LAST CHANCE

After months in a cryo-tube, they finally woke me. What a headache! Sheesh. And holy moly, I really had to go to the bathroom, after which I needed not so much a shower as a sandblasting. That cryo gunk is sticky and it gets into places you just wouldn’t … well, maybe you would … believe.

Then there was food. Never in my entire life have I wanted to eat a starship, including the wings. Talk about an appetite. And it wasn’t just me. Everyone had just been wakened and I’m sure we all felt the same way: hollow.

A little piece of T.S. Eliot was spinning in my head:

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us-if at all-not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.

I vaguely remembered more of the poem.

This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.

I sure did hope that was not a prediction for our explorations to come. Because given what bad shape the earth was in, we needed more than a merely decent place. We needed a fertile planet on which crops could grow. Where the battered human race could remember itself, its better self. We hadn’t been better than cockroaches in a long, long time.

Finally after eating for what seemed an eternity, we donned our lime green suits — the lightweight ones for worlds that were not inherently hostile, merely unknown — and they opened the doors and we emerged. Into paradise.

It was breathtaking. The colors were a bit odd with that pink sky and pale blue clouds. And the plants were all kinds of colors, like a flower garden. Hell, the whole planet was a garden. So we named it “Eden” which I thought was a mistake. We got kicked out of Eden once already. But hey, what do I know? I don’t make the Big Decisions. Way abovemy pay grade. You might say I was just along for the ride.

Before we reboarded the ship, I had a little thought. I dawdled. Picked up the litter we’d left behind. I found a big piece of cardboard. Must have been a box of some sort, but it would make a pretty good sign. I found a piece of wood to attach it to. I had a nail gun in my tool kit as well as a big marking pen — fortunately it hadn’t dried out and worked in the lower gravity of this new planet. New to us, but home to so much life. As Earth had once been before we stripped her of everything but our trash.

I planted my sign near where we’d landed. I was sure future expeditions would land in more or less the same spot. Then I wrote my message. In my best handwriting. Using huge letters so no one could miss it — or mistake its meaning:

THE RETURN BY MELISSA DOUTHIT - PART 3 OF THE RAIE’CHAELIA TRILOGY

After a fall  from the Maaldan cliff (for anyone else, it would have been fatal), Chalice rejoins her friends. The time has come to finish what they began. Chalice is coming into her full power, her potential is being realized. The degree of power she is able to summon is awe-inspiring. Terrifying not only to her enemies, but to herself and her friends.

She is young and angry, has little experience of life. Not enough to guide the decisions she needs to make -- on which the fate of the world depends. Her powers exceed her control. Her temper is hot, abrupt. She makes mistakes, finds it hard to stick to plans. Or think clearly if her emotions are involved. Worse, she cannot (literally) tell Jeremiah -- or anyone -- the whole truth. Jeremiah has his own secrets. Many secrets, many people.

Now that she reunited with her friends on a journey that takes them to the coastline of Ielieria. Led by Chalice, who has gained knowledge from her father by traveling into a strange dream world, they sail the seas. There will be war. They need to prepare.

And then, there's her father. What will happen when she returns him to the throne? What he learns some of the things she has done, by mistake and on purpose?

Meanwhile, Lucca hates Chalice with his entire being. His obsession to find and destroy her is his one vulnerability. As he searches the kingdom for Chalice,  she must lure him out, ultimately let him find her. It's a potentially lethal game of cat and mouse. The prize? Everyone's freedom and the future of the realm ... not to mention life and death for the rebels and their sympathizers.

This is a fun book and a good read. Lots of action -- magic, young love, battles and war -- and one amazing horse. Don't underestimate the horse; she's a major character. If you love horses (I do), it's a great addition. There's a lot to like, memorable and sympathetic heroes and heroines. Plus some very sinister bad guys.

This is a young book, aimed at a youthful audience though suitable for adults too. Chalice and all her compatriots are kids and act like it, so you can't blame them for doing stuff kids do. If you think it's unrealistic, it's not. Throughout history, the very young have led armies. Princes in their teens, generals barely ready to shave. Only in recent centuries as life expectancy increased has leadership transferred to older generations.

I read the entire trilogy from the first through this, the third and final book, without a break. For all practical purposes, it's one book broken into three parts ... like Lord of the Rings. I don't suggest reading this as a stand-alone. If you haven't read the first two books, read them before you read this.

Prequels

The Journey Begins: A novella prequel. Chalice’ story before the first book begins.

The Vanishing: A novella prequel. Jeremiah’s story before the first book begins.

The Trilogy

The Raie’Chaelia: Book One.

The Firelight of Maalda: Book Two.

The Return: Book Three.

Available from Amazon, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble.

TIME TRAVEL AND THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION: STEPHEN KING, 11/22/63

Don’t let the headline fool you. It’s about a lot more than either time travel, the Kennedy Assassination or any other single thing. It’s about life, loss, change and human relationships. What makes it so brilliant is that all of these elements are bundled together into a book that will make you laugh, cry and think. And remember.

11/22/63 by Stephen King is so good it took my breath away. I’m not a Stephen King fan all the time, although several of his books and stories are among my favorite works of American fiction. I never have a problem with his writing. It goes from good to amazing, but his usual genre (horror) is not among my favorites.

This book is not horror. Although small sections of the book touch on it, they merely graze the edge of familiar King territory. He never dives into it. This is science fiction, as good an example of science fiction time travel as I’ve ever read and I’ve read pretty much every book in the genre. To say I’m a time travel junkie would not overstate it.

Stephen King does the genre proud. Beyond that, this book is beautiful. It is not merely well-written. It is eloquent, poetic, lyrical. I do not say this lightly. My husband, who is usually not a King fan — with the exception of his stories about baseball and the Red Sox – was dubious when I handed him the book and said “Read it. You’ll love it, I promise!” Typically, he makes faces and argues with me, but this time, he listened and read the book. Once he began, he couldn’t put it down. He read portions of it out loud because he felt they were so perfect they deserved to be read aloud, like poetry.

The plot is simple to describe, though enormously rich and complex in the telling. A writer determines to go back in time and prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy. His attempt and travels in time produce many repercussions both for him personally and for our world. The “Butterfly Effect” has never been better illustrated. Whether or not you usually like Stephen King, if you are a reader of science fiction and/or time travel, you owe yourself a trip through this wonderful book. Like many authors, King dodges the technical issues of time travel via the tried-and-true “hole in the time-space continuum” ploy to move his characters to a particular time and place. King does it well and makes it an interesting part of the journey.

Many, if not most readers apparently agree this is the best book King has written in many long years, perhaps the best since “The Stand” and in my opinion, better. Granted that this is a subjective statement, but I guarantee if you read this book, you will not be disappointed.

This is a master story-teller at the peak of his abilities: Stephen King with emotion, poetry, depth, beauty, intelligence and finally, without taking any cheap or easy ways out of the complexities he creates. An amazing book. If you are any kind of science fiction reader, it’s a must-read. And if you’re a history buff, it’s interesting alternate history.