What do you think?
Rate this book
Sky Fighters and Houndy Crunchers #4
Deadly Encounters
The fated battle draws closer every day. The Sky Fighters train harder. Their sworn enemies continuously grow stronger in their efforts to outwit, outlast, and outmatch the Sky Fighters. Every time the Sky Fighters train for battle, they have to change their battle tactics and create new strategies in order to overcome their powerful and relentless foes. Though victory may be within their grasp now, the stakes are higher than they ever were before. The Python Demons are becoming more clever and unpredictable. In addition to this, they have gained a new, potential ally, who has gone from being troublesome to dangerous. And if this wasn't bad enough, tensions rise between fellow Sky Fighters and Sky Fighter Champions alike! If the Sky Fighters have any hopes of achieving peace across the Multi-Verse, they'll have to settle their differences and battle together to vanquish their mightiest foes once and for all!
197 pages, Paperback
Published January 16, 2017
About the author
Ross Eberle
8 books1,586 followersImportant note: All characters, images, details, published, and unpublished works of the Sky Fighters are Copyright © Ross Eberle. All rights reserved as noted by the U.S. Copyright Office. Furthermore, the contents of this novel series are purely fictional. As such, it is not intended to represent or depict any factual event, person, or entity; any and all similarities are nothing more than a coincidence.
Ask the author about his FREE novel chapters!
Ross Eberle is the creator of the Sky Fighters Novella Series! He was born in New Jersey and grew up in Philadelphia before moving down to Florida in the summer of 2003. His grandfather was once a famous Big Band singer. His name was Ray Eberle. If you'd like to know more about him (As well as the author's Mom, grandmoms, aunts, and uncles), you can find all the details on his article at Wikipedia right here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Eberle
The concept of the Sky Fighters first came to Mr. Eberle during a class project where students had to color in a totem pole. Back then, he was only 7 years old. And even though the teachers would not allow him to take part in the class project, seeing one of the animals carved into the totem pole drawing gave him the inspiration to create special alien creatures which resembled foxes. They were multicolored and had square-shaped ears. These were known as Houndy Crunchers.
Soon thereafter, he 'bagged' a bag of Home Girls potato chips as part of a class grab bag simply by selecting a number from 1 to 10. He selected number 5 and won the chips. The chips had an interesting picture of the Home Girls on them. While out shopping with his Mom, this gave Mr. Eberle the idea to bestow superpowers to the Home Girls and make them Humanistic Sky Fighters. The name Sky Fighters did not come to him until years later, however. By the time it did so, their appearance had advanced and included such perks as wire-like tentacles on the sides of their bodies. These are called Wickwires, and can be extended and retracted according to their Willpower.
As you read Mr. Eberle's novellas, you will notice the people who are Sky Fighters have the ability to change their size, essentially making themselves 200 feet or taller or 7 inches or smaller. They also have magical powers, including Elemental Attacks, Teleportation, Invisibility, Summoning, and once they're strong enough, they grow a set of wings and are able to fly! He decided to make the first half of his books novella-length because of the way he has the plot set up. The storyline has eight parts to it with each part depicting the events of a particular year or years. There may even be a ninth installment of the series in the works!
If you've come this far in reading Mr. Eberle's biography, then hats off to you! He hopes you love reading his Novella Series as much as he loves to read in general.
Ask the author about his FREE novel chapters!
Ross Eberle is the creator of the Sky Fighters Novella Series! He was born in New Jersey and grew up in Philadelphia before moving down to Florida in the summer of 2003. His grandfather was once a famous Big Band singer. His name was Ray Eberle. If you'd like to know more about him (As well as the author's Mom, grandmoms, aunts, and uncles), you can find all the details on his article at Wikipedia right here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Eberle
The concept of the Sky Fighters first came to Mr. Eberle during a class project where students had to color in a totem pole. Back then, he was only 7 years old. And even though the teachers would not allow him to take part in the class project, seeing one of the animals carved into the totem pole drawing gave him the inspiration to create special alien creatures which resembled foxes. They were multicolored and had square-shaped ears. These were known as Houndy Crunchers.
Soon thereafter, he 'bagged' a bag of Home Girls potato chips as part of a class grab bag simply by selecting a number from 1 to 10. He selected number 5 and won the chips. The chips had an interesting picture of the Home Girls on them. While out shopping with his Mom, this gave Mr. Eberle the idea to bestow superpowers to the Home Girls and make them Humanistic Sky Fighters. The name Sky Fighters did not come to him until years later, however. By the time it did so, their appearance had advanced and included such perks as wire-like tentacles on the sides of their bodies. These are called Wickwires, and can be extended and retracted according to their Willpower.
