humor. 

    Weirdly, with this character's neurosis voice driving the story. The beginning scenes of gruesome,bodily dissection are actually readable and strangely interesting. Effectively, at the beginning, the character's state of mind becomes enmeshed with ours. Soon enough, we're indirectly facing some irrational fears of whether or not we are developing symptoms of a severe dissociative disorder. This could perhaps slowly develop us into effective serial killers who are tactful with murder and not skilled with realizing the moral ramifications of these actions. Just as the main character creates binding rules for himself to restrict the inner beast's effects. We begin self analyzing ourselves for any negative influence this story may have upon our precious psyches. Because like every great psychological thriller like "Seven," Dan Wells frightens us with the possibility we may be reciprocating some of the main character's behaviorism. Similar to a hypochondriac, I was self evaluating myself for any potential signs of serial "killerism". 

Towards the middle half, the story slowly develops into a science fiction story of Alien proportions. Some of the earlier psychological intrigue  is toned down in order to effectively bring in this new story element. Compared with the beginning, the styling of the writing seemed to greatly change. And though, the main character seemed to constantly be deeply developed. Some of the profound psychological content that originally drew me into this book partially vanished at this point. Mind you, I greatly enjoyed the second half of the story for very different reasons than the first. But a part of myself wishes, the author could have plunged further into the character's conflict while still driving the exterior story. Again, the task of balancing these two story elements can be a near impossible task. Dan Wells definitely handles these deftly though the internal story itself does become slightly weaker when the story segues into the second half . 

Even with this minor drawback, I am still waiting with bated breath for further ventures into this well designed universe. More importantly, I'm stoked for the possibility the story could involve some really neat developments with the main character in further stories. Additionally, I hope Dan Wells continues to incorporate humor effectively with these horrific scenes.  Because one of the story's strengths of precise comic relief greatly leavens the uncomfortable tension felt around serial killer related plots. Law and Order normally involves this sort of material with highly moralistic characters who are unable to form smart puns that enable them to handle tough, emotional situations. This story however did not deeply disgust me because the humor eased the reader into a very dark place. Once in it, we could safely travel through it because we empathize with the character and attempt to understand him.  In this safely handled world, we can begin to uncover things which formerly we faced with too much trepidation. Comic Relief in this story wraps us snugly in a security blanket but also strengthens the deductive skills of our mind. By the end, you'll understand the many psychological angles involved with the simple statement of "I am not a serial killer." 


Publisher's Note: Though there's a side note on my blog, if you found this review informative and deftly written. Also if you liked the unconvential humor involved and would love for my styling of reviews to cover your novels. Feel free to email me at narniafanatic(at)gmail(dot)com. Right now, I'm facing an arduous struggle to find creative energy to write those reviews with the knowledge of the paltry views this blog attains. But be assured, I will comply by any requirments posed on me. Thanks for your interest in "A Bibliophile's Reverie.

Additionally, thanks to Book Expo America for providing me with an actual copy of this novel. This fact does not interfere with the quality and honesty of the above review. Rest assure, Fantastyfreak shares his honest, unbowderlized feelings about any books covered on this blog

BlOGGER FRUSTRATIONS!

    For any blog readers of the review below, please aid in me ameliorating the below problem: unchangeable white background. Inexplicably, the white background used to mean your post would happen to have no distinct background. Instead the original background for the overall blog would be your background. Google decided to implement some changes to the Blogger system and greatly cause great pains to bloggers across the world. Right now, I have no idea on the methods of eliminating this problem due to blogger's unworkable formatting system. I apologize for the annoying white background in the below post. Please feel free to throw metaphorical eggs at Google's failings in terms of "enhancing" the blog experience.  You overcomplicated an easy process with unneeded changes. Penance for this great crime, Google, involves keeping Pac-Man as a constant force on Google.

The Fiddler's Gun by: A.S. Peterson

Synopsis:

Revolution. Secrets. An Unforgettable Adventure.

America is on the brink of war with England, and Fin Button is about to come undone. She’s had it with the dull life of the orphanage, and she’s ready to marry Peter and get away from rules, chores, and a life looked after by the ever-watchful Sister Hilde. But an unexpected friendship forms between Fin and the fiddle-playing cook, Bartimaeus, which sets her on a course for revolution.

With Bart’s beloved fiddle and haunting blunderbuss as her only possessions, Fin discovers her first taste of freedom as a sailor aboard the Rattlesnake. She’s hiding some dark secrets, but there are bigger problems for the crew—they are on the run from the Royal Navy, and whispers of mutiny are turning the captain into a tyrant.

