From the North Rim

World Tour was released on Amazon in digital & paperback on April 10, 2024.

Ink & Quill sent me the final cover for World Tour.

Ink & Quill is solid on the April 10 release date.

Ink & Quill sent me the updated cover design and cover blurb for World Tour.

The cover blurb:

“Making the most of an injury-induced early retirement in Hawaii, a former NFL star turned tour guide, Uzmahndey, finds himself thrust into an interstellar conflict that will test the limits of his strength, wit, and belief.

When a strange woman shows up with a baby and books a routine trip to Kilauea, Uz’s curiosity is piqued. But nothing could prepare him for the revelation that ancient gods are real, and attempting to manipulate human destiny for their own inscrutable purposes.

His newfound companion is revealed to be a beautiful and enigmatic robot, whose existence defies all logic. But her offer of riches and, more importantly, a way back into the NFL, has Uz ready to risk it all. Together, with the help of a little alien technology, they must dismantle a web of myth and danger that spans the globe, threatening all of mankind.

Caught in a war between hyper intelligent aliens and the whims of ancient deities, he must navigate treacherous alliances and unearth long-buried truths to save humanity from domination. But in a world where nothing is as it seems, what chance does he have?

In this riveting, near-future sci-fi thriller, alliances will be forged, destinies will collide, and the fate of the world will rest in the hands of unlikely heroes.”

Ink & Quill sent me a new image for the book cover.

Ink & Quill just sent me an image they intend to use as the backdrop for the cover:

The first cover image Ink & Quill sent me:

On November 10, 2023, I signed a contract for publication of my science fiction novel World Tour with Ink & Quill Press.

Injured NFL player leads an invading alien force around the world to liberate humanity from parasites who have infected them since prehistory. An alien invasion just might save humanity. From the Earth.

First stop on the World Tour – Kilauea, Hawaii.

First review on my science fiction novel I am submitting for publication:

Your work was found to be a captivating, thought-provoking read offering a unique addition to the science fiction genre as a thrilling tantalizing read. Throughout there is a compelling honesty well-paced against the thrilling twists and turns; combining a deep emotional effect with an excitement that drags the reader to the edge of their seat beyond the final suspenseful scenes. Placing the problem in an inanimate, innocent object like Charlie’s dinosaur is the perfect contradictory action for the plot and is effective in showing the overlooked dangers in our world, or any world. Supported by detailed world building; a nuanced and complex cast, an immersive fast-paced ‘World Tour’ is undoubtedly a well-written and crafted novel worthy of attention. – Austin Macauley

Second stop – Sailing Stones, Death Valley NP, California. Heading east from Hawaii around the world.

The 2nd review is not glowing, but it’s not bad, either. All I ever ask for is honesty, and I got it:

