The Scary Reviews

To Purchase Sand Storm Click Here

Review copy provided by the author in exchange for an honest review

Sand Storm by Michael R. Stern is a good book with plenty of adventure and action.  I love time travel stories whether we are going forward in time or back.  In this case the traveling is focused in the present to other places in hopes of preventing war.  I liked this story enough that I now want to read his previous book Storm Portal and discover more of the back story.  Our main character Fritz has the ability to visit almost anywhere he would like to go, all he needs is a map or picture of his destination.  The concept of Fritz’s device is clever and imaginative, it’s excellent that Michael creates a way to travel but doesn’t make it easy or always accurate.  The fact that time travel has the ‘x factor’ making it a work in progress is refreshing, things aren’t as easy as we always would like.  Fritz and his co-worker Ash take a few trips with the device to satisfy their own curiosity and at the same time they hope to learn more about how the device works for more exact travel.  The parts of the story I found difficult were the pacing of the conversations, it felt rushed and a bit shortened, maybe in a way to keep the book fit a determined length.  I also found the characters using each others names more often than felt natural.  There are plenty of characters to follow along with but I think it wouldn’t be a problem if they didn’t address each other as often.  These were the two areas I found detracted the most from the overall book and the reason I give Sand Storm its rating.

Rating 3.5/5

Book Info

Length:  352 Pages

Release date:  July 28, 2015

How do you say no to the President of the United States when he’s asked you to stop a nuclear war?

After Fritz Russell discovered his classroom door was a portal through space and time, he helped the United States resolve a foreign policy emergency. Now the president wants him to use the portal to avert the threat coming from a Middle Eastern nation that is on the verge of developing nuclear weapons.

For a history teacher, travel to the past is entertaining, enlightening, and a great way to engage students. But Fritz hasn’t learned all the portal’s secrets. Could others put the world in danger by forcing him to use what he doesn’t even understand? If he uses it to help the president, there might be a war. But if he says no, he will be permitting his family, friends, and the world to remain in great danger.

Should Fritz agree to be the heart of the US operation? And if he does, is there enough time for him to learn all he needs to know about the mysteries of the portal?

Michael Stern, biography

Michael R. Stern is the Amazon best-selling author of “Reflections on a Generous Generation”, a story about a generation of Americans, born in the early twentieth century, who through the trials of deprivation and war, built the foundation of the greatest country in history. http://bit.ly/GenerousGeneration

Michael is a history lover. His future writing, both non-fiction and fiction, will offer perspectives on the way the past threads to the present and future, and why our past provides the guidance to understand and plan for the world we inhabit together.

Now working on a novel series, Quantum Touch, the first book, STORM PORTAL reached to the top 100 on Amazon and is available now. http://bit.ly/StormPortal The second book, SAND STORM, will be available August 2015.

Michael grew up in Garden City, New York, is a graduate of Cornell University, and now lives outside Philadelphia with his family. After a long career in business, he has begun a writing adventure.
amazon.com/author/michaelrstern
sternmike52@gmail.com