Typo Paperback – July 3, 2013

I not infrequently have friends say that they wished they lived in the fantasy world of The Princess Bride, or The Lord of the Rings, or some other fantasy novel, and, much as I love these books, I always look at them like they are crazy. In almost all of those worlds, there are all sorts of social issues, between genders, races, classes, people with magic and people without magic, whatever it is. They are usually worlds that are fairly harsh in terms of resource availability, and there always seems to be more than a necessary amount of violence. Actually living in those worlds always seems like it would be terrible.I feel like I wouldn't mind the world Josh Breitbart created in Typo nearly as much. There is the social issue of how the undead are treated, and what sorts of services and resources they have a right to, and there is some emperor guy who seems to be conquering stuff, and some cruel and selfish (but not all powerful!) gods, and there is definitely still violence, but all of the characters in the book are so different, in terms of gender, species, background, abilities, and yet they are all so compassionate and respectful towards each other, and they seem to be part of a larger culture that's working to make that even more true in their world. It's awesome.That being said, the book is still a little rough. There are typos (which might be appropriate given the title), and some confusing use of pronouns, and parts that maybe could be cleaned up a little bit more (but hey, it's supposed to be the main character's journal- all of that does lend to feeling like she's actually writing this). I feel though like we rarely get treated any more to a world that is as imaginative and creative as this one. Parts of it are just beautiful. And you rarely get to meet characters anymore who are so kind. Despite taking place in a different world entirely, this book left me feeling better about myself and hopeful for our world. I consider anything that can do that very worthwhile.I really enjoyed reading this novel, and I can't wait to see what this author does next!

Got into the book and found it structured very well and flowed very easily. Held my interest and I even learned a few things. Great gift idea for high school/college + age group!