The First: Amazon Reviews plus a follow-up on Silver Tooth

front cover copyLast week I posted the first chapters of a new novel entitled, THE FIRST…with a promise that I’d be including succeeding chapters each week.  If you scroll to the bottom, you’ll see that they’re there waiting for you.  To make things tidy, I’ll be adding chapters to the first ones so you can have some continuity.

Soooo….  How are we doing with the book?  I booted up Amazon just now which has the e-book version available and, I scrolled down to see what the readers’ reviews are.  You can scroll for yourself, but we did pretty well…close to 5 stars overall and almost half were a full 5 stars.  Here’s a handful of reviews and no, I don’t know any of the people below:

amazon-reviewsTHE FIRST is an extraordinarily exciting and well-written book that was more about terrorism, counter terrorism and religious extremism, in the context of where modern science may be heading. THE FIRST offers a scary and powerful projection of our present world direction. In so doing, it proved to be a lot more powerful a book than this reader ever expected. Heavy on military ordnance, FBI strategy and a realistic look into the mind of terrorists, this is a novel that may scare you a bit in its realism.  Arthur T.

I was held spellbound by the predicament presented and the weirdos who harassed him/her over that choice which was almost no choice. THE FIRST is a well written cliff hanger.  Sandra J.

THE FIRST is not really a transgender story, except in that it involves the first brain transplant from a man to a woman. The ramifications of it are explored in some detail, in a horrifically thrilling novel. In fact it is the only book I know that goes where Ed Lee (Header) has gone. “What’s a header, daddy?” is Lee’s line but could be from The First. The villains are not only nut jobs but true insane wackos and for a while, I thought the novel was about them more than Chris, the transplanted and his wife and daughter. There is lots of killing and bloodshed, but the ending justifies the means to get there and is terrific. You definitely won’t be able to stop reading the last 20%.  Barb K.

In writing THE FIRST, the author has written a very entertaining story, and gives one a lot to think about the theme. Kevin V.

With THE FIRST, a normal guy’s life is thrown into chaos by an accident, new medical procedure, and a few violent fanatics who believe what saved his life is a horrible sin against god. A well-paced, and very enthralling story. Sandy M.

THE FIRST is a good story that was very well written and a pleasure to read.  Well Done, thanks. Jonathan P.

THE FIRST caught me off guard. It was not the kind of story I expected but was worth all the money and then some.  I was hooked very quickly, and couldn’t put it down after a very short time.  Allan R.

 

back coverA bunch of you have written in requesting THE FIRST for either yourselves or as Christmas gifts.   Because of you, these are exciting times!  We are now awaiting our first shipment from the publishers.  They should be in just before Christmas.  And once again, if you desire a little message, let me know and I will do my best to accommodate.

One thing I did notice in a handful of reviews was that some readers weren’t sure exactly what sort of book this is.  If I can cut to the chase, the terms used over and over are:  Thriller, page-turner, and thought-provoking.  Another term used often is well-written.  Having said that, however, two readers surmised because of the subject matter, (a guy having his brain inserted in a young woman) that it would be…”kinky” or have a whole lot of weird sex.  In short, it’s really not that kind of book.  In this book, I’m pretty sure you will get to know and empathize with the characters.

And so, without further ado, here is the next and very exciting section of THE FIRST:

B&W Henry flipped  copyHenry

THE FIRST SECTION TWO

Click the link above and it will either fill the screen or a small box link will appear at the bottom of your screen to click on.

 

P.S.  This is going to be a world record of a P.S…..but so what?  A few weeks ago I also promised a whole bunch of readers that I would follow-up with a short report on the real and long-term experience of owning a Silver Tooth, (a high-tech hearing enhancer, aka hearing aid).  In the first report, I waxed ecstatically about liking the thing pretty much from the beginning.  While that hasn’t changed, there are some things that many of you will find most interesting:

If there’s going to be anything that bothers you about a Silver Tooth, it’ll boil down to three categories:

1.  I can feel it in my ear and it feels weird.  Yes, it does…for the first few days or so.  The feeling is exactly like the first time you buy reading glasses.  You’re aware of them…and then you aren’t.  Here’s why:  The first few days, your mind feels the thing in your ear and keeps bugging you.  “Hey there’s a thing in your ear!”  After a few days your brain accepts and forgets about it.  I have it in my ear right now and even thinking about it…it’s nothing.

