Lessons From Bad Writing
Writing
It’s been five years since I tore apart the prologue of Eragon. The critique clearly holds a special place in everyone’s hearts, whether it’s the Eragon fanragers who are still frothing at the mouth or the Mythcreants regulars who are still laughing. While I can’t … read more »
Writing
The Witcher book series, written by Andrzej Sapkowski and translated to English by Danusia Stok, started a popular video game franchise and now a popular TV show on Netflix too. I’ve seen the first season of the show, so that gives me some story context … read more »
Writing
I got a request for Maximum Ride, so here we are with The Angel Experiment, the first book in this bestselling series by James Patterson. By the title and the cover, we can assume the main character is an angelic young white woman. The chapters … read more »
Writing
You asked me to critique The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, so here we are. What will win: this award-winning, best-selling, critically acclaimed book, or my dislike of practically everything? Read on to see! While I usually record my first reactions to a … read more »
Writing
This post-apocalyptic YA novel by James Dashner spawned not only bestselling sequels but also a movie series. A bad movie series, I hear, but they star Dylan O’Brien (aka Styles), so how bad could they be? I think the cover art is gorgeous, but I’m … read more »
Meta
Mythcreants has numerous posts examining the terrible, awful, vivid, and even fantastic writing of various books and short stories. However, we’ve never analyzed this particular post, Lessons From the Terrible Writing of This Post. That is unfortunate, because this post contains enough terrible writing to … read more »
Writing
As soon as I spotted the cover for Jonathan Renshaw’s Dawn of Wonder, The Wakening, I knew this was the book to critique. “Dawn of Wonder” is already dramatic sounding, and adding “The Wakening” pushes it into melodrama. It doesn’t help that these words border … read more »
Writing
Last year, Handbook for Mortals by Lani Sarem cheated its way to the top of the New York Times YA bestseller list. It wasn’t #1 for long, though. Observers quickly noticed how strange it was that a book no one had heard of by a … read more »
Writing
Gather round, ye speculative fiction fans. It is time for another critique post. Last time, I reached into spec fic’s distant past and dredged up A Spell for Chameleon, but today I take on a more modern offering: The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. I … read more »
Writing
On the cover of Tiger’s Curse is a white tiger giving me an intense blue stare. I think it knows I’m about to critique its book, and it does not approve. Still, I can’t help but appreciate the tasteful graphic design and gentle pattern overlay … read more »
