I have been reading Tony Bertauski’s Christmas stories since the very beginning and have loved each and every one, so I was eager to get my hands on Humbug.
Be sure and check out his other books below, where you can find my review links.
MY REVIEW
Fantastic twist on a familiar tale.
Tony Bertauski has come away with another winner in Humbug. This is one of those books that is hard to review without giving away all the goodies inside.
You may think you know the story, but when Tony Bertauski spins a tale, he creates a world of his own, original, unique and highly creative.
I immediately thought steampunk because of all the technology involved, but cyberpunk will do just fine.
Ebenezer is constantly riding around his castle on a Segway. He is overweight and a bit lazy. He wants what he wants when he wants it and expects his androids to deliver. He doesn’t leave his castle and doesn’t want any human contact. No one knows what he looks like because he projects a created image when he talks ‘face to face’.
At times I felt like Ebenezer got what he deserved and other times I felt sorry for him. After all, we don’t always know what happens to shape a person into who they have become.
We do travel to the future, visit the present and go back to the past to find out his story.
The twists and turns kept me entertained and I surely never saw the end coming. I loved it.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Humbug by Tony Bertauski.
4 Stars
AMAZON BLURB: Jacob Marley is dead. His business partner, Eb Scrooge, is left to run Avocado, Inc., an innovative technology business, all alone. An introverted shut-in locked away in a Colorado mansion, he changes the company’s mission statement. Only his servant droids keep him company.
Until the gifts arrive.
Each Christmas, a messenger forces Eb to look at his life in hopes he will change. But change does not happen in a single night. And only Eb can make it happen.
But who is sending the messengers?
ABOUT TONY BERTAUSKI
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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.
My reviews for Tony Bertauski’s books:
