Across the ocean, the seekers get caught between those who reject progress and those who wish for a simpler way. Their challenge: bring the sides together. The prize: a chance to take home miracles. But if they fail this time, they risk losing themselves in the twilight of a never-ending dream.
Against all odds, Orah and Nathaniel have found the keep and revealed the truth about the darkness, initiating what they hoped would be a new age of enlightenment. But the people were more set in their ways than anticipated, and a faction of vicars whispered in their ears, urging a return to traditional ways.
Desperate to keep their movement alive, Orah and Nathaniel cross the ocean to seek the living descendants of the keepmasters’ kin. Those they find on the distant shore are both more and less advanced than expected.
The seekers become caught between the two sides, and face the challenge of bringing them together to make a better world. The prize: a chance to bring home miracles and a more promising future for their people. But if they fail this time, they risk not a stoning but losing themselves in the twilight of a never-ending dream.
Be sure to start with the first book in this series, the multiple award-winning The Children of Darkness. And don't miss David's award-winning speculative saga, The Daughter of the Sea and the Sky
Professional Reviews
Another 5 Star Beauty From David Litwack
The Stuff of Stars is the second book in David Litwacks The Seekers series’, and it’s as unique, unpredictable and well-written as the first book.
This story takes place after Orah and Nathanial arrive on the other side of the ocean. They’re seeking the descendants of the Keepers, those who left the Keep—a receptacle for advanced knowledge now forbidden. They find them, but they’re not as they expected. Their world is falling into disrepair, their advanced technology able to be used by only one aging man. The other adults are trapped in the dream—a mental state where they leave their bodies to become pure mind. Only children inhabit the city, and others have joined the Earth Mother and her Greenies—those who have eschewed technology and left the city to live off the land. Orah had hoped to find technology to take home that would help her people, instead she and Nathaniel find themselves teaching the Greenies the basic skills they grew up with: how to weave and die fabric, and how to sew and reap grain to make bread. They also become the first to attempt to talk to the dreamers since an earthquake upset their machines and trapped them in the dream.
These are not light books; the mood is dark in this well-rendered and somewhat dour fantasy world, and yet I never once wanted to put the book down. The story kept me highly engaged and the prose was a delight to read. The overriding theme is the conflict between those who see technology as a god and those who see it as a demon. The author shows that the truth is in neither of the extremes.
This book, though a sequel, could be read as a standalone or the previous book could be read afterwards, because the story stands well on its own and anything important from the previous book is mentioned where its needed.
Another 5 star beauty from David Litwack
Great second book in the series
The Seekers: The Stuff of Stars by David Litwack continues to tell the story that began with The Children of Darkness. Orah and Nathaniel have managed to reveal the truth about the darkness, even though the odds were stacked against them. The trouble is sometimes people don't react just how you want them to, and those who live in the realm of Orah and Nathaniel are set in their ways. So rather than welcoming a new age, one of light and enlightenment, the people end up struggling and listening to the whispers of the vicars who wish to keep them contained in the traditional old ways. Orah and Nathaniel won't give up, however, and they set out to find the keepmasters' kin.
This is a great book and really does take a look into human nature. I actually found it refreshing and interesting that once enlightenment was brought to the people they didn't just raise a gleeful cheer about it. In fact, they were set in their old ways and allowed a faction to form. A book that has this kind of realism is going to go right to the top of my interest list and this book doesn't disappoint as you delve deeper. It is written with a very nice flow and David Litwack keeps you interested by sending his main characters off on another quest; they won't give up on bringing people into enlightenment and that is very real and human too. If you are a fan of dystopian books this is going to be a fantastic series for you, and this is a great second book in the series.-Reviewed By Kathryn Bennett for Readers’ Favorite
A futuristic utopian world that is anything but perfect
Orah and Nathaniel are on a journey in The Stuff of Stars. It is a journey that began in the first Seekers book, The Children of Darkness. A journey that began with a desire to recover the wonders of an intelligence that existed before their days until temple rule, this journey takes the couple across an ocean to find the descendants of the original keepers, those whose knowledge and intelligence will help, or so they believe, their own world as it struggles to recover from a life marred by multiple restrictions. Orah and Nathaniel do find the descendants of the keepers, but those they seek are now known as dreamers and they are neither alive nor dead. Those they meet represent opposing views of the age of intelligence that led the dreamers to an existence far above and beyond the realms of basic human comprehension. So how will Orah and Nathaniel communicate with these dreamers? How will they convince the opposing communities that there really is no right or wrong and it is better to work together?
This is another powerful story from popular author David Litwack. The Stuff of Stars, although part of a series, is expertly told as if it were a stand-alone novel. Background information from the first book in the series is presented and unraveled as needed. The centuries-old search for a utopian existence is challenged in this second novel as the two protagonists, Orah and Nathaniel, find themselves pitted against two points of view: that intelligence and living with intelligent machines is the only way to survive, and that returning to nature and living off the land is the right way to go. The utopia that the protagonists seek is mired in questions with no answers, and the truth they hope will help their own people across the ocean is difficult to ascertain. Is there a right or a wrong answer? Can a real utopia truly exist? The reader is left with these troubling questions as the novel ends with a bridge to the third book.
Excellent plot development, description, characterization - the reader truly feels like he/she is part of this story. This is a fantastic story that continues the plot initiated in the first Seekers book: a tale about a futuristic utopian world that is anything but perfect. There is only one word to truly define this novel: WOW!- Reviewed By Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers’ Favorite
MONSTROSITY n. 1. That which deviates greatly from the norm in appearance or structure. 2. The quality or character of being abnormal; hideous; frightful; shocking.
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