Tuesday, April 23, 2013

On/Off - Some new pirate poetry

Well as some of my followers might know I have recently joined the masses of mentally plagued and medicated little girls. Therefore I have not been capable of reading or writing much as of late. Don't feel sad however, I'm still here and today I have a delectable little treat for all of you. It is a brand spanking new poem I have written that I hope you will enjoy. Three guesses what it's about? Seriously what do you think is the intent behind my words?

Leave your cleverly crafted theories in the comment section!


On/Off

I can be charming like Cleopatra
brave like Joan of Arc
passionate like Marie Curie
and my smile can break your heart

And as if that was not enough
there are a million things you
still don't know about me..yes
I'm a tasty little cream puff
made up of all the right stuff

I can be artistic like Marie Antoinette
free like Amelia Earhart
dedicated like Florence Nightingale
my personality is state of the art

Oh, and did I mention my
consuming mental illness?
I'm sorry dear was that too much
forget my indiscretion we wouldn't
want you to get the wrong impression...

(c) Anita K. Olsen Stoebakk

Cheers mateys,
Anita, the literary pirate.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest - Book review

I wasn't really sure if I would like Boneshaker when I first started the book. I had never read anything by Cherie Priest before and I had not read a proper Steampunk novel before either (even though I love Steampunk in general). I'm usually more into classic epic fantasy writers like David Eddings, Terry Brooks and Raymond E. Feist. I very often have a problem with more modern authors, what can I say, I'm an old fashioned gal...well, sort of.

So with a skeptical mind I delved into the story of Briar Wilkes and her son Zeke and was pleasantly surprised. The concept of the blight gas-affected and walled in town of Seattle sets a grim and exciting backdrop for the adventure. Briar lives a hard life hardly getting by with the money she earns from her job.
 Her deceased husband  Leviticus Blue was responsible for unleashing the blight gas that has turned Seattle into a ghost town filled with shambling undead things. Her son keeps asking questions about his father and his grandfather and Briar doesn''t know how to handle it. When Zeke heads into Seattle to find answers to his questions Briar has no choice but to follow him in there on a mad dash quest to get him back.

After reading this book I found that Priest has written characters that I actually care about (This is one of my Litmus tests, if I don't care about the characters it's not a good book). I found myself nervously reading on at times just to make sure that the characters survived whenever they were in danger. At some points I thought I could predict the next twist in the story, but most of the time I was actually surprised about where things ended up. I realize that Priest has taken some liberties with historical facts in this book, but the world feels very real and believable to me, and the people that inhabit it are complex and flawed, just the way I like it!
The language of the book is very good and the dialogs between the characters doesn't seem artificial and bland like they sometimes do in fiction.

Bottom line, I would highly recommend this book if you're into Steampunk, dysfunctional relationships and Zombie afflictions!
I'm definitely going to read the rest of the series at some point, when I have cleared a few more titles of my reading list. So many books, so little time you know.


(c) Anita K. Olsen Støbakk