Looking to trade critiques for my polished fantasy/scifi novel

[cjcurrie]

Hello everyone!

I recently completed a scifi-rooted fantasy novel with a fair bit of action and literary & deconstructive elements. It's polished and went out to beta readers, but my friends and family couldn't provide the quality of feedback that a good beta buddy from AW can give. I try to give thoughtful, educated critiques. I'm a junior at a 4-year program with a degree-in-progress in creative writing.

Over on Nathan Bradsford's forums I had solicited a critique partner and had gotten some very valuable feedback on the opening chapters of my novel. I'm looking for the same arrangement with one or two other people: We swap synopses and a chapter or two at a time. If we enjoy reading each other's works, we give critiques and continue. If not, it's no big deal and we go our separate ways. Is anyone interested? Here's the pitch for what I'm working on:


Jerren Li’Sterrik is a dropout magus who resorts to petty crime when money gets tight. While doing a job for a local crime boss, he finds a mysterious cultural relic hidden in a lord’s treasury. After botching the job beyond repair, he decides that swindling his best friend and the princess she works for is his easiest ticket out of the city. Failure ensues when they are framed for an act of domestic terrorism that the State perpetrated in order to instigate civil war. Agents of the State then relentlessly pursue Jerren and his companions for the evidence they carry – evidence that could also avert the impending civil war.

Help comes when an influential but discontent lord offers the companions asylum in exchange for their allegiance. He claims that the salvation of the anti-State rebellion lies both in the evidence they carry and the artifact Jerren found. Left with few options, the companions embark on a deadly game of cat and mouse with a government who wants them erased.