Eric Smith is the co-founder of Geekadelphia, a popular hyperlocal blog in Philadelphia, covering all-that-is-geek in the City of Brotherly Love. In 2011, he co-founded the Philadelphia Geek Awards with Tim Quirino and the Academy of Natural Sciences, a ceremony honoring local geeks. His writing has appeared locally in the Philadelphia Weekly, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly.com, and you can catch him blogging almost daily on Geekadelphia. He contributes to BookRiot and his personal essays have been published in the literary journals The Apiary and The Bygone Bureau. His essay in the Bygone Bureau, Master Grief, went massively viral in the Fall of 2011, and was featured on the front page of Reddit and Yahoo, on Kotaku, G4, CNet, Buzzfeed, and more. Eric holds a BA in English from Kean University and an MA in English from Arcadia University, two schools he adores. He uses those fancy degrees to teach the occasional literature and composition course at Peirce College. His Mom keeps these degrees hanging in his childhood home, and won’t give them back. In another life, he used to photograph and tour with rock bands. He was a serious scene kid and once won an award from Alternative Press. Don’t believe the scene cred? Check out this Silverstein’s music video for If You Could See Into My Soul. Done? Did you see someone familiar? That should tell you enough. A native of New Jersey (don’t hate), he currently lives in Philadelphia. You can find him on Twitter at @ericsmithrocks and @geekadelphia.
Inked by Eric Smith
Inked, by Eric Smith, was a solid if uninspiring YA book for much of the first half, albeit with some grating issues, but a downturn in the latter part of the book greatly lowered its entertainment value, leading to a "not recommended" judgment. As usual in these cases, this will be a relatively short review, as I prefer not to pile on an author whom I’m sure put a lot of hard work and love into their work.
The story centers on 18-year-old Caenum and his best friend Dreya, who is slightly older. Their ages are important because in this world, people are “inked” at age eighteen — given magical tattoos that determine their role in society for the rest of their lives, whether it be farmer (one such has an apple tree tattoo on their back), a florist (ivies vining up one’s arm), goldsmith, or assassin. When Caenum’s turn arises though, the arrival of an apprentice scribe named Kenzi thro... Read More
