Myles Graham
Writer sharing his thoughts and his short stories!
TBR List 2019!
Welcome back everyone! Last year I set a personal record and read the most books I’ve ever read. A whopping 11 books! I know an astronomical number. So, This year I set a goal to up my game to 20 books. I though it would be a cool idea to come up with the reading list and come back to it at the end of the year and see how I did!
So, here it is:
- Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence (read)
- King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence (read)
- Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence (read)
- Coldfall Woods by Steven Savile (reading)
- The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien
- The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R Tolkien
- The Two Towers by J.R.R Tolkien
- The Return of The King by J.R.R Tolkien
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ( I’ve surprisingly have never read!!! If you wanna read about why click here.)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows
- Halo: Smoke and Shadows by Kelly Gay
- Abomination by Gary Whitta
- Dead or Alive by Blackwood
- World of Warcraft: Wolfheart by Richard A Knaak
- Red Sister by Mark Lawrence
Aaaaand there it is, My list of books to read this year. I won’t say it is concrete because a lot of times I just don’t “feel” like reading particular things. I will try and write reviews on the books I read or do a full series review. Sounds good to you? Then follow along! Any suggestions? Like books I shouldn’t read? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading!
Book Review: Prince of Thorns
Hey, everyone! I have officially read my first book (In January!) of the year. and what better way to celebrate it than by reviewing it!
So, here we go! the book I read in January was Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. This is not the first book I have read by Mark Lawrence but this was his debut novel as an author. I found Mark Lawrence by strolling through the book store and ultimately not wanting to leave until I bought a new book. I had no idea what I wanted to buy or even what I was in the mood to read. So, I strolled through the fantasy section. I picked up Prince of Fools and loved the cover. (yes I always judge books by there covers :p)
After reading the synopsis I immediately thought “I am going to love this book the main character seems like a douche!” Ultimately I did love the book, as well as the other two in the series. at this point in time, I would even say the Red Queens war is my favorite book series and as a by-product Mark Lawrence my favorite author.
After reading the series and expressing my deep love for it, I was gifted the Prince of Thorns. which ended up sitting on my bookshelf for about a year. “why?” you might ask. Well, because I was scared I would love that book as much as I loved the other ones but I didn’t have the sequels for me to immediately drown myself with. So, alas it went unread.
For christmas I was given the sequels! Hallelujah! So, I allowed my self to read away! I will try not to give to much away but, just in case you haven’t read the books or hate spoilers. This is my disclaimer. THERE MAY BE SPOILERS or they may not be……… read on at your own risk.
The story follows a young prince by the name of Honorous Jorg Ancarth. For a boy of fourteen he is very mature.( more so than I am at 28) He’s smart, serious and driven by revenge. He ran away when he was only ten and has been roaming the lands with a group of misfits. they go from town to town pillaging.
Jorg left the castle for one reason. to kill the man that killed his mother and brother. He feels that his father should be more angry and wanting blood but he just sits in his castle. So, Jorg puts matters into his own hands.
I’m not going to lie for about half the book I hated Jorg. He was way more serious than the other prince I had previously read about(prince of fools) I have never been fond of stories about children as I don’t find them particularly believable. Especially when that child is more mature, smarter and all around more put together than I am at double his age.
Throughout the book though you are peppered with his past and the reasons he is the way he is. To get to a black berry you need to get around the thorns. and Jorg has more thorns than your typical black berry bush.
This book is definitely not suitable for younger audiences as there are some very suggestive scenes and at times he can get really dark. I was going to list off all the things I disliked about this book but somehow they all turned into likes. I Don’t care for his so called “Road brothers” they are characters I just don’t care about. well there was once but of course they killed him.
I was going to go more in depth about the book. but I like people to read for themselves. I don’t like giving to much away. If your are a fan of fantasy, especially Dark Fantasy you will love this book. If I were to give this book a rating out of 5 swords I would give it a 4.5. Its not as good of a book as prince of fools in my opinion but its still a damn good book. Jorg is a character you hate in front of your friends but love alone!
Thanks For Reading! If you like this kind of review make sure to give it a like and let me know in the comments!