As you read Mr. Eberle's novellas, you will notice the people who are Sky Fighters have the ability to change their size, essentially making themselves 200 feet or taller or 7 inches or smaller. They also have magical powers, including Elemental Attacks, Teleportation, Invisibility, Summoning, and once they're strong enough, they grow a set of wings and are able to fly! He decided to make the first half of his books novella-length because of the way he has the plot set up. The storyline has eight parts to it with each part depicting the events of a particular year or years. There may even be a ninth installment of the series in the works!
If you've come this far in reading Mr. Eberle's biography, then hats off to you! He hopes you love reading his Novella Series as much as he loves to read in general.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 17, 2023
The Sky Fighters novella series is a truly unique creation. I promise, it is like nothing you have ever read before. It's a frenetic mashup of many of your favorite childhood action cartoons and long-running anime series, video games (including Tomb Raider cited specifically in this volume), and autobiographical inspiration, defying easy genre classification. At a minimum, the author's joy is conveyed by the text, and it can be interesting to read if you forego most of the usual criteria you might use to evaluate fiction.
You can probably jump in with any volume to get the flavour of these books, but there is a continuing storyline across the series. I started at the beginning, but having done so has not quite granted me insight into character motivation or sensible reasons for certain series' events. Attempts by characters in-book to provide a rationale for their actions sometimes leave me, well . . . I am not one for reaction GIFs, but some still images will illuminate the expression I often found myself making (in a good way!) while I read this book:
And,
And sometimes,
(Bonus game: guess whether any of these celebrities appear in the book)
Deadly Encounters nicely ties together the whole series to date, completing the first major story arc. I was gratified to see multiple plot threads from the prior books come together, even though this meant I sometimes had to search back through the earlier books for their initial mentions. Many of our favorite almost-forgotten characters make triumphant returns, like the "Black Snake Mafia" and "the guy who staffs the Zoom Copter stand at Franklin Mills Mall". At the same time, it introduces new elements that remain unresolved (at least until later books, perhaps), like a concern about Lithuanian vampires. I had been most anxious to learn whether the Ross character, who at the start of book two selected the Bard class and Music skill for himself when he became a Sky Fighter, would ever apply his new mystical musical abilities. Here, he finally did. Are you ready for it?
The opening chapter launches straight into adventure. You might remember how, in the third book, Ross/Muggins/Hippie-Matt absorbed another character named Rehn, and then went by his name for the rest of the book. Well, Rehn is still inside Ross, but surprise, inside Rehn is ANOTHER "Alter-Ego" named Rio, and inside Rio is YET ANOTHER alter-ego, this time a multi-limbed alien who, from his Inception-level depth inside Muggins' body, takes a Sky Fighter on a murderous rampage, for reasons. The key benefit of this scene is that it reveals how the Sky Fighters, up to this point considered the heroes of this imagined universe very much like our own, are MONSTERS!
Later, when now-eighteen-year-old Ross/ Muggins gets a girlfriend and she subsequently becomes a Sky Fighter too, all I could think was, you have just condemned your girlfriend to a lifetime of eating human flesh and it really puts a new spin on the series.
Truly, Deadly Encounters has it all:
HISTORY!
******************
Ongoing series gasping count:
Book 1: 22 gasps
Book 2: 16 gasps
Book 3: 21 gasps
Book 4: 57 gasps (yes I’m counting the Gasping Contest)
Total gasps to date: 116
You can probably jump in with any volume to get the flavour of these books, but there is a continuing storyline across the series. I started at the beginning, but having done so has not quite granted me insight into character motivation or sensible reasons for certain series' events. Attempts by characters in-book to provide a rationale for their actions sometimes leave me, well . . . I am not one for reaction GIFs, but some still images will illuminate the expression I often found myself making (in a good way!) while I read this book:
And,
And sometimes,
(Bonus game: guess whether any of these celebrities appear in the book)
Deadly Encounters nicely ties together the whole series to date, completing the first major story arc. I was gratified to see multiple plot threads from the prior books come together, even though this meant I sometimes had to search back through the earlier books for their initial mentions. Many of our favorite almost-forgotten characters make triumphant returns, like the "Black Snake Mafia" and "the guy who staffs the Zoom Copter stand at Franklin Mills Mall". At the same time, it introduces new elements that remain unresolved (at least until later books, perhaps), like a concern about Lithuanian vampires. I had been most anxious to learn whether the Ross character, who at the start of book two selected the Bard class and Music skill for himself when he became a Sky Fighter, would ever apply his new mystical musical abilities. Here, he finally did. Are you ready for it?
Everyone here asked me to play a song, so I did.Hallelujuah!
The opening chapter launches straight into adventure. You might remember how, in the third book, Ross/Muggins/Hippie-Matt absorbed another character named Rehn, and then went by his name for the rest of the book. Well, Rehn is still inside Ross, but surprise, inside Rehn is ANOTHER "Alter-Ego" named Rio, and inside Rio is YET ANOTHER alter-ego, this time a multi-limbed alien who, from his Inception-level depth inside Muggins' body, takes a Sky Fighter on a murderous rampage, for reasons. The key benefit of this scene is that it reveals how the Sky Fighters, up to this point considered the heroes of this imagined universe very much like our own, are MONSTERS!
