Reviews
Admittedly we work for the publisher, only in a sense though. That being we are collated and presented as a marketing tool on this website. But what we have to say; are our own words of our thoughts about the ebooks from etfiction.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

JOHN LAZOO
By John Reyer Afamasaga
ET Fiction (2007)
ISBN: 9780980348606
Review by Tyler R. Tichelaar

John Reyer Afamasaga's first novel, "John Lazoo," is his most accessible, and I recommend reading it first before tackling the rest of his growing body of emotional-techno fiction. While Afamasaga likes to play games with the reader, he also has the ability to create tender emotional scenes, humor based in irony and modern culture, and a sense that the world would be a little more fun if it operated with more of the whimsical manipulation of reality used in his fiction.

The plot of "John Lazoo" is not complicated. James Elton, after a rocky childhood and the death of his mother, decides to take the name of a character from a poem his mother used to read to him. Thus, John Lazoo is born. From this point, the novel plays with issues of personal identity, the difference between fiction and reality, and what is truth.

The newly named John Lazoo arrives in New York City where he quickly becomes part of a fast crowd including Hariss Clariss, a wealthy man instantly infatuated with the attractive man before him. Soon John is working for Clariss as a gigolo-some readers may find the sexual scenes more graphic than they wish. Lazoo is cold-hearted toward his clients, but he soon meets the beautiful woman Genisis Jones and falls in love.

While Afamasaga tends to be satirical, his love scenes are romantically moving-as the lovers fall for one another, the reader falls in love with the characters because of their tenderness toward one another-Afamasaga has stated his goal is for readers to fall in love when reading his novels and here he succeeds, seducing us with beautiful prose. These effective love scenes substantiate Lazoo's motivations throughout the rest of the novel. He now wants out of his gigolo lifestyle so he can run away with Genisis. However, he has been commissioned for the lead role in the retelling of Hariss Clariss's life story. When he refuses to play the part, Lazoo suddenly finds himself accused of murder.

Afamasaga enjoys playing with the borderline between life and fiction. While his other novels, "WIPE" and "Illicit Blade of Grass" are intertextual, relying on readers being aware of the characters from the previous novels, in "John Lazoo" the comparison is between life and film. Early in the novel, Lazoo comes home from his sexual day-job to watch movies that begin to color his view of life. He thinks of himself as the star of a film with everyone else as the film's extras. Like a director planning a scene and considering how viewers will react, Lazoo imagines how the everyday can be reshaped into his desired cinematic life:

He went to the window and looked down on the green grass, the golden sun lighting the park...He saw himself doing something in that area; the activity he was not sure of. The nature of the activity would be humorous to one viewer, yet distressing to another, and maybe it would make another yawn. He waited for the movie menu to change to the current listings and watched the long shadows creep darkness over the park that gave life to the lights and made a skyline of the buildings which had made the shadows previously.

The credits rolled back up the screen into the reel from where they came, the director ensuring that all the names and their works remained in the can and on the screen. Lazoo thought of the lines and the plot. The main character was a good one in that he was central, the anchor and reference point to all that was said out loud and unspoken inside, which came from him.

When Lazoo meets Genisis, he realizes, "he had not yet contemplated a co-star to share his cut with, so he looked up high as he decided to permit someone else to lead for one moment. After all, she might have even been good enough for him to follow and therefore support." Meeting Genisis makes Lazoo long for a better role in life. While his love for Genisis motivates his refusal to play the role of Hariss, Lazoo is also obviously concerned about playing the role of his own choosing, to write his own life-script rather than allow someone else to create him. He decides neither he nor Genisis will be manipulated like fictional characters: "I will take the hand of one Genisis Jones and lead her from this story to an altar far from the lenses and roving eyes and growing appetites of the viewers the editors seek to please by the manipulation of a love so pure."

Once Lazoo is accused of murder, the plot slows down but the humor picks up as the judicial system is satirized. Differences between truth and fiction are again explored. Lazoo's defense lawyer, Reyer, tells the jury: "If I had tried to manufacture evidence we would still be watching people on the witness stand being manipulated by my colleague and myself. Yes, manipulated. A harsh word for what we do as lawyers, but a true description of our trade." The media also tries to distort truth in the novel, to create the story they want rather than the story the characters-or are they real people-have already created for themselves.

