Author a little confused on gender ???
930205
My wife brought home this book from the library this week.  My wife grabbed the book primarily because of the title "Paint a Sun in the Sky", which she found appealing.  I sat down to read it to my 3 year old son before bed one evening, and was disturbed by the gender depictions throughout each page of this short book.  Beginning with the girls on the front cover who are hard at work than the other boys.  Throughout the book the girls are even dressed more "boyish" than the boys!  The boys throughout the book strike "passive" poses, while the girls are always carrying a soccer ball, wearing baseball caps, hunting winter caps, overalls, etc...  The boys are wearing yellow and pink shirts, hands in their pockets, and crossing their arms like girls.  On page 7, you will see the following:  While they are discussing the colors of spring, the 2 girls exclaim "Green" and "Yellow" while the boy emphatically exclaims "Pink"!  On page 9, you have a little girl saying "And bugs and worms, too" while the little boy next to her exclaims "Yuck!"  All of this within a 27 page book!

If you are a father or a parent who appreciates the preservation of gender distinctions, this book is not for you.  At the cost of such socially harmful, yet subtle imagery - I would recommend getting your science lessons elsewhere.  I was embarrassed to be reading this to my 3 year old son.
3807382
I saw this author promoted on Facebook and read all the hoopla on all the characters.  I ordered the 1st book and it's just about this chic's sex life with the guy.  Story?  where is the story?
2826293
I am having trouble with the character Bianca.  On page 37 whe has near-black curls, Mediterranean skin and blue eyes and on page 66 she has red-blonde curls, freckles and hazel eyes.  I would think an author of this stature would have better proofreading.  It really distracted me from the story.
699229
I really, really wanted to like this. To understand why, let me share with you the following quote from the original cover blurb:

"Eric Olafson, struggling with a secret desire to be female, leaves the traditional and inward looking society of Nilfeheim to fulfil his dreams of becoming a Starship captain."

A transgender starship captain! That sounds pretty awesome, am I right? Sadly, for some reason, the publisher has removed all reference to that fact from the current cover blurb, which is a shame as I would not have read it otherwise.

Although I did not realize it at the time, Eric Olafson, Space Pirate was originally self-published by Vanessa Ravencroft about 6 years ago. According to the FictionPress website, it is actually the 9th book in her Galactic Chronicles and the 5th book in her Olafson Saga, which explains some of my confusion with things it felt as if we are already expected to know, but which adds a whole other element of confusion regarding the writing. I did finish this (it took me a while), and I did have some fun with it, but I did not find it to be particularly well-written or well-edited. Not to be overly critical but I would expect a little more refinement in style over 9 books, and I do hope the additional editing it has apparently been through prior to release was more than just a quick polish. I am sorry, but this was sometimes painful to read.

As a Young Adult B-grade homage to the days of pulp science fiction, this was an alright story, even if I suspect it may not have been intended as such. The story is light on detail, with dialogue that borders between juvenile and cheesy, and names that are even worse (Moistpromise and Wetmouth immediately come to mind). As for Eric, he is an awkward character, a man with a feminine side (named Freya) who never actually comes across as either transvestite or transsexual. Gender-fluid, perhaps, but the question of gender is never explored deeply enough to give it meaning. I wanted to love him, and wanted his struggle to mean more, but it felt more like a plot device than a genuine expression of the transgender experience - which is a shame, because I have see YA novels tackle the issue beautifully.
1873243
I think that the author is interesting and very different in a way she tells her stories through suspense fiction. However, I find this book very strange how an adult keeps being reborn into various number of people more than once, but then in this story, hes recarnated into a bof an infant? Whats the real purpose of why Tres in there? Is Aaron meant to be a prodigy or was Tres a saint from another life? Not only that, how could an infant develop so quickly within months? I think some people use their children as tools for their own benefits. Aaron is only a baby!
2885029
According to this week's National Enquirer (which I know only prints the truth or I wouldn't write for them) Cher has collapsed in horror and shame when she read Chaz's new book, Transition: The Story of How I Became a Man.
  I can understand.
  I have nothing against transgender people.
  The book, while readable, does a disservice to the TS community. Chaz may mentally believe he is a man, but he has not had bottom surgery.
  Funny: When Chastity decided she was a lesbian, she wrote a book. When she decided she was a man, she wrote a book. My sources say Chaz received "a handsome six-figure advance" for writing the book; actually he had help from another author. Doesn't this man work?)
  All together now: I was born in the wagon of a traveling' show . . .

