Saturday, December 12, 2015

Liza Reviews Grand Master's Mate by Aurora Springer who shares knowledge.


The Grand Master’s Trilogy

Grand Master’s Mate, Book 3 in this trilogy, releases this month, about ten months after the publication of Book 1, Grand Master’s Pawn. I am thrilled, and a little saddened, after completing my longest series to date. In many ways, I’ll miss the protagonists, Violet and Athanor, and their adventures on planets with bizarre lifeforms.

The original concept for this trilogy dates back some thirty years ago when I had an abundance of short stories. My initial idea was to combine several short stories into a full-length novel. The organizing theme pays homage to Lewis Carroll’s Alice Through the Looking Glass. The Pawn, Violet Hunter, travels on missions to different planets under the command of a mysterious Grand Master. Two of my short stories and skimpy notes about a dragon morphed into Violet’s first three missions. In her fourth mission, she meets her Grand Master and her challenges escalate. So did my challenges as the author because I realized their story continued over two additional books. After a rollercoaster of adventures on different planets, I leave them at a happy point by the end of Book 3.  



Teleportal Travel between Planets
In my stories set in the Grand Masters’ Universe, the portal web allows instant travel between distant planets.
The portals are based on a current physics theory to explain quantum effects:
The universe we experience is just one of a gigantic number of worlds. Some are almost identical to ours while most are very different.
All of these worlds are equally real, exist continuously through time, and possess precisely defined properties.
All quantum phenomena arise from a universal force of repulsion between 'nearby' (i.e. similar) worlds which tends to make them more dissimilar.
Albert Einstein famously described quantum entanglement as "spooky action at a distance" because it seems so improbable that what happens to one particle in an entangled pair also happens instantly to the other particle, even over great distances. The phenomenon exceeds the speed of light. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-06-method-quantum-entanglement-vastly-photon.html

The teleportals enable galactic travel, commerce and communication between planets. There are limitations and unexpected consequences.

1) A portal must be constructed at the desired destination. The Space Corps technicians perform this task by traveling to new planets in spaceships at sub-light speeds. They can send an unmanned ship containing a portal, but travel between star systems will take years. Fortunately, humans and aliens have been setting up portals for thousands of years and much of the civilized galaxy is linked in the portal web. The Wistralians have developed an improved technology to construct a portal in space for a fast return trip.
  
2) Communications are limited. You cannot use a phone to chat with a friend on another planet because the signal travels at the speed of light. Even Earth and Mars have an awkward time delay. It is faster to jump into the portal cylinder and visit in person. Alternatively, you can write a letter, or compose a digital message on a com chip, and send the message via the Interplanetary Communications Service. It works like the postal service, delivering the physical message to the local Interplanetary Communications Station. Only the Grand Masters have special miniportals to exchange private messages.



Grand Master’s Mate
Young empath, Violet Hunter, and her crafty Grand Master, Athanor Griffin, tackle the villains threatening civilization.
Their worst enemy, the Red Queen, rampages across the galaxy evading capture, while blocked portals restrict normal commerce among planets. Compounding their problems, half the Grand Masters on the Council fear Violet is the agent of their doom as her father foretold, and vow to eliminate her. To restore peace, Violet and Athanor embark on a dangerous quest for a weapon hidden by the ancient psychic masters on one of four planets. But, the weapon proves elusive, the ancient sites harbor hazards, and new alliances forged with bizarre entities may not be sufficient to foil their enemies and save the galaxy.


What a fabulous ending to the most remarkable, intriguing, and creative Sci-Fi series I have ever read.
I absolutely love this series. It is so rich in strange sentients, all beautifully described, and so very different than humans, yet so alike them in other ways.
Of course, not all are ‘good’ sentients. Some are fabulous while others are cautious, playing both sides of the proverbial fence.  And some are downright deadly evil and seem intent upon destroying everything.

Violet, the Grand Master’s Pawn and mate, has the ability to emote empathy, and let me say, when dealing with other sentients, this often makes the difference between life and death throughout all three books.
In fact, if you asked me, I would say Violet is more important than any of the Grand Masters, since she can gently sway sentients to her side, even when she hasn’t asked for help. Violet is brave, kind, courageous, and highly skilled. It is not possible to create a better 3-dimensional heroine than Aurora Springer has.
But Aurora’s talents don’t end with well-rounded character. Nope! She also knows precisely how to make a memorable, non-stop action story. Three of them, in fact. But this one ends better than I ever anticipated. I really wish I could give this book 10 stars!


Buy Links:

   


The Grand Master’s Trilogy:
Book 1 is only 99c for December
Grand Master’s Pawn: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TP1N5PM  
Grand Master’s Game: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0104OFJJ8
Grand Master’s Mate: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B018EHAA7S


Bio:
Aurora Springer is a scientist morphing into a novelist. She has a PhD in molecular biophysics and discovers science facts in her day job. She has invented adventures in weird worlds for as long as she can remember. In 2014, Aurora achieved her life-long ambition to publish her stories. Her works are character-driven romances set in weird worlds described with a sprinkle of humor. Some of the stories were composed thirty years ago. She was born in the UK and lives in Atlanta with her husband, a dog and two cats to sit on the keyboard. Her hobbies, besides reading and writing, include outdoor activities like gardening, watching wildlife, hiking and canoeing.

Media links:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Aurora-Springer/e/B00K2C4NL8





2 comments:

All spammers will be shot with a plasma gun.