The Bulls of War: The (early) verdict is in...

If the above dramatization of people reading and discussing The Bulls of War didn't give it away, then I'll just go ahead and say it - the reviews have started coming in:

“Outstanding, a story you’ll want to explore”

“He has created an entire world on the scale of George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones”

“Stripped down to the bone, this is a story of friendship.”

“The Bulls of War is an intense book based on war. In fact the war scene dominates everything else and so a person must be prepared for it before buying the book”

“Note to the author - I can’t wait to read the next instalment [sic] of this gripping saga.”

“Thomas delivers it in a realistic, raw, grand manner. At times we get lost in the names and places – but try watching Game of Thrones: Thomas’ tale makes more sense, is easier to follow, and has more inherent depth – fantasy though it be.”

Now I’m happy to see reviews in the first place, but ecstatic that they’ve trended so positive thus far, averaging 4.6/5.0 on Amazon. As indie authors well know, the harsh truth is that many of the sites through which we can promote our works are strictly dependent on the quantity of reviews, the quality of reviews, and the ratings attached thereto; some services relax their standards as the quantity builds up, but I’ve yet to find one that permits submissions below a 3.5 rating. Long-winded way of saying – so far, so good.

***I’d be remiss if I didn’t use this context to make a request of my Bulls readers – if you’ve read the book, I would greatly appreciate you taking the time to leave a quick, honest review here. As I mentioned, reviews are really the lifeblood of any author, indie or otherwise.***

The quoted snippets above are from some of my favorite comments I’ve seen thus far. I’ve always found it interesting seeing how different people interpret the same story in varying ways – one of the reasons I’ve always been a Metacritic disciple – but especially so when it’s my story. In any event, some stream of consciousness thoughts about the comments above:

The Game of Thrones comparisons I love; I adore that series, adore that show, and if I had to give a one sentence comparison of The Bulls of War to any existing series, I’d say it’s GoT with a Ancient Roman twist.
“Stripped down to the bone, this is a story of friendship.” If I knew the HTML for the thumbs up emoji, it would go here.
“The Bulls of War is an intense book based on war… a person must be prepared for it before buying.” I’m not going to lie, I love writing battles. In the earliest iterations of this story, I’d filled up a spiral notebook (remember those?) just with battles that had taken place in what would become Andervold. I don’t like excess for the sake of excess, but I also don’t like shying away from what ancient and medieval styles of combat were like, at least as I understand them.
“…can’t wait to read the next instalment…” Me too, my friend, me too. I have so, SO much in store for Book 2 (and 3 for that matter), just stay tuned.

Non-Sequiturs

The Night Of: finished it and don’t feel much differently about it. I’d give it a C, as there were some outstanding individual performances (Detective Box (Bill Camp) especially), but some of the other actors were wasted in my opinion. The lead (Riz Ahmed) was given very little to work with but did well with what he had. I dunno, I just didn’t find the series to be much different than a drawn out Law & Order episode, but I know a lot of people that really liked it. Others said the British original is far superior.
Also caught The Revenant finally. One of the most beautifully shot films I’ve seen in a very, very long time. Reminded me of Last of the Mohicans in terms of the magnificent landscape views, and the almost first-person way the director filmed those attack scenes (the bear (!) and the war party raids) was just stunning. Really wish I’d seen it on IMAX. The plot was a little vague at times, so I’d give it a B overall, but I would watch again just for the imagery.

-EMT

(picture credit: Wix)