508 pages

Teen and YA/Science Fiction Adventure/Metaphysical and Visionary

This complex and intriguing book is full of action. It’s also packed with thought-provoking discussions among the many fascinating characters. These come as natural parts of the story and we are led into them through both the action and the well-drawn natural exchanges of the players.

Imagination is used to great effect in this story, with multiple settings and a huge array of characters all backed up by their individual and tribal cultures and belief systems. Most of the story is told through the eyes of Fhiro, a young lad with unusual parents and idiosyncratic siblings. These, and the friends they make along their route through the universe, using fabulous technologies and traversing huge distances, tell a tale of war, hope, death, betrayal, love, and divided loyalties. The different faiths portrayed highlight the essentially divisive nature of religion and expose the hypocrisies so frequently displayed by advocates and, especially, those in authority.

Add to this the many strange beasts, some monsters and others acting as servants of the sentient masters in various guises, and you have some idea of the depth of this novel. Multi-layered, and enjoyable at whatever level the reader chooses, this is a book with much to say.

It is adventure, fantasy, science fiction at its most imaginative, romance, coming of age and action all rolled into one cohesive and remarkable story.

This book, along with the sequel already under way, will entertain all who read fiction with an open mind, a love of adventure, and a youthful outlook.