Words About Another: Minique Morado (Krillexia Chronicles)

Yes, I'm still procrastinating, but it's not as if I've given up, yet. I feel like I've built up the will to start writing again, and I hope to have Sin Judge Knight finished before the year's over (I actually haven't made any real progress since I got hired) I won't make any promises, but that's what I want to do!

This Words About Another is gonna be weird... and not in the "I'm talking about SRX again" way. Anyway, I've come to you today to introduce you three to yet another writer. Minique Morado. Now, yeah, he has a lot of stuff up there, but for today, let's just focus on one: Krillexia Chronicles, the first book he published through Amazon. (Also, he has told me that this is meant to be the first in a series but if I were you I wouldn't expect a sequel to this anytime soon.)

The description of the book pretty much lets you know what you're getting into. Evil empire takes over the world, yadda yadda yadda, chosen one has to stop him. Granted, Morado here can tell how cliche this premise is and does try to spice it up in his own way, adding in a few curve balls here and there, and lots and lots of comedy, almost to the point of making it an out and out parody. Trust me, that's not a bad thing.

But uh... I can't lie to you guys. I don't want to be too brutal to this guy, but really, in spite of the things he does to make Krillexia Chronicles a fun read, it's not that great. I can't really heap glowing praise on this book like I can some others. It's littered with all kinds of little problems that will eat at you until your enjoyment of the book is damaged. Morado doesn't always use the right punctuation at the end of his sentences, much of the grammar just doesn't seem right, huge walls of text that don't really say much abound and his vocabulary is just plain weird, sometimes using words that probably wouldn't fit too well once you think about it, but he used it anyway he because he thought it sounded cooler and things like that.

And this is just my opinion, but many of the characters in this, while fun to read about at times, can be an absolute pain to read about at others. Roel, our hero, for example, has his moments. I actually like the guy overall, but I couldn't help but feel that almost everything about his character screams "Gary Stu".

And yeah, he kinda is one. I hate using that term, and he's not an especially bad case, but what else am I supposed to call this teenage boy who discovers his existence is central to the fate of the world, gains exceptional skill and rank in far less time and with far less effort than anyone else, and is able to win the hearts of people just by being kind and being the chosen one? None of the other characters have it that bad, but some of the scenes between Roel and Lia, the badass female love interest, made me cringe hard.

So yeah, while it can be fun, Krillexia Chronicles has too many problems for me to strongly recommend it, and I honestly would go ahead and tell you that it wasn't worth reading... if it wasn't for Chapter 16.

This chapter is different from the rest. Spoiler alert, but unlike most of the book, this chapter instead focuses on the villain Dezmith and his close friend Kezzler, the characters from the prologue. I was surprised at first. Throughout the book, Dezmith's character had been getting built up as something Roel wasn't expecting. Still, even when I realized what the chapter was going to be about, I was expecting something like the other chapters, something both intentionally and unintentionally funny (and I admit, it is, in parts), something that would probably end up making me think less of the characters, but no, the chapter almost perfectly nails getting across Dezmith's feelings.

Feelings about following the Evil Emperor because he honestly thinks it's the right thing to do, and seeing this young upstart, Roel, coming out of nowhere, mucking everything up. He's desperate, he's pissed, he has mixed feelings about having to kill someone who is less than half his age, and, feels like he's just as right as he does. He's worried about the citizens he's had to watch over. He worries that the Emperor no longer trusts him...

I'd say it's a legitimately good chapter, to the point that, if not for the occasional bizarre choice of words and a few walls of text, I'd think he had someone else write it. I had liked Dezmith and Kezzler before, but this chapter quite easily boosted them up to my favorite characters in the book. It's surprisingly emotional, and since I already knew Dezmith was gonna die, having read an earlier draft years ago, it just made me feel even more for the guy.

(Spoilers end here.)

So there ya go. Does that sound like it's worth $3 to you? Personally, I'd say give it a shot, and if you don't like it, at least try to make it to Chapter 16 before giving up. I think it's the best part of the book, and kinda wish he could have written like that more often.

