5/10/2015

"Last Flight Home": Perfect for Travel

BOOK REVIEW of 
"Last Flight Home" 
by J.B. Lawrence

(Possibilities Publishing Company, 180 pages, $10.99)





Imagine an upside-down world where people have adapted by learning how to climb steep cliffs like billy goats, using no ropes or other gear, with lungs that thrive on the thin air. Like the falcons they revere, they soar along cables and gondolas across mountain ranges, entire armies transported and waging warfare from above. Their enemies fashion catapults and toss boulders.But--surprise!--some boulders are alive.

This is the kind of book that sucks you in--perfect for airports and plane rides. The content is meaty enough to keep you turning pages, but not so cerebral that you close the book.

In a world with five moons and one hot sun, the extremes of high and low temperatures have forced peoples to invade other regions to survive and preserve their own species. The time fame is unclear, but one supposes it's before or after a long-ago Ice Age. Alongside humans live giants composed of granite, some of them fond of  decapitating men, winged insects that feast on humans, and indeterminate blood-sucking creatures. 

It's a classic tale of good versus evil, but with twists. The narrator and main character, Prince Tyrcel Buteo, has been sent on a falcon hunt. He's under the spell of a sorcerer for much of the novel, sick and getting sicker. Since he's human, there's lots of gore and blood and vomit as his insides rot from infection. But he bands with nerdy boy geniuses who discover clever ways to foil their enemies as he heads back home. 

The helpful hand-drawn map at the beginning of Chapter 1  sketches the regions, and I kept returning to it to follow Tyrcel's travels. The author likely conceived his fantasy world long before he set words to it. Oddly, this world seems flat, and since ships topple from skies, it's a bit confusing. Still, it's a fun read, and impossible not to cheer for Good Prince Tyrcel.

His father dead, the new young king vows to protect his people, realizing that other beings, human or beast or whatever, are in the same boat. He'll do whatever it takes. The novel ends on the battlefield--a cliffhanger where the reader isn't sure who'll win. Perhaps this is the beginning of a series of fantasy books exploring universal themes in a world where beings adapt in outrageous ways to survive.

WIN A COPY OF THE BOOK

Be among the first to read "Last Flight Home," published May 15, 2015 by Possibilities Publishing Company.

Send your idea for a fantasy story set in the future with a female protagonist. Entries are due no later than June 20, 2015. Winner will be contacted via email and winner's name announced on this blog (with permission). 

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