Bernard Jan's Blog - Posts Tagged "adventure"

Lady Justice and the Candidate by Robert Thornhill

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Robert Thornhill is the author you cannot ignore, if nothing else than from the reason that he started writing at the age of sixty-six and that he has never learned to type other than with one finger and a thumb! When we add to that the number of 28 (!!) books he has written and published at his late but very prolific age, we are getting a small literary miracle!

Lady Justice and the Candidate is the first of Thornhill's books I had the pleasure of reading. It is a well-balanced mixture of humor, adventure and mystery, which tells us a story about the independent Presidential candidate Benjamin Franklin Foster who appears on the American political scene practicality out of nowhere and wins over the sympathies and hearts of American voters with his simple message of change and honesty with which he is supposed to clean America and restore it to its days of glory.

Mission impossible or not? Not so important, as long as you enjoy reading this book. And if you don't believe me that Lady Justice and the Candidate guarantees you a relaxed and fun time – even when you have to hear about politics over and over again – see for yourself. Then be honest and admit to yourself that indeed you had had a laugh, while secretly cheering for that unusual and extraordinary candidate who at the age of 70 had more vigor and passion than some much younger politicians we all too well knew about.

BJ
www.bernardjan.com



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Bernard Jan

If you are a fan of high-packed action novels, and the rivers of gore and piles of dead, burned or evaporated bodies are your kind of thing, then you are at the right place! Welcome to The Thousand Years War Series by Angel Ramon Medina!

If we still don't believe we are not alone in the universe, it is the moment to reconsider our beliefs and everything they taught us as kids. Earth is under attack and our future and the future of our world rests on the shoulders of a few—a tiny group of four people—who put themselves on the frontiers of the new global war to save mankind.

Angel, Maria, Dayvon and Luis, popularly called our heroes in the three-book series, knew little about each other when the great evil decided to take over Earth for itself. They didn't have time to get familiar and overcome their differences when they bravely joined forces and stood against the new hostile, ruthless and violent alien race called gloobas, who already fought the similar war a thousand years ago. To save our world, they used a new virtual reality weapon, for whatever happens in this virtual world also happens on Earth.

In The Thousand Years War Trilogy casualties are many on both sides though the dead gloobas outnumber a lot dead humans and members of other alien races. Fight for survival is going on in all corners of known and unknown worlds: Brooklyn, Hollywood, the Arctic Core, the Solar System, black holes, outer space. Action scenes line up one after another like in a furious action motion picture, especially in The Thousand Years War and Revenge of the Gloobas: The Third Book of the Thousand Years War, while Framed: The Second Book of the Thousand Years War gives us the brief moment of deceptive break when we get to feel the taste of a normal life of our heroes. In this central—and the shortest— part of the series, Angel, a victim of dirty politics and human enemies, has to justify his good name and his family's good name before he can take matters back into his own hands and sets himself into the ultimate and final showdown with the gloobas.

Even though all three books need additional polishing and editing and the author's writing skills a little fine-tuning (Revenge of the Gloobas much less than The Thousand Years War and Framed), this Brooklyn-born Puerto Rican young writer gave us an amazing sci-fi adventure saga. On 1,030 pages (brace yourself for a long reading!) Angel Ramon Medina gave us evidence of his very vivid imagination and enormous capacity to write much and to write fast!

It should not be left unnoticed that in only seven months Medina wrote, designed, self-published and marketed three of his novels and Angel's Nightmare Adventures short story, which is a 2016 precedent! So whether we like alien-related stories or not, we must give Angel Ramon Medina credit for rocking the 2016 universe. 2016 was the year of Medina-writing-machine and we shouldn't surprise ourselves that the gloobas stood little chances under the onslaught of his virtual pen!

For more information on Angel Ramon Medina please visit The Hybrid Nation.

BJ
www.bernardjan.com

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The Shadowverse: A YA Sci-Fi Superhero Thriller by John-Clement Gallo

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


2019 is the year of discoveries for me. By accident, or guided by the starlight, I wouldn’t know, I came upon two teenage writers and authors who are still not out of their classrooms but are already “competing” with thousands of more experienced writers on equal footing on Amazon and other book-selling platforms.

In February this year, Michael Evans disarmed me and won my sympathies with his dystopian Control Freakz. A month later, John-Clement Gallo did it with his Sci-Fi adventure novel The Shadowverse.

