Andy C. F. Crawford

From the first instant I saw the cover, I knew this is going to be a comedy starring something that suspiciously looks a lot like former president Trump. And yes, if you want a comedy starring a blob with too much orange tan stomping on buildings like Godzilla, this is the book for you!

Comedy can be hit or miss with me, but I have had much better odds with books featuring slapstick American humor. And so, I was laughing nonstop within the third page of this book. A good sign!

Our unlucky hero is a newspaper journalist named Fred Millard from New York City. Against any logic, a 1000 foot tall thing covered in stinky goo that eats freshly fertilized cornfields has appeared for no reason near Cinncinnati, Ohio. Devoid of intelligence, it was named Rumpke and wanders around rural Ohio stomping on random buildings.

As expected, hordes of all sorts of crazy conspiracy theorists and UFO aficionados follow Rumpke wherever he goes. Nobody knows what he is or if there is an ulterior motive (maybe there is none). But Rumpke leaves a trail of smelly destruction in its path. And Fred has been offered the unenviable task of writing daily reports of his activities. This is accompanied by interviews done to the kookie people that follow him around with religious devotion.

Does the book emulate the real world a little bit too much? Perhaps and the book takes zero punches being politically incorrect. Therefore, I'd suggest readers to give it a 10 page test before fully comitting to the novella because it only gets zanier with each passing chapter.

Before I knew it, I had reached almost 25% of the novel. Things start turning darker later on as Fred starts discovering the true intentions of a conspiracy theorist celebrity named Z. Avoiding the pitfall of tiring the reader with Rumpke's relative lack of action, we get to enjoy a chillingly realistic story of extremist people that are willing to invade government buildings and kill riot police due to the vague posts of the mysterious Mr. Z. Will Fred discover the truth about Mr. Z? Where is Rumpke heading? Well, these questions are certainly answered at the end of the novel (I won't spoil the fun). There really isn't much Sci-Fi in this novel, but as a political satire that is frighteningly close to the real thoughts of rural conservative American society, it certainly delivers. A good read.… (mehr)

Before I begin, I was contacted by this author, who gave me a free e-book copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

This is a novel set in an alternative history, circa later 1800's, along what I took to be the Eastern and Southeastern parts of the the U.S. Mostly what I read as parts of the Mississippi River, New Orleans, and the Eastern seaboard, with a few new add-ins (like islands, etc.). The story is about Ytzak Anan, raised as a sailor/fisherman in what I took to be the swampy delta, who learned to be a prize-fighter. After accidentally killing a man in a bout and losing interest in 'brawling', he turned to sailing and leading ships through the miles of meandering waterways around the area. Having saved almost enough of his own ship, then being robbed of his savings by one he thought as his love, Ytzak joins a crew taking a shipment upriver. From this point on, the story moves along fairly well, bringing the main character into situation after situation where he does his best to make the best decision, and the results of said decision. In resolving each conflict, he travels much of the area I mentioned, and meets several people.

Though the title is a bit misleading, the picture is not. There is no 'sailing in the sky' or other mechanical means of flying, but it does center around pre-industrial boating in that the use of poling, rowing, and physically pulling boats along a waterway, or sailing, are used. I felt the mechanics involved were acceptable to the timeline being written. I did get lost a bit when the author would delve off into the political and/or religious background whether it was in a conversation, or just background description. Not because it was written badly, just I find those topics to be a bit boring, and I didn't feel I needed as much description as was provided. Also I was a bit put off about the choice of character names. Some, like Ytzak, would throw me out of a 'reading rhythym' due to the spelling, and would take a few minutes trying to decide how to pronounce a name before I could continue on.

All that being said, overall it was not a bad read, though I would not advise it for the younger YA crowd due to some of the bit more graphic scenes. I was a bit leery, as I don't regularly read this style of fantasy fiction, but leaving a bit of my disinterest out of the rating, I would say it was worth a good liking.… (mehr)

The author provided me with a free electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

It was an interesting opportunity to read something that ordinarily I probably wouldn't have. I'm very interested in non-European fantasy settings, and quite interested in maritime things (as my father was a sailor) so I was curious from the outset.

The world of this book is an interesting, diverse and quite real thing - a scattered pioneer society on the verge of industrialising, but still having that sense of adventure, of isolation, of independence, and of possibility that contributes so much to the potential of a fantastical story. The fantastical elements themselves were present but only in the corner of the eye, in references and possibilities, in belief and in faith. However, when they did press upon the story directly, I found myself disappointed in how ephemeral they were - were Elemental forces acting directly on our hero's life? To what purpose? This, I felt, was an interesting element in the story, and it was never explored.

The story is a journey, a following-along with a phase in our hero Ytzak's life. This phase covers three acts, but there is little that carries over from act to act, and I found that this made the plot feel quite thin as we moved into the latter stages. There had been a great richness of characters, place and interweaving stories, but all of those elements that had moved into Ytzak's life in the first half of the novel failed to have any ongoing or returning relevance in the latter stages. Details I was sure would prove important later failed to do so. As we came into the final act - where an intriguing net of mystery and grubby human motivation began to unfold - I found myself wondering why the first half of the novel needed so much space.

It left a lot of pressure on Ytzak to really carry the novel, and he was not really delivered with sufficient depth to be compelling in the role. He has a yen for his own ship, which provides him with a motivation to earn money, but we don't really explore why, or how this drives his character. (Jack Sparrow, at least, covets the freedom that the Black Pearl provides.) Nor do we see him really take any great joy in sailing during the brief period the book spends actually at sea. Ytzak also has a stated reluctance regarding violence - especially lethal violence - from a history with same, but this seems to be more something he feels he should have than something that actually weighs heavily upon his decisions and actions; especially in the finale sequences, I found the lack of conflict between pacifism and what needed to be done a dissatisfying gap in the narrative.

In general, his life was simply too easy, and too simple. The good are good and the wicked are wicked; everyone honestly tells him what he asks at the least provocation; and I found the number of women showing up in his bed to be a little perplexing. He is a character who is blown by the wind, rather than forging his own path in defiance of man and elements... and this makes him realistic, but somewhat less interesting to read about.

All in all, I found this an interesting journey, simply told but with heart. However, for me, the lack of complexity prevented it from pulling me in.… (mehr)