Category: String Theory

Book Review | #whoaretheclan | “The Gate to Futures Past” (Book No.2 of the Reunification trilogy) by Julie E. Czerneda #FuellYourSciFi with Jorie!

Posted Thursday, 8 September, 2016 by jorielov , , , , , 0 Comments

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Acquired Book By: I was invited to participate in Julie E. Czerneda’s #futurespasttour wherein I am continuing my readings of The Clan Chronicles where I left off last November. I participated in the #timeandstarstour on behalf of the seventh volume of The Clan Chronicles ‘This Gulf of Time and Stars’. I reached out to the author to sort out a way to read her entire series spilt between two trilogies: Stratification (the prequel) and The Trade Pact (inaugural trilogy) which launched the series as a whole. She offered to have DAW Books send me the series in paperback editions which I was blessed to receive and would have finished reading if I had hadn’t taken ill shortly after I read “A Thousand Words for Stranger”. Due to personal reasons between the end of 2015 and the start of 2016, I was not able to continue my readings until now. I have spent a lot of hours contemplating what ‘comes next’.

This year, I reached out to her publicist at DAW (at the author’s suggestion) to receive “The Gate to Futures Past” to conclude the scope of the series ahead of the final novel. I spoke to Ms Czerneda about completing my readings of her beautifully conceived hard sci-fi series by releasing my reviews of the books in graduated succession during the #futurespasttour; she agreed it would be a great way to celebrate. Therefore, ‘Ties of Power’ kicks off my showcases on Monday, 22nd of August, followed by ‘To Trade the Stars’ on Tuesday, 30th August finishing ‘the Trade Pact Universe’ trilogy. I am anchouring the Reunification reviews together on 4th & 8th of September. Right in time for #PubDay celebrations which were on the 6th!

I received a complimentary ARC copy of ‘The Gate to Futures Past’ the first novel the final trilogy of The Clan Chronicles known as Reunification; in exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated for my thoughts shared herein.

On where we left off into The Clan Chronicles:

As I disclosed on my review of Reap the Wild Wind this is my first reading of the works by Julie E. Czerneda. This is my continuing journey deep into the heart of The Clan Chronicles whilst conversing on Twitter via the tag #whoaretheclan. Occasionally alternating with #TheClanChronicles and #futurespasttour.

There is nothing more gutting for a reader than to arrive in the midst of a direction of narrative that not only pushes you to the brink of your emotional depths of despair, but it rebounds to give you a reason to carry-on and continue forward with the characters; such heart wrenching dialogue and expressions of absolute horror as realisation of what was happening was affecting the Clan one by one, heart by heart and family by family was truly one of the hardest passages I’ve read in recent history! Even moreso than some of the war dramas, because this was a blindsided attack, no one in the Clan knew they were on the brink of war or in effect being targeted for erasure!

Frantic reassurances of heart-kin messages were greeted by the enlarging loss which blanketed through the M’hir as more and more Clan woke up to the horrific reality of what had happened. The chasm of loss was so deep and so invasive, no one was left unaffected. Further gutting was the fact some of the Clan who fled to live for tomorrow were greeted by death only due to trusting their contacts would protect them by aiding their flight. This too, was horribly difficult to read – as your watching beloved characters meet their fates and you’re not in a position to aide them yourself. You simply have to watch. You have to breathe and you have to know there’s a reason for it all. There has to be a light at the end of this brutal tunnel of reverse fortunes and of cataclysmic loss.

-quoted from my review of This Gulf of Time and Stars

The result of which was absolute chaos – wherein all Clan chose to flee and take flight away from the places they felt they would be in danger, only to find that some of their places of safety were equally unsafe for them to find safe harbour. The measures Sira and Jason had to take to escape was not for the faint of heart, nor for the ease of the future of their species; as they dared to go where none of the Clan in Trade Pact space felt was possible to re-visit! This is where Czerneda shined whilst re-bridging together the entire trifecta of her three trilogy series!

