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I read a furry-written book. Did I like it? (review)
11 years ago
Look, I'm not one of these pin head, liberal, pro literacy, left-wing queers or nothin' but... I have to admit:
I read a book last week.
I can't even lie. It was a big one. Like... there were more words than PICTURES. THAT kind of book.
But enough pre-ramble.
I read "Save the Day" by D.J. Fahl, also known as
nuwisha55
It's a novel about furry super-heroes, and I haven't been able to get it out of my mind for a good 10 days now.
This is about to get wordy, so let me preface my review with this.
I'm fine with porn. Porn is great. I do not think less of anyone for reading,drawing, viewing, or writing porn.
That being said, when I walk up to a booth at a convention, I ask one question that makes my shopping experience last about 20 seconds.
"What do you have that isn't porn, or high school-gay-romance?"
I usually get a chuckle... then an "oh, you're serious" look, then, after some rummaging and a shrug, I move on to the next stand. At the Furplanet stand however, I had Mr. Fahl jump up, and proudly present me with this book. 2 weeks later, I can't get his characters out of my head, and not just because the main guy happens to be a coyote that can control gravity.
Our story centers around the exploits of "Star Coyote", the super hero alter ego of anthropomorphic coyote, Ted Rodriguez (swoon) and while most superhero stories tend to focus on the struggles of morality, human nature, or the glamorization of vigilantism, this story takes a surprisingly fresh stance; one that I frankly can't believe hasn't been done more often. You see, Ted has been a "super" for years. He's part of a "justice league" analogue known as "The Extraordinaries" and everything is going pretty well. He's gaining respect amongst his super peers, and the nation at large is starting to fall in love with Star Coyote. The problem is that Ted's been keeping secrets from the team, namely his boyfriend. (what? a gay main character in a FURRY story?).
See, the book takes this cool angle where it knows we aren't surprised by superheroes anymore. It KNOWS that we've done the origin story arc about a thousand times. It KNOWS we've done the whole, dealing with a family that's clueless to their second life, thing. The book instead focuses on how someone would deal with not only being a being with super powers, but apparently the only GAY being with superpowers. Also, office logistics. No I'm SERIOUS. A good part of this book is dedicated to how a real-life super hero organization would have to be run. Like, you could use this thing as a friggin HR manual if you want to help superman keep track of Lois Lane.
The other viewpoint we experience is that of Jay, Ted's boyfriend. This is where the story really started digging into my brain. You see, each time Ted (Star Coyote) is out doing something dangerous, Jay's obviously at home, watching it on CNN or whatever, losing his MIND. Star isn't invincible, or anything, so one well-placed bullet could end our adventure pretty durn quickly if you know what I'm saying. Our author does a fantastic job of making the stakes in this book extremely high. The sense of danger is absolutely there, and I was holding my breath through half of the fight scenes.
I might be biased because well, I'm a furry and I like animal people walking around, making things happen, but I got SO invested in the characters in this book. We have a varied and mostly believable cast of heroes and villains. The motivations are there, they aren't one-note or two dimensional (besides the occasional throw-away character), and they DEVELOP as the book goes on. Things change. People grow and learn. It's... GOOD WRITING. In a friggin FURRY book.
UNLIKE a furry book, there isn't any porn. I'm of the opinion that I want the porn kept out of the story, and the story kept out of my porn. This book does that while still showing a genuine connection and chemistry between our two main characters. The pacing is also rather well done, once we get through the first act. Once this book gets rolling, it ends up almost episodic. We have these compact scenes with comfortable opening and closing points that would be well-suited for a comic book or TV show. It helps lend to the scope of the story. It feels big, and that's a good thing in this case.
I mean, alright, it could use some editing. You could probably pull about 20 pages out of this book and it'd be better off for it. At times it's subtle and clever, and once it left me with a genuine "oooooh WHHAAAATT!" kind of moment where I put something together, and felt involved as a reader. However, a lot of the time, the book is guilty of over-explaining things. As a reader you've known what was going on for a page and a half, yet you have to wade through 6 paragraphs paraphrasing the obvious to move on with the story. Also, every character in this book seems to speak with the same voice. Like, they all have pretty much the same mannerisms, and the same cadence to how their dialogue is written. We have characters from across the country. I was hoping for a little more variation. Maybe a dialect or something. The best I got was the guy from Texas saying "Ma" once.
