About the story …
Gleaming cities reduced to pockets of civilization huddled behind palisade walls. The hunted protect themselves from hunters on a post-apocalyptic world fast approaching destruction, its surface peppered with space‑time distortions that will one day tear it apart. A forgotten three, Alicia, James and Halvor, labor in the last stronghold of a once technologically advanced society, hoping to finish a monumental undertaking before they are forced to leave.
A safe haven called “Terra Nova” has been found in another universe. Thousands of unsuspecting communities spread across the globe must be relocated as well as inoculated to protect against the biodiversity of the new habitat. After almost a millennium, a chance encounter with Ash, an outcast hunter child, yields half the answer. Her DNA contains the antibodies for a vaccine, but simulations only go so far. Ultimately, she must travel to that alien planet. Experience has taught her to think only of herself. Fearing the choice will be made for her, she flees deep underground. Aidos was once a vibrant subterranean city. Now, it is home to a supernatural being. None who go return.
Ash reasons the ancient legends will prevent pursuit. She is wrong. Alicia is the only person with any chance of surviving the journey. The one who holds domain over an underworld kingdom is also her guardian. Once, he was an astrophysicist investigating the mysteries of space‑time, her father’s best friend. An accident on a scientific expedition transformed him into an immortal. The tragic death of the woman he loved turned him inward to retreat into darkness to seek revenge and mourn his loss.
As time runs out, two parts to solve the crisis converge: a child with a robust immune system and a tortured soul with unique insight into the very phenomenon of the approaching inexorable extinction event. Will they agree to help? Is it too little too late?
About the cover …
Eyes set at an angle immediately capture the attention, beckoning the reader to focus on an object in rapid motion. It looks like a sphere in free‑fall, perhaps under the force of gravity. But there is another less obvious perspective. From overhead, the movement is horizontal.
A blue and off‑white sphere. On a small‑scale, a ball or a marble. At the other end of the spectrum, a planet. Perhaps, even a metaphor for a world community. The synopsis would argue for an interpretation on a grand‑scale, giving the allusion of a space opera: colorful, dramatic, expansive.
The shape of its journey resembles a wormhole, a hypothetical structure able to connect points separated by vast distances, and depending on conditions, travel through time is also possible.
Finally, the palette is green, a color often associated with fresh growth. As it relates to our story, new beginnings. However, there are also ominous highlights to symbolize danger and peril. The combination of light and dark is a reference to a struggle between hope and despair.
