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PROMETHEUS
An Award Winning Novel of New Beginnings"Prometheus, you are glad that you have outwitted me and stolen fire... but I will give men as the price for fire an evil thing in which they may all be glad of heart while they embrace their own destruction. "
So speaks Zeus, of ancient mythology, to the demi-God Prometheus.
PROMETHEUS
- a trek in ancient Nepal turns into a race to save mankind.PROMETHEUS
Hard Shell Word Factory
E-book: ISBN: 0-7599-0566-5
Trade Paperback: 0-7599-0567-3
Review by S. Joan Popek
Rating: Excellent
This story is an extraordinary blend of adventure, Abominable Snowmen, nuclear disaster, love, despair and hope. This alone is quite a combination, yet there is more. Add in ethnic diversity, terrorism and various nations' attitudes of "My dog is bigger than your dog," and you have a tale to remember.
You get inside the minds and hearts of leaders as they make world changing decisions. You experience the fanatic psychology of terrorism. You travel with a troop of brave explorers searching for the legendary Yeti and their own brand of immortality. Is the Yeti real? What would you do if you found him? If you are an adventurer who wants to know what makes humanity tick, you can't miss reading this book.
This is a story of mankind at its best and at its worst. It is a story that makes you think--a story that forces you to take a look at humanity and decide if you like what you see. The twists and surprises are as varied and winding as the mountain trails the small band of explorers travel as they search for the truth in legends.
What if you were dying but you had the chance to start a new chain of evolution? Would you have the courage to do it? Are our myths founded in reality? Greek mythology tells us that Prometheus gave Man fire and set him on the road to civilization. Because of this, the gods punished him throughout eternity. Why?
Was it indeed the mastery of fire that set mankind apart from the animals and perhaps made them more like the gods? Ludec, a major character in the expedition's search says, "That is one of the wonderful things about human nature...Men can not live without plans, and plans are the ultimate expression of faith in the future." Is this what makes us unique? Are we really so unique as we believe?
Find the answers to these questions and much more in this spellbinding adventure into one possible future. I couldn't stop turning the pages until I finished the last one. It's that good. PROMETHEUS is not your ordinary science fiction. The authors have a special style that leaves you thinking about the book long after you close it. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys adventure, philosophy and just plain, entertaining fiction.
PROMETHEUS
Publishing Date: Sept. 2002
Genre: Future Fiction
Paperback ISBN 0-7599-0567-3
E-Book ISBN 0-7599-0566-5
Rating and Content: 4 1/2 stars;
Reviewed By: Judy Gill
Brock Lowden, an athletic ex-marine, a linguist and specialist in non-verbal communication, Ludec Kabela, well-known Czech anthropologist, Nicole Holden, American journalist, Andrew McFairlain, Scottish mountaineer, and Rudolph Weiner, a German archeologist are teamed up by the Royal Geographic Society to travel to Nepal in search of the Yeti.
Their mission is to prove or disprove the existence of the mythical beast. While all agree it will be almost impossible to disprove something as elusive as the Snowman, they would like very much to find incontrovertible proof that it does exist. Being the first people from the Western world to actually see and document the creature would provide a huge step up in each of their careers.
Unknown to the expedition members, however, border wars in several nations have been constantly escalating. When one Asian nation sets off a nuclear device, a horrific war ensues, which wipes out virtually all life on the planet. High in the mountains, and therefore above the worst of the radiation cloud that quickly covers the earth, the expedition listens in shock and fear as one by one, their electronic contacts report the devastation then blink off the air.
The group takes shelter in a Buddhist monastery, but know that despite their isolated situation, their time is limited as the radiation slowly approaches. There is some outdated Russian anti-toxin which might save some of the people on the mountain, but there isn't enough for all, and what there is will likely only delay the inevitable.
