I finished Ubiquitious Bubba's book, Reality Challenged last week. I thought I should say something about it but also wanted to sort of let it set a few days before I did. I am not a "book reviewer" and have never reviewed a book so I don't know what bases are normally covered. However I can give my opinion of the book.
I bought it in the Kindle format from Smashwords, IIRC it was 4.99 and worth it. The Smashwords .mobi version does not have all the interactive features that a Kindle version of a book bought from Amazon does however and (in my case) the most important feature did work, the dictionary. Bubba knows a LOT of words and how to use them, lol.
The book starts as a normal space, multi-dimensional, sci-fi novel with strong, well fleshed out characters. I thought Xorian, the captain of the ship "Chaos Effect" was a sort of hybrid of Han Solo and Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), the captain of the Firefly. Tough but funny. His partner the Krazhdj, who refers to itself as "One" and to Xorian as "One's Pet" recites strange poetry which Xorian never understands. They work well together though. They manage to pick up a strange girl named Psychann who is also able to read minds and/or destroy minds. She can also move through the multiverse. In the book there is the "Prime Universe" which many are looking for (for nefarious reasons of course) and countless other universes. Psychann also has the ability to "trade" items of similar mass between universes which comes in really handy at times.
There is Zeke who is a sort of criminal/revolutionary who gets caught up in things. He gets thrown into a strange reality... really strange.
There is Numnal who suddenly, in his universe, for some reason gets declassified as a mammal... which of course causes him no end of trouble. There are others. Villians, and a main villian.
Several stories are running at once and at first it was a little disconcerting to me but I got used to it. The story seems to be coming apart then slowly comes back together... and you realize it is really all one story after all. A neat trick there.... 
I would definately read it again and look forward to the next book. As with most good books and good authors the strength of the characters are it's appeal (and of course an interseting story) and as I said, the characters are well done.
Just be careful around the bats. Watch out for the flying warthog towing a yak... they could hurt you if you happened to be in the way.
The zombie preying mantis' saying, "brains..." could be a problem if they were larger.
Then there is the horse which reminded me a little on "Donkey" in Shreck, only more dangerous. I couldn't figure out if the horse was urban black, gay, or both... but he is funny. Yes, there are a wide variety of characters other than the main characters and a wide range of circumstances and strange places.
 
Well written, worth reading, and BTW... support your fellow forumite!!
 
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/262469 Thanks for the great read Bubba!!!
 
Julien

Love the book!!

Good job Julien.....made me homesick.

I have my copy already loaded on my tablet only waiting for me to have enough time to relax and enjoy it!  I'm not one to read a little, put it down, then read some more and put it down (of a reading book that is).  I'm more of the kind that picks it up and devours the whole thing in one or two sittings.

(Note that I did try to have one of those speaking voice auto-readers read it out loud for me, but all it did was scream "Aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!" over and over...)

I got my copy in the Apple iBooks store. I'm about half way through and really liking it. Looking forward to kick back on the airplane and read the rest;)

If there is no Bapu and Mooch in the story then it must be fiction, roight?

 I got it but haven't found the time to read it all. Very creative with words and imaginative this guy is.......

 Trying to read it on an iphone might be tough ...and then there's the drool.

bapu


If there is no Bapu and Mooch in the story then it must be fiction, roight?

Rumor has it that they're in there!  Probably under assumed names to avoid royalties, but, just the same...

Hey!  Thanks for the kind words, Julien!  Sorry I haven't responded until now.  I lost about a month.  I finally found it along with some assorted missing socks.

Anyway, I'm very glad to hear that you enjoyed the book.  When I was writing it, I had no idea whether or not anyone else would like it.  In publishing it, I discovered that releasing a self-published book is alarmingly similar to releasing a self-published CD.  There's that tendancy to keep going back and updating, tweaking, changing, editing, etc. 

You raised an interesting point about the horse.  No, he's not supposed to represent any particular socio/ethnic group.  The fact is the character and personality of the horse is drawn from my own experiences with actual horses.  I've known a number of them who would mutter under their breath veiled threats about how they would kick me so hard...  Don't even get me started about the Angus steer we had who turned out to be an Evil Genius.  The psychotic rooster?  Those stories are best told with all the lights on and the doors locked.  There was a barn cat who could communicate so clearly with a single look.  The look said, "You'd be much safer if you just kept a panther in the barn."  (I believed it.)

But, I digress.  I'm glad you liked the characters.  I know the storyline got a little confusing.  I knew that it might be a problem when I wrote it.  There were far too many characters with too many stories weaving in and around each other and I couldn't cut any of them out.  No self-respecting editor would have allowed it.  They'd still be whacking me upside the head.  Fortunately, I have no self-respecting editor, so I got to do it my way.  (My head still hurts, though.) 

Craig, I have a GPS that uses that same voice.  "In 100 feet, turn left.  Aiiiiiiiii!!!!"  On second thought, the last part may have come from the back seat.

ProjectM, reading is one of the only things that makes airplanes worthwhile.  Comas are good, too.  Watching a plane fly overhead and being glad you're not entombed inside it is even bettter.  Actually, I don't hate flying.  I hate airports.  I always try to have a few ebooks to read when I'm forced to waste my life in an airport.  They don't let me bring the big hammer.

Starise, as a test, I read it on an iPhone.  Until very recently, my iPhone was my primary ebook reader.  Use a good case to protect against excessive drool.  A bib might help, too.  I'm frequently told that I need one.

The fact that Reality includes characters like Bapu and Mooch causes other universes to chuckle.

I also got it on Kindle, but haven't devoted the time needing to read. I'm glad you finally wrote it Bubba.

Will there be a sequel?