TooFar Media Reviews

While on vacation, I recently was searching for a new book to read online when I discovered the TooFar Media app by Rich Shapero on ITunes. I was very interested in the concept of combining a wok of fiction with both original music and original art for one completely immersive and interactive experience for the reader. TooFarMedia did not disappoint my expectations. I easily downloaded and selected one of Rich Shapero’s fictional works, Wild Animus, on the TooFar Media app. Wild Animus is a colorful and brilliant complex description of one man’s journey to self- discovery by living and evolving into a primal form in the wilderness of Alaska. The story is beautifully written although it does not take a traditional route in the timeline for Sam, the main character. Mr. Shapero’s story is accompanied on the TooFar Media app by coordinating music, the majority of which was also created by Rich Shapero. In addition to both the story and music, artwork by Donald Pass is also included to complete the immersive experience. After reading Wild Animus, I will definitely use TooFarMedia again to enjoy another one of Rich Shapero’s interactive literary experiences.

Aside from the many grammatical errors, which bothered me horribly at the beginning, I really did enjoy this book. The book’s title also confused me, but I have to put that aside because the book wasn’t that bad.
This book begins in a world of the future. I love a good sci-fi book, so I was pulled in immediately! Dorner is the main character and he is being haunted by a part of his own personality. Tongue is haunting him and he is now on a journey to find out why. Dorner has many important issues please in his community that he must keep up with though. One of those is to keep his community warm. In this society, global warming has been wreaking havoc on the whole world.
Dorner is plagued by some of the memories of his past though. Known as a sex fiend is his younger years, he has vowed to remain celibate. He meets Rin who is a doctor who wants to find out who Tongue is and why he is plaguing Dorner.
The book shares many sexual exploits and they are well written. I love TooFarMedia and how it combines art, music, and literature to become an interactive app.

The concept of interactive fiction is an interesting one. When I first heard of TooFarMedia, I almost expected it to be an adult version of a choose your own adventure novel, but that’s what this is. It’s more of a reading experience. The story is combined with music and art specifically chosen to go with the story. It’s a very interesting idea. Who doesn’t like to listen to music while reading? This way it’s not just random music you’re listening to, but something that compliments the story. There’s also art work that goes with the story. It’s not so much an interactive look, but a more immersive experience.

The design of TooFarMedia takes a minute to learn, but once you do it’s very easy to use. To read the story it’s a simple swipe left or right. But you can do other things like split the page in half so you can get a closer look at the music and art work. I’ve never tried to have that kind of experience and I like it a lot.

So far the only story I’ve been able to read is Wild Animus, but it was enough to get me hooked. The
story telling is great and really pulls you into the characters and action. Once you start reading, it’s hard
to put down. I will say my only regret is this kind of thing isn’t available on a computer. I’m not usually a big fan of reading on my phone, but for this type of book, I’ll make an exception.

Balcony of Fog is a truly unique experience. There are several options for reading this book. You can buy the Kindle version, a hardcover version, or there are versions available in the iTunes App Store and the Google Play store. The versions on iTunes and Google Play are where the really interesting experience really shines.

You are able to read the book from the downloaded app just like you would any other book. However, the book is augmented by custom music and videos that add to the story and make it a lot more interactive than the average reading experience.

The apps work well are are well-designed. The straight-up reading experience is not as nice as a book or even the Kindle app on the phone. But it is a reasonable experience and the additional features more than make up for the slight inconvenience.

The story itself is well-written with characters that are not just placeholders on a page. The plot, characters, and setting all work together to make for a really fun, dystopian read.

The author manages to merge a dystopian setting with a love story in interesting ways. Overall, I think this is a book that anyone who loves fiction should pick up. The interactive elements make for an engrossing experience that adds a lot to the story.

From the very start I was intrigued. What was happening in Dorners dreams? But wait, are they even really dreams? He heard voices. Voices? Female voices. This book had my imagination in overdrive. Seduction and passion in way that I would have never imagined. Yet, it all made sense. Sort of. I had to keep reading.

The futuristic world was almost unsettling. How could one be held responsible for controlling their body temperature and temperament in order for the community to survive? Imagine that. Insane.

What I liked the best was the way the author was able to allow the reader to FEEL the conflict in both Dorner and Rin. Love, desire, shame, and even fear. How often do you meet someone that truly accepts you for who you really are? Encourages you to face your deepest daemons AND stands by your side through it all? Oh, Tongue was a beast. For both of them.

This love story was a true work of science fiction with hints of compassion and loving. While reading this, I found myself rooting for both Rin and Dorn to work out BOTH of their pasts and live happily ever after. Do they? There was love, passion, violence, jealousy, pain, ohhh and FIRE. Take your time and take it ALL in. There’s a lot going on and when you take your time and feel the characters, it all makes sense and again, gets that imagination into overdrive. Nice job.

Rin, Tongue and Dorner is an interesting novel with many plot twists and turns. This interactive book accompanies text, songs and art to make the book truly captivating. I found myself drawn to the main character, Dorner, from the beginning of the novel. He seems to be a truly heroic figure in the community- a prime example of an optimal citizen. Throughout the book, we learn that he has many secrets and inner conflicts that influence his life. He is plagued with guilt, sexual frustration and anger as he battles his inner demon, Tongue. Tongue makes the book interesting; playing on natural emotions like jealousy, anger, intimacy and guilt.
We see Dorner’s relationship with Tongue wax and wain throughout the story as his relationship and intimacy grow with his partner, Rin. It becomes clear that only one person is to be in Dorner’s life, and it will have to be either Rin or Tongue. This creates quite an interesting tale...

