Visions

King's X #1

by Stephen T. Harper

For readers seeking the next surprisingly smart page-turner.

"The Maltese Falcon" collides with a real-world "The Lord of the Rings" in a provocative barn-burner of a Suspense/Thriller.

A lost artifact of a forgotten science?  Or a magic ring of myth and legend?  Whatever it really is, the King's X is ancient, unfathomable, undeniable.  To wear the King's X even once is to remember many lifetimes , and to learn a shocking secret...  No one truly dies.  We all must come back again and again until our hidden purpose is fulfilled.

Now, the "King's X" has been found again... in Los Angeles. 

"King's X is that rare reader an authentic thrill-ride that reads like literary fiction. A must-read that is destined to become a classic!"
             -- Laura Taylor, Award-Winning Author & Editor

Winner - "Outstanding Fiction Award" from the Southern California Writers Conference.

From the   King's X is the first title in the Lightning Reads line from Novel Endeavor Books - Designed specifically as 99 cent ebooks, Lightning Reads offer high quality, stay-up-all-night reads of 100 pages (over 25K words) per Episode.  We hope you will take a look at the reviews, download a free sample and see for yourself.

Genres: Fantasy

375 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 13, 2010

About the author

I live with my beautiful wife by the merely-pretty-in-comparison water in Southern California.

I’m going to try to be more on top of what goes on here from now on, but I have, sadly, paid too little attention to my Goodreads account. It is a mess at the moment and is proving very difficult to clean up. But I’m trying. :)

In my first foray into publishing, I published a novel in serialized format. Once it was complete, I put the books together into one book. On my Goodreads author page, that appears as quite mess. So here’s the thing... there is really only one book called King’ s X: A Supernatural Epic. It is the first of a larger cycle, with a new novel called “Corsair: the King’s X Protocol” coming very soon. Unfortunately, I can not hide the now unavailable serialized editions on Goodreads. So I’m sorry about the confusion and the mess. I’ll do better from now on... :)

Reviews

[Vicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

King's X Episode 1 really sucks you in and holds your attention. It also bounces around a lot, something I normally have a bit of trouble keeping up with. So many characters, locations, time zones and yet I didn't seem to have any trouble keeping up. I'm not sure where this is all leading but that's the point of the book, isn't it? I'm wondering if the next 3 episodes can keep up the pace.

As an aside, I found this book in an ad on FB. Looked interested and I figured for 99 cents per episode, one didn't have too much to lose. At about 88% I had a bit of a panic attack and had to go to the Kindle store on my Kindle, something I never do but the computer was turned off for the night and OMG!! what if I should finish Episode 1 and not have the next installment to start on immediately. hahaha

[TC · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this novella having seen it promoted on Amazon's kindle forum and finding the synopsis really interesting. It is the first in a series of four, and skips between the modern day and the late 13th and early 14th century. It is listed as a crime and mystery thiller, and I'd say it certainly lives up to the mystery tag!

In the present Detective Wendell Book has lost those he loved and had to watch his father's decline into madness. He works vice and his partner thinks he is too soft on the runaways they encounter. When Molly appears in his life her story is too familiar to Book, making him re-examine memories he's been avoiding. In the past we find out a little about the start of a love story between Khali and soldier Sebastien, and she is used to try and extract information from him that he won't reveal under torture. Clearly there is a link between the stories, and a great mystery to be revealed about the King's X, but this first book is the hook that draws the reader in.

This book has grabbed me and I'm going to have to work the subsequent novellas into my reading schedule some time very soon. At the start the story skips around quite a lot, both in time and in which characters are being followed, but I didn't find it hard to keep the threads straight at all. I found Book a particularly interesting character and really want to know more about Khali and Sebastien, as well as finding out what the mystery is. I suppose that all points to a very sucessful first installment.

I thought this was really well written and I liked the author's style. There was a certain economy with descriptions that allowed the narrative to move quickly, yet still giving enough of a sense of the surroundings and events. A final plus point, it has clearly been well proof-read and edited and so I had none of the little niggles that often crop up, particularly in e-books. I'm so glad I downloaded this and if I didn't have another couple of books on the go and others in my TBR list that ought to have been read by now I would probably go straight through the rest of the series. Big thumbs up from me!

[John Mackey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book. This book is well laid out with a good amount of blind turns to keep you reading and craving to go deeper into the story. The characters are great, likable, or hate-able in some cases. I can't wait to read the other 3 Episodes.

[Tishia (Paperback Opinion) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read my review and interview here:

http://paranormalopinion.blogspot.com...

[SnowySilence · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know how the author did it, but this book, which had so much potential and was filled with action, drug out, making it dull and listless. I found myself skipping almost full pages trying to find where the story picked up and moved forward. This is not to say the story was bad, not by any means, however, in my opinion, the author could have skipped some of the inner dialogue and the long drawn out descriptions, and actually put the next two books in with this one, and probably made a standard length novel, filled with excitement and adventure.

I love the premise of the story. Templars and assassins have always piqued my interest. It was kind of like reading the book version of Assassin's Creed. It's exciting, and interesting and the plot should have sucked me in, but there was so little dialogue and so much description, I couldn't connect with the characters.

Then, just like Assassin's Creed, you jump back to the past with two different characters, seeing their struggles, then poof, next chapter your back in the late 60's, trying to figure out what the heck just happened. While this is a good tactic for the game series, I don't think it was a good one for this book series.

And my biggest pet peeve: It's a cliffhanger. No proper ending and what really ticks me off is that since the author was jumping back and forth between two time periods, BOTH ended in a cliffhanger. It's a friggin' novella! There is NO excuse for ending the story so short without a proper cut off point. To me, that just screams "This is just to catch your interest! To find out what happens, give me money!" I don't mind buying books. I spend money on books all the time. But I do NOT buy books where the author doesn't feel like the reader should get a whole story for free. At least write in the description the free book you are offering is a cliffhanger.

All in all, the potential is outstanding, but the story fell flat. As much as I love the premise, I'm note even remotely interested in reading the next book.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novella starts out mid-action and doesn't seem to slow down even when the author is describing delicate women in quiet moments with the men they care for. Which, definitely are not the key elements of the plot of this noir-esque story. There is a lot to absorb on the few pages of this first part. It's a giant feat to be able to fit so much character introduction and unveil at least enough of the wide-ranging plot to keep the reader wanting to log onto Barnes & Noble to read the next episode and Mr. Harper accomplishes it well.

The characters are developed well enough with the simplest of clues and statements that I quickly fell into the world being created. I especially enjoyed the historical segments as I have a fascination with the Crusades and Knights Templar. I felt the characters and description of settings was much richer and more colorful in these sections than in the more modern sections. I found myself more interested in what would happen with Sebastien and Khali than with Book, Molly, and Sara.

All in all, this was a nicely gritty, fun read. I'm impressed with the fortitude it must have taken to weave together something so complicated as I can already feel this story is going to be. Pick up King's X. You won't be sorry.

[Serena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the characters, and their world and hope I get the chance to read the story again and/or to read more within the series.

My Rating System:
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.

[Gwendolyn Dabney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was gifted to me by the author, and I really wanted to like it. I had a hard time staying interedted, but I did finish the book. I'm not sure if I'll read the other books in this series.

[Darren · Rating 3 out of 5]

good story, interesting read, but hated the abrupt ending. I understand authors want you to read more of their books, but this just felt like an incomplete story. I felt gipped.