It is a spamming kind of day. For good reason.
I am not renowned for my patience. It is why I am a terrible shopper. I have an idea, I go buy it, end of story. I don't weigh the consequences or stand for half an hour making comparisons. I just buy (providing I can afford it).
So when it came to having a book published, I am not at all sure what I expected. Not 'instant fame' for sure. I am not enough of an egotist for that. But when you look through other books and see all the reviews and you see none or few on yours you start to wail like a child. "Where's mine!" Words like 'what am I doing wrong' 'Why does no one lovemeeeeeeeee" etc etc, you get the idea.
I whined a little bit, I admit it, while I seethed internally at the sheer amount of competition, and I hadn't a hope in hell of getting anywhere. Que hand against brow and cries of woe is me!
I should have had patience and that belief in myself that I talked about. Belief in myself and the words on the page. When I get reviews like this: (And yes I have posted it in full because I am So Damned Proud of my little book.)
Tali Spencer's review
Mar 12, 13
5 of 5 stars
Recommended for: Lovers of deep, complex books; readers who enjoy
culture clash
Read in March, 2013
I read some early chapters of this book a few years ago as a beta reader,
but never read the finished book until now. Those few chapters made a vivid
impression and I was happy to see my memory wasn't embellishing the story: Games
of Adversaries really is a vivid tale of harsh survival and lessons learned the
hard way.
Both main characters suffer for their arrogance. Yiahan truly believes he is
more evolved than the humans he meets after his spaceship crashes on an
isolated, primitive world already reeling from an unimaginable (to them) attack
from space. Yiahan is not directly involved in the conflict and does not, at
first, even know there has been one. All he knows is his beloved wife and child
are dead and he is in the hands of brutes. The second main character, Marcus,
was easier for me to relate to because he is so completely human, charged with
responsibilities and also suffering from the loss of his wife and child to the
alien attack.
Curnow tortures Yiahan in creative ways, and often, and the villain never
really came into focus for me, but what I came to love about this story is how
both main characters grow to understand, respect, and even love each other as
men and soldiers. This is a book about men and war. True, Yiahan needs a little
help in the soldier department--he has been a dancer and mystic all his life,
whereas Marcus is a warrior--but Marcus benefits just as much from Yiahan about
what's important in life and the differences between their cultures and beliefs.
Yiahan loves peace, but comes to understand that Marcus, for all his readiness
to engage in killing and death, does not love war, and that war is sometimes
necessary.
This is a clear-eyed book that does not flinch from a difficult subject and
it also has a large overarching plot with the fates of planets hanging on the
outcome. Marcus and Yiahan, especially, provide some wonderful character
moments, as do the mostly male supporting cast. But Games of Adversaries managed
to do what few books do: it satisfied my love of philosophical underpinnings.
Much as I sometimes love simple, fluffy books because I need the lightness, few
things make me as happy as a deep, complex book that gives me a few things to
think about. Five stars for that and for taking me on an exciting journey
between worlds.
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