This is real cross country

I used to run cross country in high school. I loved the freedom of running through the woods instead of around a track. Unfortunately, running was not as fond of me and eventually developed knee problems to hinder me. Now I am older (and supposedly wiser), I have learned to properly train and stretch while running with my knee braced. There is nothing like the freedom of heading out and exerting your energy on the wilderness.

Silver-White by Shawn Underhill

Another unexpected surprise from the free Kindle preview bin. You can now purchase the book for 99 cents and it is worth the dollar. The plot summary I read before downloading my freebie really pulled at the runner inside me. This book seemed like a completely new take on the werewolf dynamic and I find that very refreshing in an overwhelming genre expansion. No full moons or blood lust just the instinct of a deadly animal inside each human. 

Tangent: I have read fantasy for many years and understand that there are only so many directions an author can go with creatures of the "other" world before they run into someone else who had the same thought. It just seems that with the onset of public media and social attention spans the size of a flea this overlapping expansion has become alarming. You can't look at a recommendation page without an entire list of the exact same book by a different author. I understand introducing a different theory and arguing philosophy, but do we really need 100 authors all trying to make it Hollywood?

Back on track: Shawn Underhill managed to be refreshing as a new author. His writing stutters throughout the whole novel, but I am optimistic he will develop his skill as he gets used to the writing-for-the-public process. Maybe even a better editor can help him with his sentence structure. Overall, the writing did not detract enough from the excellent story and dynamic interaction of the characters. He really created a world that I could fall into and forget about what I was doing. The pace was almost too quick for my liking and seemed to rush through some excellent opportunity for build up and story development. This might be one occasion Robert Jordan could be a mentor, but I understand the YA genre hampers that tome quality. Best cliffhanger I've read in many years, though.

Here is to moving to my new house!