T.W. Ambrose

Heroes Die Young

Review

Aston West Novels

By T.M. Hunter 

In all fairness let me start with this disclaimer:  Hero’s Die Young and Friends in Deed were both sent free of charge for review.  On top of that I consider author T.M. Hunter a friend.  Despite of that I will attempt to write an honest review of the work.

 

Heroes Die Young

Hero’s Die Young is the first person adventure of Space Pirate Aston West.  Aston however isn’t your typical space pirate; he avoids trouble like a plague and spends his time pilfering derelict freighters with the occasional transport of legal goods for hire.  Aston does all of this with his only true friend in the world Jeanie his ships onboard computer, who has a programmed personality, but seems all too real at times.

In this first adventure we find Astons pockets empty and forced to fly freight for a high profit.  When he comes upon what appears to be an abandoned freighter fresh out of battle.  Unable to pass up the possibility of a huge payday Aston docks with the freighter, grabs his Mark II blaster, and goes on board to take a look.  On board Aston discovers a massacre has taken place.  Dead bodies are strewn around and scorch marks line the walls, the hulls however are full of illegal weapons and one lone alien seems to be protecting them.  

Shortly after that several destroyers show up; Aston fills the rest of his cargo holds and barely escapes with his life, with alien woman in tow.  This leads Aston a wild adventure among several planets, during which time he runs into old friends makes new friends, and a few enemies.  In the end Aston must decide whether he will take up the path of a hero, or live to fly another day.

Heroes Die Young offers an enjoyable ride Aston West is a relatable character who is easy to read.  From page 1 to page 140 you find yourself just wanting more.  Which brings us to the downside of Heroes Die Young, at 140 pages it’s really more of a Novella then a novel.  On top of that you can tell this is Author T.M. Hunters first novel as he at times struggles with pacing, giving us to much at times and slowing things down, then speeding through areas we want to spend time.  But in the end I love great fictional characters, and Aston West is one.  Its true Book 2 is better, but in the end, you’ll want more and find yourself back at Hero’s Die Young.

Wizard at Large

Back to take a look at the third book in this series.  It’s been great looking back at one of the favorite book series from my childhood, and I hope you have enjoyed this classic look back as much as I have.

As we get into this third book in the series the first thing that jumps out at you is just how bad the original cover is.  You have a picture of this little Dragon, battling what appears to be Gandalf the White.  And after reading the book, you’ll quickly find that nowhere within does Gandalf show up to battle a baby dragon.  The closest thing we have is Questor, a man described as a human scarecrow wearing colorful robes and scarves.  And the Dragon is ancient, and often carries 5 or more people on his back with ease. 

 

Enough complaining about the cover though, Wizard at Large starts much as the last book as Landover is again at a time of piece and calm, when Questor, now with too much free time, thinks he discovers a way to turn Abernathy back into a man.  (If we remember, Abernathy was the court scribe, but had been turned into a dog.) There is one catch however, to make the magic work a catalyst is needed, and that catalyst is Ben’s medallion worn by the kings of Landover. 

 

Well, as you can guess, things go horribly wrong.  Abernathy disappears, and in his place, a bottle which we find contains a demon.  The bottle with the demon is stolen by Phillip and Sot, and taken from the castle.  Ben and company go after them to retrieve the bottle.

 

Abernathy, on the other hand, has been transported to earth and the home of his arch enemy the former king of Landover.  The former king is an evil man who had been working with Meeks in selling and reselling Landover in the past.  And now sees the medallion as his way to return once again.  Abernathy is caged and fed dog food until he agrees to give up the medal.

 

Well, to make a short story shorter (This is the shortest book of the first three).  Unable to deal with the Demon, Ben and Willow have Questor transport them to Earth to save Abernathy; and Questor realizing the only to bring them all back is with the help of the Dragon who can fly through the fairy mists to different worlds.  (See the book cover up above).

 

Well Ben and company find themselves in trouble, but Questor comes through just in time to finish off this fun and fast passed romp.  As I finish this third book, I look forward to the next three, as this is the last one I had read in the series.  I hope you’ll read it with me, and I’ll let you know what I thought soon.

