Oni-goroshi book, blackcloak

You know that book that onigoroshi/tgu was based on? (yeah the book that the item creator wrote). I read it this week and it was actually amazing.

But no matter what I do I can't find any online presence at all, it's like noone else has read it. What the hell? It has so many good reviews too, no idea if they are real or not, but I added my own 5-star rating.

So I went searching the POE community to see who here had checked it out. Because apparently this Charan guy was a quite a known personality in the POE community (I was not around to see it).

All I read are people saying it's shit. "It's like a shitty fanfic" "neckbeard weeb cringe". I questioned two of these people who said the book was terrible. Did you actually read the book? No, they based their entire opinion off the free preview excerpts online.

I understand. When I read the first prologue chapter, the writing style was so overdone that I was like "what the fuck". But there's an entire book after that. In retrospect the prologue was perfect, the tone of writing stayed consistent and it all fit.

This shit just makes me so fucking mad, there is so much in this book, and people are willing to talk shit about something they haven't even read.

Well, there's my rant. IDK where else I could even talk about this, which is why I'm posting it on offtopic POE forums. Actually, this is kind of centered around the POE community, since the people I'm criticizing are all POE players. Needed to get this off my chest. Sorry if I'm talking about stuff I don't know about, I don't use forums much. Many of the people I found who were talking shit about the book were actually on discord/reddit (yes there were a LOT of them), and it's not like I can dump this wall of text there.

What do you expect, discussion is dead, you are living in an age of echochambers, discourse and I-readit hasn´t been invented yet.

Foreverhappychan is still around.

Charan is still around here. Goes by the name Foreverhappychan now. Used to be quite prolific, but he's much more subdued these days. Partly cos he's not too fond of the direction the game went, and partly cos he recently himself experienced the mod whip on these forums.

Asked my wife to get me his book for my birthday (next month).

Doesn't really sound like my cup of tea. But whatevs, the items are in the game and I can safely continue to ignore them because melee continues to unimpress

"

Seyef wrote:

You know that book that onigoroshi/tgu was based on? (yeah the book that the item creator wrote). I read it this week and it was actually amazing.

But no matter what I do I can't find any online presence at all, it's like noone else has read it. What the hell? It has so many good reviews too, no idea if they are real or not, but I added my own 5-star rating.

So I went searching the POE community to see who here had checked it out. Because apparently this Charan guy was a quite a known personality in the POE community (I was not around to see it).

All I read are people saying it's shit. "It's like a shitty fanfic" "neckbeard weeb cringe". I questioned two of these people who said the book was terrible. Did you actually read the book? No, they based their entire opinion off the free preview excerpts online.

I understand. When I read the first prologue chapter, the writing style was so overdone that I was like "what the fuck". But there's an entire book after that. In retrospect the prologue was perfect, the tone of writing stayed consistent and it all fit.

This shit just makes me so fucking mad, there is so much in this book, and people are willing to talk shit about something they haven't even read.

Well, there's my rant. IDK where else I could even talk about this, which is why I'm posting it on offtopic POE forums. Actually, this is kind of centered around the POE community, since the people I'm criticizing are all POE players. Needed to get this off my chest. Sorry if I'm talking about stuff I don't know about, I don't use forums much. Many of the people I found who were talking shit about the book were actually on discord/reddit (yes there were a LOT of them), and it's not like I can dump this wall of text there.

thank you. so much. really. For giving it a serious go. I likely shot myself in the foot with the ridiculously overwrought prologue but as you noted it fits once you get to know who is narrating it and who she thinks she is talking to. I will almost certainly never write in that style again. I much prefer dialogue over description, but you very likely know that by now. ;)


You can write a review on amazon here:

https://www.amazon.com/Blackcloak-Sword-Bloody-Tapestry-Kaefre-ebook/dp/B00UMD9TGQ/

I think there is also a goodreads page. And I will fire up the twitter/facebook accounts again once I have something new to say.

I am a third into book 2, which is an entirely different thing again. And much better imo, which makes me sad because you need to read and know book 1 to get it, and book 1 is very rough in parts. Book 2 is far more confident in its direction and intentions. It is even less straight-up fantasy than the first, much deeper into the realm of emotional and psychological abuse that comes so naturally to Vachaelle, given it positions her as mother to Charan's poor, unimportant sister.

But I remain proud of book 1, because it is the sort of book I like to read: first time through puts the pieces on the board. You have to read it at least twice to see what She is doing. So...value for money. Heh.

thank you again. I never would have expected to see genuine praise for my work here. Made my day. :)

oh, as for the hate: it wasnt undeserved towards the PoE supporter known as Charan, but it was unfair to the book that is his namesake. Long story, and nowhere near as good as the one I wrote.

WJC

edit: oh I see you added a rating. thank you! Those reviews are not fake. Most are from the first wave readers, a few are from self-pub sites. Frankly I am too small and proud to warrant fake reviews. :)

Wow, great to finally be able to talk with you. Nice that you're still around. Honestly the unique way you wrote/structured the story was a big selling point for me, so I hope you're keeping some aspect of it. I'm looking forward to reading the next one when and if it comes out, regardless.

