OnlineBookClub.org

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Ares' Anger" by James Womack.]

Ares’ Anger by James Womack is an interesting short story about a colony of scientists living on Mars. We get a small glimpse into what life on another planet could be like. A group of nine men and women work together to start a colony on Mars and pave the way for future colonies of more people from Earth. They map the terrain, monitor the weather, and try to survive in a climate much different from where they came. The complete story takes place in just a few hours of our time.

Womack seems to have a good understanding of science, time, geography, and weather. He speaks of space travel and robots. He tells time by Earth years alerting you to the fact that time in space is not quite as we're used to. The reader is shown what the surface of Mars is like and the difference of the gravitational pull. They encounter storms on this planet that are different from anything we face on Earth.

Each character is carefully described helping you to feel like you really know each individual. Because of the shortness of the story, some might find the time spent describing each individual as too lengthy. Small details make each person individual and unique. Some background is given to the life of the main character, but we don’t see much into the histories of his friends. However, if he had given background information for them all, it would have unbalanced the story since it is so short.

I liked the life he brought into each character. Their everyday familiar speech was interesting and life like. I appreciated how he described the relationship between the individuals. Furthermore, I liked the details describing their every move. I felt like I was right there in the midst of them experiencing their emotions and seeing what they saw.

There were a few typos in the stories but not many. He did pretty well at dividing the story when the scene changed, although there was a spot or two that could have used extra distinction.

I would give this story a 3 out of 4 rating. It was well written and held my attention to the end. I can’t quite give it a 4, because it didn’t quite have that “wow” factor for me, but it’s getting close. I should like to read this story in about 4 times the length it is now describing more of what it was like to live on Mars and the many adventures these nine might have faced.

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Ares' Anger
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Like Beth Davids's review? Post a comment saying so!

Beth, I appreciate your review. Not so much because it was positive, rather you took the time to post a review that actually educated me, the author. The things you liked about the story were nice, encouraging for me, and again very much appreciated. However, it was the short-comings you pointed out that tells me explicitly what the story could be if written with more depth and length. Already my head is swimming with ideas about further character developments, colony activities and so on. I will very likely return to this story later and take your observations to heart. Thank you. I have one other short story, not yet posted. This time, I will make sure I provide compensation because it seems clear you give quality reviews without wasting any time with hemming and hawing.

Question: May I place your review on Amazon or rather you do it?

I enjoyed reading your review, particularly the passages about character development. You made the book sound so interesting!

JRWomack wrote: Question: May I place your review on Amazon or rather you do it?

You may use my review however you like. Glad to be of service!

Reviews are exclusive to OnlineBookClub.org. To publish the review elsewhere, one has to contact Scott, the webmaster.

Beth Davids wrote:

JRWomack wrote: Question: May I place your review on Amazon or rather you do it?

You may use my review however you like. Glad to be of service!

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-- 18 Apr 2015, 17:54 --

FYI, I have modified the story Ares' Anger to get rid of the typos and misspellings. I also obtained WordPerfect X7 Pro and created, rather re-created the book using the ebook publisher built into this software. It looks OK in the epub previewer and Kindle previewer on my computer. Hopefully that's true for readers cause if so, it will remove one more cost to publication burden.

@"JRWomack" you need to contact Scott the webmaster first, since reviews are exclusive to OnlineBookClub.org and can't be published elsewhere without his permison. .

Strange, I posted a response stating being glad I read your post before doing something brash. I come on today and see neither hide nor hair of that post.