Sent 2/6/2025
Fashionably late, but . . . here’s your “January” newsletter! The Sun is slowly coming back to us, but sadly (at least in the northern U.S.) the subsequent warmth is dragging its feet.
Novel Marketing Conference
Last weekend I was blessed to attend the 2026 Novel Marketing Conference in Austin, TX, which was a new and wonderful experience for me. I had a blast, and got to fly for the first time. My first actual writing conference could not have gone better, and I was able to meet and share insights and encouragement with many like-minded self-published writers. I learned a lot, taking pages upon pages of notes, so I’m pumped to apply that new knowledge as I tackle the rest of this year. If you are a writer and are not familiar with Author Media or the Novel Marketing Podcast, I do highly recommend checking those out. You will find a fresh take on a lot of writing and marketing-related stuff that is far-removed from a lot of the run-of-the-mill advice out there—and quite viable, far as I can tell. I’m a big fan.
Royal Road Report
Gaea is complete on Royal Road, so if you have been interested to check the series out and putting it off, you can read books one and two here. We’re at 17,500 total page reads, which is quite exciting!
Tales from the Earthen Sky is over 70 followers now on Royal Road, and just about to break 10,000 total page reads, so I’m happy with that progress. I’m releasing a little (not) interlude chapter soon, hopefully this week, as I take a hiatus to do more editing work on Luna and solidify my direction for this web series.
Book Reviews
Technically, I only finished two books last month, so I’ll have a lot more reviews coming for February.
★★★★☆
Howling Dark, Book Two of The Sun Eater by Christopher Ruocchio. Let’s get the obvious out of the way: the cover is absolutely stunning, which can be said of most of the series. Phenomenal modern Sci-Fi artistic design, a new gold standard in my opinion.
Anyway, the book. Definitely a big step up from Book One, starting off with a bang and staying interesting (if not always fast-paced) all the way through. The author is a big fan of teasing you on the direction of the story early on and then subverting those expectations, something that this book begins to do quite strongly. Over the course of Howling Dark, I could not nail down the direction we were heading at all, which I say as a positive versus the first book, which just felt aimless. Howling Dark has a very clear purpose. He introduces some very cool concepts as we go, and having nearly finished the third book now, I can confidently say he only builds on and eclipses them. I’m quite impressed.
Again, some drawbacks for me: While Hadrian is becoming a lot more solidified as a protagonist, it’s still hard to truly root for him. He’s torn between two love interests in this book, which are two of my least favorite characters, and while there is a lot less language overall in this one (which the author uses primarily to indicate characters of lower class), there is a lot of . . . grittiness for the sake of grittiness? I had a similar critique of the Red Rising series, which also played on the theme of “humans are all monsters”, etc. However, the use of aliens in The Sun Eater series is quite tasteful in my opinion, painting humanity itself as a sort of protagonist, with Hadrian seemingly teetering on hero or villain to his own people.
★★★★☆
Zenith of Sorcery, Arc 1, by Domogoi Kurmaic (writing under the username nobody103). From the author of Mother of Learning comes a new story, which officially has one completed story arc, albeit a hair less conclusive than the first arc of the previous series. I have to say, this one impresses equally so far. It’s a bit more light-hearted, which the author states up-front, using similar worldbuilding elements but playing with Progression/Xianxia influence and with a bit . . . lets just say larger scope. I don’t want to spoil anything regarding that. As of yet, nothing from Zorian’s universe is present in this story, though I could see some potential tie-ins, or at least easter eggs. It’s a blast to read, and also a bit cleaner, fit for a more general audience. Very little foul language at all. While there’s no time-travel gimmick this time, there are some pretty cool ideas the author introduces early on and plays with as the story goes . . . I quite enjoy how he uses characters of varying ages (Marcus the experienced wizard and the orphans he ends up training) to create a fun, upbeat-yet-serious story. Relaxed, yet with the same level-headed maturity that readers have come to expect. I couldn’t recommend this series more highly.
With that, have a great February and go read many books! Stay warm!
— Jacob Gamber