Reflecting Fires 76
| Reflecting Fires | |
| author | Thomas Claburn |
| pages | 276 |
| publisher | Self Published via xlibris |
| rating | 7.5 of 10 |
| reviewer | Alexander J. Russell |
| ISBN | hardcover 0-7388-6621-0, Soft cover 0-7388-6622-9 |
| summary | Fantasy with a touch of SF |
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.
Don't worry... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Don't worry... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Don't worry... (Score:3, Insightful)
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 [xlibris.com] 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...
Re:Don't worry... (Score:2)
And while I like the idea of ebooks, IMO they're still overpriced compared to paperbacks.
Another problem in this case... no professional publisher, therefore no professional editor. Judging from the online sample, this author makes a lot of mistakes that more experience or a better editor would catch. (Mostly he overwrites, and does too much infodumping of material we should learn during the natural course of events, not from exposition.)
Re:Don't worry... (Score:1)
Re:Don't worry... (Score:2)
I've been thinking for my own mess'o'words that when it's finished, and assuming I don't find a publisher, I might chuck the first book into the appropriate newsgroup as a "free sample", then offer the other 6 volumes as a single ebook package, priced at roughly what I'd get from conventional royalties, payable thru Kagi or Paypal or some such.
Re:Don't worry... (Score:3, Insightful)
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 [msu.edu], Clarion West [clarionwest.org], Viable Paradise [sff.net], Odyssey [sff.net]. 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.
Re:Don't worry... (Score:1)
If Xlibris were making money from selling books they wouldn't need the authors to pay the tab, would they?
If there were money to be made in Print On Demand the big publishers would already be doing it, wouldn't they? But Time/Warner/AOL's iPublish program went down in dot-bomb flames.
Ask yourself this: How many books did you buy from Xlibris, iUniverse, and all the rest of the world's subsidy presses put together in the last year? How many did all your friends buy from them? Divide that number by the total number of books you and your friends bought. Multiply by 100. You now have an approximation of the percent of the market that these outfits enjoy.
So who does buy Xlibris books? With rare exceptions, the answer is:
The author.
The author's mom.
The author's mom's bridge club.
When would it make sense to go with Xlibris?
If you already know by name everyone who will buy a copy of the book, and you weren't planning on making any money on the sales anyway, go for it.
Or, if you've got specialized non-fiction that only a few people would be interested in, but those few would go any distance and pay any price to have that information, go for it.
Or, you're an experienced author with a out-of-print backlist that has a small but steady fan base, go for it. (If you're experienced, you already know where the minefields are.)
Otherwise, forget about it.
For more information on subsidy publishing, see http://www.sideroad.com/gethooked/column14.html [sideroad.com]
Advertising .... (Score:3, Funny)
You've heard of the web service that will advertise anyone's book for a reasonable fee (or free in this case), but wondered if any of the books are worth buying?
Advertising? (Score:1)
That comment certainly has an air of cynicism about it. Does the reviewer or /. have a conflict of interest in reviewing this book? If not, then I would think this is a regular book review, just like any other that appears on /.
Why a link only to Amazon? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Why a link only to Amazon? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Why a link only to Amazon? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Why a link only to Amazon? (Score:1)
Re:Why a link only to Amazon? (Score:5, Informative)
see here [xlibris.com]
Re:Why a link only to Amazon? (Score:3, Funny)
OT: But slightly related (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:OT: But slightly related (Score:1, Funny)
Re:OT: But slightly related (Score:2)
The Canadian and the UK books are from Doubleday UK while the US one is from HarperCollins.
self-publishing guide (Score:5, Informative)
If you're at all considering self-publishing your own book, No Media Kings [nomediakings.org] is a must-read. Jim Munroe describes how to take on the publishing giants, drawing from his experience in self-publishing two comedy/sci-fi novels and a number of zines.
Even if you're not game for that, Munroe has an old-school text adventure game called PunkPoints and some video shorts in his "I like to make tiny movies [nomediakings.org]" section, it's worth a look.
