Link: amzn.to/z38Yih

Grade: D+

L/C Ratio: 10/90
(This means I estimate the author devoted 10% of his effort to creating a literary work of art and 90% of his effort to creating a commercial bestseller.) 

Thematic Breakdown:
40% - International thriller
30% - Video gaming
20% - Lessons in kidnapping
10% - Terrorism

I’m beginning to think my aversion towards extremely long books is warranted. Reamde clocks in at over 1,000 paper pages (which equals more than 23,000 Kindle locations), and the book’s lackluster plot just doesn’t deserve that kind of elongated treatment. (Also, Stephenson really needs to embrace the art of chaptering.)

At its core, Stephenson’s latest novel is the story of a girl who gets kidnapped by Russian mobsters, only to then be re-kidnapped by Islamic terrorists. Exponential kidnapping! The premise sounds like it could make for an interesting thriller, but the author screws up in two major ways.

First, the central mystery in the book is supposed to revolve around the disappearance of the main female character, Zula. However, Stephenson covers so many different character perspectives, including those of Zula and her various kidnappers, that he ends up handing every answer right to the reader and eliminating all traces of suspense and tension.

And second, Stephenson refuses to give the terrorists any semblance of a motive. We know they are evil guys who want to sneak into America, but we never find out what their ultimate goal is for when they get there. The entire second half of the book just kills time until Stephenson can get all his characters in one place to shoot at each other. The final scenes struggle to carry weight because we don’t know what the stakes are for anyone outside the center of the novel.

Some people may find the high geek factor in Reamde attractive, but if you’re looking for a smart thriller with an actual payoff, try Daemon by Daniel Suarez.

I’ve got some exciting book news to share: my debut novel, Train Wreck, is now in stock at the RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth, NH!

RiverRun is an independent bookshop that does a great job supporting local self-published authors. They just reopened in a beautiful new Portsmouth location. For more information, check out their blog or follow them on Twitter.

(This is a guest review by Heather. To submit your own, use the button in the column to the right.)

Link: amzn.to/y6E09Z

Grade: C+

L/C Ratio: 60/40
(This means Heather estimates the author devoted 60% of his effort to creating a literary work of art and 40% of his effort to creating a commercial bestseller.)

Thematic Breakdown:
60% - Relationships
30% - Finding yourself
10% - Alcohol

I knew in advance that One Day was not going to be a happily-ever-after love story, but that didn’t prevent my disappointment in how the novel played out. While at first the sexual tension and the will-they-won’t-they setup was compelling, it eventually became tedious and flat-out depressing.

At the beginning of the novel, the two main characters are realistic, and the reader roots for them to figure out their lives and their relationship. But after a certain point, the characters stop being likable and become increasingly bitter as they screw up their own chances at happiness again and again.

I personally enjoyed the writing style and found myself highlighting many passages that relate to the current state of my own life, but eventually I stopped hoping for the characters to get everything right and instead just began waiting for the axe to fall.

Link: amzn.to/wTCaOL

Grade: C+

L/C Ratio: 10/90
(This means I estimate the author devoted 10% of his effort to creating a literary work of art and 90% of his effort to creating a commercial bestseller.) 

Thematic Breakdown:
40% - Celebrity culture
30% - PR crisis management
25% - Humor
5% - Environmental action

It’s tough to write funny, but Carl Hiaasen has found a pretty reliable format and managed to build a successful career out of it. Star Island features the same kind of wacky plot lines and ridiculous characters that you’re used to seeing from Hiaasen. Unfortunately, the book fails to achieve the level of cohesion that made Sick Puppy one of my favorite reads in recent years.

The biggest problem with Star Island is that the author forgets to make any of his central characters particularly likable - and most of them are barely tolerable. At major turning points in the story, I found myself feeling rather indifferent towards the whole cast of maniacs.

Even so, Hiaasen’s latest book is still worth picking up if you are in the mood for some light fiction and enjoy laughing at celebrities and their unlimited sources of drama.

According to novelist Ewan Morrison, the outlook for self-published authors is growing bleaker by the day. We’re heading towards a bubble, he claims, which will mimic other market collapses in the history of our fickle economy.

Like the dotcom bubble, the commercial real estate bubble, the subprime mortgage bubble, the credit bubble and the derivative trading bubble before it, the DIY epublishing bubble is inflating around us. Each of those other bubbles also saw, in their earliest stages, a great deal of fuss made over a “new” phenomenon, which was then over-hyped and over-leveraged. But speculation, as we’ve learned at our peril, is a very dangerous foundation for any business. And when the epub bubble bursts, as all previous bubbles have done, the fall-out for publishing and writing may be even harder to repair than it is proving to be in the fields of mortgages, derivatives and personal debt. Because this bubble is based on cultural, not purely economic, grounds.

I won’t pretend to be an expert in economics, but I can assure budding writers that there is no need to panic. Morrison’s attempt at labeling self-publishing services as some form of Ponzi scheme is silly. When you upload your novel or nonfiction book to Amazon or Barnes & Noble, you’re not investing any money - just time and energy. No returns are guaranteed, and the only thing writers risk losing is some confidence thanks to grouchy reviewers.

While Morrison’s bubble theory is flawed, his post does bring up some valid warnings for those thinking about joining the self-publishing movement. Here are the two most important things you need to know:

1. You are not going to become a millionaire from self-publishing ebooks. Don’t expect to even earn a decent living from them. Anyone who tells you that you can substitute writing ebooks for a full-time job is trying to deceive you. There are only a handful of true self-publishing success stories. Find a stable job and make writing your hobby, or else devote yourself to the craft of freelance writing and start finding some real clients.

2. You should not be paying anyone to publish your ebooks. Amazon and Barnes & Noble are running legitimate services, but there are plenty of swindlers out there trying to game the system. If you need help publishing your book, contact a tech-savvy friend or use the endless resources online before opening your wallet. During the publishing process, the only things you should even consider paying for are cover design and advertising space. Self-publishing is great because it lets you maintain control over your own work. Don’t give up that power because you’re too lazy or too scared to see your project through to the end.