/lit/ - Literature

>>21565496
Did You Read The News? - Jack Merwin (2021)

Did You Read The News? is an ambitious self-published book that tries to accomplish a lot in relatively few pages, but unfortunately the author isn't quite able to follow through, which is especially evident near the end where both the pacing and melodrama really ramp up. The speed and unevenness of the latter parts of the book are like a runaway train on a coastal mountain that went off the tracks and is now soaring through the air until it makes quite the splash. It would've been better for me instead if it had proceeded at a leisurely pace and took in the scenery. Much of the early parts are about the character's daily life as everything changes around him for the worse, or at least for the different, and he doesn't quite understand why at first.

This is science fiction, though that's mostly to establish the setting. I don't know that I'd quite call it social science fiction, but it's close. Romance plays a significant role, but this isn't a romance book. Possibly the closest description would be that it's a book about coming of age in a collapsing dystopia filled with ethnic conflict and how to survive that regardless of the costs. Horrific and ugly decisions are made out of malice, ignorance, or simply wanting to survive. This isn't misery porn though because it doesn't delight in its tragedies, but rather presents them as The Way Things Are Now.

Almost the entire book takes place in a single city on an outer world whose colonization was supported by all three members of the Triumvirate, the ultimate authorities of humankind. They reminded me of the Ekumen in Ursula K. LeGuin's Hainish Cycle if they were instead short-sighted, ineffective, and created various problems for themselves without realizing, or perhaps not caring. The usual sort of world powers stuff.

The story follows a young man throughout the course of his life, which when considering the length of this book has to be by necessity rather condensed. The ambiguous ages and chronology in general are a sticking point for me. At the start he's naïve and thoroughly indoctrinated in ideals not dissimilar from North Korea's Juche or other variants of Marxism-Leninism. Those ideals entirely suffuse their society which provides for a somewhat different perspective than usual. The narrative is presented in first person present which ought to allow for more understanding of the protagonist, but his inner thoughts and commentary don't add much. His actions are far greater than anything else and story may suffer for the closeness of its perspective.

This was better than I expected from an author's self-published debut, considering how unknown it is. If it had maintained its highest level of quality I could recommend it with some reservations, but as it is, I can't. I don't regret reading it though and I'm open to giving the author another chance, which is more than I can say for a lot of other authors.

Rating: 2.5/5

In the spirit of July being Self-Published book month. I wanted to just shill my own self-published Science-Fiction book here and see if people are willing to take a gander and tell me their thoughts.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57327170-did-you-read-the-news
It's on KDP select, and also has physical and e-book options. If someone throws an email I'd be happy to gift an E-book. I want peoples honest opinions. If I'm gonna shill, I don't wanna shill for praise I don't deserve.

>>19605672
>>19605673
>so what was the title of the book in question? it's hard to make any opinion about it when we don't know what it's about.
Pic related. I didn't want to come off as asking a question when really it was just an attempt at shilling.
I guess my two questions for what I wrote are: Did I write mindless edgy shit that's soulless, or did I have something to say. I re-read it from time to time and there are moments I still like. I feel confident in what I wrote, even if it's not perfect. But that critique from Writer's Digest shook me up a bit.
My second question is: Was there just no way this was ever going to get published? I'm working on my second novel and I'm thinking about reaching out to an agent once more, but I don't know if it's worth the trouble to go through that process again.

>>17802848
>>17802887
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57327170-did-you-read-the-news
>My knuckles crack against his face as the momentum of the swing slams him down onto the concrete of the playground. Before he has time to bounce back up, I drop my knees onto his arms and pin his elbows down. I grab his short brown hair and twirl it around my fingers to get a better grip as I yank him forward, bringing his nose right up against the crotch of my shorts.
>“I swear if you ever make her cry again, I’ll give you a real beating!” I snarl as I let him linger in this humiliating posture for a few moments before I get up and let him rise slowly. My glare turns into a grin as he sulks at me, wanting to start a row with me but hesitating. He’s not scared, but he knows who my father is. Any thrashing I can give him in a scrap would be so much worse from his own dad once he heard whose son his boy had tussled with. With a scowl, he walks back to two other boys as I spit on the ground where he was standing.
>I huff and walk back to where she is sitting on the edge of the slide, wearing a bright blue dress and a black bow tied around her head and set at an angle. With her dress alone, she stands out from the cloudy sky and the concrete buildings of the city. Her skin is bronze like all Daltons, and her hair is dark blackand cut short above her neck. She reminds me of the first dot of paint I put on a sketch in art class. I want to tell her that, but I don’t think she’d like it very much, even though I mean it in a nice way.
>I plop down next to her on the slide and put an arm around her as she sniffles and wipes away her tears. Her eyes are like all Daltons: black. The irises are only a shade lighter than her pupils, but it’s enough that it’s hard to notice if I’m not looking. All the other kids say that Dalton eyes are creepy, but I think they look cool on her, on Krasna.