Blog Archives
SHAMANESS – The Silent Seer
Shamaness: The Silent Seer is a spiritual coming-of-age fantasy that follows Kreya, a gifted but marginalized girl who grows into a powerful shamaness. The story moves between her sixtieth summer, when she is grieving her husband and preparing for a final journey, and her childhood at Sky Lake, where she faces cruelty, discovers her abilities, and learns the foundations of healing and mysticism. It feels part myth, part memoir, part adventure, all held together by a steady emotional core.
I found myself drawn in by Kreya’s honesty. Her voice is reflective and calm, even when she is recounting childhood humiliation or danger, like the moment she can’t warn a boy about the bobcat in clear speech or the time she senses Sholana’s peril before anyone else understands what is happening. Nothing feels rushed. I liked that she didn’t try to make Kreya flawless. Her frustration, her longing to communicate, and her flashes of humor make her feel real. The writing leans into sensory details in ways that feel earned; when Kreya describes Sky Lake or her grandmother’s “rainbow voice,” the images land gently instead of feeling decorative.
The deeper ideas of the book stayed with me. The fantasy elements feel rooted in emotional truth rather than spectacle. The shamanic teachings are presented slowly, almost like the author wants the reader to learn them alongside Kreya. I found myself curious and occasionally moved, especially by the repeated lesson that healing involves choice, not force. The scenes connecting past and present add a wistful tone. Watching Kreya train her great-grandson while carrying the weight of her promise to scatter her husband’s ashes, I kept thinking about how wisdom is passed forward and what it costs the person who carries it.
The tone of the book never turns grandiose; it stays grounded even when touching on visions, spirit companions, or the mysteries between worlds. This blend of accessibility and quiet wonder is what makes the fantasy genre work so well here. If you enjoy character-driven fantasy, spiritual journeys, or stories that move at the pace of memory rather than battle drums, this book will speak to you. Readers who like reflective narratives with a strong emotional core will probably appreciate it most.
Pages: 265 | ASIN : B0FZDB3RM9
Elf Stone of the Neyna
Elf Stone of the Neyna is a character-driven fantasy adventure that follows Yanda Selkeden, a surgeon from the planet Alland who is wrenched away from her life and her young daughter when a mysterious psychic call drags her onto a ship and into captivity. The novel moves from claustrophobic imprisonment on a barren moon to the toxic, war-scarred world of Terlond, where Yanda and a diverse group of other abducted women, each with unusual abilities, must survive the schemes of the mind-controlling mage Kridenit. As Yanda forms bonds, grows her own powers, and eventually encounters the ancient Elves whose fractured Great Stone summoned her, the story blends science fiction settings with classic fantasy motifs, creating a hybrid genre that feels both familiar and new.
Reading this in Yanda’s corner of the universe pulled me in quicker than I expected. The writing has a clean, direct style that makes even the stranger pieces of worldbuilding, mind-speak, stasis flights, toxic moons with domed prisons, easy to settle into. I found myself warming to the rhythm of scenes where the women talk in their cells late at night, learning to trust each other despite trauma and fear. Those chapters felt grounded and human. At the same time, the book isn’t shy about darkness. Kridenit’s manipulation and violation of Yanda is handled with a starkness that made me pause. It’s uncomfortable because it’s meant to be. The author doesn’t sensationalize it, but she doesn’t soften it either, and that honesty shapes the emotional arc of the whole story.
What surprised me most was how the story shifts tone once the Elves enter more fully. When Zamani reveals the true nature of the Stone and Yanda’s connection to it, the narrative opens up. The fantasy elements step forward, the ancient magic, the living forests, the sense of destiny pulling at her life. Those scenes have a gentler color to them, almost like stepping from a metal corridor into filtered green light. I liked that the book didn’t rush to resolve Yanda’s sense of guilt over leaving her daughter or the unease she feels about how her powers are growing. The author gives her space to make mistakes, to wonder, to push back. It makes her feel real in a story full of mind magic and star travel.