Emily Moore May 8, 2024(*)★(*)★(*)★( )☆( )☆

This was a long, interesting read. Hawaiian resident Uz is an injured football player who is hoping to get his knee back in shape and play again. When an awkward woman comes into his tour company office and pays way to much for a trip to a volcano for her and her infant daughter, he gladly accepts. Upon arriving, the woman named Angela walks past the barriers and right up to the volcano opening, dropping cheerios from a tupperware container down inside the lava. A strange shadow whisks out afterward. When Uz tries to get her to stop and tell him what the cheerios were, he makes a rash decision to eat three of the cheerios. Turns out? Angela is a robot with crazy intelligence sent by an alien race, and UZ also swallowed three tiny robots that can help him be extra strong, heal quickly, and mentally speak with him, Angela, and the A.I. that is helping with their mission. And so starts a world tour of amazing locations that are also openings to deep earth, where titans that have been ruling earth from for millennia. Angela must cut off all their dwellings and portals with the cheerios. Over several weeks, the baby grows abnormally fast, being fed information by the A.I. and becoming a quirky teen who’s mission is to procreate more alien-human cross breeds. She is the first of her kind, and Angela enlists Uz to protect them and help fulfill their mission in exchange for another chance at being an amazing football player again. I really liked the cool places in the world we got to tour with the characters, and the descriptions really helped make the monotony of a lot of stops with similar outcomes be defined and experiential. I don’t know if the author has been to all these places or did intense research. It’s good that I don’t know for sure. It is well done. I knew going into it that I would have a hard time relating to an adult male injured athlete protagonist, and I was right. Uz is as guy as they come. The story did show us a transformation in that he became protective and heroic, coming out of a deadbeat stupor, but some of those emotions seemed a bit of stretch. I would have asked more questions, second guessed whether I was doing the right thing by assisting aliens claiming to protect and create peace on earth in exchange for a promise of a second try at a dream. He does this, but its passing thoughts, not crazy moral dilemmas. He also falls in love with Angela as she adapts and becomes more and more human-like. Their dynamic at first is funny and fun, but then it gets weird when they finally make love and she gets pregnant with another alien-human crossbreed son. Meanwhile, the teen girl is making passes at him, as he’s the only male she’s really got to know, so they shove her toward several people and eventually land her a husband, a friend of Uz’s. I had a really hard time with some of the behavior of the daughter Charlie as she became lustful and angst-filled. It just felt wrong at times. I get what the author was going for, but it felt too-young with too-old. By 80%, some things are feeling repetitive. I also felt like this could have used some paring down and editing, but overall it was an interesting, unique read for me

Other stops on the world tour:

Mono Lake, California

4-Star review from Online Book Club:

Review of World Tour

Post by Veronica Hunter » 08 Jun 2024, 14:18

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of “World Tour” by Mike Sherer.]

Book Cover

4 out of 5 stars

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World Tour by Mike Sherer is a science fiction novel where a tour operator who is a former football player takes a woman and her infant child on a world tour, visiting several famous sites around the world. Uzmahndey, the former NFL player whose career was cut short due to a knee injury, now runs a tour agency based in Hawaii. A woman named Angela first books a tour to the site of the most active volcano in the world, which is in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, but after that trip and Uzmahndey swallowing what seems to be Cheerios but is not that, their business relationship continues beyond this first tour. This strange group made up of a human, a robot, and a half-alien human, along with an AI disguised as a stuffed dinosaur, goes around the world placing xenobots at strategic portals where other beings called extremophiles used to come to the earth.

World Tour is a well-crafted adventure novel where science meets alien invasions and Greek mythology. There are beings who are cohorts of Gaia, and they claim to have been protecting the earth for ages. Meanwhile, Angela and her father claim they have come to liberate mankind and save the earth. Uzmahndey sees a different reality from what he considered possible: pregnancy maturing within hours and growth that would have taken years, taking place under weeks. What was previously considered impossible is now possible with this new alien technology. This story is one of love, family bonds, and a quest that will either save the world or enslave it and make way for aliens to take over the world.

My favorite character in the novel is Angela. Her motherly nature and care for the children she gives birth to are some of the things that make her my favorite. Though we see different states of her throughout the book, it is important to note that her character did not forget one of the fundamental reasons for which she was created: to take care of the children.

I really enjoyed the book; the story was beautifully written, and the characters played their roles well, though the ending was not the sweet ending I was looking forward to, which was the only thing I didn’t like about the book. Apart from the bittersweet ending, the entire novel was captivating, emotional, and a real page-turner. The book was appropriately divided into chapters that were appropriately named after the sites that they visited on their world tour. I commend the editor for doing such an exceptional job of ensuring the book was free of grammatical and typographical errors.

I rate the book 4 out of 5 stars. It was a compelling novel, but it fell short of a perfect score because of the ending. Aside from that, it’s a fascinating tale. I recommend this book to lovers of science fiction.

Post by Amy Luman » Yesterday, 14:10

What interesting things for Uznahndey to discover. He probably thought that when his NFL career was over that he was finished with anything fun. Oh, how wrong he seems to have been. This sounds like a very entertaining read. Thanks!

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