Afbeelding auteur

Zachary Bonelli

Auteur van Voyage Embarkation

20 Werken 30 Leden 20 Besprekingen

Werken van Zachary Bonelli

Voyage Embarkation (2013) 5 exemplaren
Insomnium (2014) 3 exemplaren
Alterra (2014) 2 exemplaren

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Algemene kennis

Geslacht
male
Woonplaatsen
Seattle, Washington, USA

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Disclosure: I received a free copy for review from the author.

This episode takes place during part 13 of Voyage Embarkation, although you don’t have to have read that episode to enjoy this one. I think a basic familiarly with the series would help, but is not required to enjoy the ride. If you are unfamiliar with the Voyage world, the author does provide a summary of the story arc at the beginning.

I love the sense of danger this episode has, that starts the moment Kal drops into the strange deserted world of Halech. The ‘genet o’lanterns are an imaginative touch, giving the story a very Halloween feel without feeling forced or contrived.

There is some clever humor here, and the author is not afraid to poke some fun at his own character. I especially liked Moral, and how even Kal acknowledges how annoying he can be at times.

Of course, no Halloween story would be complete without a monster, and All Hallow’s doesn’t disappoint. Tria and Kal must fight to survive the ruins of Halech and escape before it is too late.
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Gemarkeerd
Madison_Keller | Sep 14, 2014 |
This is the start of a new series by Zachary, the author of the Voyage series. I covered the Halloween episode of Voyage here. Insomnium is his new series, set in the fantasy dreamworld of Nowhere. Zachary plays to his strengths with this series, the world of Nowhere is a wonderfully imaginative fantastical world.

Insomnium is set in the year 2089. The world is on the verge of destruction, Seattle itself has flooded and is now an island facing food shortages. Nel is a civil engineer, trying to do his part to make the world a better place, but feeling like he is failing. This part is a bit preachy and heavy handed, but not so out there as to be ridiculous.

After a grueling, but typical day, Nel falls asleep on his couch. When he awakes he is in the world of Nowhere, being greeted by Zenny, the giant talking blue ant creature. Nowhere is amazing and wonderful, with lots of fantastic details. In fact things are so fantastic that soon Nel begins to question if he ever woke up. I absolutely love the huge variety of creatures that inhabit this world.

While trying to come to terms with Nowhere, Nel and his new friends Ziff and the Everyman, when a beautiful girl stumbles into the tavern. She is followed closely by another stranger. The three of them all turn out to be from different versions of Seattle. All three of them woke up in Nowhere at the same time.

In an effort to escape, they visit Earth Above, Heaven Below, one of the wards of Nowhere, to find the portal out. That ward is fun, with blank faced strange inhabitants and the mysterious Farseer, the governor of that ward.

While the group don’t learn much, Nel gets a strange vision, indicating he was brought to this place for some higher purpose. I have a feeling we’ll be finding more out about this in later episodes.

4 Stars. Overall this is a very fun read, and I can’t wait to get to part two.
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Gemarkeerd
Madison_Keller | Sep 14, 2014 |
Disclosure – I received a review copy of this episode from the author.

Picking up right where part 1 left off, Nel, Rev, and Gin decide to follow Drogl’s suggestion to visit the Wanderer. They find out he lives in the ward Tragedy Lost Ardor Gained. First off, I absolutely love the names of the wards more and more as I find out more about them.

They ask about, and find out that Tragedy Lost Ardo Gained has a seedy reputation, but they forge ahead with their plans. The ward is as a bad as they heard, worse even.

I don’t want to go into spoilers, but this episode actually deals with the difficult topics of sex, desire, and repressed urges in a meaningful - and entertaining – way.

This episode ends on a massive cliffhanger that introduces the characters to another of the governors.

I give this episode 4 stars, and am eager to read the third episode in the series.
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Gemarkeerd
Madison_Keller | Sep 14, 2014 |
This is the first episode in a rather long serial. As such, most of the word count is dedicated to introducing the main character Kal, and setting up the main plot line.

There is a short prologue before the main episode, but it isn’t clear what it has to do with the main storyline. I suspect the meaning will not really become clear until much farther along in the series, which gives a nice bit of suspense and something to look forward to right off the bat.

The main story centers around Kal, a young man from the earth of the future. Kal has been trapped, alone, on an empty world, for the last four years. However, he now has found a way to escape, by using Nano-technology to travel to other universes. A couple of characters from the prologue pay him a visit. I think more about this visit will become clear later.

The author throws around a lot of terms that the reader may not be familiar with, but the meaning becomes clear as you read farther on.

The writing is crisp and clean. The descriptions, especially Kal’s exploration of the metaxia (space between universes) is detailed and engaging.

My only disappointment with this episode is that it ends in the metaxia between worlds, right before he begins his explorations. However, my main complaint with that is that i want to see more!

4 stars, and I will definitely be reading more of this series!
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
Madison_Keller | 1 andere bespreking | Sep 14, 2014 |

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Statistieken

Werken
20
Leden
30
Populariteit
#449,942
Waardering
4.1
Besprekingen
20
ISBNs
4