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4.17 AVERAGE
4.17 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Late last year, I found myself using the Stumble Upon app (RIP), and it allowed me to select certain interests. While under what you may call a paranormal tag, I stumbled upon something that wasn't about ghosts; for some reason, a link that may be more appropriate under a conspiracy theory 'tag' slid onto the screen on my phone. It was about parallel universe theories. I'm not one to delve into theories, but I decided to do a manual search for parallel universe stories. The first page that loaded onto the screen was a blog post containing paraphrased and shorter versions of several stories. Some of them didn't quite intrigue me, while others did. One of them was about a man from a country called Taured.
Summarizing, this story claims that an unnamed man appeared in Tokyo in July of 1954. Everything seems to be in order, except the man's passport and driver's license. Both claim that he is from a country called Taured in Europe, which obviously does not exist. They put him up in a hotel room after questioning him, and he eventually disappears without leaving a trace. You can read more about that here, as well as doing a simple internet search.
Sadly, I'm not sure where the link of the shorter and paraphrased versions of those short stories would be outside of the Stumble Upon app, but I did find the site that I linked above. Eventually, I found myself completely fascinated in this story. On Amazon, I managed to find this book by Bryan Alaspa. While it did not satisfy my curiosity about the actual story (and by actual, I don't mean that it literally happened. From what I understand, there is no proof), it did leave me on the edge of my seat.
This book has a slightly different beginning. In this book, the man has a name. It is Francis Duveen, and he did not fly to Tokyo, but instead to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. Despite these differences, no matter if you define them as big or small, I absolutely loved it. This is another book with which I had a love/hate relationship with some parts of the story and some of the characters.
It kind of reminded me of the minister of a church I used to attend. Briefly put, that minister would begin his sermon on one subject, and then go way off in left field with a side story/analogy, and leave you wondering how he was going to bring it back to the point. He would also give side stories and analogies in the middle of the first and second readings from the Bible. Sometimes even the Gospel reading; but the point of this mention is not to get religious. Alaspa does this with this story, and the end result is a five star rating from me.
Basically, I come away from this book with no complaints. Aside perhaps that a character named Albert was not gay, but that's probably for the best in this instance. I was somewhat tempted to ship Albert and Augustus, but didn't when I focused on the bigger picture. I began reading this book in April of this year (2017), and the only reason it has taken till September to read it is because (as redundant to say in my reviews as it may have become) I fell out of the reading bug.
Lastly, I've read some comments about this book and how it was allegedly given an odd title. I disagree. The man from Taured started it all. Definitely worth the time, and definitely worth reading.
Summarizing, this story claims that an unnamed man appeared in Tokyo in July of 1954. Everything seems to be in order, except the man's passport and driver's license. Both claim that he is from a country called Taured in Europe, which obviously does not exist. They put him up in a hotel room after questioning him, and he eventually disappears without leaving a trace. You can read more about that here, as well as doing a simple internet search.
Sadly, I'm not sure where the link of the shorter and paraphrased versions of those short stories would be outside of the Stumble Upon app, but I did find the site that I linked above. Eventually, I found myself completely fascinated in this story. On Amazon, I managed to find this book by Bryan Alaspa. While it did not satisfy my curiosity about the actual story (and by actual, I don't mean that it literally happened. From what I understand, there is no proof), it did leave me on the edge of my seat.
This book has a slightly different beginning. In this book, the man has a name. It is Francis Duveen, and he did not fly to Tokyo, but instead to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. Despite these differences, no matter if you define them as big or small, I absolutely loved it. This is another book with which I had a love/hate relationship with some parts of the story and some of the characters.
It kind of reminded me of the minister of a church I used to attend. Briefly put, that minister would begin his sermon on one subject, and then go way off in left field with a side story/analogy, and leave you wondering how he was going to bring it back to the point. He would also give side stories and analogies in the middle of the first and second readings from the Bible. Sometimes even the Gospel reading; but the point of this mention is not to get religious. Alaspa does this with this story, and the end result is a five star rating from me.
Basically, I come away from this book with no complaints. Aside perhaps that a character named Albert was not gay, but that's probably for the best in this instance. I was somewhat tempted to ship Albert and Augustus, but didn't when I focused on the bigger picture. I began reading this book in April of this year (2017), and the only reason it has taken till September to read it is because (as redundant to say in my reviews as it may have become) I fell out of the reading bug.
Lastly, I've read some comments about this book and how it was allegedly given an odd title. I disagree. The man from Taured started it all. Definitely worth the time, and definitely worth reading.
This book felt like it was originally a movie that was then made into a book, right down to the action scenes. There is really nothing to do with Taured in this book, apart from the anecdotal intro and conclusion. The author weaves in a bunch of other sci-fi/urban legends into the book, which were interesting elements. But it was long and dragged out. It got interesting but I was still annoyed there was nothing much that was actually about the Man From Taured.
If you want to know more about the man from Taured, this is not the right book. The man is mentioned in the first part of the book but the story takes a completely different path. It’s about everything, from the Bible to the Nazis, but Taured was forgotten. That’s my complaint.
But if you like sci-fi with a bit of horror, and the theory of the multiverse is appealing to you, then read away!
But if you like sci-fi with a bit of horror, and the theory of the multiverse is appealing to you, then read away!