Story Behind The Book
In order to edit my book, I called upon the services of my old friend Jim. What would follow, was a year of drunken belligerence, arguments, and drug induced rants. Our arguments were fueled by my need for "artistic expression" (i.e. not wanting to be wrong) and Jim's dogma of grammar and story structure (from years of school without ever writing anything). Topics ranged from how to simultaneously imply in the narrative themes of bestiality, incest, and infidelity, to the need for a good Taco. Near the end of our year long excursion into the bitter depths of my imagination, and truly testing the bounds of our friendship and sanity, I remarked to Jim, "I can't wait until this is over so that we can become friends again."
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Reviews
It's a book that needs to be read again and again to first grasp its concept, and then to savour its almost poetry prose. <br /><br />Marc Johnson tells a fine tale of humanity breakdown and survival. It also has a fantasy twist to it with a cast of beasts and dragons so fearsome you'd not want to turn the light out ever again! A fun book to entice the childhood imagination back from the subconscious. <br /> - L. Wise (Author of <em>Eden)<br /><br /><br /></em>This is a highly polished original first novel by USA writer Marc Johnson. A fantasy adventure work aimed at adults, which examines some basic human instincts and also dark themes along its way. <br /> "Becoming" sets up a clever scenario and has the reader considering the conclusion even from the outset of the novel. I feel that there are echoes of Peter Straub where Johnson darts between the real and the surreal and between the various cast's perspectives on the plot in the early stages, despite some graphic and occasionally disturbing narrative. <br />I'm glad I had chance to read this during my vacation week. I particularly enjoyed Johnson's slick imaginative wordplay which he used to good effect throughout. <br /><br />- Steve Morris (Author of <em>In All Probability) </em><br /><br /><br />In a classic tale of good vs evil, Marc Johnson takes a ragged troupe of characters and develops them into the ultimate saviors of mankind. His use of descriptors to help the reader tell the good guys from the bad guys are varied. His "hero" troupe goes up against the "dark army of the east". They are helped along the way by two shadowy figures known as Michael & Gabriel (archangels?). Determining when this saga takes place is left to the imagination of the reader. Is it our future, our past or a parallel universe? Does it matter? In the confines of the story, I don't think so. This book is action packed and full of characters who are expertly defined throughout. You get to know them, rooting for some; wishing others would just get out of the way. If I had a problem with this book, it was being able to determine which character was which, particularly in the battle scenes. There was so much action, so many characters involved, it was hard to tell who was where. It became even more confused when we had a good beast and a good dragon enter the foray. But Marc ultimately cleared the skies for the reader and brought his tale to an interesting "end". In a book that asks more questions than it provides answers, I expected nothing less of the ending than to do the same. A book that put me to mind of Stephen King's Gunslinger series or what I know of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, I thought this was an excellent first novel by an up and coming author. <br /><br />- C.A. Morgan (Author of <em>The Brothers Lewis)<br /><br /><br /></em>My first impressions of Becoming by author Marc Johnson was that I was reading apiece of poetry. <br /><br />Unsure of what is happening in the first pages, and of what is being birthed, the mystery propels me into the 'lyrical poetry to keep a close watch on the unfolding events. A man. A woman. Water. A birth. All handled very sexual and very esoteric. <br /><br />Flowing naturally with rhythm and rhyme, I could easily feel, taste, and visualize all the descriptive uses of language and experience what the characters were experiencing. A very tactile read, I was pulled into the story further. The reading reminded me of some kind of Beowolf, mixed with riddled words, yet fixed with clarity. Power and sensuality. <br /><br />On the negative side there were too many he, his beginning sentences and too many usages of it. If the author went over the pronoun wording and applied more specificity as well as variant beginning for sentences, the read would be more harmonic and sound less repetitive. But overall, the poetic flow of the read helped me to overlook that fact. <br /><br />Overall, this was a very inventive and uniquely flowing story. I enjoyed the poetic prose and the unpredictable, twisting plot lines of "Becoming." <br /> <br />-Ami Blackwelder (Author of <em>The Hunted of 2060)</em>