Renaissance Writer: Gordon A. Long

REVIEW

“An Enemy’s Gift” by Larry Armstrong

by renaissanceadmin • 2025-11-08 • 0 Comments

This book shows an interesting approach to creating a novella. Instead of laying out the usual story arc with all the details pared down to minimum, the author simply ignores the beginning of the time line and gives us only the action part. The problem is that in the condensing process, the author has taken…

“The Elysian Hegemony” by Michael J. Byrne

by renaissanceadmin • 2025-11-02 • 0 Comments

This novel shows an unfortunate example of a writer who attempts far too much, trying to appeal to too many different types of reader, and ends up satisfying none of them. The book starts out as a Military Action-Adventure. The opening involves a great firefight, full of technical jargon, esoteric weapons, and fast-paced fighting. But…

“Avalon” by David Barrett-Murrer

by renaissanceadmin • 2025-10-26 • 0 Comments

One technique of good paranormal writing is to create a distinct magical setting with clearly defined rules. Then the author can set up an effective and believable conflict within that context. One disadvantage of the Internet is that authors have access to a great variety of magical environments, and there is a temptation to dabble…

“The Seventh Circumstance,” by Adam Scribentis

by renaissanceadmin • 2025-10-19 • 0 Comments

Since the author’s pen name means “writing” in Latin, we can be sure that’s what the book is all about. And therein lies a problem. There is a tiny subgenre of the Fantasy book world that is peopled by scholars and nerds who just love this sort of thing. Unfortunately, most of that same little…

Hell, Yeah! We’re the Baddies!” by Victor Tango Kilo

by renaissanceadmin • 2025-10-11 • 0 Comments

Novelists always have an objective in mind: an idea to teach us, called their theme. But nobody listens to a philosophical rant, so writers attract our attention with a striking cover and entertain us with interesting characters, conflict and suspense, all the while demonstrating the theme they want us to learn. Sort of like watching…

“The Pulse Between Us” by B. K. Brown

by renaissanceadmin • 2025-10-05 • 0 Comments

This is a Sci-Fi Romance story. As the title leads us to expect, the science part of it revolves around mental interconnection, and this leads to a few passionate scenes. However, they concentrate on the emotions in a tasteful way, a pleasant departure from the anatomically correct orgasm recitals many Romance writers deem essential. The…

“The Umbra Signal” by David Williams

by renaissanceadmin • 2025-09-28 • 0 Comments

This novel is about the conspiracy theory to end all conspiracy theories. What if there really was a secret cabal controlling the world, but they lost control of the system, and it started controlling its creators? The only chance humans have to hold onto their past is wild-card unpredictable creativity. And the computer is rewriting…

“Alien Fugitive Requires Mechanic” by Vance Huxley

by renaissanceadmin • 2025-09-21 • 0 Comments

One of the fun parts about Science Fiction is watching the author create a technology and society that is beyond ours, manipulating the situation and including details that help us believe that it really might work. This requires the author to do a great deal of planning to make sure it all fits. Then the…

“Clara and the Orbus Girl” by M. Pagot

by renaissanceadmin • 2025-09-14 • 0 Comments

This book is Multiple Universe Sci-Fi for the Young Adult market, which is handled quite well, with one exception I will discuss later. Clara, the main character, is quite typical of the genre: an orphan (in this case well off,) and a bit of a geek who just doesn’t fit in with her world. So,…

“A Marine’s Path” by Kirk Richardson

by renaissanceadmin • 2025-09-07 • 0 Comments

This is an interesting novel to review, because it is an almost-perfect example of the Military Action genre. Except for the technical level of the weaponry, this story could have been written about the Marine Corps in any conflict since WWII. The enemy soldiers even carry ceremonial (and deadly) swords. And how many books or…

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