I recently read “Balcony of Fog” and it was one of the most interesting experiences I’ve ever had. The immersion you feel when reading is something I find hard to explain with words. The incredible music, the art style, and all of the new things this experience adds to traditional reading, creates what I can only define as cinematic literature. The story itself was already gripping and wonderfully told, but I can’t say enough about immersion you feel while reading. It’s something that needs to be experienced and I highly recommend everyone to do so!

No mater how hard I tried, turned my phone all the way up, uninstall/ reinstall tried multiple books none of them worked so I just gave up I didn’t even read any of it is the main reason I wanted it was to try something new. Update then the developer says to update my phone from 9 lol who is still running 9 we are in the last part of the 14 updates. So no it’s not because I don’t update my phone that it doesn’t work. And if you are still running 9 on iOS you might want to up date when you don’t need to use your phone for awhile because updating from 9 to14 is going to take along time

I’ve actually always turned on certain music while reading certain books it was really exciting to put that in someone else’s hands. I got this book for free at the Texas book Festival and it was absolutely worth it I love all aspects of TooFarMedia and book. And the person who thought it was going to be a choose your own adventure type of thing needs to go back to goosebumps...

Keep up the great work

Interesting concept. App was technically beautiful. But the developers reached beyond their abilities.

First with the interface. The audio would jump like insufficient resources. It couldn’t play once the phone went to sleep. The music restarted from the beginning because there was no way to drag the music to a new point.

The book also needed another round of editing. Grammatical errors frequent. Mistaken details such as referring to the colony as 5 acres when it must have been enormous. And for a science fiction dystopian future it still used yards and few as measurements. Really, advanced science without a metric future?

The story had promise but overuse of metaphors interferes with comprehending the world. Science fiction really demands more science accuracy. The writing just wasn’t up to the story.

Someone provided a huge amount of funding for a poor performance. My copy was being handed out for free probably because it wasn’t sellable beyond the visuals.

This is Not a review. Just downloaded and TooFarMedia itself “looks” gorgeous and opened fine, however I can’t hear music- even with my iPad volume on high. What else can I try or check? As a compulsive reader, and artist, I find this idea and Mr. Shapero’s platform very intriguing! So I hope you can help, before I have to just delete.

I downloaded TooFarMedia because it sounded intriguing to have an author’s library of fiction in one place. I was interested enough by the first few paragraphs of Dissolve, and now I can’t put it down. I love how there’s other media to discover too, adding visual and audio to the written word of the story. Very cool!

I like the concept of using layers to tell different pieces of the story. I began reading parts of the books and I already noticed some typos. I don’t know how recently TooFarMedia was release, but it needs more stories and more of a selection for users to choose from (a.k.a. Genres, subgroups, themes, etc).
*Something to consider: possibly a VR layer with story video.

I’ve only delved into the story TooFarMedia is named for, Too Far, it is a modern fairy tale in the vein of Neil Gaiman, it is well told, the accompanying map and music fit the whimsical and mysterious tone.

Truth be told, I downloaded and checked out so I could enter for the iPad, bonus in that I actually am enjoying TooFarMedia and the writing in particular. Thank you. Def will recommend.

It’s a very different reading app. There is music and art. I thought the music would play as you read but it seemed you had to stop reading to play music? Maybe I was doing it wrong. It would take a while to learn how to use it. The titles are limited.

The writing is gorgeous, the music is haunting, and the artwork is really something to behold. TooFarMedia is an absolute must for any art lovers who are looking for a memorable experience. It also is beyond simple to navigate, making all of this truly stress-free. Download TooFarMedia; You won't regret it.

I don't know why someone would rate this less than 5 stars! About halfway through Rin Tongue and Dorner I found TooFarMedia but I wish I had sooner. The art and interactive aspect is pretty cool and new, I think he's onto something here.

I found access to be simple, text easy to read, and decent variety of stories. There are quite a few spelling and grammatical errors that detract from the enjoyment; an editor (or at least a couple good voices for audio versions) is necessary.

What a fascinating and beautifully produced app. Rich media layers let you dig down and fully immerse yourself in the worlds of the stories, and what wild worlds they are :)) So glad I was encouraged to download this at the Miami Book Fair!

Such an interesting concept. I look forward to reading all other books. Interface is actually presets intuitive. Easy to use, and the stories seem pretty decent.

Aside from the many grammatical errors, which bothered me horribly at the beginning, I really did enjoy this book. The book’s title also confused me, but I have to put that aside because the book wasn’t that bad.
This book begins in a world of the future. I love a good sci-fi book, so I was pulled in immediately! Dorner is the main character and he is being haunted by a part of his own personality. Tongue is haunting him and he is now on a journey to find out why. Dorner has many important issues please in his community that he must keep up with though. One of those is to keep his community warm. In this society, global warming has been wreaking havoc on the whole world.
Dorner is plagued by some of the memories of his past though. Known as a sex fiend is his younger years, he has vowed to remain celibate. He meets Rin who is a doctor who wants to find out who Tongue is and why he is plaguing Dorner.
The book shares many sexual exploits and they are well written. I love TooFarMedia and how it combines art, music, and literature to become an interactive app.

Such an interesting concept. I look forward to reading all other books. Interface is actually presets intuitive. Easy to use, and the stories seem pretty decent.

Why u reading this