The Black Unicorn

A couple weeks back I reviewed a book called Magic Kingdom for Sale, since that time I have now finished its sequel The Black Unicorn.  The Black Unicorn takes place days shortly after the first book.  Ben Holliday is king over Landover, Willow rules beside him, Questor advises the king and the castle is full of retainers.  The plague is starting to be removed, the Lords are in line, and all of Landover has submitted to Ben’s rule.

Of course things can’t continue to go well, and on one night Ben, Questor, and Willow each have a strange dream.  Abernathy, the scribe, advises them against acting on these dreams, but his warnings fall upon deaf ears.   Ben heads back to our world to check on his old friend, Willow goes in search of the Black Unicorn, and Questor to find books of magic. 

Ben after returning home found his old friend and former law firm was doing just fine.  He returns Landover, and finds Meeks has snuck a ride through the mists with him.  Meeks takes Ben’s appearance, changes the way Ben looks, and kicks him out of the castle.  Around the same time, Questor finds the books of magic, only to find them destroyed, and Willow is haunted with more and more dreams of the Black Unicorn.

Well as time goes on Ben finds a new ally in a prism can by the name of Edgewood Dirk, eventually solves the mystery of his changed appearance, regains his friends, and changes to the Paladin to battle Meeks in a fight to the death.

This second book was an enjoyable read, however is suffered from pacing through the middle of the book.  It seems like Ben spends forever just searching for the truth, but just can’t grasp the big picture.  I think this story could have been a far better read if we spent more time back at the castle seeing what was going on between Questor, Abernathy, and Meeks posing as the fake king of Landover.  This book also suffers from the fact it just had to follow such a great book; the second book in a great series is almost always a letdown.  If Magic Kingdom for Sale was an A, The Black Unicorn is a solid C+ although I still recommend reading it, to continue on with a classic series.

Tim and Jeff’s Geeked Out Show of Awesome Awesomeness

Well, as you may have noticed, I had slowed down in my posting here again over the past few weeks. Well, my newest project has been the reason for that.  Tim and Jeff’s Geeked Out Show of Awesome Awesomeness officially hit the airwaves February 8^th 2010 (sort of) and I’ve been busy working with Jeff to get the show off the ground. 

The podcast is my first venture into podcasting, although I have been talking about it for years.  Originally I had planned on making this a show on writing, what I ended up with was a show where Jeff and I talk about all things “geeky”, hence the name.  For example in Episode 1 we talked about Lost, where I almost correctly predicted the location of the mysterious lost inhaler.  Episode 1.5 was actually recorded the day John Hughes died and we talked about all things John Hughes, and many things that had nothing to do with him.

In Episode 2, Jeff and I talk video games.  We share some embarrassing video game stories from our past, and discuss what’s better a Key Blade, or a Gun Blade.  (Both useless) This is followed up by our discussion of Avatar.  Will all future Sci-Fi movies be measured against the genius of Avatar, or is it simply giant Smurfs dancing with wolves?

Finally, this past week Jeff and I started out with a talk about Lego video games, and finished with talks about some of our favorite television shows that have been ruined by the networks.  And we finished with Episode 3.5 being a feedback show, where we looked at all the feedback we’ve received from our thousands of devoted listeners.

I hope you’ll check out our podcast.  It can be downloaded from iTunes as well as our website at www.timandjeff.com.  And if you wish to send us feedback you can email us at theawesometimandjeff@gmail.com.  Finally be sure to keep watching my website here were I’ll keep you updated on the podcast, and also soon have a review of the next two books in the magic Kingdom of Landover series.

Magic Kingdom for Sale

As you know a week or two ago I wrote about the closing of my bookstore, which to this day is a sad thing.  But as we have always been told, every cloud has a silver lining, not sure I believe that, but in this case there was a good end to my bookstore closing, and that was low cost books.  Many times, I’ll see books I’m interested in, but not buy them, just because I can’t bring myself to pay the 20 to 30 dollar price tag.  This was the case when some of my favorite childhood books were released in 2 volumes containing the 5 books of The Magic Kingdom of Landover. 

The series is written by Terry Brooks, a name synonymous with the Fantasy genre, and the first book in the series is called Magic Kingdom for Sale – Sold.   Now you may think that’s an awfully hokey name for a book, but to be honest with you in many ways it’s an awfully hokey book.  However if you can past the outward silliness of it all, you will find a great fantasy series light enough to read to the kids, but with deeper undertones that adults will enjoy.   In my opinion The Magic Kingdom of Landover is the best of Terry Brooks work. 