I really think the series has potential. I'm honestly surprised how little people read the book, considering how well known the PoE item is. Is this the power of a publisher showing? Hm. Maybe a sequel revives interest, gets another wave of people to check out the first book. Who knows. Or maybe books just aren't popular anymore.

Book 2 is still structured around flashback and interrogation, but since Sister isn't perceived as important in the same way Charan was, her experiences are a lot less layered than his. I have this vague plan that each book will be of a different genre. The first is kind of a pyschological horror. The second is kind of subverted romance. Third will be a memoir. And so on, until I have written everything I ever wanted to write through a single series that never adheres to one mode or method.

Power of a publisher indeed. I have peers with a lot more success than I, thanks to being publisher-friendly. But they envy how much control I have over my own work: cover art, editing, formatting and such are all out of their hands. Also, I can place all sorts of foreshadowing that serves no purpose at the time and no editor will scrub it out. My readers can trust that a publisher won't cancel my series for whatever reason and leave them hanging.

Not that I ever sought a publisher; I received enough early feedback to know I wasn't going to be happy with the changes needed to make Blackcloak worth publishing en masse. I considered a publicist but they cost thousands of dollars a year. I have encountered some pushy self-pubbers over time and can't imagine being that. But eh, this is fine. When you only have a few hundred readers, you have a really high percentage of satisfied, devoted fans. Each interaction like this is a real treasure for me. It's like that awesome phase of intimacy before one gets too big and everything becomes impersonal, except I don't anticipate getting big so this warm phase may never end. A pity it is undermined with long stretches of crippling self-doubt (not at all helped by some of the unpleasantness aimed my way from afar you've already encountered).

I did use my presence as a PoE somebody to promote the first run of the book, but even then it was a very small affair with mostly guildies and forum friends. That first run of hardcovers sold out but if we consider your posts as a modern day equivalent to the fan letter, it would be appropriate of me to reciprocate. PM me a name and address and I shall do just that. Lord knows I'd just give my work away if that didn't make it seem worthless!

I realised after reading your post that I honestly hate saying anything about my books to people who haven't read it, but ridiculously eager to discuss it with those that have. That is an awkward stance, but I suppose I feel as a reader myself I am more apt to trust a reader's word on a book's merit over the author's. So your positive feedback is beyond merely nice or well-meaning. It is a sign that I may have more people with whom I can comfortably discuss my work in the future!

Thank you again...and trust me on one thing: nothing in book 1 is random, and all of it will matter in what is to come. I know the ending of each book, including the last. I know how to get there, in broad terms. I just need to believe I won't be taking each step of this very long journey alone. :)

edit: I think I found the old reddit thread you were talking about, claiming the sword is from an RA Salvatore's work. Uh, yeah, no. Charon is not Charan. Not even from the same language. As for talking sentient swords, theyre a cliche by now. These people...sigh.

I read through the Prologue, Chapter 1, and part of Chapter 2 using Amazon's "Look Inside" feature quite a while back. IIRC, Chapter 3 is available also but I didn't make it that far. Where I stopped in Chapter 2 was...enough for me haha.

Not because it was poorly written or just bad in some way though. I didn't think it was, and I actually thought it was pretty well done. It just looked like it would be a (really) slow burn throughout. That was the impression I got from those first bits anyway.

I knew that I would never have enough of an attention span to give that style of writing the fair reading it deserved. I would have read it in fits and spurts, and by the time I finished it months (maybe years) later I would have likely forgotten too much of it to really get it.

I would have recommended it to my younger self though, when I spent hours upon hours mostly alone in a server room with ample time to kill. I was a far more patient reader then than I am now.

"

aggromagnet wrote:

I read through the Prologue, Chapter 1, and part of Chapter 2 using Amazon's "Look Inside" feature quite a while back. IIRC, Chapter 3 is available also but I didn't make it that far. Where I stopped in Chapter 2 was...enough for me haha.

Not because it was poorly written or just bad in some way though. I didn't think it was, and I actually thought it was pretty well done. It just looked like it would be a (really) slow burn throughout. That was the impression I got from those first bits anyway.

I knew that I would never have enough of an attention span to give that style of writing the fair reading it deserved. I would have read it in fits and spurts, and by the time I finished it months (maybe years) later I would have likely forgotten too much of it to really get it.

I would have recommended it to my younger self though, when I spent hours upon hours mostly alone in a server room with ample time to kill. I was a far more patient reader then than I am now.

Very fair indeed. If anything really gets in the way of me continuing, its the notion that I might be about 20 years late. The most common question I get when I sheepishly admit I wrote a fantasy novel is 'so are you hoping to be the next Game of Thrones? Get a tv show?'

Yep, that is the end goal of bothering to write a novel. To get it adapted into a costly, fickle medium that doesn't require reading. If anything I am determined to write that which cannot work as well in any other format. Why else write?

Thank you for giving it a crack though. :) I suspect trying to market something so demanding to a crowd who have already chosen a very demanding pastime wasn't the smartest thing I've done, but again this is why publishers exist. To tell people who otherwise wouldn't give something 20 hours of their life that it is worth it.