Hiya peeps, we have Andrew Q. Purpose visiting today with his re-release Purpose, we have a fantastic guest post, a great excerpt, a fabulous giveaway and my review, so check out the post and click that rafflecopter link <3 ~Pixie~

Purpose

Andrew Q. Gorgon

Forty years ago the Spirit of Vengeance—a Purpose—took William Morgan as its host, demanding he avenge the innocent by killing the guilty. Since then Will has retreated behind Gar, a façade he uses to avoid dealing with what he’s become. Cold, impassive, and devoid of emotion, Gar goes about his life alone—until his tidy, orderly world is upended when he meets Ryan, a broken young man cast out by his family. Spurred to action for reasons he can’t understand, Gar saves Ryan from death and finds himself confronted by his humanity.

Spending time with Ryan helps Will claw out from under Gar’s shadow. He recognizes Ryan is the key to his reclaiming his humanity and facing his past. As Will struggles to control the Purpose, Ryan challenges him to rethink everything he knew about himself and the spirit that possesses him. In the process, he pushes Will to do something he hasn’t done in decades: care.

Paranormal Powers

One of the issues I had to deal with when writing Purpose was Gar/Will’s ‘super powers.’ As with all paranormal universes, the limits of the powers given to the character are delineated by the author. And they can make or break the book.

Playing ‘God’ is dangerous. Give your character too much power and the story becomes pointless. If the character is a god among men, how can anything really affect him? He’ll just wave his hand and problem solved, crisis over. But putting artificial limits on the power can end up with silly, manufactured weaknesses that become lame attempts to avoid an omnipotence problem. The classic example is Superman. Going a bit further into comic book geekdom for a less well-known example would be Green Lanterns 1 & 2.[1] The original Green Lantern’s weakness was wood.  The second’s weakness was to the color yellow. Neither of these ‘weaknesses’ really made sense, but as kids we accepted them and didn’t really question the reasons.  Eventually as comic book readers became older and more sophisticated, the ‘vulnerabilities’ were revisited and better defined.

I experienced this tug of war with Purpose. Gar/Will needed to have enough power to be a believable ‘spirit of vengeance,’ but couldn’t be unstoppable. At one point Will speculates on what might kill him or if not kill him, severely injure to the point of permanent incapacitation, but we never test those theories. I did not, however, give him a kryptonite type weakness—i.e. the random, seeming unrelated vulnerability designed to keep him from being the almighty.

How does one go about defining a character’s powers while limiting them at the same time? Carefully. My goal was to keep it ‘believable’. Yeah, I know, what part of super human powers is ‘believable?’  Work with me, please? Although there was no super soldier serum like Captain America, no Hulk like gamma radiation, no radioactive spider bite and certainly no yellow sun effect, ala Superman, Will’s powers are similar. The spirit, slowly over time boosted several normal human conditions like strength, speed, and endurance, made him nearly invulnerable to injury and enhancing mental abilities.  I tried where I could to offer interesting, if not completely grounded explanations, but I might have used a few urban myths to help me on my way.  (See this article on the mythology of the 10% brain usage theory as an example.)

Whether credible and believable or silly and ridiculous, what I tried to do was create an explanation that was at least rationale. I think there needs to be some discussion on where he obtained his abilities. If not, that question becomes an albatross that weighs down the story and pulls the reader from the plot and prevents any connection to the characters.

In the end, readers will have to decide whether I succeeded in creating a believable world, but I know I at least tried.

Enjoy—

[1] Displaying my complete inner geek—D.C. Comics created two different Green Lanterns.  The first one—Alan Scott—was created in 1940.  DC ended this comic in 1959.  In 1970, DC created a new Green Lantern, Hal Jordan. DC eventually revived Alan Scott, but that is a very different conversation.

Excerpt

He turned where he saw the others disappear and understood why they had stopped: dead-end alley. Ryan stood with his back to the brick wall, wide-eyed and pale. Gar noted the uncontrollable shake in Ryan’s body as the four jackals slowly inched closer. White knuckles surrounded the small bag he’d carried off the train.

The one closest to Ryan inched closer. “You know what time it is.”

“Police!” Gar didn’t wait for them to react to his command. He tightened his leg muscles and moved the moment everyone turned toward the front of the alley. Using the split second before they could focus on him, he leaped over them, twisting in the process.

The space between them and Ryan wasn’t much, but he managed to avoid contact with the kid, landing a foot to the left. He reached into his coat and removed a collapsible metal baton with his right hand and a pair of brass knuckles with the left.

One step right, and he completely covered Ryan’s shaking form. Not risking a glance back, he kept his eyes on the startled thieves in front of him.

“Stay behind me, Ryan.”

A muffled grunt, barely audible, told Gar the kid heard him. He dropped the police officer illusion, staring calmly at his prey. Assessing his adversaries, he ignored the hint of a thought that said they were not the guilty. Too late for that—they would have been had he not stopped them.

“I know what time it is,” he hissed, tossing the slang for street robberies back in their face. “Time for vengeance to collect its fee.”

In the recent past, Gar had taken to finding a way to take out the guilty without doing it himself. This time he couldn’t risk it; Ryan was too close. One of them had a gun. He could smell it now.

He definitely didn’t have time to make it look like an accident.

Spinning on his left foot, he kicked the kid with the gun so hard his skullcap flew off when his head hit the wall. Allowing his movement to carry him around, he brought the metal baton down on the arm of a robber with a knife. Metal on flesh and bone was no contest. Gar saw Ryan flinch when the kid let out a scream of agony and fell to the ground.

At least he would live, Gar noted. The first kid was probably dead already. The other two were rooted in place, stunned into inaction. Two seconds ago, they were about to rob a defenseless kid. Now they were being taken apart. Before they could run away, Gar lashed out.

