Ginger Stuckey

One of only four books all writer’s must have

Revisado: 03-06-18

There are only four books all writer’s must have.

1. Strunk & White Elements of Style
2. Dictionary
3. Thesaurus
4. Steven King’s “On Writing”

Absolutely nothing else is needed. Well you must have some talent for writing.

Seriously, there is no book that has been written before or since that is the equal of this jewel. Don’t spend money and precious time on other sources or classes. It doesn’t matter if you are a fan of his work. Mr. King’s grasp of the structure and rules with regard to writing is unequaled. Coupled with his natural ability to communicate via the written word places “On Writing” in a class by itself. A MUST HAVE!!!!!

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Very much a retailing of "Contact" but good

Revisado: 09-01-17

While there are some new ideas presented the concept of this book is very very "Contact" inspired.

Much like Carl Sagan's book it tends to be some what naive. The authors portrayal of weapons, military, government lacks depth and at times is worse than a Layman's understanding. He should have done far more research into how these operate before portraying them as such central motivation for societies response to such an event.

Some characters go from hyper competent to somehow incapable of exercising their intelligence and education. The portrayal of religion exposes the authors complete lack of familiarity with the subject. His portrayal of governmental response is in no way in touch with reality.

The story seems to lose it's way at times and seems to rush toward a fairly unenlightened encounter with the aliens.

The idea that the world would lose its collective mind as the result of alien contact is a very worn out meme. You tend to get this from authors operating in a bubble where they and their fellows are far removed from understanding the psychology of average people. It is very elitist but oh so common in this kind of story.

This book really needed honest editing and some wide beta reading. I think that might have resulted in a more coherent story, plot and portrayal of society and its state of mind in the 21st cen.

As an author it is your responsibility to better understand society and the elements of your story acting as foils to the enlightened main characters. Even more so if you are putting such an emphasis on society breaking down over the c

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Fantistic Book...must read

Revisado: 07-25-17

At first I was not sure about this book but give it a little bit to pull you in. It is an excellent example of doing this genre well when so many sub par examples are flooding out. It does follow many of the same tropes as others but does so in an excellent and refreshing way. The end will surprise you in an interesting way as it breaks with a lot of what you read these days. I am looking forward to the next in the series.

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Good book a little slow in the middle

Revisado: 07-21-17

Overall I enjoyed the book although it felt a bit like the author filled in the middle a bit too much and there is one character that did not really add. Perhaps someone more competent with mire practical reasons for action. It is worth listening to though.

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Excellent but not for everyone

Revisado: 05-09-17

It took a bit to get into the book. It was just a little slow and maybe to grim in the first third. This is very much your typical "British Grunge" fair so beware if you do not like really grim cynical settings. That said it really is an interesting universe despite its obviously being a strange blend of A Christmas Carol and The Wizard of Oz.

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Scott H. Jucha NEVER disappoints.

Revisado: 05-07-17

This is worth every penny or credit. Yet another home run in one of the best written and character driven universes in the Sci-fi or for that matter any genre. As an author myself I can only aspire to create such well written, developed characters. All of his books are master classes in dialogue both spoken and implied.

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One of the worst Sc-Fi book I have ever read...

Revisado: 04-30-17

What would have made Wings of Steele better?

The only thing that could make this story better is to start over. I am a writer myself and this is now the second time I have had to pan a truly terrible book. Something I have never done before. I have listened to the previous 3 books in this series and to be honest while not great and full of anti-government ill informed drivel, this book makes them all look like Left Wing "Love the Big Gov" propaganda. Be warned this book book is so completly anti-government, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim heck anti-Christian as well if you consider the completly un Christ like way he portrays his version of "Good law abiding, family loving faithful believers." As a devout Christian I was horrified by his portrayal of a Pastor (Supposedly wonderful Christlike guy devoted to his parishioners). The man who is supposed to have been called to the ministry and living his life as a Christ like example greats people at his door with an AR-15 stuck in their face. The the author just acts like it is no big deal. Forget the fact that this supposed man of God is hiding in his home instead of being out in the community helping in a time of crisis or even just looking after his parishioners. No he is busy sticking an AR in the face of anyone who dares come to his door. That the author obviously cannot see how wrong this is just points out how out of touch he is with anything that bears a resemblance to reality.

Most authors get better as they gain experience writing multiple books. Jeffrey Burger has gotten worse with each book. Unfortunately we share the same first name. I insist that not all we Jeffrey's are this ignorant.