“This parallel universe, what I call the Shadowverse, is a mere shadow of this one, where energies of all kinds reign. It is connected to this one by a series of wormholes—the creators of which I do not yet know. Sometimes the portals open where they should not.”

If this “definition” of the Shadowverse, in the words of the villain Titan, is not enough for you to grab and time-travel through this book, then I hope the group of six of our superheroes with their incredible powers gathered under the name the Shadowforce will be. Just out of their teenage years, they are warriors of the universe on a mission to save our home planet from the alien force which wants to take it over.

Still being a teenager, Gallo delivers us natural, funny and witty dialogues between his young protagonists and development of a clumsy romantic relationship I enjoyed very much. His personal expertise in martial arts (he is ranked a black belt in taekwondo and hapkido) gives his fighting scenes an extra-realistic touch and excitement.

But it is his love for astronomy, astrophysics and distant worlds that breathes life into this story. John-Clement is a teenager who dreams of stars. His enchantment by a star-spangled night sky and the modern culture of superheroes saving us in various blockbusters and comics is the real juice that sets his imagination in motion by creating a fast paced and action-packed story of tall, likeable and ordinary-young-people-turned-superheroes with an important mission.

If we had doubts about the future of Sci-Fi or dystopian genres, we can be at peace now. Both Gallo and Evans want to save humanity, they both have talent to entertain us and capture our attention, and their determination to write and publish the series of books is nothing but commendable ambition at such a young age.

What more is there to say?

BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Bernard Jan



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Polar Dream by Davor Rostuhar

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Polar Dream is the latest amazing book by my favorite Croatian writer and photographer, Davor Rostuhar. In this unbelievable adventure, Davor surrounded himself with his dream and followed it all the way to the South Pole. He walked 1,163 km solo, pulling his sled, unsupported and unassisted in the journey of cold and silence that lasted 48 days.

Polar Dream is a story of the strength of human will, endurance, courage, dedication, belief in yourself. But also a story of one amazing dream and all it took to reach it. If you are an adventurer, a wanderer, or you just like to learn about untouched and hidden corners of our planet and its majestic beauty, this is the book you should have and read. Not only to give respect to Davor, who is the 26th person in the history who achieved something so incredible that borders with craziness—to walk by himself, unassisted and unsupported, on his expedition from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole, but also to listen to his motivating and inspiring thoughts and voice. Because for him, there is no giving up.

“My arena is silent and lonely, but support from my fans echoes faintly through this holy silence, and on its wings I fly toward victory.”

Polar Dream - South Pole Expedition is also available in English, thanks to Davor who translated it himself from Croatian.

For more information about other Davor’s adventures, expeditions and books, visit his websites www.davorrostuhar.com and www.kek.hr.

BJ
www.bernardjan.com

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Bernard Jan



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The Shadowverse: Vengeance by J.C. Gallo

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Young Gallo did it again! After his successful first young adult, sci-fi, superhero, adventure novel, The Shadowverse, J.C. is giving us another treat titled The Shadowerse: Vengeance.

Without further ado, I am going to say I loved it and enjoyed it! And it’s not because I was among the first Earthlings who had the pleasure of reading it (it’s not vanity, it’s called beta reading); I cannot tell for certain how many aliens saw the manuscript before me since J.C. has often his gaze fixed on the night-sky and the outer space. I did it because it is a fun and entertaining read.

Just as it was the case in The Shadowverse, I enjoyed his funny and witty dialogues which made his superheroes and other protagonist soooo real. Although his black belt in Taekwondo and Hapkido helped him to master exciting action scenes, and his vivid imagination created beautiful realms with which we share our existence, Gallo has a knack for writing dialogues and describing situations that will make you giggle and laugh.

So, whose vengeance we are talking about? Is it The Shadowforce with Johnny, Ryan, Sam, Jane, and Rose, or the dark forces of defeated Titan and the new evil entity that called itself The Breath of Death as it wreaks havoc all over the Earth? It’s not on me to reveal you that; this is why this talented teenage author wrote a sequel to The Shadowverse for all of us to enjoy his story while the pleasant images of Star Wars saga and Fantastic Four flash in the back of our mind.

Make no mistake, The Shadowforce has its own value and uniqueness, just as it has each of its superheroes and other heroes who will become your darlings as Kevin became mine!

Thank you, J.C., for Vengeance, thank you for your persistence in recruiting me as your beta and for the exciting four days I spent with your book. I just wish it lasted longer.

BJ
www.bernardjan.com

Read my review of The Shadowverse.

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Bernard Jan



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