Power Lost, Power Found – Book 3 – Ebook
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The Island nation of Athlan, once ruled by the legendary Council of Four, the Priest, the Warrior, the Poet and the Scientor, each marked with symbols etched into their skin by forces unknown, continues to self-destruct on a physical plane, as well as a moral one. Of the Four, only the Warrior, Kon-r Sighur, has survived and Athlanean society is tearing itself apart, as certain death stalks all of them. The stellar Angeals, Cath and Dorchada, power brokers of the competing Celestial Travelers, have unleashed their players, willing and unwilling, on the dangerous gameboard called Athlan, under the blood-red skies of the tortured planet. The fight for control of the earth is heating up. Implacable foes advance across the burning face of the doomed Island, and all converge, by design or by chance, on the last bastion of hope-The Ban Castlean—The White Castle of the Gardai.
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Power Lost, Power Found is the culmination of the Threat of Angels Trilogy. When reading typical fantasy works, particularly those that deal with the continual battle between good and evil, which almost always contain the clash of armies, while individuals struggle to find their own selves and their own worth, the reader has learned to anticipate a happy ending. The basic formula is this: good is threatened by evil; evil gets the upper hand; and, against all odds, the forces of good prevail. The world, the kingdom or the people involved in the struggle are made right, again, and all is well. We like this kind of story because we see ourselves as the valiant heroes and we want the characters to win because when they win, we win.
One of the great things that Tolkien did in The Lord of the Rings was to throw a slight wrench into the “feel good” narrative- the wrench of reality. At the end of the story, Frodo has been irreparably harmed by his task as ring-bearer. He has become a physical and spiritual victim of PTSD caused by his battle with and defeat by the Ring. He must leave Middle-Earth and all who loved him and those he loved in return. Frodo’s reprieve from suffering is a trip to the Undying Lands, which is reward enough for any human. However, by creating Frodo’s loss/found scenario, Tolkien masters the emotions of the “bittersweet” experience. Tolkien, a trench warfare soldier in WW I, was, most likely, very aware of the damaging effect of combat on the individual and the bittersweet feelings associated with the damage inflicted by warfare and the joy of living long enough to return home.
In Power Lost, Power Found, Fitzgerald brings the armies of good and evil together for one final, cataclysmic battle that will determine what power gains control of the earth- light or dark, good or evil. And, as in real warfare, good people die, and we feel sad, but so do evil beings, and we feel satisfaction. And, instead of following the normal story line as outlined above, the monumental slaughter on the Plain before the Ban Castleigh does not result in a clear-cut winner. In fact, as readers, what we witness is a bloody draw, where Cean is eventually stripped of all of his friends, who die, and leads the new Four into the unknown to lick their wounds and start again. By the same token, the forces of evil must do the same and the questions, unasked, are these: what was it all for? why did so many have to die? Was it worth it? Will it happen again? The bittersweet element mentioned above also exists in Cean’s journey of loss and gain. And these questions are the questions we always ask ourselves, as humans, after we destroy each other in war.
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