Title: What Casts the Shadow (The Edge of the Known, Volume I)
Author Name: Seth Mullins
Author Bio: Seth Mullins writes
visionary fiction, stories that seek for a marriage between the invisible inner
landscape from whence our dreams and deepest inspirations come and the waking
world, the world that we call ‘the real’, which sorely needs those life-giving
forces. The result is fiction that seethes with surface drama and conflict
while at the same time revealing aspects of the deeper mysteries of reality and
of our own souls. The Edge of the Known series, his most recent project, is
also inspired by years spent as a songwriter and performing musician. Seth has
spent part of his life in Connecticut, New Mexico and Oregon, and currently
lives in Vermont.
Author Links - The link for any or all of the following...
Website (Humanity’s Way Forward) http://www.humanityswayforward.com
| Blog (The Edge of the Known) http://frontiersofconsciousness.blogspot.com
| Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/WhatCaststheShadow
| Twitter @SethMullins1
|
Book Genre: Visionary Fiction
Publisher: CreateSpace
Release Date: January 4, 2014
Buy Link(s): What Casts the Shadow? (The Edge of the Known,
Volume I) http://amzn.to/1rkhffS
Trust in the Unseen (The Edge of the Known, Volume II)
http://amzn.to/UBw3bw
Book Description: When an altercation outside of a
performance venue nearly proves fatal, Brandon Chane begins to realize how far
his life is spinning out of control. His efforts to channel his pain,
frustration and thwarted loves into his music may not suffice to save him. Then
he meets Saul, a crisis counselor with the soul of an ancient medicine-man, and
a far-reaching journey of healing - one that may teach him how to steer away
from the very edge of the Abyss - begins.
Excerpt (300-500 or so Words):
1. The Edge of the Precipice
I suppose you
could compare it to driving on a high mountain road. You don’t realize how
close you are to free-fall, or how sheer and far is the plunge, until you go
around a bend where one side is exposed to open air and then there it is: The
Abyss.
There’s this
edge that you can come to – I imagine it’s a different place for each of us –
and you just know that once you get swept over it you won’t be coming back. By
the time you’re close enough to see
it it may already be too late. You could find yourself teetering, suddenly
hearing the warnings that life had been giving you all along, knowing that it’s
become impossible to step back; because by that time, those other forces – the
ones pounding like the rapids at your back, always trying to push you towards
that edge and then over it – have grown too strong.
Tommy and I
first talked about forming a band together before either of us had learned to
play an instrument. We both perceived music – particularly, its heavy, extreme
underside - as the ideal vehicle for our personal salvation. The first guitar
that I purchased, a Fender Telecaster that I immediately spray painted black to
my father’s horror, became my refuge. It was my best friend and confidante. It
gave me a convenient excuse to avoid social situations that, more often than
not, would only remind me of how far off the beaten path I really was – and,
oftentimes, land me in one merciless scrap or another. Instead, I could just
sit in my basement room for hours, listening to my various hardcore underground
cassettes while trying to trace the riffs I was hearing along the frets of my
charcoal-colored axe.
That’s how I
learned to play so well within just a handful of years. I gave up on the
romanticized notion of a normal social life and focused on practicing and
creating. Tommy, meanwhile, had picked up the bass. Somewhere along the line we
discovered that we each had halfway-decent singing voices as well, at least for
the kind of abrasive music we were writing.
My Review:
This is a really hard book to review for me. I liked the concept of the plot and thought that I would love the music subplot. First the cover does not really fit the book, and I hope that the cover is redone. Second the language is not your everyday lingo. There are times that I had to reread the book a few time to make sure I had the right context. I did really enjoy the music subplot, and the way the author gave Brandon great character growth. Inside and out. All in all this is definitely worth the read, just give yourself time to digest it. I am giving this book a 3/5. I was given a copy to review, however all opinions are my own.
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