Also, some bricks-and-mortar bookstores won't bother to carry your book unless it's on Amazon, so it's good to know that Amazon.com allows you to sell online by consignment through their Advantage [amazon.com] program.
consignment and amazon advantage (Score:5, Informative)
A lot of bricks and mortar bookstores won't carry your book unless it is available through Ingram, the big distributor. Ingram had (or used to have) a program similar to Amazon Advantage, where they would warehouse a few copies as long as you are willing to take returns (just like for Amazon Advantage). The big issue with bookstores carrying print-on-demand books is that most print-on-demand publishers don't take returns (Amazon, to its credit, will take returns on a print-on-demand book, although I'm not sure what they do with them except hang on to them and hope someone else buys them).
Incidentally there is at least one print-on-demand place that will allow returns in some case: Superior Books [superiorbooks.com]. After all print-on-demand and "no standards" don't need to be synonymous.
- adam
Reflecting Fires? (Score:3, Funny)
What's needed for indies are the reviews (Score:3, Interesting)
But how do you tell with an unknown or an indie, where the industry hasn't shoved it into your face, or where it's too diffuse for word of mouth?
I enjoy the format of CDBaby, with sorting by genre, reviews, "If you like this, you might also like..." and most of all, samples. (Sabbatum - Black Sabbath visits the 14th century, in Latin) I wish there were more of this, especially site-neutral reviews.
Seeing something like this on the publishing front is welcome.
What I never understood about Napster (Score:2)
For a small fee, an Indie band should have been able to post their music to Napster (for the initial downloads, P2P afterwards) and list their music in a search database as being, "Genre: Soft Pop; Similar Artists: Sarah McLaughlin, Jewel"
Then people would do searches for Indie bands that are like Jewel, and they would get a list of bands that were like that.
You could even have a rating system were listeners then say, no, they aren't really Jewel-like, they're more Sting like.
That way people will be exposed to Indie music that is "like" their current muscial preferences.
Doing this would be huge. Good thing I have the whole idea patented.
so let's give a shout out to Andrew Leonard... (Score:2)
- adam
Why would I buy this? (Score:5, Interesting)
The whole point of an ebook is to eliminate the major portion of the cost of publishing. And yet, the price is still $8.
Remember when cheap pulp paperbacks were actually cheap?
Re:Why would I buy this? (Score:1)
Even worse than that, I buy almost all my books from eBay or sometimes the local second hand bookstore. I never pay more than $5 locally, and don't pay more than $8 on eBay ... and that's for something that I can take anywhere and doesn't need batteries.
For $1 I'd have thought about it (note that a generic small paperback from the local second hand bookstore is $1), for 50c I'd have probably bought it.
Re:Why would I buy this? (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:Why would I buy this? (Score:2)
I think this is the biggest failing of Xlibris (and the other print-on-demand/self/vanity publishers). When I published my Xlibris novel, they were working on the e-book format. When I found out that it was an encypted Acrobat file for $8, I was disappointed. This will never sell.
A better solution would be a text file and a PayPal button. In better news, I think fictionwise.com has got it right. Brand spanking new ebooks are still priced at hardcover levels, but everything else is reasonable, and most things are in palatable formats.
Re:Why would I buy this? (Score:1)
There is a reason, similar to reasons stated here before comparing companies' willingness to invest in cheap, effective software vs. expensive, bug-ridden software.
A significant portion of purchasers tie price directly to quality. I.E. If it costs a fraction of the price, it's probably not worth my time to read it.
Intriguing (Score:3, Interesting)
If there was a cheap way to print out books other than sneaking into your local community college, since even laptops glare very badly in the sun, these might be worth reading. You will get pretty bad eyestrain reading an entire novel on the computer, though it's not bad for single-sitting things like Edgar Allen Poe.
The charge of a book should be more for the materials cost, since data -- especially text -- can be copied for absolute pennies, and could have been even back in the days of floppy disk sneakernet. Paperback is still the way to go for buying books until very cheap book reproduction can be done, or until we run out of trees.
----
Are you a Mallcore Kid [inuk.com]? If so, kill yourself.