Unfortunately, all Sky Fighters were under a curse placed on them by the Python Demons. This curse forced all Sky Fighters to consume the flesh of their own species (In our case, humans) at least once a week. This was known as the Curse of Cannibalism. It was not something often openly discussed by Sky Fighters due to its notoriety.This fact is shortly confirmed by the Sky Fighters's leader, Mantecado, as a true thing that has been in effect for years. You'd think this might have been mentioned earlier in the series. I mean, it fits, because it occurs to me that the Sky Fighters have up until now committed at least TWO (2) acts of mass murder: (spoilers from past books) So the fact that all Sky Fighters HAVE TO EAT THE FLESH OF THEIR OWN SPECIES EVERY WEEK, while surprising, may not be a complete departure.
Later, when now-eighteen-year-old Ross/ Muggins gets a girlfriend and she subsequently becomes a Sky Fighter too, all I could think was, you have just condemned your girlfriend to a lifetime of eating human flesh and it really puts a new spin on the series.
Truly, Deadly Encounters has it all:
HISTORY!
Future Traductus jumped onto the head of Pocahontas, who had not been seen since 1993. But this time, she was a real person, and not a cartoon!ROMANCE!
By this time, it was getting dark, so she and I went inside and played on the PlayStation for a while. Then, we got tired of doing this, so we went to my bedroom and made out for a while. Well, we did a little more than just make out. In fact, she and I became rather intimate with each other.POLITICS!
Well, it was the end of February now, and I was becoming rather bored. Election Day was coming up this year, and in the last election, George W. Bush, the son of George H. W. Bush had won the election. The Collective Soul Squad had captured Osama Bin Laden 2 years ago. He was the person behind the 9/11 Attacks. His approval rating was pretty bad, but it could only get worse, as he was doing practically nothing to help America.DIALECTS! LGBT REPRESENTATION!
“Da winner of dis year’s Gasping Contest is…” Michelle and I both had our fingers crossed. “Da person over dere with da black Armani Suit and da matching black fedora hat!” Mondo gestured to someone who was conversing on a Bell Atlantic Mobile Cell Phone. Everyone cheered this person on, though no one seemed to be able to tell what their gender was!GEOLOGY!
A large active volcano fell on top of Jon, causing 10000 damage to him. Then, Jon was catapulted from the volcano, along with a burst of molten lava, causing another 15000 damage to him.FEMINISM!
“It’s nice to see a female Sky Fighter holding her own against a male Sky Fighter so well!” Maya added.9/11 TRIBUTE!
. . .
“Pretty good for a lady!” Bon Jovi said to Karen.
. . .
“Wow, Maya! These female Sky Fighters must have trained really hard if they’re THIS strong!” Gregoroth said to Maya.
But when September came along, the Sky Queen (My Mom) told the American people (Including president George Bush) that she wanted the Sky Fighters to be permitted to help honor September 11th, by having her Sky Fighters be the ones to illuminate Ground Zero (The place where the World Trade Center sky scrapers) once stood. President Bush reluctantly agreed to this, but only because the Sky Queen told him that her Elite Sky Fighters (The Collective Soul Squad) was only one or two steps away from finishing off Al Quada.Best of all, is the explosive finish, the battle we’ve all been waiting for, the final (?) showdown between the cannibalistic, crowd-murdering Sky Fighters and the "Because we're evil!!" Python Demons . . .
As Meh-Meh cackled evilly, Kevin Savage, along with several other Python Demons, went to a huge underground metal chamber, where they unloaded the very same submarine-shaped UFO which once attacked Thriftway back in 1993! Once it had been activated and such, Meh-Meh, Kevin AKA the Jersey Devil, another powerful-looking henchman mounted on a rhino, some clowns, cockroaches, more Python Demons, goblins, ogres, and several other ugly races all got on board the submarine UFO warship.Ooh, this is gonna be lit, yo!
******************
Ongoing series gasping count:
Book 1: 22 gasps
Book 2: 16 gasps
Book 3: 21 gasps
Book 4: 57 gasps (yes I’m counting the Gasping Contest)
Total gasps to date: 116
October 20, 2022
After a rather disappointing third installment, I was starting to worry that the author's imagination might be starting to exceed his grasp. But, boy howdy, does he ever bring it together here.
September 16, 2023
Author's-Note: Book has been re-read and partly remastered. No review of it shall be given.
September 6, 2022
I haven't finished this book yet but I wanted to review and say I am certainly enjoying it so far! The plot is quick and intriguing and the characters make me want to continue reading on and find out what happens.
Great work!
Great work!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews