Title: Taldra: Two Science Fiction Adventures
Author: Duane Simolke
Genre: Science Fiction
Book Blurb:
In an alternate reality, Earth is Valchondria. The one-world government consists of Leader, the Supreme Science Council, and a police force called “the Maintainers.”
Degranon: A Science Fiction Adventure introduces the Iroquois scientist Taldra. One of her sons becomes trapped on the other side of a time portal while the other loses himself to the religious cult Degranon. Can they find their way back to each other before the Degrans destroy Valchondria?
In Sons of Taldra: A Science Fiction Adventure, alien shapeshifters and the secrets of the Maintainers threaten humanity. First published in 2016 as an eBook, Sons of Taldra now appears in this collection with the revised, twentieth anniversary edition of Degranon.
Excerpt:
Lorfeltez could see colors. She could see the green vines hanging from the metal beams that connected the four walls. She could see the red of the awnings that surrounded a huge amphitheater that was normally reserved for speeches from Leader, the SSC, or the Maintainers. She could see the orange and silver stripes across the ceiling and the walls. For Lorfeltez, those stripes symbolized the Valchondrian banner of silver flames on an orange plaque, but they now appeared as simply varying shades of gray to most Valchondrians.
Maintainer law forbade her from telling anyone about her colorsight. Supposedly, the Maintainers feared giving so-called “special rights” to colorsighted people, thus making them cultural elitists. Lorfeltez wanted no special rights, but she knew she was different, and she only wanted to explore those differences. She wanted to tell other people about the colors her eyes allowed her to see.
She hated concealing her true self in such a way, or in any way. No law could stop her from being different, so the Maintainers used a law to make her hide that difference. The Maintainers forced her to lie, in order to protect the common good. How could their way be right if it involved lying and deception? Why couldn’t she let others benefit from her abilities, or at least let others know that those abilities existed? She hated the hypocrisy of the Maintainers. They warned against deceit but passed laws that promoted deceit. They talked about protecting Valchondria from violence, while they used violence to keep people in order, to “maintain” them. Who was Valchondria except its people, the very people that the Maintainers claimed to protect?
And what were they protecting anyone from by denying her the ability to acknowledge her colorsight? It was a gift, and she wanted to tell others about that gift. She loved colors! Even the hideous green swirls in dethua wood looked beautiful to Lorfeltez, who longed for the pleasure of exercising her gift.
Her fellow human beings granted her that pleasure simply by virtue of their appearance. Never mind the gray headbands, hair clips, and bodysuits that most of the people at the amphitheater wore. Other than a stripe of green on some headbands or belts, and other than an occasional hint of red or blue, Lorfeltez rarely found any color on clothing.
Instead, she could see people’s skin of red (like her own), brown, or black—all in varying shades. She could see their eyes of green, blue, gray, or brown, and their lips of pink, brown, or red. Everyone had black hair, but Valchondrians of red, light brown, or mixed race often had a gloss to their long, flowing hair that distinguished it from the hair of most black or dark brown people, which tended to grow outward or sometimes just upward. And the male children of all races loved their hair so short that Lorfeltez could almost see their skin color through it. Together, the many people who crammed into Valcine Plaza that day reflected the diverse beauty of Valchondria’s population.
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What makes your featured book a must-read?
These two books in one volume present exciting science fiction worlds and a diverse cast.
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Author Biography:
Duane Simolke wrote The Acorn Stories, Degranon, Holding Me Together, Selected Poems, Taldra, and New Readings of Winesburg, Ohio. He also co-wrote The Return of Innocence and The Acorn Gathering: Writers Uniting Against Cancer. His writing appeared in nightFire, Mesquite, Caprock Sun, Midwest Poetry Review, International Journal on World Peace, and many other publications. He lives in Lubbock, Texas. Education: Belmont University (B.A., ‘89, Nashville, TN), Hardin-Simmons University (M.A., ‘91, Abilene, TX), and Texas Tech University (Ph.D., ‘96, Lubbock, TX), all with a major in English.
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