Title: The Gladiator: Book II Lost
Author: Tony Carangi
Publisher: Author’s Note 360
ISBN: 978-1689031493
Pages: 51
Genre: Literature & Fiction/Genre Fiction/War & Military Action Fiction
Reviewed by: Anthony Avina
Hollywood Book Reviews
The job of a great writer can be difficult, as it takes a skilled storyteller to be able to build a narrative which draws the reader in, while conveying an important message, all at once. As Kurt Vonnegut once said, “When a man becomes a writer, I think he takes on a sacred obligation to produce beauty and enlightenment and comfort at top speed.”
In author Tony Carangi’s book The Gladiator: Book II Lost, the reader is transported to a brutal scenario in which readers are taken to a post-Vietnam War world, where a soldier hardened by his time at war is tasked by his government for a top secret assassination attempt, but things turn sideways as the soldier finds himself forced to look back on his own life and the life that he was leading, and soon finds himself viewing the world through his enemy’s eyes.
This was a brilliant and thought-provoking read in just a short amount of time. The author did a marvelous job of building a narrative and theme that really packed a punch early on in the story, giving readers a fast introduction into the world and providing a wonderful deep dive into a theory and a thought system that tapped into the belief that the entire Universe itself is simply an illusion. The author does a marvelous job of blending this thought system into the narrative and giving readers the ability to see the world from two very different perspectives, despite never changing protagonists.
The book is written for those who enjoy military fiction, war fiction and genre fiction as a whole. As a fan of the genre it was fascinating to see such a unique perspective packed into a short story such as this, giving the reader a lot to absorb and think about in a small period of time.
This is a must-read short story that does a marvelous job of creating a meaningful and insightful narrative set against a turbulent time that saw many soldiers facing psychological effects from the war on their minds, and led to some intense and meaningful retrospective looks at one’s purpose in life. If you haven’t yet, be sure to grab your copy of The Gladiator: Book II Lost by Tony Carangi today!