PAUL SAMAEL

Reviews

• "A thoughtful, intriguing and worthwhile book" - 5 stars (Tom Lichtenberg, Smashwords review)  

• "[F]resh and interesting… a high quality work independently published by a literary writer" (Lisa Thatcher).

• "[R]eminded me of Julian Barnes, particularly 'The Sense of an Ending.' "- 5 stars  (Heather Douglass, Smashwords review) 

• "I have read a few self-published books before and have found them somewhat amateurish, in terms of both plot and, indeed, grammar.  My goodness, your novel was refreshingly different, so much so I felt compelled to write to you.  I found the novel very well constructed and written [,....] [e]specially the very effective non-chronological ordering, which enabled the various reveals to be well paced and timed [together with] the level of confidence and constraint exhibited throughout.  "  (J Geall - email review - reproduced with permission).
  

The reviews on Smashwords are thoughtful and detailed - they should give you a good sense of what the book is about and whether it is likely to be your "cup of tea."  The same goes for the review on Lisa Thatcher's blog.  The following are comments on the first few chapters from members of the peer review site youwriteon.com - although not reviews of the entire novel, I have included them to show reactions from a wider range of readers:

• "well written and teeming with interesting ideas"
• "very interesting and completely novel theme"
• "very readable...original and amusing"
• "an entertaining read"
• "fluent [and] witty"
• "fantastic... one of the best I have seen in a while."

criticism

And now - because there are usually at least two sides to every story - here are some criticisms/reservations:

• "I like redemptive stories, inspirational stories, adventures, and mysteries. [....]. I'm sorry but this book was depressing. [.....] To the author's credit the book has thought-provoking ideas about religion, the afterlife, technology, etc. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough for me." (2 star review on goodreads - they say you shouldn't respond to bad reviews, but in this case I couldn't help myself)

• "[A] well written tale [which] drew me in from the early pages [.....] [but] I felt the ending was a bit of a let down [....]. There was A LOT left unresolved [...]. I think if the ending were re-written [....] then this could be really great. At the moment this is unfortunately too downbeat." (Blobmonster, review on Smashwords).  But other readers didn't have a problem with the lack of resolution at the end: "I for one found that having these threads left hanging was far more satisfying, and more realistic; after all, which of us knows how or even if everything we are involved in resolves itself?" (J Geall - email review).

• "If my mind were a jury [...] it would be split on one issue. Miles is vague about what he knows regarding EGnosis' beliefs for the first half of the book. Part of me can see this builds some suspense. Part says it felt like being held back by an invisible arm from tasting the thematic meat of the narrative." (Heather Douglass, review on Smashwords)

• "[A]t some points the story seemed a little constrained. For example, [.....] it wasn't immediately easy to see why and how [the protagonist fell in love with one of the other characters]. Also, the means by which Miles was able to track down [what happened to Kay and Pete] seemed rather condensed." (J Geall - email review, original comments edited slightly to avoid plot spoilers).

All feedback (good or bad) gratefully received - please email me at paulsamael@gmail.com.