Five thousand years into the future great earthquakes and fire-storms have left Earth in a cleansed state where spiritually advanced high civilizations thrive under the leadership of godlike beings called the twelve Guardians. In the center of our galaxy, a massive space station called The Ashtar Command Center exists to serve the Supreme Being’s many developing civilizations on countless worlds.
Jonas Neferis is an Intergalactic Special agent and a being called a Shastra (a human with the head of a jackal) who is ordered by the leader of the Command Center, Ashtar himself, to go to Earth. Another agent named Talley has mysteriously disappeared amidst rumors of demons infiltrating a sacred city under orders of the skeleton god of the Underworld, Khapre-Tum, who is bent on wrestling Earth from the Guardian’s care and influence.
Once on Earth, Jonas is thrown into a new world of strange animals, alien beings, ancient cultures and customs, a sacred hermit named Siegfried, intelligent bug-beings, and the mystery of a spreading demonic presence. Khapre-Tum learns of Jonas’s arrival and recruits special demons and elite bounty hunters to capture Jonas and his mentor, Siegfried, before they can prevent a full-scale invasion by the demon army.
When the demon army corners Jonas and his friends in the ancient city of Kalkas, only with the spiritual help of Siegfried and the Guardians can Jonas survive the demon’s attack and enter the Underworld to finally encounter and fight Khapre-Tum to the death. His miraculous victory over the skeleton god brings peace and healing to the earth as the Guardians are once again safe to lead civilization into a promising future.
The dynamic plot, marked by constant shifts in mission objectives, offers continual unpredictability as the scope and stakes—and the playful strangeness of an Earth full of dino-lizards and mega honey badgers—become clear. Jonas's initial objective is to find the all-knowing hermit Siegfried. Persistent bounty hunters Necrat and Tarsus complicate things, relentlessly pursuing Jonas and Siegfried. The narrative gains momentum as Jonas encounters Siegfried, triggering an onslaught by the skeleton god Khapre-Tum’s army on Earth's city of Heliopolis. The revelation that Khapre-Tum plans to unleash a world-shattering weapon on Earth forces Jonas to shift his focus to confronting a literal Demon-god, which of course is a bit much for a first-year agent. Fortunately, in a twist of destiny, Jonas is bestowed with additional power and responsibilities by the celestial being Garud, elevating him to the position of a Savior. It all builds to a high-octane final act of infiltrating the underworld.
The swift resolution of conflicts through Ashtar or Garud's interventions, such as the use of a prophecy, occasionally lessens the tension and challenges faced by Jonas, and the novel’s length is demanding, exacerbated by a tendency to explain in narrative what’s already clear from dialogue. Still, the ending is satisfying, and the narrative's strengths lie in its diverse characters, constant surprises, and jolting reimagination of an ancient Earth.
Takeaway: Wildly inventive SF adventure sending a far-future rookie to a changed Earth.
Comparable Titles: Pittacus Lore’s Ashfall Legacy, Rebecca Coffindaffer’s Throne Breakers.
Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: B+
