READER'S ROCK LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE VOL 2 ISSUE 4 NOVEMBER 2014 Vol 1 Issue 11 May 2014 | Page 15

AUTHOR J.C. ALLEN
The Homeland Connection
Lior Samson
This is a paperback collection of four novels published by Gesher
Press. I will start with an overview of the set, then review each
book separately and average the scores.
What it’s about: This is an ambitious collection, I estimate it at
near half a million words, and is about a tech consultant lost in a
high-stakes world of espionage and intrigue. It spans the globe,
particularly the Middle East, Europe, Japan, and the United
States, and deals with the ever-volatile regions around Israel.
Look/design: The cover has a dawn-lit picture of Haifa, Israel
wrapped around it, displaying the peach color of the morning
across the hazy mountains and city. It’s a peaceful image, but
dark and moody at the same time. The title, author, and the four
separate book names are listed on the front in their own fonts,
and the back cover has a blurb for each one. Even looking for
something to criticize, I could not find fault, but there was
nothing dynamic about it either. Rating: 19/20
Editing/formatting: Very professional. The pages were perfectly
laid out – framed exactly with space for the spine, and with right
margins justified (I wish everyone did this). Each book has its
own heading at the top of the page, and a black and white picture
of the individual covers at the beginning of each book. Editing
was crisp and clean with a minimum of typos or other mistakes.
The only thing I found lacking was a bio of the author. With the
storyline covering technical aspects as well as international
political issues, I wondered what sort of credentials and
experience Mr. Samson had in order to create such believable
tales. For that oversight, I’m deducting a point: 19/20
Story/Content:
Bashert started quickly and very academically – exaggeratedly
so. The first fifty pages contained so many two-dollar words that
I had to conclude this portion had been over-worked to impress
potential publishers. After that, the dialogue of the intellectuals
degraded to your Everyday Joe’s speech patterns, and a few typos
and grammatical errors crept in after that imaginary line. While I
completely understand the need to impress, it sucked some of the
life out of the story for me. I deducted five points for this, plus
another point for the inconsistency.
The story itself was well-researched and very intriguing, keeping
me turning pages to the end. But the ending seemed a little weak
to me. With so much detail and build-up in the beginning, it just
didn’t quite live up to the punch it had promised – ending too
quickly and easily. I hacked off another two points for that.
Overall, it was a very entertaining and intelligent read. The few

problems I had were with the story jumping around, which
caused some confusion for me. One more point deducted: 51/60
The Dome: In keeping with the first novel of the collection, this
story was fast-paced and intriguing. It was not dragged down by
OSS (Overwhelming Synonym Syndrome), but also was not as
tightly edited – missing words and typos tripled, dialog was more
difficult to follow, and the story jerked around too much for my
taste. I found myself repeatedly going back to make sense of the
narrative or to figure out where or when a particular passage was
taking place. At one point, what I thought had been two women
and a man, turned out to be two men and a woman. Five points
deleted.
The story itself (the most important part to me) was much better.
It was very well crafted and thought-out, with no let-down in the
climax. The detours and backstory were not a distraction to the
closing. I enjoyed the electronic cat-and-mouse as well as the
political and religious arguments. It didn’t get too technical and
not as detailed as I would have liked in that area – probably better
for the average reader, but I wanted more. I hacked a point off for
that deficit.
This book was a great melding of technology, politics, and
religion. I liked it so much that I’m adding a point back. It was
intriguing and thought-provoking on every level. Rating: 55/60
Web Games took off from the first page and sucked me right in.
I may be a bit biased because I love this type of story, and this
one didn’t disappoint at all. This third novel in the series showed
an even faster pace and a constant, addictive drive toward the
resolution. I found myself wrapped up in the plot as the different
factions grabbed at power – or justice – whatever their vision of
either was. It was much more streamlined than the first two
books, and added a lot more intrigue, just when that seemed
impossible. I found a happy mix of everything in this book, from
computer hacking to espionage to political and environmental
activism to good old-fashioned corporate greed.
Of course I found some problems (as is my duty), but none
distracted from the story. There were still some scenes that
hopped around and caused a bit of double-checking, but fewer
than the previous books. Only once did I find myself totally
perplexed when an apparent superhero teleported from his office
into the middle of nowhere to save a damsel in distress, and then
warped back to his office seconds later. This magic act caused
three points to disappear.
Web Games was right up my alley and a thoroughly enjoyable
read. I highly recommend it and am anxious to see if the fourth