To tell how the trial ends would spoil the story. More interesting to me than the conclusion is how the novel opens itself up to future novels. While movies often have corny cliffhangers or hints of a sequel, no hint is given in "John Lazoo" of future books. Yet the character Metofeaz, scarcely mentioned in "John Lazoo," appears in "Illicit Blade of Grass" where he is famous as the co-author of the novel, "John Lazoo." Ironically, someone else has written Lazoo's life. I love the irony of this twist: James Elton transforms himself into a character from a poem who then tries to define himself while others try to define his role and when he thinks he has succeeded in creating his own identity, despite a controlling boss, the law, the media, he ends up becoming the title character of a book-Afamasaga's game shows that the possibilities are endless, the lines of fiction and reality constantly a blur. I find it delightful.

I encourage readers to try out "John Lazoo." It is experimental, showing the potentials of fiction's future without displaying its mechanical seams like too many other postmodern novels. The novel can be downloaded for free at John Reyer Afamasaga's website www.etfiction.com. Be sure also to read the interview with John Reyer Afamasaga here at Superior Book Promotions.

Review Available at:

Superior Book Promotions
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Monday, June 30, 2008

WIPE
John Reyer Afamasaga
ET Fiction (2007)
ISBN: 9780980348613
Review by Tyler R. Tichelaar

John Reyer Afamasaga's "WIPE" is the story of the video game named WIPE whose players' thoughts are able to self-create the game while it is played. While WIPE acts like a virus, it also becomes a worldwide phenomenon and draws people together from across the globe in its fantastic power to entice people with its possibilities.

The process of how WIPE works is described in the novel in reference to the character Kevin and how he helps to create the game:

"He has some sort of vibe that WIPE feels and then it takes his idea and makes the level...It's a chemical imbalance that is an ideal incubator for ideas. His brain activity equals the sum of neurons it takes to compose a file size recognizable by WIPE's compiler, which it uploads through the controls and uses as the template for the rhythm of the logarithm, which then populates the base of the program, giving it its beginning, end, parameters and eventually its level."

While WIPE the video game is at the center of the novel, the theme is also about the power of the human mind and the ability to turn a dream into reality.

The novel centers around three characters, beginning with the children, Polina Rada, an orphan in Russia, and her London pen pal, Alexvale Rokov III. Polina and Alexvale are not players of WIPE, but they are responsible for its creation. John Page is a player who has the opportunity to win in the online phenomenon that is WIPE as he finds insight into how it works. Meanwhile, the world's largest video game manufacturers compete to discover who created WIPE.

The plot is somewhat convoluted, and as I stated when I reviewed Afamasaga's novel "Illicit Blade of Grass," the author is demanding of his reader's close attention. Reading Afamasaga's novels is often like being in a maze or being intoxicated by language. I find myself getting caught up in his writing style, enjoying the rhythm of his words, only to find the lyrical and hyperbolic style has distracted me from the plot. But the joy of the writing style is worth the distraction. Afamasaga is extremely fond of rhythm and repetitive sounds. He has stated in interviews that his writing is influenced by techno music, which he references in "WIPE." He refers to his genre as Emotional-Techno (ET Fiction). Here are a few examples of his use of rhythm and repetition in the novel:

GEE-LEEZ's ritual hexes the sexes.

L-SOMASTIC, the 23-year old-nurse in South Africa, advances with her needle dripping with techno, technically enhancing the fruit from the funk of sweating and bodies grinded.

...the passersby stop passing by to watch...

Afamasaga is equally good with humor and metaphor. More than once I found myself laughing out-loud. The fast-paced energy of his humor reminded me of Kurt Vonnegut's style. Again, here are a few examples:

Her parents kissed with their eyes shut tight to burn calories.

Also involved are three respectable businessmen who can be traced to narcotics in the Golden Triangle and the trade in humans across the former USSR, London, and Asia.

On the ceiling-high screen, the nurse and her needle walk the slippery floors of a hallway in a hospital for insane billionaires who have seen the silver-spoon spaceship.

In talking about the language, I realize I have been distracted from discussing the plot. Afamasaga's plots are highly original while relying on metafiction and intertextual techniques. His characters appear in multiple novels, although the books do not read as a chronological series. Notably, the LMLA-ink group (LMLA stands for Lazoo, Metofeaz, Le Mac, and Afamasaga) makes several appearances, and note that Afamasaga writes himself in as a character.

