The great American novel

On Saturday I was feeling a little sick and tired.  I didn't want to do anything useful and really wanted to just read.  Lucky for me, my buddy Jason just finished his first novel and was looking for someone to give it a preliminary read as he tries to get it published.  I jumped on it.

This novel, titled "The Awakened" has been 10 years in the making and weighs in at 340ish 8.5x11 pages of  single spaced, 10 pt font.  A massive undertaking for a first book.  I warned J that it might take me a few weeks to make it through, doing the kind of analysis that I expected a first manuscript would need.

I cracked the cover and was expecting to go through page by page looking for typos, grammatical mistakes and general plot line issues.  I was also planning to compare it to other books that I'd read.... I figure if these guys could do it, so could Jason.

The further I got into it, the more I began to compare it to my favorite novels that are in similar genres.  If you want to know how I've liked it, let me put it this way.....

I've had it in-hand for 48 hours and I only have about 20 pages to go.  I could not put it down.  Sometimes I was so engrossed in the story that I forgot that I was supposed to be 'editing' as I went.  Other than a couple of very minor suggestions, I have found it to be fantastic already.

Remember this name: "The Awakened" by Jason Tesar.  

I think so highly of this novel that I am hoping that Jason will sign the copy that I've read and let me keep it as memorabilia.  It is really that good.