Official Review: Dead Planet Spinnin' by Julian Massaglia

[H0LD0Nthere]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Dead Planet Spinnin'" by Julian Massaglia.]

---

3 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Meet Gabriel Spurangler. That’s our hero’s name, although when we first meet him, he don’t even remember it, on account o’ being smashed in the face one too many times by a real mean character wearin’ a steel skull mask and steel-toed cowboy boots. Even when dazed, though, Gabriel talks like this: one part richly descriptive, one part folksy, one part cowboy crude, with an occasional –in’ ending thrown in for good measure. His dialect is real convincin’, and fun to read too.

Gabriel is dumped in the West Texas desert, and as he survives, nurses himself back to health, and his memory begins to come back, the reader is treated to a book-long plot device called in medias res. This is a technique where the story begins partway through, typically in a very desperate spot for the hero, then skips back to the beginning and shows us how the hero got himself into such a scrape. In Gabriel’s case, we get to see his ongoing efforts to survive in the desert interspersed with a series of increasingly longer flashbacks. The flashbacks show us a quite a lot, keep the story moving, and keep us caring whether Gabriel survives the desert and where he will go after that.

Gabriel, we learn, grew up in Texas in the 3100s. Between our time and his, there was a civilization-destroying cataclysm of some kind. There were some dark ages, then a rebuilding. Cities are now massive “heavenscrapers.” There are powerful hovercraft. Yet many cultural things have survived: football, cowboy hats, and references to Jesus, the local Native American deities, and the Norse gods.

In the 3100s, Texas is again its own independent country. But enemies threaten it. As the story progresses, we will find out what role Gabriel will play in leading and defending the land he loves. We will also learn a bit more about the nature of the past cataclysm, which is only imperfectly understood by Gabriel at the beginning of the book. And though Gabriel never makes it off of Earth in this book, there are hints of aliens yet to come.

This book is the first in an intended series, and it reads like one. By the end of the book, although there has been plenty of action, many of the major questions have not been resolved. Gabriel is momentarily safe but by no means in the clear, and a massive new threat has been set up on the horizon. If you like the genre or care about Gabriel at all, you will be eager to read the books that follow.

Dead Planet Spinnin’ reminds me a lot of Louis L’Amour. There is the fast pace, the cussing, the abundance of action scenes and unflinching descriptions of violence (sometimes hard to read). There is great detail given to battles (including maps!). Also like L’Amour, there is the philosophy. Gabriel loves being alone in Nature, and loves to describe it. He is something of a mystic about Nature, as he is about honor, toughness, and fairness – his personal warrior’s code. Yet the philosopher can behave in trigger-happy ways that take the shine off him for this non-cowboy.

The book has many typos (notably, Guadalupe is consistently spelled Gaudalupe), and a fair number of malapropisms, some of them quite funny. It needs an editor. But there are no problems with the plot, and it was a page-turner, even for someone like me who doesn’t often read sci-fi or Westerns. I give it three out of four stars and a big tip of the cowboy hat.

******
Dead Planet Spinnin'
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

Like H0LD0Nthere's review? Post a comment saying so!

[JM1986]

Thank you for the insightful and witty review, HOLDONthere. I was waiting for an in depth review such as this that illuminates the strengths and weaknesses in my work before I begin writing the next book in the series. I appreciate that you didn’t ding me too much on the editing, as with any author, I was excited to get this story out and may have overlooked some issues. I have gone through several rounds more of revisions this month and I am pretty confident that I have weeded almost everything out that was incorrect and the patched version is already up. I will definitely not jump the gun again. I feel like you’ve definitely done Gabriel justice in the description, and yes… he is a bit trigger-happy, it stems from his paranoia. Haha. For anyone interested. This book will be free for download on Kindle 6/4/2015-6/8/2015.

Best Regards.

[H0LD0Nthere]

Thanks for the comment, Julian Massagli. It is always a thrill to be able to dialogue with the actual author after reading his or her work. I appreciate your stopping by.

Regarding typos and malapropisms, they are impossible to find yourself, aren't they? I too have had the experience of re-reading my own work many times and still failing to catch errors. We all need a second set of eyes.

Best of luck to you, and I look forward to reading the sequel if no other reviewers snap it up first.