Afamasaga enjoys playing with the borderline between fiction and reality. Suspension of disbelief is a must-have for his reader, and just when the reader may start to think the book is an unsolvable maze, its humorous lyrical lines and fast-moving plot about to cross the threshold into a nonsensical Alice in Wonderland world, the author steps in to remind us he is in control and playing a game with us. At one point, he intrudes into the storyline to tell us he has decided to change the margins and font of the book when he is going to write a conversation:

"As they eat, the following is worthy of special formatting techniques, like the one used to present the same idea for those who prescribe on celluloid to enhance a vision. This format will be used again during the course of events as the scribbler sees fit."

At other times, Afamasaga considers the possibilities of what another creator might do with his storyline:

If Tarantino were to recognize the riff, he would send Samuel L Jackson...complete with a bible chapter in a dialogued verse...

I am not a fan of most postmodern writers. I often feel their attempts to play with the reader reflect some insecure need to prove how clever they are, and in the process, they forget the real job of the writer-to entertain. I do not have that issue with Afamasaga's work. I may occasionally find myself confused, but I am never bored. I never, as with other authors, have felt the need to tell Afamasaga, "Stop with all the mechanics about novel writing and get on with the story." While his theme or purpose is not always crystal clear to the reader, Afamasaga is definitely one who enjoys words, writing not because he tries to be clever, but simply because he has so much fun-the sheer easy flow of many humorous passages reflects how much he enjoys his craft and how diligently he has worked to craft his words into ironic humor that flows effortlessly.

If anything is lacking in Afamasaga's writing, it may be descriptive character development, and yet, he labels his writing "emotional-techno" fiction-intended to create an emotion in the reader. He easily creates the feeling of humor in his reader, but he can also make us feel something deeper: "From a place without any reference of being wanted, she recalls the way he made her believe in a home, a mom, and a dad." The moment of feeling is quick, like a sad note in a joyful song, but it has its affect. As Afamasaga continues to develop his craft, I will be interested to see if his works come to create a significant catharsis in his readers--something I have no doubt he will learn to play with to his advantage.

I previously suggested "Illicit Blade of Grass" was a good starting point for reading Afamasaga's works, largely because of its short length. However, I enjoyed "WIPE" even more both for its greater accessibility and its humor. I recommend the reader visit www.etfiction.com to download "WIPE" and Afamasaga's other novels for free. The website includes several additional resources including a timeline of the novels' events, press releases and reviews, and the intended development of future books that will compose this intertextual, fictional maze. Never before have I seen anything like these novels. I doubt you have either.

Review Available at:

Superior Book Promotions
http://www.superiorbookpromotions.com

EzineArticles
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Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Illicit Blade of Grass
John Reyer Afamasaga
ET Fiction (2007)
ISBN: 9780980348637
Review by Tyler R. Tichelaar

John Reyer Afamasaga is nothing if not an original writer. His novella "Illicit Blade of Grass" is but a small example of the magnanimous scope of his projected works of Emotional-Techno Fiction. Afamasaga has written three works to date-"Illicit Blade of Grass," "Wipe," and "John Lazoo"-and he proposes to write a total of ten books in his Emotional-Techno Fiction series. Due to the intertextuality of his works, where characters not only appear in multiple works, but often are the authors or proposed creators of other works, it is difficult to determine whether "Illicit Blade of Grass" is the first book of this series, but as a novella of just seventy-three pages, it is a good launching point for the potential reader of Afamasaga's cyclical and pseudo-epical stories.

Because of the novels' inter-textuality, it is difficult to give a plot description solely for "Illicit Blade of Grass." The book has a definite plot, but readers of Afamasaga's other novels will find that it weaves in and out with those other works. Basically, the story centers on Metofeaz, a writer, and Rozelle, a ghost haunting the French villa where he stays. Rozelle Zofen was a singer who waited in vain all her life for a poet she heard recite the poem "Illicit Blade of Grass" during a party at the villa sometime around World War II. Metofeaz meets the Tourist, who needs a place to stay, and he allows her to live at the villa with him. When Metofeaz returns to the United States, the Tourist remains at the villa, making it her home and taking on Rozelle's identity until they are one and the same. Later, the Tourist follows Metofeaz to New York. Metofeaz is by then an author, specifically, the author of "John Lazoo" (another book in this series-hence, the inter-textuality). Metofeaz is now determined to make the most of his literary fame, which leads to additional complications.