Returning to Cersi brought back the delicate balance the world encompassed – as I never forgot how important it was to follow the guidelines of Cersi wherein each of the sentient species who called Cersi home were bound to certain ‘living rights and regulations’ which kept each in turn on a rotation of ‘balance’ within their populations. It was a very interesting foundation of how life could succeed through ascension of transfer and by controlled perimeters where each of them could not outnumber each other without consequence. At the time I was enthralled by it, as each person on Cersi was never entirely safeguarded against a merger between Clans; similar a bit to the Drapsk, except that the Drapsk merged to embetter themselves and exchange duties whereas on Cersi, the mergers were fatal.

What was impressed on me is how we see Jason (being his cheeky trader-self) and Sira (taking lead in a place that has protocol!) accumulate to Cersi with the full blessing of their experiences prior to arrival! It’s hard not to smirk seeing how they are dealing with Om’ray and Tikitik and the Oud! Seeing Thought Traveler in a more vulnerable situation than he was normally viewed was wicked good, too!

Further interesting, is on my return to Cersi, I sympathised with Aryl – Cersi had changed!

More to the point – Cersi held the ultimate secret in regards to #whoaretheclan!

And, like most mysteries – what is in plain sight of all is the best hidden secret!

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Notation on the Cover Art: I positively love the way in which Sira is portrayed on the cover for GATE! Her hair is electric – just like I have envisioned it, as it has it’s own personality & sense of purpose as much as it’s an extension of her own emotional core of being. Truly loved her clothes & the sense that you can tell she’s trying once again to ‘save her Clan’ from a fate worst than death whilst attempting to prepare herself to appear brave even if she doesn’t entirely feel courageous in the moment. Sira always had to make hard choices; she was never one to balk at duty or responsibility but she was far stronger than most of her peers & those of her extended Clan cousins. The background is equally alluring – we get to see the ships directly behind her and the Clan technology that is so far advanced its left nothing behind to explain its purposes is on full display, too! What dear reader is not to love about this book cover!? #suchstrength & vision of Sira!

Book Review | #whoaretheclan | “The Gate to Futures Past” (Book No.2 of the Reunification trilogy) by Julie E. Czerneda #FuellYourSciFi with Jorie!The Gate to Futures Past
Subtitle: A Novel of The Clan Chronicles : Reunification No.2
by Julie E. Czerneda
Illustrator/Cover Designer: Matt Stawicki
Source: Direct from Publisher

Synopsis on the Back Cover:

Betrayed and attacked, the Clan fled the Trade Pact for Cersi, believing that world their long-lost home. With them went a lone alien, the Human named Jason Morgan, Chosen of their leader, Sira di Sarc. Tragically, their arrival update the Balance between Cersi's three sentient species. And so the Clan, with their newfound kin, must flee again.

Their starship, powered by the M'hir, follows a course set long ago, for Clan abilities came from an experiment of their ancestors - the Hoveny - conducted on themselves. but it's a perilous journey. The Clan must endure more than cramped conditions and inner turmoil.

Their dead are calling.

Sira must keep her people from answering, for if they do, they die. Morgan searches the ship for solutions, afraid the Hoveny tech is beyond his grasp. Their only hope? To reach their destination.

Little do Sira and Morgan realize it is their destination that holds the gravest threat of all...

Genres: Science Fiction



Places to find the book:

Borrow from a Public Library

Add to LibraryThing

Find on Book Browse

ISBN: 9780756408701

Also by this author: Reap the Wild Wind, Riders of the Storm, Rift in the Sky, A Thousand Words for Stranger, Ties of Power, To Trade the Stars, This Gulf of Time and Stars, Julie E. Czerneda Interview (#futurespasttour), Guest Post (Web Shifters series) by Julie E. Czerneda, Guest Post: Julie E. Czerneda (Clan Chronicles Finale Tour), To Guard Against the Dark

Also in this series: This Gulf of Time and Stars, To Guard Against the Dark


Published by DAW Books

on 6th September, 2016

Format: Paperback ARC

Pages: 416

 Published By: DAW Books (@DAWBooks)
an imprint of Penguin Group USA

Cover art by Matt Stawicki | Site | Facebook

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Series Synopsis and Overview:

