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Claus : Legend of the Fat Man (A Science Fiction Adventure) (Claus Series Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Tony Bertauski (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 2,963 ratings
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The Christmas adventure you've been waiting for...

In the early 1800s, Nicholas Santa discovered an ancient race of elven.

Short, fat and hairy, they have lived peacefully on the North Pole since the Ice Age but Nicholas is quickly swept into the colony’s first and only fracture. The elven known as the Cold One has divided his people. His name is Jack. And Jack’s tired of hiding. Why should they live in a shrinking ice cap when humans occupy the rest of the world?

It’s just not fair.

There’s no stopping Jack from world domination until Nicholas Santa, the only human to enter the elven colony, joins helium-bladder reindeer, artificially-intelligent snowmen, and a merry band of big-footed elven to bring peace back to the North Pole.

And becomes a legend.

REVIEWS FOR THE CLAUS UNIVERSE
  • “Amazing rewrites that will astound you!” –Ruth Jackson, Amazon Reviewer
  • “Best Santa Story Ever!” – Bob, Amazon Reviewer
  • “Simply lovely.” –jl, Amazon Reviewer
  • “MY HEART GREW THREE SIZES…” – Amazon Reviewer
  • “Couldn’t Put It Down.” – Amazon Reviewer
  • “Fantasy at it’s [sic] finest.” –Carol, Amazon Reviewer
  • “Absolutely phenomenal!” –JayFly, Amazon Reviewer
  • “A++” –TKJ 131, Amazon Reviewer
  • “Absolutely Awesome.” –Dee greusel, Amazon Reviewer
  • “I absolutely love this series…” –Kara McCabe, Amazon Reviewer
  • “Tony is an excellent story teller!” jjjlake, Amazon Reviewer
  • “I want MORE!” –J. Bunch, Amazon Reviewer
  • “Awesomely engaging!” –Janice Everett, Amazon Reviewer
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Previous page
  1. Reading age
    8 - 18 years
  2. Book 1 of 11
    Claus Universe
  3. Print length
    348 pages
  4. Language
    English
  5. Publication date
    December 28, 2013
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  9. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is a great imagining of how Santa Claus came to be." --Amazon Reviewer-----"It was the perfect holiday book!" --Amazon Reviewer-----"Forget everything you know about Santa Claus!" --Amazon Reviewer-----"I have always liked alternate Santa stories and this one is extremely good." --Amazon Reviewer-----"Fantasy at its best. Just a good book to smile about." --Amazon Reviewer-----"This is a WINNER." --Amazon Reviewer

From the Author

Want this book free? Learn more at BERTAUSKI.COM

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B008F0SVTY
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ DeadPixel Publications (December 28, 2013)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 28, 2013
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1581 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 348 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 2,963 ratings

About the author

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Tony Bertauski

Tony Bertauski

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USA Today Bestselling Author.

My writing career began with magazine columns, landscape design textbooks, and a gardening column at the Post and Courier (Charleston, SC). However, I've always fancied fiction.

My grandpa never graduated high school. He retired from a steel mill in the mid-70s. He was uneducated, but he was a voracious reader. I remember going through his bookshelves of paperback sci-fi novels, smelling musty old paper, pulling Piers Anthony and Isaac Asimov off shelf and promising to bring them back. I was fascinated by robots that could think and act like people. What happened when they died?

I'm a cynical reader. I demand the writer sweep me into his/her story and carry me to the end. I'd rather sail a boat than climb a mountain. That's the sort of stuff I want to write, not the assigned reading we got in school. I want to create stories that kept you up late.

Having a story unfold inside your head is an experience different than reading. You connect with characters in a deeper, more meaningful way. You feel them, empathize with them, cheer for them and even mourn. The challenge is to get the reader to experience the same thing, even if it's only a fraction of what the writer feels. Not so easy.

In 2008, I won the South Carolina Fiction Open with Four Letter Words, a short story inspired by my grandfather and Alzheimer's Disease. My first step as a novelist began when I developed a story to encourage my young son to read. This story became The Socket Greeny Saga. Socket tapped into my lifetime fascination with consciousness and identity, but this character does it from a young adult's struggle with his place in the world.