I know this review is harsh and over the top but as an author I find it just astonishing how poorly written, researched, plotted etc etc all of these books since the first two have been. While all have been pretty darn right wing government ruins lives bad this 4th one is on a whole different level. You know the kind. The ones who hate government and want to destroy it but somehow think the lack of government translates into their kind of government. He even goes so far as to go after the refugees that have recently fled to Europe for safety. In his mind when things went bad all these terrible "Muslims", which are always just a breath away from becoming wild eyed extremist, are just sitting around like sleeping agents in their thousands waiting to pounce on the poor ignorant west. His portrayals are so over the top and monstrously bigoted that, and I kid you, they never say anything without including the cry of "Allah Akbar" in every sentence. I kid you not it's true.

The characters, dialogue, scene construction and heck even the language is so stilted and cliche that the greatest value this book could ever have is as a warning and example of bad writing. Jeffrey Burger is a great example of the kind of writer so many great authors bemoan as being able to flood the genre with absolute garbage. All because it is so easy to publish completly unedited and just flat out primary school quality manuscripts in the wild west of self publishing on Amazon.

I apologize to the narrator because he does do a good job. He polished this turd to about as bright as it could be polished.

At every level this book comes dangerously close to being something that I as a fairly conservative white guy am just appalled to even say. It is very close to being a manifesto of hate, ignorance and bigotry wrapped up in the guise of fiction. From little things to big things like this. Every woman in this book no matter how competent, intelligent or important is ultimately portrayed as a subservient little girl to the strong, always white, men who dominate every aspect of the environment. Even the main characters wife, who is a queen feels compelled to anoint her husband as KIng of her realm. The only strong competent female in the story line that is not subservient is an alien. Of course even she is a cliche "Cat Woman" alien. Personally I think there is a typical odd fetish going on their with this author. It fits the type of personality for sure. You will not find people of any color other than white unless they are evil, left wing liberals, muslims or any other religion than Christian (Although I am wondering if this guy is a Mormon. Since they are not Christians and have a very different ethical view of the world it would explain much. Many of these types of writers seem to increasingly be Mormons these days. It's odd).

The one time a Black man appears in the story line he actually writes his dialogue with " Ded Dat, dude, ain't no thing boss, I was holleren at cha" ....It goes on and on. It's as if he lifted all his language from Tom Sawyer. Not to mention he is supposed to speak like he is James Earl Jones as well. Of course all the white guys in the scenes speak with perfect english and bright voices. I actually think this guy is such a bigot he might not even realize what he is doing. The Black business some characters hide inside of is....wait for it.....A liquor business. Unreal. LOL, it just occured to me the main characters pet dog is even a German Shepard. Living in Birmingham Alabama that little detail just jumped out.

There are even some what little things like his portrayal of executions by the main characters wife on her wonderful enlightened planet. She takes her enemies asd has them sliced vertically inch by inch with lasers. cutting them apart like sandwich meat. The intent is specifically to keep them alive and suffering as long as possible as their bodies are sliced away. This woman then minutes later is all lightness and love talking to her beloved husband in a cross "universe" magical hand wavium phone call. Perhaps the author does not realize that he has turned this character into a sociopath and that any society which would commit such acts against anyone in the name of justice is not the great conservative utopia he seems to want it to be but a sick sick sick place. He also does not seem to have a problem once again with this kind of thing from a "CHristian" stand point. It really makes one wonder where he gets his perspective and makes me hope and pray as a Christian that there are are not too many such places out there. Ultimately any society is measured by how they treat those at their mercy and that includes people in the custody of the state for any reason.

One little thing that does make me crazy. I really wish that these people writing sci-fi would get even a small amount of education or at least take the time to learn something about the environment in which they set their soap operas. Chief among them is to PLEASE STOP REFERRING TO WHAT IS OBVIOUSLY A GALAXY AS "THE UNIVERSE"!!!!!! This really does make me nuts. I mean good grief!! Do they know the difference between the universe and a galaxy? If your going to have your ships flitting around the universe willy nilly you had better get a grip on what light speed is and stop solving all FTL with wormholes. The size of the power source or mass of a gravity well capable of generating a galaxy to galaxy worm hole or even fold is well...just learn better or stop witting sci-fi and go back to high school and try to graduate again. There is no way you ever went to anything but a community college or received something worthless like a business degree if you did anything beyond high school.