The Clan Chronicles is set in a far future with interstellar travel where the Trade Pact encourages peaceful commerce among a multitude of alien and Human worlds. The alien Clan, humanoid in appearance, have been living in secrecy and wealth on Human worlds, relying on their innate ability to move through the M’hir and bypass normal space. The Clan bred to increase that power, only to learn its terrible price: females who can’t help but kill prospective mates. Sira di Sarc is the first female of her kind facing that reality. With the help of a Human starship captain, Jason Morgan, Sira must find a morally acceptable solution before it’s too late. But with the Clan exposed, her time is running out. The Stratification trilogy follows Sira’s ancestor, Aryl Sarc, and shows how their power first came to be as well as how the Clan came to live in the Trade Pact. The Trade Pact trilogy is the story of Sira and Morgan, and the trouble facing the Clan.

Reunification will conclude the series and answer, at last, #whoaretheclan.

Available Formats: Hardcover, Paperback and Ebook

Jorie Loves A Story Cuppa Book Love Awards Badge created by Jorie in Canva. Coffee and Tea Clip Art Set purchased on Etsy; made by rachelwhitetoo.

About Julie E. Czerneda

Julie E. Czerneda Photo Credit: Roger Czerneda Photography

Since 1997, Canadian author/editor Julie E. Czerneda has shared her love and curiosity about living things through her science fiction, writing about shapechanging semi-immortals, terraformed worlds, salmon researchers, and the perils of power. Her fourteenth novel from DAW Books was her debut fantasy, A Turn of Light, winner of the 2014 Aurora Award for Best English Novel, and now Book One of her Night`s Edge series.

She began her first fantasy series: Night’s Edge with A Turn of Light, winner of the 2014 Aurora Award for Best English Novel. A Play of Shadow followed, winning the 2015 Aurora. While there’ll be more fantasy, Julie’s back in science fiction to complete her Clan Chronicles series. Reunification #1: This Gulf of Time and Stars, came out in 2015. #2: The Gate to Futures Past released September, 2016. Volume #3: To Guard Against the Dark, follows October 2017.

An award-winning editor as well, Julie’s edited/co-edited sixteen anthologies of SF/F, including the Aurora winning Space Inc. and Under Cover of Darkness. Her most recent anthology is the 2017 Nebula Award Showcase, published May 2017, a singular honour.

Next out will be an anthology of original stories set in her Clan Chronicles series: Tales from Plexis, out in 2018. When not jumping between wonderful blogs, Julie’s at work on something very special: her highly anticipated new Esen novel, Search Image (Fall 2018).

Biography updated November 2017
Photo Credit: Roger Czerneda Photography

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Posted Thursday, 8 September, 2016 by jorielov in #FuellYourSciFi, Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blog Tour Host, Book Cover | Original Illustration & Design, Book Review (non-blog tour), Canadian Literature, Compassion & Acceptance of Differences, Equality In Literature, Flashbacks & Recollective Memories, Hard Science Fiction, Jorie Loves A Story Cuppa Book Love Awards, Mental Health, Mental Illness, Methodology of Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy, Neurosciences | Neurogenetics, Parapsychological Gifts, Quantum | Mechanics Physics Theory, Science Fantasy, Science Fiction, Self-Harm Practices, Space Opera, Speculative Fiction, String Theory, Telepaths & Telepathy, Unexpected Pregnancy

Book Review | A #LuminisBooks special focus on #stringtheory with Chris Katsaropoulos. Two stories, two books, and a world of thought: “Antiphony” & “Entrevoir”.

Posted Monday, 28 December, 2015 by jorielov , , , 0 Comments

Ruminations & Impressions Book Review Banner created by Jorie in Canva. Photo Credit: Unsplash Public Domain Photographer Sergey Zolkin.

