Cerne

A planet in turmoil: two great civilizations - the scientific-rationalist Akvians and the mystics of Leche-Makvia - locked in a death struggle. Protected by its obscurity, a small pacifist sect survives only to find itself targeted by a new and terrible weapon, the Red Dot - a perverse product of empathy technology. In its desperation, the Fellowship turns to a small crippled child for salvation. Jaik-el Contril, the great grandchild of the sect's founder, the Prophet who preached that he could hear the Voice of Cerne, the consciousness of the planet itself, must accept the burdens of leadership even as he searches to understand and counteract this strange and disturbing enemy. Weak and deformed as he is from a Red Dot attack, he struggles against self-doubt as to his readiness to lead and his questioning of the truth of the Prophet's teachings. This is the story of Cerne, a world unlike any other in the universe, and that of a boy, equally unique, around whose character the destiny of the planet revolves. "As a big fan of Norman Russell's Vietnam Memoir, Suicide Charlie, I was anxious to see what he could do as a novelist. In Cerne he displays the same talent for fine prose, believable dialogue, and unique characters. More than that, he manages to create out of whole cloth an exotic but understandable world with emotional predicaments that any human being can appreciate. The people of his novel, alien to us in so many ways, still feel love, fear, a sense of family and kinship, an appreciation for loyalty and condemnation of treachery. Even a reader like me, who knows little about science fiction, was drawn in, moved, and educated. Fans of the genre will be enthralled by this book and anxious for Russell's next." Roland Merullo, author of "Breakfat with Buddha"