Epic Novel, The Jade Owl, by Edward C. Patterson, begins Series!

From ancient times, in folklore, the owl has been noted in various ways. For most of us we have learned that the owl is wise, although the facts may not support that assumption...

 

But only Edward C. Paterson tells us the tale of a unique, powerful and deadly symbol--The Jade Owl!

In fact, the first book begins an epic series that is bound to be of interest to lovers of historical fiction, those who study the Chinese culture... as well as those who enjoy fantasy/scifi centered on cultural issues... My own interest started when I was working on campus and attended a student Chinese cultural dance program... I loved the traditional dress for women in particular, as well as, since then, the architectural beauty of their buildings.  So much so, that I went on to use oriental decor for my bedroom for many years...and now have it spread throughout my cabin and into my garden landscape.

While never digging into much

actual history, I found Patterson's first novel, epic, at just under 600 pages,  a wonderful learning experience, quite intriguing and delightful... A fantasy based upon folklore regarding owls, with a strong scifi horror emphasis... I loved it! It's added to my personal favorites for 2018!

"The old grandmother?" Rowden asked.

"Ao-ling--the matriarch." Nick must have expected Rowden to react, maybe a jaw drop, but Rowden just looked across Simone with the pale glance of a man suffering from too much motion over too many potholes. "You've never heard of her? Nick asked.

"No. But she must be important to be honored in the pronoun mystical."

Nick laughed. His bright smile reckoned him like his old self...

Nick approached the old woman. He bowed.

"Xiao Ao-ling, you have called and I have come. My friends are here, This is my partner, Simon and..."

"Please Nicholas Battle," Ao-ling said. Her hand raised like a leaf in a breeze. "I know who you take to your bed." She smiled at simon, a dim smile filled with many broken teeth, but teeth as white as ice, evidence of the many years they drew rice and noodles past the sums. "I also know the pupils of your father. I know of this Professor Gray. I am glad you have an escort of friends and lovers in this world of mistrust and shadows, but I called you because you have found it, and keep it safe, from Win-t'o's clutches. That gladdens me." 
She flexed her shoulders, sighing with a hollow wind that washed the room with her ancient breath. "Bird and Box will be joined again. John Battle's son shall do it. He shall. Hao. Hen hao.

Nick kissed Ao-ling's hand as it stretched above the cane. Rowden, fully taken by her regal demeanor, fell in line to do the same, but it was not expected. She stopped the ceremonial, waving her hands to either side of the ke-ting.

"Please all. Sit. Be comfortable." She touched Audrey's hand. "Ao-ti, call for tea and some sesame cake. I do appreciate the filial piety, but be comfortable all. Sit.

Rowden found a floor cushion, while Simone and Nick tucked into the love seat. Ao-ling adjusted her petite bottom on her throne. She regarded Rowden, her deeply lined face, a billboard to five score in years at least, reflected more events than a history book.

"So, Professor Gray," she said. "I have heard your name on John Battle's lips many times. He hoped one day you would enjoin his work."

Rowden balanced himself on the cushion. "I'm afraid I disappointed him," he said. "I sometimes wish I had pursued his work."

