Book dissection: "The World of the Orb" by Michael Thompson

I want to give a big shout out to the listeners in San Jose California who are listening the heck out of the show. I greatly appreciate it, you guys are the best.

As a reminder, if you like anything you here please remember to hit that like button. But enough of that, now onto her show. At the beginning I read a quote and that quote comes from a book written by a good friend of the show, Michael Thompson.

World of the orb fits into what could rightly be considered the midgrade and young adult categories. So why what I read it? After all, Bryan the Writer is a horror, mystery, and science fiction Writer. However, that really doesn’t do justice to what I read.

I know I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s really important to remember that if you are an author, reading far and wide is really important. The example I read to you at the beginning of the show is a wonderful example of world building.

Let me read you the back of the book, so you can get an idea of what the storyline is about. “Best friends Marvin and Andy have just discovered the Museum of Natural History’s unnatural secret: the orb, a mysterious relic that plunges these two modern teens into a medieval world of monsters, myth, and magic. To return home, they must embark on a global treasure hunt to unite five elemental crystals, all while eluding the eye of a tyrannical warlock bent on conquering the realms. This isn’t the field trip they expected.”

The world that Michael has built is called Enkartai and is divided into six different lands. In order to complete their quest, this band must cover all of the different lands to retrieve these crystals.

Intrigued yet?

The transitions that Michael uses to get from one spit of land to another are equally as engaging. You feel the chill of the air when the characters are moving through snowy landscapes. You feel the grit of the dirt when you’re on rocky and barren lands. When the characters first arrive in the dark lands, there’s a wonderful passage where you’re getting a description of the change in atmosphere. You can feel the oppressive change from the other parts of Enkartai.

Fortunately, no matter how much we say we grow up, in some respects we never really do. There’s a part of us that still loves to watch animated cartoons, no matter how old we are. There’s a part of us that still likes reading comic books, chewing bubblegum, feeling the wind through her hair a bike ride, there’s a part of us that always will want to go on a grand adventure.

That’s why reading this book is such a great experience. You get to tap into these emotions which are latent inside of you. In some ways you’re always going to put yourself in the place of the main character, as you live in this world that was created. And that’s what Michael does particularly well.

That’s it this week for all things writing. Next week is a bye week for me, so there will be no show. However, after that I am going to cover the topics of copywriting and what the heck is an ISBN anyway, and why should you have one.

If you enjoyed today’s show, remember to hit that like button and also feel free to donate to the show, you can do so by hitting the button in the upper right-hand corner which will take you to a page where you can donate directly to my cause.

Until next time, that’s it for me. This is Bryan the writer, signing off.

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