The Meaning of Life
The meaning of life is a topic many, if not most people have discussed. As time moves forward the meaning always changes. There is no Definitive answer to, “what is the meaning of life?” and that troubles a lot of people.
“The god that we created plans our destiny, Because life without meaning is our sworn, enemy!”-Beast in Black
People make up stories and will continue to make them so that there is meaning to their life. Now, what I am getting at is, what if life had no meaning? How does that make you feel? would your life change drastically? Would it change at all?
The beautiful thing about humans is our quest for answers and the beautiful thing about the universe is its abundance of secrets! its like we were made for each other! We dedicate countless lives unraveling its secrets. Some things have been studied for hundreds of years and still, there is no concrete answer.
Our drive for knowledge and better lives have made us who we are, but why does everything need a meaning? what if you chose the meaning of life? what if you created your destiny and it wasn’t created for you? What if the universe always existed and there was no beginning of time? what if every religions real message was that you were God?
Will The Witcher Netflix Series be good?
Now that the trailer for the Witcher Netflix series has been released, I believe I have more of a feel about how the show is going to be. Lots of people seem pretty hyped about it and the quality seems quite good.
Do I think the Witcher series will be good? That’s the real question. I wouldn’t say I am the biggest fan of the Witcher or anything like that. Especially since I only heard about the Witcher when the third game came out. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. And if you’ve read my other blog about the Witcher (which I will leave a link here) you may have a pretty good guess as to where I stand. But honestly, I am on the fence about it.
My knowledge of The Witcher comes from the third game and the first three books. Both essentially have the same story, Just in different timelines. The books are the start of Geralts relationship with Ciri when she is a little girl. In the game she is an adult and in both Geralt is trying to find her.
There is obviously twists and turns to get to her and in my opinion the game did a much better job of doing that. The books just didn’t pull it off. In the books it just seems like Geralt meets people walks and meet people and walks more for three books straight. For a story based on someone who kills monsters for a living, it was very uninteresting. From what I recall there wasn’t even that much information about Witcher’s.
If the show completely follows the books which I doubt it will, the show would just be boring and will not interest me in the slightest. The reason I think the story in the show may be better is I believe the author of the books will have nothing to do with the show. So, hopefully Netflix can make it interesting with their creative freedom.
In the trailer a lot of the clips seem as though they could fit into the books. Stuff about elves and the war that is going on, the stuff about Ciri. But there are also clips of just Geralt doing Witcher things and those were the only parts that really intrigued me. The story seems like it could be much of the same as the other ones, but its hard to tell with just a two-minute trailer.
So, will the Witcher Netflix series be good? I am very doubtful. But I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little intrigued. As long as the twists and turns are there and lots about monsters and Witchers it could do well. Hopefully they can pry the story away from the books and make something great. But that’s just my opinion. Time will tell if I like it and if the masses like it. Maybe if I re read the books I might like them, but I would have to be convinced. So, let me know your opinion Witcher fans!
Book Review: Halo Smoke and Shadow by Kelly Gay
Welcome back to another book review! This one is a novella based in the Halo universe. If you are not familiar, Halo is a video game series revolving around ancient weapons of mass destruction that are capable of wiping out all life in the universe. The weapons called the Halo rings.
Unlike my previous book reviews this one will probably have spoilers. So, if your sensitive to such content this is your last warning. Get out.
In my opinion the books first couple pages didn’t draw me in right away like they should. But the more I read the more I was intrigeged by the main characher. Rion Forge, who is the daughter of one John Forge. One of, ,If not the main character of the game Halo Wars.
Rion is a salvager. She chose not to follow in the family tradition to join the army. She and her ragtag crew scour the war torn universe for alien tech and weapons from downed and abandoned ships to sell.
The crew is constantly finding valuable tech and the like to sell to their buyer for a nice return. On one of their salvages Rion find something called a Buoy. A data center from the ship. This one just so happened to contain information that could help her find out what happened to her father.
Throughout the story you get pieces of everyone past. I was done in such a way that I felt very connected to the characters. But not overly done to make me forget what is going on in the story.
The buoy leads them to another fallen ship. This one an alien vessel. As they circle around they spot Sangheili(Aliens) and Hunters (different kind of alien). they sneak onto the ship and find what they are looking for but, not without making noise first. They escape and rescue another salvager in the process.