When Fin finally returns home, will she find Peter still waiting, or will she find that she’s lost everything she once held dear? 

 Review:

     Note!!!! Before segueing into the review part of this blog post. I wanted to thank Rabbit Room Press and A.S. Peterson for providing me with a complimentary copy of this book. Receiving this free copy or other free copies for earlier book reviews will have not bearing on the promised authenticity of these reviews. Every review posted on here is authored by my own hands with the onset of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Hopefully, you will not begin spreading false rumors about Fantastyfreak's fabricated views on promoted books. Believe me, this review site still exists as a place to honestly share my feelings about books.

THE TRUE REVIEW: Instead of adopting the piratical vernacular for this review, I'll be maintaining the  original, pretentious tone instead. Before ever settling down to read this book, I felt largely ho hum about the book's potential to  be good. First of all, pirate books or other sea faring books produce negative feelings in me due to the relentless amount of bland sea related books offered through the public school system. Therefore, how can any right minded person expect me to look at this book with glee when Moby Dick nearly detonated my rationale? Replace supposed excitement with dread and you have my exact response to the predicted subject matter of this book! In summary, it became a rebellious female pirate on the sea versus the old, deceased man at sea.

   Fortunately, this book happens to be absent of characterless whales, incomprehensible natives, curmudgeonly men at sea, forced philosophical subtext, and chapters that explore the color white. Basically, A.S. Peterson caters his story to actual readers who are savvy for adventure, well developed characters, and subtle meaning.  For those who desperately need strong female characters to make their lives complete. "Fiddler's Gun," stars a strong, dynamic female who happens to have an equal amount of strengths and weaknesses.

    Her struggles seemed believable and more importantly, relatable. Even if we ourselves have never been confronted with any actual life and death struggles or fights of epic proportions. A.S. Peterson's firm handling of the characters, specially Fin's, permits us to empathize and fully participate with the events of the story. With these very interesting characters, boring sea related subject matter becomes thrilling.

I've always been greatly disappointed by the score of current writers who expend their efforts in crafting overly complex worlds, and populating these worlds with stale characters.How can these writers expect readers to have a need or desire to return to their fictional realms? Especially since their books resemble How To Plunge A Toilet? manual guides. The goal for these authors is to disguise their ineptness with character formation with complicated mechanics. Some writers excessively pack their books with pointless fight scenes, overwrought description, or lame magic systems. By page ten of these books, we become perturbed with the writers and wonder if they even care about real human emotions. Or do they really believe we are a bunch of lego figures who blindly follow their archetype storyline? At page 10, unnamed male hero fights in about ten useless ways. In the end, he successfully defeats around two hundred Orc's singlehandly. Neither the orc's or the hero himself are given any interesting dialogue besides moronic one liner's.

The perpetrators of the overwrought prose describe trees, rock formations, or other useless physical traits for twenty pages. For some reason they believe really wants to read these descriptions because who cares about story when your writing is nearly scientific with it's formations. Some writers even recycle the same trite wind description with every book. In some instances the characters do not even appear till after the wind has been justly described. Within the Wheel of Time books, the wind descriptions are a reoccurring force that pays no importance in the books other than to amaze readers with fanciful wind descriptions.   

Reversely,A.S Peterson  engineers his fanciful prose to amplify the flow of the story rather than impede it. Normally, poetic prose stalls the readability of the book and the transitions between important story events as mentioned above. More impressively, A.S. Peterson meticulously places the correct word without overusing a certain word. This truly shows A.S. Peterson's skill level with story telling, not manual writing. Unlike the previously mention mistakes, he uses these mistakes beneficently and greatly improves the cohesiveness of the story with them.

Strangely, I finally figured out that these books were described as being "Christian," novels. Yet, these books are far too intelligent  to even be considered a mainstream Christian novel. A better comparison to draw would be to compare these to Jeffery Overstreet's recent fantasy series. Because his books deviate from the normal pathway of most Christian books and becomes in many ways, a misfit in the Christian fiction genre. 

