THE GULLWING ODYSSEY by Antonio Simon, Jr.
BLURB:
When an unusual assignment sends him overseas, he finds himself stranded in foreign lands. With no way home and no hope of making his delivery, he sees sour prospects for attaining his modest retirement dreams, much less getting out of the whole mess alive. Even that wouldn’t be so bad if he weren’t constantly outrunning pirates, embroiled in international intrigue, and attacked by a hummingbird with an appetite for human brains – that’s just the start of his misadventures.
But lurking in the wings is a much greater threat than getting sacked from his job. The fate of an entire civilization may well rest upon his scrawny shoulders. In spite of himself and quite by accident, Marco may yet become the hero he strives not to be.
MY REVIEW:
Mistaken for an emissary he is not, Marco Gullwing embarks on an adventure that changes his life. But all he wants to do is deliver his message/parcel. He runs across various characters in his travels that want to change him into something he is not, even hisself. This is a fanciful tale of self-discovery.
The story is full of wonderful, colorful, crazy characters and locations. Antonio did a great job bringing each character to life and letting them follow their own paths. Other than Marco, my other favorite characters were Barclay, Dria and Alexis. I loved the repartee between Marco and Barclay and the growing romantic relationship between Dria and Marco.
This story is full of tongue-in-cheek and play-on words. Some of it so subtle I would stop and think, Did the author just do that? And yup, he did. I laughed out loud in quite a few places. Two scenes that really stick with me are the innocent, little hummingbird that suddenly dive-bombs Marco and starts drilling into his nose to get to his brain. Makes me shudder and wipe my nose. Yuck! And the non-violent battle at the palace. Very ingenious. I chuckled a lot over that.
But for all the fun I had with this story, there were parts I didn’t like. He has a problem with redundancy. The same actions and words repeated over and over. Palms up, face furrowed flattening the brow. And as wacky as this story is, the cover could have been more dramatic. Also, for being a published vs indie title, there were too many proofreading errors.
I highly recommend this book for a light fanciful read and I give it my 4 feathers.
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