The rest of his stories are much simpler, shorter comedy stories that are pretty much just for fun. Oddly enough, they remind me of... SRX's work. More in that they're E S O T E R I C and they have a similar, bizarre sense of humor but Morado's other books have more of a "kid's cartoon" feel to them that I'm too lazy to describe right now. There's a part of me that feels he'd do a good job if he got to make one of those.

Alright, I've said all I can say. Give Krillexia Chronicles a look, give Morado's other stuff a look if you're curious, look forward to Sin Judge Knight. See ya later! 

Hmm. This blog is two years old now, and I don't really have anything to show for it.

I might as well take this opportunity to tell the three of you reading this how things are going.

I have 19 chapters out of a possible 24 of Sin Judge Knight completed. See, my plan, at first, was to have at least the first draft finished by the time this date rolled around, but not only am I just too lazy to have accomplished something like that, by some miracle, someone actually hired me, so I was busy doing things related to that, as well.

Now that I've started working, I actually feel pretty tired once I get home, even though I don't do anything particularly intense at work. I think, for now, what I might do is use my days off to finish the book. After all, it's a part-time job, so I don't have to go there everyday or anything.

I'm so close to the end I can almost taste it... I already have the ending planned out, I just have to get there and it's done. Please look forward to it.

(Ah, I hope someone at least pretends to care. This whole talking to myself thing is getting pretty embarrassing! *laughs*)

A Quick Look At Sin Judge Knight

Well, seeing as it's been a while and Sin Judge Knight is nowhere near done, and I haven't had much to say on this blog, I figured I should have something to show for the fact that I haven't just been sitting here doing nothing. So what I did was pick a passage at random, although I had to make sure it wasn't too spoilerific, and I decided to put it up as a preview of sorts. Kind of give an idea of what it's like and hopefully, entertain whoever's reading this.

Also, this is based on a first draft and is likely to change when I get around to doing a proper revision. If you see a problem, I wouldn't mind if you pointed it out.

---

After leaving the room, I head up to the roof to get my mind off this stuff. Students aren't really supposed to be up there, but the staff doesn't care. A stairway on the third floor will take me to the roof.

“Oh, look who it is.”

I recognize the girl sitting here on the roof, seemingly still half asleep. “'sup, Sasha?”

“I figured you weren't coming up here to skip anymore,” she says, watching as I step closer to the wire fence surrounding the roof. “I guess these last few days actually don't matter, after all, huh, Mr. 3.0?”

“Oh, shut up,” I say, knowing that she's just teasing me.

I look over and realize that she's not fooling around on her phone or playing a game. Instead, she pulls something else out of the pocket of her teal hoodie. Is that a pack of cigarettes? How did she even get them in here? I watch as she takes one out and lights it.

“You smoke?”

I get my answer almost immediately. Not a simple yes or no, but the moment after Sasha brings it to her pink lips and inhales, she starts to cough real bad.

“Ah, holy hell!” She flicks the still burning cigarette out through the fence, to the ground far below. “That fucking burns... Shit!” Sasha starts to rub her chest.

“I guess that's a no.”

“Fuck you. You're not even gonna come see if I'm alright?”

“If you can still say stuff like that, you're probably fine.”

She just frowns.

“Why the hell are you trying cigs, anyway?”

Sasha plays around with her messy, orange hair. “Eh... I was bored.”

“Psh...” Tired of looking out past the fence, I take a seat right where I was standing.

“So, why did you come up here, again?”

I did come up here to get my mind off it, but... “...do you know a guy named Lux Morning?”

“What!?” Sasha covers her mouth after shouting that, suddenly falling silent.

“What kind of reaction is that?”

“Wh—I mean...” She runs her hand down her face. “I mean... what, how could you not know him?” Sasha chuckles a bit. “You're in the same class, right?”

Unable to shake the feeling that she's hiding something, I just say: “That's right, I guess.”

“You guess, huh?”

“Look, man. Seriously, he wasn't in that classroom before. I would have remembered.”

“I dunno, Blake, maybe you just forgot, or something. Happens to the best of us.”

Dammit, I just know something's up. I won't have much luck trying to fish it out of her, though. 

