Indie Book Corner: The Family: The Brotherhood, by Donte M. McNeal

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Strong character drama amidst violent futuristic gang warfare.

The Family: The Brotherhood is Donte McNeal's first published outing and it is a wonderful debut.  I've been keeping up with many of Donte's Wattpad.com stories such as Godhood: The Ascension and Stardust.  I loved those stories for their over the top combat, unique worlds, and colorful characters.  The Brotherhood exemplifies many similar qualities to those books, but it is also vastly different and I'll tell you why.

For starters, the Brotherhood is a much more grounded book.  The story stars Leone King, a noble young man who is just out to do the right thing.  Leone lives in a world ruled by poverty, corruption, and violence.  It's a world where those who can't protect themselves are subjected to the violent whims of local gangland overlords.  Leone grew up in such a world along with his best friend Nicholas Black.  Both boys grew up with differing upbringings and mentalities and thanks to a life changing event both gain very different visions of how to handle this violent lawlessness and thus is born the major conflict of the book.  We have Leone opting to bring people together in a vast community of well-meaning people just out to make a better world and we have Nicholas who wants to climb to the top of the food chain and simply rule over all the chaos himself.  What comes of all of this is a very interesting drama filled with a ton of great character relationships and conflicts.

While this book is very different from the other Wattpad stories of Donte's, a single thread links them all and that is strong characterization.  I can't help but to really care for the characters in each of his stories, especially this one.  These characters honestly feel like people I've known over my 27 years and many of them of people I'd like to know.  Not only do the characters possess several dimensions, but each of them serves more than one purpose in the story as well.  No one really feels wasted here.  Leone and Nick could carry the book entirely by themselves, but Donte's superb cast of sub-characters really make it all stand out as something more enjoyable.  For me to memorize ANYTHING, especially character names is an accomplishment and so me memorizing them all deserves some kind of gold metal on the part of the author.

The plot itself is very straightforward, but teases at more complexity in the sequel.  Here, it simply serves to move Leone and Nick's character drama forward at a nice pace.  I have no problem with that here because the leads and their conflict were so strong.  Their scenes together were definitely the highlights of the book, especially the bloody tension-filled climax.  There were also a few subplots thrown into the mix to keep things interesting.  The overall concept of the story, one of a good gang vs. a bad gang, is handled nicely.  There is some retrospection on the very nature of what a "good" gang is with Leone questioning the role he and his group plays, so it elevates the book beyond simply being a simple action book.

I had one hell of a good time with this book and feel that it sets the tone greatly for a successful series run.  I can't wait to see what else Donte has in store for these characters since the ending teased something absolutely insane.  Being a friend of Donte's, I can't help but feel it'll be something very unexpected.  Have a look at it yourselves and tell me what you think.

The Quick and Dirty

+Leone King is a very relatable lead who just wants to do the right thing.

+Nicholas Black is a great foil for Leone and a very fun character to read.
+The Family is a unique organization with interesting, far reaching, and noble goals.
+The sub-characters all shine brilliantly.  The Family feels like a...well, a family.
+A good and satisfying portrayal of leadership and its hardships.

Where to find Donte

Website: http://www.dontemmcneal.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Author-Donte-M-McNeal-1554144421560843/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DonteMMcNeal

Indie Book Corner: Sunborn Rising: Beneath The Fall, by Aaron Safronoff

Highly Creative, Incredibly Fun, and Full of Heart

The Quick and Dirty

+Fantastic fantasy world building.
+Creative ideas
+Exceptional fully colored illustrations highlighting major chapter events.  I can't overstate how much I loved these.
+A lovable cast of rascally characters along an enjoyable cast of sub-characters.
+Truly beautiful descriptions and vibrant world that seems like a character all its own,
+Black and white drawings throughout chapter than flesh out characters and events.
+A well rounded tone that's not too cheery and not too dark.
+Gives a Pixar movie vibe.  Who doesn't love Pixar?


-Slow beginning buildup.
-I needed a dictionary at all times.  There were more than 30 words I needed to look up as I read.  My ignorance is the main issue here, but I still found it annoyingly world breaking to have to look so many words up.  Some knowledge of the natural world helps too.
-Some illustrations don't match the action leaving some occasional temporary head scratching.

Full Review

I am reviewing a reviewer's copy of the book, though I liked it so much that I bought my own. 

It takes me a while to get into each book that I read.  During those first few chapters my mind is always screaming at me to go do something else.  It just yells, "Distraction, distraction, distraction" while I try to concentrate and slip into my new book.  I couldn't escape it during my first few chapters of Sunborn Rising either.

