Alyen

In a world that came and went long before history as we know it was recorded, forces of totalitarian control had apparently won. Except for a small ruling cadre, all lived their lives under computer control, with every thought and action planned for them. As the ruling class engaged in in-fighting the Master Computer is destroyed. As the result of one man waking up, something from another time is fed into the controlling data stream and spreads throughout the entire system.

Monege, a professor with a Bible, and a group of unlikely characters find themselves journeying through space in a ship they can't fly that's running out of fuel.

Korsetta awakes, the boy who has just been auctioned to Meglo, ruler of the galactic empire. He views his situation not as bondage but notoriety and power, bringing him into immediate conflict with those on the ship beginning to pray and read from the Bible.

Then there's the hidden world, and a supernatural being named Nateeka. He's there to withstand the occult forces struggling to maintain control and the people in the little ship are caught in the middle, wondering where they stand.

As the conflict heats up it appears somebody needs to die. Will it be the boy Korsetta, the sentinel Nateeka, the commissar Meglo or the shadowy figure known only as Dextronamus? Or could death be a more general term, the breaking of an inner stronghold, the liberation of something trapped and hidden from the foundation of the universe? It gets down to one of the major questions of all time: Who's in charge?

One of the last scenes is a climactic confrontation with Mavok, a periphery character throughout the storyline. This perverse, grasping, and treacherous man has become forsaken and lonely. His prayer is answered, but not to his liking. What will he do about that?

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Gary Hughes, Author of Alyen

I want to do more than entertain, I want to teach, convince, and promote change in the lives of those who read my books. Ideas are dangerous, they have the power to overthrow the established order. A fearsome monster exists in our world, a thought-numbing, close-ranked mindset that permeates all of society. How do we destroy it? How do we even properly identify it?

Ultimately it comes down to two kingdoms, the earth and all of history being the battlefield. It encompasses all the wars, the struggles, the triumphs, and the pain of the human condition. It's far bigger than Republican vs. Democrat, Capitalist vs. Socialist, Christian vs. Islam, Liberal vs. Conservative, or any other dividing line we try to rally behind.

I love a good sci-fi story, but most have an attitude that makes them hard to enjoy. Woven throughout, from subtle to in-your-face overt, is a total repudiation of the Judeo-Christian God, worldview, and morality. It's a genre that lends itself to promoting any kind of oddball, half-baked lifestyle that somebody may want to justify.

But what about the other side? Can such a story do the opposite, demonstrate that truths are timeless and cause and effect don't change with a few billion years? Wouldn't that take all the fun out of it? Maybe, maybe not.

Imagine the bleakest, darkest, most disgusting scenario in the world and turn it around, bring good out of evil for a total, glorious victory. A young boy, publicly auctioned into a life of exploitation and bondage, captivated by his own notoriety and proud of what he's become, suddenly finds himself in a group of people who are the total antithesis of what he's been taught to view as important.

What of the society that not only accepts but embraces such behavior? Greatness made them what they are, but they haven't been great for some time now. What will happen as their selfish, affluent lifestyle unravels? Is right and wrong more than intellectual disagreement?

And how about making it into a really good story, where people have to make decisions and live with the consequences. We would like to meet some new friends, laugh with their joy and feel their pain. It helps make our own more bearable.

Are we preaching here? Well, maybe. Unless we can actually make a difference, what's the point? After all, the only thing we really know about this world is that we probably won't get out of it alive...

Gary's first novel began life as a concept in 1977, written out first in longhand and then pounded out on a vintage "Underwood Model 5" typewriter with glass-faced keys and Victorian stenciling. The concept was set aside until almost 30 years later, when Gary realized it was still a story that needed to be told. So here it is, the little boy, adrift in a big universe, who's beginning to realize that everything he'd poured his life into was wrong... More about Gary Hughes, here.