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
https://www.amazon.com/Piper-Robbin-American-Oz-Maker-ebook/dp/B07QGLVMXS
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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