Starting with the original short story, THE STOWAWAY, which lit the fuse leading in a Mission Impossible-like fashion to full-blown science fiction action-adventure novel called THE GOLDEN ELLIPSE—Book One in a trilogy, no less—the narrative weight is carried on the toned shoulders of the heroic protagonists, Rachel and Owen Haig. Add to those intrepid Americans, the resourceful British spy named Flynn and the often comical and always on-point interplay of the irascible, ageless Artemus Pennywell and his replicant valet slash fixer, Andrew, driving the story from The Powers That Be angle.
This fantastic five comprises the main characters. But like most stories, a well-drawn, dimensional cast of supporting characters spans the entire The Powers That Be trilogy. Beginning with THE GOLDEN ELLIPSE, the characters span altruistic to malevolent in shades of good and evil from light grays to the deepest blacks.
Speaking of pitch black pools where hearts should reside, here is an insightful introduction to a key antagonist driving The Golden Ellipse’s thought-provoking, action-packed narrative.
Meet Tarek Hamed – psychopathic Egyptologist
Plaguing an otherwise exemplary academic career, Tarek Hamed’s unrequited obsession with the true origins of the Great Pyramid stunt his promising career. His maverick position on the age-old pyramids debate stain his reputation among colleagues moored to consensus in every conceivable manner and form.
In Hamed’s view, the notion of thousands of slaves utilizing ropes and pulleys to transport 10-ton precision-cut stone blocks and stack them within a scintilla of perfection is beyond ludicrous. On the heels of attaining a new position with the Cairo Museum, a strange clue in the form of a small crystal pyramid amulet lands in his lap courtesy of an alluringly enigmatic assistant harboring dark secrets of her own. The crystal—Hamed’s Rosetta Stone—leads to the confirmation of his life’s work and vaults him on a destructive and dangerous quest to realize his life’s work and meet the pyramid’s true artisans.
Avoiding spoilers, suffice to say, Tarek Hamed is a roguish middle-aged man in the veins of an Omar Sharif—dapper and erudite in his trademark white suit and hat, attracting the fawning attentions of the opposite sex, whom he conscripts to carry out his evil plans. Like the most interesting villains from pop culture and literature, the Egyptian possesses a disquieting charm and an easy charisma, but get too close and things go sideways in a hurry.
The Powers That Be trilogyÂ
THE GOLDEN ELLIPSE is a cinematic near-future dystopian world with intrepid newlyweds, Rachel and Owen Haig, joining the PTB to save a world teetering between evolution and extinction. Delving deeper into multi-generational, interwoven storylines in THE LOST SHIP and THE BLUE SPARK, humankind teeters on the razor’s edge as pernicious forces from Earth and beyond grow more powerful, looming just over the horizon.