“If you say so.” I let out a sigh. “To think I came up here to get my mind off of it...” I look over at Sasha again and see that she's messing around with her phone, now. “So, you looking forward to summer school?”

“I ain't goin' to summer school, my work is all done,” Sasha says, looking at her phone. “You know, I did actually come in to finish my tests. They were easy.”

That gets me to raise an eyebrow. “If that shit was so easy, why didn't you sit your fat ass down and just power through it in the first place?” I actually don't know if Sasha's fat, by the way. It's hard to tell with the baggy clothes she's always wearing. No matter how many times I call her fat, she never really gets mad, though. “Better than just laying there doing nothing, right?”

“I didn't feel like it, man... What point is there in trying any harder than I already have? Look, you get to move on to the next grade, and so do I. Makes all that effort you put in, taking this shit seriously, look like a waste, huh? Fuck school, you could learn a couple lessons from me.”

I roll my eyes at that. “Sasha, how the hell are you going to survive once we graduate? Dunno about your crazy pretend world, but in my world, the real world, adults work.”

“Who said anything about working? I'm getting someone to do that for me. Like, you know, I'm a girl, see?”

“I hadn't noticed.”

“Well, I'll get married to some rich guy who thinks I'm cute, and just cruise...”

I fight the urge to laugh, but it ends up coming out, anyway. “Ha, so you're getting married straight out of high school, then? Piggybacking off your husband forever?”

By now, Sasha has stopped looking at her phone. Her light blue eyes are just watching the blue sky above. I end up looking up at it, myself. Not a cloud to be seen.

“...yeah, I guess?” After about a minute of silence, she just says that. “But... I don't know. What if I end up with some dude who expects too much from me? Trying to get me to cook for him and shit, asking me why I act like don't love him, asking if we can fuck... he'd probably want some little brat running around, too. Fuck that lame-ass shit.”

Yes, that's right. Behold, Sasha, the girl that is literally too lazy to give a fuck. It's crazy. “Wait, so are you trying to get married or not?”

“I don't know anymore. Maybe if I could get with someone who knows what he's getting into.”

“So, you wanna marry someone, have no love for 'em, and not have to do anything for them?” I ask. “Sounds legit.”

“Hmm, I don't know about no love at all.” Suddenly, I feel her eyes on me. I turn to face her. “Hey, Blake, if we get married...”

“...”

“Would you carry me and promise me I ain't gotta do shit?”

“You're too heavy.”

“What. Come on, man, you're pretty strong, right?”

“Sorry. My arms are like twigs that would snap under your great weight.”

“...shut the hell up.”

We sit there, looking at each other for what has to be about ten seconds.

“...ha, ha!” I let that slip out, realizing that Sasha's started to laugh, herself. We both just sit there, laughing... “Ah, alright, I should go.” I stand up. “Don't wanna spend too much time messing around, after all.”

“See ya. Oh, hey...” Suddenly, Sasha stands up and hands me her cell phone. “Put your number in there.”

I just stare at her, saying nothing.

“Don't take it the wrong way, just... come on, how are we gonna stay in contact over the summer? You're the only person I talk to, anyway. It's just in case I get bored, or something.”

Not willing to argue, I just add my number to her contacts, then walk off. As I leave, Sasha goes back to looking at the sky...

---

Tell me if they cuss too much in this, by the way. The idea was to make them sound like edgy teenagers going through a phase, but I'm worried I might have gone overboard.

Words About Another: George R.R. Martinez (Placeholder's Purgatory) Part... 3-ish? Just Read

Alright. Today I'm gonna talk about Placeholder's Purgatory by George R.R. Martinez (not George R.R. Martin). It's super short and there's not a ton to say about it, so I'll be brief.

This is another weird one, ladies and gentleman... in fact, it seems a bit familiar, in a way. It seems to take another look at the crazy world we live in and make a joke of it, and it's also hard to tell if there's some kind of point, if it's just really strange for its own sake, or if it means to make fun of other works that try to do either.

Surely, this is all starting to sound familiar, right? Maybe just a bit?

Yup, our fellow GRRMartinez here is none other than our favorite madman, Roberto Pinchas, the mind behind The Magnificent Third Rail: A Retrospective which I've talked about before. I don't remember the rationale behind publishing this one under a different name, but if you're confused or something, just trust me. It's the same guy.