Another buoy another destination. The climax of the story happens and it ends. leaving me wanting more. The story could have been an novel but if it was it may have lost what made it so intriguing to me, the briefness of everything. Just knowing enough, but never the whole thing.
This story in no way impacts the story of Halo as I predict not many do. But what it does do is give you insight of how people live outside the army. How families are separated, and how the war impacted everyone differently.
I have read other peoples reviews on this short story. Most are not to fond of how the story ended. The book started with zero questions and ended with you asking a plethora. People didn’t like not having answer but, for me that was part of the intrigue.
Ill give this short story a solid 4.75 Halo rings out of 5. If your a Halo fan definitely check it out, even if your not its a quick read and he might like it without know Halo at all.
Thanks for reading!
Camp NaNoWriMo Conclusion
Hey again! Welcome back. Camp NaNo has come and gone. Another attempt at rushing words from my head to computer has left me with some thoughts about my writing process. So, lets get in to it.
This was only the second time I have participated in any form of NaNoWriMo. The first being last april’s Camp NaNo. Last year managed 11,000 words before I fizzled out. This year I only managed 6000. Quite a difference which I find funny because arguably I’m more passionate about this story. So, what happened why so little words?
There are many reasons for so few words and I will explain a few of the most impactful. Firstly, I gave my self a lot of excuses. (eg, I am too tired. I wanna play video games. I should clean.) Secondly, when I didn’t reach my daily word count I felt defeated and it snowballed into complete days without words. Lastly, the biggest reason I didn’t write much it quite like the reason for last years lack of words. The amount of words I wrote in a short time became scary. Yeah I don’t get it either.
I have come to the conclusion the I am actually scared to write a novel. I’m scared to give my everything into something when I don’t feel like I have much to give. Ultimately I feel scared to be proud of something I accomplished.
Despite all of this, Camp NaNo was an outstanding success. I wrote 6000 fuckuing words! Go me. I learned things about the point of views and which may work better for my story. Most importantly I learned that the process of writing pen to paper is by far a better method for mer to write. I don’t worry about word count too much. There is way less distractions. (damn you interwebs.) and its how I have written all of my blog posts and short stories. Stick with what works.
I learned a lot in April and I am glad for it. I don’t know if I will attempt any NaNoWriMos again but I am definitely grateful for the times that I did do it. Did you participate this year? If so how did it go? Did you crush it and hit your word count or did you learn a lot like me? Either way is a win let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading!
Camp NaNoWriMo/ Writing projects.
Welcome back everyone! Today I thought I would talk about how Camp NaNoWriMo is going for me and also talk a little about the different projects I am working on.
I haven’t Participated in the NaNoWriMo that takes place in november and I am not really sure why. But I did give Camp NaNoWriMo a try last year. I aimed to hit the typical NaNo goal of 50,000 words. I only managed about 12,000 words because I just couldn’t zero in fully on one project idea.
This year my main focus has been just one idea. Its an Idea I really liked the concept of and built a world around. Now, its been a week since Camp NaNo started and I admittedly started 3 days late. Even with excuses I only sit at 3000 words. I have already run into “problems”. So, I have spent time working things out and drawing a town map just to help me navigate.
My goal this year is still set at 50,000 words. Other than needing to build pieces for myself to keep the story moving forwards, I am still finding it hard to put words down. Mostly because I hate putting down sentences that I don’t. A problem I know a lot of writers have. How to I push past the need to be perfect in my first draft??
Along with My camp project, There are 2 other projects I am working on/ want to get done by the end of the year.
The first of the 2 is a short story that goes with my camp project. It’s just a story I will be righting to figure out my magic system and flesh out my world further.
The last project is one that I will hopefully be posting to this site be for the year is done. It goes with the short story I posted last year. It’s called Lord Odious and it originated from this short story. It is written I just need to edit it and polish it up. I believe it is much longer and a much better story but you can be the judge.
So, Make sure to be on the look out for the short story and if you haven’t already read Lord Odious feel free to read and let me know what you think by clicking here.
Thanks for reading ! Let me know how you Camp NaNoWriMo is going!