After Socket, I thought I was done with fiction. But then the ideas kept coming, and I kept writing. Most of my work investigates the human condition and the meaning of life, but not in ordinary fashion. About half of my work is Young Adult (Socket Greeny, Claus, Foreverland) because it speaks to that age of indecision and the struggle with identity. But I like to venture into adult fiction (Halfskin, Drayton) so I can cuss. Either way, I like to be entertaining.

And I'm a big fan of plot twists.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
2,963 global ratings
Amazing start to this series
5 Stars
Amazing start to this series
This is such a great origin story. Mixing technology with the magic of Christmas, it gives a wonderful explanation of how Santa and his elves can do everything they do. There's just the right amount of action to keep the pages turning too. I can definitely see this book becoming tradition in my house for years to come.I particularly like how this book gives you the option to read either book 2 or 3 next. Me, being me though, I'm going to read all of them. On to book 2!I give this book 5 of 5 Paws and look forward to book two in this unique series.
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Top reviews from the United States

Cheryl Becigneul
5.0 out of 5 stars What a great twist on a classic story
Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2024
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I loved this book it has lots of great twist and turns
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KK from KY
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting
Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2024
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This was an interesting take on the age old tale of Santa Clause. I was worried that it would be too far out there to keep my interest. Well it was not. I was pleasantly surprised at how the author was able to pull in so many elements from what we all have known and tie it in with a sci-fi version. It was really playing out like a movie in my mind’s eye. And yes, I’d say a good movie. I will very likely continue on with the series to see where is goes. If you enjoy retellings, I’m sure you will enjoy this one.
One person found this helpful
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kim
5.0 out of 5 stars fantastic!
Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2024
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I really enjoyed the book. I’m 65 and I didn’t expect to like really, thought it was going to be more for children so I was thrilled to find that it’s for everyone! It was a page turner really. Great imagination mixing the known and unknown.
2 people found this helpful
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Jan Niblock
5.0 out of 5 stars Who knew?
Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2023
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I picked this book up on a whim and I loved it. The way we look at Christmas and the stories about the North Pole are turned on their head. I really enjoy it when an author can take what is commonly fork lore and makes us look at it in a new light.

The North Pole Elven folk are nothing like they were always shown in shows. They are much more than just toy makers. I love their names, lots have those holiday themes: Merry, Nog, Claus, Cane, Tinsel are a few examples.

When Jessica, Nicholas and their son, Jon, jump ship to go and explore the North Pole by themselves, they never anticipated how that would turn out.

The ending was totally not what I was expecting, but it was much better. Fun story to read.
5 people found this helpful
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chickiehead
3.0 out of 5 stars You need to believe
Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2012
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I haven't finished the book yet so maybe this is a bit premature.

So far, I am enjoying it but I have to keep trying to figure out exactly the time period of the setting. It starts out talking about the exploration ship in the 1800s that was attempting to find the Northwest Passage. I'm good with that. Where I keep scratching my head is at the magic of the elves and the lack of wonder from the "warm bloods". They are surprised at the weight they are gaining but have no fear (of the unknown) of holographic images. They don't question the talk of plagues. Jack talks of the pyramids...in that day and age would Nicholas even know what he is talking about? There is mention of the elves being the ones who started the industrial revolution but that wouldn't have even taken place during the time period.

I think I'd be able to swallow it as a much more enjoyable story if the characters showed some sense of fear of the new technology they are seeing. We, as readers, are used to seeing what is being described because of the technology that we know. They, the warm blood characters, didn't even know what electricity was at that point, let alone bacteria and memory erasing computers.

Maybe if the warm bloods would "question"/fear some of the technology and were convinced by the elves to "just believe" in the magic it would be a way to make the readers to "just believe" in the idea and magic of Santa Claus. If I read it and just believe that they are 100% ok with all this strange stuff they are seeing then the book is enjoyable. If I put myself in their shoes, my reaction to all this new technology (they wouldn't even have that word in their vocabulary at that time) would be completely different.
4 people found this helpful
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R.J. Setser
5.0 out of 5 stars A sci-fi twist to the traditional Santa Claus!
Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2018
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So. So. So. Good!

There have been many “origin of Santa Claus” stories that have been told and retold, but I’ve never come across one that went this in-depth and was. so. good! That is basically all I have to say about this book and I’m already ready to buy the rest of the books in the series (6 total); that’s how good it is.

