harvest of fire

Reviews, Part 21

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New reviews of my work:

1) Patrick of Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist gave Game of Cages 7.5 out of ten because he liked the book I wrote but would have liked a different book better. “Game of Cages is an entertaining blen of urban fantasy, mystery, and action. The pace is crisp, making this one another page-turner.”

I’m honestly tempted to tell him not to bother with the rest of my books because it seems pretty clear that we’re not interested in the same things.

2) Rob D. Smith at A Thousand Masks liked Game of Cages quite a bit. “But if you like tautly crafted hardboiled magic tales, go out and get this book.”

3) MTimonin also liked Game of Cages, and sees where the overall story is going. “Connolly has some very good characters here, and his premise is intriguing.”

4) K.C. Shaw at Skunk Cat Book Reviews loved Child of Fire very much. “In short, this is probably the perfect example of an urban fantasy.”

5) K.C. Shaw also read Game of Cages and liked it a lot, although not as much as the first book: “I don’t usually read sequels immediately after reading the previous books. This series is too amazing to resist, though.”

6) The most thoroughly neutral review of Child of Fire yet: “It would be accurate to say that if one likes Butcher’s work, Connolly’s will have some appeal.” That sentence is as close as the reviewer comes to expressing an outright opinion on the book; I’ll take that as a “didn’t care for it.”

7) Drey at Drey’s Library gave Child of Fire a “Good” rating: “Child of Fire is a pretty good first offering from Harry Connelly, and I’ll be finding out how Ray fares in the next installment, Game of Cages.“

Reviews, Part 20

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New reviews of my work:

1) I try not to duplicate info on my blog and Twitter, and I don’t usually post links to Amazon.com reviews, but I’m making an exception for Charlaine Harris: “Ray Lilly is one of the most interesting characters I’ve read lately, and Harry Connolly’s vision is amazing. I can hardly wait for the next one.”

Score!

2) I didn’t see this when it came out, but Game of Cages got a terrific review from Booklist: “Ray’s voice continues to be charming despite his rough edges, and the plot more than taut enough to keep the pages turning at a breakneck pace; and there is definitely some fascinating history hidden beneath the surface of the world Connolly is spinning, and it’s thoroughly entertaining.” (no link, because I copy-and-pasted it from Amazon.com)

3) Jeremiah loved Game of Cages: “Wow… Way down the rabbit hole with the series after reading this book. Love it.”

4) An unnamed reviewer at Daily Ebook Reviews not so much. “Overall, I’d say the story felt like it was constantly firing away on two cylinders instead of four. Given how much I enjoyed Child of Fire, I know Connolly can do better than that.”

5) Chris Valin at Wax Tadpole liked Game of Cages: “Where the sequel surpasses the first book is in the fleshing out of both the main character and the world in which he lives.”

6) Game designer Rob Donoghue also liked Game of Cages: “… it rockets forward, once again underscoring how scary you can make something without ichor by illustrating it’s impact more than the thing itself.”

7) David Hines didn’t like Game of Cages as much as Child of Fire, but he still liked it: “It’s still a really solid horror action/thriller, and if it’s not as conceptually exciting as its predecessor it does a good bit to compensate in the thrills department.” He also didn’t like the title. Me, I love “Game of Cages” as a title more than any of the others I’ve come up with so far. Child of Fire and Circle of Enemies are okay, but I lurve GoC so much I can remember where I was when I thought of it.

Book trailer

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The casting call for it is online now.

If you’re an actor in the L.A. area, check it out.

Reviews, part 19

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The latest reviews.

1) Andrew Wheeler liked Game of Cages very much: “And, if Harry Connolly can keep his plots this gripping and Ray’s dilemmas this compelling, he’s on track to be one of the important fantasy writers of the next decade, someone who can help lift urban fantasy out of its wish-fulfillment rut.”

I can’t say how happy I am to being compared to Dennis Lehane(!)

2) Screenwriter Bill Martell says he couldn’t put it down. “Okay, I’ve finished reading Game of Cages, and it rocks!”

3) Ophelia at Karissa’s Reading Review gave Game Of Cages four out of five stars, although she thought it was too fast-paced. She’s still planning to pick up the next in the series, though: “The action is again very well written and relentless. This is a book that is hard to put down, it shoves you from one action scene to another and leaves you breathless.”

4) LiveJournaler firstfrost give Child of Fire 4 stars: “… it was definitely creepy.”

5) Beth at Library Chicken (!) gave Game of Cages a B+: “The characters in Connolly’s stories seem very real, especially Lilly.”

6) I will break my moratorium on Amazon.com reviews for this one by “M. Soar” who gave the book 4 stars but thought it was a little violent. However, the quote I’m offering is this one: “Kindle review – no errors in format on my K3: a nice clean copy. Thank you, Del Rey Books!”

Yes, thank you for that, Del Rey. I haven’t seen my book on the Kindle, but I do know the physical book is beautiful to look at. It’s really a well-designed package.

7) Nicholas Kaufmann gave Child of Fire a great big thumbs up: “The worldbuilding in this novel is wonderful. Connolly manages to avoid getting overly expository, which is hard to do with a world this rich, and lets the reader piece things together for him- or herself.“

WTH is wrong with me?

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You’d think a writer, who worked his whole life to be a published novelist, would be aware enough to mark the first anniversary of his first published novel.

You’d be wrong. It’s only because Nick Kaufmann mentioned in his review (linked in my previous post) that Child of Fire came out exactly one year ago today that I’m even aware of it. Yikes! Way to not commemorate things, Self!

I think I’ll celebrate by getting up super-early and writing before my day job. Then, later in the day, I’ll hang with my family and do some writing business that needs doing.

