Location: United States
Member Since: Jan. 12, 2012
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Matthew D. Ryan


Biography

Matthew D. Ryan is a published author living in upstate New York on the shores of Lake Champlain. He has a background in philosophy, mathematics, and computer science. He believes he saw the legendary Lake Champlain Monster (a.k.a Champy) once and he has a cat named Confucius.

Where to find Matthew D. Ryan online

Twitter: MatthewDRyan1
    Facebook: Facebook profile
    LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/matt-ryan/34/862/877
    Blog: http://www.atoasttodragons.com

    Books

    Drasmyr    by Matthew D. Ryan
    Price: Free! 125450 words. Published on February 9, 2012. Fiction.
    0.5 star(4.50 from 4 reviews)
    In a world of wizards and vampires a clever man may make a fortune. But hunting the undead is no small task, as Coragan the bounty hunter will soon find out. He will need all his wits and the help of his comrades. Together, they must pit themselves against a creature so old time itself bends knee, an ancient vampire by the name of Lucian val Drasmyr.

    Matthew D. Ryan’s tag cloud

    drasmyr    fantasy    magic    sorcery    sword    vampire    warrior    wizard   

    Smashwords book reviews by Matthew D. Ryan

    • Smashwords Book Marketing Guide on June 25, 2012
      star star star star star
      This is an excellent book. It should be given five stars, if for no other reason than all Smashwords authors should read it. Regardless, it is well written and concise, and gives much needed advice to the newbie author.
    • Smashwords Style Guide on June 25, 2012
      star star star star
      This is an excellent book. It gives you step-by-step instruction to uploading your work onto Smashwords. I never would have been able to figure it out without it. My only complaint is that, since the industry changes so rapidly, the information can become outdated. For example, I have Microsoft 2010 and the book references 2007--so there were discrepancies, but they were small, and I figured them out.
    • The Unsuspecting Mage: The Morcyth Saga Book One on March 31, 2013
      star star star
      “The Unsuspecting Mage” is book one of the seven book series, The Morcyth Saga, by Brian S. Pratt. It tells the story of James, a high school student from our very own Earth who, when he answers an unusual ad in the paper, finds himself thrust into a strange and dangerous unknown world with little to help him except a short book on magic (which he quickly loses—of course). The story is pretty straightforward. James needs to return home, but he has no idea how to get there. He’s given some clues on what he’s wanted for in this world by a strange little impish creature that keeps showing up to “help” him. Other than that, he’s on his own. Eventually, he finds himself on a quest for information regarding the good god Morcyth whose religion was wiped out several centuries ago. This leads him from city to city across the land with a young boy named Miko to accompany him. He makes a few enemies (and a few friends) along the way. The book reaches its climax in a besieged city called the City of the Light. I won’t spoil the ending. Overall, I found this book to be … unexceptional. That is what describes it best. It wasn’t awful by any stretch of the imagination; I was able to read it without too much difficulty over the course of a week or so. However, the writing wasn’t good enough to persuade me to get the next book in the series. Strengths: there are a couple: most notably the positive moral character of the main character James. He comes across as a decent enough guy who makes morally decent decisions. That can be a plus or a minus depending upon the reader. Sometimes, he seemed almost too much of a goodie-two-shoes (or is it goodie-too-shoes?), in an unrealistic way—he always had sage advice and a willingness to go out of his way to help people to whom he owed nothing. Weaknesses: there were a few. Most notable, the work (at least the version I got) was riddled with typos. And some of them were quite serious—entire missing words and whatnot. It got kind of annoying after a while. Also, and this may even be more significant, there was very little tension. Most of the people he encounters in his travels are normal everyday-types who aren’t out to hurt anybody, or deceive anybody; there are one or two exceptions, but they are mostly on the periphery. It doesn’t make for an exciting story. There was a lot of useless dialogue consisting of “Hi. How are you?” “Oh, I’m fine. And you?” and similar type stuff. On a side note, the book is written in present tense. That can work, sometimes, if it’s done correctly. In this case, I think it averages out to be a neutral, adding nothing special to the work, nor taking too much away. Overall, I’ll give this work two and half, or maybe three stars, out of five, if I’m feeling generous.
    • The Unsuspecting Mage: The Morcyth Saga Book One on March 31, 2013
      star star star