Claus: Legend of the Fat Man merges two worlds together with detailed description, humor, and emotion and ties them together with a familiar tale that is so new and fresh that it can’t even be predictable. The story is told from multiple perspectives from the many characters, but it is never overwhelming in information.

The characters themselves…wow. The Cold One is an incredibly memorable villain and though we don’t necessarily pity him, he is understandable, relatable, incredibly funny, and as odd as it may be, he is semi-likable. Kind of like Marvel’s Loki character. Kind of.

There are epic battles (and I do mean EPIC) and the writing is done so well that I feel as if I had actually been present for each and every one. It’s clean. Can we please say that again? IT’S CLEAN! I can’t tell you how happy it made me to pick up a sci-fi by an author in this big of a market and it wasn’t loaded down with cursing or sex scenes. It was just a great, thrilling story and I absolutely loved the entire day it took me to read it 😉

My one and only minor complaint is that even though the book starts out with the humans in the 1800s, and is very accurate at the beginning, we almost completely forget that detail with how advanced the elven civilization is. Plus, the elven mention that they “copy the humans” in some of their ideas but those ideas happened much much later in our time period (like concerts and firing T-shirts out into the crowd…). It is a minor detail and frankly, I overlooked it for the most part, but it’s worth mentioning. So don’t read it expecting historical accuracy.

Overall, Claus: The Legend of the Fat Man is definitely worth 5 out of 5 stars and I can’t wait to dig into the rest of the series!

This is a LiteratureApproved (.com) Review!
11 people found this helpful
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Susan Barnes
4.0 out of 5 stars The making of Santa Claus
Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2023
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A different spin on the tale of Santa Claus. Good read. Interesting tale on the elves, and how Santa came to the North Pole. Fun to read, I'm heading to start the next book, Jack.
4 people found this helpful
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Susie
5.0 out of 5 stars A New Take On Santa
Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2023
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This is an ingenious and entertaining take on Santa Claus. Lots of well developed characters, a great storyline, and it's just familiar enough to feel like an old friend. I had a hard time putting this down! I am really looking forward to the next book in the series!
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Fran
5.0 out of 5 stars Great story line
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 30, 2023
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Great story line, best book I’ve read in ages. Half way through and hate putting down.
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars GOOD BOOK
Reviewed in India on November 10, 2019
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This is a good book which shows the alternate version of the legend of the ever loving SANTA CLAUS. This book also shows the elves as technologically advanced people who use technology instead of magic. Overall this is anice book
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Booklover
4.0 out of 5 stars ungewöhnliche Version des Weihnachtsmannes und seiner Helferlein
Reviewed in Germany on January 7, 2019
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Die "Legende des fetten Mannes" erweckt einen nicht sehr vorteilhaften Eindruck - bevor man das Buch gelesen hat. Sehr ungewöhnlich beginnt die Story mit einer ausgewanderten Familie, die plötzlich auf merkwürdige Wesen trifft, und durch die "gute" und "böse" Seite getrennt wird. Mutter und Sohn landen bei den Elfen, die im Exil leben. Keine Weihnachtselfen, die Geschenke einpacken, sondern kleine, fette, extrem langlebige Elfen mit Hyper-Technologien, die seit zehntausenden Jahren der Menschheit voraus sind. Nicholas, der Vater, wird vom bösen Jack gekidnappt, der plant, die Menschheit auszurotten und seine tyrannische Herrschaft über die Welt auszubreiten. Letztendlich liegt aber alles an Claus. Dem "fetten Mann", Bruder von Jack, Wissenschaftler. Sollte er sein Gewissen entdecken, liegt die Rettung nahe, aber falls nicht, ist nicht nur Nicholas' kleine Familie in Gefahr.
Macht Lust, die Folgebände zu lesen, aber soweit ich weiß, kann man die Bücher auch einzeln und als standalone lesen. Ungewöhnliches Setting, originelle Abwandlung der Story! Lohnt sich.
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Joy
5.0 out of 5 stars enjoyable read
Reviewed in Australia on December 5, 2018
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This is a good stand alone book even thou its part of a series, I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more.
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dc61
4.0 out of 5 stars Strange
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 20, 2020
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Strange story with glimpses of the well known story. Very cleverly written, amazing that someone has woven this story and intermingled science fiction and imagination bringing it all together into a readable piece of work. Not sure if aimed at kids or adults. Made me keep coming back for more so must have been good. Very cleverly done. Will read more of these.
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