I walked away feeling like I’d been given a part of a much larger journey. The book’s blend of science fiction and fantasy, its hybrid genre, will appeal to readers who like character-centered stories with both technology and ancient magic intertwined. If you like your fantasy worlds with a hint of sci-fi grit and emotional stakes that don’t let up, Elf Stone of the Neyna is worth your time.
Pages: 308 | ASIN : B0C1629PRX
We Have Agency
Time and Space follows a woman on the verge of turning forty who, on the way to work, is kidnapped by three university-aged young men from the future and is taken forward in time to a society built on patriarchal dominance. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I remember becoming angrier and angrier at the objectification of women and the failed promise of equality.
Women’s Liberation hit the news when I was in school. I also grew up with a Zoroastrian father who taught us, in accordance with his religion, that men and women are equal. I didn’t understand the need for Women’s Lib until my later university/early working years, when I saw how women were treated in the workplace. Decades on, and except for Federal and provincial Canadian laws, nothing had changed. Women who felt they were liberated because of issues around sex having been loosened were wrong. It seemed like only the older generation understood that changing laws and mores didn’t translate to women being treated and perceived as equal to men. Whether women were virtually unclothed in one culture or covered up to the eyeballs in another, they were still being treated as objects for men to control. They still had less value.
I was also getting fed up with how Toronto and Ontario treat Toronto’s public transit and the commodification of every aspect of life.
On a personal note, I had little control over any part of my life because of my brain injury. I guess I was telling myself through Time’s story that we may not see it, but we have agency.
What are some things that you find interesting about the human condition that you think make for great fiction?
Our weaknesses. And the forces that both exploit them and force us to grow. That often surprises us when they lead us to fulfilling our own potential.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Sexism:
- The objectification of women and how they’re perceived as either baby bearers or sex fulfillers for men.
- What equality truly looks like when men and women perceive women as having inherent worth.
- Women recognizing their own intelligence, both to receive help and to problem-solve their own challenges.
Classism:
- Through the neglect of public transit.
- In the commercial arena or public spaces.
Racism:
- I’ll leave this to the reader to ponder the way I presented it and its meaning.
Ageism:
- I made Time an older woman.
- Since then, I began writing a trilogy (The Q’Zam’Ta Trilogy) featuring a woman in her 60s. Book one, The Soul’s Awakening, is out now.
- With such an emphasis on stories with younger people and the whole mindset that the youth will “save us,” we need to hear stories about older people also able to “save us,” especially older women in nondescript jobs.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when can your fans expect it to be out?
I’ll be publishing The Soul’s Reckoning, book 2 of The Q’Zam’Ta Trilogy, in December 2025 and am currently writing book 3, The Soul’s Turning, which I hope will come out at the end of 2026.
I’m particularly excited about The Soul’s Turning because it’s set in far, far future Toronto, London, and Mumbai, and expands on some of the technology and themes I first explored in Time and Space. However, I’ll be making climate change an essential background to the character development and plot settings. And unlike Time and Space, it delves into the latter aspects of Revelation — what would a world without Satan and the beasts of “the elite” actually look like?
Author Links: GoodReads | Bluesky | Website | Amazon
Time is turning forty, but her ordinary morning walk to work shatters when three university-aged boys from the future snatch her into a shimmering white cube. Their destination: a technologically advanced, male-dominated future where girls are tightly controlled, kept cosmetically perfect, and denied knowledge and autonomy.
When their professor discovers the abduction, he’s furious. The boys had promised never to interfere with the past again. Now he orders them to dump Time in a desolate era few dare visit, The Nasty Time. It’s 2411. The world is stripped of equality, connection, and choice. Time is abandoned and left stranded.
But someone unexpected intervenes, offering Time a sliver of hope—and knowledge she never asked for. Now, survival may depend on learning more than she ever imagined.