"You pursue it now." It was a pronouncement Rowden hadn't considered. "The Jade Owl is his work. It is found and now to be restored. It will reveal her greatest secret."

~~~

I took about a week to read this book--there was so much to follow and absorb, that I didn't want to miss anything. While Professor Rowden Gray would be considered the main character, he was not intended to be the hero, per se. Professor Gray had gone for an important curator interview which seemed to be fairly secure. He had resigned his teaching job and packed up... Only to be told that the position had not been funded and there was no job!

Professor Gray had once sat at the feet of John Battle, known to be a great expert in Chinese history. Not so coincidentally, it seemed, the Professor had stumbled into meeting a young man, Nick, when he was still highly agitated on what had been done to him--he didn't really want to go back to teaching, but he did need to have some type of position.

Rowden later learned that Nick was one of the sons of John Battle... In fact, most of the intrigue evolves out of the seeming coincidences that came one after the other...The "treasure hunt" effect of, say, The Da Vinci Code, et.al., where clues are found...is replaced with what seems to be previously ordained. People have been waiting for the Owl to be found, both villains who want it for their own purposes, and those knowing the power must be restrained in only one way. Readers travel along with the small group who have been selected to fulfill the destiny of, specifically, Nick, John Battle's son...and take the owl to be once again joined with the Empress... I'll not go into that thread of the story. because it is so entwined. not to reveal the primary focus.

A minor topic includes the lives of those gay men who both travel with the group and meet along the way. It is a heartwarming tale that allows readers to intimately see and empathize with the bias still faced by many with a different sexual orientation. Simon/Simone is an adorable character that I found fascinating in her/his reactions to traveling with his partner, Nick. 

Rowden has two different types of encounters with women, as a result of being who he was and where he was in particular. All of the characters, in fact, add a special flair to what is definitely not an adventure story. The cultural implications of the desires, long-dead empress, have long been felt as her power continues to live after her death...or is she dead? 

The scenes when the Owl is "more than" a statue are thrilling in their creativity as well as placed within the various cultural buildings that are explored as they travel on their journey. I checked a few of the site locations named and found they were fictional, so I have not spent too much time on specific locations--let's just say that I thoroughly enjoyed how each step was guided from one point to another...

She kissed him on the cheek. He hugged her and took a larger liberty beneath her nose, which she apparently did not discourage as she let his lips repose there twice. "Will you be okay?" she asked.
Rowden smiled. "I'm in freaking John Battle Memorial Hall, standing beside the Joy of Finches. Now, that's a restorative."
...A wave of sadness engulfed him despite his restoration declaration. He returned his attention to the Joy of Finches, his eyes studying the contour of every beak, eye, and swirl. How he wished he could don latex and explore each contour of his lovely object with his scientific hand. It beckoned him, a power within, calling from an ancient, withered Imperial heart. As he stared, his imagination played a game. A outline of that haunting bird--a deep velveteen green wavering in a fluorescent glow. He blinked. It was gone...
Rowden abruptly turned, but there was no one. Nothing. Just the lingering scene of lavender. He cocked his head, looking for reflections in the black marble floor.
...He took another longing glance at the Joy of Finches--the Empress Wu's great treasure. "You all lose!" he muttered. He turned away wondering why he could think of nothing now but the aroma of lavender...

...Suddenly, the Jade Owl hooted.
"Holy shit." Rowden gazed at the emerald glow. He thought he saw wing movement. Ears twitching. He also felt a tremor in the floor, a foot massage vibration, or some amusement part fun house effect. He held Nick's shoulder. The display case rumbled.
"Earthquake?" He winced. It would just be his luck to travel to California in time for the Big One.
"No. It's the Box," Nick said. Nick's face blossomed. No terror here...

~~~  

"The bird was stolen, but now is returned to its place in the Wind Cave guarding our great ancestor's tomb, watched over by the spirits and the winds of Huai-ya. Such a journey do I tell sourced from Ch'en Po-yen's notebooks--the journey of the tiger in the dragon garden, Ch-un-ch'eng's madness, the Bell echoer, Mao Sheng's bane."
--from The Diary of The Jade Owl--Xiao Ch'eng

The book is long...take your time and sink into the past when a famed Empress wanted only one thing...to never die... Highly recommended!

GABixlerReviews

Author Edward C. Patterson has been writing novels, short fiction, poetry and drama his entire life, always seeking the emotional core of any story he tells. He has currently 38 published books. He is known for spinning magical and fantasy yarns grounded in history and favors epic tales revealed in books series. His flagship works are The Jade Owl Legacy Series, The Southern Swallow Series, The Farn Trilogy and the Nick Firestone Mysteries. 

In many of Patterson's novels, he combines an imaginative touch with his life long devotion to China and its history, having earned an MA in Chinese History from Brooklyn College with further postgraduate work at Columbia University. This background is the cornerstone for The Jade Owl Legacy, The Southern Swallow Series and Master Wu's Bride, works drawing on Sung and Ming Dynasty History and Culture. History has played a major part in the coming of age tale Little Vin at Dreamland.

Patterson's military experience is reflected in such works as Surviving an American Gulag, The Road to Grafenwoehr and Pacific Crimson - Forget Me Not. His gay life-way and work in diversity is reflected in his novellas No Irish Need Apply, Cutting the Cheese, Bobby's Trace and Mother Asphodel; and in larger works - Turning Idolater and Look Away Silence.

A native of Brooklyn, NY, Patterson has spent over five decades as a soldier in the corporate world gaining insight into the human condition. He won the Year 2000 New Jersey Minority Achiever Award for his work in corporate diversity and is a proud U S Army Veteran of the Vietnam Era. Blending world travel experiences with a passion for story telling, Patterson's adventures continue as he works to permeate his reader's souls from an indelible wellspring. 