The plot has more twists and turns and several other characters, but this summary is enough for the reader to get the gist of the story as he or she reads it. Afamasaga is determined to make his reader pay attention, both from lack of descriptive details to smooth over scene shifts, and by the confusion between the characters and the authors of the various books. Afamasaga writes himself into the book so that the reader wonders whether Afamasaga is himself real or fictional, or to what extent he is taking on a fictional persona when he is interacting in the novel with his fictional creations. He has achieved splendidly his goal to blur the line between reality and fiction.

I strain for words to define Afamasaga's writing style. It is polished and clever, and while at first elusively appearing pasted together by an amateur, it is a professional weaving together of characters, fiction and reality. The style is minimalist-lacking in extensive description so that the reader must pay attention to the author's quick pace. The book's genre is difficult to define-Afamasaga himself, in a recent interview, remarked that he believes his books will be classified as fantasy, but he called his craft Emotional-Techno Fiction (etfiction). The author wants his reader's experience to be that of falling in love and experiencing "the range of feelings one has when they fall in love" (see Afamasaga's interview with Superior Book Promotions). The patterns of techno music and the influence of technology upon our lives have also influenced his work.

Perhaps, these novels are fantasy or Emotional-Techno Fiction, but they are closely aligned with the modern and postmodern movements. I am reminded of the clever games of James Joyce, the tone of Andre Gide in "The Counterfeiters," and Nabokov's blending of fiction and reality in "Pale Fire." And strangely enough, this intensely modern novella also calls to mind Homer and his epics and the poet of "Beowulf." The inter-textuality between Afamasaga's novels makes the reader feel he is only reading fragments of an otherwise lost masterpiece. "Illicit Blade of Grass" is only a fragment of a larger work, most of which is still in the author's brain, waiting to be discovered, to be dug out and put onto paper for readers. Unlock the lost lines of "Beowulf," we have hope that the rest of the Afamasaga opus will be transcribed and preserved. In total, Afamasaga intends to write ten novels in this interconnected series. I advise the reader to visit his website www.etfiction.com and look at both the Timeline section where he gives an overview of the historical events in his characters' lives, and the Development section that describes the future novels and where they fit into this amalgamation of character relationships.

John Reyer Afamasaga himself is as much a mystery as his books, for he has purposely blended himself into the fiction of his works. He lives in Australia. What little more can be known of him-if anything-one must try to piece together from his novels. He is like the "mute inglorious Milton" the Homer we can only know through his writings. In short, the author is much like his characters in his inability to be defined by fiction or reality, like his fictional alter-ego Metofeaz, whose writing is described thus in "Illicit Blade of Grass":

His characters push open the lids of their coffins and push up the dirt that covers their doorways, not withstanding time's rules and skin's aging. Their voices race, and then they raise doubts about the here and now; are they there and then? Or, are they everywhere?

To explore the fictional puzzling world of John Reyer Afamasaga, you need only visit his website www.etfiction.com and download for free "Illicit Blade of Grass." Visit now before the secret of Afamasaga's novels becomes material reality and his books come with a price.

Review Available at:

Superior Book Promotions
http://www.superiorbookpromotions.com

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Tuesday, November 13, 2007

WIPE
By John Reyer Afamasaga
ISBN: 978-0-9803486-1-3
Review by Heather Froeschl

We know how computer virus’ can enter our lives, sucking our information into cyberspace. What if that could happen literally? Pulling our very minds and personalities into a platform? This scary topic is the basis for John Reyer Afamasaga’s book, “WIPE.”

Two people are responsible for a video game that creates itself by drawing the ideas and inclinations through the controller the players hold in their hands. New levels are formed and the game grows as more people play. More people become part of the diversion. The largest gaming corporations are anxious to discover who has created this monster and the world looks on in anxiety and awe.

Meanwhile, a seven year old orphan girl in Russia dreams of a life full of love and devotion. Polina has a friend in Alexvale Rokov III, her penpal who lives in London. What do these two have to do with the game? Apparently a great deal more than anyone would suspect. One player, John Page, is given clues to how the online game works. Will he be the sole winner? Will he be the answer to young Polina’s prayers?

This novel is not for the easy reading set. It is challenging, sometimes confusing, if not downright chaotic. Perhaps the author did this on purpose, in the frenetic feel of online gaming and the scattered thoughts of young children in hectic circumstance. The characters become real, as if pulled from reality as in the plot. It is a wild ride based on a fantastical idea. Interesting and entertaining, stimulating, to say the least.

Labels: Heather Froeschl, john reyer afamasaga, online gaming, platform, WIPE

Review Available at:

EzineArticles.com
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Book Review Journal
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Universal Book Reviews
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