Tag: fantasy

KokkieH Reviews <em>The Hobbit, The Desolation of Smaug</em>

KokkieH Reviews The Hobbit, The Desolation of Smaug

I can really summarise this review with just one sentence: Peter Jackson should have started with this one. Continue reading “KokkieH Reviews The Hobbit, The Desolation of Smaug“ →

KokkieH Reviews Side Jobs – Stories From The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

I’ve been wanting to read Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files for a while now but have been unable to get hold of Storm Front, the first book in the series. I’m not willing to start a series anywhere else as at the first book, but I decided to compromise when I spotted Side Jobs, a collection of short stories from the Dresden universe.

Side Jobs by Jim Butcher — Cover illustration by Chris McGrath
Publisher: http://www.orbitbooks.net

For those of you who have never heard of Harry Dresden (philistines!), he is a wizard. He is also a private investigator. And he lives in modern-day Chicago. So, we have a wizard/PI in Chicago (who is also a bit of a chauvinist), chasing down vampires, ghouls, faeries, and the like. He also catches regular bad guys, so he supplements his magic spells with a revolver. He has a talking skull called Bob. He has a giant dog called Mouse. He has a half-brother who’s a…no, that might be a spoiler. Continue reading “KokkieH Reviews Side Jobs – Stories From The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher” →

A little extract from the WIP

I had a post planned for today on my experience so far with NaNoWriMo, but unforeseen circumstances stole two hours of writing time and I’m kinda on a roll, so I’m going to postpone that post for later. In the meantime, here’s an extract from a scene I wrote today. I’d love to hear what you think.

You should also go check out this post by Ava Jae on how she finished NaNoWriMo in just nine days. I don’t know about applying her strategy to my own writing, but still…respect!

Oh, and be sure to watch this space on Friday for a VERY IMPORTANT announcement. Trust me, you’re not gonna want to miss it.

But without further ado, this scene is entitled:

Bad Dreams Continue reading “A little extract from the WIP” →

Prophecy

The novel I started writing at the beginning of this year (currently on ice) is a high fantasy with mages, magic swords and creatures that only exist in ancient legends. I’m planning to finish it still, as it’s the story that convinced me to start writing after walking around with it in my head for five years, but I got hopelessly stuck with it about seven thousand words in and I think the best approach for this NaNoWriMo is to start afresh.

In the meantime, here’s a scene I wrote about one of the characters. It wouldn’t have formed part of the novel, but was rather an attempt to get inside one of the character’s heads along with a bit of backstory for the novel itself.

Enjoy.

Prophecy Continue reading “Prophecy” →

KokkieH Reviews The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King

Third time’s the charm, it seems, at least as far as Stephen King is concerned. The first book of his I read was The Talisman, back in college. It didn’t really do it for me and I mainly finished it because, as previously mentioned, I’m a bit obsessive-compulsive when it gets to books. Earlier this year I read Firestarter. It was okay, but way too easy to put down. I was ready to give up on Mr King, when I came across the brand new reprint of his 1988 (when I was in the first grade) novel, The Eyes of the Dragon.