The Golden Ellipse - The Powers That Be 1
Formats: E-Book, Paperback, Hardback
Ages: 18+
Book One in The Powers That Be trilogy, THE GOLDEN ELLIPSE draws parallels between the Great Pyramid’s mysterious origin and Fermi’s paradox in an epoch-spanning story rich in history and paranormal intrigue with an eclectic cast of dimensional characters, gritty dialogue, dark humor, and a clandestine organization known as The Powers That Be (PTB), chartered to foster humankind’s destiny in a crowded universe.
In a domed granite chamber deep beneath the Giza Plateau, a proto-pyramidical beacon pulses a stern message into the cosmos for millennia to leave Earth alone as a dark spectral force conspires to terminate the beacon’s warning by removing its infinite power, the golden ellipse.
In 1944, a Nazi spy unwittingly loots the enigmatic gold relic. In the fog of world war, it falls into the hands of a brash American fighter pilot who buries the prized contraband in the Libyan desert before his paranormal demise on a daring air raid in the south of France.
A century later, in the AI-driven world of 2044 replete with human replicants and alien tech, intrepid honeymooners Rachel and Owen Haig—fresh off a space tourism touchdown in France—are hijacked by Rachel’s ghostly ancestor onto a heart-pounding odyssey to locate the legendary golden ellipse and restart the beacon’s signal before time runs out.
The treacherous quest culminates in a harrowing pitch-black descent beneath the Giza Plateau illuminated by Rachel’s transformational Blue Spark fate as reptilian invaders unleashed by the beacon’s century of silence tear open Earth’s skies.
It’s just the fate of the world. No pressure.
Reviews
Our Verdict – Get It A flighty, serio-comic excavation of SF tropes and doomsday conspiracies. In Hopkins’ SF novel, an American newlywed couple must find an ancient, powerful alien relic from Egypt to prevent the destruction of mankind. The author begins his Powers That Be SF trilogy with this international caper, which opens in primordial times: Nascent human life on Earth is monitored by bodiless beings, the Light Specters, who believe humans are vital to the universe and must be safeguarded. The entities erect a pyramid-shaped beacon in ancient Egypt, effectively preventing extraterrestrial interference; certain key humans (starting with the Pharaoh Khufu) receive special powers to aid in the task of protection. But a rebel faction, the Dark Specters, spend millennia obsessively scheming against humanity. Finally, in the early 20th century, a Nazi officer, manipulated by Dark Specters, removes the eternal power source of the long-buried beacon, an uncanny metallic ellipse with a Tolkien-like Ring-of-Power influence over anyone in its vicinity. Finding and returning the missing talisman to its proper node are the responsibilities the Powers That Be (PTB), a super-secret extra-governmental agency made up of elite humans, a few benevolent aliens, and androids. In 2044, with time running out before an alien invasion, the PTB recruits Rachel Alexander Haig, descendant of a key human bloodline, newly wedded to Owen Haig, an adventurous banker fond of quoting Indiana Jones and other escapist-fantasy Hollywood properties. Action and peril follow the sexy, young, game-for-anything couple throughout an itinerary of North African deserts and antiquities. Despite the apocalyptic danger and violence, the tone throughout is glib and flippant, sometimes getting a little too arch and twee for its own good (“Am I ready for my close-up?” asks a character in 1944, paraphrasing a famous movie line not to be uttered until 1950). Epic mayhem and grisly gore co-exist uneasily with comical slang (such as “noggin” and “skedaddle”), but one can’t say it isn’t the proverbial roller-coaster ride. In an introduction, the author states that the materials’ roots lay in a gag comic strip he did based on paranormal conspiracies and Area 51 mythology. The book includes an actual bibliography of sources for all of the conspiratorial and archaeological references. A flighty, serio-comic excavation of SF tropes and doomsday conspiracies.
