Storytime Sunday - Blue Moon Rising By Simon R Green

Hello and welcome to Storytime Sunday; the day of the week where I try out the reviewing of a book, and then hope that I didn't spoil anything overmuch.

The book cover is probably the property of Simon Green or whoever published the book. I'm not sure which. (also, notice there's a unicorn in the art... Teehee.

As always, my want for adventure has me ever wanting to try new things. As a result, I decided I would like to do one of my typical informal reviews of the book "Blue Moon Rising" By Simon R Green, which was suggested to me by an absolutely wonderful person I met recently. I'll try not to spoil it.

Blue Moon Rising a medieval fantasy story written by Simon R Green which follows the story of the Prince Rupert, Princess Julia, A Dragon and the character that effectively sold me on this book, Prince Ruperts trusty  yet sharp-tongued unicorn steed in the lands of the "Forest Kingdom". (Seriously, a talking unicorn with a keen wit. What more reason do you need to read a book?)

First and foremost, I suppose I should say that this is actually is rather good book. I am a frequent reader of books, but am notorious for putting off my finishing of them if they do not interest me sufficiently. I finished Blue Moon Rising's 377 pages in roughly 3 days, beside all my usual blog writing and my other strange machinations. So take it that the book is fun, unique and original enough to keep my interest firmly held. (Seriously, when you say one more page at 11PM and find yourself reading at 3AM, it's probably a good book... or you're an insomniac.)

With that in mind, I'm going to attempt to describe the aspects I liked about the book, namely the aforementioned fun, originality and uniqueness. When Simon Green wrote this book, I find it highly likely that he was as tired of the same, worn out tropes in fantasy novels and stories as I am. Between pointedly discarding the idea of a perfect knight riding on a majestic quest to slay a dragon, to having a dragon who's horde is nothing more than a collection of butterfly's, it's clear that he was enjoying breaking all the tropes that are commonly found in stories which revolve around a character going on a quest to rid the land of evil.

Perhaps something that further lends itself to the book, the characters themselves are very much outside of what I would refer to as "Cookie Cutter" in terms of personality, with each character feeling well established and motivated. Perhaps a work of effort or talent, but no character feels like someone you would have read about or thought of in another story, lending an aspect of unpredictability to their actions which makes reading further all the more enjoyable.

And of course, creativity goes a fair way into making this book fun to read, while perhaps nowhere as complicated as reading The Tale Of The Malazan Book Of The Fallen, enough effort has been put into creating a new mythos and history for this book to use in it's world, making it that much more interesting to read as you learn about the events that made the land into what it is, and the characters into who they are.

As such, all in all, Blue Moon Rising is a fairly entertaining book with some interesting twists, a fair deal of fun and humour, a good style of writing that left little feeling under or overdone, and a talking unicorn. Despite some occasional pacing issues, Simon Green is sure to have you enraptured with this tale of magic, friendship, love, and more than a few cheeky nods towards common tropes in fantasy novels and stories. (And a smart mouthed unicorn. You cannot forget him.) I would highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys fantasy stories, or simply books in general.

In any case, I hope that you have perhaps found something new and fun to read now, or perhaps enjoyed finding out what I thought of the book. (Teehee) If you enjoyed the review, and would like to see me do more like it, make sure to tell me so in the comments section below, or over Facebook and Twitter as some like to do. If you have any bookworm friends who need something new to read, perhaps consider sharing this review with them so that they can perhaps also enjoy Simon Green's lovely stories (And the unicorn. Very important!).Of course, if you would like to see more articles like this written by me, be sure to like my Facebook page and/or follow me on Twitter so that you can get the latest articles, as I post them. Regardless of what you do, I thank you very much for taking the time to read this; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again tomorrow.

Farewell my friends.

Random Subject Saturday - Blogging Music (DjVick, ElectroDanceMovement, Others)

Hello and welcome Random Subject Saturday; the day of the week where I tell you what I listen to while writing on this blog, and where to find it if you're so inclined.

Yes... I made the "DJVick" text out of alignment just to drive you crazy... Image is a screenshot of https://www.youtube.com/user/DJVickOfficial

A lot of people have been asking me to talk about music... Truth be told, I'm not sure what I can really say on the subject, apart from perhaps what I listen to while I'm writing these blog posts. So I'm going to talk about some "Blogging Music" that I listen to each day while I write for this blog.

Blogging is not exactly an easy task. You have to figure out what you're going to say or talk about, try not sound boring, make sure that the blog looks good and is interesting to see, and mainly, put your nose to the grindstone and actually sit and type the posts out. For some people, that is somewhat easy I suppose, but I find the prospect of sitting behind a desk for long periods of time painful these days, and only mainly bearable thanks to what I fondly refer to as "Blogging Music" these days.

While perhaps somewhat strange (like myself), I've got a bunch of songs and mixes of music from YouTube arranged into playlists that I listen to while I blog. Two of the largely featured YouTube channels in the Mixes category are DJVick and ElectroDanceMovement quite simply because they have hour long sets of good music that can help me ignore the fact that I've been sitting in one place for an extensive period. (That's not a great thing with me. I'm a very active person. Imagine bottling up a Jackrabbit that's just been fed Redbull and Speed inside a tennis ball tin. That's me.) You can find the youtube playlist of these mixes that I listen to here: Mixes

The other one is something that is a bit more painful to add to, simply because it requires me to find each song individually, but on the other hand, it's a good representation of my music tastes if you're interested in that for some strange reason. Everything from Lana Del Rey, to Demon Hunter, to Cherry Kab and tons others can be found in this playlist. (There was some Taylor Swift at one point, but she got irritating. Teehee)

If you would like to go and listen to this random assortment of songs, you can find them here: Music

Admittedly, sitting behind a desk for long periods still freaks me out pretty badly despite the music, but it makes it somewhat better, so hey. And nothing good has ever been gotten easily, so I'm still more than happy to bash away on my keyboard to provide you guys with something to read each day. (And hopefully enjoy.)

In any case, so now the subject of music has been spoken on. You can stop nagging now. If you want to tell me that I listen to crap music, or wish to thank me for the playlists, you can do so in the comments below or on my Facebook or Twitter pages which you can like and/or follow using the associated buttons on the bar to the right. Also, don't forget to share this with some friends who need good music playlists I guess. I add new stuff to those every so often, and enough people have listened to them to make think they aren't all bad. I could be wrong... Regardless, I thank you for taking the time to read this article; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again tomorrow.

Keep rocking my friends.