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The Returners: Season One Part One
Alex Heton’s life is about to change—again. When his girlfriend, Chloe, and he are attacked at a Los Angeles diner, they learn a lot more about each other than they ever thought possible: they’re the reincarnations of Alexander the Great and Joan of Arc.
And they’re trying to kill each other.
The Returners 1.1 is the first independent publication of the popular series from Mikey Neumann (writer of Borderlands and Aliens: Colonial Marines.) Experience the gripping adventure of the Returners trying to figure out why they came back before time runs out.
And they’re trying to kill each other.
The Returners 1.1 is the first independent publication of the popular series from Mikey Neumann (writer of Borderlands and Aliens: Colonial Marines.) Experience the gripping adventure of the Returners trying to figure out why they came back before time runs out.
Kindle Edition
First published May 6, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 16, 2012
The Returners: Season One Part One is a book best described as Highlander with reincarnated historical figures. BAM. Now that’s an elevator pitch! And the story more or less lives up to that pitch. It’s a pretty eclectic group of historical figures, too. All your favorites! Joan of Arc! Paul Revere! Richard the Lionheart! Elliot Ness! Alexander the Great! Harriet Tubman! And many more! It’s like the Monsters of Rock tour, only with 100% more Sacajawea. I don’t want to ruin the plot, but suffice it to say, there’s a decent amount of action here, and a lot of hints about events still to come.
Which brings me to the other important thing about The Returners: you’re not reading a complete novel. As its title implies, you’re not even reading the complete first “season” of the novel, but just part one of an indefinite series. The book was originally serialized online in single chapter installments. As a result of this, a lot of the chapters end in cliffhangers. Sometimes that works, sometimes it feels a little forced. It probably wasn’t as much of an issue when reading the chapters a week apart, but when you sit down to read them all in succession, there’s definitely some cliffhanger fatigue here.
Another potential problem is that there’s an unevenness to some of the chapters, particularly the early ones. Because these are getting posted as they’re completed without time for revision, some chapters have more meat to them than others. The book really hits its stride about halfway through, and I got the impression that the author was becoming more confident in his prose at that point. This does feel like a first novel, and the author was clearly getting his feet wet with those early bits. As the book went on, the characters started evolving more, their dialog becoming more distinct, and descriptions seemed less vague. I can definitely envision a revised edition of The Returners when the whole story is complete that fleshes out the earlier parts.
Neumann also shows his influences pretty heavily in some parts. Without giving too much away, there’s a section that seems almost word-for-word lifted from L.A. Confidential, and while it made sense to the story, I couldn’t help thinking that there was probably a more original way to go about resolving the situation. Neumann’s previous work is in video games, and many of those games have a strong military flavor, which he brings to this book. Sometimes it works. Sometimes…not so much. The tactical nature of the descriptions definitely applied well to Alexander the Great, but I wasn’t convinced of Harriet Tubman’s military expertise.
Also, and this is a problem with a lot of independently published Kindle books, there are typos. As a matter of fact, there’s a typo in the first sentence of the first chapter. It happens, and it’s not so bad that there’s a typo on every page, but maybe one or two per chapter. That’s not terrible, but as someone who reads a lot, every typo is like a stab to the eyeball. I got over it, and chances are you will too. But consider yourself warned.
Pacing in The Returners: Season One Part One seems to be patterned after a serialized television show. Early on we meet several characters, and then we spend the subsequent chapters watching them slowly come together to a single place. I don’t know where the next part is going to take the story, but I definitely look forward to reading it.
Which brings me to the other important thing about The Returners: you’re not reading a complete novel. As its title implies, you’re not even reading the complete first “season” of the novel, but just part one of an indefinite series. The book was originally serialized online in single chapter installments. As a result of this, a lot of the chapters end in cliffhangers. Sometimes that works, sometimes it feels a little forced. It probably wasn’t as much of an issue when reading the chapters a week apart, but when you sit down to read them all in succession, there’s definitely some cliffhanger fatigue here.
Another potential problem is that there’s an unevenness to some of the chapters, particularly the early ones. Because these are getting posted as they’re completed without time for revision, some chapters have more meat to them than others. The book really hits its stride about halfway through, and I got the impression that the author was becoming more confident in his prose at that point. This does feel like a first novel, and the author was clearly getting his feet wet with those early bits. As the book went on, the characters started evolving more, their dialog becoming more distinct, and descriptions seemed less vague. I can definitely envision a revised edition of The Returners when the whole story is complete that fleshes out the earlier parts.
Neumann also shows his influences pretty heavily in some parts. Without giving too much away, there’s a section that seems almost word-for-word lifted from L.A. Confidential, and while it made sense to the story, I couldn’t help thinking that there was probably a more original way to go about resolving the situation. Neumann’s previous work is in video games, and many of those games have a strong military flavor, which he brings to this book. Sometimes it works. Sometimes…not so much. The tactical nature of the descriptions definitely applied well to Alexander the Great, but I wasn’t convinced of Harriet Tubman’s military expertise.
Also, and this is a problem with a lot of independently published Kindle books, there are typos. As a matter of fact, there’s a typo in the first sentence of the first chapter. It happens, and it’s not so bad that there’s a typo on every page, but maybe one or two per chapter. That’s not terrible, but as someone who reads a lot, every typo is like a stab to the eyeball. I got over it, and chances are you will too. But consider yourself warned.
Pacing in The Returners: Season One Part One seems to be patterned after a serialized television show. Early on we meet several characters, and then we spend the subsequent chapters watching them slowly come together to a single place. I don’t know where the next part is going to take the story, but I definitely look forward to reading it.
January 4, 2013
I just finished reading Pt.1 and it was awesome. It has the occasional grammerical and spelling snafu, but I was able to navigate my way through those, no problem. I believe Mikey has fixed those issues with the omnibus of season 1 which is available now on Amazon, buy it now, do it! Mikey has quickly become one of my new favorite authors and I can't wait to read the rest of Season 1 of The Returners. I am excited to read any of Mikey's new adventures in the future, keep up the great work my friend.
Brandon Boss
Twitter @strider1310
Brandon Boss
Twitter @strider1310
May 4, 2013
Found this book by accident while reading about the authors brush with vile, mean people on the Internet via William Wheatons blog. I found I was able to read the three books online so I just started....and couldn't stop. Very interesting to say the least.
It's time for bed now but I will be reading the remaining two ebooks over the weekend.
It's time for bed now but I will be reading the remaining two ebooks over the weekend.
February 11, 2013
This was an incredible, fast-paced story that kept my attention from beginning to end. I'dn ever imagined a story in wich Sacagawea is friends with Alexander the Great, but it certainly works here. I'm looking forward to the next part!
January 1, 2013
Overall good; however, I constantly found myself getting frustrated by the points of view and time jumping around all the time. I found it distracting.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews