Author Review: Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

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Review

Focusing on young adult fantasy Amelia Atwater-Rhodes wrote her first book when she was 13 publishing her first novel In the Forests of the Night.  The novel is in first person and follows Riska a young woman who was turned into a vampire against her will, making her both strong and bitter.  Her newest novel Poison Tree will come out early this year, 2012. 

It is inspirational, to say the least, that at such a young age the author was able to write with the amount of articulation Amelia was able to use in her first book.  The pictures she paints are a combination of not only her words but various references to famous works of art and poems in her titles and opening pages.  In addition, the author makes room to put a valuable lesson into her stories that the characters will have learned by the end of the novel.

Perhaps my favorite book of hers is Midnight Predator where the young woman, Turquoise/Audra, must infiltrate the infamous grounds of Midnight.  Midnight is home to the human slave trade headed by the vampire Jaguar, who quickly takes a liking to the young assassin.  The book takes some unexpected turns as old acquaintance begin to threaten Audra's job forcing her to reevaluate a way to hit her mark.  

Overall, I recommend Amelia Atwater-Rhodes to anyone with a love of vampires and werecreatures and the horror that follows them. 

Book Review - Monsters: An Investigator's Guide to Magical Beings

Monsters: An Investigator's Guide to Magical Beings by John Michael Greer is classified as a book for Body, Mind, Spirit/Paranormal Phenomena/Folklore. It was published in 2002. As I started reading this book, I found the tone of the author to be almost arrogant. The author admits at the outset that he doesn't know everything about the various monsters of folklore; he does say that he knows more about the ones associated with the Pacific Northwest.

What I found to be arrogant about the author is that he thinks that just because science hasn't found explanations about unexplained phenomenon yet, then the cause must be magical or paranormal. He jumps to these conclusions without really giving any substantial explanation as to why this must be so. This shows a distinct lack of openmindedness for the scientific. Greer is a self described druid and a student of geomancy and sacred geometry.

The book itself is broken down into four parts: introduction, guide to monsters, monster investigation, and magical self-defense. The first part Greer spends time trying to convince the reader that the paranormal is real and dangerous. He dismisses science as a reasoning method to investigating paranormal phenomenon. The logic of Scientific Revolution , according to him, is based on rhetoric and not on experimentation. As I continued to read the book, I found Greer to not be very logical in his contention of the existence of monsters.

The second part discusses various types of mythical and magical creatures. Therein, Greer discusses vampires, ghosts, werewolves, faery, mermaids, dragons, spirits, angels and demons. This section gives some interesting information without talking down too much to the reader. There are several instances where the author refers to reader to read more on certain aspects of each entry in the fourth section. Greer dismisses the more modern views of vampires as animated blood-sucking corpses. He prefers the etheric vampire as the basis for what is a real vampire. When talking about creatures of faery the author dismisses J.R.R. Tolkien's creatures of Middle Earth as pure imagination, and yet there are so many similarities between what Greer describes as various creatures of faery and the elves, dwarves, and orcs of Tolkien's stories. Halfings (hobbits), I will agree, are a product of Tolkien's imagination. Greer also tries to dismiss UFO sightings as works of faery.

Although Greer gives an extensive annotated bibliography there are no direct quotes drawn from these works. Greer talks about what is in these books in broad generalities. This leads me to believe that Greer has cherry-picked information to fit his own personal belief system while dismissing other data that might not fit with his personal views. While it is somewhat interesting to anyone interested in mythical beings, the book leaves much to be desired and feels like it is not very well researched.

Beginnings

This is a new beginning for this blog. As a short introduction allow me to introduce myself. I am Draconic Spirit and I have spent years working as a magazine editor. During my free time, I enjoy reading and writing. This blog will be a release for my thoughts on what I've read and give my perspective on the writing talent involved. What I review will vary greatly as I enjoy older and newer works.

I spend most of my time reading Science Fiction and Fantasy, otherwise known as Speculative Fiction (SF). Classics are also of interest and will do some reviews on these from a writers perspective. Other genres I've read include Westerns, General Fiction, and Non-Fiction. I am a political junkie as well and will give my opinion on the issues if asked.

If there is a book out there that you want me to give some attention, feel free to recommend it.