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Beyond Cloud Nine
Those who love a good, solid science-fiction story won’t be disappointed with Greg Spry’s Beyond Cloud Nine. Spry maps out a futuristic Earth where humans have expanded their reach and colonized other planets. Our protagonist is Brooke Davis, a young fighter pilot who is the best of her generation. A child born from a Japanese mother and an American father, Brooke has faced discrimination her entire life. Add to the fact that she suffers from a disorder caused by gene therapy before her birth and Brooke screams protagonist. It’s almost as if she knows she’s the star of the novel but what Brooke has to overcome before she can confidently say she has saved the day is both tragic and exhausting. Expending all of her faculties to uncover a surprise conspiracy while reconnecting with her estranged twin sister and niece, Brooke powers forward in this exciting tale where science meets fiction.
Despite first appearances, Brooke is not a strong female lead. She’s battered, bordering on completely broken in both body and soul. Never forgiving herself for the hand she played in her father’s death our protagonist runs away from the things that she can’t handle. This includes her twin sister, who she left behind on Earth six years before the book begins to pursue her profession as a pilot for the United Nations. While she is good at what she does, it is not without a cost. We discover quite early on that Brooke is addicted to illegally enhancing her body with a drug referred to as “Sparks”. It is only after breaking a colleague’s nose Brooke returns to her sister and attempts at reconciliation.
There are many ways a science-fiction tale can go wrong. Over exaggerated feats of science and unrealistic explanations of technology have doomed many a series. Beyond Cloud Nine does not suffer from either of these faults no doubt in part to Spry’s real life experience with engineering and space systems. His control over the craft of story-telling uses these skills and experiences to explain what is happening in an amateur-friendly fashion. No over the top jargon or complicated explanations to detract from the story at hand.
During Brooke’s journey from almost-washed up pilot to practical savior of the planet readers will watch her grow and develop into something that resembles a human being, complete with feelings and emotions. In the beginning Brooke is too broken to connect properly with those around her. Even when she first reconnects with her sister after a six-year absence she has troubles interacting on a human level. She’s angry, confused and as lost as a teenager trying to figure out what makes them, them.
Readers will surely enjoy this first installment to the Beyond saga penned by Greg Spry. Brooke overcomes some of her faults while retaining others and that allows readers to feel more connected to her; because she’s real. Beyond Cloud Nine delivers with action, compelling character development and realistic explanations for technology that doesn’t quite exist yet in our present time. Or does it?
Pages: 360 | ASIN: B00NOFZ16Q
Arose From the Myths and Legends
Katlynn Brooke Author Interview
The Six and the Crystals if Ialana is a coming-of-age fantasy story rich with details, a large cast of characters, and a world rife with magic. What was the inspiration for the world of Ialana and the rich history you’ve built into it?
My inspiration for Ialana arose from the myths and legends of the lost continent of Atlantis. In my Ialana Series, the City of Rhiannon is loosely based upon these legends, while the continent itself is drawn entirely from my imagination. In the first book, I also drew the mysterious island of Mu’A partially out of these so-called myths, but the bulk of the inspiration for that island actually came from a dream I once had. In this dream, I was an inhabitant of this island, and all the shielding technology—so-called “magic”— once existed. This dream was very real, so that is what I used as my basis for the shielding technology in my series. The history of Ialana is loosely based upon our own world’s lost history. I firmly believe that we are not the first civilization to inhabit this planet, and we won’t be the last. It is my opinion, and one that is shared by many, that technology is not new here, and that our current level of knowledge still has a ways to go. My series highlights the vast gap that now exists between science and spirituality, or what we think of as magic. I want to show how they can come together, to not be disparate from each other.
In this story six kids realize they have more in common than they might suspect. What character did you enjoy writing for and why?
I identified with Jarah, my main protagonist, the most. He feels different from not only the people of his village, but also from his family and his peers. While this may be a common teenage issue, his angst goes beyond the normal insecurities. When his dreams begin, his worst fears are confirmed: he is different to those around him. Each one of the six characters feel this gap between them and the people around them, but they each deal with it in different ways. They all know that their dreams are out of the ordinary, and that this sets them apart from their peers in a way that they must grapple with and try to understand.
The kids are rescued by a mysterious shape-shifter named Irusan. This enigmatic creature becomes their first teacher. Why did you feel he was the best character to teach the kids about their past?
Irusan is the “Gandalph” of the series. He is the archetype of the wise old man, the Mentor. Someone must help these kids to understand what is happening to them, and why, and Irusan is just strange enough that the kids will know without a shred of doubt that there is much more to reality than they’ve been taught. When they see with their own eyes what he is capable of, they must believe, and that helps them open up to the magic that is around them; and initially, with the help of crystals, the magic that they can tap into. I also hope that the reader will understand that we are only limited by our beliefs, and that if we knew what we were really capable of, we’d be amazed.
This book is the first in a series. Can you tell us more about what we can expect as the story continues into books two and three?
