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"Midwest Book Review" - Piper Robbin (reviewer Diane Donovan)

Piper Robbin and the American Oz Maker
Warwick Gleeson
Del Sol Press 
978-0999842546                     $11.99 Paper/$2.99 Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/Piper-Robbin-American-Oz-Maker-ebook/dp/B07QGLVMXS


Piper Robbin and the American Oz Maker is an intriguing blend of fantasy and sci-fi loosely based on the Wizard of Oz original, but moves far from these roots into the territory of apocalyptic fantasy and speculative fiction.

Piper Robbin is the ancient daughter of the Earth's greatest sorcerer inventor, Edison Godfellow, and faces a dangerous magical alien entity's attempts to destroy the human race with "The Witch Queen of Oz".

The seven Oz-like city worlds designed to protect everyone from this alien force are failing, and Piper is charged with protecting the human race as she struggles with a legacy handed down through generations.

The first thing to note is Warwick Gleeson's voice: it's simply exquisite. It's at once ribald, penetrating, gritty and original, bringing Piper's story to life right from the start: "People think just because you’re a great magical being of some kind you have it easy. Nothing could be more wrong. Your hopes and dreams are often spit on, your happiness ruined, your friends killed, and you lose sleep at night worrying about shit just like everyone else. And besides obligations you really don’t want, you face mega-dangerous freaks way too often because you’re expected to, you know, cause you’re the official bad ass. By the Brooklyn gods! Really? You crawl in pain and heave up your insides for starters, die in lots of ways, and after all that trouble, sometimes you don’t come back."

From the War for Utopia to atmospheric descriptions of Piper’s favorite restaurant in this Oz-enhanced world ("The air smelled of orange blossoms, breezy and cool, and on either side, diners found themselves enthralled by massive eternal views of the New Manhattan Oz looking like the best of any tall-spired, blazingly lit, dusk-hued science fiction super city that Piper had ever seen in a movie or on a book cover—not to mention the streams of flying cars. Zero-grav fountains levitated shimmering water in huge arcs over the heads of patrons; and a huge tele-glass set in a far wall allowed them to view sweeping vistas of the Martian canyon, Valles Marineris, at twilight.”), readers seeking truly original fantasy writings which excel in unique descriptions, characters, and a sense of futuristic place will find this story far more enlightening and lovely than most.

As Piper joins the refugees from the “Martian Oz nightmare”, everything changes in her world. Some things will never be the same.

One of them is the reader, who may initially wonder at this strange blend of Oz-based legend and fantasy and alien invasion story; but the surprise here is how easily this takes place under Warwick Gleeson's hand, and how compelling is the blend of military operations and Piper's personal mission "Still thundering as they fell, Piper’s western assault wave utilized their wings to perform a massive swooping maneuver, veering to an arc that flattened out above the San Bernardino suburbs. She ordered half her units to dive to 500 feet, the other half to 100 feet. The top half layered itself into three firing lines, one atop the other, and chose targets ten to twenty miles ahead. Once done, a moving wall of hellish sound and shell softened the streets and strip malls while the lower half of the wave followed up like a slashing tsunami. Unknown to everyone else though, including her father, Piper was also on a mercy mission. If possible, I’m going to find and save Murray’s sister and family. I got the unlucky bastard killed for no good reason. I owe it to him."

Piper Robbin and the American Oz Maker lives up to the ideal of a refreshingly unique fantasy that incorporates many Oz legends and elements, yet takes them a step further into futuristic encounters and survival struggles.

Readers who are more than lightly familiar with the Oz literature and who love fantasy, alien encounters, and stories of powerful female leaders and military might will find Piper Robbin and the American Oz Maker a gripping, absorbing read that's hard to put down, packed with imaginative, unexpected twists and turns.

- Diane Donovan for Midwest Book Review (August 2019 publication)


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