The story centers around confused teen, Exodus, who is trying to find his way in a changing world. The mystery is slowly revealed, starting with the death of his sister and the strange disappearance of their father. Ex's family move house and he struggles to find his place. There is a mysterious man following him and references to a computer game which eventually culminates in an entry into a fantasy world. I did find it a bit of a struggle to read in places and it didn't keep up the momentum throughout the story.
The story is told by Gadget (also called Leviticus) who isn't the main character and isn't a witness to most of the events he relates. I felt it would have been enhanced by telling the story from Ex's point of view.
I thought young Gadget was quite cute and enjoyed the affectionate relationship he and Ex display. There are some great action scenes in the first half of the book portion, but I was a little disappointed this petered out towards the end and was more conversational. The author promises plenty more action and adventures when you continue on with the entire book.
Alex is not a good friend to Ex, but he does make for an interesting bad-boy character in the story and I quite liked his part in the book. There is something exciting and dangerous about him.
I found the writing style a bit quirky and some of the words used were distracting to me 'entatainment,' 'unda,' 'numba' and 'matta.'
There were glimpses of a Harry Potteresque fantasy world with magical spells. I would have liked to see the magic explored more and more action towards the end of the offering. It will be interesting to see where Tony Carnival takes us in the rest of the Over Odyssey book.
Read this is you like urban fantasy.
I was given a free copy of Over Odyssey to read. My opinions are entirely my own.