Luckbane

Otherworld #1

Fiction - Science Fiction
396 Pages
Reviewed on 10/11/2013
Buy on Amazon

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Author Biography

Tony Breeden is an author, illustrator, vocalist, creation speaker, apologist and Gospel preacher from West Virginia. He is the founder of DefGen.org, CreationLetter.com and CreationSundays.com.

He got the writing bug as a child when his late aunt Sharon helped him make his very first book about dinosaurs, vigorously illustrated in crayon.

His first book, Johnny Came Home, was published on September 28, 2012.

You can find out more about his books at http://TonyBreedenBooks.com and on Facebook at http://facebook.com/tonybreedenbooks

    Book Review

Reviewed by Lit Amri for Readers' Favorite

Living in a dystopian world, master thief Jarrod Seventhborn, or better known as Jarrod Luckbane, is one of many people who seek escape and even an identity to be proud of in an online gaming world. When his master thief character suffers the horrible game-death, GameComm corporation offers him the chance to play for the inaugural game of Otherworld campaign. A golden opportunity for a janitor, but someone is relentlessly trying to kill him. Will Jarrod survive? Luckbane is the first installment in the exciting Otherworld series by Tony Breeden.

As a fan of role playing games and even a long time fan of TSR products, Luckbane is definitely the type of novel that I want to read. The premise of the story is exciting and refreshing to me. The short lengths of the chapters, which are also divided in parts, make the pacing fast but comfortable to read. I see no flaws in author Tony Breeden’s high level writing style. The dialogues are strong and witty, and the protagonist Jarrod is the flawed hero of this story that you would easily root for. The plot is excellent; it does feel like you are playing your favorite RPG while reading.

There is a lot of thrilling action which does not involve heavy or disturbing violence and the language used is fairly clean. That being said, both young and mature readers will definitely enjoy Luckbane and would want to follow the Otherworld series. The combination of sci-fi and fantasy elements are potent. Any RPG enthusiast would not want to miss this one.

Jennifer Lea

What did I think? I think ... excellent.

This book is something new and refreshing along the line of such serious fantasy novels out there. The chapters are brief and written in real-time ... Kinda like the playing out of a video game, but at some point, the game becomes real. I sense many references to things such as books, novels and games that the author enjoyed throughout his journey we all know as life without them being overly overt to anyone new to the fantasy realm.

Most of the book is light and requires very little forethought or afterthought ... but Breeden teases us with just a hint of fantasy world prophecy. At the mention of the Godspell, Breeden had my absolute attention. I want to see a big quest set up to find this 'Map controlled by six amulets called the Cruces of the Condemned: three cruces to tell you where it is, two identity cruces to tell you who had it and what it looks like, and the cartographer's crux, or the Evangel.' But that is a story for another day (figure out what novel that line comes from and you win a hundred points.)

I also checked out Breeden's online character bios which I would say enhanced my excitement for the book greatly. The author does his own illustrations and is just as much a master with a colored pencil as he is with a typewriter.

I won this book in the Goodreads Giveaways and was blessed with an amazing tale that I shall follow wherever Breeden leads us. I took advantage of his free weekend offer of his other two novels 'Johnny Came Home' and 'Dreadknights.' I don't yet know how long 'Johnny Came Home' is, but 'Dreadknights' is brief - virtually a rendering of deleted scenes of 'Luckbane.' I read it before turning in to sleep last night. It closes out with a detail telling you where each event would have happened within the main novel. I was like: Oh, so that was ... You get the idea. :P

Something I find important to mention here, I think anyone of any age could enjoy this book. The violence is akin to a classic Nintendo game and is clean enough for say a 4th grader to enjoy, yet can still hold a 30+ year old geek, such as myself, at bay. Good job, Mr. Tony Breeden!