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"The Guy" - Book Review by Tyler R. Tichelaar February 12, 2010 "The Guy" Reality and Fiction Butt Heads in newest LMLA-Ink story, “The Guy” Readers of John Reyer Afamasaga’s multi-faceted etfiction stories that include “Lazoo” and the “GUIOPERA” will little anticipate the extremes of playing with reality and fiction that occur in “The Guy.” The story begins when The Guy and Ms. Ish, aka “The Girl” flee to Neon City, or are they there to serve a higher purpose? The Guy is a Conceptualizer for John Reyer Afamasaga’s storytelling crew LMLA-ink. The Girlis his muse, whom he cannot inspire with his work here on planet earth, so he escapes with her to a place not so factual, not dissimilar to a dream—the SenFenide Dimension, where the gravitational pull of ideals, is less weighty, and where he manages to see the entity Ish, the divine being, who actually drew him to her in reality. The Girl has a dream, in which she is required to become a prostitute. Her action sets the scene for a battle between the wickedly unparalleled Country, and the Guy. The plot is likened to a parody where the cast takes control of the storyline, dragging it to wherever it suits them when they enter into a scene. The scene is similar to a video game, but one where the players reprogram the game as they play it. “The Guy” is not only fast-paced but full of zany and sometimes irreverent humor; its plot has multiple twists and turns, yet the reader is never quite lost, but rather left stunned by looking back to where its masterful crafting began. The novel appears to introduce a host of new characters, but several old ones are masquerading as someone else. Afamasaga’s use of “scenes”—far more than the “scenes” we expect in a novel, create almost a time-warp style, a sort of quantum physics feel to his fiction, that is difficult to explain and only to be experienced by reading—or should I say—being sucked into the story or scene. Readers of Afamasaga’s earlier works will agree that “The Guy” is the most complicated, yet fascinating play with reality yet by the creator of ET Fiction. Book 2 of the story especially excels in revisiting earlier scenes in Book 1, as if we are watching a rewound story simultaneously with a new one. Again, the story simply has to be experienced. Afamasaga never forgets he is playing a literary game, and he obviously has a great deal of fun doing so. From a diner where the patrons gather although there is no cook, to a whorehouse where the prostitutes are mistreated but still like what they do, and finally to characters whose deaths reflect their just deserves, there is no lack of irony or humor. The novel’s visual aspects would lend the story well to film. Afamasaga also is a great fan of contemporary music, which inspires him, and he is not afraid to credit that influence and how the soundtrack of our lives can affect people. Songs such as “One Headlight” by the Wallflowers, “To Really Love a Woman” by Bryan Adams, and music by Amy Winehouse are continually heard by the characters, toying with and illuminating their thoughts as if they are in a music video or even a contemporary rock opera. While Afamasaga demands close attention from his readers and some reading between the lines, the stories grow upon the reader until he gives himself up to the dizzying, head-spinning flow of multiple characters whose lives and worlds overlap, and the reader is left questioning his or her own concept of reality. I would not be surprised if first time readers go on to read “Lazoo,” “WIPE,” and Afamasaga’s many other works to gain the full flavor of the characters, their multiple appearances, and the masterly intertextual maze of John Reyer Afamasaga’s work. More information about John Reyer Afamasaga and his novels can be found at www.etfiction.com — Tyler R. Tichelaar, Ph.D., and author of the award-winning “Narrow Lives” Distribution Partners:
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John Lazoo - Book Review by Heather Froeschl "...This work is masterfully poetic..." When we re-create ourselves, are we more like actors in a play than we imagine? Or are we who we really are supposed to be? It is difficult to say which of our selves is the real us. In "John Lazoo," by John Reyer Afamasaga, readers will see the process of evolution within one man. READ MORE
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John Lazoo - Book Review by Tyler R. Tichelaar Gigolo on Trial in Intertextual Rollercoaster Novel "John Lazoo" 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. READ MORE
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WIPE - Book Review by Heather Froeschl "...Interesting and entertaining, stimulating..." 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..” READ MORE
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WIPE - Book Review by Tyler R. Tichelaar "...He easily creates the feeling of humor in his reader, but he can also make us feel something deeper..." 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. READ MORE
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Illicit Blade of Grass - Book Review by Tyler R. Tichelaar "...John Reyer Afamasaga is nothing if not an original writer..." 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. READ MORE
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GUIOPERA - Book Review by Tyler R. Tichelaar An Experimental Treat John Reyer Afamasaga, creator of etfiction pronounced e-t-fiction, has written another episode in his saga of stories. "e-t" stands for "Emotional-Techno" Fiction, but it might also be interpreted as "experimental treats" for that describes the "GUIOPERA," his latest offering in a series of strangely satisfying, multiple-plot, intertextual tales containing some of the most original characters ever to see the page-the webpage that is. Afamasaga previously brought us "John Lazoo," "WIPE," and "Illicit Blade of Grass." The "GUIOPERA" returns us to the familiar characters of those works and the LMLA-ink crew who are the characters rumored to be creating this material, the name being an acronym for the characters' names, including Afamasaga himself. READ MORE |
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