Aside from the many grammatical errors, which bothered me horribly at the beginning, I really did enjoy this book. The book’s title also confused me, but I have to put that aside because the book wasn’t that bad. This book begins in a world of the future. I love a good sci-fi book, so I was pulled in immediately! Dorner is the main character and he is being haunted by a part of his own personality. Tongue is haunting him and he is now on a journey to find out why. Dorner has many important issues please in his community that he must keep up with though. One of those is to keep his community warm. In this society, global warming has been wreaking havoc on the whole world. Dorner is plagued by some of the memories of his past though. Known as a sex fiend is his younger years, he has vowed to remain celibate. He meets Rin who is a doctor who wants to find out who Tongue is and why he is plaguing Dorner. The book shares many sexual exploits and they are well written. I love the app and how it combines art, music, and literature to become an interactive app.

What a wonderful way to expand the imagination through words and enhanced with video and further information – all right the same app! I read the Balcony of Fog and found the story to be amazing – especially as it was enhanced by videos and sounds to place you at the heart of the plot and help you to understand what the characters might be going through as well as feeling physically. This interactive way of telling the story was the first time I have ever experienced reading a book this way and it was very cool. The plot opens to darkness and fear and the poetic and delightfully descriptive writing keeps you immersed in the story by being both tender and hard – even violent at times – and never letting you go. This is a story about love, fear, hope, jealousy, and rage all taking place between three people on two planes and in two states of existence. The notion that one can steer his own ship and shape his own destiny is one that runs through the book as is the notion that with great emotion comes great power and great weakness. Our main character, Arden, learns about these conditions as he escapes the bleak existence he was born into with a beautiful and mysterious woman to go live as vapor and energy in the sky on a cloud. Estra, the mystery woman has secrets that Arden only learns about after he has left everything he knows behind and followed her into her previous realm of the clouds. These characters are so well developed that the reader can’t help but churn with emotion as each page is turned and another layer is revealed. A wonderful book and total experience in this story and app!

Ok, I have to start this review by stating that this was the strangest book I have ever read but that kind of encouraged me to actually finish it. Wild Animus is basically about a recent college graduate who has decided to completely ignore anything to do with the real world. His heavy drug use, paranoia, and lack of close friends, send him on a path of self-destruction that is easy to see what the end will be. He connects with the wild and thinks he’s a ram while being chased by wolves, all while his girlfriend is working in a cafe in Alaska to support this super weird lifestyle of his. The book is written in the strangest way imaginable. Rich Shapero starts the book out by telling the complete ending. So, all the surprise is out of the box before you actually start the book. The rest of the book is just this crazy, forbidden adventure that draws the map to what you already know. The adjectives are literally piled upon each other, making this is a very hard book to read at times. Even through the difficulty of the book, it was still fascinating and absolutely interesting. I would be very interested to know how Rich Shapero is in real life. I couldn’t help but feel like this book was somehow, loosely based on his actual life, as strange as that may sound. It just seemed impossible someone could have this much knowledge about some of the issues mentioned unless they had lived that moment out themselves. Dive if you feel you’re up to it, but be prepared for the weirdest thing you’ve ever read.Now, that being said, reading the book in the interactive way that this app allowed was amazing!! I loved the music and pictures and I thought they all drastically improved this book than just reading it by itself. I like the idea of making the book come to life and I hope more books will take this route as well!

While on vacation, I recently was searching for a new book to read online when I discovered the TooFar Media app by Rich Shapero on ITunes. I was very interested in the concept of combining a wok of fiction with both original music and original art for one completely immersive and interactive experience for the reader. This app did not disappoint my expectations. I easily downloaded and selected one of Rich Shapero’s fictional works, Wild Animus, on the TooFar Media app. Wild Animus is a colorful and brilliant complex description of one man’s journey to self- discovery by living and evolving into a primal form in the wilderness of Alaska. The story is beautifully written although it does not take a traditional route in the timeline for Sam, the main character. Mr. Shapero’s story is accompanied on the TooFar Media app by coordinating music, the majority of which was also created by Rich Shapero. In addition to both the story and music, artwork by Donald Pass is also included to complete the immersive experience. After reading Wild Animus, I will definitely use the app again to enjoy another one of Rich Shapero’s interactive literary experiences.