The Acolytes of Crane

By: J. D. Tew

Narrated by: Tom Pile

Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Through time, there are certain instances that can change everything, and the people who guide these changes are either heroes or villains.

Twelve-year-old Theodore Crane is a prankster from a small Minnesota town, who half-heartedly shares a friend with a belligerent bully. When he is not spending his days dodging an abusive father, he is out fleeing the scenes of goofy pranks and dares.

After a devastating tragedy strikes home, Theodore questions everything about himself, his family, and the universe. He then searches for answers by returning to the scene of this tragic incident and discovers the truth when an intervention from outer space reveals an epic intergalactic conflict.

The truth: millions of guided microscopic devices are recording Theodore's life and controlling his fate. Will this covert invasion be enough to pull Theodore toward his destiny?

The warlords of the galaxy believe in this method and need representatives from Earth. Immerse yourself in this adventure beyond Earth to follow Theodore and his acolytes as they battle the villains of the multiverse.

©2013 Justin Daniel Tew (P)2014 Justin Daniel Tew

Exciting book all the way through!

If you could sum up The Acolytes of Crane in three words, what would they be?

Imaginative, adventurous, heartfelt

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Acolytes of Crane?

Flying around with ED.

Which character – as performed by Tom Pile – was your favorite?

Theodore Crane

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

A few spots of laughter and some very heartfelt chapters that are sad to hear, but no crying.

How do you scratch your head on paper

How do you scratch your head on paper? If you put this book in the Young Adult Science Fiction category it has a chance of working for its audience (13-17 year olds). Others, not so much.

The protagonist, 15 year old Theodore Crane, gets chosen by an alien demigod to save the world. He has to get four friends to join him by the end of the month or something bad will happen. This rambling messy story is told by the slightly older Theodore who is being held and tortured in some unknown multi-universe prison telling his story to an iPad-like device that keeps running out of power. The story goes into great detail about the trees he climbs, but never why he’s in prison or how he got there.

Tew has a great imagination, and has presented some interesting characters, but the writing is a mess. At first, the strange choice of words is kind of endearing, like he is experimenting with the language in a new way. But eventually, it becomes clear, the writer is simply using words he is not sure the meaning of. This is too bad, because this could be a good book for teenagers. There is a lot of well described teenage angst and awkwardness. Unfortunately, it needs some serious editing.

The narration is by Tom Pile. He seems to do a reasonably good job, it is just too hard to tell as the writing is so awkward and the dialogue so stilted. The best voice effects are the demigods and robots, nice and deep. Some good sound effects too.

Tew has some very good ideas, some original and fresh, but doesn’t put it together into anything that resolves all the problems he’s presented. The book ends with a ton of loose ends and leaves the listener scratching his head. “Why did all this happen?”

Audiobook provided for review by the author.

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