Why Did He Do It? What possessed him?

Do you remember the positive review for my best seller The Seventh Age?

Stand by to be flabbergasted! I draw your attention to the hate and vitriol that its sequel received from one individual in his one star rant. You can fully expect the same kind of vicious attack if any book you write becomes popular on Amazon. Before you ask, Angus is a pseudonym for a self styled reviewer in the US. God only knows why he launched into his tirade:

An unfortunate waste of time, November 7, 2013

By

Angus

Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

This review is from: The Forgotten Age (Kindle Edition)

I really wish to forget this unfortunate book because it is forcing me to violate my rules regarding book reviews but I am angry. I do not generally do negative reviews. If a book is going poorly, the story doesn’t grab me or the genre is not my normal flavor and not changing my mind by fifty percent completed then I bail and give it the review of silence. This aberration drew me in past the fifty percent mark even through the poor editing and character development so here goes.

The Forgotten Age is a novella trying to paint a story of a pre-Pharonic civilization in Egypt using a protagonist who is supposed to be a modern English (pun-intended) Indiana Jones with all of his compatriots being Ukrainian mafia and corrupt Egyptian bureaucrats. Oops, can’t forget the clever American sidekick who has some unexplained religious beliefs that must come into conflict with the protagonist’s mystery solving because…it just does.

List of crap:
1) Do not build paragraphs by pairing three or more sentences saying exactly the same thing. Paragraphs have a point and supporting sentences, and yes there is a difference.

2) It is a bad idea to bombard the reader suddenly with hyped up drama where there has been no build up of conflict.

3) Point of view issues can be catalogued using this one work. Narrator dumps are an extremely poor method of telling fiction. Moving on.

4) Time scale within this story is so skewed you would have the reader believe the group of explorers spent almost a year under Ghiza with just the supplies they had carried on their backs.

Lastly do not try to suspend the disbelief of the reader so that in their struggle to reach the end of your…thing…they are rewarded by you pulling the ripcord and sealing (not ceiling) in the protagonists and all of his lemming helpers for the remainder of eternity just because your brain went on vacation. Was that sentence long enough to make it onto your radar?

The Forgotten Age will not be receiving any of my usual promo. I intend to post this on my blog, Facebook, Google+, Amazon and Goodreads as a warning buoy. ‘Beware, someone soiled themselves here.’ Now you know why I have my rules of review. I don’t like doing this. Enjoy.

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Besides ‘Angus’ there was one other individual that had the temerity to suggest that because the story is based in Egypt, and one or two of the baddies in the story were locals, that by his thinking I denigrated all Arabs. Rational human beings who have read it know that is not the case.

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Now for a few of those who actually liked it including the best selling author Robert Bauval:

5.0 out of 5 stars A GREAT READ…

ByRobert Bauval on November 20, 2012

Format: Kindle Edition

“Jack Eason is a master storyteller of this historic-cum-science fiction genre. His latest book Forgotten Age is a riveting page-turner tale..read it!” Robert Bauval, author of The Orion Mystery

5.0 out of 5 starsA roller coaster of a ride.

By Gerald Neal on November 28, 2012

Format: Kindle Edition

The Forgotten Age I don’t often give out five stars on a review but Jack Eason’s The Forgotten Age deserves all five. This book that follows on from The Seventh Age, enthralled me from Prologue to Epilogue and all chapters between. I have to declare an interest here, as I’ve always been fascinated with Egyptology and archaeology so it was no hardship for me to read this new Nick Palmer adventure that kept rolling along like a runaway roller coaster – and with such credible characters for first-rate company along the way. I can say definitely worth adding to your wish list or better still buy it today.

I want to see -read what happens next.

By happy on July 30, 2013

Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase

I started with this book, not the ones that came before. I am not a scifi reader, so I was amazed at this books ability to keep me up all night. This book focused on the action and characters. Well written and just wonderful. I liked the interaction and even though it did not have the depth of the other historical fiction books I usually read, I liked this book. I hope to get the next one and am interested to find out if and how this author brings the library “out” to the rest of the world. It is interesting to me that this story makes the premise that our history – world view has been the product of the few as opposed to what has really been found in archeology.

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So there you have it. Welcome to the world of modern day literature. In the meantime I invite you all to make up your own minds by reading your own copy.

The Forgotten Age – Amazon.com

The Forgotten Age – Amazon.co.uk