Myles Graham
Writer sharing his thoughts and his short stories!
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?
Goals for 2019!
Hey everyone, Happy New Year! Congratulations on making it to 2019! It’s that time of year, where everyone is in the gym, eating vegetables and making resolutions. To my knowledge, most goals set at this time of the year usually tend to fail by February. This year though I am feeling pretty confident in myself so what the hey, lets set some goals and smash them!!
I have never really been one to set goals. Come to think of it that’s probably why I have never accomplished anything significant. My experience with goals is very and I mean VERY limited. Most of the time I write a list of goals I want to accomplish this month. Then I forget about the goals and go on with my life and at the end of the month realize I managed to complete maybe one goal and most likely that was an accident.
At this point, you are probably asking yourself “So, what’s so different this time Myles?!” Well, let me tell you. This time I am asking for help. Firstly I am asking my wife to enlist of a year of keeping me accountable. Maybe she could just tell me what to do. Act as a prison warden, whatever it takes! That might make life easier! Secondly, I am asking all of you for help! Every once in a while just ask me how my goals are going, make sure I keep posting here and most importantly that I am having fun. We could be partners you help me I help you!
So, Here are my Goals for 2019!
- Read at least 20 books! Last year I only read about 11. Let’s double that effort this year!! Follow my good reads! I have read 0 of 0 books for the 2019 Reading Challenge! What should I read next?
- Finish a First Draft! I have started many! and only one has made it past the first chapter. I seem to lose my passion for the story I created or it just never seems to be going the way I wanted it to and I lose hope. This year I just need to push past that and finish one. Then I can tweak away until its what I want it to be!
- Get into the habit of writing every day! Because I am always so focused on my stories I forget that I need to actually write in order to get better. And because I lose passion for my stories so quick I tend to not write very much! That’s going to change this year. If I have nothing to write about I am just going to write about certain events, People, places, even just describe random things. Anything to get words to paper.
- Make More blog posts than last year! Last year I averaged 1 post a month and that is just not enough! I am going to continue to post my random thoughts, maybe more book reviews with all the books I plan on reading and show you guys some of my writing!!
That is it. Those are my goals. Some are big and daunting others small. I think I am going to blow 2018 Myles out of the water and do all the things I keep putting off. I intend to make 2019 the best year of my life! What about you guys? Are you setting goals? if so what are they? Let me know in the comments! thanks for reading, Have a magical day! and year!
Short Story: Lord Odius
My first short story. I am proud of finishing! Would love feedback! Thanks for reading!
https://mylesgrahamwrites.com/2018/05/18/short-story-lord-odius/
My favorite read of 2018
Welcome back, everyone! I hope you are all having a magical day! This year I have read the most books I have ever read in one year. Which by readers standards isn’t much. I have only read about eleven. for comparison, my wife has read over fifty. Yeah, yeah I am a slow reader. I think I could have read a lot more but too many books I read this year were just bad to me. So I am going to talk about the one that stood out the most!
My favorite read of 2018 is definitely an older one. shes about twenty years old. at that book is Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy. If you don’t already know, Tom Clancy writes military fiction. His books have spawned multiple video game franchises, and arguably one of the biggest shooter style videos games based on this book.
This is a big long book. and for me quite a daunting read. How daunting you ask? well, I have owned the book for about ten years and never read it. It’s 900 pages!! That’s huge to me. Some people love epic novels. But my sweet spot is in the 400-500 page range. probably due to the speed in which I read books too.
So, This year I finally got up the courage to read it. Honestly, It was how I expected it to be. You don’t become a famous author by writing trash. ( Well back then anyway.) But there were spots I didn’t expect. like the multiple times, I was bored. where some scenes just seemed to carry on, even without contributing to the overall story. I also Expected to have high tension throughout the book or excitement but that was just an unrealistic expectation.
The story felt a little predictable. You Knew how it would end. But it was fun and interesting to see how it got to the end. I enjoyed the villains they were very interesting and it really shows how people can believe so hard that they are doing the right thing that nothing else matters. How the cause itself almost seems bigger than humanity. In all honesty, I understood the villain and A lot of their views mirror mine. Just not to the crazy extent of theirs, obviously.
My final thought on Rainbow Six is, it’s great. Definitely will read again. It did prove to me that my ideal page range is 400-500. But rating it out of ten I would give it a seven and a half. The length definitely brought it down a peg for me.
That is my favorite read of 2018. I hope you enjoyed this review style blog. If you did make sure to leave a comment below! Thanks for reading and have a magical day!