 A.S. Peterson's own book features a strong female character who is not devilishly used to criticize strong, capable female characters. In some, respectfully unmentioned Christian fantasy series, female characters are deviously used in order to promote unsound arguments about the ineptitude of women. Basically at the beginning, we are glad for the presence of a strong female character. Until at the end, she spontaneously loses all her strength and develops damsel in distress syndrome. The misogynist Christian writer laughs manically and then informs the reader that God intervened and stopped this women from being an individual. He magically makes the sanctimonious male hero appear, save her, and reeducate her all the while about the proper duties for women. "EXCUSE ME PRINCESS! If you dare defy me or surmount my power, I'll minimize your efforts with superficial readings of the bible. Now God commands you to go back in the kitchen and to make your saintly husband a sandwich." 

In reading this book, I have regained some hope in the future of the Christian publishing company. Offered in this book was an edifying message about finding personal strength in yourself and not through the illogical drivel from other individuals. Fin was a well shaped character who used her strength to overcome various challenges in attempts to stand for righteous things. Thankfully, this female character was not used to show sexual freedom of females through promiscuous habits. Because, I certainly cannot stand female characters who act whoreish than name themselves strong, capable women. Refreshingly, the female character, as with Maria V. Snyder's characters, was placed to spread a universal message that knows no gender limits. In this book, there is no hidden political message except the potential strength for one individual to rely upon to untangle one's self from challenging circumstances.  

The only fault I found in the pages of the book was the slower pace in the middle during the endless description of pirate raids. Though, A.S. Peterson quickly alleviated that problem by producing some needed drama to propel the story towards the "end" direction.  Enough said, I highly recommend this book because it's certainly a treasure in the Young Adult section. I really wish for readers of any kind to check out this story that appeals to any human being that desires a richly written adventure story. Forgo CGI laden films this summer and read this book instead!

Again, thanks A.S. Peterson and The Rabbit Room for this free copy. I have found a new publisher to depend upon for deftly written novels! Now, I'm off to listen to my favorite podcast, "The Hog's Head," to hear the interview between Travis Prinzi and A.S. Peterson. Anyone desirous of intelligent conversation about Harry Potter and The Hunger Games should definitely check this site out. (If link's not working above, access http://www.thehogshead.org/)

 

Hello, hello people. I'm SecondOpinion and I'm Fantasty's... well, second opinion. I'll be doing a few book reviews of my own, contribute to reviews by Fantasty, or be covering book reviews for Fantasty.

After much poking and general prodding I have convinced Fantasty to agree to a Thief month. That is to say, we will eventually be doing a month dedicated to novels that have thieves as a focus point. Afterall, who doesn't like a rogue?

I look forward to reviewing and promoting the various books Fatasty and myself will be covering.

Write to you all soon,

Second Opinion

Predictably, the number of hits on my blog were lessened compared to the first two days. These are rough estimates which are not dependent on any statistics. Even with the low quantity of any interactions, I'm still continuing the promised daily posts for today. Without them, my blog credibility may plunge. And when promises are developed then they must be upheld.



Addendum to yesterday's post: Remember the section about the explanation of the dreaded ARC's. Well, I decided to email Orbit books about the possibility of reviewing some of their new releases. With trepidation, I wrote a lengthy explanation that concerned my ability to help promote their titles to a certain market. Once, they see today's very late post for another publisher's book, they may be dissuaded from offering anything. Why does the thought of reading Brent Week's books cause me to act insanely and unpredictably moronic?

Today's Belated Review:"Stormrage," by Richard A. Knaak

Once upon a time, I was emailed a proposition about reviewing a certain "World of Warcraft," title. Based upon my blog's low number of watchers and exposure, I was taken aback that someone would be convinced I would exponentially increase their sale numbers with one of my more bizarre reviews. At the time, I was terribly deluded by the reality that there were hardly any publisher requests or inquiries. Therefore, I blindly accepted their terms and thought I would be wholly enraptured with a World of Warcraft novel.







Two weeks later or earlier, I cannot remember the exacts. I began paging through the novel with apprehension now that my excitement and anticipation about publisher copies have quelled. Since, who before them would ever have the audacity to send "Fantastyfreak," a copy for review. And surprisingly or not surprisingly, I struggled to read the book, mostly on the basis that my interests were far from the realm of World of Warcraft.







Writing skill wise, the writer himself definitely has skills when trying to adapt mythology from a prodigious video game to a readable novel. The novel itself was readable and could be clearly understood by any level of readers who happen also to be WOW fans. Though my interest waned immediately when starting the novel due to being steeped with unfamiliar terms from a video game I have never played. Some of my dedicated readers ask: Does the book pique your interest in the game? Not exactly, I've never had a fondness for MMO's and by result, I can appear to be someone whose relatively close minded about the workings of such games. In actuality, the only RPG game, I would greatly cherish novels from would be the universe of Dragon Age. Within the last two years, Dragon Age was the only exceptional RPG that was able to hold my attention and create in me an undying obsession.