Smart, satirical, and deeply unsettling, Time and Space is a genre-defying journey across centuries and systems of control. Shireen Jeejeebhoy blends speculative science, biting social commentary, and sharp humour in a story that asks: “What happens when the powerless are forced to reclaim their life—or be erased from their future?”
Time is waiting. Don’t delay.
Foretold in the Scriptures
The Manifestation of Evil follows a young girl whose seemingly ordinary life in Ankara slowly unravels under the weight of sinister visions, haunting figures, and a destiny tied to forces beyond her understanding. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The inspiration for the setup for my story would have to be Genesis 3:15 in the Bible, where it says how God will put an enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel, and that verse was actually prophetic because it deals with the messiah, Jesus Christ, and the spiritual war. In my fictional book, I wanted Asya, a young Turkish girl who lives a normal life, to be visited by celestial beings to herald the birth of her firstborn child, who will change the world and her status as a chosen vessel. But she will be unaware of the type of celestial beings talking to her and the implications of what is being said to her. Just like the Virgin Mary in the Bible, who comes from a religious background, I wanted Asya to come from a religious background as well. Asya has no idea that the child she will give birth to is the antichrist, which was foretold in the scriptures.
What were some of the trials that you felt were important to highlight Asya’s development?
When it came to Asya’s development in the book, Asya went through betrayal and sexual abuse from a family relative, which was an awful thing, and that shaped her life to a certain extent, where she became an overachiever. Now, in my fictional book, I wanted to explore the background of the key players and characters in my book, especially their upbringing and events that will shape their lives, like the Russian president, Igor Alexander, who is an ultra nationalist and has a very dangerous antisemitic ideology.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
The purpose of this fictional series is to make people aware of the times we are living in and to think about eternity because, truth be told, we live in a messed-up world. All you have to do is turn your TV on, and you will hear of wars and rumors of wars, and earthquakes in diverse places. People are losing their minds, and there is economic instability, uncertainty, and inflation. It does not take a scholar or a genius to know something is off with this world we live in, and it is full of evil.
Is this the first book in the series? If so, when is the next book coming out, and what can your fans expect in the next story?
The Birth of the Antichrist: The Manifestation of Evil, Part 1 is part of a series. The second book, His Arrival, will be out in January of 2026. This first book deals with all the events and circumstances that will lead to the birth of the antichrist, the man of sin.
Author Links: GoodReads | LinkedIn | X (Twitter) | Instagram | Amazon
Time and Space
Time and Space is a science fiction story wrapped in a very human struggle. It follows Time, a woman on the cusp of turning forty, who is suddenly pulled out of her ordinary Toronto life and thrown into a future where time travel is not just possible but exploited. She encounters arrogant young men from a society built on patriarchal dominance, where women’s roles are reduced and history has been rewritten in chilling ways. The narrative shifts between the claustrophobic experience of being kidnapped, the surreal awe of futuristic landscapes, and the stark reality of oppression disguised as order. It’s a mix of adventure, social critique, and personal awakening, all told through the voice of someone caught completely off guard by forces far bigger than herself.
I enjoyed how raw this book felt. The writing is vivid and sometimes almost abrasive in the way it pulls you into the protagonist’s fear and confusion. I often felt a knot in my stomach while reading, especially in the early chapters where she’s mocked, manipulated, and treated as less than human. The banter of the boys who kidnap her is infuriatingly smug, and Jeejeebhoy captures that dynamic with unsettling accuracy. At the same time, the details of the future world are fascinating, almost cinematic. I could see the gleaming white roads, the seamless suits, the eerie efficiency of a society that values power over compassion. That contrast between wonder and dread kept me turning the pages.