My complaints are far outweighed by the amount of heart that this story has. I would recommend that everyone give it a shot. It has a bit of a slow start, but after the first few chapters, I was more than hooked. It's actually hard for me to explain why I got so into this thing. I'm such a jaded, hard to please, hipster that I find it hard to get into most things, but hey. Help support quality furry stuff. Be like me. Buy this book.
http://furplanet.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=437
Th-That's where you buy it! Up there <_<
I read a book last week.
I can't even lie. It was a big one. Like... there were more words than PICTURES. THAT kind of book.
But enough pre-ramble.
I read "Save the Day" by D.J. Fahl, also known as
nuwisha55It's a novel about furry super-heroes, and I haven't been able to get it out of my mind for a good 10 days now.
This is about to get wordy, so let me preface my review with this.
I'm fine with porn. Porn is great. I do not think less of anyone for reading,drawing, viewing, or writing porn.
That being said, when I walk up to a booth at a convention, I ask one question that makes my shopping experience last about 20 seconds.
"What do you have that isn't porn, or high school-gay-romance?"
I usually get a chuckle... then an "oh, you're serious" look, then, after some rummaging and a shrug, I move on to the next stand. At the Furplanet stand however, I had Mr. Fahl jump up, and proudly present me with this book. 2 weeks later, I can't get his characters out of my head, and not just because the main guy happens to be a coyote that can control gravity.
Our story centers around the exploits of "Star Coyote", the super hero alter ego of anthropomorphic coyote, Ted Rodriguez (swoon) and while most superhero stories tend to focus on the struggles of morality, human nature, or the glamorization of vigilantism, this story takes a surprisingly fresh stance; one that I frankly can't believe hasn't been done more often. You see, Ted has been a "super" for years. He's part of a "justice league" analogue known as "The Extraordinaries" and everything is going pretty well. He's gaining respect amongst his super peers, and the nation at large is starting to fall in love with Star Coyote. The problem is that Ted's been keeping secrets from the team, namely his boyfriend. (what? a gay main character in a FURRY story?).
See, the book takes this cool angle where it knows we aren't surprised by superheroes anymore. It KNOWS that we've done the origin story arc about a thousand times. It KNOWS we've done the whole, dealing with a family that's clueless to their second life, thing. The book instead focuses on how someone would deal with not only being a being with super powers, but apparently the only GAY being with superpowers. Also, office logistics. No I'm SERIOUS. A good part of this book is dedicated to how a real-life super hero organization would have to be run. Like, you could use this thing as a friggin HR manual if you want to help superman keep track of Lois Lane.
The other viewpoint we experience is that of Jay, Ted's boyfriend. This is where the story really started digging into my brain. You see, each time Ted (Star Coyote) is out doing something dangerous, Jay's obviously at home, watching it on CNN or whatever, losing his MIND. Star isn't invincible, or anything, so one well-placed bullet could end our adventure pretty durn quickly if you know what I'm saying. Our author does a fantastic job of making the stakes in this book extremely high. The sense of danger is absolutely there, and I was holding my breath through half of the fight scenes.
I might be biased because well, I'm a furry and I like animal people walking around, making things happen, but I got SO invested in the characters in this book. We have a varied and mostly believable cast of heroes and villains. The motivations are there, they aren't one-note or two dimensional (besides the occasional throw-away character), and they DEVELOP as the book goes on. Things change. People grow and learn. It's... GOOD WRITING. In a friggin FURRY book.
UNLIKE a furry book, there isn't any porn. I'm of the opinion that I want the porn kept out of the story, and the story kept out of my porn. This book does that while still showing a genuine connection and chemistry between our two main characters. The pacing is also rather well done, once we get through the first act. Once this book gets rolling, it ends up almost episodic. We have these compact scenes with comfortable opening and closing points that would be well-suited for a comic book or TV show. It helps lend to the scope of the story. It feels big, and that's a good thing in this case.
I mean, alright, it could use some editing. You could probably pull about 20 pages out of this book and it'd be better off for it. At times it's subtle and clever, and once it left me with a genuine "oooooh WHHAAAATT!" kind of moment where I put something together, and felt involved as a reader. However, a lot of the time, the book is guilty of over-explaining things. As a reader you've known what was going on for a page and a half, yet you have to wade through 6 paragraphs paraphrasing the obvious to move on with the story. Also, every character in this book seems to speak with the same voice. Like, they all have pretty much the same mannerisms, and the same cadence to how their dialogue is written. We have characters from across the country. I was hoping for a little more variation. Maybe a dialect or something. The best I got was the guy from Texas saying "Ma" once.