      “The Unsuspecting Mage” is book one of the seven book series, The Morcyth Saga, by Brian S. Pratt. It tells the story of James, a high school student from our very own Earth who, when he answers an unusual ad in the paper, finds himself thrust into a strange and dangerous unknown world with little to help him except a short book on magic (which he quickly loses—of course). The story is pretty straightforward. James needs to return home, but he has no idea how to get there. He’s given some clues on what he’s wanted for in this world by a strange little impish creature that keeps showing up to “help” him. Other than that, he’s on his own. Eventually, he finds himself on a quest for information regarding the good god Morcyth whose religion was wiped out several centuries ago. This leads him from city to city across the land with a young boy named Miko to accompany him. He makes a few enemies (and a few friends) along the way. The book reaches its climax in a besieged city called the City of the Light. I won’t spoil the ending. Overall, I found this book to be … unexceptional. That is what describes it best. It wasn’t awful by any stretch of the imagination; I was able to read it without too much difficulty over the course of a week or so. However, the writing wasn’t good enough to persuade me to get the next book in the series. Strengths: there are a couple: most notably the positive moral character of the main character James. He comes across as a decent enough guy who makes morally decent decisions. That can be a plus or a minus depending upon the reader. Sometimes, he seemed almost too much of a goodie-two-shoes (or is it goodie-too-shoes?), in an unrealistic way—he always had sage advice and a willingness to go out of his way to help people to whom he owed nothing. Weaknesses: there were a few. Most notable, the work (at least the version I got) was riddled with typos. And some of them were quite serious—entire missing words and whatnot. It got kind of annoying after a while. Also, and this may even be more significant, there was very little tension. Most of the people he encounters in his travels are normal everyday-types who aren’t out to hurt anybody, or deceive anybody; there are one or two exceptions, but they are mostly on the periphery. It doesn’t make for an exciting story. There was a lot of useless dialogue consisting of “Hi. How are you?” “Oh, I’m fine. And you?” and similar type stuff. On a side note, the book is written in present tense. That can work, sometimes, if it’s done correctly. In this case, I think it averages out to be a neutral, adding nothing special to the work, nor taking too much away. Overall, I’ll give this work two and half, or maybe three stars, out of five, if I’m feeling generous.
    • The Eighth Power: Book I: The Book of the Living on April 03, 2013
      star star
      “The Eighth Power: Book I: The Book of the Living” by Paul Lytle is a reasonably short fantasy novel telling the story of a farmer named Barrin Iylin and his newborn son, Ayrim. This being the first book in the series, much of the story is focused on Barrin, but it is clear the series itself will be focused on Ayrim. This book seems almost like a prequel, providing the set up for what will surely follow. The story is pretty basic. It’s a fantasy world populated by men and a nefarious race of creatures called ern. An integral part of the world are the Prophets (Mages or Wizards, depending on what you want to call them), each of whom is a master of a single elemental form of magic. There are six gods, one for each elemental form of magic, and, something which I found quite creative, a being/non-being called the Absence. The Absence is basically what emerged from nothingness in the absence of the other gods (He explains it better—I just thought it was kind of cool). Anyway, the story begins with the deaths of two Prophets (spoiler alert). Because they died, there power goes out into the world to enter two newborns. This sets off a race between the forces of good and the forces of darkness to find these newborns. Ayrim Iylin is born on the correct day, but according to the Prophet that finds him, is not one of the newborn Prophets. However, the forces of darkness are not taking any chances and are bent on killing ALL babies born on that day. So, Barrin is thrust into a situation where he must see to the safety of his newborn son, or die trying. Strengths: For one, this book came with a map which is always a plus. It’s always fun to follow a story along a map as it progresses. Also, there were a number of interesting ideas in the book; as I mentioned above, I was particularly intrigued by the Absence. Weaknesses: well, I take the most issue with the writing. I will say that Paul Lytle has potential, but his skills aren’t quite there yet. His thoughts had a tendency to ramble on in a few places, and he also had a tendency to use archaic constructions (that can work, sometimes, but he over did it and the book became a chore to read). By archaic, I mean taking a sentence like “He was tall,” and changing it to “Tall, he was,” and doing that throughout the book. I think Tolkien did that sometimes, but it worked for Tolkien. Here it just bogged down the story. Overall, I’ll give this book two stars out of five.