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The Clever Man
Las Vegas has a million stories of luck and loss, fortune and desperation, good and evil. Lowell Dempsey is about to find out how far over the edge reality actually goes when he enters a world of spirits, primal forces, and ancient threats. With only his friends to help, can a stage magician handle real magic?
230 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 2, 2017
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 13, 2018
Full disclosure: my cousin wrote this. That said, I haven't seen him since our grandmother's funeral when I was about twelve.
I have a deep suspicion of self-published books, so I want to make clear that I read fifty pages of this one before deciding that I was even going to report to Goodreads that I had read it at all, but I think it was after the first 15 or so pages that I was fairly confident that I would finish it and would enjoy it. Just because I haven't seen Adam in twenty two years doesn't mean I want to make him unhappy by leaving a terrible review of his book. Better, if it was a terrible book, to pretend I hadn't seen it. I haven't seen him in over twenty years, and it's likely I won't ever see him again, so it's easy enough to hide the fact that I read the book, if I wanted to.
But I liked it. I liked it a lot. I hope you will trust that I liked it, now that I have explained how easy it would have been to hide the fact if I had disliked it.
There are flaws, and they are flaws that I think would have been fixed by going through a commercial publisher. I think if a professional editor had gone over the manuscript and sent it back for some revisions, it would probably be one of the best books ever. Even so, the quality of the story shone through and the flaws were minor enough that they faded into the background and allowed the story to take over. I think I read the whole thing in two days.
It is a really good story. The characters are compelling. The plot is excellent. The story is unlike anything I've read before (and I read a lot). It reminded me a bit of Charles de Lint's sort of work, but was not at all derivative.
I'm really hoping some publisher somewhere picks this up. I think it could be the first book in an excellent series. I hope, in any case, that Coleman keeps writing, and that his books keep finding their way into my hands.
I have a deep suspicion of self-published books, so I want to make clear that I read fifty pages of this one before deciding that I was even going to report to Goodreads that I had read it at all, but I think it was after the first 15 or so pages that I was fairly confident that I would finish it and would enjoy it. Just because I haven't seen Adam in twenty two years doesn't mean I want to make him unhappy by leaving a terrible review of his book. Better, if it was a terrible book, to pretend I hadn't seen it. I haven't seen him in over twenty years, and it's likely I won't ever see him again, so it's easy enough to hide the fact that I read the book, if I wanted to.
But I liked it. I liked it a lot. I hope you will trust that I liked it, now that I have explained how easy it would have been to hide the fact if I had disliked it.
There are flaws, and they are flaws that I think would have been fixed by going through a commercial publisher. I think if a professional editor had gone over the manuscript and sent it back for some revisions, it would probably be one of the best books ever. Even so, the quality of the story shone through and the flaws were minor enough that they faded into the background and allowed the story to take over. I think I read the whole thing in two days.
It is a really good story. The characters are compelling. The plot is excellent. The story is unlike anything I've read before (and I read a lot). It reminded me a bit of Charles de Lint's sort of work, but was not at all derivative.
I'm really hoping some publisher somewhere picks this up. I think it could be the first book in an excellent series. I hope, in any case, that Coleman keeps writing, and that his books keep finding their way into my hands.
Displaying 1 of 1 review