Wombrovers by Lancelot Schaubert


Wombrovers
Title : Wombrovers
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 1370925026
Language : English
Format Type : ARC
Number of Pages : 19
Publication : Published March 6, 2017

At ten feet, four inches tall, Gowanus was the runt of the litter. Working the mines of No’ad took strength and height, unless you had the smarts to be able to help the dwarves invent and build new mining tools. He didn’t have smarts and didn’t have height, and yet his curiosity got the better of him: where had Sakima gone?

In an attempt to find the rogue giant Sakima, Gowanus learns the secret to how the giants have spread so far, so fast and comes face-to-face with the worst betrayal of giant-kind.

:: PRAISE for Lancelot Schaubert ::

“Schaubert’s words have an immediacy, a potency, an intimacy that grab the reader by the collar and say ‘Listen, this is important!’ Probing the bones and gristle of humanity, his subjects challenge, but also offer insights into redemption if only we will stop and pay attention.” — Erika Robuck, National Bestselling Author of Hemingway’s Girl

“Loved this story because Lance wrote about people who don't get written about enough and he did it with humor, compassion, and heart.”— Brian Slatterly, author of Lost Everything and editor of The New Haven Review

“I’m such a fan of Lance Schaubert's work. His unique view of things and his life-wisdom enriches all he does. We're lucky to count him among our contributors.”— Therese Walsh, author of The Moon Sisters and Editorial Director of Writer Unboxed

"Lancelot Schaubert exhibits his talents in many forms from poetic verse to lyrical prose to musical compositions, all the while infusing them with charisma, passion, and wit. A true creative, Schaubert is one to watch in the literary world." —Heather Webb, author of Rodin's Lover & Becoming Josephine

“Lance Schaubert writes with conviction but without the cliché and bluster of the propaganda that is so common in this age of blogs and tweets. Here is a real practitioner of the craft who has the patience to pay attention. May his tribe increase!”— Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove, author of Common Prayer and The Awakening of Hope

“Lancelot was the kind of student every writing teacher hopes to have in her class: attentive, thoughtful, a bit quirky, and innovative. Since his time in my classroom, he has continued to impress me. He ‘sees,’ and his essays, poetry, and fiction are full of details that enable his audience to see. Bravo, Lance.”— Jackina Stark, author of Things Worth Remembering and Tender Grace

“[He writes] characters with distinctive personalities, multi-layered, and unpredictable. [They have] natural voices, succinct and unique to each character.” — The Missouri Scriptwriting Fellowship

"Schaubert's narratives are emotionally stirring with both a vulnerable sensibility and rawness to them. They take you on a journey full of open wounds, intimate successes and personal delights. His words have a calmness, a natural ease but the meaning is always commanding and dynamic." — Natalie Gee, Brooklyn Film Festival


Wombrovers Reviews


  • MasterReader

    Story:
    We listen to Gowanus, who is a giant and is forced to work as a miner, (as are all giants), by dwarfs, the wemahtekenis.
    Gowanus is worried, because he hasn't seen his best friend Sakima in weeks, and that's not like him at all.

    He tries to find out what happened to him and to do so, he has to speak to his Uma, who is at the same time his grandmother and also obviously an elder amonst the giants.
    The Uma takes him to the council of elders and there he is told, Sakima has gone "womb roving", which is a rather crazy form of reincarnation and to find him, Gowanus has to turn into a Womb Rover himself.
    But is this the right way to find his friend and what happens if the two meet again?

    Narration:
    Narrator Theo Holland was actually the reason, I came across the short story, because I love to listen to him. As always, he does a fabulous job, especially considering he has to pronounce continually all the strange names for characters and places.

    Overall:
    There is some interesting idea behind the story. I mean, all this mighty giants are controlled by wee dwarfs, that's pretty crazy and also quite clever, because it's not the mass of your muscles which turns you into a powerful leader and it's also not the size of your heart, if we are honest.
    But the main problem we encounter are all the bizarre names for characters and places. No'ad, wemahtekenis, Pokhilus, Uma, Nuxwiti, scillian, neggisli, to name but a few.
    It's confusing, and you have to give the story your full attention to follow the tale. As you will imagine, it doesn't get better, if you listen to the audiobook.
    Add to it an ending, which I didn't really like and which also didn't make much sense (why has A to die and B to live, when there is just one chance to "travel", it could easily have been the other way around, which would actually have been an interesting development.) And if you can't grow, once you are a dwarf, then why would Sakima continue to grow?

  • Anja Peerdeman

    A great short story about a different kind of people with different believes and habits.
    Yet I often recognized things in their behavior that is very, very human.
    Extremely well written !