The book starts slow, as most fantasy tales do, and like most stories we are slowly introduced to the world and the book's cast of characters.  Barra, our main character, is joined by two others Plicks and Tory for the bulk of her journey.  It's established early on how close as friends they are and it’s also established that they always get into a lot of trouble together.  Barra and her mother seem to have a tumultuous relationship thanks to Barra's bad behavior and Barra herself is trying to investigate a mystery that was uncovered by her missing father.  It takes a while to get the adventure going, but when it does it rarely slows down.

Once our daring protagonists leave the village and start their adventure, we are introduced to a world (Cerulean) that is so strange and beautiful that I could read ecology books about it for days on end.  I love the way the sun is at the center of this vast ocean teeming with all sorts of life forms alien to me and how these massive trees float in the ocean and house all of the Arboreals.  Many of the organisms even have an out of this world cosmic feel to them.  I was left with a legitimate feeling of awe and wonder when I read the elaborate descriptions and gazed at the illustrations of this truly unique world with its wondrous creatures.

The amount of creativity that went into this book seems staggering to be honest.  I'm an indie author (and wannabe game designer) as well and just seeing how well-crafted this thing is makes me tired just looking at it.  The artwork brings this project to life in untold ways.  I'm not kidding when I say that I marveled at most of the illustrations for several minutes before moving forward.  They're just so rich and have so much to look at, so much detail to take in and it synergizes really well with the chapter you're reading.  You'll be reading a big scene and then the next page over may get an illustration that looks 100 times better than whatever you were imagining.  I love it!  I can't state that enough.  There are a few parts where the art doesn't match the scene, but it's so infrequent that it's not a real problem.  There were just two illustrations that come to mind and the most it did was cause me to scratch my head a bit and reread a description or two.

I loved the characters as well.  Barra's relationship with her friends and mom was really touching.  I like the whole community of Arboreals that make up the book.  The book features protagonists that are anthropomorphic animals.  Barra and her mother are Listlespurs, Arboreals that are human-like felines with whip like tails and purple fur.  The Arboreals have a unique set of customs and history that was interesting to read about.  And the journey is a journey to save the world and there are some big time consequences for failure.

I thought everything in the book felt organic and fleshed out including the way the story was told and how it unfolded.  There is never an overloading of one type of emotion and the book never tells you how to feel.  The book has a wealth of tone that ranges from light to dark, ebbing and flowing constantly.  There's some sad moments and there's a good amount of levity as well.  I must say I enjoyed the journey.  So I'll wrap this up here by saying that this book is a truly inspiring book, if for its ambition alone.  It has my endorsement and is well worth the buy.  I will be keeping up with the various Sunborn Rising media and will be purchasing any subsequent sequels in the future.  Kudos to Aaron Safronoff and his team!  I've posted the Amazon.com link for the book in the first image above.  Click the kolalabat below for the author's website.

Indie Book Corner: Moirae, by Mehreen Ahmed

A Well Written and Thought Provoking Tale With a Unique Writing Style

  

Moirae is a story with many themes running through its narrative.  There's the story of a young woman longing for her beloved, the tale of an imprisoned man longing for a better life, and the story of a woman and her child.  There are also other stories present and they all connect at various points as the characters all have a connection to the village of their childhoods.  Along the way each of the characters is met with the rigorous struggles of their harsh lives.

The story takes place in what I believe is a fictional place, though it at times feels real enough.  The conflicts definitely have real world connotations including the rift between the two fictional religions that drives much of the story's conflict.  What's strange though, is that there is mention of real world places in the story so it does share some geography and events with our world.  Much of Moirae reads like a commentary on real world issues so those without much knowledge in real geography may even mistake the Dravilands as a real place.

The story is written in a unique and strange style called "stream of consciousness."  Britannica.com says of the style "Stream of consciousness, narrative technique in nondramatic fiction intended to render the flow of myriad impressions—visual, auditory, physical, associative, and subliminal—that impinge on the consciousness of an individual and form part of his awareness along with the trend of his rational thoughts"  I am not at all familiar with the style.  Moirae is my first foray into it.  There were two particular chapters near the beginning that featured no punctuation.  What seemed to separate one sentence from the next was capital letters.  It was confusing to say the least, but the brain is adaptable so after a while it did become easier to read.  I did not find much enjoyment from this sort of thing nor did it enhance the story in any way, for me at least.  It is an artistic choice though and so I respect the bold commitment to it.

Much of the content in the story was featured around this large extended family and it was a story that I enjoyed.  There was a lot of food for thought when it came to the topics of poverty, immigration, religious warfare, civil strife, crime, violence against women, and quite a few other topics.  I would say that Moirae is a tragedy.  Throughout there is a big look at the very human condition.  What does it mean to be poor in a place filled with strife and warring ideologies?  What does it mean to be thought of as a second class citizen?  All of this is handled in a fairly natural way and what stands out about many of these stories is the effect of hope.  For even when a situation seems at its most desperate and hopeless, these people persevere to face the next challenge.  There is also a strong tale about tortured motherhood and madness.  It adds an almost supernatural aspect to the story.  I found that to be my favorite POV of them all, though it makes the most use of the stream of consciousness style.