The Six and the Crystals of Ialana is the foundational book of the series. It sets the stage for all that is to follow, and I recommend that readers read them in the order they were written. It will help them to better understand the characters and the events that follow. In the second book, The Six and the Gardeners of Ialana, the Six continue on their healing mission, but they are thwarted by another despotic man, and hunted by a new enemy: yet another shape-shifter, but one that is the polar opposite to their mentor, Irusan. This one is capable of great magic and she and Irusan have a history that is hinted at in the rest of the series. The Six find themselves on the run again, and they must now find another hidden kingdom where they will be taught elemental command. They encounter many more challenges, as does their friend Blaidd, whose life has now taken an unexpected and tragic turn. In the third of the series, The Six and Anwyn of Ialana, the focus is still on the Six friends, but now there is an addition: a daughter. This girl, Anwyn, was born and raised in the elemental kingdom, and her skills surpass those of her parents and the Six. As they and Anwyn are now adepts in their chosen roles of healers, the opposition to them from the forces of evil increase. They find themselves facing enemies whose skills and abilities are equal to or even greater than theirs, and they must not only protect themselves, but at the same time save the planet from destruction.
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Mutant creatures, a Reptilian Dragon King, and a mysterious shape shifter… For fans of epic fantasy, the first book in the Ialana Series delivers a thrilling and fast-paced adventure saga. The quest, 500 years in the making to find and restore the lost crystals of Ialana, unites six young people who, along with a seventh between the ages of 15-21, were all born with a secret buried deep within. Guided by a shared dream, they leave the only homes they have ever known and set out on a life-altering quest through a maze of mountain caves and tunnels where they encounter insidious creatures, but none so dangerous, perhaps, as one of their very own. Mentored by Irusan the transcendental shape-shifter, the six young heroes develop impenetrable relationships and ultimately learn to rely upon one another. They battle their way to the lost crystal, but will they find it in time? Or, will their enemy succeed in his mission to control the powerful crystals of Ialana?
Milijun
On a distant moon, a miner stumbles upon an apparent catacomb of an alien species, but when one is brought to the surface for study, it sparks a strange and violent invasion as the species wakes and makes their way to Earth. While on vacation in southern Australia, Laura and Jason Sinclair are the first to view the aliens’ arrival, but while trying to put the strange sighting behind them, their vacation turns into a nightmare as Jason’s sudden abduction and physical interaction with the aliens sparks a journey across the desert in search of answers. As the mother and son are pursued by law enforcement, military personnel, and the otherworldly beings, they’ll have to discover who is friend and who is foe in a world where any human may harbor an alien within.
Graham’s book Milijun is, at its core, the story of a mother trying to keep safe a son who is increasingly thrown in danger, first by others, but later at his own behest and for noble intentions. Her panicked determination and fierce protection of her teenage son are entirely relatable and hold the emotional center of the book. Around that, the sci-fi plot swirls, much like the pressurized vortex the aliens create, occasionally landing in moments of sincere character development, but otherwise surrounding the reader in the universe Graham has created. Modern technologies are newly interpreted in this year of 2179 AD, with fantastical ideas like phasing, instantaneous teleporting, and corporeal possession given plausible, scientific grounding. As with many sci-fi works, the focus is the world, the background against which the plot occurs. The expanse of space and the futuristic Australia are both described in wonderful detail, revealing great personal knowledge with both environments. The humanity and motives of every character is questioned, both for their personal interests in the new alien species and the possibility they are being possessed by that invading species. There are themes throughout of motherhood, the moral stakes in scientific exploration, the nature of the afterlife, and the existence of souls – all used to great effect.
Beyond Laura’s motivation to keep her son safe, however, the other interactions between the human characters seems plot-driven, as opposed to true connection. However, because of this, the reveals and surprises in the final third are true surprises, but I wish I could have been let in on the secret with half-hidden hints about our character’s motivations throughout the first two-thirds. As it stands, people seem to realize they’re being deceived or supported because of sudden gut intuition, not conveyed from the character but from the plot’s necessity.
One of the character devices that stuck out the most was the supposed romances – I say supposed because they either come out of nowhere, or aren’t supported by the involved character’s actions. They don’t interfere with the basic story, but they don’t add much either, many because they are unbelievable, or they aren’t necessary to the story’s development. These romantic pairings are supposed to make us feel more for the characters, but if they had been executed as well as the mother-son relationship, I would have cared more about the outcome, instead of seen them as odd personality traits thrown out to garner affection for one particular character.
In the end, these character flaws didn’t keep me from enjoying the story presented, and the eventual abolishment of the classic “good vs. evil” dichotomy was greatly welcomed, as well as that character’s choices, whether right or wrong in the end, did have consequences. The ending, which was oddly ambiguous in its instantaneous, unexpected nature, nevertheless intrigues me, especially with many plot threads still left open-ended, and I’m excited to see where the surviving characters go in subsequent works.
Pages: 322 | ISBN: 0994495609
LITERARY TITAN 