That said, should you go into this expecting another Third Rail? Heeeeeeell no. This short "story" (if you can even call it that) is a silly little joke of sorts where religion and bigotry meet the infomercials you'll see on TV if you stay up waaaaaay too late (like I do) which is amusing in its own way, I guess, but it's clear that Third Rail was a bigger effort for him and this is just something else he worked on for the money or just because he was bored. There's something missing, here, though I can't quite put my finger on it.

You know, I'm willing to bet none of you who are reading this are actually going to buy it, but at this moment I kind of have to wonder if it's worth spending money on or not. I mean, if you can find him on the Net, I'm sure SRXmkII/SEXmkII/Roberto/GRRMartinez/HCE/what-the-fuck-ever-he's-calling-himself-at-the-moment will put on a more entertaining shit show for free, but hey, it's only a dollar. I'll leave this one up to you.

Also, you probably read this, expecting me to say something about Sin Judge Knight (even if it was just "still procrastinating")

About that...

Words About Another: WasabiLinus (Forerunner's Odyssey): Part 3

Just takin' it easy, here. I've still been writing, but there have been many distractions, and I don't just mean the stuff I do on the Internet. Like, real life stuff, too. It's a pain when I feel like I'm getting less and less time to focus properly.

But let's talk about something more interesting. You remember this, right? WasabiLinus has finally wrapped up "Part 1", and I have to say, it's been an exciting arc. It's clear that he planned it all out, and, although others might think differently, a good deal of the "amateurish-ness" for lack of better words, seems to be completely gone by this point, which is more than I can say about Young Magic Knight, at least... it's an admirable effort for a new writer.

Seriously, if you're sitting here reading this in the first place, chances are you've got nothing better to do, anyway, so give it a look. All kinds of different characters and enjoyable interactions between them, very fleshed out setting, fun action scenes, a nefarious plot that the heroes unravel by doing some scheming, themselves... it's all very cool and well put together.

Of course, I have my own interest in spreading the word, aside from just finding more people to talk about it with ("Hey, this is an interesting web novel... you know who else writes these things? I do!" *laughs*) Besides that, though, Linus has said he'd appreciate some criticism of his work, since he wants to do this right (I'd do this myself, but the work may have flaws that I've failed to notice and I'm terrible at this kind of thing, anyway), and he's also interested in sharing some lore, so if you decide to check out his stuff and end up having something to say, give him a holler. 

But that's all I wanted to say. Forerunner's Odyssey! Look it up, read it, enjoy yourselves, keep an eye on this guy for when he starts it up again, and I'm sure you won't regret it.

Oh, and on the subject of my own work, don't get too excited for Sin Judge Knight just yet (all three of you are just chomping at the bit to see that, I'm sure) as it's still going slowly, but I have to say I've still been working on it and I'm really liking how it's turning out, so far. This is just me,  so far, but it definitely feels superior to Young Magic Knight, at least. I hope I'm not just imagining that. That'd be really embarrassing!

So, I'm done, for now. Go read Forerunner's Odyssey, and look forward to whatever I have coming next. See you then!

Words About Another: Roberto Pinchas (The Magnificent Third Rail: A Retrospective) Part 2

Heh, you didn't think I'd be able to finish this book without talking about it again, did ya?

As you may have already guessed, we are here again to talk about Roberto Pinchas, and his work, The Magnificent Third Rail: A Retrospective. Now, I did talk about this book in a previous post here, and while I said the story was weird, funny, and unique, I don't think I was able to convey to you three just how fucking wacky this goddamn book is.

I said this book was weird back then, and it is. I remember saying that giving you a synopsis was worthless, and somehow, that becomes more and more true as the book drifts further and further away from what you are initially led to believe is the plot, and it just gets weirder and weirder. The closest thing the book has to a protagonist dies in the prologue. Inanimate objects have chapters to themselves. The narrative tends to be in first-person, present tense, but there are exceptions to this, and some chapters even have the narrator speak directly to you, the reader. There's poems in there, not all of which are even in English. Some passages are concise and to-the-point, while others are oddly verbose and have a tendency to go on bizarre tangents that, due to the nature of the rest of the book, I am forced to assume were completely intentional.