What would be the point in continuing their search for the Yeti? But again, what would be the point in not continuing? They had arrived in the mountains with a purpose. If they have to die, wouldn't they prefer to die having accomplished something, even if the only ones to know they did so are themselves?
Local legend tells of a protected valley where the Snowmen live. Surrounded by high, impenetrable walls of ice, yet blessed by a warm atmosphere that would create updrafts, preventing the radiation cloud from descending, could this be a final place of refuge? What if, several of the group reason, the Yeti can be found, could the humans maybe survive among them?
One of the local tribesmen is certain his ancestors' tales of the valley are true. He agrees to lead the members of the expedition who want to accompany him to the portal to this mysterious valley. But . . . will they live long enough to get there? Will the surviving Chinese army personnel, who have claimed the monastery area as being under their "protection" allow their escape? Or will the radiation sickness get them first?
Regardless, three of them feel honor-bound to try. Even if they are little more than animals, could the Yeti not be shown some important aspects of human society? If this could be done, the Earth would not have to become just a vacant ball orbiting the Sun. If some of the Westerners do manage to reach the Yeti, is there the possibility of their being able, as did Prometheus of much earlier mythology, to introduce fire to a primitive people, setting them on a path toward civilization?
PROMETHEUS is an "after-the-holocaust" story with an important difference that renders it unique among stories of this nature. Well-written, carefully plotted, and highly intelligent in its philosophy, it will give readers much to ponder long after they've finished reading it.
Judy Gill reviews for Simply E-Books
Prometheus
Paperback ISBN 0-7599-0567-3
E-Book ISBN 0-7599-0566-5
Publisher: Hard Shell Word Factory
The aim of the expedition organized by the International Society of Natural Sciences was to find a definitive answer to a question which had fascinated mankind for so many years: did the Abominable Snowman exist?
Czechoslovakian-born anthropologist Ludec Kabela views the rest of the I.S.O.N.S team's members: East German archaeologist Rudolf Weiner; American Brock Lowden, communications and language expert; journalist Nicole Holden (another American); and veteran Scottish mountaineer Andrew McFairlain with suspicion. His joy at being chosen for this expedition has been ruined by a visit from a "gray man," who's let him know that the search for the Yeti may be a cover for a military intelligence mission. Either Ludec participates as eyes and ears for those who now control his native land, or he places the family he left behind (his beloved niece and foster daughter, Marica, especially) in jeopardy. Who among his companions, he wonders as he assumes leadership, is working for other powers? Who else has a hidden agenda, and what is its nature?
As the expedition moves out from Kathmandu into the Himalayan spring, events progress swiftly in the rest of the world. Soon finding (or not finding) the Yeti doesn't matter, because Ludec and his companions have more urgent concerns--or do they? Is it possible that the "Mountain Gods," if they do exist, may hold the key to civilization's survival?
This book was not, I have to say, the best choice of reading material I could have made on the week after terrorist attacks destroyed the World Trade Center and seriously damaged the Pentagon. Its near-future setting couldn't provide enough emotional distance for me, at first, to let myself be drawn into what I quickly realized might be a tale with a tragic ending. Yet as I continued reading, and as the plot failed to unfold predictably, but instead twisted and turned, and surprised me from scene to scene I found myself wanting to know how it would end. And then very much wanting to know, as Domokos reached back to deal with loose ends (credibly) and brought his story to a satisfying and ultimately positive conclusion.
For me this tale's minor characters were more vivid than its main ones, who seemed a trifle too carefully crafted. The minor characters leaped into life because I learned about them from their words and their actions, while the major characters each seemed constructed to serve a particular function and their motivations were often quite bluntly explained to me, instead of being revealed through the tale's unfolding. However, I came to care about them very much; and that is surely the gold standard of successful characterization.
"An old-fashioned doomsday thriller with a unique twist," is how I would sum up Prometheus. I picked the worst possible week to read it, and enjoyed it anyway!
Reviewed by Nina M. Osier http://www.geocities.com/nina_osier
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