As the title states, Magic Kingdom for Sale starts with a Magic Kingdom for Sale, in a Rosen’s Christmas Catalog.   Ben Holiday, a lawyer who has been unable to deal with the loss of his wife, sees the advertisement, and is drawn to it.  Well to turn a few chapters into a sentence, Ben meets with Mr. Meeks (The gentleman selling the kingdom), shells out a million dollars, and heads of to Landover unsure what he will find. 

Upon arrival Ben does not find his kingdom as advertised.  His castle is crumbling, his court is made up of only a bumbling wizard, a dog as a scribe, and two fairy creatures called Kobolds, who have pledged themselves to the castle.   On top of that none of the inhabitants of Landover view him as anything more then the next in a long line of “play” kings, the kings champion is nowhere to be found, and the kingdom has also been promised to the Iron Mark, a demon who also wishes to rule Landover.

Ben soon discovers that Mr. Meeks is behind all of this, a former court wizard of Landover Meeks had been selling the kingdom and getting it back for years, and only chose Ben because he thought Ben would fail.  The kingdom is suffering because of the lack of a true king and is slowly dying.  Ben must find a way gain the trust of those he rules over, find the champion, and defeat the demon in order to save the land, and prove Meeks wrong.

Along the way Ben meets Willow, a sylph who is destined to become his wife, saves a group of go-home gnomes, (one of the most hated races of Landover) fights a witch, and defeats a dragon.  In the end Ben finds himself facing The Iron Mark, and I’ll leave it up to you to finish from there.

All in all I have to admit I liked this book better now than I did as a ten year old kid.  What seemed like a book that was almost to hokey to pick up again as an adult, had left me pouring into the second book, and ordering books four, five, and six.  I’ve also went back to read what Terry Brooks had to say about this book, which he saw as his own story, as he left the law offices to become a full time fiction writer.   In the end, I would recommend this book, to anyone who loves Fantasy, as long as you’re willing to have a little fun along the way.

A Special Thanks

To all of you who regularly follow this blog, you’ll know that I recently was nominated for Critters Workshop yearly poll, as the best short science fiction or fantasy story of 2009.  I landed a late nomination, and was way behind from the beginning, but I put out the word to my friends and fans, and you all responded in a big way.  With two days left in the contest, I moved into first place and didn’t look back.  At the beginning of February, the final results came out and I was ecstatic to find out I had won. http://anotherealm.com/prededitors/votesssff09.htm

 
I just wanted to take a moment to thank you all again for this great honor.  There were a lot of great stories in the running for this award, including an amazing story by Mike Lynch published early last year in Digital Dragon Magazine.  But you all came out strong and let your voice be heard and winning this little award truly means a lot to me and everything I try to do with my writing.

If you are reading this, and have not yet had the opportunity to read my award winning story, I do hope you’ll take the opportunity to check it out.  The Pilgrimage was published in a great magazine called Residential Aliens and with any luck may be up in one of their print issues later this year.  You can read The Pilgrimage here: http://www.resaliens.com/2009/08/the-pilgrimage/

So thanks again for all your support, and keep checking back here for more information about some of my new writing projects.  Finally lets be sure to do it again next year, and keep on reading.

Waldenbooks

Friday, I went by my bookstore.  I knew it was closing, but I had hoped to catch some final-week deals and walk through there one last time.  But alas, they were closed and locked down tight when I got there.  I know in many ways, it was just a cold impersonal chain bookstore, but it was more than that.   It was my cold impersonal chain bookstore, and sometime in the final week of January 2010, Walden books of Adrian, MI shut its doors.


For me, this is sort of the end of an era.  First, Walden Books was the only new book store in Adrian, MI.  Sure it was small, but its employees were semi-permanent, and well read.  You could discuss more widely known authors with them, and they were always happy to order some of the less known indie-writers whose work I enjoy.  But it’s not only that - I have been shopping at Walden books since I started to buy a lot of my own books back in the 6th grade.  Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Star Wars, Star Trek, Koontz, King, Tolkien, Hickman, Brooks, there are just so many authors and series I’ve bought there over the last 18 to 20 years.

