#emerald dodge

[jonathanpongratz]

Meet the Author: Emerald Dodge

Good Morning,

Today I'm stopping by with my last author interview for 2019.

This time around it's indie author Emerald Dodge.

I absolutely loved her Battlecry and Oceanus series thus far, and had a great time chatting it up with her.

Let's show her lots of love and support today, shall we?

Feel free to check out our interview below, and have a great day!

https://jonathanpongratz.com/2019/12/18/meet-the-author-emerald-dodge/

[ellireadsbooks]

My Final Tally for 2018

(* = audiobook)

All the books I finished in the past year! Not close to my all time record but more than the year before. Here's to reading even more in 2019!

1/8/18 The Martian - Andy Weir

1/31/18 Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman

2/26/18 Apollo 13 - Jeffrey Kluger & Jim Lovell

2/28/18 Ignite - Emerald Dodge

2/28/18 The Thief - Megan Whalen Turner a

3/??/18 Death Masks - Jim Butcher

4/7/18 - re-read some of Fellowship of the Ring

5/8/18 The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

6/12/18 The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman

6/19/18 The Queen of Attolia - Megan Whalen Turner

7/17/18 Battlecry - Emerald Dodge

8/6/18 Blood Rites - Jim Butcher

8/10/18 Dead Beat - Jim Butcher

8//18 Proven Guillty - Jim Butcher

8/?/18 The King of Attolia - Megan Whalen Turner*

9/2/18 The Wright Brothers - David McCullough

9/18-11/18 A Conspiracy of Kings - Megan Whalen Turner*

Fall/?/18 White Night - Jim Butcher

Fall/?/18 Small Favor - Jim Butcher

12/10/18 American Gods - Neil Gaiman

12/31/18 Turn Coat - Jim Butcher

[psychosynchrony]

Sentinel

Title & Author: Sentinel by Emerald Dodge

Rating: 2/5

Thoughts: I enjoyed this, but I was disappointed. Battlecry’s greatest strength was its pacing. The sometimes-murky (though interesting) worldbuilding was overcome by a seamless and high-speed plot, and in retrospect I think I forgave the more cliched bits because they fit my expectations for superhero fiction. Unfortunately, Sentinel leads with its predecessor’s flaws. 

Picking up shortly after the last book, the story takes Jillian and the rest of St. Catherine’s superheroes back to Chattahoochee Camp to face the consequences for their actions. As the reader might expect, this doesn’t go smoothly, and Benjamin goes missing. The resulting investigation takes the rest of the team north into Wyoming, while Jillian wrestles with both her worldview and her mental health. I’m going to take a step back for a moment and lead with the good because I try not to frontload with criticism.

Dodge spends a fair bit of time examining the aftermath of Battlecry. Just because Jillian and the others have accepted that their leader didn’t have the right to abuse them doesn’t mean they’re ready to accept that their upbringing was warped. Jillian in particular suffers through the cognitive dissonance of her adjusting paradigm in this book, but Reid and Marco are also forced to confront some internalized prejudice. There’s also the issue of Ben and Jill’s relationship. They really haven’t known each other that long, and they both have Issues™ that they need to sort out in their respective stubborn heads to make it work. It’s not happily-ever-after right away. (And the love triangle threatened in the summary is not so bad.) Kind of a good and bad thing: Both the ad hoc cult deprogramming and Jillian’s pre-existing mental health issues are also paid a fair bit of attention, and I actually wish that Dodge had spent more time on that and less on the action and gore, because the latter tended to distract from the former. Particularly with regard to pacing, the timeframe for this book just isn’t long enough to squeeze in everything that needed to happen, so there are some odd skips. Now for the downsides. If you were frustrated by the worldbuilding in the last installment, don’t expect much improvement. I’ve been trying to figure out how to define what went wrong for me, and the most I can say is that it feels half-done. There is a lot going on in this book, and it’s all important, but the diffuse plot determines which setting details are disclosed, rather than plot and setting working as an integrated whole. It’s a functionalist problem that permeates the book. In order for the plot to move from point A to point B, certain actions must be performed by character X… which is frankly what they tell you to do in writing class, but the problem is that it’s so transparent. If the only surprises I have while reading a book are a couple of particularly forced interactions and/or choices then we might have a problem. Unfortunately, I’m not a professional line editor, so I’m not sure what to say beyond “it’s not subtle.” While I liked the themes of deprogramming and reintegration, Reid, Jillian, and Marco all take an abrupt detour toward villainy in this book, leaving Benjamin and Ember as the ‘good guys.’ (Ember is stripped of her power for most of the book and reduced to a Jiminy Cricket figure of moral reason until the plot dictates that her powers need to be active again.) I really do not think that the consequences of this shift were properly addressed. You know the TV cartoons where the hero takes a sudden turn toward the Dark Side™ and pulls back at the last minute (making everything somehow ok)? Jillian doesn’t pull back. There’s an odd juxtaposition between Dodge’s refusal to allow her characters to swear and the amount of torture, gore, and murder that makes it onto the page. (To say nothing of Jill and Ember’s respective recovery from sexual assault.) For the amount of mature content under discussion, the writing doesn’t quite rise to meet it. And there is a lot of death in these pages. Frankly, after a while it became boring. “Life is cheap,” and the ‘bigger’ deaths rang flat against the bloody backdrop. I suppose what I liked most about Sentinel was the *idea* of Sentinel. I liked what Dodge was trying to do, and I liked it when it worked. Unfortunately, I spent a large part of the book feeling like I was reading a middle draft, unable to be absorbed in the story. It’s a good concept, and one that Dodge clearly cares about, but ultimately a significantly weaker book than Battlecry. The last chapter (possibly an epilogue? It wasn’t marked as such…) was from Benjamin’s perspective, which was a neat shift, and something I’m looking forward to seeing more of in Mercury, which I still plan to read. I do like this world, and I want to see how it ends.

