The Andromedans make me mad. They make
me want to get to the next jump gate,
board a flight and knock heads. I was
left gasping, my tongue out at the edge of the cliff
askance at the abrupt end of 312 pages
of heat, anger, agony and anxiety. It took a
while before it sunk in that it was a
story. It had come to an abrupt end. Now I know the
meaning of cliff hanger! I am trying
to uncurl my fingers, my muscles, and my mind.
The Andromedans, the third in the
Empire series holds you by the throat from page one
and you are taken through at such a
blistering pace, into the world of sci-fi and held by
the throat until like Adrian you are
left denuded of all emotions. At the end of the story I
was left begging for more, angry with
Elizabeth Lang for not finishing the darn book!
I love Adrian Stannis, I even
suspected if he was real I would have had a crush on him,
and always imagined his reaction that
if ever learnt that he would clip my wrinkled ears.
That thought makes me smile at the
power of the author in making such characters so
rounded and compelling. There is
however the portrayal in this particular series of
Adrian as an object of admiration,
exasperation
Kali, I always saw as the saving grace
of Adrian, her cool understanding of the human
race or shall I say in her
undanstanding of us. But there is the new revelation of learning
she thinks us noisy. Wow. Ergh, excuse
me Kali, was wondering if you were not a mite
interested in Sester.
Sester, who for me was a non person,
annoying, frightening, and downright carries a
label.”HANDLE WITH CARE” Just for a
nanosecond, he was believable when he fell in
love with Rena Dastrin, spring and
dead winter affair.
Elizabeth is one of my favourite
authors, I always read with awe her ability to make
fiction so real as for you to think
she was reporting a real event that just happened in the
neighbourhood. I would like to
congratulate her on this one. It is a vast improvement on
the series. I do have some questions though.
First
of all, thank you for your kind words. I’m glad you liked the story.
1. The death of Venner
seems tame considering his omnipotence in the Empire, is
it to show the supremacy
of the Andromedans?
It’s
hard to answer that without giving away spoilers for the next book. Let’s just
say that
there
will be a fourth and final book to the Empire series called The Vitarins.
2. Who actually is Sester?
One senses there is much more to him .
There
is certainly much more to Sester than meets the eye and we will be finding a
lot more about him in the next book. In many ways, his life is, and always has
been intertwined with Adrian and Argus.
3. Adrian showed almost
the invincibility of the human spirit, but you seem to state
in the way that the story
has ended that , courage, loyalty and conviction though
good qualities of the
human psyche, may not win out as evil may ultimately win
out. True?
I’m
glad to say that while evil may take us to some very dark places, it will not,
at least in my books, never entirely win out.
In some
ways, while the breaking of Adrian was horrible, it did have some benefits, although
it may not seem like it.
When
the empire took Adrian as a child and moulded him into what they wanted him to be,
he was never allowed to become who he could have been. What happens to him in
The
Andromedans, allows him to do
that and we discover who Adrian is and always has been beneath that cold
exterior.
4. The ultimate soldier
Argus is proven at the end not to be a human being but an
admixture of experiment
and engineering, do you feel that the human being is too
faulty?
The
empire thinks that being human is not enough to fight the war and win so they
try to ‘improve’ the original, making Adrian super smart but devoid of emotions
and Argus a super soldier without a conscience, but in the end, what makes them
strong is not these ‘enhancements’ but those characteristics which make them human,
their capacity to love and their loyalty.
5. I have an anxious
question, will Adrian be redeemed as a human being?
Stay
tuned
.
6. Andromedans contrary to
impression are more evil than the Empire, so what is
the raison d’etre for
their war with the Empire? On a deeper scale the essence of
this book paints a picture
of Ultimate Chaos. Please enlighten
In this
book we finally get to see the enemy, and while they may look different and
have superior technology, their motivations are not unlike our own. I was
inspired by an idea from a scientist (unfortunately, I don’t remember the
person’s name) that aliens, if they existed and were more advanced than we are,
that if they discovered our existence and saw what we have done to our own
planet, they might think us a threat that they would not want to allow into the
rest of the universe.
That
idea made me think of other things too, not just how we have used and abused
our own world, but each other.
7. Kali as a protagonist
for good has been ineffectual, preoccupied with Adrian
could not use her
potential gifts, did not save Adrian. Tell us why?
Kali
has always been afraid of her own powers. She doesn’t want to make mistakes because
she knows how much damage she can do. In some ways, she has always been afraid
of herself, that darkness that makes her willing to do anything, justify any action
as long as she feels there is a need.
In any
ways, she is a microcosm for the compromises that both the Empire and the Andromedans
make in order to survive and do, what they think, is the right thing.
8. There is a dead hero
Dain, a tantalizing Celia, and a Sam, in different formats,
unfinished stories and
mysteries to be explored, are you planning on unveiling
them later?
We will
find out a little more about Celia and Sam.
As for
Dain, as we get to know Argus, it is almost like knowing Dain because they are mirror
images of each other. The humanity which made Dain strong enough to break the
Empire conditioning is the same humanity that Argus is discovering, albeit reluctantly,
about himself.
9. What is your next work
in progress?
I am
working on the fourth book, The Vitarans, and a new sci-fi/fantasy called Mrs. Beeston.
10. You are a very
talented artist, and that is a gentler creativity, do you have
conflicts of creativity
sometimes?
I enjoy
the different aspects of creativity, both in word and visual. The conflict
comes when I never seem to have enough time for both.
11. The author sometimes
mirrors himself/herself in one of the characters, which
character speaks for you
sometimes?
They
all reflect different aspects of myself, except Sester. I don’t know where he
comes from…though I do have a wacky sense of the ridiculous sometimes.
12. Which age will you
recommend should read this book?
With
the sophistication kids are exposed to these days, I would say at least young
adult.
Thank you very much for
sharing with us.
Thank
you for allowing me to share the Empire universe.
.