Even greater than those two things is my sense of loss of the last new bookstore in Adrian,  MI.  So Adrian, MI a town of about 21,500 people is without a place to buy a book.  On top of that, Adrian is the largest city in Lenawee County which has a population of about 100,000 thousand people.  So for 100,000 people who may want to read a book, the options are reduced to the internet, the few books Wal-Mart carries, or buying books from used book stores, or visiting libraries, both of which do little to support authors.

In the end, no matter how much personal loss I feel, this is a sad trend of the book industry in general.  Adrian Walden Books was only one of multiple locations closed in MI over the past month, as a poor economy and a growing online community is forcing the small local bookstores out of business for good; speeding along the end of book buying as we know it.  And, in the end, this is bad for readers and writers and publishers alike.

For the writers, the days of writing a book, selling it to a publisher and gaining a following is nearing its end.   Today, most writers must travel, and promote their own works, often times publishing with a small press, or self publish.  Keeping up with vast social networks, websites, and blogs (Like this one) takes up more and more of the time they would have once spent writing.

For the large book publishers, with less and less natural venues for their books, they will be forced to spend the majority of their time and resources on the already established authors.  In the end, they will miss out on the next big thing, and will eventually go the way of the dinosaurs.

And finally for the readers, the less knowledgeable readers will be left reading whatever Dean Koontz or Nora Roberts book that Wall Mart is running that month.  The more knowledgeable reader will be left paying more money to shop online for his or her favorite author, often times making stabs in the dark with new writers because they won’t be able to discuss the writers with their favorite book merchants.

In the end, I understand this is the way things are moving, and I appreciate the small presses out there bringing us great new authors, and the writers getting out there promoting their stuff so I can be exposed to it.  But I will miss my little local bookstore.

Avatar - A Review

When I first heard about this movie, I couldn’t believe they had gotten James Cameron to bring this fun cartoon to the big screen.  Once I saw the first trailer with an 8 foot blue guy with a bow, I couldn’t figure out what it had to do with air-bending.  Three months later as I sat in the movie with my 6 year old son, I was still trying to explain to him that there would be no bald kid with a stick.  (Watch for my future review of The Last  Air-bender when it comes out).

All that being said, minus the name confusion of two fantasy movies coming out at a similar time, I loved this movie.  I know, most of you are probably shocked right now, and if anyone actually read this blog I’d be losing readers about now, because as a Christian and a conservative I am supposed to hate this movie. 
And to be honest, I just can’t figure out why.  In my personal opinion, Avatar offers a stirring Sci-Fi/Fantasy epic with memorable characters (even if half of them are blue computer images).  And truly the greatest special effects I have ever seen in a movie.   And I had planned to write a review based around these things, yet some of the criticism just seems so ridiculous to me, I would rather address them: 

1.    Avatar is nothing but a propaganda film for the Green Movement. – Its undeniable there is an underline green message in this film.  From the “evil” humans who want to destroy it, to the heroic aliens whose very existence is tied into the plants and animals around them.   That being said this movie does nothing but shout that its fiction from start to finish.  It’s not a true story and although I’ve tried I can’t talk to a tree by rubbing my hair on it.   Sure great fiction makes you think…  But are we afraid to think.

 

2.    Avatar pushes the notion of a false god in mother earth. – Yes the aliens do worship a mother earth.  But didn’t Tolkien himself also have a pantheon of make believe gods.  And there are those who like to consider him a great Christian writer.  In the end there’s a word I mentioned above that works well here to.  Fiction!

 

3.    Avatar supports smoking as one of its main characters smokes. – Really, I can’t even respond to this one.  If you think this movie is awful for only this reason, you may be on the wrong Blog.

 

4.    Avatar is a bland film only made watchable by its special effects. – I’ve heard this a lot, and I really can’t tell how wrong this is, without taking you through the plot of the movie, and since I didn’t write “Contains Spoilers” at the top of this blog, I’m just not comfortable.  It’s true the writing and acting may not be award worthy on their own, Let me just say this film held the attention of my 6 year old son, who’s attention span usually can’t make it through a 30 minute cartoon.  And he watched half the movie with his 3D glasses off because he claimed they hurt his nose.