Basically, the book did not hold my attention mostly because of the book's subject matter. Knowing this before accepting the terms of Galley books, I could have averted this disastrously late review. In some ways though, I have learned a lesson and that revolves around thinking every video game related fiction novel contains abysmal writing. Truthfully, this book definitely presents some tactful writing in certain sequences. Though the writing would not be graded as something that is neither fantastic or evocative because it's plainly a novel that provides general entertainment for World of Warcraft Readers. Readers, outside of the World of Warcraft realm, will struggle futilely to understand segments of the story. Various parts will fail to hold their attention only because they have had no previous interests in that particular game. World of Warcraft gamers on the other hand will be delighted to find novels which are skillfully written and provide some more information about their beloved universe.






Essentially, the book itself was meant for World of Warcraft gamers, those who are fervid fans of the series. For everyone else, you might run the chance of enjoying the novel or you might be disinterested in it due to it's World of Warcraft related content.




Note to Publisher: I apologize for this extremely late review. In my defense, I did happen to have excessive amounts of college work during the course of the last few months. Please know, that I am working effortlessly to plan my book reviews better in order to balance novel writing, homework, and book reviewing.



For other publishers, please do not be frightened by the above story in either this post or the earlier post. I am dedicating more time to this blog, during the course of this summer. And for these reasons, reviews will definitely surface this summer since I have a large span of time to include hours to review books.

Book Blogger 101 with the Tootsie Pop Owl: Includes Minimally Discussed Trade Secrets that
THE WORLD MAY NEVER KNOW..
******Disclaimer: Apologies to Tootsie Corp. for unintentional replication of your owl for book blogging purposes. Lately, the owl feels exploited into acting moronic all for the sake of keeping the "tootsie pop" count a secret. Basically, Tootsie Corp. please do not be atypical megalomaniacs by demanding a lawsuit for theft of the bespectacled, gregarious owl for more academic purposes. For those who are unaware, book blogging is aptly defined as an academic activity that powers the mind. Book Blogging does not only serve to help impoverished book bloggers with receiving free books. In some case, the answer would be affirmative. Though,in my individual case, I am a studious, respectable book blogger who wishes to write intelligent book reviews that more than likely deters rather than attract.



By the way, my disclaimers are published in fine print. So, you do not need to feel the developing symptoms of aging.*********



Welcome to Fantastyfreak's Book Blogger 101 With the Trademarked Owl Caricature (Your entertaining, cheating host who dared to bite the lollipop to reach the center thereby invalidating the "Lick Count," results.)




"Welcome Aspiring Book Bloggers! I have been swamped with requests, related to the exact methods of creating a book blog. Few book bloggers divulge these secrets because they are greedy little readers who wish to restrict the ARC's all to themselves.




First off, book blogging serves as a marketing tool and can be a very inexpensive marketing tactic. Sometimes, book blogging can lead to honest, credible marketing as it relies upon members of the target market to convince the masses to read a certain title. Then again, the greatest goal would be convince all members or watchers of a certain blog to read that title. For the book savvy bloggers, filled to the brim with greed, this could result in a procurement of some more ARC's or galleys.



Be forewarned, that humble bloggers are the best breed of bloggers because they could earn trust with their readers. If they were to write reviews that herald a book without mentioning any flaws then the readers may begin to realize they are concerned more with the false belief of earning a better reputation with publishers via unrealistic positive reviews In actuality, publishers seek honest reviewers because they have a higher chance of building trust with readers.



Without the extraneous drivel mentioned above, I'm instructing my fellow book Bloggers to please be respectable, concise, and sociable to bloggers and publishers. Bloggers, void of charisma, transform into the following subject.



Spoiled, Conceited Bloggers bent on procuring ARC's without reviewing them:



The question she screams obnoxiously, in the above image of the worst book blogger, would be the most abhorrent and rude question to ask any publisher. Publishers have the right to not permit you to have Advance Reader Copies (ARC's) of future releases. Who do you think you are, a goddess? Certainly, even a goddess could not win favor easily with a publisher. Because publishers are seeking effective, honest bloggers who will reach a specific market with their reviews.



Being the above blogger will cause publishers to distant themselves from you and to completely ignore your emails. Also, you cannot attain ARC's with the thought of receiving them like Christmas presents. Yes, you must read them thoroughly and provide accurate reviews that reflect your honest feelings.



