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Reflecting Fires
In times past great powers ruled the world, but left the for the 'Stardome', taking everyone's dreams with them. The 'Bright Mechanics' (magic) are in favour and the ruling elite do their best to suppress the 'Dark Mechanics' (science). As time passes the Bright Mechanics powers slowly wane as the Dark Mechanics flower. Fusils (fire arms), and other Dark Mechanics are just too useful. Cardinal Skye, the last of the truly powerful Adepts is not at all happy with this, and plots to use an ancient prophesy to turn the tide back in favour of the Bright Mechanics. But Skye isn't the only one plotting, and events take turns that no one expects.
Mr. Claburn has created an interesting and complete alternate world somewhat reminiscent of feudal Europe. There are Nobles with armies who scheme and plot, the Adepts who wield great personal power, and the followers of Helion. The Adepts, masters of the Bright Mechanics, play an active role in politics and war - sometime with and sometimes against the Nobles' causes. The great Adepts are feared and powerful figures who can influence great events with a few words. The church of Helion uses its influence in much more subtle ways, promoting peace and thoughtful meditation. The nobles and Adepts both seek the favour of Helion to lend their activities the glow of righteousness. Of course there is a huge underclass that does all the toiling, and a less numerous middles class of merchants and artisans. It is the middles class that is promoting the rise of the Dark Mechanics and their useful arts. And there is one more, mysterious, group called the Eclectics. The Eclectics are feared and reviled by the ruling powers as obscene monsters - half human, half machine. The Eclectics plans are unknown, but they wield fearsome mastery of the Dark Mechanics.
The book is well plotted. The story moves forward quickly with interesting and surprising twists as it goes. There are a number of political factions who react convincingly to the events of the story. Action, personal daring, quiet bravery, and backroom politics all help propel the story forward. The story covers about 30 years, and follows a few main characters over this period in detail. This is a cusp point for this society. The powers of the Adepts and their Bright Mechanics are waning, but the Adepts are doing their best to hide this fact. The once completely banned Dark Mechanics are becoming more and more tolerable as the devices created become more useful. Even the most old-fashioned Noble can see the use of firearms.
The Nobles are starting to embrace the Dark Mechanics to get an advantage over the Adepts, but events are accelerated when a young boy fulfils an ancient prophecy. Now, each faction is trying take advantage of the prophecy while the Eclectics slowly move forward their more patient plots. Events seem to sweeping everyone aside, but is someone still bending things to conform to a grand scheme?
Events leap forward at the beginning of the book, and this leads to one of the minor flaws in the story. Sometimes things leap forward too fast and leave you wishing you were able to read more details. At one point a character goes from young girl, to wife of a powerful political figure with no intervening events. It left me wondering how this man courted and won this strong willed girl. Did he just order her to marry? Did he seduce her with power, or was it true love (at first)? We are left wondering. This problem only happens two or three times in the beginning chapters. The last two thirds of the book move along at a more satisfying pace, and explore the characters and their lives in a fair amount of depth.
The language, to better suit the period, is sometimes flowery in its description, and formal in speech. I enjoyed the writer's style and use of language. The main characters are generally well rounded and stay in character. They sometime do surprising things, but you are never left thinking that 'they would never do that'. I did sometimes wish the novel was a bit longer and took more time exploring the characters lives.
The theme of the book can be read many ways, but to me it explored the lengths that the people currently in power will go to, to remain in power. Those in power want to stay in power, and aren't shy about exerting their influence to stay on top. Huge amounts of effort are expended to protect the status quo even when there are strong signs that a new order might be more profitable for both those in power and their subjects.
The decisions that the prejudices that people have ingrained into them by a lifetime of both overt and subtle teachings are also explored. Sometimes this can lead to self enlightenment, but too often it leads to squalid hate. Don't let this make you think the novel is preachy. It isn't. These things are drawn out in the natural course of the story, and simply add an interesting subtext to the action.
All in all, this novel proves that high quality novels are available outside of the normal distribution channels.
You can purchase Reflecting Fires from Xlibris or Amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
The story talks about Xlibris, which is probably much more interesting than this one particular book.. Then at the end they say you can buy it at Xlibris or Amazon but only Amazon has a link. Gee, how much do you want to bet that Xlibris doesn't have a commission program? /. - News for nerds, commisions for website owners.
Some Large Publisher will contact Small Independant with a proposition.
Small Independant will droll at the increased exposure and new opportunities.
Large Publisher wants technology and cult following before any other publisher gets it and before it takes off.
Small Publisher sells controlling share to Large Publisher.