2.  It’s tinny.  Yup, that’s another little trick your brain plays on you.  You have gradually lost your high range so that you aren’t used to hearing it anymore.  When you do…it sounds tinny, because you haven’t heard it for so long.   99% of hearing loss begins at the high range, so you become unable to discern consonants very well.  Did they say, when, or send, or then, or men, or friend, or zen?  It’s the high frequency that defines the consonants.  After a week or so, it doesn’t sound tinny.  You just find that you understand things better.

3.  I’m embarrassed to have…a thing…stuck in my ear.  It makes me feel old.  Two answers:  unless you’re completely bald around your ears, with the size of these state-of-the-art devices, you don’t see ’em…at all….AT ALL!!!  You know what makes you feel really old?  Not hearing what people are saying and just nodding at them.

Now…  For those of you who also have tinnitus, I can tell you what effect the device has on me.  I’m pretty sure you will be surprised.  I have pretty bad tinnitus in my right ear…the one with the hearing aid.  I was worried that it might somehow amplify the tinnitus.  In short, it doesn’t do that.  More interestingly, however, what it does do is generate more information coming in my ear than before.  Now, I can hear those high notes and high sounds and, guess what!  It attenuates the tinnitus…a lot.   I’ve never heard this addressed before, but I think it makes sense.

Lastly, y’all know that I’m always looking for a way to improve things…any things.  Like the people who created Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, they had the terrific idea of marrying peanut butter to chocolate.  In my own small way, I’m interested in these hearing devices and wondering, how can we make it MUCH better????  You heard it here first, folks.  I’ve mentioned that Graphene is an amazing new material.  The perfect electrical conductor, transparent, only ONE atom thick in its basic form, and it’s 200 times stronger than steel by weight.  Guess what else it does? It provides the absolute best, most resonant material for a speaker or a microphone, by a factor of 80 times better.  In a hearing aid, the trade-off is always quality of the speaker versus size (people wanting them virtually invisible).  Up till now, these two concepts have existed at opposite ends of the spectrum.  You couldn’t have both…until now…until you use Graphene.  No, you can’t buy it now.  They haven’t caught up…………….but they will!

buffalo springfieldOh, one more thing about these devices that I never expected.  Music.  I absolutely LOVE music, but over the years I’ve sadly resigned myself to hearing things more like they’re coming out of an old crappy AM radio…at least in my right ear.  Driving home with the Silver Tooth in my ear and the stereo turned-up, I turned off the car and started crying.  Pam was riding shotgun.  She said, “The music?”  I nodded.  I could appreciate it again…like the old days.  I put on the song I played on our first date:  Buffalo Springfield:  Do I Have To Come Right Out and Say It?  A great great song………and I can hear it once again the way I used to.

Last of all, Pamela confided yesterday that in the past month I’ve been about 20% happier than I’ve been, all due to a vast improvement of my hearing.  Gonna put on some music right now!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4 Responses to "The First: Amazon Reviews plus a follow-up on Silver Tooth"

  1. Henry Harvey says:

    You had me at brain transplant! BUT I read the first four chapters last night and as promised it’s a page turner. Please put me on your list for an autographed copy. You have a gift.

    Sam

  2. Henry Harvey says:

    Hey Sam!

    Glad you’re enjoying it. The next few chapters are in this week’s blog. If you liked the first, it doesn’t slow down. If anything it speeds up. Don’t think you’ll be disappointed though there are some pretty hairy scenes in store.

    I’ll set aside a book for you.

  3. Henry Harvey says:

    Hey Henry,
    Wow! You weren’t joking! This is a powerful book and I’m guessing you’re thinking, this would make one heck of a movie, too! Question: I’ve read a couple other of your books and they are warm and fuzzy with your trademark bittersweetness going for you. This one is really hard hitting by any standards. Do you use a different part of your brain?
    Tina A.

  4. Henry Harvey says:

    Hi Tina,
    You raise a good question. The answer’s not so easy, but I’ll try. A writer creates characters and has a plot in mind. Some writers, myself included, create characters that are real enough to the writer that he lets them fight it out and pick their own way through a plot…a book. This is, of course, only to a certain extent. Some of the characters in The First are certifiable. Even so, they have to have a world that makes sense to them and they must live within those bounds.
    Henry

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