The Citadel Book three of
Dianis, A World In Turmoil chronicles
Frank Dravis
Six Factors Publishing, LLC, July 31, 2024
382 pp
Paperback: $18.50
Ebook: $4.29
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About the Series: The Dianis, A World in Turmoil chronicles, follows the struggles of a forgotten colony of humans on their pre-steam world as they strive to survive in a galactic war between starfaring powers bent on stealing all that Dianis offers. The colony, and why it was founded four hundred years ago, is rediscovered and the power struggles begin, but with Humanity's survival as the outcome. Can that goal be accomplished without the colonists ground into the dust of history?
About the Book: The Citadel, a
bastion on the protected planet of Dianis, is the third chronicle in the
Dianis, A World In Turmoil series. Achelous, the architect and orchestrator of
the planet's defense against extrasolars, has been abducted by the
Paleowrights, a powerful religious order. Chained, tortured, and carried off to
the Empire of Nak Drakas, Achelous's fate is unknown.
After the mayhem and outrage of Achelous's kidnapping, Marisa, his mistress and a trader princess, embarks on a mission of restitution. To rescue Achelous, she must go to the heart of her enemy, the Drakan Empire, and save him from Viscount Helprig. The Paleowright clergyman does not care what Achelous may know, just that he has blasphemed the Diunesis faith and shall be hung before the archbishop. However, the commandant of the Drakas secret service is not so quick to execute. He suspects Achelous is an Avarian, an agent of a galactic federation, the very people the Paleowrights worship as gods.
Amidst the fight against corsairs raiding
the planet, attacks by Paleowright armies, and the intervention of the Avaria
Federation, Marisa must rescue Achelous, and if successful, can trigger a
global war on Dianis. Can one man be worth that outcome? The answer lies in
what he knows.
My Review:
Our favorite intrepid band of heroes is back to rescue one of their own, chief inspector Archelous. Archelous, gone rogue from the federation of planets and its prime directive, the Universal Law of Unclaimed Planets, has done the unthinkable: fallen in love with a Class F (protected from outside interference of its natural development) leader, and even worse, fathered a child, a symbol of change and love for another. He’s been kidnapped by a rival faction on backwater Dianis, home to a rare mineral critical to interstellar travel, and his friends, both extraterrestrial and native, have gathered quietly to liberate him. The rival faction, The Drakan Empire, view extraterrestrials as gods, and so a great rift begins that may result in tearing apart the once stable and protected world.
An excavated mountain holdout proves Dianis was once an outpost of a galactic primordial race mysteriously vanished thousands of years earlier after seeding life on habitable planets in the galaxy. When a deep secret identity is revealed through genetic testing, any case for extraterrestrial mining rights could become moot, let alone the truth of their Nemesis. Though exonerated, Archelous has broken so many interplanetary non-interference laws that will affect Dianis, and maybe even the Federation, forever. However, his knowledge of the truth of the real enemy is worth killing—or dying—for. Will the secret of the future, given by the matriarch to the Draken lord, unite or destroy Dianis?
Dravis’s memorable characters, both humanoid and tech, face crises of every emotion with aplomb, adaptation, fury, astonishment as befitting every change and advancement. It’s a huge cast with a cast list provided, that even those who’ve read Dravis’s previous novels will need to take a little time to sort through. The story really grabbed me by the time the rescue was in planning, as well as the discoveries made inside the mountain. After fifteen hundred years, the message left there still resonates: “She said they still had hope,” Lettern says of the messenger. Fans of epic sci fi will appreciate the parallels to favorite science fiction shows, and our own society.
About the Author: Frank lives along
the Mississippi River in Wisconsin and has leveraged his many life experiences
to write the Dianis, A World In Turmoil chronicles. He was born in Detroit,
Michigan, and spent six years in the US Navy chasing Soviet submarines. His
love of the sea is reflected in chronicles, a love he has shared with his wife
and two girls. He has two degrees, a Bachelor of Computer Science and a Master
of Business Administration. Those degrees have been integral to his careers as
a writer, software engineer, marketing executive, and chief information
officer.
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