{This review was originally posted to Goodreads on 2018.09.17}

[low-budget-mulan]

Yea I'm late to the party but whatever. Finally finishing of beasts and beauties Excalibur and @emeralddodge why would you do this to me? How fricken dare.

[jonathanpongratz]

Book Recommendation: Sea of Lost Souls by Emerald Dodge

Good Morning Everyone,

This week’s recommendation post is another great book, Sea of Lost Souls by the great Emerald Dodge.

Dodge’s first series Battlecry was action-packed, gritty, and thrilling, and this new series of hers is no exception.

Rachel Goldstein is a nuke in the Navy aboard a carrier, but her life changes in just a short moment when everything goes black. When she awakens, she is thrust into a new world of danger and the unknown. What happened? Can she make it back home? What is this strange new world?

This book was amazing! I couldn’t put it down. I usually take at least a week to read a book but I devoured the thing in three days because I couldn’t get enough. This book is riveting, full of adventure, suspense, and heartache.

Definitely worth a read!

Check it out, and have a great day everyone!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2699753308?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

[jonathanpongratz]

It’s a Special Day!

***Special Post!*** Today's a very special day. My great friend Emerald Dodge has a book coming out today! 

It's titled "Sea of Lost Souls", and if my experiences with her other works are any indication, this is going to be a rollercoaster ride of epic proportions! 

Won't you show her some love by checking out her works? You can also show support by following her on Goodreads or liking her facebook page (below). 

Congrats Emerald! 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43683104-sea-of-lost-souls

https://www.facebook.com/emeralddodgewrites/

[jonathanpongratz]

Good Morning Everyone,

Just a heads up, this'll be my last post until Sunday due to the holiday. That being said, let's get on to this week's recommendation!

Emerald Dodge is a good friend of mine. I've read her work on Scribophile years back. I was so excited when I learned she was publishing her wonderful novels.

Sentinel is her second book in a series called Battlecry, centering on a superhero Jillian Johnson, who possesses enhanced senses. I actually read a former version of this story from a different viewpoint but reall enjoyed this one.

When Jillian has to answer for her 'crimes' against the cult that raised her, something goes terribly wrong. The camp is attacked and her boyfriend and relative are missing.

Jillian is willing to risk it all to get them back, but will it be enough?

Such an amazing book, defintely worth a read

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2585500049

[jonathanpongratz]

Book Reviews From the Vault: The Battlecry Series

Hello Again,

True to form, I'm following up on my author interview with Emerald Dodge with my review of each book in her superpowered series Battlecry.

Once more, let's show her some love and support and take a look at her works.

It's definitely bingeworthy.

Thanks again everyone, and have a great rest of the day!

https://jonathanpongratz.com/2019/12/18/book-reviews-from-the-vault-the-battlecry-series/