Now I'll express my criticisms for the story.  To me, it didn't feel personal enough.  I was never completely immersed in the story.  The narration style felt very distant and matter of fact.  It had the effect of reading like a much older book.  It didn't manage to reach at anything deep inside of me to truly connect me with characters like MD, Pontu, Tahu, and Nalia.  The characters and even many of the events fell flat to me because of plain narration and dialogue.  I think I could've enjoyed the style more if those aspects were more engaging.  I also found the timeline and POV jumping to be very distracting.  Most likely it's another aspect of the stream of consciousness writing style, but I didn't much care for it.  There was also some confusion on my part regarding the timeline and setting of the story.  I wasn't sure if it were modern day or if it had taken place in the past.  And since it was a fictional setting, I was always taken out of the story whenever a place in the real world was mentioned.  I had to google Dravilands just to make sure it wasn't a real place.

Regardless, once you give the story some time, it does start to make its point and the characters did grow on me, even those introduced later.  So I did have a good reading experience with Moirae.  For fans of the stream of consciousness style and those interested in books about the human condition, I think this one is a good read.  Try it out and let me know what you think of it in the comments below.

Belart Wright

Author of 2 Books, Worker of Minimum Wage, Avid Gamer, Thinker of Things, and Wannabe Warrior

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Indie Book Corner: Wick: The Spark Form Chronicles book 1 by Matt Doyle

Highly original, well written fusion of disparate ideas. Ties for the most creative book I’ve read this year along with Exurbia, by Alex McKechnie. 

Wick is what happens when you take wrestling...

...esports... 

...cyberpunk... 

...and of all things, Yugioh... 

And mix it in a blender on the highest setting. You’d think you’d get a mess with such a mix, but instead you get something quite rare and even a tad beautiful.

Wick starts in a very confusing way as we’re dropped right into the action with no explanations given. And the action we’re dropped into is...a beauty pageant...no it’s a setup for a wrestling match or something? Oh, it’s...a card game?

Though not clear at first, it’s soon revealed that all the POV characters are a part of some vast and very popular tournament style eSport called Spark Forming. This futuristic eSport uses digital cards as a medium to summon impressively dangerous and beautiful looking beasts and humanoids that do battle in digital arenas. Each of the tournament combatants has his or her own POV, with the exception of two or three characters. And there are certainly some memorable POVs and other characters in the book.

The Plot 

Here’s hoping that I succeed in not ruining or spoiling anything here. The plot revolves around several different mysteries as each character has his or her own reasons for participating in the tournament. Though what each character presents on the surface is not always their true intentions. On the surface everyone is in the tournament for fame, glory, and prize money. Though most of their goals seem to be for things outside the arena. It’s revealed that there is much more going on behind the scenes and Spark Forming may not be as innocent and fun as the world thinks it is. I think that’s all I can say without spoiling too much. It’s vague, I know, but each reveal in the plot was major to me so I reeeeeallly don’t want to spoil anything for anyone else. I’ll just add that there’s some really good character drama that heats up from the middle to the end and the plot comes together nicely as each character’s earlier behaviors are given more light.

The Arena Battles 

The futuristic eSport known as Spark Forming has several unique components to it that made it very unique to me. The first has to be the player entrances. Some of my favorite scenes in the book came from these entrances, which were reminiscent of professional wrestling to me. Each player would have their own music that was presented in this way:

“Song: Came Out Bruised (But Still Breathing) 

Band: Addicted to my Rut 

Genre: Grunge” 

And then once the player is out and ready to start the match you have EPIC summoning descriptions for the Spark Forms like:

“His scales, rippling gently as he breathes, glow a deep, fiery red, Punctuated only by the curious black markings adorning his back and tail. Dark as a starless night, they run the length of his body, forming a line of symmetry for the scimitar-like patterns that trace paths out from the spine.”

Then there are the battles themselves which are far faster, more ferocious, and bloodier than I imagined they’d be. The players themselves experienced some sort of fatigue from the battles along with their Spark Form creatures as each battle required them to be “plugged in” and to use much of their own fortitude along with physical and mental dexterity.

