Surviving Immortality (Book) - 8/12/2018 5:44:13 AM
As a realistic science-fiction writer, I find the premise of a "immortality" formula to be quite preposterous and unscientific. However, as I read the excerpt, I found that you are an extremely good writer, especially when it involves emotions and conversation. I was there as an observer, not a participant, but I can't recall the proper language for Haight-Ashbury, the way you have. For that reason alone, I believe that you would have a very good following of people that would like to read your work.
And, you write with great sensitivity. It is that sensitivity, that romance, that turns me off for an action thriller. Emotion can block action when it's necessary, making it difficult to do what must be done. Fight or flight.
Ron
Surviving Immortality (Book) - 8/11/2018 11:37:29 AM
Surviving Immortality by Alan Chin
Edward C. Patterson, Reviewer
Powerfully fast-moving with now-relevancy
I know I can rely on a good read whenever I open a book by Alan Chin; and Surviving Immortality is no exception, except it is exceptional. With a believable spark, Mr. Chin presents us with a world devouring itself when promise has given it its greatest loss for hope. All the inchoate faults of humanity, ready today to strike our civilization to the core, leeches out when confronted by a mind shattering development and a simple, lethal condition. Surviving Immortality is masterfully rendered into a work long lingering after the last pages.
The characters are complex, each with their own demon, but honest to their convictions; so much so, there are no heroes, and those who appear villainous can be redeemed by their good intentions. The main thread of the story his told through Matt Reece’s point of view, although all the characters get their turn; but it is Matt’s intense purity, a purity despoiled by circumstances, which unfolds like a night flower in moonlight. Alan Chin crafts an action adventure and psychological political philosophical tale, if there could be such a genre, keeping the pages turning until those pages disappear and time is lost. The elements in the work, and those effecting Matt Reece, are all about us today just waiting for the spark to ignite them. Mr. Chin strikes that spark.
I am a fan of Alan Chin’s other works, but this one combines all the signature touches of them all — ranch life, storms at sea, tropical islands, police procedural, Buddhism, sexuality and a lust for travel. He even includes doffs to his latest wanderlust — Machu Picchu. The world he presents is his world as much as our world. The arguments are current ones, and I’ll not spoil your read by mentioning them, but whatever opinions you have on those topics, Surviving Immortality will not fail to engage you, even if you wind up talking to your night light at midnight in bed.
Needless to say (but I will say it), I highly recommend this book if you enjoy a powerful fast-moving work with now-relevancy from a major author who contributes to our contemporary literary legacy.
Buddha's Bad Boys (Short Story) - 2/23/2015 5:24:13 AM
An interesting combination. Gay Monks For a Month and murder in Chang Mai. As usual, very well written and intriguing. Reads like you had some experience there to write so well about it.
Many years ago I had the good fortune of spending 20 days in Thailand. Fortunately, I was with a high ranking friend of mine who took me throughout the country so I got a real feel for the place. Unfortunately, he was very careful to keep me away from all the sin that was readily available, two years after the American soldiers on R&R had left, leaving a gap for tourists to fill in.
One weekend we were to go to Chang Mai by public transportation because my friend was afraid to drive in the mountains. Unfortunately, there was a scheduled fight between a Thai kick boxer and an American fighter that was a big draw and there were no hotels available. So we didn't go.
Ron
Chapter 1 of FIrst Exposure (Short Story) - 8/20/2014 6:19:03 AM
I was hesitant at first because of the subject matter, but thought I'd take a look anyway. I was immediately caught up in the description and dialogue and know why you have been granted awards for your work--superb!
I, along with many other Americans was duped into thinking that Dubya arrived at an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, not just off the coast of San Diego. So much for my casual viewing of TV news…
As for the banter in the lounge, I've never been in the Navy or any service except Boy Scouts, so the closest parallel I have was the college dorm. While I ran into that kind of one upmanship talk as early as high school, I never really engaged it, because I didn't like belittling people for who they were, socially or genetically.
One time while I was studying for my doctorate and focusing on my studies rather than a relationship with a woman, one of my fellow students, having lunch with me one day, actually asked if I was gay. My second attendant, a brilliant premed senior at Rice University, took an unusual interest in me and wanted me to be seen with him in public eating out and going to events. Although he had a girlfriend, I eventually determined that he was probably gay, but still hiding it. The last fellow that I supervised before my forced retirement and many social issues that I ignored trying to get him to be productive at work. Shortly after we both were fired, he changed his name to Rachyl. He/she has had trouble getting employment ever since… It's been three years.
Ron
The Characters I Write (Article) - 1/7/2015 7:46:09 AM
It is the outsiders of this world that change it, often for the better, sometimes not (Adolf Hitler, Osama bin Laden). I became an outsider when I became paralyzed and suddenly realized that I had mysteriously lost over half of my friends (only acquaintances who were my acquaintances because they could have the advantage in doing so). As a gay man, you are automatically an outsider, like I, a paraplegic, am.
As a result, we know more about how outsiders behave and can write more effectively about them. I sense that you are quite emotional, and therefore can write emotion into your characters to make them more believable for the readers. I am not emotional and more pragmatic about everything, because becoming paralyzed did not change my pragmatic outlook towards life. Therefore, I don't write very colorful characters (and have been criticized for it) but only about ordinary (by their very nature, dull) people caught up in larger-than-life events and circumstances. These characters don't stand out as superheroes but, either by luck or by some skill they possess, survive.
Ron
