Author: Justin Blazier

As a reviewer I get a chance to read books I wouldn’t normally read — it’s part of the job. However I have also been known to purposely read something that looks quite terrible on the off-chance that I discover a real “diamond in the rough.” These “diamonds” not only have terrible covers, but have cheesy back cover descriptions and blurbs from authors you’ve never heard of.

“Jack John Johnson’s latest book was great.” — Patrick Warbermanjensen Author of Night Fillies

I admit that I have not been very successful at finding diamonds.

Happy Holidays!

Now that it’s the end of the year, which books have you missed in 2011 that you really wish you had gotten to or that you hope Santa will leave under the tree?

I wish I had found the time to read Mark Chadbourn’s The Scar-Crow Men and Jesse Bullington’s The Enterprise of Death.

As usual, we’ll pick one commenter to choose a Christmas gift from our stacks.

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday.

I’m taking a writing course next semester and was thumbing through the textbook when I saw the chapter on clichés. The clichés mentioned were not particularly Fantasy-related but it did get me thinking about all the typical clichés we see in Fantasy. Genre fiction seems to be particular prone to this writing faux pas, and I’m not exactly sure why.

Maybe writers of Fantasy get so wrapped up in building a fantastical world that they forget that a farm boy can only become king so many times. It could be that authors have spent so much time developing complex lineages that they fail to realize that there have been more than a few princesses who have learned the error of their ways.

I enjoyed last week’s column enough that I decided to extend it a bit. I would now like to know which fantasy characters you’d like to sit and sip a brew with?

I’ve had a harder timer choosing a character than choosing an author. My initial thoughts went towards Logen Nine Fingers from Joe Abercrombie’s FIRST LAW TRILOGY, but Greg pointed out that drinking with Logen might not end well if he were to get too drunk and and bring out his more violent alter-ego, The Bloody Nine.