He could not help but to ponder the potentially lateral meanings of Ezra Pound´s statement, "Technique is the touchstone of an artist´s sincerity."

lateral adj 1) of, at, towards, or from the side or sides; the plant takes up water through its lateral roots.

-[ANATOMY] & [ZOOLOGY] situated on one side or other of the body or of an organ, especially in the region furthest from the median plane. The opposite of medial.

Not that I disagree with Pound´s statement, or Faucher´s inclusion in the text, but I had to look up lateral in the (online) dictionary, and I still don´t understand the meaning of it here in context *confused look*

I´m one of the three and a half people who´ve ever read a Kane X. Faucher novel, apparently. Just took me only the better part of two years to finally pick up ZOMG!, a "social media novel". As always, any book by him is "large, cumbersome, and studded with dense verbiage" (source). Not only that, but it is also surprisingly funny. The kind of meta-irony I normally and only so far associated with Infinite Jest. Off to a good start, not very surprising, since I admire his writing ever since I laid hands on his work the first time with The Infinite Library.

And anyone who compiles a word like ´Webschmerz´ and uses it unapologetically has my full attention.

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

When I read the blurb for this book, I knew I would love it. It sounded like such a Rashika book and I could already imagine how much fun I would have with the book.

We are thrown right into the action so it was, at first, quite hard for me to keep up. I was confused about what was happening and as I progressed, the initial confusion made it so that I would have to flip back to the beginning to understand what was happening. So yes, that did become a problem for me (to the point where I wasn’t sure of a character’s approximate age until the end of the book, and I was off by a LOT) but, once you get into this book, it will suck you in and have you flipping pages and looking at the clock, hoping that you still have plenty of time left to read.

The identity of the Rook surprised me a little (you find out early on but the only reason I won’t mention it is because it’s fun to find out for yourself) but I am glad the author chose that character to be the Rook because they are so strong and clever and just so fantastically themselves.

Sophia is a great main character. She is badass in the actual sense of the word. There are so many things she pulls that made me want to high five her. She is the kind of character I love in spite of her faults. Never once did I want to shake her, even if she did something I wasn’t completely okay with me because I was a 100% on her side.

Rene was a beautiful creature and I beg that you keep your slimy little paws off of MY RENE (yes I just laid my claim to a fictional character in my review for the book). He is just so fantastic and I imagine that had this been an adult book rather than a YA, there would be cold showers involved. He is a swoon worthy character AND I LOVE HIM. He is more than just a love interest. He is a fishy little creature who is clever and won’t fail to charm your pants off.

Their relationship is also a thing of beauty. They get off to a rough start and once the sparks start flying, the lack of relationship drama is actually surprising. There are so many ways the author could have made their relationship a hot and cold thing yet it was never that. It was  just pure gorgeous development with one major bump. They trust each other, she confides in him and she actually, for the most part, doesn’t have secrets from him. ISN’T THAT BEAUTIFUL?

This book also had a very enjoyable plot line even if I wanted more in terms of action. It isn’t that there isn’t much going on -- the stakes were pretty damn high – but I just wanted a little more in terms of what they were doing and how they were doing it, and just some more of ass-kicking ya know?

I also found the plot to be pretty believable considering that the Rook isn’t actually old. The Rook doesn’t do all the things on their own, the Rook actually has a group of people they trust to help them and I also really liked the way things worked out. With the people taking charge of their situation instead of the Rook. The Rook, while having seen their suffering and the pain, cannot possibly take leadership for something like that since they haven’t had to put up with it and I really liked that.

I also really liked the secondary characters! My favorite being Tom, followed by Benoit. I love that none of these secondary characters are just there, they actually play a part, and they have stories that we get to know. They have miniature arcs and along the way, we get to learn more and more about them which just made me love them all the more.

I was a little disappointed by the world building. This book is set in such a gorgeous location and I wanted to see that explored a little more. This book is also set in a post-apocalyptic world but we only get minimal information on that, just enough for us to understand the world some and while I was upset we didn’t get more, it was also understandable since there are other things going on in this story for everything to be fit into one standalone novel.

This was such a spectacular read and I loved almost every minute of it.  It does take a while to get into but once I adjusted to the situation, I devoured the book and had lots of fun. It is definitely a read I’d recommend to all you readers who is looking something adventurous set in the future.

I think this is the first time I've been genuinely burned by unknowingly picking up the first in a proposed series of books (and I say proposed, because I can find absolutely no mention on the internet that a sequel is even being considered.) While it does provide a solution to the most immediate part of the plot, so much is left open-ended, it broke my heart. So it lost a star to that, unfortunately.

Other than that, the book offers a fast read (though it does suspiciously drag in its first third, despite being pretty short) and engaging characters that are just left of being cartoonish, but in an entertaining way. And Jett and Gibbons definitely offer something different by way of heroines, in westerns or any other genre for that matter, coming from two different directions: Jett dresses like a boy to avoid harassment as she makes her way through the Old West in an attempt to find her brother, her only surviving family member after the Civil War, while Gibbons is an inventor, indulged by her rich and eccentric father, enlightened and liberated, with all of her faith put in Science. The two clash, the two become best friends. White Fox, the main male character, is sweet, but sort of inconsequential, and while there's a sulfurous whiff of brimstone and love triangle about their relationships, the book itself is obviously more interested in developing Jett and Gibbons' friendship.

Extremely historically accurate (as steampunk strangely seems to be) with a sense of fun and a wink to the plot on behalf of the authors, and just a bit of horror, I would be looking forward to learning what the airship means, if the man Shepherd was communicating is behind the disappearances, what the spell book White Fox received from his friend has to do with anything if the authors seemed to have any intention of continuing the story. Please, ladies? I'd definitely keep reading!

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http://terrybrooks.net/2014/07/mtv-officially-orders-first-season-of-the-shannara-series/