Book Recommendation! Outstanding Story!
While on my trip to Green Bay for the Christmas holiday, I finished reading Eleuthera, a novel by Ralph Ewig. I very much enjoyed and recommend this book to anyone that enjoys Sci-Fi. Here's a little about the story...
The story centers around two main characters, Rascor Griffin, Jump Pilot aboard the luxury star-liner Sanssouci. The other character is Cerise Trenton, a young woman who was traumatized, involved in an accident, and suffering from a mild case of amnesia in which she is not able to completely remember the details of how she was traumatized until later in the story.
Other characters that appear during the story include Kris, the computer that runs the Sanssouci and interacts with the passengers and crew of the ship. Alexander Trenton, father of Cerise and owner of the Sanssouci; David Jadro, private secretary to Trenton; BlueEyes, a Reaper and protector of Griffin and Cerise; and Jyn, an android protector of Griffin and Cerise.
During the course of the story the characters are introduced one at a time telling a little of their back stories as it develops. Griffin is not just any ordinary pilot, he is a jPilot, a man with some very special abilities. Unlike the other pilots, his ability is to combine space-time, and thought to instantaneously propel a ship between star systems. Apparently, Griffin only has to visualize where he wants to ship to go and it arrives at its destination. He is also unique that he is able to do this over very long distances while other pilots need multiple jumps.
Griffin, Cerise, BlueEyes, and Jyn team up to expose some very unsavory activities that Trenton and Jadro are involved in and work to right some of the wrongs perpetrated by the Sanssouci owner.
This is Ewig's very first novel and is a masterpiece of writing. The story is gripping and is well paced; there is very little down-time and while not immediately apparent, every element in the story is weaved into a complete picture by the end of the book. I am hoping that it is not the end of the story, because I am looking forward to the next installment soon. So why the title Eleuthera? Well you're just going to have to get the book and read it for yourself. It is available from Amazon or directly from Ewig's publisher, or it is available as an e-book in all of the popular formats for an extremely reasonable price from Smashwords. The author requests that you buy the book and not loan it to others, and at the price ($4.00) for download, anyone can afford to honor that request.
Ralph Ewig is an engineer with SpaceX and one hell of a writer in my opinion. His Eleuthera is well worth the price and the time to read and enjoy.
On A Sad Note...
I was saddened this past Sunday when I checked my Twitter feed and saw an announcement from author Peter David that simply said "I have had a stroke." As you may have read in earlier posts on this blog, Peter David is the author of numerous Star Trek novels as well as a plethora of other works. Those of you who are interested in learning the details can read Kathleen's Post (Peter's wife). Please join me in thinking good thoughts, offering prayers, or whatever you do to send good karma to a great author who has given myself and many others hours upon hours of entertaining stories.
It sounds like a great book, and for sure one that is worth looking into. Most definitely the price is not an excuse or problem.
ReplyDeletePeter David will be in my prayers. It is quite sad to hear of things such as this happening to admirable people.