Dauntless Homecoming
If you are in such a rush that you can't even spend the time to read the rest of this page,
by all means, go ahead and order it now.
It's also available as Kindle edition.
No? That's OK, too. Kick back and I'll talk about it for a little bit.
You can read the first three chapters here, if you'd like.
It is the winner in the Science Fiction category of the 2011 New York Book Festival, and has won honorable mention in the science fiction / fantasy category of the Five Star Dragonfly Book Awards.
The novel is science fiction, set hundreds of years in the future, when a starship, The Dauntless, from mankind's first interstellar expedition, returns back to Earth. The planet they visited wasn't very interesting, just a lifeless ball of rock. Earth, on the other hand, had changed in ways they couldn't have imagined.
The world is now ruled by one king and a group of very powerful beings known as the Purnarkat. The crew from The Dauntless doesn't quite know how to react. The world they knew before they left hadn't been that different from our own - a bunch of independent nations that often didn't get along very well. In this new world they now find, the crew resents the rule imposed upon the world, questioning why the "normal" humans aren't in charge.
One of the crew, Jim, disappears soon after their landing, which serves to set them on edge, and make them suspicious that things aren't what they seem. The captain of the crew, Cliff, decides to take matters into his own hands, to liberate the world from the rule of the Purnarkat.
The rest of the crew reluctantly follow him, but all of them must deal with their own emotional and even spiritual baggage. Their quest to understand and fit into this new world takes all of their resources, and leads them in very surprising directions.
This novel is rooted in the Christian world-view. It's just assumed that it's there behind the scenes, and shouldn't whack you in the face. If you're familiar with Judeo-Christian prophecies, you should find your place in G-d's timeline around the middle of the book. I don't want to spoil it for you by explaining it now.
Here are a couple of short little "prequels" to the book so you can get to know the crew better:
- The tumultuous events in Jim's life that led up to him joining the crew. (note that it's a lot more overtly Christian than the book itself, because that's who Jim is)
- This almost meant the destruction of The Dauntless if it were not for an unexpected hero
There are some foreign words in the book, don't let that imtimidate you.
You can read the first three chapters here, if you'd like.
I hope you decide to buy the book in paperback from Amazon.com, and that you enjoy it. Thanks for visiting this site!