Skip to main content

Fantasy Review: Wake of Vultures


I picked up Wake of Vultures by Lila Bowen from the library on a whim. While this book is much darker than I anticipated, it was an engaging read, and the start to a series that I will definitely be picking up the sequels to. 

Wake of Vultures opens with what could be interpreted as trauma-porn if it was handled with less humor: racism, sexism, assault, with a side of conquest, this book takes a fantastical approach to re-writing the history of the "wild west." For a relatively short book, Bowen combined tropes of epic fantasy and westerns over the classic heroes journey. 

And I loved it. For the last few months (evidenced by the silence on this blog) I've been struggling to stay engaged by a book. Wake of Vultures changed that. I read this book in two days flat. I attribute this to an engaging character that you want to root for and a world that is just slightly familiar that makes you need to know more. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Fall writing update - 2

When I last wrote in September I was working on a zero draft of the Wedding Crown, getting my Monster Girls ready for Pitchwars, and trying to find any sort of enthusiasm for my Brigadoon re-write.  I ended up giving up on Brigadoon. At least for now, the story just wasn't sitting well with me. Maybe I tried to push too many drafts too soon. Instead, I focused on the Monster Girls. I did one full pass of the manuscript, cleaning up the emotional details, making sure the tone was as consistent as I could get it. I felt pretty good about it going into the Pitchwars submission.  Then I spent a weekend hard-core workshopping the first chapter and query with my writing group. And the effort was worth it! I ended up getting one request for a partial, which I was thrilled by. That was my goal this year--if I could get at least a request, I would be happy. That ended up being as far as I went--and for good reason. After the extensive workshopping, I re-read my next few chapters before...

Reading as a Writer: Children of Time

A coworker challenged me to read Children of Time as part of our 2-person sci-fi book club. My heart sank when I opened the cover to read the first line: I'd tried to read this book before as an audiobook on a road trip with my husband the year before. He adored this book and was excited to share it with me, and I couldn't get through a half-chapter without falling asleep.  But, since I'd committed to reading it before realizing which book it was, I sat down to finally read it. And just like my husband suggested, I flew through it. Of course, it did take three mediums to read this--I read the first third in the physical book, then switched to audio book on another road trip, then finished it on e-book during an unexpected train delay. Separate from the experience of reading the book, I felt very lucky to have access to so many different library resources to get me through the finish line! I probably would not have picked this book up if not for the joint cajoling of my hus...

The baby steps do matter

Last week I posted about finishing my first draft of Beekeeper. Over 79 days, I wrote 57,00 words.  What I didn't say was that drafting Beekeeper was the first time in nearly a year where I was drafting something completely new. I'd spent so long revising Predacide that even last year's full draft was largely cobbled together from old scenes, with a handful of new ones scattered in; and unlike in years past I hadn't managed to draft my August short-story.  And surprising no one, writing is hard.  When I first started drafting in January, it felt like pulling teeth to write 100 words. I'd push myself to write 100, then 200, and wonder at how I ever managed a whole month of Nano sessions.  And as much as I hate to say it, every day it got a little easier. Each morning I wrote a little bit more than I did the day before. There were some stops and starts, of course. We went to Vegas to see the Killers, and then certain executive orders began sending shockwaves through m...