On a personal level, the ideas behind the story really resonated with me. The future Jeejeebhoy imagines is not some far-fetched dystopia, it’s a mirror held up to our present choices and blind spots. The way women’s rights are slowly eroded in the book feels uncomfortably plausible, like a warning wrapped in fiction. I found myself angry at times, and then strangely hopeful, because even in her fear, the protagonist resists in small ways. There’s something incredibly relatable about her longing for home, her disbelief at the world around her, and her stubborn spark of individuality. The writing isn’t polished in a traditional sense, but it has grit, heart, and honesty, and I think that’s what makes it stick.
Time and Space is both a thrilling time travel tale and a sharp commentary on power, gender, and history. I’d recommend it to readers who like their science fiction with a social edge, and to anyone who enjoys stories that make them think uncomfortably about the world we live in. If you enjoyed the unsettling social critique of The Handmaid’s Tale or the time-bending thrills of The Time Traveler’s Wife, then Time and Space will be right up your alley.
Pages: 331 | ASIN : B0FPDQ8FGL
Andersen Light: A Meta-Normal Novel
Tanya D. Dawson’s Andersen Light is a coming-of-age novel that weaves fantasy, trauma, healing, and self-discovery into the life of Georgie Jones, a brave teenager escaping abuse and finding her place in a world bigger and stranger than she imagined. After surviving an unsettling family situation, Georgie relocates to the coastal town of Mystic Creek to live with her father. What begins as a grounded emotional journey slowly opens into a metaphysical one, involving dreams, psychic mentors, a mysterious lighthouse, and a destiny Georgie could never have foreseen.
What hit me first and hardest was the honesty in the way Georgie’s trauma is portrayed. Dawson doesn’t sugarcoat it. She takes you inside the mind of a kid trying to hold it all together, and it’s messy and brave and human. It made me uncomfortable in places, but in the right way. Georgie isn’t a perfect heroine. She’s scrappy, smart, overwhelmed, and trying to find light in all the dark. The writing in these parts feels raw, coming straight from the heart. Dawson nails the voices of kids and teens without slipping into awkward attempts to sound “young.” There’s also something comforting in how safe the adult characters, like her father and the lightworker Luther become. There’s hope alongside the pain, and that balance matters.
I was surprised by the book’s mysticism. At first, it reads like contemporary fiction with serious emotional weight. Then suddenly, you’re in dream realms, lighthouses channel energy, and the story folds into something more like magical realism or soft sci-fi. That shift felt a bit jarring. I wasn’t always sure if the magical side added clarity or distraction. Some of the metaphysical explanations slowed the pace a bit. There were moments where the surreal worked beautifully, especially when it paralleled Georgie’s emotional healing.
Andersen Light is heartfelt and different. It’s for readers who like emotional depth in their YA, especially those who appreciate a blend of real-life grit with cosmic wonder. If you’re someone who’s survived something or loves stories about kids finding their strength, this will resonate with you. I’d recommend it to teens and adults alike, especially those who believe that healing can be both practical and mystical.
Pages: 405 | ASIN : B09HY7W6QK
High Fantasy
Protectors of the Light Crown centers around a gamer whose life is forever changed when a character from his dreams manifests in real life. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I am operating on the concept that dreams are gateways into alternate realities. Whether or not that is seen as true or false in our human level of understanding doesn’t matter. In my novel, Protectors, Dexter Park initially struggles with the sudden strangeness of his own life after discovering that his dream experiences are indeed real ones, and not just figments of his sleeping imagination. When he accidentally yanks Tickle out of her own reality while asleep one night, it is only the beginning of a very wild ride.
How long did it take you to imagine, draft, and write the world your characters live in?
Using the “plotter” method, I outlined my characters and chapters in a very linear fashion. I’m so dedicated to the bullet-point process that Matt Posner of the School of Fiction podcast told me he’d never seen any other writer take it to such an extreme. I design my characters from their grandparents on down and tailor the story to their personal development. Once I’m sure of who and what I’m dealing with, I come up with general ideas for every chapter. Then, I fine-tune those chapters into detailed pieces and begin writing, starting with Chapter One, until I’m done and ready for rewrites and edits. That process took me ten years of stopping and starting as the rollercoaster of life got in the way. Book 2 won’t take nearly as long.