You would also think such a right wing anti government pro military guy would know something about the military. His knowledge there is as weak as his scientific knowledge.

If you want to read something like this series but dramatically better written DRAMATICALLY better try the "Silver Ships" series by S.H. Jucha, The "LIve Free or Die" series by John Ringo or the excellent and fun or better yet have a really really great time reading the first two books in the Boboverse "We are Bob" and "For we are Many" by Dennis Taylor.

I know I have really torn after this book and its author but you really should not waste your time, money or credits on this mess. UNLESS you are a writer yourself and want to use it as a foil against bad writing.

It is just possible that Jeffrey Burger wrote this book in the throes and worship of the The Great Pumpkin Donald Trump. It sounds so much like the kind of mindless ignorant drivel you would hear at any of his rallies. I feel certain that any rally with in a thousand miles of Mr. Burger was attended by him. The ideology of this book is so similar to the confused out of his depth rhetoric espoused by Mr. Orange and his Kool Aid Drinkers.

Would you ever listen to anything by Jeffrey J Burger again?

NO

How did the narrator detract from the book?

He didn't...He was good

What character would you cut from Wings of Steele?

All of them

Any additional comments?

DO NOT WASTE MONEY and this book comes very close to being a right wing manifesto.

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A very fun series

Revisado: 08-11-16

Some may call this series just the same ol same ol but I really have enjoyed this series. It might not change the way you look at life or big questions but it is a very enjoyable listen from book 1 till now.

If I have a complaint I don't like it when authors end a book nearly in mid action or scene. Don't do that unless u have the next book about to release!!!!

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Mediocre Story Badly Written Characters

Revisado: 12-29-15

Would you try another book from Joshua Dalzelle and/or Paul Heitsch?

I might since I am a writer and often read series to see if authors improve. I particularly watching to see if authors repair or even recognize the errors committed in books.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

The endings are very formulaic and set up the next book.

Have you listened to any of Paul Heitsch’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes. He is a good reader

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

no

Any additional comments?

These books are based on a nice premise but the author is writing really poor characters. The lead character has no redeeming qualities and consistently behaves like an idiot who never thinks about what he is doing. He is very sociopathic and there does not seem to be any reason the other characters or women are drawn to him or have any loyalty toward him. Unfortunately we the readers have to go through the process of the author justifying his actions when we the readers should have known exactly why and hopefully sympathize with the lead character.Jason is not a sympathetic character. It is not that the author is writing him that way and there is a deeper and brilliant reason behind a tortured character. Nope. Jason is just a reactionary idiot who does not seem to understand how badly he treats people. He is truly clueless and not in the endearing way but the "How did my sister marry such an asshole way".I have actually used these books as an example of how an author can create non sympathetic characters who drag down a books story. There is also the issue that the author seems to have a very primary school understanding of government and how it works. like so many neo conservatives he has created yet another dynamic of "Government is bad and all people in government are just trying to screw you and steal your freedom."It's really odd. I am not sure how old this author is but he seems to have a very immature understanding of how things work. He might be in his early twenties if I had to guess. His attitude is very much like many conservative twenty somethings. More like someone who had his ideology taught to him his whole life by a parent maybe instead of being someone who developed his only ideas about the world. Nothing wrong with being conservative but your ideas should be fully formed and they should be your conclusions not some one else's. ONLY read these if you want to use them as a guide to how a book can be screwed up. I love self publishing but sometimes there is a good reason a publisher does not take a manuscript.

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The devil is in the details

Revisado: 07-20-15

I really cannot recommend this book. The writing is not bad its actually pretty good. The dialogue is well written and the author is skilled. In fact he should put his ability to work on a story worthy of them because this story is really bad. Despite it being full of excellent and well developed characters. That was a neat trick.

Like so many of this survivalist end of the world stories it is based on a flimsy plot, bad science, a really bad understanding of international geo-politics and a view of society tainted by personal prejudices.

It actually baffles me how this book was written by an author so obviously capable of doing better. The one place this story diverged from the normal script is that the author seems to have little to no understanding of Christians and does not bother to offer any kind of counter balance to the extremist whack job portrayed in the book.

I had hoped for better but got a well written story so riddled with the typical survivalist view of reality that despite the skill shown in its creation it was not capable of holding itself together.

Add the above to what was one if the worst endings ever written. It was truly horrible. The author should be ashamed.

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