Day: April 13, 2013

Short Story Review: Backscatter by Beneford (4 Stars)

Backscatter by Gregory Beneford

4 out of 5 stars

Read in April 2013

Every Wednesday I look forward to the latest short fiction published at Tor’s website.  For the last several weeks I’ve been somewhat disappointed in the offerings.  But this past week, I thoroughly enjoyed my first ever reading experience of Gregory Beneford’s writing.  And I liked it a lot, which spurred me to write a short review and spread the good news about this story in particular, and tangentially Tor’s short story web site.

Science fiction shines in this abbreviated format.  So much impact in such a small space.  And Beneford did not disappoint in character development (both human and non-human).

To read the story for yourself, click on the image above or follow this link:  Backscatter by Beneford

DNF: Touchstone by Rawn

Touchstone by Melanie Rawn

DNF (did not finish)

Attempted to Read in April 2013

I wanted to love this book, like I loved her Dragon Prince series.  I didn’t make it to one hundred pages though.  I couldn’t connect or care about the characters.  I began to wonder if I wasn’t exactly the target audience.  I’m not in the performing arts (although many of my friends and family are).

The magic system also didn’t make sense to me.  Perhaps later in the novel it would become more understandable.  But I kept finding excuses to read just about anything else.  So I gave up.

Perhaps I’ll pick it up again later this year.  Right now, though, I’ve got many other more compelling reads to enjoy.