Book Description

The work is grouped into four books, the first three starting approx. Five thousand years ago, and the last, on a critical day, bringing them and the characters all together into one work. Opening with "A Book of Traxis," I introduce an ancient, imperial race of creatures from the adjacent Cygnus Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, across from the Crab Nebula, where a girl is graduating from a technical school. For her finals project, she develops a device that more or less creates a temporary copy of life forms, past and present, depending upon data input. The device is seen as a minor accomplishment, one which could be used to confirm or refute Traxian history books, but little more. The ruler of Traxis finds the device intriguing, and likely one she might be able to employ in combat, to probe a far distant enemy prior to invasion. Her chosen target world is Telmut 3, which humanity refers to as Earth. In "A Book of Earth," we find odd occurrences, with fabled beings from the remote past somehow being reborn, if indeed they were ever born before. Among the returning entities are a number of Greek heroes, such as Herikles, crossing the streets of New York City, and impish Pan roaming the wilderness of Pennsylvania and Ohio, filching food from farms, where he eventually meetsa mermaid. Through astronomical observations, Prof. von Kreiger of Cornell University is able to deduce the impending invasion, but can see little the people of Earth might do to prevent the implied conflict. With "A Book of Gods," we have the return of the Greek pantheon, and a new god, Herikles' great grandfather, Perseus, the first king of Mycen, complete with the glory of Pegasus, sent upon a quest to find his wife, Andromeda, the first queen of Mycen. The gods, being gods, realize the approach of the Traxian armada and set preparations to meet force with divinity. Finally, in "A Book of Khaos," the enemy is met and conflict is . . . well . . . more than expected. There is a minor twist in the story here, as a major defender of Earth, Aphrodite, discovers the truth regarding the rebirth of Olympus, tracing events to the machine aboard the Traxian mothership. Fearing annihilation for herself and her amazing family, she approaches the Traxian ruler, in search of salvation. Except for a few minor additions for the glossary (I was informed by a reader some years ago this might be nice for the cartoon-raised generation who may not be well versed in Thomas Bulfinch's mythology text books) and some rewriting (truncation, actually) of published lyrics and the addition of a few poignant chapter quotations, the manuscript is complete, with the ending left a bit open for a possible sequel.