Solarpunk coming of age fantasy **spoiler alert**

Amos the Amazing is the action-packed magical adventure of twelve-year-old Amos. The adventure starts with the book cover where artist Adrián Ibarra depicts an alternative, fictional world that visually interacts with the audience with the slightly hapless protagonist dressed in his bunny slippers and a red bathrobe running along the rooftop.

Amos is a clever, curious, bullied child from the Solarpunk futuristic city of Chongqing, China, who loves spicy foods. When the story opens, his curiosity distracts him without consideration of the consequences but his life turns upside when consequences land his mother in the hospital from an allergic reaction to his very spicy ice cream. As a result, his busy father drops him off with his grandparents for a week and the adventure begins with plenty of love and hard work and his friends Thunder the cat and Rufus the dog. 

Amos has a vivid dream in which Thunder leads him to the musty closet in his room, and he discovers a hidden compartment holding a dusty old wooden trunk. Inside that box is a silver ring on a chain and an old robe. He slips them on, looks at his reflection and sees his face change into an old, wrinkled person as a dull ache fills his head. His eyes grow dark and murky and transform to an amber glow. A voice says, “Be careful what you wish for…” The mouth of the reflection bares razor-sharp teeth and releases a scream of agony before the mirror shatters, leaving behind an emptiness. Amos awakens with a shadowy figure standing over him until Thunder hops onto him. Fearful images course through his mind until he hears Grandma calling him for dinner.

 

Amos’s decisions impact his growth as a character. When grandma expects him to feed the rabbits, chickens, and goats, instead of doing things the proper way, he tries to carry all the bowls of feed and hay at one time to get the job over with. The food slips from his hands and scatters across the floor. He leads the chickens into the house to clean up the mess and feed them at the same time but it turns into a disaster, and Grandma tasks him with making things right. He cleans the mess on his hands and knees and returns to his room angry, crying, and feeling like nothing is good enough for Grandma.

He wishes he had magick to get the work done, thinks about the trunk in his dreams, and searches the closet. To his surprise, he finds the box. Within it he discovers a cloak, a chain holding a pendant and ring, and a folded piece of paper that he slips into his pocket. He puts the items on and enters a dreamlike experience with Thunder at his side. His necklace hums with energy. Green fog creeps along the forest floor, and Thunder takes off. A slinky, nine-tailed red fox snuggles beside Amos, wraps his nine tails around him, licks a tear from his face, and rubs up against the pendant. His jaws open wide, and he swallows Amos’s head. The boy wakes in his bed back at Grandma’s but feels unwell. Whispers between Grandma and the Doctor tell him something is wrong with him, plus Grandpa is injured and maybe poisoned. He has lost half of his soul to the trickster fox, and if he doesn’t do something, Grandpa will die.

With the help of Thunder, Amos finds the magick door at Anju Ancient Town and enters a different realm—a zany world. Just think Wizard of Oz meets Alice Through the Looking Glass with fae, gnomes, wizards, trolls, and unnatural, steampunk clockwork creatures! 

As much as his new surroundings and circumstances distract Amos, he has a goal to get his soul back and find the cure for Grandpa. One wrinkle in his plan is that because he only has half a soul, he occupies another body for most of this adventure, and that body belongs to Fis, a Paladin of the Summer Queen and a seventeen-year-old female. This coexistence opens the door for plenty of conflict, humor, and growth, which Jorah Kai accomplishes with panache!

Questions flood Amos’s mind at every turn. He takes them on fearlessly and with determination, but his path isn’t as easy as following a yellow brick road because even in this wacky land, Amos makes mistakes and experiences consequences.

My thoughts on Amos the Amazing

In this coming-of-age story, Amos grows to think of others more as he runs a race to save his soul and his grandfather’s life. While this book falls into the YA (Young Adult) category, I think it carries appeal for readers of all ages. Amos the Amazing is highly imaginative and action-packed with well-choreographed fight scenes. I highly recommend this book to readers of all ages who enjoy books like Harry Potter or the Percy Jackson series. If you are ready for adventure and enjoy exploring new fantastical worlds safely from home, this one is for you. I give it a hearty 5 stars! At the writing of this review, Amos the Amazing is available for preorder on Goodreads and Amazon, and is slated for release on Oct. 31.

As BookHookup, I am a longtime book reviewer, and I received Amos the Amazing as a free review copy and have not been compensated for reviewing or recommending it. Some links in this post are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to amazon.com and affiliate sites.

 

About the Author Jorah Kai

“We don’t rise to the level of our expectations (dreams), we fall to the level of our training.” ― Archilochus

Someone once told Jorah Kai to write what he knew, but since he was 12 and knew very little, the avid reader set off on a lifelong journey to master a variety of esoteric subjects. He’s been a lifelong student, martial artist, musician, English teacher, writer, newspaper columnist, editor, web designer, dance music producer and touring DJ, black rock city existential detective and philosopher, fire-breathing gypsy circus performer, standup comedian, and family man; which offered many profound insights into the human condition before uprooting his life and moving to a city of 34 million people halfway across the planet.