 

5.    Avatar is a racist film, as it takes a white man to save the natives. – This one took me a while to figure out who it was being racist towards.  This honestly made me laugh, I was sure at first maybe it was racist towards white people because all the really bad guys are white, but no, somehow the blue aliens with their braided hair represent the African culture, and the guy is the avatar is white.  But he had to become the blue guy to save them.  I have to give this complaint a tie with the smoking complaint above, as 2 of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard.

 

6.    Avatar is an anti military film, as it portrays them as a bunch of “hired thugs”. – This may be one of my favorite criticisms of the film, because if we actually watch the film, it addresses this issue in the first 5 minutes.  Upon landing the main character looks around and says something to the extent of “On earth they were proud solders serving there county.  But out here they have simply become thugs for hire”.

In closing, I think I doubt we will be talking about Avatar as one of the greatest movies ever made 10 years from now.  However we may talk about it as industry altering movie when it comes to special effects.  And who knows if the next two parts build on this great base we could have a Sci-Fi institution for the ages. (Although I have no idea where you would take a sequel to).  In the end, I enjoyed this film.  I have no idea what James Cameron’s intentions were for it, maybe he did want to make a Green Propaganda piece.  Then in that I think he failed, but he did create a movie I can’t wait to buy on Blu-ray  So there’s my thoughts, I’m sure I missed some criticisms, so feel free to let me know what you think, and I would be happy to continue the discussion.

Critters Workshop

Just a note, every year the Critters Workshop puts out a best of list for the previous year.  The Nominees are voted chosen and voted on by anyone who chooses and run from January 1^st through January 14^th. 

Well a few days ago, a short story I wrote last year called The Pilgrimage was nominated in the Short Story Fantasy or Science Fiction category.  Early on I was excited to even be nominated, but after a few mentions I started to rise through the ranks, and now I need your help to take over the number 1 position.  The Pilgrimage is one of my best stories of the 2009 year, and it would be a huge uplift to this struggling writer if I could win this contest.  So I ask you now to cast your vote to The Pilgrimage by T.W.Ambrose, by clicking here: http://www.critters.org/predpoll/shortstorysf.shtml

I thank you for your support. And well your there, let me ask you to swing over and show your support for Digital Dragon Magazine.  Up for best Fiction Zine of the year:  http://www.critters.org/predpoll/shortstorysf.shtml .  Also one of Digital Dragon’s Writers Jeffrey Conolly was nominated in the Short Horror Category, for his story The Last of Us, Published in the December issue of Digital Dragon Magazine.  You can vote for Jeff here.  http://www.critters.org/predpoll/shortstoryh.shtml .

Have fun voting, and I’ll let you know how it all came out this Feburary when the results come in.

Writing Goals for 2010

Well NaNoWriMo has come and gone, and for a month I did a pretty good job at daily writing.  But then the stress of the holidays again tore me away from the laptop.  So I decided to sit down and write down my writing goals for 2010, then come back and check them off as I finish them over the next year.  However I am not brave enough to put them in the order I will accomplish them, so in no particular order my writing goals for the New Year.

1.        Blog more often – Yes I know this is super general, but it’s what I want to do, between this, and a media blog I’ve been asked to be a part of, I’d like to put out 2 – 3 posts a week.

2.       Work on my Unfinished Bin – I must have 20 or more partially finished stories.  I’d like to finish 5 of those over 2010. 

3.       Finish my Nano Novel - I completed about 1/4^th of this in November, I would like to finish at least a rough draft before this November.

4.       New Short Stories – I would like to write 5 new short stories this year.  (I actually started on the first one last night)

5.       5 published pieces – I’ve been averaging about 5 publications (Outside of DDM) a year, This year I’d like to take part in 5 new magazines as well as some I’ve written for before.

6.       NaNoWriMo 2010 – I may not have finished in 2009, but you know what they say, if at first you don’t succeed…..

7.       Do something with my serial – I started a Serial that I would like to see in Ray Gun Revival, I have the first few scripted out and one written.  I’m not sure I can get enough of it done this year, but I love the piece and would like to work on it.

8.       The Art of Interviewing – I’ve started work on a short non-fiction book on “How to Interview” I want to work on it more this year.

Well it may not be everything but it’s a start, And now I will be somewhat more accountable as I’ve shared these goals, so keep an eye out here, and I’ll do my best to let you know what’s going on.