Please know, that writing inquiries about receiving ARC's is the most torturous, intimidating experience for any aspiring book blogger. With my low number of watchers, commenters, and readers overall, I sometimes struggle with having the self confidence to review the books. To a greater extent, I cannot tap into the needed energy to dare impose upon bloggers to persuade them into sending me ARC's.




Their inaudible thoughts are more than likely: "Excuse me sir, your blog is hardly read and favored by many readers on the Internet. We are handing ARC's to world leaders, monks, nuns, priests, and venerable war heroes. Essentially, your reputation is unheard of and you are "anonymous" in our book.



How do you respond to negative answers or ignorance of emails? Though trite, the greatest piece of advice lies in mustering your strength and persisting even through sighted failure. A person, absent of personal effort, will never obtain more watchers or favor with publishers. Keep reviewing books from your own personal library and pretend you are the only reader of your noticeably lame blog. Many years from now, in retrospect, you will be fortunate to have the writing experience at least.




In my own experience, review books you greatly enjoyed and forward emails to writers about said review. Authors are greatly pleased and amazed by your efforts in raising awareness of their books. I have met many wonderful authors through this blog experience whom never displayed ill favor towards bloggers. Though, your reader tallies may be low or you happen to have a lack of ARC's; the greatest benefit reaped from this is interacting with writers and having substantive conversations with them about their creations. If all my low number of readers were to suddenly vacate my blog or some interested publishers unpredictably drop support for my blog. At the very least, I would be very pleased with my efforts at building a blog and attempting to create a dialogue between the small niche of readers and publishing companies.




Simplistic Answer: Keep Blogging even if the apocalypse intervenes!


Blog writing may appear on the surface to be an ideal introverted activity, free of the traps and schemes of social interaction. Sorry, aspiring, introverted book bloggers; communication is an optimal part of book blog creation. With blog allies or friendships developed with other blog writers, you can earn more watchers by recommending or referencing a friend's blog in your post's




I happen to be great friends with Lexie, from Poisoned Rationality. Compared to me, she writes a myriad of blog reviews that causes my small margin to appear wimpy. Then again, I'm currently in the process of writing an ambitious Dystopian trilogy and working toward my English degree. Luckily, my term ended two weeks ago, granting me a vast number of hours to dedicate myself to blog recreation or remolding. Even then, finding the energy and excitement needed can be frustrating even with these worthwhile blog friendships. Though yesterday, Anne Rice mentioned my blog on her Facebook fan page. While, Cassandra Clare and Mundie Mom's referenced mine in their Twitter posts.




How did I achieve these references? Communication. Blog communication relies not only on dedicated work on good blog posts. No, in order to reach the largest number of readers without dependence upon financed advertising involves communicating with authors. I mentioned this earlier in the post but communication with authors is the greatest tool in bringing your blog into focus. I'm thankful daily for the respectable authors who raise awareness of my blog. Because of them, I can find the energy needed to plow through insecurities and anxiety to write book reviews.



To surmise the above paragraphs: Liberate yourself from your oath of silence and speak freely to authors, blog readers, and other book bloggers. Book Blogging is a concerted effort between you, readers, publishers, and authors to heighten people's awareness of the quality entertainment contained in books.



Book readers seldom see advertisements of books through television therefore the Internet is utilized to advertise a particular book. Book readers are loquacious about their books. And when they greatly admire a certain work, they will never cease talk about it with others. They want people to share their love for a work and to have a dialogue about their differing experiences of reading that book.



Look at Goodreads for example, those readers are unable to silence themselves. And sometimes, their book reviews become bloated in a very positive way.


Final Result: All Book Bloggers go to Heaven!

Cue in another Gregorian choir, a dancing Sharon den Adel (singing Ice Queen), and pyrotechs. Because Book Expo America is certifiably the sum of every single bibliophile's reverie. There, you are able to physically take ARC's without frustrating inquiries and book blog tours. Though, you still must review them in order to promote your blog's status. Since, a reason these publishers are displaying their books to members of the publishing world is part of their goal to increase dialogue about certain titles.




As many of you know, I'll be attending Book Expo America next week and I have been awaiting it with bated breath. Honestly, I'm filled with uncontrollable excitement. While, I am intensely anxious about scheduling autograph booths, properly deciphering the jargon of Book Expo America's website, and making sure I'm able to get certain ARC's before they become unavailable.



