Welcome to STEVE UMSTEAD Week!!
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Welcome to STEVE UMSTEAD Week! I’m your host, R. B. Wood—let’s play our game!
We are going to be celebrating the release of Gabriel’s Return – Book Two of the Evan Gabriel Trilogy.
Schedule for the week:
12 September – My Review of Book Two goes live (see below)
14 September – “Ten Questions with Steve Umstead”
16 September – Episode 18 of The Word Count Podcast – A Chat with Steve Umstead and a Reading from Gabriel’s Return
All this being said, who IS Steve Umstead? I’m glad you asked. From his bio page:
Steve Umstead has been the owner of a Caribbean & Mexico travel company for the past ten years, but never forgot his lifelong dream of becoming an author. After a successful stab at National Novel Writing Month, he decided to pursue his dream more vigorously…but hasn’t given up the traveling.
Steve lives in scenic (tongue-in-cheek) New Jersey with his wife, two kids, and several bookshelves full of other authors’ science fiction novels. Gabriel’s Redemption was his debut novel, published in February of 2011, and Gabriel’s Return, the second in the trilogy, launched in August. If his life allows it, Gabriel’s Revenge, book 3, will arrive before the holiday season.
I’ve been interacting with Steve on line for a while now. We met for the first time at ReaderCON this past July. Not only is Steve a talented writer, but he is genuinely a good guy.
Follow Steve on twitter: @SteveUmstead
Steve’s Website: http://steveumstead.com/
Now, onto the review:
GABRIEL’S RETURN (Book 2 of the Evan Gabriel Trilogy) by Steve Umstead FOUR out of FIVE STARS
Read my review of book one (GABRIEL’S REDEMPTION)
Six months after the events in book one, Commander Evan Gabriel of the North American Federation and the remainder of his team are on Mars when the son of a high-ranking politician is kidnapped on the distant world of Eden.
Gabriel and his team are asked mount a rescue, but bitter politics and memories of a failed mission 5 years previously complicate the mission.
Umstead continues his world-building and futuristic vision in GABRIEL’S RETURN, intertwining stories and sub-plots in the masterful thriller.
Where as Book One was a non-stop adventure story, Book Two is a complex thriller with deeper character development, fantastic settings and non-stop action. The writing is tight and fluid and the story is fully immersive.
This is Umstead’s “The Empire Strikes Back, ” cliffhanger included. As long as he doesn’t introduce Ewoks in the final book, all should be well.
I highly recommend both GABRIEL’S REDEMPTION and GABRIEL’S RETURN and I look forward to GABRIEL’S REVENGE due out this winter.
Pick up Gabriel’s Return at:
