Current Writing Mood: Dafoe

Changed my views on writing good characters. I loved every single thing about this book. It was seamless, well-orchestrated, well-researched, the lingo was slick (unlike a lot of harder science fiction), the characters, the cities. AHh! It was just so very well put together like an intricate puzzle and worked out perfectly in the end. The most powerful part, for me, is how it’s changed my views on how to write a good character. perhaps it’s because I was just reading a poor example this evening, but I realized that what a character looks like is inconsequential MOST of the time, and yet so many writers drag on and on about it. Veneer changed that for me because the *veneer* is the important part. I can’t say much without giving away spoilers, but hopefully you’ll experience that shift as well. Highly recommended. And one aside, I didn’t notice if this was intended as a young adult novel, but the main characters are about 17 years old. There is crude language, violence, and sex. Just a heads up if that’s not your thing, or you don’t want *your* young adults reading that. Related

Lovely Novel by an Author that Shows Great Potential I was lucky enough to have been given a free copy of this book through Goodreads: First Reads, and did not purchase this novel. First off, I will say that I did enjoy this book quite a bit. It was pretty original, and Daniel Verastiqui did a lovely job of creating an intriguing, futuristic setting for the story. The characters were realistic and easy to relate to, which definitely made me wish to read more about them, even after I finished the book. Beautifully written, the story hooked me from the first page and kept me interested until the very end. I’ve read my fair share of sci-fi futuristic novels, though not many of them have pleased me as much as this one did. Daniel Verastiqui certainly has a knack for writing for this genre, and in my opinion, has some much-needed creativity that many other authors lack. For this kind of book to work, and be enjoyable, the author has to both be imaginative and able to bring their thoughts to the pages. Luckily, this author can do both of these things quite well. But, despite the book’s greatness, it also had a few things that require improvement. One of those things is language. The author curses many times over the course of this novel, despite the fact that he really doesn’t have to. This gives some of the writing an immature feel, and was slightly annoying to have to read. Also, Daniel Verastiqui used the words “reconciled” and “veneer” WAY too many times during the course of the book. I understood that they were part of the world he created, but I felt as though he could have swapped them out a few times to seem less redundant. Grammar and spelling was great, and I found only a typo or two in the entire book. The formatting was good, and the author used nice sentence structures that kept the story flowing smoothly. The vocabulary used was irritatingly advanced at times, however, for the most part, it was good. There was little confusion or jumps in the storyline, and the ending was crafted beautifully, which makes me hope that there will be sequel coming soon. Overall, I read the book in record time, and was quite pleased with it. I will certainly be looking into reading more of the author’s books, and will be giving this to a few of my friends for them to read. I would recommend this novel to any fan of futuristic novels or stories involving advanced technology and its consequences. Any fan of Sci-fi and action would probably enjoy this book as much as I have. Veneer is certainly worth reading, and I am happy the author gave me the opportunity to read and review it. Related