A short, happy story

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The tale of my very first book sale is up on Jim C. Hines’s blog and LiveJournal. For new readers here, it’s not the usual book sale story: It’s a tale of quitting and shame.

Of course, I’m typing this on four hours of sleep so ‘asli lkasj mnfsi lasl jfasi back to bed. Hope everyone is enjoying their day.

“Did you think all this up yourself? Out of your head?“

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Today was the book signing. What do you mean you don’t believe me?! Proof? Here’s the proof!

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That’s me, in case you didn’t realize. The white shirt I’m wearing was freshly ironed twenty seconds before that photo was taken, but as soon as I hung it on myself it shriveled like a flower petal dropped into acid. Those are my books, my pens, my individually-wrapped prunes dried plums, and my oh-so-stylish sneakers.

If you’re wondering how it went, I sold eight books, four of book 1, four of book 2. That’s about five books more than expected. For those that care, here’s how it broke down:

Two books to a neighbor, the mother of Mango Eater’s best friend (she was the only buyer I already knew).
Two books to a woman buying gifts for her house-bound 94-year-old friend.
One book to a man buying a gift for his 20-year-old daughter.
One book to an aspiring writer.
One book to a bookstore employee for her son.
One book to an older woman who was scary skinny. She’s the one who provided the subject header above. (My response: “That’s the job!” She then asked rather stridently “Who’s this Ray Lilly? Is he good or evil?” What I wish I’d said was “I reject your dialectic!” What I actually said was “Uh….”)

I also mailed off all the giveaway books except the cookbooks that Carol Wong won. She hasn’t responded to two requests for a mailing address, and it would be a shame if her books went to the library or something because she used a spam trap address in the blog.

Now I’m back home and I’m not stress-eating or stress-drinking or stress-napping. I’m just hanging out with the family, and as soon as Mango Eater finishes building his Lego, he’s going to read us the next chapter of Harry Potter.

The glamorous life of the writer

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So! Yesterday was release day for Game of Cages, and how did I spend most of that day? Answering emails for one. Public transit for another.

Yeah, yesterday was one of those days when not having a car really hurt.

The mission was simple: sign books on the day they were released. Sometimes it can take a while for new releases to make their way out of the back room onto the shelves, and often the books are delivered late in the day. So I went into the store, introduced myself to an employee, offered to sign books, signed, moved on to the next one.

They were: the downtown Borders, downtown B&N, the University of WA bookstore, the University Village B&N and finally the Northgate mall B&N. The whole time, I had my 8yo son with me.

That took six hours.

Here’s another fun fact about yesterday: the weather was chilly and rainy, with blustery winds. It was cool even for a Seattle August.

And that’s fine. A little rain keeps you cool as you walk from bus stop to store, right? Same for a chilly breeze. It tames the humidity.

Then I would walk into the stores, where the air was hot and still but just as humid, and the sweat would start to bloom all over my body. (Sorry, ladies! I’m taken.) I did not greet a bookseller or sign a book without feeling all nasty and damp.

It was gross. I felt gross. My son? Behaved like a champ (partly because he knew there was a Nerf gun in it for him, partly because he’s a great kid).

And now I’m back at my day job, and I’m exhausted. I’m also way behind on my web/LJ reading. But hey, my book is out there, people are reading it, and one of the B&N employees recognized my name and told me how much she loved my first book. I also have a bunch of new books to read (you knew I couldn’t pop in a bookstores without spending a little money, didn’t you?).

Anyway, I’ll be announcing the giveaway winners for the collection of how-to writing books, Child of Fire and Game of Cages tonight around 6 or 7 PST (in other words, when I get home from the day job). Also, there are a couple of book offerings that have never been claimed. If you want to skim back through the entries, you might find something you like that you missed the first time around.

Hope you guys are having a great day.

Reviews of my books, part 17

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Yay! It’s a special Book Day review roundup of my first two books. Whoo-hoo!

1) Starred review from Publishers Weekly! Whoo-hoo! “Connolly fulfills and sustains the promise of his 2009 rural noir debut, Child of Fire, with this thoughtful Lovecraftian sequel.” (no direct link, because it’s behind a pay wall at PW, but you can read the whole thing at Amazon).

2) Game of Cages gets a Harriet Klausner review, and she liked it. “The second Twenty Palace Society rural fantasy (see Child of Fire) is a great thought provoking yet action-packed noir.” The synopsis is a bit wrong, but, you know…

3) Game of Cages got a great review in August Locus (no link because it’s in the paper edition): “This has become one of my must read series.” Oh, yes that makes me very happy.

4) Child of Fire got this fairly positive tweet-review from @johnmbeaulieu: “… almost as good as Dresden Files” Hey, I’ll take it.

5) TJ at Dreams and Speculations gives Game of Cages an 8 out of 10. “Child of Fire was a great debut of a series very much like Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden but with a slightly different flavor. Game of Cages takes that solid beginning and improves on nearly everything–especially the action.”

6) Only 3 stars from RT Reviews this time (after Child of Fire got 4.5): “Connolly handles the noir aspects well, and Ray is an interesting anti-hero, conflicted about his role in society and the choices it forces on him.” What the reviewer didn’t care for was a slow start (!) and a lack of… wait for it!… exposition! Honestly.

7) John Rogers, writer/executive producer of LEVERAGE, gives a reason you might want to buy Game of Cages: “One of the few urban magic books — for lack of a better term — novels I enjoyed last year was Harry Connolly’s Child of Fire. And I loved it.”

Child of Fire reviews part 16

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Behind the cut! Continue reading