Joey Madia, New Mystics Reviews

   (2020). ISBN: 9798615149856 What if I were to tell you that much of what we thought we knew about physics was either inaccurate or only the partial truth? Or that the speed of light was not a constant? That there is ample evidence that the U.S. government has reverse-engineered UFOs/UAPs and has at least a working understanding of anti-gravity propulsion systems? Still not feeling intrigued? What if the physics and technologies that are part of Mark Fiorentino’s Super Relativity Theory could make possible interstellar time-travel? Too big of an idea? Perhaps being anywhere in the world in a matter of minutes, or protecting the planet from destruction by asteroids, climate change, or other impending disasters? Interested yet? At 490 pages, Master of Reality is a big book, full of big ideas and bigger possibilities. Fiorentino is taking a page out of Dr. John Mack’s philosophy and “subverting the dominant paradigm.” This is a difficult road to travel—Mack, an eminent, ...

   (Ptolemaios Publishing and Entertainment LLC, 2021). ISBN: 978-0-09892584-8-7 It’s always interesting to read the end of a main character’s arc, rather than its start (David Chase’s The Sopranos ). We meet in Immortal Alexandros an Alexander the Great whose cumulative battle wounds (including numerous blows to the head) lead him to paranoia, violence with staff, and a relentless march to the Mediterranean over seven years. As age, disease, harsh environments, and constant battles decimate his army, I reflected on the “Myth of the Great Man” that’s caused suffering and death throughout human history. Immortal Alexandros presents a historically accurate physical world, with immersive descriptions of open-air markets, harems, battlefields, the Hindu Kush, and other locations. Equally immersive are descriptions of Zoroastrianism, military tactics, and medicinal techniques. Like William Hurt’s accent in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village , I found the language at first to ...

 (Gainesville, FL: Poseidon Historical Publications, 2018). ISBN 978-1-4116-3266-0 Although this is his first work of fiction, Baylus C. Brooks is no stranger to maritime-themed research and writing. He is an acknowledged expert on the life and death of Edward “Blackbeard” Thache (pronounced Teach), having come closer to tracing Thache’s origins in his three books on the subject than any other scholar before him. His research has been crucial to my work in historical education and entertainment related to the Golden Age of Piracy. Never one to be afraid of controversy or putting himself out there as a scholar, it is no surprise that Brooks does not ease his way into fiction writing, but throws himself instead into the deep end of the ocean by giving us a novel that not only deals with Time Travel, but does so in a compelling, cutting-edge way. If you are a fan of other time-jumping historical fiction like the Outlander series, or even such nonhistorical entertainment ...

(Thomas-Jacob Publishing, LLC, 2015), ISBN: 13   978-0-9963884-3-6 As I have made the journey from reader, to writer, to student, to professional writer, to teacher of workshops and writing classes, and then to book reviewer, I have come to believe that there are three kinds of (proficient, “talented”) writers at work in the world. First, there are the Storytellers. People like Hemingway, that come from the gut, who go fearlessly into the vortexing dream-space of human experience to capture something in the net of their creating, who can spin a captivating yarn without too much verbal or plot complexity but plenty of power and resonance. Then there are the Technicians—those who inherently and through 10,000 hours of practice, understand and apply structure, word choice, syntax, and suspense… who “do the task of writing” at a high level. The third type of writer is the one who is smart enough, dedicated enough, and capable enough to know that, despite the fact that Storytel...