His novel No Irish Need Apply was named Book of the Month for June 2009 by Booz Allen Hamilton's Diversity Reading Organization. His Novel The Jade Owl was a finalist for The 2009 Rainbow Awards.

He is the proud founder of Operation eBook Drop which, in its heyday, distributed over a million eBooks to deployed Armed Forces members from over 2,000 independent authors. He has guest blogged extensively and has appeared on the Bobby Ozuna - Soul of Humanity Show. He is also proud of his Cherokee heritage, knows seven languages (including Cherokee) and is a contributing member of the ACLU.

"The little voice from between the lines can become a lion's roar, one listener at a time."

Crossing the Rubicon III: The Art of War by R C Richter

"It is good to be home with family and friends," Jacob said, smiling. "But I wish I could somehow see my mom and dad again."
"You will, Jacob," Carl said.
"No, not likely," Jacob said, "You see, there is a group of people, a group known as the Gatekeepers, who have hunted us for the last 275 years. They've been trying to kill us because in their world, their reality, Trinity's message to you was to be the end. We were to fade in time and only be remembered by the words printed on the walls in the hallway. We have done our part for history, and now they are trying to...to remove us from this and any other time. We had a place in the 1750s; we no longer do, outside of that time. We are without a time now. And if we ever leave this house and go into the real world, they will find us, and next time, they will most likely kill us." Jacob looked at Trinity. "And I, for one, could not deal with such a loss." He then turned to Keara. "For next time, if it is one of us, it will be all of us."

December 22, 2016

On this day, the universe would once again change the course of their lives.

In the morning, Carl and Maria left the estate to do the last of the Christmas shopping in Santa Cruz. Two housekeepers went with them. Trinity, Keara, and Jacob said their goodbyes, turned, and made their way back into the house as the large wooden gates closed behind them.

The house was filled with the magic of Christmas. Trinity walked down the halls and started to relive all of her childhood memories of Christmas back home in Calgary, Alberta. The snow would fall outside the windows and as Christmas Eve came, the family would sit around the tree and fireplace, opening gifts. To Trinity it was a happy, simpler time. Those days were long gone now. To Maria and Carl, they were just a few years ago, but to Trinity it felt like a lifetime.

..."I want to go to Santa Cruz. To go shopping. I want to buy gifts for you, Keara, and my mom and dad. I need to get out of this house. I want to drive. I want to learn to drive again."

"Trinity, I don't think that is the best option right now. We first need to figure out a way to make sure that no one will find us."

"I'm tired of hiding, Jacob! We'll be careful! And if you won't take me...I will figure out my own...way to get there!"

..."Where are you going?" asked Jacob.

"Washroom..."

The young women walked up to the double sliding doors, which slid open. In the corner, over the cashier, was a small video surveillance camera. It captured every movement the two young women made...

Days later to the three time travelers, this information would be uploaded to a mainframe computer that had facial-recognition software. These images were stored away and would be forgotten--until three hundred years later, when the files would suddenly show up on the Gatekeepers' master supercomputer. A computer that had only one purpose: to compare stored history to new history as it evolved. A system that looked at known history to change history...

It was the year 2337, and KA was sitting in his island fortress in the Andaman Sea. A red-robed man walked toward his desk. He handed a black slate tablet to KA.

"My master, once again we have a shift in the timeline. The last set of backup history files do not match the present set. We have recorded the Origin on the island of La Palma but now in the year 2016.

Time had no release to him or any of his other followers; just weeks earlier, he had ordered the murders of Trinity, Jacob, Keara, and Tom, who were then living on La Palma in 1882...

~~~

Crossing the Rubicon III:

The Art of War

By  R C Richter

As the front cover says, "Every Journey Comes to an End..." But there has never been a journey such as this one. The journey had been started just a few years ago, by a group of teenagers. You may have learned about that in the first books of the series.  But hundreds of years have gone by...What?!

Check out my review of the first book, there were then two different stories as  the group split, the second Rubicon and then the story of Andy, who left the main group to go off on this own... I highly recommend the entire series which centers on time travel and presents to readers a world of history in each book... In fact, negotiations are underway to produce the series for television! Very Cool! It should be an amazing historical plus technological adventure!

In this final book, the last three of the original group have returned home. I won't attempt to explain where that is, given the movement between years and locations. And readers will have somewhat of a recap in the early part of The Art of War. One caution for this last book, new readers may find it tedious because of the homecoming, the sharing of where/when they've been since they originally left home, plus the explanation of the danger the remaining group is now in. But of course it would happen exactly like that when your children came home and had lived in so many different time periods, they couldn't really determine exactly how old they were!

On the other hand, the thrilling action that soon starts is dramatic, far-reaching, with a futuristic vision that is, regrettably, all too plausible... Let me explain...

So there, we had it: a plan! We have

 found a way to get to the 

Gatekeepers in their Andaman

 Sea Fortress--right to the

belly of the beast...

