Here is a flattering review from 2016 I do not recall seeing. I share it with my readers in hopes of generating additional interest in the work.

Allow me to say how refreshing it is to read words by someone who does not share an artist’s worldview, but can still judge his art as art. Objectivity was the norm one generation ago, not the exception.

From http://aetherczar.com/?p=3808

While a modern-day feudal lord prepares for marriage, his best man wrestles with his feelings for his friend’s bride and struggles to unravel the mystery of the cryptic room which is the only place in which they all can remember their true selves.

In The Iron Chamber of Memory, John C. Wright cooks up a complicated love triangle in the context of a work spanning fantasy and mystery and spiced with a healthy dose of history, myth, and legend. Wright’s tale exploits an ingenious gimmick – the concept of a secret room being the only place in which his characters can remember their true selves. They then must struggle to influence their outside selves to act so as to maintain and achieve their goals and values.

I’m not deeply religious, but I nevertheless respect the craftsmanlike way in which Wright delivers an intriguing tale drawing on English history, Arthurian legend, and Christian belief. His work is reminiscent of C.S. Lewis. As in his also excellent recent novel, Somewhither: A Tale of the Unwithering Realm, Wright draws heavily on Christian themes and ideas, to deliver a solid story that stands well on its own merits. I was particularly delighted by the skillful way in which Wright wove the real-world, real-life history of the Island of Sark into his fantastical tale. A talented prose stylist, Wright’s intricate command of language may sometimes fall short of sublime, but the joy lies in observing the master at work.

Wright’s entertaining tale is well-worth the price.

I was bemused to find someone (I know not who) reading my Hugo-nominated short story, Parliament of Beasts and Birds, on a YouTube channel that said it had one prior viewing. I have posted a link to this before, so I am sure that more than one person viewed it.

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I find that reviews from customers are always more useful than those from professional reviewers, simply because the professionals are getting paid, and so they want to write columns that will be entertaining to read, which puts them under an incentive either to indulge in insult-humor quips or political posturing.

Customers, on the other hand, can give an author valuable feedback on what bits worked and what did not, and one can use the hints to improve one’s writing.

Here are several reviews of COUNT TO INFINITY from Goodreads, some complimentary, some critical, and some are oddly reverse-complimentary (that is, the complaint unintentionally compliments the book).

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This is an article from the Superversive Press site  by Thomas Davidsmeier:

My bees died. They were alive at Christmas, but dead by New Year’s. It wasn’t the trendy Colony Collapse Disorder where they all leave and the hive is empty. No, it was a winter kill.  They all died right there, in the hive, heads down in their comb desperately looking for honey that was only a few inches away.

Looking at my dead bee civilization, I was struck by how similar this experience was to something that I thought was impossible to imagine.

John C. Wright’s Count to Infinity is an amazing book that explores ideas and events beyond the scope of any book I’ve ever even heard of.

War tearing apart a galaxy far, far away?

Try two galaxies fighting a war with each other that rip them apart.

Men who live for thousands of years and fight duels with swords over and over because there can be only one?

Try men who live for billions of years and fight duels with unimaginably powerful weapons because there can be only one.

The fate of the world hanging in the balance?

Try the fate of all creation past and present, all who have ever lived and died, hanging in the balance.

At one point, a character realizes that civilizations have been being born, growing, doing their great work, and then dying, all for that character’s benefit. And, that character hasn’t been aware of them at all, like a person is unaware of the cells in their body that live and die for their benefit.

It was this image that my bees made real to me. My bees lived, worked, and died for their queen. And indirectly, they lived, worked, and died for me. But, like the character in Count to Infinity, I’m forced to admit that I never really knew them. Their sacrifice was one of lessers dying in service of their betters.

This happens often in stories, and John C. Wright is one of the first authors to offer an in story attempt to explain why it was happening in Count to Infinity. But, what happens in Count to Infinity that is even more emphatically superversive, is the sacrifice of a better for a lesser.

Read the whole thing here: http://www.superversivesf.com/2018/01/24/8282/

Thomas Davidsmeier first novel, Blessings and Trials, will be released by Superversive Press this Easter.

Here is a review for  COUNT TO INFINITY. the final book in my Eschaton Sequence by our own Deiseach:

Astounding, epic, mind-blowing SF that finally completes the entire arc of the series and tells us the reason behind all the machinations and plots and the galactic/super-galactic/universal drive to bind all thinking entities into one giant mind.