My complaints are far outweighed by the amount of heart that this story has. I would recommend that everyone give it a shot. It has a bit of a slow start, but after the first few chapters, I was more than hooked. It's actually hard for me to explain why I got so into this thing. I'm such a jaded, hard to please, hipster that I find it hard to get into most things, but hey. Help support quality furry stuff. Be like me. Buy this book.
http://furplanet.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=437
Th-That's where you buy it! Up there <_<
Is this book general
Mature
Or adult audience?
Like compare
Is it
A kids book or erotica?
Idk
I'm trying my best to find a good book
That's not erotica but that's pg-13 or even r if possible
Hey are there laws about publishing? Like do you have to be a certain age?
There aren't any I know of in the United States. I know that some authors are in their teens when they get published!
I wanna try to continue a story im writing that I could maybe make book size
And okay cool!
That said, sex is mentioned briefly, and there are a few swears.
I'd say it'd be alright for anyone 16+
Yeah like that's fine
Or really
If there's like idk
A sex scene or two
That's fine
As long as the whole book isn't sex after sex after sex
Because that would be
... Well idk
A tad annoying if there isn't a story
I never have the time. Luckily for this one I had a flight to read on haha.
http://www.chakatsden.com/chakat/FT-index.html
Pony Fanfiction
http://www.fimfiction.net/
It was a good book, definitely could've been edited down some, but you're spot on about the emotional attachment you feel for these characters.
Can't wait for Fahl's next book to come out. :3
Hopefully my books won't be too porny for you by comparison... I'm getting out of that myself but "St. Arned" was kind of the last of it.
You wrote a book about something ALSO interesting.
St. Arned is next for me ^^ and I'm excited.
Getting you involved in the charas is the true tellling of a good book. I will def. look this one up.
In my view, however, sex needs to serve the plot and story to some degree (unless you're writing pure erotica wherein the entire point is the act of sex and getting to the act of sex). As in the sex scene adds a dimension to the characters or advances the plot. Out of Position by Kyell Gold uses its sex scenes to reveal certain parts of the characters and to move the plot (the first sex scene is crucial to the entire series I'd argue)
Put another way I could have put sex into my novel and I'd have been fine with it being there but I didn't see a place where it was needed.
I am truly happy you are interested in my novel while you're looking it up please also consider McRae's Piggy Moto http://furplanet.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=524 and Mary Lowd's delightful Otters in Space http://furplanet.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=562
If the story's good, the porn just gets in the way.
If the porn's better than the story.... I don't wanna read the story!
It's totally a matter of opinion though.
You'll have to tell me what you think about THIS book.
V.
As another Smiley and the Hero by Ryan Campbell, a very good furry novella, has no sex in it but its labeled for adults due to a torture scene and some very violent imagery. I stand by it as an excellent story though http://furplanet.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=494
If you are looking for a truly delightful PG furry novel I'd say go for Otters in Space by Mary Lowd http://furplanet.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=562 she wrote it for her kids and its a really solid adventure and story with really well made characters
So out of curiosity favorite character and scene?
It takes me a friggin.... LONG time to get through books.
I'm kind of proud of how quickly I got through yours.
When I'm ready for something new though, I'll totally hit you up!
Every book you write will get better. It took me 5 albums before I did something I actually was proud of X3
FAVE character: I mean... come on. Star. Close second would be Camo. Everything he did made sense to me for some reason.
Fave scene: probably the moment when star shows up at the back door and just falls inside. That sh*t was devestating and well done on your part.
I know its best to measure yourself against your accomplishments and that I'll improve over time but I do worry about keeping the magic you know?
You know I think you're the first person to say that about Camo ^.^ I hope you like what I do with him in Tales of the Extraordinary. I am happy to hear it though!
Ah a scene I worked on multiple times glad the finished product came off so well!
the other, not so much. I'm very slowly picking up on more good stuff from the fandom with what little free time I have.
Again I'd stress Heathen City is a good comic and people rightly like it. I'd list several excellent comic and books in the fandom which can meet a wide range of tastes and preferences.