Welcome to the first public sharing of my book. This is the fruit of almost 5 years of writing and rewriting. Truth be told, this is a story I could continue to rewrite every year or two, but for the sake of sharing it with others, I forced myself to finally put it down and leave it as is. One of my favorite quotes from C.S. Lewis comes from Out of the Silent Planet, and it applies here:
'A pleasure is full grown only when it is remembered. You are speaking, Hman, as if the pleasure were one thing and the memory another. It is all one thing. The seroni could say it better than I say it now. Not better than I could say it in a poem. What you call remembering is the last part of the pleasure, as the crah is the last part of a poem. When you and I met, the meeting was over very shortly, it was nothing. Now it is growing something as we remember it. But still we know very little about it. What it will be when I remember it as I lie down to die, what it makes in me all my days till then - that is the real meeting. The other is only the beginning of it.' Keeping that in mind, I hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

The particular style was chosen with great care, and I hope that the critics will forgive my use of free verse. The work speaks for itself, and the astute reader will soon recognize the way I've used the style to create emphasis.

There are some quotes from various sources worked into the text. I haven't footnoted them, because I figure that if you are familiar with the reference, you'll spot it immediately and it will add a new layer of meaning to the text. If you're not familiar with the reference, following a footnote to the source won't help you get the point anyway and will only serve as a distraction. Either you get it or you don't.

Use the links on the sidebar to navigate. After you've visited a page, it's link in the sidebar will turn black, sparing you from having to fool with bookmarks. With that, I leave you to the task at hand...

Todd Russell - August 28, 2004