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Stone
Anthony Stone has awoken in a coffin. He remembers nothing but his name. He digs his way out of his own grave, but the world he is in is not normal. Things seem strange. Everyone knows his name, and his face. Everyone knows that he is the reason they are in this odd world. They were ripped, from their normal lives, to somewhere else. Somewhere dangerous. Strange animals roam. Men and women with dead eyes attack. And some people are intent on killing Anthony Stone.
When Stone’s first friend is killed by a stranger, he is forced to flee into the into the world, where the landscape seems to change in an instant, the feeling of being watched is always present, and the dangers of the world are as unknown to him as his past. Stone seeks to unlock the secrets of the magical windmills that are spread across the land, the ominous presence of The Project, and his own memories, while trying to survive. His unknown-self, the self of his past, teases him with snippets of information, but the more he discovers, the more he is in the dark.
Friends and enemies appear before Stone as he journeys toward answers. But the answers continue to elude him, the strangeness of the world he is in repeatedly surprises him, and he struggles on his quest to answer the most basic question of all…who is Anthony Stone?
When Stone’s first friend is killed by a stranger, he is forced to flee into the into the world, where the landscape seems to change in an instant, the feeling of being watched is always present, and the dangers of the world are as unknown to him as his past. Stone seeks to unlock the secrets of the magical windmills that are spread across the land, the ominous presence of The Project, and his own memories, while trying to survive. His unknown-self, the self of his past, teases him with snippets of information, but the more he discovers, the more he is in the dark.
Friends and enemies appear before Stone as he journeys toward answers. But the answers continue to elude him, the strangeness of the world he is in repeatedly surprises him, and he struggles on his quest to answer the most basic question of all…who is Anthony Stone?
ebook
First published November 13, 2014
3 people want to read
About the author
James Bowman
2 booksJames grew up in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, Australia. In his teenage years, James found he had a passion for the written word, and for conjuring stories, characters and faraway places. After numerous attempts at writing a novel, with varying degrees of success, James found the story that stuck, and has since written four novels. James’s specialities are speculative fiction and epic fantasy.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 20, 2015
What a weird little book.
The entire focus of the book is the titular character, Anthony Stone. Stone wakes up in a coffin, breaks out and starts trying to figure out where he is. He has no memory of previous events so sets off in a search for answers.
The world described in the book is (largely) hostile, frequently changing, full of windmills, and above all completely bonkers. Stone wanders around from place to place figuring things out. Sometimes he meets others, rarely still they are friendly. These friendlies point him in the right direction and he goes on – none of the supporting cast tend to exist on the page for much longer than a chapter: it's all about Stone.
This in itself is one of the books weaknesses; Stone (kind of an apt name) is a bit of a blank slate – we learn very little at all about the man. He's (very, very) good with guns, he talks to himself (in a schizo style, rather than running commentary), and has\had a family. Some of this is explored via flashback chapters, but only really to drive to the final 5% of the book when we actually find out an answer or two to the many, many questions brought up by the world he explores.
Various events and landscapes are traversed, zombies (of a kind) turn up a lot, and things generally start weird and go completely off the scale bonkers.
It plays out as one long mystery, albeit with certain fantastical elements coming into play.
I must admit that while I was worried at a couple of points early in the book that I'd guessed the ending; the explanation Stone receives in the last chapter or so was not what I was expecting, so well played there.
The writing style, while a little amateurish early on, was not particularly off-putting to me – I say that as this is a first-time self-published effort, not typically a recipe for good writing.
Certain constructs, like the inner monologue dialogue, feel pointless in many sections of the book and the use of all caps a bit jarring – but this does fit with the general style of the book.
Overall the novel certainly displays some imagination on the part of the author, however it was never particularly entertaining for me. The lack of interesting characters removes any stakes from the many action sequences, so these often come off as a little flat. The introduction of a dog companion helps out here a great deal, but a little bit too late.
Not a bad effort, but reads like a long prologue to a much longer book. There isn't enough here I feel to continue with the upcoming 2nd book.
The entire focus of the book is the titular character, Anthony Stone. Stone wakes up in a coffin, breaks out and starts trying to figure out where he is. He has no memory of previous events so sets off in a search for answers.
The world described in the book is (largely) hostile, frequently changing, full of windmills, and above all completely bonkers. Stone wanders around from place to place figuring things out. Sometimes he meets others, rarely still they are friendly. These friendlies point him in the right direction and he goes on – none of the supporting cast tend to exist on the page for much longer than a chapter: it's all about Stone.
This in itself is one of the books weaknesses; Stone (kind of an apt name) is a bit of a blank slate – we learn very little at all about the man. He's (very, very) good with guns, he talks to himself (in a schizo style, rather than running commentary), and has\had a family. Some of this is explored via flashback chapters, but only really to drive to the final 5% of the book when we actually find out an answer or two to the many, many questions brought up by the world he explores.
Various events and landscapes are traversed, zombies (of a kind) turn up a lot, and things generally start weird and go completely off the scale bonkers.
It plays out as one long mystery, albeit with certain fantastical elements coming into play.
I must admit that while I was worried at a couple of points early in the book that I'd guessed the ending; the explanation Stone receives in the last chapter or so was not what I was expecting, so well played there.
The writing style, while a little amateurish early on, was not particularly off-putting to me – I say that as this is a first-time self-published effort, not typically a recipe for good writing.
Certain constructs, like the inner monologue dialogue, feel pointless in many sections of the book and the use of all caps a bit jarring – but this does fit with the general style of the book.
Overall the novel certainly displays some imagination on the part of the author, however it was never particularly entertaining for me. The lack of interesting characters removes any stakes from the many action sequences, so these often come off as a little flat. The introduction of a dog companion helps out here a great deal, but a little bit too late.
Not a bad effort, but reads like a long prologue to a much longer book. There isn't enough here I feel to continue with the upcoming 2nd book.
January 31, 2015
One of the most successful thing this book has done is its hook. Anthony Stone woke up in a coffin--and the story starts there. This is one of those books that really did "suck me in" very early on, and I feel that it did not take long at all to get to the action. This is unlike any other book I've ever read though, and so I think another very successful thing about this book is the fact that it's just unique! It's definitely very character driven; the entire book focuses on Anthony and him figuring things out. On top of all of that, I really liked the author's writing style as well. I feel like it really added to the story. For me, the amount of description was just right, and the author was able to really take us into the story and get involved, so to speak, by the vivid descriptions and truly elegant writing! Overall, I really enjoyed this book. While it is very different from what I usually read, I found myself completely captivated by the storyline. I highly recommend this!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews