Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

UPDATE: As noted in comment number three below, the incomplete nature of this story is more in line with the category 'magical realism' than it is an indication of unresolved story. I have thus raised the rating to four stars out of five. This should demonstrate also the power of Amazon's Customer Review process. --- A Most Unusual, Evocative, Dream for Adults --- Right up front, I want to state my love and hate relationship with this story. Firstly, it has almost zero profanities. Almost zero, however, does not mean it would get a G-Rating if it were a film. With fewer than a half-dozen profanities, the author manages to slip in one f-bomb and two sh@$ expletives. As for myself, though, this is not the shortcoming in the story. I mention it only for those who abhor foul language. Lastly, while I won’t say the book ends on a cliffhanger, it is certain the story is not fully concluded either. What I am warning readers is that, if they do get to the end of this bizarre tale, they will be teased and will find themselves waiting for more. Although this did disturb me, I kind of expected it right from the start. Therefore, I did not even lower the rating a single star. The causes for my hate and love of the writing is directed at the content of the other 200-some pages. As the book description declares, the writing is intensely evocative. If this was the only purpose for reading a book, I would have to rate this at six, seven, perhaps even eight stars. Early on, the writer hooks me into her story with a first-person POV that is compelling narrative. The author displays an ability to evoke that reflects her success with short story writing. Unfortunately, however, it does little more than bring us along on her dreamscape (my crude attempt to explain what the writer is trying to convey her mindset). Understand, I like fantasy. I love stories that transport me to another place, another time, or that have me contemplating the meaning of life, the universe and whatever the heck is really going on… Let me explain it this way: Douglas Adams, with Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, displayed fantastic humor and evoked hilarious, mind-bending scenes that were among the best science fiction I’ve ever read. But, it was not the humor or the evocative writing that stimulated me. It was the wild ride through alternative realities in which Arthur Dent is searching for meaning (and love) that kept my interest despite the implausibility of the circumstances. The shortcoming of this story seems, to me, to be the missing story arc that makes any great quest a classic. Is the writing good? Absolutely, How is the editing for typos, grammar, dialogue and such? Beautiful. I definitely can see where a English Lit professor might use this in a class to display good writing. I just don’t see that same instructor reading this for pleasure or to satisfy an urge. But the story is a long continuous dream that, although it is loaded with twists and turns throughout, just doesn’t quite scratch that itch within me. Excerpt ‘…Your eyes search for one specific tall building. It’s visible up ahead. Cold yellow steel, spotlights beam here and there. The trees around it are strewn with tiny lights, like rows of Christmas trees, minus the glorious birth. Joining the lightfest of the city’s business district. Your office. The place you go six days a week, if not seven. How it all looks so different from above. Streets one after the next, chaotic and overlapping, looking like dead snakes. Named streets, their gray-skinned asphalt hissing, peeling, shimmering, carrying people to the same places. You think of your days on those streets, traveling, circling, coming and going, sometimes slow, sometimes fast. Tonight, above the city you know so well, you recall your apprehension of the tall buildings, with the pointed lightning rods at their tops, piercing the sky and clouds. You recall the weird feeling that rises up sometimes when you’re in between the buildings. Like you’re lost in a jungle, a wild, artificial jungle of concrete, steel, glass, asphalt. Afraid you can’t escape, you’ll just circle round and round in that labyrinth, and one day, any day at all, an intersection or pedestrian bridge or speeding car will end your life. Suddenly. When there is so much you’ve yet to see, want to see. That you still haven’t entirely, fully seen. But tonight, one of your wishes is fulfilled. You smile, because tonight you are flying with a talking dragon, and you are its sole passenger, going who knows where. Could any type of flying be more exciting, more amazing than this, any wish more unlikely to be fulfilled? Flight of the unrestrained variety, no seatbelt, no known destination, not cooped up in an airplane, no other passengers making small talk, no flight attendants. You have long wanted to know what eagles and their kin feel, all the winged creatures, the ones who can fly, up high, alone. Those who can see it all from above, fully, entirely. Is there a panorama between heaven and earth with so much to enjoy? You look at the broad, open terrain, trying to decide what you should focus on— it is all equally captivating. The view below? Above? In the middle? Should you be studying this mysterious dragon? Or yourself, a person who rides dragons late into the night in black floral pajamas? After a night of weeping, this is a sweet blessing. You laugh. A long, loud belly laugh, igniting curiosity, banishing fear, lending courage. You are leaving the city, heading someplace else— maybe the sky, high and far away. You no longer feel the need to be anxious. Anything can happen out here, tonight, wherever you go. It feels like you’re on the threshold of various possibilities. And impossibilities. The lights of the buildings and houses shrink; the national monument Tugu Monas the size of your pinkie finger. The city recedes, growing hazy beneath its veil of smog. You breathe deep, the air up here is clean. In a bit, maybe you’ll pass through the clouds and get to see your first cloud, see it from up close. The dragon cranes its head around and watches you as you dial down your laughter, its grin widening as it asks, “How does it feel to fly?” You close your eyes and sit up straight with your…’ Amal, Nukila. The Original Dream (Kindle Locations 475-499). Amazon Crossing. Kindle Edition. Bearing in mind the genre, this is a novel that achieves its goal. Four stars out of five. I trust readers who find this review helpful, or not, will leave an honest comment and, if they do purchase The Original Dream and read it, I hope they also will post a review. Just, please, be kind and respectful.