Rating: 
Summary: Not Bad, Not Great
Review: I read this book, and found it somewhat illuminating, but not as good as, for example, Damon Knight's Creating Short Fiction. I'd rate it a three, except for the end, where the author's discussion of the business of writing struck me as very helpful.
Rating:
Summary: Not Bad, Not Great
Review: I read this book, and found it somewhat illuminating, but not as good as, for example, Damon Knight's Creating Short Fiction. I'd rate it a three, except for the end, where the author's discussion of the business of writing struck me as very helpful.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best books for aspiring genre writers
Review: I've read several books aimed at writers of science fiction and fantasy. This one has proven to be the most useful to me.Kilian covers a lot of information in his book--beginning with the elementary teachings of the Knowing Your Genre section--without going into tedious detail. The parts at the end of the book on actually getting published were fine, although this information can be found in countless other books and on many websites. The part of the book I found the most helpful and illuminating was the middle part, entitled The Craft of Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy. It includes the following sections:
Developing Efficient Work Habits
Research and Soul Search
Elements of a Successful Story
Developing Characters
Plotting
Constructing a Scene
Narrative Voice
Exposition and Dialogue
Symbolism and All That I found the last section on symbolism and the hero's quest especially interesting. If you want to write sci-fi or fantasy but aren't really sure where you should begin, this would be a great book to pick up. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Details of the industry; breaks subgenres down; great
Review: Killian starts out by telling readers how hard it is to make a living at writing novels. I emailed with Tad Williams (fantasy author) and he told me that something like only 1% of fiction writers make six figure salaries or greater. Truth is, if you want to learn how to make money while you write, read something like RICH DAD, POOR DAD. Banking on your writing to turn you into a bestseller has low odds and can be painful if you don't fall into that number. Be sure to enjoy it, too. Yes, silly but you'd be surprised how many people Anyway, here's the highlights of his book: (1) realize the genres of fantasy and sci if; (2) understand the types of general readers attracted to the genres; (3) create your fictional world; (4) get good writing habits; (5) work on your story; (6) learn plotting; thicken the plot; (7) narrative voice; (8) symbolism; (9) know your publishers; query letters; manuscript form; (10) royalties; residuals; understand the contracts. After you've read this, check out HOLLYLISLE.COM . . . a fantasy author who freely gives out advice and makes her living at it fulltime. Best of luck!
Rating:
Summary: Details of the industry; breaks subgenres down; great
Review: Killian starts out by telling readers how hard it is to make a living at writing novels. I emailed with Tad Williams (fantasy author) and he told me that something like only 1% of fiction writers make six figure salaries or greater. Truth is, if you want to learn how to make money while you write, read something like RICH DAD, POOR DAD. Banking on your writing to turn you into a bestseller has low odds and can be painful if you don't fall into that number. Be sure to enjoy it, too. Yes, silly but you'd be surprised how many people Anyway, here's the highlights of his book: (1) realize the genres of fantasy and sci if; (2) understand the types of general readers attracted to the genres; (3) create your fictional world; (4) get good writing habits; (5) work on your story; (6) learn plotting; thicken the plot; (7) narrative voice; (8) symbolism; (9) know your publishers; query letters; manuscript form; (10) royalties; residuals; understand the contracts. After you've read this, check out HOLLYLISLE.COM . . . a fantasy author who freely gives out advice and makes her living at it fulltime. Best of luck!
Rating:
Summary: A very good resource.
Review: Once I got past Mr. Kilian's somewhat snobbish attitude, the meat of the book was well worth reading. He shares several tips and tricks to help keep you on track. Overall a very good choice.
Rating:
Summary: A very good resource.
Review: Once I got past Mr. Kilian's somewhat snobbish attitude, the meat of the book was well worth reading. He shares several tips and tricks to help keep you on track. Overall a very good choice.
Rating: 
Summary: A little to pesermistic for a self help book.
Review: There are at times some very useful ideas in this book. It does cover in it's own way alot of different areas. But if you are a new writer don't read this book. The author covers more reasons to not write, than to write. Also there are books devoted to getting published, how to find agents and all the gritty business asspect of writing. To see the same generalisations printed again and agin in these books is a waste of space. Why would you pick this book up or one similar? To learn more on the craft of Sci-fi/Fantasy right. The book should be filled with ideas on how to make your story better, to learn about what goes into a Sci-fi story. What other writers have done and how to make a good idea you have better. Certainly to some extent that is true with this book, but for me there is not enough of it in here. After reading his views on nearly all the subgenres of Sci-fi it seems that he likes very few. And if your a new writer thinking of doing a story then his views may discourage you from ever picking up the pen or sitting in front of a computer. These books should never preen our ego's. But new writers who are not yet confident about writing need to hear who to make their idea better, more well rounded. The book should be filled to the brim on tips and ways to refine your writing craft specific to Sci-fi/fantasy. And to me it's not. There are ecellent books out there on getting publish, clarity, grammar etc. That stuff doesn't need to be in these genre books. If you are planning on writing a alien invasion story, then you don't to hear him say. This type of story is over done and dull. You need to read lots of ways then to find out how to make that type of story stand out. How to refine your idea and shape it. This book in my opinion doesnt do that. It says alot of what he doesn't like to read or thinks is good in a novel, but not always alot of ways to improve an idea. There is still some worth to this book. But in my opinion there will be better books on the subject avaliable.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, Well-Rounded Resource
Review: This book includes not only strategies for generating your own worlds, characters, plots, etc. but has practical advice on grammar, manuscript mechanics and how to approach publishers with the finished product. It also includes a cold splash-in-the-face look at one scenario you might go through on the road to publication. Given that every writing style is a process subjectively arrived at, he still does a great job of making some helpful, objective observations of what good story writing entails. There is the further advantage of being able to track down his fiction to see his approach in action, since he is a published author in the genre.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, Well-Rounded Resource
Review: This book is laced with humor and wisdom. Kilian is experienced in fantasy, hard science fiction, education and children's literature. He explores the mythological basis of fantasy novels, explaining the importance of Greek, Roman, Celtic, Norse, Egyptian--world mythology, as well as acquiring a strong knowledge of history and philosophies of the world. Equally important to success is a fascination with the genre in which you write. Gaining the information may seem to be an intimidating task; it is necessary. Kilian includes exercises to help generate writing. I followed these exercises, and wrote with the excitement I had greatly missed. He also explains each step of the creative process from the ideas to the finished product with a brief grammar refresher that is easy to read. The examples are humorous. The importance of proper grammar cannot be overstated if you want your book published. Kilian expresses a sense of anger, but when tempered by the humor throughout the book, this becomes righteous indignation directed toward those who try to write in the genre without the seriousness to make it believable. Ultimately his anger
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