Rock Reading Tuesdays

Welcome back to Rock Reading Tuesday!

This week I am going to be covering a book I read that had a ton of different twists and turns that kept you guessing with each page. Get ready for a lot of laughs, betrayal when you least expect it, and the building of a new empire. This week’s reading is The BlackSmith Queen by G.A. Aiken.

I am about to spoil the first six chapters of the book. If you want to experience this book in its full unexpected glory scroll down till you see END OF SPOILERS.

This book drops you off next to the Old King’s bed watching him till he takes his last breath surrounded by his sons. Such a somber moment when he takes his last breath for about two seconds then the killing begins. The Princes are at each other’s throats trying to kill each other so they can take the crown. Whole armies begin moving through the castle slaying everything that moves following the commands of the prince that wants to be king. Different princes are killing off siblings so that there are no survivors left to possibly claim the throne. The way how Aiken wrote this prologue is so engrossing that you need to turn the page because you need to find out if the old king’s chronicler survived his encounter with the Dowager Queen Maila mother of the ruthless Prince Marius.

While reading that prologue, I could feel my adrenalin spike along with the chronicler’s fear of being discovered before he could escape the castle. Aiken’s attention to detail leaves little room for you to see anything besides the action that is occurring, and the screams the Chronicler hears.

From there we are brought a young man being hanged for the amusement of some mercenaries, which can leave the reader feeling confused because the author begins almost a different story. We see a funny, kind, and unique woman named Keeley living her life freely in her village as the town blacksmith, occasional chiropractor, animal lover, and peacekeeper. Keeley is absolutely the exact opposite description wise of a textbook female protagonist character. It is constantly referenced throughout the book and is an ongoing joke amongst those she travels with.

This book follows the journey of her and her sister Beatrix on their path to becoming the Queen that would rule over the lands. They over come family tragedies and people of different races like the Amichai and their centaur like appearance. They are in a race to see who can claim the crown first and become the Prophesied Queen.

END OF SPOILERS

This book is filled with suspense and it will keep you on the edge of your seat until the last page. You will have moments of shock at the sheer level of betrayal this book shows the read between the characters and royalty. The humor that is found in this book is both unexpected and greatly done. Laugh out loud moments to amused smiles this book will hold your attention for longer than a week. The list goes on from the dynamic characters that seem to come to life right before your eyes to the emotion the author manages to draw out of you. She sets the scene carefully so the reader can picture exactly where they are and the world, she shows us is beautiful and horrifying. To best describe this book is a roller-coaster of highs and lows spiraling twists and turns that leaves you feeling as though you are there.

Word choice is another thing I would like to comment on because the author chose carefully which sentence and word would stick with the reader the most. This book is a great find, I recommend everyone check this out. And this book is just part one of the series, so if you enjoyed it there is still more to come.

Thank you all for reading this week’s reading, see you next week!

Thomas Benke: Looking Around In Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott, in the Chapter “Looking Around,” says this: Now, if you ask me, what’s going on is that we’re all up to here in it, and probably the most important thing is that we not yell at one another. Otherwise we’d all just be barking away like Pekingese: “Ah! Stuck in the shit! And it’s your fault, you did this …” Writing involves seeing people suffer and, as Robert Stone once put it, finding some meaning therein. But you can’t do that if you’re not respectful. If you look at people and just see sloppy clothes or rich clothes, you’re going to get them wrong. She goes on to speak about empathy for other people and also, as an extension empathy for yourself. So, in a sense as you try to write believable, relatable characters, you will come to forgive people their trespasses—because no one believes they are the villain of their story, so you have to write “bad,” or “evil” characters from a point of view where they rationalize what they are doing in such a way that it is the right or only way they see is possible. By extrapolation, then, if you begin to forgive and withhold judgment from your less-than-desirable, or annoying characters, perhaps you can extend the same courtesy to yourself and forgive your own trespasses and sins. This, for me, starts to enter the realm of “writing as therapy,” and though I am a firm believer in that—I practice it to this very day—I think I would caution anyone who thinks that simply writing through things is going to lead you to a place of light and love. I am not saying it can’t by any means. What I am saying is I have wrote through my thoughts and my problems and my desperation and depression for decades and I still had enough baggage on my shoulders to supply an army platoon with rations for a year. In any case, when thinking about craft, it is very important to step into the shoes of all of your characters, especially those characters that you see as antagonists and villians. I believe there are very few universal maxims in writing but one thing is virtually certain: every character you write is your version of that human being. Confucius said “everywhere I go, there I am,” and that is never more true than when you are writing. So if you are writing a character that is distasteful to you, it might be effective for you to ask yourself why that is the case. I wrote a blog for Obscura last semester titled, “The Puppy Had It Coming.” The gist of the article was to pose a puzzle to writers. How can you write a scene where an adult human kicks a puppy across the room and the reader at least understands why. I am not saying there is any way to justify the action or for the readers to be on the human’s side unless they are sociopaths. I am saying you need let the reader know how dark the place is in the character’s mind that he is capable of doing that.

Rock Reading Tuesdays

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