Large Publisher decides that, actually, it's not worthwhile after all and closes site down.
Small Independant disappears.
Powered by onion juice.
Now I dont claim to be an expert on publishing, but based on my own experience there looks like there's lots of different publishing companies around, ranging from short story magazines to full-fledged hardcover printers. Most publishers aren't as ridiculously greedy and arrogant as the RIAA and usually have more tolerable terms when it comes to copyrights. Frequently a type of right called 'first print' rights are requested, and maybe second-or-third edition rights also - but after the first few runs the rights ultimatly stay with the author. Because of the large number of competing publishers, a good author has plenty of choice where to take their works. As for a bad author? Well...we all have to start somewhere! 8)
I tried to get into the Xlibris site, but it's either slashdotted or unavailable where I am. However, the idea of a company that allows a person to publish their own works sounds like a very good idea. Especialyl for those of us yet to bite the bullet and start writing our first novel!
I'm hoping xlibris is as useful as this article hypes it up to be.....we'll know soon enough...
Karma: Shagadelic (mostly affected by those tight knickers - yeah baby, yeah!)
..since none of his other peers will. He's daring to venture into a brave new world, a world which prevents me from curling up on a couch with a nice dead tree and a cup of coffee. Ah well, maybe they'll invent flexible laptops, so if I fall asleep and roll over onto one, it won't break.
;)
:P
But I must say, self/web publishing is the final straw before utter defeat. If this guy is as good as the reviewer makes him sound (Going to read it eventually, blah di blah!), he shouldn't have had any problems getting dead tree published.
By 'shouldn't have had any problems', I of course mean, 'should have gotten about three dozen rejection letters, pulled out his hair, and then got a letter that he had to reread ten times to be sure of its contents'.
The publishing industry is a lot like the tech market right now. If you send out something to a publisher (or a resume to an employer) and get accepted instantly, congratulations - it's most likely a fluke. Just as employers are swamped with resumes, publishers are swamped with 'the great American novel' - and they'll do anything to reduce the stack of paper in their inboxes. The publishing industry judges books by their cover, so to speak, just as that Human Resources chap will toss your resume into the shredder if you use 'there' instead of 'their'.
Anyway, if you're any good with computers and hang in there, you'll get a job somewhere. It's the same way with publishing - there's tons of houses out there. You've just got to get lucky and wait for the right person to read your submission.
Well, now that I've pointlessly bitched about a topic that doesn't concern the great masses of Slashdot, I'm going to go read this story. I hope it's not terribly good, I want my dead trees and soft couches for years to come.
While I can see the point of self-publishing for non-mainstream material, I would have thought any book worth publishing (and worth being read by others) would be picked up by a proper paper publisher - if they think the work can succeed, then they will want to make money from it.
If it was any good and the author had gone to the same effort to find an agent etc as it would take to organise self-publishing, then we'd be able to buy the book through regular sources - for a regular price - and it would probably enjoy greater success.
- Welcome the coming of the New World Odour
Yes, I think this is the major reason why e-books have yet to take off. There are technical reasons, too, of course -- fundamentally, that there's no electronic reading platform that most people find as comfortable and versatile as a book -- but that's "build it and they will come" thing. If there were more demand for e-books, it would push the whole PDA industry to new heights, just as video games are currently driving a lot of desktop PC advances.
I'm not surprised that traditional publishers Just Don't Get It as far as e-book pricing is concerned, but I'm rather saddened that even dedicated e-book publishers are making the same mistake.
Folks, sell e-books for a buck a pop, and you'll sell a bunch, and probably make a healthy profit. Sell them for as much or more than physical paper books, and you'll be lucky to make enough to pay for your ISP's hosting charges.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Seriously. It's not rocket science. There is no conspiracy. Publishers are always looking for good new writers. You don't need an agent (until you have a contract in hand), you don't need an editor or a book doctor or a ghost writer, you don't need to self-publish. (In fact, self-publishing can hurt your chances of having a commercial career as a writer.) You just need to write well.
This is a good thing, because it's the only part of the process that's under your control.
The publishing industry is not the music industry. By and large, writers do get paid.
If you're serious about writing and you want to write science fiction or fantasy, I highly recommend applying to one of the major SF/F writing workshops -- Clarion, Clarion West, Viable Paradise, Odyssey. You'll have a chance to improve your writing, make friends and contacts, and get the straight dope on the industry from working professionals.
Last, any aspiring writer should keep in mind Yog's Law: Money Flows Toward The Writer. If you see an "opportunity" that violates that law, you should look at it with extreme skepticism.
-- Some things are to be believed, though not susceptible to rational proof.