Book review
New book novel in futuristic sense
by Brian Abrams, Reporter

  No promises here for a Pulitzer, but Dallas author Paul Black never intended to reach scholarly levels. He did, however, want to rise above the grocery-store checkout line racks (and maybe sell a few copies, too).
   Between his day job as a graphics designer in Big D and his tennis lessons at night, the Chicago native managed some time to churn out a sexy futuristic novel, reminiscent of David Cronenberg's Scanners.
   Black uses B-movie cliches by the handful to write The Tels, his first of three sci-fi novels.
   John Grisham shouldn't worry about losing his day job, but The Tels, at the very least, makes for some easy-to-swallow brain food.
   In the late 22nd century, yuppie restaurant owner/ chef Jonathan Kortel experiences a middle-age crisis a little too soon. His crisis does not involve an over-the-hill birthday, divorce, a red convertible or a ponytail.
   Instead, Kortel learns of his telekinetic powers, bending the rules of quantum physics.
   While Kortel begins to read minds, halt car accidents and diffuse kitchen fires with his gift, government agencies and sinister revolutionaries track him down, pushing the clairvoyant yuppie into a cat-and-mouse game.
   Kortel then comes to the realization his newfound powers are more useful than just serving as a sideshow act, and he goes superhero on us.
   Black rises above the Trekkie laser tag spastics found in typical sci-fi novels. His sensibilities broaden from machine gun testosterone to discreet fatherhood, from errant sexuality to wry humor.
   Black delivers a package rarely delivered by first-time writers. And The Tels hits the mark as a solid adventure serial, leaving the reader hanging for the next publication.
   The Tels hits the book store shelves late next month.