Acquired Book By:

I was selected to review “Entrevoir” by JKS Communications: A Literary Publicity Firm. JKS is the first publicity firm I started working with when I launched Jorie Loves A Story in August, 2013. I am honoured to continue to work with them now as a 2nd Year Book Blogger. I received my complimentary copy of Entrevoir direct from JKS Communications in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Whilst I was discussing reviewing Entrevoir, I enquired about Antiphony as to the best of my understanding although the two stories are independent of each other, I felt it would behoove me to read them in tandem rather than to attempt to read Entrevoir without knowledge of Antiphony. Therefore, I received a complimentary copy of Antiphony without obligation to post a review as I did so for my own edification.

On my fascination with the Quantum World:

The following is an excerpt of my response to the JKS publicist who contacted me. I elected to share most of this conversation as it illuminates my interest in Quantum Physics and how relevant my curiosity has remained me with me ever since I first started researching the field; both in my early twenties and previously as a young adult teen.

I am keenly interested in this author and his works, as I personally love string theory and quantum physics — I started to collect books on the subject in my early twenties, including but not limited to “Lucifer’s Legacy” and the works of Dr. Brian Greene. I approach it through Copernicus, Aristotle, and Einstein’s legacies of thought and dimensional observations on the subjects, but I have a keen interest in da Vinci as well, who was a bit ahead of his time across all fields. It isn’t often quantum physics is a featured subject for either non-fiction or fictional releases, and I’m always giddy as a cat when I discover a new author or physicist, who is endeavouring to have us enlarge our perspective and point of view on the world and realms by which we live inside.

I pulled up the author’s Twitter feeds and liked the esoteric and metaphysical tweeting he was projecting inasmuch as the clarity of his thoughts being conveyed in such a small space! I love introspective and thought-provoking texts, especially when your shifting from how we view and understand our world and the cosmos above us.

I was going to ask, can “Entrevoir” be read and understood without having read “Antiphony”? Sometimes physicists carry forward their thoughts from one release to another, so I wasn’t sure if perchance this is the case here or if they are substantially heading off in different directions from one release to the other?! [the key reason I requested to read both of these titles together]

Anything to do with the quantum world, either in fiction (esp hard science fiction) or non-fiction is going to appeal to me, as I love black hole science, string theory, quantum mechanics, dimensional space and the theory of the time continuum, as well as straight-up quantum physics and the curious attraction I have to studying symmetry vs asymmetry in both design and elemental physics. I started to soak inside the theories after picking up “A Wrinkle in Time” which opened the door to understanding the projections of the theories inside “Flatland” by Edwin Abbott. From these two explorations as one was rooted in fact and the other was expressed in fiction (fiction is a beautiful gateway to the imagination, to help us harbour a direct connection in how to purport what was not able to be fathomed by granting us the grace of familiarity), I moved forward into the works I mentioned above: “Lucifer’s Legacy” and the works of Dr. Greene.

You have a keen eye to notice [in reference to the publicist] where my interests lie, as Dr. Brian Greene is one contemporary physicist alongside Dr. Michio Kaku I have my eye on. Another is a mathematician: Dr. Clifford Pickover, where I get to explore where mathematics have a sublet of inspiration on the bearing of how art is seen, produced, and explored — especially when it comes to fractals!

Sometimes I just like to “browse” the science shelves in book shoppes to see what jumps out at me, and therein, I discover other wicked sweet things like ‘quasars, quirks, and the little bits’ which make up the interior fabric and framework of outer space possible. Mathematics is the language of how the design of our world is possible but it also bears understanding to become closer to God. He left behind such a prism of insight just by the science of how everything kinetically works together. Most scientists (i.e. Issac Newton, Einstein, etc) were attempting to understand God through the language of mathematics and the intricacies of quantum physics; this fascinates me, and as I follow their paths, I start to see what they discovered too. The infinite beauty of how all of what we know and everything we have yet to know is plausible; it’s joy doubled and bound through eternity.

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Book Review | A #LuminisBooks special focus on #stringtheory with Chris Katsaropoulos. Two stories, two books, and a world of thought: “Antiphony” & “Entrevoir”.Entrevoir

The unveiling of a new work of art by Jacob Marsteller is typically one of the most highly anticipated events in the international art scene—but not this time. Jacob's new piece is a labyrinth of gossamer fabric perched on the peak of a mountain called Entrevoir in a remote corner of the south of France. It looks as if nobody except Jacob's teenage children and a few neighbors from the village will bother to show up at the gallery.