Darksiders
I love great stories. I love Video games. And I love when both of those are mashed together. All of my life I have been a passionate gamer. I loved living different lives and saving the world. My favorite game growing up was Halo
Up until a couple of years ago I would have pegged Halo
As time went on I would continually see the game in the Xbox store and it would always pull me in. Eventually it went on sale and I had to buy it to kill the curiosity about the game. Boy, am I glad I did, it will definitely go down as one of my top five purchases. It checked all the boxes that made a great game for me. Interesting story, interesting world, Monsters, Cinematic and interesting characters.
So, why am I talking about a game that came out in 2010? Well mostly because it is a grossly underrated Game and I think more people should know about it. BUT there is also a third installment of the series coming which is really big news become fans of the game thought its chances of survival diminished with the collapsed of THQ. This news has me beyond excited! so much so in fact that I orders the most expensive version possible………. I told you I was a fan.
So, for those who haven’t had the pleasure of playing any of the Darksiders
The second game you play as Death who’s quest is to protect war at all costs. 3 games, 3 different horsemen. Each game has its own feel and helps progress the story. The horseman for Darksiders 3
Thanks for reading!! if your interested in the games or a book about the horseman Eons before the apocalypse follow these links! Any commission I make helps keep the site up and running!
HAPPY GAMING!!
Why I loved The Witcher 3 The video game but really disliked the books.
The Witcher has become a household name for avid gamers. It won the game of the year and gives you 100 hours of gameplay. The world is immense, The characters are funny and interesting. There are monsters to hunt, some of which happen to be human. There is lots to do and lots to explore. Making it a well rounded and balanced game.
To be honest I had never heard of The Witcher until the recent installment. and when I got to fist fight a bear I thought my love for the game was forged forever. I have thought time and time again about getting the older ones and playing through those but I could never really justify buying them on the tight budget I was on at the time. But I was gifted a box set which we thought was a trilogy.
After completing the third book I realized it was not a trilogy. I also realized that the story I was being told through the books was the exact same as The Witcher 3 the game just earlier on in their lives. The Main character is in search for a girl who is like a daughter to him and she has the power to save or destroy the world. There is a Love triangle. (Mostly cause the main character can’t keep his dick in his pants.)
So If the books are so close to the game that I love why do I dislike them so much? Well because they are -insert excessively aggressive curse word here- BORING! For three books all that happens is walking and talking. not even interesting conversations either. FOR THREE BOOKS!!! I mean there is some background to the witchers which is interesting but that’s it. there was probably all of five paragraphs of action combined in all three books.
Maybe the books that followed these three are better, I don’t know. All I know is I will not read them. I have lost all interest. I mean how can such an action based game be based on such boring books? Maybe it’s just me. If you have played the games and read the books leave your thoughts in the comments.
To add salt to the wound. The Author Andrzej Sapkowski is now demanding Cd projekt Red to give him millions more in money. He wants more money because it wanted an upfront cheque instead of royalties because he thought the games would flop. Maybe he thought they were going to make it just as boring as his books.
Anyway, that’s my thoughts on the witcher book series and game series. Hope you enjoyed ———–RANT OVER————
What Gives me Inspiration to write?
Every writer has something that inspires different pieces of work. Some have different routines or triggers that get them in the mood. That is because we are all unique and different. What inspires you to do what you do? I am sure you have some quirk that drives you!
My quirk is Music. Music can put me in a trance. When I listen to certain songs I get lost in daydreams. I am taken to different worlds. I become someone new and live out an entirely different life. Much like when we read. I have always daydreamed, but as I have gotten older they have grown fewer and farther apart.
Now as a writer, I scramble to jot down my daydreams! They could be pure gold. Who knows but I must hoard them! Just like regular dreams when I sleep I believe them to be incredibly useful and creative. If I could remember all of my dreams, be it day or night I would already be a billionaire. But, alas this is not the case.
So, what kind of music is it that gets me sword fighting a demonic angel? What music gets me into a weird love triangle between an ogre and a dwarf? Well, that genre of music would be Power metal! Most if not all power metal is based around fantasy worlds or mythology and as someone who wished to be a fantasy author obviously, it strikes a chord with me.
Now there are other genres that spark creativity in me. Good classical music puts me in a royal setting. Folk music puts me in a medieval village setting. When I write or think about my stories I like to really get into the mindset of the characters and feel like I am in there world. what better way to do that, than with music.
Losing yourself to your imagination is one of the greatest gifts we have. Being creative is who we are. ever since I started writing I have looked for different forms of inspiration. I have become very passionate about writing, but I have always been passionate about music. Now they seem to be blending perfectly together for me. What drives your creativity? Let me know in the comments!
BONUS!!! Here are some songs that inspire me!
