More of what the Bible didn’t tell you…
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April 22, 2003: C.H. Foertmeyer is an award winning novelist for good reason. (The Dorothy Parker Award and The Bloody Dagger Award.) The man can write, and the spinnings of his fertile mind are always intriguing. Damon and Malik - the Guardians - return in this sequel to The Cat's Lair. Their thought transference and shape shifting powers have advanced, which is good, because these angel-like guardian beings have their work cut out for them in the Sonoma Quadrant. Two teenage brothers meet up with a reclusive prospector named Griswald in the desert. For hundreds of years, people have been disappearing without a trace into the Sonoma Quadrant, and Griswald knows why and how. The tale he shares with them is unbelievable, until he proves it to them. He takes them to the mysterious town of Melas where the brothers find miracles aplenty. The townfolk live a perpetual life free of illness and injury, isolated from harmful outside influences. They seem to have free will and live charmed lives. This largesse is through the Nomeds, travelers from Alpha Centauri, who use Melas as a safe haven when they are on Earth. The truth is far afield of that fictional fairy tale told to skeptical brothers. The citizens of Melas in reality are souls snatched by demons and placed in Limbo forever to serve Lucifer. It's good versus evil in a most unusual scenario and will take the power of the Guardians and brave humans combined to prevail. IF they can prevail. You won't know until the very end who comes out winners. If you have not read its predecessor, Sonoma Quadrant can easily stand alone. My suggestion is you read The Cat's Lair first and then dig into this exciting sequel. Good job, as usual, Mr. Foertmeyer.
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October 01, 2002: If you've read Mr. Foertmeyers first book THE CATS' LAIR, you will start reading SONOMA QUADRANT and feel like your returning to old and great friends. Just a total feeling of "Ahhhhhhhh... I'm home again." While on a three day trip out to the Sonoma Desert to look for gold, two brothers named Tom and John Fischer meet an old prospector known as Griswald. He's got a story to tell the brothers and a sight for them to see! Both young men decide to add a little adventure to their trip and humor the old guy. So they follow him out into the desert and end up in a strange town called Melas, filled with even stranger events. For starters, you can't see the town or the inhabitants till you cross into it. Once there, you can imagine anything you want and it appears. Or just visualize where you want to be and you are there. On top of all of this, the citizens of the town have been living this way for hundreds and hundreds of years. Yet they don't age but a day for every hundred that passes. How did this place come to be and who are the beings that have set this place up? There is an evil working here and the Guardians are trying to manipulate events to get Tom and John out of the Sonoma Quadrant. I absolutely love this book! Mr. Foertmeyer has an excellent imagination and his characters are wonderfully written. The Guardians are some of my very favorite personalities from any book I've read. The mischief and side stepping that Malic does to get around the rules and get the help his Kinder needs is heartwarming. It's even more touching to see that his superiors, Damon and Otheon, look the other way when he does it. I can only hope that Mr. Foertmeyer has a need to write another book to follow this one. I could just keep reading and reading his stories. He is truly an imaginative and exceptional talent. It would be a shame for anyone to miss out on this first rate author.