As Jacob finishes dressing for the party, he and his wife Marya begin to argue. She warned him that moving from the vibrant art scene of New York to a tiny village in the middle of nowhere would be a fatal mistake for his career. As she turns her back to him and walks down the stairs, Jacob tells her there was a reason he had to come here to create this piece—and that's when Jacob's whole world begins to unravel. Without realizing what is happening, he is lifted out of his body and taken to another dimension, where he becomes the watcher, the witness, and experiencer of lives he lived six decades ago and thousands of years ago, on other planets and as the highest forms of life.

In the span of one instant and over the course of millions of years, Jacob comes to understand that he is not his body, he is not his mind, and he is not even his soul. By the end of the amazing unveiling of Jacob's true self, he will experience the greatest transfiguration any human being has ever known: the realization of the ultimate nature of human life, and of spirit itself.


Places to find the book:

Borrow from a Public Library

Add to LibraryThing

on 15th April, 2015

Pages: 208

Book Synopsis for Antiphony:

Chris Katsaropoulos dramatically depicts the downfall of Theodore, a String Theory physicist who commits the biggest faux pas in the world of science, proposing to his colleagues at a major international conference that perhaps consciousness—God—could be the missing piece in discovering the Final Theory of the universe. To the horror of everyone at the meeting, Theodore proposes, “What if the Universe is really a giant thought?”

ANTIPHONY traces the downward spiral of Theodore’s career in the wake of what he has said, and the remarkable transformation that leads him into the depths of madness . . . or the revelation of the Final Theory, the ultimate secret of the universe.

Katsaropoulos explores Theodore’s downfall with a depth of feeling and meaning that is expressed in a lyrical style that challenges readers to think beyond what is readily apparent and on the surface of things. As novelist Al Riske put it in his recent review of ANTIPHONY, “Katsaropoulos has a way of delving deeply into what seem like small moments—the whole novel takes place in just three or four days—and capturing all their nuances and vibrating tension.”

As Riske says in his review, “Throughout Antiphony, the protagonist experiences dreams and visions that fill pages the way a flash flood fills a ravine—a torrent of words flowing into the space between the margins and pressing onward to the next page and the next. It makes me wonder how he did it.”

Is there a God, and if so, is science fighting a losing battle in its search for the ultimate Theory of Everything? In the end, ANTIPHONY lets each reader decide for themselves…

Read an Excerpt of the Novel:

Antiphony via Midpoint Trade Books (Luminis Books)

[ Antiphony ] Add to Riffle | Public Library

Genre(s): Science Fiction based on Science Fact | Quantum Theory

Spiritual Metaphysics | String Theory | Hard Sci-Fi | Literary Fiction

Published By: Luminis Books (@LuminisBooks) | Blog

Available Formats [for both]: Paperback and Ebook

Converse via Twitter: #StringTheory, #SciGeek,

#LuminisBooks and #JKSLitPublicity

About Chris Katsaropoulos

Chris Katsaropoulos is the author of more than a dozen books, including two critically acclaimed novels, Fragile and Antiphony, and Complex Knowing, the first collection of his poems. He has been an editor at several major publishing houses and has published numerous trade books, textbooks, and novels over the course of his publishing career. He lives in Carmel, Indiana.

Interview on Luminis Books Blog | About "Antiphony"

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Posted Monday, 28 December, 2015 by jorielov in #JorieLovesIndies, ARC | Galley Copy, Astrophysics, Asymmetry, Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blog Tour Host, Book | Novel Extract, Book Review (non-blog tour), Debut Author, Debut Novel, Fly in the Ointment, Genre-bender, JKS Communications: Literary Publicity Firm, Literary Fiction, Quantum | Mechanics Physics Theory, Quantum Physics, Scribd, String Theory, Superstrings, Supersymmetry, Vulgarity in Literature