I felt especially honored today to receive a glowing review of my debut novel, We, The Watched, from Kirkus Reviews, a highly respected institution in the book publishing world.
Check out this amazing excerpt:
Fueled by a brilliantly nebulous backdrop, this briskly paced, action-packed novel is undeniably a page-turner of the highest order…
A deeply allegorical and powerfully thought-provoking dystopian must-read.
Told from the unique first-person perspective of an amnesiac, acclaimed novel We, The Watched places the reader in the shoes of Seven as he struggles to go unnoticed in a surveillance society and discover his true identity. Seven enters a dystopia where the government conducts mass surveillance and keeps a Watched list of its own citizens. The Church has become as powerful as the State, and people who resist are called Heretics and face execution.
I want to address the reviewer’s one criticism about sexism on the part of the protagonist. The reviewer makes a fair point here, and it’s something that I consciously improved upon in the sequel, Divided We Fall, and my writing since then. I definitely take these kinds of concerns seriously, and I’m glad this criticism did not stop the reviewer from recommending We, The Watched as a must-read.
Hope you enjoy We, The Watched — I can’t wait to read YOUR review!
I’ve been blogging a lot about my creative writing lately, so I thought it was time to highlight a few recent news and feature articles I’ve had published since moving to Philadelphia. I’ve been contributing to Technical.ly Philly, Generocity.org, ASTM Standardization News, among other freelance projects.
Full bars but 2G speeds in an auto-rickshaw in Bangalore.
Here’s a neat story I wrote for Technical.ly about staying connected during a recent trip to India. I was looking for a way to use my cellphone while abroad — without breaking the bank — so I signed up for the new Google wireless service, Project Fi.
While I had to contend with India’s 2G networks, the service worked well and saved me a lot of cash. The article also includes my impressions after testing Project Fi back home in Philadelphia.
Credit: ASTM
The science of weights and measurements might sound like a dry topic at first, but I actually learned quite a lot speaking with Canada Chief Metrologist Alan Steele for this article in ASTM Standardization News.
For example, did you know that the kilogram is about to be redefined so that it will no longer be based on a small cylinder of platinum iridium metal? Did you even know it was based on a small cylinder of platinum iridium metal? These and other exciting facts inside!
WordCamp 2015 in Philly
Well, this is a WordPress blog, so I should probably include this one. In December, I attended the first national WordCamp US conference at the Philadelphia Convention Center. Not only did I enjoy the sessions, but I got to interview the organizers for this article in Technical.ly.
The conference was such a hit that City Council declared December 5 as WordPress Day!
THE CAPITAL — You see it painted on road signs and the walls of train stations and government buildings: A black visage with fiery red eyes.
The so-called “Fire Eyes,” dissident symbol of Heretics in the Underground.
This graffiti, done with a stencil and spray paint, has long fueled the Heretics’ hatred for our benevolent government. But until today we did not know the perpetrator.
Today, the administration of President William Drake announced that the Guard have learned the graffiti scoundrel’s name: Ignatius.
“We will find Ignatius,” said a spokesman for the Guard. “When we do, the Heretic will face charges of treason and Heresy. These offenses are punishable by death.”
It is not known where Ignatius resides at this time, and the street artist seems to have gone quiet of late, the spokesman said.
“He will turn up again,” claimed the spokesman. “Heretics like Ignatius just can’t resist. When he does, the Guard will be waiting.”
Set before the events of WE, THE WATCHEDand DIVIDED WE FALL, “Fire Eyes” reveals the man behind the street art seen throughout the acclaimed dystopian sci-fi novels. The story, inspired by real political street art by Banksy and others, makes a great entry point for new readers and provides new perspective to fans of Adam Bender’s books.
Like his novels, this short story by Adam Bender exposes a current political issue in an exciting speculative fiction adventure, carrying on the tradition of dystopian classics 1984 by George Orwell and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, as well as more recent blockbuster novels like The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
Over the past couple of months, my editor Rachel Gluckstern has been dishing out expert advice on how to amp up my novel about a west won by gun evangelists. Together, Rachel and I have fleshed out the backstories and motivations of each character, and made the big plot turns hit even harder. We’ve also improved the organization of the chapters and expanded upon my frightening vision of a near-future America.
Art by Sandy Bender
After two rounds of content edits, we have moved into the final phase: copy editing. This is a more technical edit — spelling, grammar and style — but critical to your reading enjoyment. We expect to have this finished by the end of the month, and at that point I plan to shop the manuscript around to potential agents (please contact me if you know anyone). I’m also planning to pitch the novel at an upcoming writers’ conference this April in Philadelphia.