Using the palm of his left hand, he struck the one closest to him. Even using the inner part of his hand, he heard the brass knuckles crack the kid’s sternum when he connected. The last kid finally moved and made it three steps before Gar swept his feet out from under him with the baton.

The face looking up in terror was that of a kid, a juvenile. They were all kids. Reaching toward the teen’s head, he heard movement behind him.

“Gar.” Ryan’s timid, urgent tone caused him to turn. “Don’t kill him.”

“I won’t.” His voice was a cold hiss. Instead, he touched the sweaty forehead, inserting confused thoughts. He quickly repeated the process with the others. The first kid still lived, but probably not for long. The other two, he left sobbing out their pain.

“Come on.” He grabbed Ryan’s left arm. “We need to go.”

Ryan resisted the pull, but Gar was prepared for this. “Either you come with me or I leave you to explain this.”

About Andrew

Andrew Q. Gordon wrote his first story back when yellow legal pads, ball point pens were common and a Smith Corona correctable typewriter was considered high tech. Adapting to the times, he now writes with a shiny new MacBook that he sets on the same desk as his manual typewriter and vintage adding machine.

Long a fan of super heroes, wizards and sports, Andrew’s works include high fantasy, paranormal spirits, magic as well as contemporary fiction. He is still trying to find the perfect story that will include all his favorites under one cover.

He currently lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his husband, their young daughter and dog.  In addition to dodging some very self-important D.C. ‘insiders’, Andrew uses his commute to catch up on his reading. When not working or writing, he enjoys soccer, high fantasy, baseball and occasionally sleeping.

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Giveaway!

First Prize: $25 Giftcard to Dreamspinner Press
Second Prize: Autographed Paperback copy of Purpose

Andrew Q. Gordon Rafflecop-ter giveaway!

Review

Title: Purpose

Author: Andrew Q. Gordon

Genre: Science Fiction, Other Paranormal, Suspense

Length: Novel (240pgs)

ISBN: 978-1-63476-162-8

Publisher: DSP Publications (6^th October 2015)

Heat: Low

Heart: ♥♥♥♥♥ 4 ½ Hearts

Reviewer: Pixie

Blurb: Forty years ago the Spirit of Vengeance—a Purpose—took William Morgan as its host, demanding he avenge the innocent by killing the guilty. Since then Will has retreated behind Gar, a façade he uses to avoid dealing with what he’s become. Cold, impassive, and devoid of emotion, Gar goes about his life alone—until his tidy, orderly world is upended when he meets Ryan, a broken young man cast out by his family. Spurred to action for reasons he can’t understand, Gar saves Ryan from death and finds himself confronted by his humanity.

Spending time with Ryan helps Will claw out from under Gar’s shadow. He recognizes Ryan is the key to his reclaiming his humanity and facing his past. As Will struggles to control the Purpose, Ryan challenges him to rethink everything he knew about himself and the spirit that possesses him. In the process, he pushes Will to do something he hasn’t done in decades: care.

Purchase Link: https://www.dsppublications.com/books/purpose-by-andrew-q-gordon-154-b  

Review: This book is a 2^nd edition and there are some minor editing changes and additional dialogue. Will/Gar has spent the last forty years exacting vengeance on the guilty for the innocents they have killed. His Purpose, Vengeance, demands it as payment for strength, youth and mental powers. Vengeance: an entity that feeds on the souls of the guilty. When Gar meets Ryan he begins to lose the cold shell he has encased himself in and Will begins to emerge, emotions and feelings he hasn’t felt in years shock him, so what is it about Ryan that has drawn Will out of his long sleep. Ryan has been cast out by his family and meets Gar, not quite sure what to make of the man, getting to know Gar and the real man behind the façade, Will, leads to Ryan discovering something about himself that he finds a hard time getting his head around. Ryan challenges Will to rethink what his Purpose wants, but when the FBI get involved Ryan might be in more danger than ever before.

This is a brilliant, unique, slightly dark, gritty story that you just can’t put down. Will was taken as a host by an entity nearly forty years ago, since then he has buried himself beneath a cold emotionless façade, Gar, to carry out the vengeance that he has been called to do. When Gar meets Ryan there is something about the young man that calls to him and Will begins to re-emerge. Ryan is confused by Will but can’t help falling for the man who saved his life, but when he discovers what his Purpose requires he asks if there is another way to give it what it wants. Things get more complicated when Will tries to discover what it is about Ryan that ease’s him, and then Will discovers he is being tracked by an overzealous FBI agent who will stop at nothing to get Will.

I have to admit to being dragged into this story from the very first page; the opening scenes grip you as it leads you straight into meeting Gar and his Purpose Vengeance. As we progress through the book we can see the changes in Gar/Will as Ryan breaks through his shell. We see Will, a man who buried his emotions to dull the pain of loss, still getting to grips with his Purpose and evolving his relationship with the entity and finally beginning to understand just what the entity needs and requires. With Ryan you see a man who still has a long way to go before he is confident and secure, but also someone who will sulk and act like a brat when he doesn’t get his own way, which causes problems for Will.

The police and FBI angle was really good and while Will is willing to bargain with Detective Griffin, he wants nothing to do with Agent Barrington, these are aspects of the story you do not want to miss. The characters bring this story alive giving us a darkish gritty story of vengeance and justice. There are entities from other planes, the innocent demanding vengeance, justice and revenge, the guilty paying for their crimes and two men feeling an instant connection and finding more in common than they thought.

This isn’t a book to miss if you want a unique storyline, great characters, vengeance galore, confusion, love and a brilliant ending. 

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