You'll hear of my clumsy falls, short termed tragedies, treasured moments, and other sentimental Book Expo America occurrences next week. Now, you have to read the diatribe about Book Expo America. Book Expo America does not excuse a dissension into laziness, post Book Expo America. In actuality, Book Expo America marks your official inception into the world of book blogging. By book review standards, that usually calls for a larger amount of ARC's, new challenges, a greater demand to increase blog traffic, and more reoccurring migraines.




Those will be my new challenges, along with the added challenge of communicating with more publishers and convincing them my blog has the opportunity to grow in size and readership. If they were to offer me some of their titles and I would accept their terms to review the book honestly.

For those of you who dared to scroll down past some very imperative book blogging information, I have decided to withhold most of that information from you in this section. Instead you will be faced with the above formidable foe. This foe cannot be reasoned with sarcasm,irony,and witticism:the assets of a well trained bibliophile .




I'll impart only some information in here those reasons because you are the particular readers that are far too occupied with other things to read this pandering post. But, you should inform yourself of the above disclaimer because I am not intentionally trying to unlawfully use the Tootsie Roll Owl or any of the above pictures.



You are the sort of readers,deserving of these easily decipherable instructions on Book Blogging.
Here they are for both the undeserving paragraph skippers and deserving readers.



1)Construct a blog on either Wordpress or Blogger! Attractive colors and layout are pivotal when trying to draw your first readers.


2)Begin reviewing your own books using your own recognizable style of writing reviews. For me, verbose and long winded reviews are my flavor. Concise reviews might be your strength.


3) Email writers and make your dedication known by displaying your blog review to them. Do that by including your blog's link, with the posted review, within your email to the author. Involve some jokes and candor with the writers in order to convince them you are a human, not an android.


4) Write the dreaded inquiries about receiving review copies from publishers! Try to be professional as possible or apologize frequently about imposing on them for ARC's. In my case, I'm always apologizing because I feel I am infringing on them by asking them.


5) Ideal Case!!! Publishers decide to see your blog and will send you emails about potentially reviewing their works. Please accept only if you are definitely going to review their intended work. Earlier this year, I received an email about reviewing a World of Warcraft book. I tried in vain to read it and truly did not enjoy it. Inexplicably, the book became forgotten since I never received notice about certain dates to review it. After five months of not reviewing the book, I'll be providing a sarcastic review instead tomorrow. While apologizing to the publishers subtly about writing belated reviews. The World of Warcraft publishers have me blacklisted as "Insolent Book Reviewer." My explanation lies with having my mind strained with thoughts of college assignments, other book reviews, and novel work. Gallery Books, I offer my apologies and please enjoy tomorrow's review!!



Lesson Learned: Do not let your desperate lack of ARC's or publishers notice delude you into thinking you would enjoy a "World of Warcraft," book. When your more rational mind knows that you would either neglect to review it or never read it. In terms of the latter, I did happen to struggle through it though I never reviewed it. Again, tomorrow should be penance for my book blogging vice of never reviewing it. By the way, sharing one's faults presents yourself as a truly fallible book blogger whose trying to help other bloggers all the while.




6)In all your reviews, be completely honest about your feelings about the book. But, also try to convey a professional persona when wording your negative feelings. Facebook drivel is not permitted in book reviews and littering your reviews with noxious obscenities leads to a poor reputation. Basically you'll be rendered Case Subject (1): Spoiled, Conceited Bloggers bent on procuring ARC's without reviewing them or the Worst Blogger.


7: Use sites such as Netgalley to attain ARC's without confronting the door's of publishers. Through them, you are able to receive ARC's virtually without need of postage or those bothersome inquiries. Consequently, you have to squint and attempt the read the books on your laptop. Personally, I prefer bound books. But in order to raise my reputation, I've forced myself to read on the laptop.



8:Important Tip: Enjoy your blogging experience, the interaction with various people, and continue to convince your parents that blogging is a nutritional part of this complete life! Because a reading absent life leads to being uncultured, ignorant, and illiterate. Those are extreme case scenarios since people have a range of talents that are not based on book reading. But, reading truly does upon an incorporeal world to you that formerly did not exist. Feel free to explore it and divest yourself of your inhibitions. Share your experiences with other readers and help in the efforts of keeping books alive either bound or kindled aka. Amazon kindled.




Questions:If you have any further questions about the blogging experience, direct your questions to the comment box. Please comment and know that I will not unleash the "Formidable Foe," on you. Also, you can always email me at narniafanatic(at)gmail(dot) com.