I was ill last week and glad to have some reviews to share.
Well, this week I feel better, but I’m still also glad to have some more reviews to share!
Hazel is still going strong. Oh, I’m not selling hundreds a day or thousands a week, but I am selling a pretty steady number that I’m not quit ready to estimate until she’s been out three full months. The good news is that the sales are also yielding reviews, and that’s fantastic.
As always, if you’ve tried some of my work (even it you hated it), I’d be grateful if you’d be kind enough to leave a rating and review on all the bookish places. It means a lot. We’re coming up on the end of the year, which means the State of the Weech is coming and some other general news. So we’ll see if things calm down enough this week to allow for more news-based posts on Saturdays. Until then,
I’m going to talk about last week’s comic convention in a few weeks. For now, I just wanted to quickly share with you this kind five-star review for Hazel.
Hazel is still doing wonderfully (by my standards), and I’m hopeful any of you who tried it will be kind enough to leave a review in Goodreads, Amazon or both.
I’m always thankful for you all. This post was quick and short, even for a review post, but we’ll be back on track after the holiday.
First, let me please thank you for the reception Hazel has received thus far. Even as I type this, things are looking good. I don’t know if we’ll hit our goal, but things are already going pretty darn well. But I’ll have more on that next week. For now, what I do have are some reviews for Hazel and one for Bob.
Since we only have one for Bob, let’s start with that.
Such a great book! Felt like a trilogy all wrapped into one book. So much heart put into this book and I can’t wait to get my hands on the other ones. This book has it all and takes you through a full range of emotions. Highly recommend picking this one up!
As for Hazel, well she has two reviews. Check out this four star review and this five star review. Neither of them have a lot of words, but I promise they both have a ton of value. If you’ve read Hazel in some form or another (or any of my books), we’d appreciate a rating and review. Also, if you haven’t tried Hazel out, maybe these reviews will inspire you to check it out.
Spoiler free summary: In White Sand Volume 3 by Brandon Sanderson, everything comes to a head as Kenton fights for the title of Lord Mastrell. He must earn the respect of his peers, preserve his guild, and discover the reason for the murder of his clan.
Character: I appreciated Kenton’s progression here as a rebellious son to one who better understands his father. That might even be my favorite part of this trilogy, but that’s actually a bad thing. The final fight was pretty cool. I’ll mention more about that below. I think I saw a bit more development from some of the other characters, but my issue is with one of the side characters. He has a pretty big shift in the story, and I didn’t really feel like it was natural. He had a very minor role though (in a manner of speaking), so it didn’t have that big of an impact on my opinion. It was just something worth noting.
Exposition: I think this is where the exposition was the roughest. There was a lot of data to share, and it either came up in exposition/narrative boxes or in dialogue that was a bit more Scooby Doo than I would have liked (see below).
Worldbuilding: Most of the worldbuilding was established in the previous volume. There’s a bit of a reveal here that I thought was interesting, and the political reveal (which is an aspect of worldbuilding) was believable if not satisfying.
This portrait of Mr. Sanderson was taken from his About page on his website for review purposes under Fair Use doctrine.
Dialogue: So the aforementioned Scooby Doo. There really was a scene here were the Kenton calls someone out, and the guy gives a speech very akin to a villain’s Scooby Doo speech. The only thing missing was, ” … and I would have gotten away with it, too.” That one scene was certainly a bit corny, but the bulk of the dialogue was crisp and witty. It might have been enough to bring the quality down a few pegs, but it didn’t ruin the whole story.
Description: This was probably the place where the graphic novel adaptation was at its best. Sure, there were other scenes that looked cool to see in the other volumes, but the pace and style of this final volume. That fight was cool to watch, and the scenery and scope was brought to life as well.
Overall: I think I’m being unfair, but I can’t help it. I’m used to epic storylines with vivid description that lets me play the movie in my head. I’m used to prose and style that pull me along. I’m used to deeper plots that let me get to know a character, and this format just doesn’t allow for that. But, if I were being fair, I wouldn’t have bought this graphic novel if it wasn’t Sanderson and Cosmere, so I wanted something that felt like one of the other Cosmere books. Maybe I just wish it was a longer series. Maybe I wish the plot wasn’t centered around political intrigue (the assassins and sand magic were tertiary devices at most). It’s not a bad story; it’s just not what I love about Sanderson’s other work. I think fans of the Cosmere should still pick it up to know what happened and get to know the magic system, but it’s not his strongest story.
M.L.S. Weech 