~~~

With ever-increasing computer power and technological advances, by the year 2337, the world has changed dramatically. Those with money have gained complete control and just a few families are living as royalty. All others, people like you and me, have nothing, slaves to the families in every way possible...

Dave looked at Trinity. "Your sunrises and sunsets only exist in spirit. The people of 2337 no longer look at them with hope for a new day. The Gatekeepers are just that: gatekeepers to time. Nothing more. They are controlled by a group of twelve families that own everything. And I mean everything. They are God! No one has anything of his own. Nothing! In 2337, there are only nine hundred million people. The rest have been exterminated. Killed off. Those born in this time are only there to serve the twelve ruling families, or, as they call themselves, houses..."

~~~

During all those years leading up to this particular year, 2337, all people were monitored so closely that every piece of information has been collected and ultimately held within a supercomputer mainframe, under the control of an army called Gatekeepers whose job is to watch history and prevent anything that would affect the lives of the world's super-royalty...

From the very first, Trinity had taken on the job of recording their trip/travels and had soon figured out how to ensure that her records became available to present time people. Those teenagers who started out on an adventure years ago, using time travel for the first time, had since been called by historians, "The Origin" of time travel and had soon become problems for the Gatekeepers...Time travel must also be totally controlled...

Even though they were home, one video that had been taken during a shopping trip, had soon found its way to the computers that routinely compared historical updates. They not only now knew that The Origin" was alive but where they were!

A poignant story about Keara, who had lost her husband in an earlier attack by the Gatekeepers in the 1800s had been devastated and was seeking revenge...until she thought of a much more enjoyable way to help get over her loss... Time manipulation can be very helpful for special needs...

There really was no choice...They would never be able to live the rest of their lives as long as the Gatekeepers hunted them... But this time, they were no longer teenagers...and this time they would have help... 

But traveling through time was not controlled by anybody. There was historical knowledge available and approximations were close, but, still, any plan would only be as good as being able to travel across time at the exact right times...Would they be able to do it? If not, the future for people of earth would continue to be hopeless. It was Trinity who could not accept that they would not try to change the future...no matter what...

Noa addressed the group, but she focused more on Trinity and Jacob. "Remember, the second we cross, everyone is a target. There is no room for emotions now. There cannot be any second thoughts. You see someone, you shoot! There are no friends. Only hostile people."

"I like how you simplify it so," Trinity said.

"War is simple, Trinity. Kill or be killed. One of the first rules of

The Art of War."

~~~

An amazing, breathtaking, heartbreaking conclusion to a fantastic trilogy! Don't read this book...start with the first and have a Rubicon read-a-thon! Historical thrills; SciFi Gadgets of all kind...The beginning always must have an ending... If you've already read the earlier books...this has got to be a must-read!

GABixlerReviews

R C Richter was born in 1964 to German parents and resides in Calgary, Alberta Canada, just 45 minutes from the Rocky Mountains where his book Crossing The Rubicon begins.
After graduating from school, RC Richter's first job was as a structural gas plant pipe designer, which only lasted one year before he moved on and pursued his dream of working in the film industry. In 1989 with three of his classmates he started Midnight HWY Film Company. Over the next 11 years, they produced well over 100 national and international TV commercials, music videos and films.
During his time with Midnight, RC won a number of awards for commercial, music video and documentary projects.He also began writing a number of screenplays.
On January 1,2000, RC Richter called it quits once again and now followed his other interest in military off road equipment. This evolved into Environmental Rescue Equipment, where he built special off road firefighting equipment for wildland fires. This further evolved into ERE Logistics which designed and built military emergency bridge systems, based on the company's fleet of all wheel drive trucks.
Over the years RC Richter has traveled extensively, through Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North America and South America. Visiting most of the places in Crossing the Rubicon.
In February 2012, on his way to work at the aircraft hangar/shop facility in Southern Alberta, the story of Crossing the Rubicon once again came into play. The first ideas for the book were originally envisioned back in 1992 as a screenplay after exploring the Chungo Caves. Twenty years later, on that trip to the hangar, he made the decision to return to those original notes and write the book.
RC Richter has always believed you have to follow your dreams and never give up. Crossing the Rubicon, shares this important vision from start to end.