I liked the strategies formed for these matches and thought that the play-by-play by the announcers was a clever way to teach the reader how the game is played. I will say that this is where the book’s lack of exposition hurts it the most. These battles would be much more enjoyable if the ground rules were laid before many of these battles took place. Since I didn’t know how the game was really even played, I never had any sense as to who would win or lose until the very end, so I was never on the edge of my seat for any of the battles. It was more like watching a laser light show until the end and finally going “that was neat,” at the end of it. So I hope more is explained about the card game itself in future books. Maybe even a card list so that we can take note of potential strategies ahead of time. Even with that said, the creativeness of the battles was enough to enthrall me and those were some of the chapters I read through the quickest.

The Characters. 

Going hand in hand with the book’s uniqueness is the strength of each of Wick’s characters. As I said before there are many POVs in Wick, about five or seven if my memory serves and each character brings a unique perspective and rationale to the story. There were a few that I thought I’d dread reading in the beginning, but by the middle I must say that everyone had chapters that I looked forward to. It was mostly to unlock further mysteries in the story which everyone had fragments of, but I was surprised that a book with this many POVs didn’t really offer any weak links for me. Even A Song of Ice and Fire had those Sansa chapters that I freaking HATED, and many of the POVs in A Feast for Crows felt dry and pointless to me, but here, even with so many characters, I had a good time. If you’re anything like me you’ll really become a fan of John Forrester who’s just a fun character in every sense of the word. I kind of want to say more, but I prefer to leave some surprises.

The Quick and Dirty 

Dislikes: 

-Confusing beginning. A lot is being said without much context. You don’t know if you’re reading about a pageant, a card game, or wrestling.

-The extra POVs in the beginning only added to the confusion.

-Could use some better explanations on the cards and the game mechanics to get you more invested in the card game. -The game isn't explained clearly enough in the first few matches forcing you to pay close attention to each match to understand how its played.

Likes: 

+Cool mix of wrestling and Yugioh or whatever combat card game you like. I really liked the on-camera dramatic “promos.” It felt like the 80’s all over again.

+Highly imaginative.

+Cool characters.

+Loaded with intelligence at every turn including characters, dialogue, plot, and much more. +The wrestling references are too good.

+Brilliant creature design and fight choreography.

+eSports taken to the next level.

+Solid characterization.

+The announcers are a clever source of exposition.

+Spark form action is bloody brutal fast and intense. +In depth ideas and concepts, very well thought out, with great execution.

+John Forrester is a brilliant character. So are many others, but he is by far my favorite.

All in all, I have to say that I absolutely loved this book.  It was one that I had received by the author for review, but I have to say that it's a series that I look forward to reading more of.  My interest has been piqued with the mysteries, I have come to like the characters very much, and it's a unique world that I am interested in seeing more of.  I'll definitely be reading the sequels.  Don't just take my word for it.  Check out the book for yourselves with the links below.

Author's website: http://mattdoylemedia.com/
eBook: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011SG7TYO
Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Wick-Spark-Form-Chronicles-1/dp/1517128714/

The Sky Ghosts series by Alexandra Engellmann (Blog tour and giveaway)

Fill this simple Google form to sign up for the giveaway. Five winners will receive the first two books of the Sky Ghosts series in any ebook format and have a chance to read the rest of the series for free. Giveaway ends on December 1^st.

Title: Sky Ghosts / Author: Alexandra Engellmann / Genre: Urban fantasy / Action / Romance

Sky Ghosts: All for One (Sky Ghosts #1)

Jane and Pain are Sky Ghosts – and they kill for a living. Highly trained bodyguards by day, they patrol the New York streets at night to keep the city safe from their enemies, Sky Beasts. One night they save two young men from their enemies’ blades and find themselves in the middle of a war. As they put their lives at stake to save their wards, the main mystery remains unsolved: why would the Beasts hunt two ordinary human boys?

Spellbinding and violent, Alexandra Engellmann’s Sky Ghosts series is exactly what Urban fantasy fans are looking for – a blend of action, humor, mystery, and a unique magic system.

“Sky Ghosts is a great mixture of sword-fighting, humor, wit, sexual tension, and “imperfect romance” that brilliantly lets the readers feel like the characters, while supernatural, are fairly ordinary people underneath it all.” – Joe Jackson, author of the Eve of Redemption series

Amazon / Goodreads

Sky Ghosts: Marco (Sky Ghosts #1.5)

It was hate at first sight. She broke chairs on his head, and in return he broke her bones. 

When Marco joined the New York Sky Ghosts Headquarters, he expected trouble. What he didn’t expect was a girl half his size that would turn his life into hell. They spilled too much of each other’s blood for any hope for reconciliation. How did it happen that they ended up spilling blood for each other on a daily basis?

“I laughed a lot while reading Marco. The silly teenage nature of him and Pain combined with their stubborn natures and violent streaks made for some suitably hilarious and cringe worthy scenes.” – Belart Wright, author of the Average Joe series

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