AUTHOR'S COMMENTARY        I wrote The Survivors and its prequel Lizard's Lair, both novels primarily out of a teenage fondness for grand science-fiction space adventure.        If you look around at what is available out there today, it is readily obvious that the emphasis is on fantasy rather than traditional science-fiction. While the likes of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings abound, one has to wonder and ask: just what ever happened to the good old science-fiction space adventures in the style of the original Star Trek television series and as written by the grand old masters like Robert A. Heinlein and Poul Anderson?        Whatever happened to the glossy paperback covers of the 1960’s depicting a handsome leading man, the curvy females in tightly fitting space uniforms, spaceships, robots, and ray guns?       When I arranged submission of a press release on The Survivors not long ago to The Sacramento Bee, the release states that, in addition to being a fast page-turning adventure story, “for those interested in a slightly deeper read--with musings on the nature of life and death, love and lust, loyalty, war--all of that is there, too. . .”        I am going out on a limb and predict that this novel will become at least a minor cult favorite of science-fiction fans. I expect that some critics and reviewers will delve into the perceived “weightier implications" of the work. Maybe I had some of that in mind myself.        Still, belay all of that! At least on a first easy read. For those of us who are sci-fi fans and children of the 1960’s, who pine for Star Trek on a Friday night and re-runs of Flash Gordon on a Saturday morning, we just  want something fun to read and harkening back to the early work of say Robert A. Heinlein and of Poul Anderson--but with a modern touch. If you like The Survivors at all on this simple level of fun and entertainment alone, then power to you and that is fine by me.          Derek Laurens, May 30, 2008 at Sacramento, California