Saturday, September 5, 2009
And Now For Something Different...
Recently I signed on to the Bright Hub as a writer for the MMO channel. My first article, City of Heroes: Choosing your First Archetype, gives some hints for new players regarding their first character in City of Heroes. If you have any interest in checking out the game, or are even just curious about my article, please check it out.
Review of Castle Freeman Jr.'s All That I Have
In my ramble I mentioned that the Fantasy genre is not my favorite style of writing, however I failed to talk about what does fit that bill. Well, part of the reason for not naming names is because I’m not sure what exactly to call the ‘genre’ I like besides reflective fiction, or fiction that uses a memoir-like narrative voice. Another reason why I didn’t mention the type of book I enjoy the most is because it’s better to give an example of a story than to simply state ‘I like this.’ This would, of course, give me the opportunity to give specific reasons as to why I found the work so enjoyable. Well, I just so happen to have found such a book in Castle Freeman Jr.’s All That I Have.
All takes place in rural Vermont and centers around the life of Sheriff Lucian Wing. With a history that involves losing his father to a war, becoming involved in one himself, and signing on to become a state trooper, he leads somewhat of a backwards trail towards this low waged, elected, public office. However, it is clear from the beginning that he enjoys the life he lives and doesn’t have too many regrets.
What makes All so good, however, isn’t the path Wing took to becoming a Sheriff, but rather how that path helps him deal with the variety of people he meets and has to live with. Even from the first page it’s clear that Wing has a very laid back attitude towards life by casually introducing the outcomes of fights with his wife by describing her ‘morning back.’ In six sentences he describes what exactly the back means in such a clear and informative way that it instantly holds the capability of becoming a recurring, inside joke which supports, and punctuates Wings relationship with his wife as well as his views on what he calls ‘sheriffing.’ This style of easily introducing the reader to inside colloquial terms and jargon builds, throughout the story, in such a comfortable and unique way that when Mr. Freeman later returns to these descriptions there is no need to re-establish their meaning.
The story itself begins with the announcement of a ‘new’ male and moves on to a breaking and entering case. With richly developed characters that each have unique personalities, interests, hopes, and aspirations, which meld together almost seamlessly, Mr. Freeman writes a tale that attempts at unimportance, and almost succeeds. In the end even the characters you’re supposed to hate have lovably redeeming qualities that keep the story realistically innocent. Without ever overtly trying to do anything in particular, Mr. Freeman accomplishes a great deal with All That I Have by keeping the story simple and straightforward, which all amounts to my recommendation that you read this book.
Freeman Jr., Castle. All That I Have. New Hampshire: Steerforth Press, 2009.
All takes place in rural Vermont and centers around the life of Sheriff Lucian Wing. With a history that involves losing his father to a war, becoming involved in one himself, and signing on to become a state trooper, he leads somewhat of a backwards trail towards this low waged, elected, public office. However, it is clear from the beginning that he enjoys the life he lives and doesn’t have too many regrets.
What makes All so good, however, isn’t the path Wing took to becoming a Sheriff, but rather how that path helps him deal with the variety of people he meets and has to live with. Even from the first page it’s clear that Wing has a very laid back attitude towards life by casually introducing the outcomes of fights with his wife by describing her ‘morning back.’ In six sentences he describes what exactly the back means in such a clear and informative way that it instantly holds the capability of becoming a recurring, inside joke which supports, and punctuates Wings relationship with his wife as well as his views on what he calls ‘sheriffing.’ This style of easily introducing the reader to inside colloquial terms and jargon builds, throughout the story, in such a comfortable and unique way that when Mr. Freeman later returns to these descriptions there is no need to re-establish their meaning.
The story itself begins with the announcement of a ‘new’ male and moves on to a breaking and entering case. With richly developed characters that each have unique personalities, interests, hopes, and aspirations, which meld together almost seamlessly, Mr. Freeman writes a tale that attempts at unimportance, and almost succeeds. In the end even the characters you’re supposed to hate have lovably redeeming qualities that keep the story realistically innocent. Without ever overtly trying to do anything in particular, Mr. Freeman accomplishes a great deal with All That I Have by keeping the story simple and straightforward, which all amounts to my recommendation that you read this book.
Freeman Jr., Castle. All That I Have. New Hampshire: Steerforth Press, 2009.
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