Re:Intriguing (Score:5, Interesting)
On my PDA, I can read in the dark so I can read in bed without disturbing my wife.
My PDA fits in my pocket. Somthing paperbacks do, but only if I don't want to sit down.
I can carry 10-12 full-length books on my PDA.
I usually carry my PDA everywhere anyway.
Because it's a PDA, I can read during boring meetings and it looks like I'm taking notes.
Re:Intriguing (Score:1)
I must have the worst eyestrain in the world, since I've been reading hundreds of ebooks for months. These aren't short novels; 700 page fantasy and sci-fi books are the norm. All you need is the proper display setup. Mine is light text on a dark green background. Simplicity.
print-on-demand at Kinko's? (Score:2)
I have heard that printing a POD books costs maybe $5 and an offet run (how paperbacks normally are done) is about $2. However POD books usually cost more than $3 more than the same-size paperback. I think partly this is the business people saying well a book should cost X * [our costs], instead of thinking Y + [our costs]. So if the book costs twice as much to make, they want to charge twice as much. Which is pretty lame, especially since they won't have to worry about eating returned books.
- adam
Re:Intriguing (Score:1)
Re:Intriguing (Score:2)
Blaming the Pope for the population growth in South America seems somewhat silly. Especially since the population growth in Islamic countries is just as bad or worse. I suppose that the Pope is to blame for this as well?
The fact of the matter is that people in developing nations have large families for mostly the same reasons that first world folk invest in 401Ks. In the third world your children are your retirement plan. When people in Peru get old they expect their children to take care of their financial needs. People without children are screwed. They end up working until they can't anymore, at which point they die. Anyone that has ever actually lived in South America (as I have) could tell you that.
As for the future of ebooks, I am living it right now. I bought an inexpensive Visor Handsprint for $80, and a compact flash plugin to go with it. Now I can carry an amazing number of books around in my pocket, and the backlight guarantees that I can read them even in the dark. The resolution on my Visor is more than adequate, even in direct sunlight, and the batteries last over a week on average on a single charge (rechargable batteries sold separately).
I'll respect this guy.. (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Self publishing could be a sign of bad quality (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
Re:Self publishing could be a sign of bad quality (Score:1)
Re:Self publishing could be a sign of bad quality (Score:4, Informative)
But getting accepted by an agent is often just as hard as being published, as the agents don't want to waste their time with works they think will be rejected by publishers.
When it comes to it having to be bad quality not to be published, consider that many highly regarded works were rejected time and time again before a publisher took them on. It's not unusual for books to be rejected by 15-20 publishers before you find someone to publish your work. Most of them will take their time before they respond, if they ever do.
Quite a few people might give up well before that, even if what they've written might well have been a tremendous success if it had been published and marketed properly.
Publishers aren't omniscient. Beatrix Potter self published her childrens books because no publisher would take them on, Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights was rejected multiple times, Dune was rejected 13 times, M*A*S*H was rejected 21 times, just to take some examples.
And not everyone are in it for the money.
Of course you'll find lots of crap among self-published works, but you'll also find lots of works that are great but just too narrow to find a wide enough audience for a publisber to be interested, and you'll find the occasional work from someone who have given up on the publishers despite having an incredible work...
agents and publishers sign authors, not books (Score:2)
The best way to get published is to work your way up the chain, first get some stuff published anywhere, then some small articles/poems/stories, then longer ones, then you may build some name recognition and get an agent interested in a book.
- adam
Self publishing as a sign of bad marketability (Score:3, Informative)
Publishers aren't looking for "good" they're looking for "marketable". They're often the same, but not always.
Re:Self publishing could be a sign of bad quality (Score:1)
PDF? (Score:3, Funny)
Yes, that was meant to be funny. Go away you self righteous oafs.
-S
About Reflecting Fires (Score:5, Informative)
With regard to the price, I agree it's too high. That's the one of the main problems with Xlibris: The otherwise fair contract, which grants the author all rights, lets Xlibris set prices without consulting the author. The reason for that is that Xlibris is set up to make money off of authors rather than readers. A friend of mine [chrisnull.com] recently published his own novel as well and I suggested that he avoid print-on-demand. By using a traditional printer and a short run of 1000 or so books, he can price his books around $14 and still make a decent profit. I get about $2 per book sold at Amazon...Amazon and Xlibris get the rest.