Seriously, I'm not sure how to feel about it, but I am sure of this: had The Third Rail seen a more publicized release, if it had come out in an era where people would be more likely to read it (the past? The future? Who knows?) I can guarantee that there would be a group of hipsters who would unironically embrace Roberto as some sort of eccentric genius. And yet, everyone that knows him (himself included) knows that's not the truth.

That said, looking at it this way, I can only assume that The Magnificent Third Rail is one big, novel-long joke. However, if that's the case, who is the butt of that joke? The aforementioned hipsters in another era who would have figured him out to be some kind of misunderstood talent who the unwashed masses just didn't "get"? The hipsters who, by some chance, will find him now and say the same thing? The publishing companies who rejected him? The ignorant masses who mindlessly devour derivative, assembly line-esque, mass produced crap, never moving out of their comfort zone? Me, who is sitting here overthinking it? 21st Century society as a whole? Some combination of those? All of them? None? Do any of you know? Email me if you know. Post a comment on this webpage if you know.

Because, if I'm being honest with you, I don't know. I really, really, really don't know.

And for real, I'm willing to bet that it's really just nothing, but for some goddamn reason that just makes me overthink it even more. As I said before, The Third Rail will likely appeal to those with a certain mindset who could come to believe that Roberto was some kind of wise man who knew the secret to the meaning of life and hid it away in this strange, strange book. However, again, this most definitely isn't the case. But then, if there is no meaning to it all, then I realize that there's no point to asking the only question the book left me with:

Why?

I can't quite explain it, but there are so many things in this book that just made me want to ask: "why?" The material, for various different reasons, provokes the desire to question it, and yet, I know, for a fact, that there is no answer. However, that "why?" is still there, in my mind, waiting to be spoken. I hold it back, once again, knowing it'd be useless to ask.

Yet still, The Third Rail provokes me, drawing out that question with every page I read...

So why did I keep reading The Magnificent Third Rail even after realizing that there wasn't really any meaning to it all, and it might as well have been the same as reading Roberto Pinchas' posts on the Internet or something? Hm... would you accept "I had fun" as an answer? Because, beyond all that silly shit I wrote up there, the book is just oddly entertaining and if you read it, you'll likely want to keep going, if only to see what the hell else this guy pulls out of his head and puts to paper.

So, if you're reading this, go ahead to that Amazon link up there and click to Look Inside. If you like what you see, I'm sure you won't be disappointed if you spend $4 to read the rest of it. Or, if you're one of those who prefer physical and have a bit of extra money to burn, you could buy a paperback copy, instead. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Oh, and yeah, I've been procrastinating for a while, but I've still been making some progress. Sin Judge Knight is about half-way done (this isn't a One Piece thing where I'm just saying that, either. The way I have the story planned out, I do believe I'm half of the way through it) and I'm liking how it's shaping up, so far. Hopefully I'll be able to show it in a reasonable amount of time.

...but yeah, go read Third Rail.

Words About Another: WasabiLinus (Forerunner's Odyssey): Part 2

Hello again.

Now, this time I'm not here because I'm just procrastinating. I've actually been working on something and I hope I get to show you before we all die.

Anyway, I'm here again to talk about Forerunner's Odyssey. Made by WasabiLinus, set in a fantasy world, blah blah blah I told you this already.

As I predicted, Linus's writing has improved over time, as he's gained more and more experience. That's not really important right now, though. What I'm saying is that he's thought up this setting and has an interesting story to tell in it, but he won't be able to show you everything in it. At least for now, he is focusing on telling a story, rather than fleshing out his world, but he still wants to share some details and stuff with the audience, so he came up with an alternative.

This poll. You have four options to choose from (and I personally chose the second) but if there's something else, then you can choose "Other" and write in a topic that interests you.

So, if that sounds interesting, go ahead and vote. Unless you haven't been reading Forerunner's Odyssey, in which case... why haven't you!? Like I said, it's been getting better and is worth a look. Definitely check it out at some point if you haven't.