by At first it seemed as if there were a lot of strange characters roaming the dark forest around the mysterious Bluegate laboratory. But soon I knew what they were up to inside that shady facility and I knew where all those odd characters were coming from and I was enthralled and immersed in the world of interdimensional incursions and teleportation experiments that was sucking people from the past and the future to collide in cataclysmic present-day events (to paraphrase the author). And oh, of course, the ghosts and the guns!
One of my favorite characters was Amee, a trans-human Martian, partly because of her clever dialogue—the overly logical yet ingenious way her “mind” worked. Here’s an example: “Freeze!” two of the guards called to her, filing into the room, their guns trained. She cocked her head at them. “The ambient temperature here is 22.6 degrees Celsius,” she said. “Freezing is impossible and would not require instruction at any rate. Please rephrase command within parameters of….”
I couldn’t stop laughing.
Although you may prefer the pony-tailed cowgirl teen from the 1800’s.
And my favorite costume was the battle dress worn by the Queen of the Visigoths, it fired anti-matter beams, the upper button was for invisibility, the second was a shield. It was a one of a kind item, gifted to the Queen by one of her scientists. Wow, Kevin, make me one of those!
One of my favorite scenes was the fantastic finale! But don’t peek ahead.
Despite all the seemingly disparate items I’ve brought up here, the plot is straightforward and easy to follow. This is an excellent story. Kevin Candela is a genius and he delighted me with every paragraph, with his characterizations, the dialogue, the ideas he wove together from science, myth, and popular culture—and, oh! – his creations.
I went back and forth between reading the eBook and listening to the audio and doing both at once—Kevin’s story is strong as it stands, the audio shines by itself, and the two melded together are bliss!