With regard to the post, "Self publishing could be a sign of bad quality" that's true, unfortunately. I like to think Reflecting Fires is among the exceptions because I make a living as a writer and editor. Still, that's not really my call to make. But also note that the primary consideration of publishers is not quality but commercial potential. The state of the publising industry is beyond the scope of this post, but for those interested, check out Holt Uncensored [holtuncensored.com]. Here's a quote from one of her newsletters...
Thanks for listening.
Thomas Claburn [lot49.com]
Re:About Reflecting Fires (Score:3, Interesting)
That's crap. Good editors -- and there are plenty [nielsenhayden.com] of [greenmanreview.com] them [strangehorizons.com] out there -- are a writer's best friend, where the quality of the work is concerned. (They may not be where the money's concerned, but that's why you have an agent. Which you don't need until you already have an unsigned contract in your hand, by the way.)
The toughest thing facing an aspiring author today is getting the damn book written. (All of you would-be writers in this forum wondering if Xlibris would be the way to go if, as, and when you get around to writing that book are putting the cart before the horse.)
The second toughest thing is writing a good book. Interestingly, probably 95% of the aspiring writers and up-and-coming writers I've met fall into one of two categories: Either they write really well but don't get much done, or they already have two manuscript the size of phone books that they're trying to get published, and they're crap. (The other 5% are Tim Pratt [sff.net], who doesn't seem to have either problem.)
Writers of the first sort have trouble because their drive for quality makes them spend more time on their stuff, more time revising, and even yet still more time throwing it out and starting over. ("Writer's block isn't not being able to write. It's thinking that everything you write is shit." -- Maureen McHugh)
Writers of the second sort have trouble because they don't understand why they can't sell their stuff, and so they blame the editors, the publishers, the slush pile readers and the reading public, instead of putting the blame where it belongs: on themselves, for not working to improve their writing.
(P.S. Yes, IAAPW. Barely. But ask one who's been around a while [sff.net]. You'll get the same answer.)
Thinking about self-publishing? Think carefully. (Score:4, Informative)
print-on-demand page within that (Score:3, Informative)
- adam
My Xlibris Story (Score:3, Informative)
For any prospective writers out there, Xlibris isn't a bad choice, but it's not a good one either. At one point they unilaterally decided to make author payments into a convenient e-cash thing instead of actual cash. ("You can use your whatever.com card at hundreds of participating locations!") Thanks. They reversed this and I've always received payment by check.
Over the years, I have done absolutely no promotion of my novel, and sales have been very poor. It may be because it's just not worth buying, but you can read the whole thing online. (See my sig).
If anyone wants more information about the Xlibris process, send me an email.
My iUniverse story (Score:2)
- adam
Re:My Xlibris Story (Score:2)
Perhaps you should promote it more?
-WS
I'm ready to buy ANY self-published book ... (Score:1)
Self-publishing audio books (Score:2)
1)Take a book.
2.Run it through a one of those text to speech processors. (Granted, we need a more emotive TSP app. Perhaps use html tags to denote emphasis?)
3)Compress as an MP3.
4)Encode with a private/public key.
5)Put it out there with a teaser chapter and a website to buy the private key -- cheap.
Advantages: Use ears instead of eyes. "Readable" using any MP3 player. Encryption solves piracy problem. Cheap for user -- lucrative for author. Don't need middleman.
What do /.ers think of this?
Re:Self-publishing audio books (Score:1)
You know you've been on /. too long ... (Score:1)
Blatant Plug (Score:2)
Or the "Information Wants To Be Free" crowd can read the entire archives on Google and pick what they want and save $20. (POD books are typically in Trade Paperback size, but are about 50% more expensive than conventional printing--triple that of Mass Market, but cheaper than hardback).
Or you can cherry pick a couple of mine here [google.com] and here [google.com].