Miaplacidus--a once serene and philosophic world, devoted to the proliferation of academia and the arts, now finds itself in turmoil. The sphere is on the verge of extinction, brought about from scientific circumstance, and rumor of coup d'etat is in the cinder-choked air. Rasalhague, Al Na'ir of the foresaken Regime is left no alternative but to deploy his most trusted emissary across the galaxies to seek out a viable homeland for the doomed legion's relocation. Enter Canopus, successor to the sovereignty, only offspring to the reigning emperor. He is sent to a prototypic world known as Earth to obtain a peaceful accord with its inhabitants. The people of Earth are not yet ready to be introduced to an "off-worlder", and quickly, Canopus--the Lavender Man, is hunted and captured as a psychotic lunatic and finds himself imprisoned in the Federal Phenomenon Research Facility, where he is tested and prodded, befriended by some, especially Professor Martin Sandusky, and loathed by everyone else, being considered an enormous security risk to the safety of the planet. After a year of incarceration, Sandusky aids in his escape and the pursuit begins, spearheaded by a cantankerous Viking-like "Facility" employee, Ross "Rock" Vandermir, who teams up with a local cop, Dave Lomax. Together the hell-bent duo track the exploits of the Lavender Man across the rural eastern seaboard, seemingly always two steps behind, as he searches for a means to establish a venue of cohabitation, recruiting a vivid cast of characters along the way. The Chiefs of Security for the Facility, Goldstein and Walsh, are dispatched to silence the troublemaking Vandermir and Lomax, which leads to a violent and dramatic ending. On Miaplacidus, the coup succeeds courtesy of two vile menaces, Aldebaran and Hadar. They assassinate Rasalhague and launch their tele-cruisers to Earth as their planet explodes into gaseous ash, the intent, to take over Earth by force and destroy the last remaining Al Na'ir in the process. Dissention brews among the "off-worlders" as Hadar leads a rebellion against Aldebaran and plans to enslave the people of Earth with the horrific psychic powers he possesses, but Canopus knows a secret. With the help of Old Chelsea, he employs an international army of the insane to rise up against the Miaplacidine Reclamation Forces, their psychologically-unacceptable-to-normal-human-standard minds immune to the psychic tauntings of the alien invaders. The hunt continues as the varied cast of supporting characters--human and non-human alike--cross paths in a twisting mesh of mere coincidences and sheer destiny, all in a gut-wrenching, explicit race to access Canpus, who desperately searches for the "General", the mysterious dark horse government operative who may hold the key, in his ditch effort to attain a peaceful resolution and avoid total enslavement of humankind, courtesy of his kindred. Throughout the tale we see how the characters interact, and, most importantly, deal with change, both internal and external, as each undergoes a transformation of their basic moral fabric, and we notice the subtle similarities, that regardless of our origin or heritage, when faced with profound revelations and adversities, we are all of the same virtual composition. We share corresponding time and space, and when the shit hits the proverbial fan we are all apt to get sprayed in the face and reek with the odor of our deeds. It is a classic yarn of good versus evil, justice against injustice, where villains can become heroes and heroes confused. It is a world where nothing is certain and everything is not what it seems to be when viewed through the eyes of the beholder, and the reader. Prepare to become entangled in the graphic web where trickery and deceit are commonplace, and discover that history can be a carefully planned experiment in which we are all glass-encased subjects of diabolic folly.
Bob was born in Pottstown, Pennsylvania in 1961. He currently resides in Jacksonville, Florida, with his wife and three dogs. He is a published author and illustrator, having been entranced with the arts since a pre-teen, and has been writing non-fiction and fiction, fantasy and children's fiction for the past 18 years. When not working or writing, he spends his time traveling the globe, mostly in Central America.