Continue reading on Examiner.com: Cocksure Chaz Bono: Welcome to the Freak Show, the Circus. Oh Man! Cher the News - Pittsburgh Stage and Screen | Examiner.com [...]
2972919
UPDATE, Jan 11, 2014: The author has informed me "it's a companion piece to a fictional text, not a text of fiction", which, as I noted in my original review, makes all the difference in the world. I therefore am revising my review and raising my rating to 3 stars. I do not know which fictional text it is a companion to, but just knowing it is allows me to see it in a much different light. Sorry for any potential customers I may have scared off.
1499728
While called "WOMEN in Tech", what the book doesn't tell you is that part of the story by Brianna Wu was from before she started to transition (Wu is transgender) so her startup failure (not Giant Spacekat but an animation company funded by her parents giving her 200k, unless you have rich parents her advice may not be very helpful) is from when she presented as a white male and thus irrelevant to being a woman in tech because nobody (possibly not even Wu herself) saw her as a woman but a privileged white man. Ironically Wu only ever achieved any level of success (1 game with a "mixed or average review" rating on Metacritic) in tech after the world began seeing her as a woman despite claims of industry sexism. Wu is also known to have somewhat of a rocky relationship with the truth so be sure to take her stories with a grain of salt.
1036997
Some authors write for everybody. Some authors write for women and some authors write for men. Ms. Walker clearly writes for women. I have never been a fan of erotica and I don't really know the difference between this stuff and pornography. A woman who was a friend of mine at the time was reading the book and started talking to me about the book and gave it to me to read after she finished and I was open minded enough to read it thinking we could talk about it afterwards. When she took the book away from me I found a cheap used audio book and decided to finish listening. I think I liked reading it better, but my being a man the material is really not my thing.
351510
I love the price but I also have other dinosaur books from this series. Im guess this book was written early on because the pronouns are all she. Was a bit disappointed-i have sons and I have chosen their gender as male for them. Sue me. When reading, Ill just edit it-but theres also little girls in the book as well. In the other books, they say A dinosaur instead of she.  Also disappointed because my youngest, when not identifying as a male, also identifies as a dinosaur.
3983122
While this book has some great, well-explained content, I was really disappointed to notice  (after purchasing it) that of the 8 distinct characters shown, only 1 is female (and she only appears once and is background - uninvolved in the storyline, she is serving food). Good job reinforcing that STEM is for boys only!
4843704
A good book, fun premise, but one thing keeps striking me: whenever a new female character is introduced, she is described based on whether or not she's attractive to the main character.  Like that's the only quality that matters.  "She had a coarsely pretty face..." "...her lips were a little too thick for beauty.  But her other features were exquisite." (A naked woman is being described here, so we can only wonder what "other features" are being referred to.) When a female character does don clothing, the narrator notes that she becomes "masculine and ugly." It's like every woman is a sexual target for the main character, and its more than a little distracting.  I'm surprised no other reviewer has mentioned this.
4713337
I have not read this book, but judging from the description it appears to be a short story along WITH an excerpt from another book.  Yet many of the reviewers say that it just ends so it's not a complete store at all, but rather a sample of The 9th Girl.  I think it's deceptive of the author (and Amazon) to publish an excerpt or sample under the guise of a short story.  The description is also different enough from The 9th Girl to mislead you... here is a quote that definitely made me think it was a separate story: "....with The 1st Victim. Includes an early look at The 9th Girl, coming July 2013."
I was going to buy the story to see how I liked the characters and series, but not sure now if I even want to read this author!
Since I haven't read this short story... if you disagree, please comment telling me so and I will check it out further.  It is certainly not my intention to mislead anyone!!
1105420
I just finished this two nights ago and was intrigued from beginning to end. Full of incredibly interesting information, some which I believe 100% (that we are all essentially one and connected) and some that I am a bit skeptical about (the highest levels a being can attain can only be achieved by masculine forces)?  It's so annoying in this lifetime (if I had previous lifetimes I am thinking this is one of the first or few as a female) to constantly reach for the answers, first in mainstream religion and now the "new age" or spiritual sects only to be told over and over again that masculine incarnations reign supreme.

Do souls have genders? I always thought not. I also always believed that God or Universe or Source was not one gender or the other. The more books like this I read by female authors (and some male), the more I feel a warm and welcoming acceptance into the journey of learning spiritual teachings, psychic gifts, energy, etc. This is the second recent book I've read like this by a male who often comes across as one sided and sexist (even if not intentional).

I'm sorry. I like this book very much and plan to reread it again to better sit down and do the meditations. I read the author's blog and was relived to see him interacting with females and treating them as equals (his other God selves) but perhaps in future books he can mention if he was ever a "she" in previous lifetimes, interaction with any feminine angels or entities, or heck..if he really did make it to the 12th dimension, then surely he did some time in the 7th dimension as a (feminine) planet.  Throw us ladies a bone please. (Do not insert crude joke here. Thanks.)

Loved the book but unsettling/unbalanced for 50% of Earth's population.
4715071
The author is a superb writer but the the short stories were not what I expected.  They are well written but have an unhappy undertone to them that (in some cases) seem to revolve around some gender power play.
2137609
The author - like many people have mentioned already - misrepresents facts.  This does indeed weaken the author's credibility.  The world of argument is largely based on credibility and the misrepresentation of facts is often indicative of larger flaws in an author's argument.  It is just the way argument works - when facts concerning something as important as rape - child rape - are wrong, it is hard to give the author credence. I am very sorry to have to add my opinion on all this because it may hurt book sales, but I personally am more concerned with honesty.  Only through honest representation can something as horrible as rape be truly understood.  Again, I am sorry that any negative feedback may be deemed as an attack on the author.  I do not wish to attack the author, I simply want the truth to be told.
4685115
Actually, I wrote this book and I have no idea why the editors, Julie Temple Stan and Agnes Priscsak felt entitled to put their names on the book as authors! First time I've seen the finished book and I'm shocked at the strange practice of an editor taking credit for an author's work. Fortunately, I've written over 160 books with ONLY my name on them and so I wonder where "author" Julie Temple Stan's list of books might be?