Sean Archer seeks redemption by hunting the haunted forest for the little brother he so carelessly abandoned out of grief for the loss of their mother. Set in the future on another planet.
An unwanted life is born from a traumatic death. Out of painful grief for the tragic loss of their beloved mother, Sean angrily blames and abandons his baby brother in the forest. He runs away hunting to escape his sorrow, never realizing the full consequences of his heartless act. The mysterious Queen of the Forest finds the child crying piteously and cannot resist comforting him. While she holds the tender child lovingly in her arms, she gazes into his future, but upon witnessing visions of horrific events, she steals him away into the Otherworld to protect him. When Sean returns and finds Erren gone, guilt consumes him. His repentant mind opens up enough to see his mother’s spirit telling him, “The forest took him.” Sean begins his noble quest to find his lost brother and to right the wrong he had done, unaware that his determined search is awakening his latent telepathic gift. He has a spiritual crisis as the forest becomes haunted with voices condemning him for his thoughtless crime. There is an unseen battle of wills as the mystical Queen Elaya tries to stop the guilty one from taking her little boy.
Excerpt
Sean was like a foxhunter poised upon his horse with his hounds all around him, waiting for the blare of the trumpet to set him loose after the fleeing fox. Despite his doubts, Sean's quest had taken him over into a realm where logic held no sway and he was as bound to his chosen task as if the magic of the mythical Wild Hunt had caught hold of him. With her last words, his dead mother had pulled back her bow like the great Celtic Goddess of the Black Forest, Abnoba the Huntress, and had launched her eldest son like a shining arrow of hope into the dark forest to find her little boy.
Professional Reviews
KIRKUS INDIE REVIEW
In her debut, Grey Wolf delivers a highly detailed, densely populated sci-fi adventure.
In this first volume of her meticulously plotted Beneath the Surface saga, Grey Wolf describes a brutal future society in which humans’ ingenuity and survival instincts lead to devastating consequences. The expanding sun threatens to destroy the Earth in the 38th century, so humans set off in arklike spaceships for planets with ancient Greek and Norse names (Freya, Titan, and so on). Such a mass exodus should provide an opportunity for nations to reimagine and improve their societies—but instead they engage in bloody wars, racism and enduring animosity as they grab for resources. Grey Wolf moves from a broad description of this fictional universe to focus on the story of Erren Archer, a boy born on a spaceship bound for the planet Midgard, and his older brother Sean, both of whom have telepathic powers. When the boys are separated, they must use their survival skills and unique powers to reunite. Grey Wolf’s worldbuilding is so complete that she includes an extensive index of calendars (such as “Freya’s Tertiary Sub-Year” and “Days of the Week: A Brief History”), geographical and technological maps, an appendix of abbreviations and explanations of spiritual systems; the book even provides intermittent original poetry that strives for literary gravity.
A hyperdetailed addition to the sci-fi genre.
COMPELLING SCI-FI FANTASY
FOUR STARS:
Compelling Sci-Fi Fantasy
April 10, 2013
By chettsgenie@yahoo.co.uk
Format:Kindle Edition
I received a copy of this book for honest review. `Beneath the Surface: The Lost Boy' is the first part of a series and tells the story of two brothers, Sean and Erren, and the impacts they have on each other's lives.
This book has been very carefully thought out, and the author goes to great lengths to show the detail she has gone into to create the world her story takes place in. There are maps, a prologue that tells how the story came to be, and an introduction which details important past events of the world within the story. If you enjoy this kind of detail there is plenty to get your teeth into here. If on the other hand you prefer to skip straight into the story, in my opinion you would not be lost without this information.
The story gets off to a reasonably slow start with an introduction to Sean and his family, but this set up is essential for what comes after. The story really takes off when Sean makes a terrible mistake that will change his brother's life and in turn his own. There is a lot of emotional depth here, I really felt for the characters and what they were going through. The heart-breaking moment that changes Erren's life is particularly emotionally charged. The tension really wracks up from this moment forward, making for enormously compelling reading.
There is an interesting mix of science fiction and fantasy in this novel. I would probably say it felt a bit more like a fantasy novel than sci-fi with the Forest Queen, elementals, etc. If you like poetry, there are some verses entwined within the story.
At the end of the story there is an epilogue which tells some of the things that are going to happen in the second book. I personally would have preferred not to have read this, so if you're anything like me and want a surprise I would advise against reading the epilogue. There is also an appendix where you can look up various things that may have had you stumped while reading (Abbreviations, etc).
All in all I would say this was a very well planned out book with a captivating and emotional storyline. The extra material was a bit of an information overload for me but the story itself was fantastic.
LOOKING FORWARD TO BOOK II
FIVE STARS:
Looking forward to book II!
March 28, 2013
By Frank
This review is from: Beneath the Surface: The Lost Boy (Volume 1) (Paperback)
It's around 6000AD. Humanity has been forced to abandon the Solar system, due to the expansion of our sun, and has emigrated to a star system in the constellation of Cancer, settling on the two habitable planets, Midgard and Freya, and an enormous space station, Titan, formed by the space Arks that transported them.
On a routine trip, a young family is devastated by the sudden illness of the pregnant wife, and Erren Archer is born in hyperspace by surgical removal from his dead mother's body.
Erren has strange gifts. He sees auras, and also the elementals, fairies, who exist on a higher energy plane than us humans. One day, when only two years old, he is left alone in the forest by his older (but not, at this age, wiser) brother. The Fairy Queen of the forest finds him, and, believing that he is in danger, takes him into her realm. In the years that follow his gifts are greatly augmented by her influence. But Erren has a destiny, and must return to our normal level of existence.
In the second book in the Ember Reign series, Megan and her friends decide to investigate a haunted mansion to discover it was once a secret government laboratory dealing with extraterrestrial biological entities.
Pieces of Eight, Part II is an eclectic collection of eight imaginative novellas that complement the eight tales that appeared in Pieces of Eight. The selections are a blend of different short story/novella plots and themes. Science-fiction, paranorm
