Warwick Gleeson has lived in both LA, NYC, and D.C. He has worked many different jobs, everything from brick mason to Federal bureaucrat to small business owner. His agent is currently shopping a futuristic thriller to New York, and a screenplay or two are making the Hollywood rounds. His short fiction and poetry has appeared in many journals such as North American Review, Conjunctions, and Quarterly West. He has two grown children in their forties and is married to a most wonderful woman who is an author of historical murder mysteries and a former writer for National Lampoon magazine.
Warwick's other book ("American Oz Maker" which I highly recommend) took me on an incredibly creative and thrilling trip, so went into this book with high expectations. It definitely delivered! So many great characters and scenes and interesting alternate history events and magical elements. I could go on! I don't want to spoil anything so I'll be very vague, but the main character has so many layers which continue to stack the more she discovers who she really is and who she is to become. Another great novel from Warwick!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Arizona author Warwick Gleeson has lived a bicoastal life with a variety of jobs ‘from roofer to waiter to small business owner ‘ and writer. His rich imagination as demonstrated in this epic science fiction fantasy novel will doubtless result in his adding screenwriter to his resume! For now he lives and creates in Tucson, Arizona.
Warwick opens this expansive story with some fascinating ‘data’ pertinent to his novel. ‘From the 16th to the 21st century, the War for Utopia was fought between two great magical cities, London and Kathmandu, to determine the destiny of humanity. London valued a universal perfection of human form, the fusion of magic with science, and rule by benevolent sorcerers known as World Makers, whereas the followers of Kathmandu preached cultivation of virtue, harmony, and a Bodhisattva-led democracy. After numberless casualties over time streams, London emerged victorious, and the World Makers decreed a Grand Human Transfiguration. They created an elite species known as the New Humanity, and with a cosmic destiny soon to be realized. But peace and destiny were short lived Once the dream of stars became real, a malevolence lying wait in the dark regions of the galaxy condemned the inheritors of Earth to a terrible fate.’
Add to this prelude a very fine glossary of terms used throughout the novel, and the door to the adventure opens. As the title suggests this excellent SFF (Science Fiction Fantasy) is a parody based on that favorite tale and movie The Wizard of Oz. only now are we not only in Kansas anymore, we are in a galaxy the like so which have rarely been expressed in words so well as Warwick manages. Keenly stated, Warwick offers that in this story 'we have the setting of the new Oz, its beings, lands, beauty and terror. Piper Robbin, on the other hand, epitomizes an SFF heroine with a unique spin to her past and psychology. She's youthful and ancient at once, sprightly and stately by turns. She wants a new life in old New York. She wants to try out for parts on Broadway, and work to willfully humble herself. She desires to forget her past, at least temporarily, but fate dictates otherwise. After her father returns from deep space with a homicidal alien on his tail, Piper must assume her old role as Grand Sorceress, and fight to save the world once more. Will it be worth it?’
Bubbling in creative clouds of fantasy, PIPER ROBBIN AND THE AMERICAN OZ satisfies on every level – a book that is a finely tuned science fiction tale while being populated with well-sculpted characters with whom we have an epic escape from reality. Warwick’s prose is polished, vivid, colorful and entrancing – the result is a book that inks into the brain and pleads to become cinematic. Highly recommended for adventurous readers and readers who want to become so.
If so, then read the book entitled, “World Maker: The Ascension of Romanova (Piper Robbin and the American Oz Maker Book 1)" by Warwick Gleeson.
Welcome to the 16th Century and the Prussian Barenthoren Castle. Enter the world of magical violins, secret passageways and hidden doors. The castle whose history entails the German Peasant Rebellion of 1524 when the serfs and peasants were tortured in the dungeon.
Master Niccolo Paganini, a World Maker, assigns Zolo Bold of the Kazakhs aka Willie Pavel Bukavitsky, a “righteous soul” to watch over Princess Von Anhalt aka Freddie at the castle.
According to Master Paganini, Princess Von Anhalt aka Catherine Romanova is only one of two warriors who have ever had a magical power called the ‘aria power’ which can “change the course of history”. Tao, an ancient Chinese term, which is “a balance of visible matter like stars with dark matter we cannot see”. This rare power and her love for Zolo and her nanny, Babette, gives her the strength, courage and determination to challenge the most “ancient and dreaded Asian sorcerer”or Wizard God, Temujin Gur. Mongel Gur, an “employ” of Edison Godfellow, “knows no boundaries” and most likely will cross ‘The Nicholas Line’, a boundary or “war line” named after the “defender of Vienna”.
Princess Von Anhalt, who is on her way to becoming a Czarina, bravely chooses to use her powers to change the course of history for the better which will partner her with Master Paganini but place her against Edison Godfellow, “a ruthless dictator” and follower of Friedrich Nietzsche, and his vision of a War Tracker for 2038. Master Paganini assigns Princess Von Anhalt to use her powers to destroy the War Tracker and the “evil and insane” Temujin Gur who “sows seeds of mistrust and fear” whenever he can.
Are you a God of War, World Maker, Wizard Goddess, Spellcrafter, Sorcerer, Wizard God or a Warrior God?