Posted on by Caitlin Sumner

Shepherd – Book Recommendations

A few months ago I was contacted with a request to write a book recommendations list.

This was both interesting and exciting and I have to say I’m still squealing over it a little bit. This is the first thing I have done that was from an outside source, ie. someone contacted me, not the other way around. Something about it makes me feel like a real live author!

I know it sounds odd, but I also know there are a lot of people out there who are the same as me, who look at their accomplishments and don’t really see it as much special, and that’s probably the hardest part about doing what we do, is thinking it isn’t really much but when people see it from the outside it really is a huge achievement. I just wish I felt prouder of what I’ve done and what I’ve written.

A quick update for those of you who are waiting on paperbacks as well, I’m afraid winter got to me. I’m almost done(!) with the smaller (186 pages) book and then it’s back to the bigger (400+ pages) for the readthrough and checks before I’ll submit it for being put out there as a hard copy.

At that time, I will also be publishing something new that goes with the series. But, we’re not really here to talk about that.

We’re here to talk about this really cool list I wrote! And this really cool website that when I started going through I recognized authors I look up to and now I’m a part of that and whaaattt?? It’s so cool!?

I wanted to do this fancy thing that embedded a preview of the page, but apparently you need plugins for that so have a screenshot and a link instead. Be sure to check out more than just my list too, because there are a lot of lists and so many authors have contributed and so many topics!

The best historical fiction books you can’t put down

Stay safe!

Caitlin

Posted on by Caitlin Sumner

Now out!

I’m going to start again with: What have they done to wordpress?????

So, that aside, I have finally finished the arduous task of going through and cleaning up my first novel, Alexander’s Lost General. During that time I also wrote companion novels! One out of the three has been published and I hope (fingers crossed) to have the other two published by the end of the year (one of the remaining two is actually finished, but it’s 4th in the sequence).

These are both on Kindle, as they were self published, with no plans at the moment for paperbacks…we’ll see. Maybe in a few months, or when they’re all published.

Quite frankly I pushed to get these done this summer because I’m having to move and start new work, so I wanted it out of the back of my mind, but I really shouldn’t just let it drop, I should post about them and share them and do all those social media things that I should do. I really should…we’ll see if I do.

Happy reading, whatever you may be reading, because no matter what happens, books are good for the soul.

Much love to all

Caitlin

Posted on by Caitlin Sumner

The Powder Mage Trilogy – Review

Warning: This review/ramble will contain spoilers for all three books.

Where do I even start talking about these books?

(Now, I don’t normally do book reviews, or talk at length about things I’ve read, so if I stumble a bit, please forgive me. I’m refining as I go, and usually writing these over the course of a few days.)

Several years ago, I won’t admit how many, I spotted the cover for the first book in a Barns & Noble somewhere, and I was in a shopping phase so I would browse a store, take a picture of a book, and keep it for later. I’ve tried to add most of those to lists but there is still an entire photos folder on my phone just of books.

The cover caught my eye, as they usually do. I am not a ‘don’t judge a book by it’s cover’ kind of person, I am all about the cover. I liked the look, I liked the uniforms, and I liked the quote. I was intrigued. Fast forward to sometime early last year when they came up on my kindle, I suspect on sale or special offer. Somehow I ended up with all three of them in my kindle, and then I went up to Scotland for a few days and went camping, so no internet, limited phone service, brought my tablet specifically for reading. (I don’t own an actual kindle, never have.)

I read all three books, some 1700+ pages, in under two weeks. I haven’t been so sucked into a set of books in years. That’s not entirely true, I read the first of Brent Weeks’ Shadows trilogy in a day, but that was because I was stuck sitting around with literally nothing to do, couldn’t go anywhere, no access to phone or anything. And I loved those too, but the speed was out of necessity. I do need to read them again because I missed a lot reading that fast.

Anyway. I started Promise of Blood on May 24th, and I finished Autumn Republic on June 2nd. So, 9 days in total. My second read through at the end of the year took about a month all told. Though, that was largely because I would read for 4 hours one day and then not read again for a week. I read one of them in two days, again.

(As a note I have the sequel trilogy, Gods of Blood and Powder, I just haven’t had a long enough span of time to sit down and start, because I know how I’ll get sucked in. They’re sitting on my dresser waiting for my attention.)

What I think I first found so interesting was, of course, the idea of a connection between gunpowder and magic. As a Sagittarius with pyromaniacs tendencies (I once took apart a handful of sparklers, put the resulting powder in a jar and threw in a match ((To be fair that is actually my most interesting moment, and my only story)) and ran. It was awesome) I absolutely love the idea of being able to have an awareness of gunpowder and do things like change the direction of a blast, not to mention just setting it off with your mind. Then of course the story dragged me in.

I don’t often see books where there is truly more than one main character. Usually you have strong supporting characters, but Taniel and Tamas really are both the main character in these books. There is of course the Inspector as well, but for me he is the strong secondary.

The image of the world is fascinating, being built up slowly around all the action. Promise of Blood just dives right in and you find out more about the land and the Nine as you go along. I have to admit, I didn’t like Tamas at first, but by the end of Autumn Republic…there might have been a tear or two.

I love how all the characters interacted, I loved that events jumped ahead by days or weeks but you didn’t feel like you missed anything. In my own writing I’ve always had an issue with time flow and feeling like large jumps are disconcerting and hard to follow, and I’m still trying to learn how to avoid that. I also enjoyed how the events jumped all over the map, but I suspect, having looked at the map, and the more detailed map of the Nine in Sins of Empire, I probably have all the directions and things backwards in my head.

One thing I look for in a book is if it feels -real-. I’m not sure how to go into more detail than that because like art, reality is an abstract concept to each person based on their perception (go away Plato) so that’s the only word I have. But I suppose I mean, I feel like I could step into the world and happily live there. I find that more with history than with fantasy books but there have been several that have caught my attention like that and these books are one of them.

My only disappointment has been that some of the companion stories don’t appear to be available online anymore. I have ready every one I can get my hands on but I know I’m missing at least two, and I hope that someday they resurface somewhere. For now I’m just going to continue enjoying what I’ve got.

To everyone reading, I would like to say thank you for sticking with me to the end of this post and if you haven’t read these books, go look for some more reviews. If I didn’t convince you, someone else just might, and I think they’re very worth being convinced.

Until Next Time

Caitlin