Monday, December 28, 2009

Five Star Review!


Review of Secret of Wolf Island from Gypsy Shadow Publishing  has been reviewed at Rainbowreviews.com

RATING: Five Stars out of FiveReview by PermaFrost

BOOK BLURB:
Jonathon Shadows is a private investigator who specializes in undercover assignments. He learns his friend and former Marine Corps colleague Danni Shaw is dead in a mysterious accident on the island of the video game mogul Barret K. Wolf.

BOOK REVIEW(excerpt):
. …Former Marine Danni dies during a video game reenactment, and questions arise as to the actual cause of her death, and whether it is related to her sexual orientation…

"Secret of Wolf Island" is a fast-paced mystery in which the author skillfully escalates the suspense while simultaneously building character delineation. An exciting opening weaves seamlessly into the unraveling of the story tapestry, keeping the reader's attention and eliciting interest in the characters' progress. Clearly the author has done historical research and is also knowledgeable about computer programming and video game design, as these details lend credibility to the novel's backdrop.

…this is a fascinating novel and well worth the reading for its plotting, action-filled pace, characterizations, and seamless interweaving of Renaissance, medieval, and contemporary science.

You can get it at Gypsyshadow.com

Sunday, December 6, 2009

great review for The Horsed Thief


TheBookWenches.com have reviewed the Horsed Thief: A Virtual Tale of Old Basra and  say, in part:

Teel James Glenn’s novella The Horsed Thief takes its reader on a trip into a world of virtual reality gone awry. This brief but action-packed tale combines elements of both science fiction and fantasy to tell two concurrent stories: the misadventures of a thief in first century Persia and the debugging of a virtual reality gaming system. I found this story to be entertaining, unique, and somewhat surprising in the end.

The two worlds of The Horsed Thief – the software development company and life inside the game – merge and diverge throughout the story. Since the character who becomes the thief Asad loses any sense of personal identity outside of the computer program, I found it a bit of a guessing game trying to determine which character in the “real” world translated to which ones in Al-Basrah. Who is real and who has been manufactured by the computer program? When the truth is revealed at the end of the story, I was more surprised that I thought I would be.

One characteristic of Mr. Glenn’s writing that I enjoy very much is the realism he instills into his action sequences. As Asad leaps between rooftops, evades the guards in the palace garden, and battles the troops of the evil Abdul-Azim who are trying to capture and kill him, there is a sense of urgency and danger, and I felt as if I were watching an expertly choreographed movie scene.

Mr. Glenn includes a number of unexpectedly lovely passages in this story. The songs sung by the physically enchanting Fatinah have a rhythm and a rhyme that appealed to me very much, and one character's observation that “cheekbones may change, but smiles are lit by souls” struck the romantic in me as well. Overall, I enjoyed this novella. Mr. Glenn has given us an unusual and well-told story in The Horsed Thief, and I hope that he offers us more such tales in the future.

--Bobby 
(Sensuality Level: 1
Rating: 4.25)

The ebook can be found at fictionwise.com, At the publisher Eternalpress.com and on Amazon.com in paperback for only under five bucks!! What a deal!!!