What do you think were some of the defining moments in Dexter’s development?
This is a story of superheroes in a story sprinkled with high fantasy. And superhero origins usually involved “daddy issues” or their dealing with losing parental figures, etc. Dexter is no different there, and a large part of his story arc involves deep insecurities from physical challenges and having to come to terms with having lost his mom and dad. When he joins The Protectors as a team of super-powered individuals pledged to take down an ancient evil, he’s its least effective member. I dedicated chapters specifically toward Dexter seeing himself in a better light.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?
As I said, it took me ten years to write Protectors, but that won’t happen again. If Book Two takes more than five years, I’d be very surprised. I’m shooting for 3 years. I have other books in me, ready to go from paper to screen, but Book Two in this series trilogy is my baby. I’m presently working on that outline.
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Website | Amazon
Just hours after meeting, the duo find themselves locked in battle with a giant reptile, living on a spaceship, and joining a fledgling team of heroes pledged to take down a supernatural threat from their ancient past.
The road ahead is fraught with danger and uncertainty, but the new group of unlikely friends know that standing together will give them a fighting chance in an unwinnable war against the demonic Venomous Wretch.
Aspry Jones is an Emmy nominated, live broadcast television veteran. He is currently working on a memoir and the sequel to Protectors of the Light. Crown. He lives in North Carolina and loves chess, dogs, nature, meditation, YouTube, all kinds of music, and is deeply entrenched in esoteric spiritual practices.
Protectors of the Light Crown
Protectors of the Light Crown is a genre-bending epic that intertwines fantasy, sci-fi, and social commentary in a bold, breakneck narrative. It opens with the grim downfall of King Greith—a monarch twisted by greed and transformed into a monstrous tyrant—and pivots unexpectedly into the life of Dexter Park, a nerdy gamer from a gritty, gentrified future Earth. When a character from Dexter’s vivid dreams, the charmingly chaotic Tickle, manifests in real life, the story takes off into surreal territory, blending action, humor, and tenderness as the duo grapples with bizarre threats and mysterious origins.
The writing style explodes with color. It’s cinematic, dramatic, and cheeky all at once. There’s a refreshing rhythm to the prose—sentences punch, pause, and pirouette like a well-choreographed dance. Dialogue crackles with personality. Scenes shift from the thunderous chaos of palace sieges to the intimate awkwardness of a diner booth, yet the transitions never feel jarring. The world-building, especially in the fantasy sections, is deep and darkly lyrical. The political history of Teraligia felt eerily familiar, with its corrupt thrones and cash-fueled coups.
That said, it’s the characters that pulled me in and kept me flipping pages. Dexter, our reluctant hero, is hilarious. He’s awkward, tired, and deeply relatable. Tickle is a burst of madness and heart, bouncing between childlike wonder and sharp-edged warrior with wild unpredictability. Their interactions are oddball magic—equal parts sweet and strange. I found myself laughing, then worrying, then totally smitten. The story walks a fine line between absurd and profound, never quite tipping over either edge.
The sheer volume of ideas can be overwhelming at time. There’s political allegory, dream logic, high fantasy, gritty urban decay, gamer satire, and even romantic comedy—sometimes all in the same chapter. It’s wild, and it works more often than not, but it can leave your brain spinning if you’re not buckled in. Still, I admired the boldness. It felt like the author wrote without fear, without filter, and somehow, that courage paid off.
Protectors of the Light Crown is a weird and wild ride—and I enjoyed it. It’s perfect for readers who want their fantasy laced with sarcasm, their heroes a little broken, and their stories to color outside the lines. Gamers, geeks, dreamers, and anyone who’s ever felt a little lost or out of place—this one’s for you.
Pages: 466 | ASIN : B0DNMM5K6K
LITERARY TITAN 