The individual stories of Rainia, Menelaus and Ximen also are developed and come to a completion (I won’t say ‘ending’). I found the resolution of their conflict satisfying. Menelaus himself does change and mature, while remaining in spirit the same person he was – but he becomes wiser, even if he doesn’t understand how it happens.

The sheer vastness of space and time in this last novel of the entire sequence actually works well to simplify things; because events take place over billions of years, it slows down the action and permits you time to digest what you are reading and what is going on. In some of the earlier novels, things got a bit hectic because over the relatively shorter time schemes (centuries and millennia), an awful lot of activity had to go on, and it was easy to get lost on where you were, what was happening, and which new race was now in the ascendant. This last novel strips a lot of that away; now we are dealing with the (literal) galactic minds and the small-scale individual races are like cells in a human body.

I would recommend this. Enough invention and sheer breadth of scale to inspire several novels of its own, and a fine conclusion to the start, where all the things Menelaus swore to accomplish, in his rash and ignorant youth, actually do get accomplished – if not quite as he expected or planned them to happen.

…

Here below is a review of the first two fifths of LOST ON THE LAST CONTINENT, my free giveaway pulp story. This was written by a charming young fan of mine as a birthday present.

Perhaps the highest praise I have ever received. All glory goes to God, of course, more so in this case than most, for the author is unwise who praises not his Author when praised: but it is nice to find a reader for whom my humble work was fit and fated and meet.

http://www.coreymccleery.com/uncategorized/book-review-iron-chamber-of-memory-by-john-c-wright/

This is from the Amazon customer review:
This Series Just Keeps Getting Better

Wright’s Moth and Cobweb series is a fascinating glimpse into a “Twilight World,” which lies in, around, and beyond the world of bewitched humanity, who go about their lives in the Day world dazzled by fallen elven magic into not realizing the full scope of reality. In this world the Church has always stood against the forces of the Night world and other hidden evils even as most men could not perceive them, and in this series Wright pulls back the curtain and allows us to follow those born with enough magic in their blood to live in both worlds, who see the power of the darkness which hides itself from men but can choose whether to serve it or the Light which will one day banish the shadows of both Twilight and Night together, forever.

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I had not seen this until a sharpeyed reader pointed it out to me:

http://www.catholicworldreport.com/2017/06/22/chivalry-and-the-struggle-between-good-and-evil-animate-this-new-ya-fantasy-series/

Deep down, human beings know we’re made for something epic…

Although a modern teenager, Gil wants more than anything to become a knight. His chivalrous outlook on life has led to his expulsion from school for taking on a gang of juvenile delinquents in combat.

Thrust into the world on his own, but with the help of a talking stray dog, Gilberec trains for knighthood under the gruff tutelage of a magical bear.

But when a stranger claiming to come from his father delivers him the key to a disappearing door, Gilberec’s life will change forever. With what he finds beyond the door, Gil goes a-questing; and serious trouble finds him right away. Read the remainder of this entry »

A sharp eyed reader kindly sent me this photo from the wild. It looks like book 5 of the Eschaton Sequence has finally made an appearance in some bookstores.

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The Announcement countdown clock is still ticking. I will post it in half an hour. To aid us all to while away the time, I offer the following:

The same young and attractive fan who sent me a victory dance video for my winning the Dragon Award for SOMEWHITHER has now become a colleague and appears alongside me in the table of contents of FORBIDDEN THOUGHTS, a science fiction book specifically designed to trigger SJWs, Morlocks, and hobgoblins of who prefer PC to SF.

One the wondrous day of the elevation and deification of the God-Emperor Donald I to the Chrysanthemum Throne of America, on the occasion of his donning the Pallid Mask and erecting the Yellow Sign for his terrified yet adoring brain-slaves to adore, I thought to post this Victory Dance was apt. Read the remainder of this entry »

In which your humble author is compared to Bacon. Not Francis Bacon, pork bacon.

I’m always hesitant to review John C. Wright’s works. It’s like… trying to review bacon. What do you say about bacon? That it’s delicious? Everyone knows that, except vegans and vegetarians and a few crazies, but the competency of vegans and vegetarians to render judgement on a food is suspect until they decide to suck it up and stop trying to reproduce delicious meat (Tofurkey, etc.) with processed sticks. That it’s best crispy, but even soft bacon is like the bread of heaven?

So yeah. What do you say about John C. Wright’s books? They’re fantastic? Everyone knows that, except for leftist whackos who let their politics obscure all sense of fairness and wonder.

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