Jorah Kai has been an English teacher in Chongqing, China, since 2014 and editor for iChongqing, an English news desk for the 34 million-person cyberpunk metropolis, since 2018. He was the first Canadian journalist to report on the early Chinese outbreak and lockdown in 2020 and wrote a syndicated diary column for Chinese and Canadian (CTV News) audiences which was expanded and published in 2020 as his first novel, the epistolary tale ‘The Invisible War’ (Kai’s Diary) by Chinese New World Press in English and Chinese, which became an Amazon Bestseller for China Books and then Canadian press Royal Collins in English for a second edition. Both the column and book were celebrated as providing critical health information and guidance during an emergency. It was designated by the foreign affairs office as one of the top 10 foreign language books and 25 overall notable books published in China in 2020.

Kai enjoys conversing in foreign languages because it’s more mysterious, and he enjoys playing guitar and eating pizza as much as he hopes you love his books. He lives at the confluence of two mighty rivers, the Yangtze and the Jialing, with a large and loving family for many years as a human being and then forever after as the most immortal of all supernatural beasts, a writer.

Unpredictable WWII YA fantasy quest mythos

Elyse Hoffman serves up a believable fantasy quest based on Jewish folklore, a unique plot involving biblical artifacts, and a lovable mute orphaned protagonist in Uriel. The story is set in WWII German-occupied Poland and opens with Uriel lying on the street of his ravaged Polish village, Zingdorf.

A car of Germans carrying Major Brandt and his conscripted linguist, Uwe Litten, drive by and the linguist shouts for them to stop. He gets out and stares at the carnage. He’s horrified to see dead bodies of old men, young women and men of marriageable age amid smoldering buildings, including a vandalized Synagogue.

Major Brandt stares out at the broken glass and furniture littering the streets, and finds it odd because he hadn’t ordered his men to take care of Zingdorf yet. He figures it is the work of the local anti-Semites.

Uwe, the linguist, spots the body of a boy about the same age as his own son. He imagines what the child thought as he died, and notices he is hugging a golden notebook against his chest. On the cover, written in large black letters is the name Uriel. Uwe slips the book into his pocket and starts to read it while riding in the back seat of the car as they travel to the house where they will be staying. The book is filled with stories based on religious fables penned in the child’s handwriting. The stories fascinate the man.

Uriel awakens and is distraught that his beloved golden notebook is gone along with everyone and everything in Zingdorf. Angels Raphael and Gabriel arrive amid the ruins and heal the boy, and learn that he can see them. They explain they couldn’t have come sooner because when in the presence of evil they experience debilitating pain. The angels tell Uriel that Michael, the Guardian Angel of God’s Chosen people is missing, and they have no idea where he is being held. The evil being perpetrated against the Jewish people has weakened the angel and they worry that the Angel of Death has captured him. They see Uriel as a child sent from Hashem to help. He is not an angel and can walk among the Germans without pain. They offer Uriel the opportunity to find and rescue Michael, and he accepts.

This captivating YA story, builds with steady momentum. It had me hooked within the first few pages. As an Angel Finder, Uriel learns the evil people cannot see him, so when the German linguist, Uwe, can see him it is a surprise. Uwe becomes Uriel’s sidekick. He hides the boy in his room within Major Brandt’s house where Uriel is delighted to find that the linguist has his notebook. The two read the stories before bed, and a close relationship develops.

Uriel makes a deal with the Angel of Death to release Michael, but it requires several mini quests to gather items like David’s harp and Joseph’s cup. Each quest is a little more dangerous, and while Uriel occupies his day sneaking off on his quests, Uwe grows to become the brains, heart, and inner strength of the story as he is forced to work among the Germans as a translator.

Each page fed my hunger to know what happened next and created new hunger to know more. Just like real life, things are not cut and dried. Hoffman delivers a well-told tale that’s action-packed, original, unpredictable and closes with a satisfying end. I give it a solid 5 stars and recommend The Book of Uriel to readers young and old who enjoy quests for artifacts and the of good vs. evil. I think people who enjoyed reading The Paris Architect: A WWII Novel by Charles Belfoure would enjoy this story. But I offer a word of caution to parents of preteens, because the actions of war are gruesome and can be too much for those sensitive to the evils of anti-Semitism, war and related violence.

As BookHookup, I am a long-time book reviewer and I received The Book of Uriel as a free review copy and have not been compensated for reviewing or recommending it. This review is posted in collaboration with #Blackberry Book Tours. Some links in this post are affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to amazon.com and affiliate sites.  

 

About Author Elyse Hoffman

Elyse Hoffman is an award-winning author who strives to tell historical tales with new twists. She loves to meld WWII and Jewish history with fantasy, folklore, and the paranormal. She has written six works of Holocaust historical fiction: the five books of The Barracks of the Holocaust and The Book of Uriel.

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