Because I am so excited for you to read my new novel, I may decide to self-publish the novel like I did We, The Watchedand Divided We Fall. However, because this new story is my best work to date, I’m going to give traditional publishing one more stab.
Stay tuned to this blog for updates! Please also join my mailing list if you haven’t already. Thanks for all your support!
When Adam Bender’s not writing, he’s reading. Or doing other stuff, maybe. I mean, he can’t just be reading or writing all the time, can he?
But I digress (and switch suddenly to first person). Here is a selection of my latest book reviews on Goodreads. If you’re a Goodreads user, please follow me to keep updated on what I’m reading. You can even review my books if you want! The shoe is on the other foot now, eh?
Hm, that’s a weird expression. Oh well. Without further ado, book reviews! And today, a special SUPERHERO EDITION!
A visual feast for the eyes! This comic is all about style — almost like Kill Bill in book form. There’s a lot of action and not a huge amount of dialog, so the pages go by fast. The writer and artist were definitely in sync with this one, making the images feel like they’re in motion.
Warning: this is a dark, weird and blisteringly violent comic. If you’re into stuff by Frank Miller or Alan Moore, you’ll probably dig it. But it’s not for the faint of heart!
If you like a little humor with your superheroes, Ant-Man is the comic book for you. Nick Spencer killed it on The Superior Foes of Spider-Man and the spirit of that (sadly) canceled series lives on here! In fact, it’s actually kind of fitting, since Scott Lang (Ant-Man) used to be a criminal himself and doesn’t have problems working with other reformed criminals.
The story here takes a lot of unexpected turns, which adds a lot of originality to a genre that can at times feel stale. In that way, I think that Spencer, like Matt Fraction, are really doing a lot to reinvigorate superhero comics.
Of course, a lot of the humor would be lost without the great artwork by Ramon Rosanos. There’s something about the facial expressions and body positions he draws that really enhances the storytelling. A lot of the cleverness in the writing could easily be lost without Rosanos on-board.
For quite some time, I’ve been wanting to read the comic where Tony Stark has a drinking problem. Okay, that sounds kind of weird, but it’s true. This is the volume that includes the classic “Demon in a Bottle” comic.
What I didn’t realize is that it’s mainly the one issue (the last in this collection) that deals with it. The first seven issues show Tony having occasional drinks but he doesn’t really hit rock bottom until the issue before the eponymous #128. The storyline up to that point focuses on Justin Hammer messing with Iron Man’s suit. It’s a fun but not totally absorbing superhero adventure, and I felt a bit bored at times. So, if you’re just reading this for the drinking problem stuff, you might be better off buying digital single issues of #127 and #128.
That said, that last issue is pretty great. It’s pretty interesting to see a comic take on an issue like drinking and do it in a way that feels organic to the plot. Even more commendable is that the guy with the problem here is Iron Man himself! I’ve seen a lot of comics address addiction issues through sidekicks and friends of sidekicks, so it’s great to see Marvel had the guts to use one of their biggest stars.
Like the Batman and Joker volumes before it, this another great hardcover reproduction of classic Batman stories. Robin is a character with an interesting history, because he’s had so many different secret identities. Each of them reflect the times in which they were created.
In this volume, you get a bunch of classic tales, including “Robin Dies at Dawn” (he doesn’t really) and the “Death in the Family” issue where the Joker kills Jason Todd, the second Robin (he really does). The collection kind of loses steam as soon as Tim Drake comes onto the scene, which was a bit surprising because I always liked the character in the ’90s. Maybe it’s because his issues tend to deal with teenager life stuff and I’m no longer a teen.
It’s definitely worth reading if you like the character, and there’s plenty of Dick Grayson here, but I would recommend some supplemental reading to get a better feel for the other Robins. For example, there’s only single issues here from the larger story arcs Batman: A Death in the Family, Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying, and Batman and Son. It’s worth checking out these other books to get a better feel for Jason Todd, Tim Drake and Damian Wayne.
You should also check out the excellent Batman and Robin: Batman Reborn, in which Dick Grayson is Batman and Damian Wayne is Robin.
Well, that’s the end of today’s edition of Adam Bender reads … If you’ve read any of the above books, I’d love to hear your opinion in the comments below! Or let me know what books you think I should read next!
Head over to Kirkus to read the full review! Then, if you haven’t read it yet, check out this page for a list of stores to buy We, The Watched in digital or paperback. You can also get the eBook for FREE by joining my mailing list!
