Food. Water. Shelter. Bathrooms. There are a few basic things that we humans need in order to survive, and a few other things that might not be entirely necessary but that we'd definitely notice if they weren't available. Generally in contemporary books, these things are common and available and not an issue. But what about books set in the past? Dystopian books? Post-apocalyptic books? Books in...
I talk a lot about realism (obviously, since I've got this whole unofficial series about it going on my blog), and I've made it pretty clear that I like things in the books I read to be pretty realistic. But so far I've talked about specific things, like characters and injuries. Today I want to get a little more broad. This was actually something I noticed in a book I read lately. The book,...
A few weeks ago I talked about how realistic I like characters to be in the books I read, but this time I want to talk about injuries. Unrealistic injuries seems to be a big problem---nay, an epidemic---in books, at least the ones I read. And once again, I'm on the side of realism. I want characters to have realistic injuries. Give me the realistic injuries! (Well, don't give me the injuries. I'm...
Recently, Cait over at Paper Fury did a post about how realistic books should be, and it got me thinking. I read mostly fantasy and sci-fi, so it's pretty safe to say I like unrealistic premises. But there are certain things within those premises that I do want to be realistic. And one of those things is characters. Of course everyone likes different things, everyone reads for different reasons,...
