Review: Wonderful Story! Highly Recommended!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 13, 2011
As I am introduced to more and more Indie Authors, I find myself being pulled into genre's I have not read before, and probably would not have considered. Once again, I feel I picked out a gem in this one.Under-Heaven was nothing like the work I expected it to be, and although I found myself frowning a lot of my way through the opening sections of what was - at one very early stage - beginning to look like a difficult read, the characters quickly began to resolve themselves into my mind and the story (or should I say, STORIES) began to take shape.*** THERE MAY BE MILD SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT ***The main character, Nathaniel (Nate), is murdered along with his parents and arrives in Under-Heaven, where he is expected to develop his soul and make a choice for his future. Greaton handled this with exceptional writing skill and utilised the flashbacks of Nate's life... and death... to keep his story and character building throughout the opening of the book.The second 'main' character is Jesse. A similar age to Nate, he lives with his mother and hopes that she will get back together with his 'nose-candy' addicted dad, but there are plenty of thrills and spills in store for Jesse as his plot develops. Again, the descriptive and the character building work is outstanding for these characters, but the clever element is that Greaton leaves the reader with no idea where these characters fit in, and although it frustrated me hugely, it also made me want to read on... There had to be a link somewhere, didn't there?Once Nate decides to be reincarnated, the story for Jesse has already progressed to a potentially life-threatening conclusion and Clay, a former police officer-turned detective, comes to the aid of Jesse's mother... I won't be placing any more spoilers.The storylines meet their conclusions and impact with an inspired revelation, which is underpinned with some superb writing and a wonderfully apt renewed friendship.If I were to be picky, I found the actual ending a little brief. There could have been a little more "meat" to it, although I have to also say that nothing detracted from the effect and the story itself. The writing is vivid and Greaton masters the known Earthly environments and unknown heavenly environments very well. The various "angels" and "souls" we encounter are excellently drawn and you find a way to feel sympathy for them, as well as to fear one or two of them.In short, this is an impressive and very enjoyable book which will not disappoint the reader. I very much recommend it.