*The following text is an honest review*
Synopsis/Opinion:
Ask anyone who knows me what my favorite genre is and you will most likely get ‘Steampunk’, so for me a series under the genre of ‘Emergent Steampunk’ is bound to be good. If you want series that pushes the known boundary of what blends together then I suggest you pick this up, you got Santa Claus fused with Nikola Tesla and a girl who is basically Little Red (Yellow) Riding Hood is has the personality of Katniss and Buffy The Vampire Slayers which makes the series all the more lovable. Plus there is mechanical horses, who couldn’t love that!
Toury Stuff:
Ask Adam Dreece what things he fussed with in his series and he will give you this:
5 Steve Jobs-type things I fussed over with my books
With the words done and the cover art complete, there was plenty that I insisted on tweaking until I felt they were just right. Here’s the top 5:
Font size
I opted to have an 11pt font instead of the standard 9pt font. As a dyslexic and as someone with supposedly large eye apertures, and knowing that there will be younger and older readers reading the book, I decided to opt for higher print costs but make the books easier to read. The slightly larger font allows for less information to be pulled in for people like me allowing for better focus, is less intimidating for the younger person and makes those needing glasses more comfortable. I couldn’t very well create a book that I wouldn’t be able to read comfortably, now could I?
Word frequency in paragraphs
My dyslexic brain finds patterns very easily. Some books will have a good 8 to 10 paragraphs in a row (and I’m not exaggerating, he says looking at a specific book on his bookshelf) that all start with a character’s name. My brain will focus on that, and now it’s fighting for my attention to investigate other patterns. I also lose my place easily because of the repeated structure. Thus I decided to make sure, unless it was impossible, that my books don’t have a repeating start.
Look from ten feet away as well as in hand
People need to be pulled in by the book, which requires it to be clearly visible from a distance and up close. I have put the book covers and looked at them from a distance, approach them, played with them, until it looked and felt right.
Weight of the book
I wanted the book to feel the right weight, to have credibility in how it felt in the hand and for the make being charged. It sounds funny, but I’ve watched countless people do that. They look at the cover, they read the back of the book, and then I watch their hand bob up and down slightly as they weigh its value and their decision. I’ve been told many, many times that “my books are great value” even before someone has read them.
White space around the text
One thing that drives me absolutely batsheep crazy is when an author has such narrow margins that it looks like they thought you were allowed to write on every possible space on the page. To read what’s in the bound margin, you have to break the spin, then the words go all the way from about a quarter inch or less at the top (he looks at another book on his shelf) all the way down to the very last row of the page. For my brain, its unreadable. There’s no place for my fingers, there’s no framing of the text.
This is done to reduce printing costs, and again, I’d rather make a bit less money but provide a much better reader experience than save myself 4 pages and ticked off a reader.
It shows how much he cares about the series and his books, again, I state that I love them.
Rating: For the whole series, (totaling 3 books) 4.5 out of 5 stars!
Want to know more about the series?:
Title: Along Came a Wolf (Bk 1)
Series: The Yellow Hoods
Author: Adam Dreece
Publication Date: April 14, 2014
Someone is on the hunt for the steam engine plans, and believes that master inventor, Nikolas Klaus, has them. Thought dead by most, and forgotten by many, the quiet grandfather has been living for years in the sleepy mountain town of Minette, keeping his inventions mostly to himself and watching his granddaughter grow up.
Twelve-year-old Tee, and her two best friends, Elly and Richy, come together as the heroic Yellow Hoods in the face of life threatening danger. Whose side are the Cochon brothers on, and will they tip the balance? Will Nikolas’ ties to one of the secret societies cost him Tee’s life?
Title: Breadcrumb Trail (Bk 2)
Series: The Yellow Hoods
Author: Adam Dreece
Publication Date: August 18, 2014
In an act of desperation, inventor Maxwell Watt sends his teenage son to Nikolas Klaus with the secret plans for his steam engine. The Fare, a nefarious secret society, learns of the game-changing invention and accelerate their timeline to neutralize Klaus and reclaim control over the kingdoms.
While wars spark to the south, children in Mineau have started to go missing–again. Captain Archambault suspects the return of the Ginger Lady. With the help of the Yellow Hoods and their friends, the search is on to find the missing children before it is too late.
What is the secret that ties the Yellow Hoods to the Ginger Lady? Who are the Red Hoods really?
Title: All the King’s Men (Bk 3)
Series: The Yellow Hoods
Author: Adam Dreece
Publication Date: To be Released on April 15th!!
More than a hundred years ago, a king declared that all geniuses, scientists and inventors were abominations, save for those willing to become his Conventioneers. His edict spread like wildfire through the kingdoms, and drove the hunted into the arms of the secret societies, the Tub and the Fare.
Decades later, having taken control of the remains of the crushed Fare, a young Marcus Pieman follows up on rumors of a homeless, teenage Abominator in his city. When the scared Nikolas Klaus looked up at Marcus for the first time, a tremendous bond was forged.
A betrayal leads Tee to a showdown with her greatest foe. Who breaks and who lays bleeding in the middle of nowhere?
And Mounira learns the truth about the once great inventor, Christophe Creangle.
YOU CAN FIND & PURCHASE ALL BOOKS IN THE SERIES HERE:
(For Each Individual Book)
Book 3 - All The King's Men: Goodreads | Amazon (now out!)
