Final Spooky Fantasy

House of Salt and Sorrows and Tales of the Nightside

I just finished reading the book House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig. Wow, what a good book. I just couldn't put it down. I knew nothing about the book before I started reading it. It was spooky. It was fantastical. It was captivating. I thought I had figured out the entire mystery by the last half of the book and found out I was completely wrong. I love being wrong while reading books like this. 

Craig's world was entirely interesting and the prose read beautifully. I love the idea of gods and humans inhabiting the same world. In a way, that's the feeling I want to evoke in my books, but with dragons and humans inhabiting the same world, both sentient and intelligent but one being terribly powerful. She did spectacular at making it feel normal for the narrator.

The characterization was incredible. I almost loved everyone and the ones I disliked were made to be disliked and I believe it added to the story. There were people I liked at the beginning and hated at the ending and vice versa. Kudos to Craig. She wrote a book that kept me up late into the night and itching to read more of her writing. I haven't read a book like it before and have thought about her world over and over again. Great writing. 

I'm currently reading Tales from the Nightside by Simon R. Green. Green does an incredible job with repetition in his books. In all of the short stories there are sentences repeated that weave a common thread throughout all the different stories and narrators. My favorite stories are the ones that include the private investigator, John Taylor, who, armed with his third eye, can find anything. 

It's a book that makes me shift a lot in my seat and occasionally gasp out loud. It's a great book of short stories and novellas because there will be references to characters from other short stories throughout other stories. It makes the world feel connected and real. 

Final Fantasy X

I'm taking this game very slowly. I love grinding to the point of extending games to be hours longer than they should be. I was disappointed this week because one of the characters I liked before ended up being pretty racist towards a group of people in the game. That makes me sad. But, it was a good choice for the game because it promotes the idea of accepting and loving everyone individually rather than based on their beliefs and ideals. 

Final Fantasy X hits on some hard topics which I think is great to have in a game. It makes me think more. I'm also constantly pleased to see the flawed and struggling characters in the game attempt to make sense of the unjust world they live in. 

Thank you for reading my blog. How do you find books that are like the books you're writing? Have you found any gem of a book or an author at random? Do you think harder topics like racism, sexism, etc. should be in videogames? Why?

Keep dreaming and daydreaming of the beautiful worlds in your head.