***** Adventurous World Review by Rox Burkey
This is my first story by Author Marcha Fox. Her world building in this SciFi short tale is engaging. As it turns out, this prequel shares background on Thyron. This character is imaginative and exciting. This resident of Sapphiran is considered a god by the other inhabitants of the plant, pygmies. He is intelligent and mentally on par with humans.
Thyron’s story continues in Chapter 13 of Beyond the Hidden Sky, the first volume of the Star Trails Tetralogy, and throughout the four-volume series. I liked his adaptability to situations, and the early discussion on species evolution was creative.
“Mobility, they quickly discovered, required sight to avoid wandering off a cliff or into some other hazardous environment. In response to this new evolutionary need, two or more seedpods from the next flowering cycle gradually enhanced their light-sensing ability until they evolved a functionality similar to eyes.
Thus, this next evolutionary step was dubbed flora peda telepathis as Sapphira’s first species of flauna evolved, retaining the photosynthesis ability of plants (flora) while adding the mobility and increased sentience of animals (fauna).”
I learned a new term in this story, psaid. This term denotes psi or communication by telepathy rather than spoken. The writing of Author Marcha Fox is creative, fun, and a learning experience. There are some scientific terms I enjoyed learning. I absolutely recommend this short as a marvelous way to delve into this author and consider the other books she created. I know I am.
About the Author
Marcha Fox is a prolific writer who has
addressed a wide variety of subjects, but one of her favorites is science
fiction. It began as a love of astronomy, which eventually led to a bachelor of
science degree in physics from Utah State University. This was followed by a 21-year
career at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where she held various
positions, including technical writer, engineer, and eventually manager. Her
NASA experiences included trips to Cape Canaveral in Florida, visiting other
NASA centers in Mississippi, Alabama, and Maryland, plus travels to the
European Space Agency in The Netherlands. Her most memorable was the sad task
of helping to recover space shuttle debris in East Texas following the tragic
Columbia accident in 2003.
Her Star Trails Tetralogy Series is a
family-friendly “Geek Fest” that incorporates her knowledge of
physics and space travel within a family saga set on a primitive planet where
survival is an ongoing struggle, further complicated by political intrigue.
While some of the Science is speculative, her goal is to represent it as
accurately as possible, allowing her readers to learn accurate principles in a
painless, entertaining manner within the context of the story. The learning
experience can be further enhanced by using “The Star Trails
Compendium”, which includes background information on the story’s planetary
setting, a glossary of terms, and a section for educators with chapter by
chapter lesson plan and discussion ideas tied to each of books, making the
series ideal for science class extra credit or STEM summer reading programs.
More information on the individual novels in this series, the Science behind
them, as well as the status of future stories can be found on the series
website at www.StarTrailsSaga.com.
The first book in her new series, “The Dead
Horse Canyon Saga”, takes a slightly different direction. Written with
coauthor, Pete Risingsun, “The Curse of Dead Horse Canyon: Cheyenne
Spirits” is a conspiracy thriller/murder mystery that examines modern life
from various angles, particularly that of its Cheyenne main character, Charlie
Littlewolf, brought to life by her coauthor. Over all, the trilogy comprises an
epic cross-cultural tale that confronts century’s old clashes between those who
exploit versus those who honor the Earth. Find out more at the series website,
www.dead-horse-canyon.com.
Never at a loss for something to do, she enjoys
gardening, her two cats, and pursuing her study of the heavens in yet another
realm, that of astrology. Her astrology clients span the globe, accessing her
through her expansive and informative website at www.valkyrieastrology.com. She
has authored a variety of books on the subject, taught online for the
International Academy of Astrology (IAA), spoken at conferences and individual
groups, and published articles in the journal of the International Society of
Astrological Research (ISAR).
“At one time, science, religion and
astrology were an integrated whole, which has obviously disintegrated over the
years,” she explains. “Science and religion have been at odds with
one another for centuries, and astrology gradually had a falling out with both.
What they fail to tell you in astronomy class is that Kepler, Galileo,
Copernicus, and Newton were all astrologers on a quest to obtain more accurate
data for their astrological readings and predictions. The objections of the
Christian church are more complicated, but it remains a mystery to me how they
can believe that God created the planets, yet not recognize how He uses them to
communicate with His children. I started out as a skeptic, but nothing
religious leaders or scientists say can ever change the fact that it
works.”
Not surprisingly, astrology has crept into her
fiction as well, particularly in Dead Horse Canyon. One of those factoids in
the “you can’t make this stuff up” category is that astrology works
for fictitious characters as well as actual people.
She is the mother of six grown children, 17
grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. She has lived in New York,
California, and Utah before making her home in Texas.
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FIND AND FOLLOW Marcha Fox
2 replies to "The Sapphiran Agenda"
An excellent review of Marcha’s book! I have her new book on my Kindle and am intrigued by the Native American lore it contains. Thank you for sharing, Rox.
Jan, thank you. I so love reading the different authors.