joseph lyman

This short one took me a bit longer than normal, probably because I am an acquaintence of the author and I wanted to give it some extra attention and leeway where I might otherwise be critical. My review will be brief, regardless.

There's much good to be said about Professor Spindlebrock's Little Blue Book of Traveling Spells. The world-building, characterizations, and even the novelty of magic itself make this quirky and fun. I appreciated the subtlty and realism of the magical effects along with the practicality of the little volume that is a book within a book. The story was well thought out and had me wanting to know what happens next.

The part I struggled with and which I suspect many will find difficult is the amount of "telling" instead of "showing". The entire introduction of the book, really, was an info-dump in the telling style. While we have vingettes of a sort that dive into a particular scene everything still felt colored by that default mode. If I were an editor working with Mr. Lyman on this book I would tell him with thrilled excitement that he has an amazing outline with key scenes flushed out. He should now go and expand out those parts that he's brushing over to bring the whole thing to life that much more. In fact, in doing so I bet he could fit in a B and C plotline that winds through the story as well, giving depth to an otherwise straight-forward affair.

I'm excited to see what he writes next.… (más)