Peter C. Myers

You are currently browsing articles tagged Peter C. Myers.

Warbreaker sets great characters and taut suspense in an interesting world

June 13, 2010 in I read that already, Personal by Stephen | No comments

Peter C. Myers and I are writing a fantasy novel. Because I’m a firm believer in knowing the history and present before you can become future, I’m reading a lot of fantasy these days. My friend Chris Krycho handed me Brandon Sanderson’s Warbreaker, and I’m quite grateful that he did.

One of my main displeasures with high fantasy is that it’s all so serious (the Joker has a thing or two to say about this). It doesn’t have any heart; it’s political, daring, adventurous and sterile. Also, I will not read a book that has a dragon on the cover. If you want to recommend one to me (cause “it’s so gooooood!“), rip the cover off and hand it to me. Thanks.

Warbreaker dispenses with this nonsense by having one of the four main characters be skeptical of the entire conceit of the book. Lightsong the Bold, a “god” who doesn’t believe he’s a god, thinks that everything in his world (and thus, the whole book) is patently ridiculous. His wicked humor brings a breath of fresh air to what could have been just another political intrigue fantasy novel.

Even without Lightsong, Sanderson probably would have avoided sterility by his deft characterization. I feel like the words “deft” and “characterization” go together, so I did that for you. Here’s what I mean: I like the people I’m supposed to like and hate the people I’m supposed to hate. And when characters move from one camp to the other, I don’t think twice about turning hate into love and love into hate. I mean, the character wasn’t telling the truth! Why should I like him anymore?!

The storyline does get a bit confusing toward the end, as he pulls off a mega twist.  It’s the sort of twist that you didn’t see coming, but only because it was barely referenced throughout the book. I didn’t feel cheated, but I also had to reread pages several times to figure out where allegiances lay. It took away from the page-turning suspense to have to keep page-turning backwards.

As my favorite things in fiction are characters and suspense, I loved Warbreaker. Sanderson delivers them in spades. Fans of world creation should be pleased as well; the world is so fully developed that I see it nigh on impossible that Sanderson let it go (and he does leave the tiniest sliver of hope for a sequel on the last page). It’s a fascinating, clever and uniquely invented world; one that I won’t ruin by attempting to explain.

It’s worth the time, and as it’s only one book, it’s definitely not as big a time outlay as most fantasy books/series. Get it. Read it. Love it.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Go go gadget project updates

May 9, 2010 in Music, Projects, Sports by Stephen | No comments

So Gospelized has been a great success so far in my book: I enjoy doing the work immensely, and people are responding critically and with congratulations. I can not ask for much more out of a project.

Peter C. Myers and I are starting up serious work on our fantasy novel. I am incredibly excited about this; Peter C. Myers’ thoughtful friendship and joie de vivre are encouragements to my soul.

Independent Clauses needs some new writers; it has come down to solely me. While I’m okay with this, the growing stack of music on my desk is not.

I’ve put The Greater Clothes Exchange of the Universe and The Last Unicorns on Earth on hold right now. I am focused on Gospelized and the fantasy novel (which I will soon unveil the title for, as soon as we have a working one!).

I’ve been reading a great deal of literature about Christian art, as well as Christian art itself. I have Dick Staub‘s The Culturally Savvy Christian sitting next to me, as I’m half-finished with it. I recently purchased beautiful hardcover editions of Paradise Lost, The Poems of John Donne and The Confessions of St. Augustine; I have started in on the Donne so far. At the same incredible book sale, I purchased a softcover volume that includes all of the Chronicles of Narnia (side note: I almost wrote the Chronic WHAT cles of Nar-nia).

This weekend I hung out with Brent Baldwin, who was co-songwriter with me in Tragic Landscape (second side note: the current band picture at that site is one of about four on the internet that feature me without facial hair). We got together because we, along with members PC Hance III and Kyle Smith, recently decided to record Tragic Landscape’s last, lost album HeIsTheSuperFool over the next few months. As we will be in two separate towns, it could be a slow process. We’re okay with that. It’s been in the queue for four years already.

We also wrote a few songs for a possible future project tentatively titled Broken Keys that we plan to conduct primarily over long-distance, a la The Postal Service. Think soft-rock and reggae meshed together. Totally kidding. It will sound nothing like that. Honest.

Also, I’ve been recently pretty obsessed with Lost and Found by the Fools. Its beautiful melodies and gentle songwriting have captured the essence of this slowly-arriving summer for me.

Wrapping up this absurdly long project update, I’ll leave you with the realization that we are in the sports doldrums. As a Mets fan, I can’t even get excited about baseball until late August or September, because that’s when the Mets will either crash and burn or barely eek into the playoffs. No matter how awesome they’re doing, they’ll find a way to mess it up. And there’s no other sports to watch, save NASCAR, but there’s a whole post on whether or not that’s even a sport. Same for golf. Less than 180 days to college football season!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I love it when a plan comes together

January 7, 2010 in Projects by Stephen | No comments

This is my 200th post. It neatly coincides with my decision to start being more disciplined in posting. I’m going to start using “tags” and “categories,” because I’ve heard that people like these things. Also I’ve heard that they make people be able to find your site. Ah, that. Readership.

An update on projects:

- I “released” the album today. Its “official” release was December 21. I say all these things “in quotations” because when there’s no money being exchanged, it’s very unimportant to have things like “release dates.” Nevertheless, it is now available at this website for free. You can listen to and download the whole thing, and all you have to do is go to www.stephencarradiniandthemidnightsons.bandcamp.com. Honest! I won’t sell your e-mail address to strangers, I swear. Quick numbers: 13 tracks, 5 years to write, 9 months to record, 8 musicians, 7 recording sessions, 4 completely solo tracks, 1 cover song.

-Now that the album is “released,” I’m going to start editing The Last Unicorns on Earth in earnest.

-I want to get re-started on the fantasy project that Peter C. Myers and I started writing this summer but put on hold for the semester while I wrote Unicorns.

-I’m in the plotting stages of my next solo novel. Details are fuzzy, but it looks like there will be a lot less cursing and probably more fight scenes (as odd as that combo seems).

-I’m in the process of making Independent Clauses back into a daily pub (that is, five times a week). It’s going to be a lot of work, but it’s what I want to do.

-Listening to a lot of good music: Post Harbor’s excellent post-rock manifesto “They Can’t Hurt You If You Don’t Believe in Them,” Freelance Whales’ Myspace at the urging of my friend Jenn Scott, and Wild Light’s Myspace because of my friend (and incredibly talented illustrator) Jason Flack.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,