Defender: There are knots at the beginning and ending of all things

By Stephen Spanoudis

Her husband removed the ring from his head and stood in the open square, whispering to it while he turned it slowly in his hands. As he spoke, it doubled, then tripled in size. It was now a hoop slightly wider than his shoulders. They watched him lift it over his head, and in a single motion, spin it on its axis while tossing it upwards. It rang loudly and glowed white-hot before rocketing into the sky. It reached an apex eight hundred meters in the air and hung for a second as a crack of thunder echoed across the landscape, then accelerated downward, leaving a glowing trail as the air molecules in its path were ionized into their component atoms.He centered himself beneath it as it fell back to earth, and, like the expert swimmer he was, clasped his hands together above his head as if he were about to dive into the sky. He took a deep breath, gritted his teeth for the pain he knew was coming, and closed his eyes. As the ring rocketed earthward he disappeared within it. There was a second thunderclap as the ring hit the ground, then it rang even louder before it vanished, followed by perfect silence. Or at least Exander seemed to have disappeared.Manuela's eyes were imprinted with an afterimage of her husband's skin and bones bursting into flames and imploding in a smoldering heap on the ground. She shrieked and collapsed. Welcome to the Republic of Dreams, where unseen combatants wage a proxy war in a world that is equal parts science, history, metaphor and mystery. Defender, book four in the series, is set at the end of the 22nd Century and follows the difficult life of Exander Metro, a man who has paid a great price for his heroism. He is now a ghostly shadow of his former self. He makes a long-awaited return to the Republic of Dreams and is proclaimed the King of Dreams, receiving the mysterious Crown of Fire, which Uira, Keeper of Legends, claims is an ancient object of power bestowed upon him by the gods. He struggles to learn its secrets while dealing with an influx of pirates bent on taking over the Republic at any cost, and fighting his own private battle against the pain of his deteriorating body. When the anti-rejection drugs that keep him alive begin to fail, his friends and family can do little to help him, and Ariadne, the global intelligence he helped create, wonders if she can exist without him. The answer to understanding the Crown - and to his and Ariadne's survival, might lie with his young son Ion, who sees the world as shadows of life and death that hint at the past - and the future.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1793027188
• ISBN13: 9781793027184
• Release Date: January 2019
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"