Claus: Legend of the Fat Man by Tony Bertauski

At the North Pole, Nicholas couldn’t believe the Inuits had left them, taking all their gear and food. He left Jessica and Jon in the tent and went to investigate their disappearance. He had tied a rope around himself so he could find his way back. When it wrapped around his feet and tripped him, he realized it had been cut. He turned to walk back and fell through the ice.

Back at the tent, Jessica reeled in the empty line. When she stuck her head out of the tent to see if she could catch a glimpse of Nicholas, she was grabbed and thrown in the air. When she awoke, she found Jon with her in a warm room surrounded by ice. Where did the light come from?

She called out, “Hello” , and people-like creatures appeared. One of them, Merry, introduced herself and Nog. She said they needed to leave, now. Nog packed up the room and put it in a bag he had pulled from his pocket. What? How did he do that? How did the whole room end up in his bag.

Jon thought it was magic. Nog told him it was science. He said they were elven and had been around for more than 40,000 years. There was no time to explain right now. They had to relocate. The Fracture, war, had separated the elves, and the colony has to move every two weeks.

How would they travel? Why, reindeer and sleigh. Was there a reindeer with a red nose? What do you think?

Jack was the only elven with no sense of humor. When he was really upset, two words always calmed him, Silent Night, and he would repeat them over and over.

Pawn approached Jack to tell him they had found an injured warmblood. He had been caught in their trap, but the other two got away with the rebels help. He had been put in Claus‘ lab, because he had been injured and Claus was the only one who could heal him. Pawn told Jack the warmblood’s name was Santa.

Jack and Claus were twin brothers. Jack wanted to kill all the warmbloods and return the world to the Ice Age. He had been waiting to capture a warmblood and now he had one. He had held Claus prisoner, even though he was treated well, because he would need his help to turn the warmblood into a weapon.

Merry had a special relationship with the reindeer. She could hear them. When everyone found out, they all began ignoring her. No one would  play games with her and they called her names. What a great twist on Rudolph’s story.

As she was calling out their names for Jon,  he shouted out  the last one, Blitzen. How did he know? He didn’t have an answer for her.

Claus tried to explain to Nicholas, that he could be their salvation or their destruction. He could bring distinction to the human race.

Of course Frosty the Snowman is there, but what part he plays, you will have to read to find out.

5 STARS – Would Buy It For Them (lol)

There are two different covers for this book and I loved them both, so I used one at the beginning and another at the end of this post. The title speaks for itself. LOL

An amazing and awe-inspiring novel of how Santa came to be. I was stunned at Tony Bertauski’s descriptions of the characters, critters and their environment. It was nothing less than amazing. His descriptions of the environment, technology and science fiction involved in the writing of this novel had me……I can’t even think of the words to describe how impressed I was. As you can see, I am now repeating myself, so read the book and you will see what I mean.

His creativity with mixing so many genres – the environment, technology, science fiction, magic, fantasy, Christmas, etc. – was superb.

The book has an unexpected ending, but no peeking.

I can see this as a television Christmas special. I think it would be a classic.

I have read one other book of his, The Annihilation of Foreverland and was equally impressed with that novel. This is an author you want to place on your must read list.

I got the book for free, and whether Tony expected a review or not, here it is. LOL. I loved everything about this book and would have reviewed it no matter what.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

My grandpa never graduated high school. He retired from a steel mill in the mid-70s. He was uneducated, but he was a voracious reader. I remember going through his bookshelves of paperback sci-fi novels, smelling musty old paper, pulling Piers Anthony and Isaac Asimov off shelf and promising to bring them back. I was fascinated by robots that could think and act like people. What happened when they died?

I’ve written textbooks on landscape design, but that was straightforward, informational writing; the kind of stuff that helps most people get to sleep. I’ve also been writing a gardening column with a humorous slant. That takes a little more finesse, but still informational for the most part.

I’m a cynical reader. I demand the writer sweep me into his/her story and carry me to the end. I’d rather sail a boat than climb a mountain. That’s the sort of stuff I wanted to write, not the assigned reading we used to get in high school. I wanted to create stories that kept you up late.

Fiction, GOOD fiction, is hard to write. Having a story unfold inside your head is an experience different than reading. You connect with characters in a deeper, more meaningful way. You feel them, empathize with them, cheer for them and even mourn. The challenge is to get the reader to experience the same thing, even if it’s only a fraction of what the writer feels. Not so easy.

Goodreads  /  Website  /  Facebook

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  Giveaway – Tony Bertauski is offering up 2 ebooks for the giveaway. It is International and easy to enter, as always. Just answer the question:

Everyone roots for the good guy, the protagonist, the guy/girl that saves the word and never tells a lie. But there’s something to be said for a great villain. I’ve always found the most compelling bad guy is the really nasty one that has some redeeming quality — tiny as it may be — that makes me not hate him/her nearly as much as I should. Everything I write features an antagonist that, by the end, leaves the reader scratching his/her head.

Given this criteria, who is a REALLY good antagonist? And why?

 Ends November 20, 2012.

GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED.

WINNERS!!!!! are:  Alana and Denise Z

Thanks to all of you for the wonderful comments. I hope you will continue to follow fundinmental.

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