BOOK TITLE: John
Smith: Last known survivor of the Microsoft Wars
ISBN: 978-1-939732-00-2
AUTHOR: Roland
Hughes
GENRE: Fiction
NUMBER OF PAGES: 272
FORMAT: Digital
SERIES / STANDALONE: Standalone
REVIEW BY: Dhivya
Balaji
HOW I GOT THIS BOOK: This
book is a part of the Virtual Authors book tour.
SUMMARY:
What if
the Mayans got the start of the end correct because they had survived it once
before? What if our written history was just as accurate as the old tale about
three blind men describing an elephant? What if classic science fiction writing
and television shows each got a piece of it correct, would you know which ones?
If your eyes can only see a tiny portion of a collage do you know it is a
collage?
Many
might jump to the knee-jerk assumption that this book is a sequel to “Infinite
Exposure” but they would be wrong. This book does occur after that book
and will make reference to the outcome of the prior book, but it is definitely
not a sequel.
“John Smith”
ties together Atlantis, cell phones, the Mayans, God, the Egyptians, “20,000
Leagues Under the Sea”, and the outcome of the terrorist attack yet to come all
in the form of an interview between the last known survivor of the war and a
reporter for the largest newspaper of its day, serving 5000 people twice
monthly.
During
the course of this interview the reporter and reader will learn what did and
did not survive, both this time and the previous times. Throughout the
course of this interview both blatant and subtle nods are made to such works as
“1984”, “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, “Peter Pan”, “Battlestar Galactica”
(the new one), “Star Trek TNG”, and “Babylon 5” because one must both
acknowledge greatness and build on what the fans already know.
To steal
a line from the Rolling Stones, “but what was-in you is the nature of this
game.” When one finishes reading this book they should fall into exactly
two categories: The morally offended and those who sit around for days
questioning their beliefs and the true meaning of life.
The book
should be incredibly easy for an organization like the SyFy channel to turn
into a film or made for TV movie, interspersing clips from old movies and
shows, with or without sound, where their topics are being discussed and where
they are being directly referenced.
REVIEW:
I got this book as a part of a book
tour. And the main reason I chose this tour is the title of the book. It
intrigued me enough to read the summary, which eventually caught my interest. And
to say it upfront, the book did not disappoint. It was, first and foremost, a
different kind of story.
A survivor of a different kind of war,
John Smith, meets a reporter from the newly formed world, and the whole book is
written in a question and answer format. It is a new approach, and though ‘John
Smith’ seems a little obnoxious and all knowing at times, when read with an
open mind, this book does question our beliefs and outlook on life.
Part of the story merges the line
between reality and assumption. The whats and what-ifs are presented seamlessly
that halfway through, you have to go back a few pages to catch the thread as to
why the current topic started.
If you have heard of Time capsules,
that save our technologies so that people of the future can see it, you can
relate to this storyline.
Over the course of the story, the
human in you gets indignant at John Smith’s attitude, but the realist in you
begins to see sense in what he says. Go for this novel if you want a difference
in your usual reading list. And if you want to know what ‘Microsoft’ had to do
with ‘wars’.
WHAT I LIKED:
The different format of the story.
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER:
The patronising tone of John Smith
could have been smoothed a bit.
VERDICT:
A different read, with a new concept
and new way of writing.
RATING: 4/5
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Roland
Hughes is the president of Logikal
Solutions, a business applications consulting
firm specializing in VMS platforms. Hughes serves as a lead consultant with
over two decades of experience using computers and operating systems originally
created by Digital Equipment Corporation (now owned by Hewlett-Packard).
He is the
recipient of the 2008 Best Books Award Winner in the category Business:
Computers/Technology/Internet for his book, ” The Minimum You Need to Know
About Service Oriented Architecture” and a 2009 Finalist Eric Hoffer Awards.
EDITIONS AVAILABLE: Paperback,
Digital, Audio.
PRICE: $15.60
BOOK LINKS:
Thanks for taking part in the tour. I'm so glad you enjoyed John Smith!
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