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the Ferren trilogy

Eddon & Vail books

Vicar of Morbing Vyle

The Black Crusade

Walter Wants to be a Werewolf!

Wolf Kingdom quartet

Sassycat

 
 

Ferren lives one thousand years in the future from now. Progress has ended and the world has gone backwards. But Ferren knows almost nothing about it.

He doesn't know that, early in the 21st Century, medical scientists invented a technology to bring dead people back to life - and then heard them report that they'd really been to Heaven, really seen angels. When scientists sent teams of psychonauts to investigate, they triggered the Millennial War between Heaven and Earth.

First came the period known as the Rising of the Undead, when recently arrived souls were driven out from Heaven, back to their dead buried bodies. This was a terrible period of marauding murdering corpses, which emptied cities and devastated every nation on the Earth.

Then came a period of phony peace and negotiations, while scientists secretly manipulated Heaven into Earthly space and time. When the golden battlements and green hills of Heaven appeared in the sky, thousands of people flew up to see the sights. The result was the Great Collapse, when huge portions of Heaven fell down onto the Earth, causing terrible fires. The same fires are still burning across Asia and Europe, nearly nine hundred years later.

The Great Collapse changed everything. On Heaven's side, God retreated in disgust behind impenetrable clouds, leaving a War Council of the highest archangels to continue the war. On the side of the Earth, artificial types of being displaced real human beings.

These artificial types, called Humen, include Doctors (shriveled brains maintained only by life support systems), Plasmatics (combining organic nerves and muscles with machinery) and Hypers (clad in black rubber, composed of an inanimate material, fueled by injections of living memories and experiences).

The real human beings, like Ferren himself, survive in small isolated tribes, ignorant, fearful and despairing. At regular times, the Humen take away one or more member from each tribe for what they call 'military service'.

This is the world Ferren has been born into. He still knows almost nothing about it - but he's about to find out. When he does, the world will change forever

.Every night in the sky overhead, fearful battles take place in the Millennial War between Heaven and Earth. Every night, the people of Ferren's tribe lie trembling in terror.

Then a Junior Angel called Miriael crashes to the Earth. When Ferren discovers Miriael still alive, her strange radiant beauty takes his breath away.

Miriael teaches Ferren about the world he lives in. Ferren's tribe is descended from the original human beings, but they have preserved only a few myths and objects from the 'Good Times' of long ago.

For the tribe, contact with a Celestial is punishable by exile. When Ferren is found out, he is driven forth into a world of burning hills, overbridges, Morphs - and the military camp of the sinister 'Humen'.

As the War builds up and up, Ferren and his tribe are drawn into vast events beyond their control. On the Humen side are Doctors, Hypers and Plasmatics. On the Heavenly side are Seraphim, Cherubim and the greatest of archangels like Uriel.

The final outcome hangs on the choices of Ferren and Miriael . . .

The second novel begins six months after the end of Ferrenand the Angel. Ferren and Miriael travel from tribe to tribe, encouraging the Residuals to join together in a Residual Alliance. They visit the tribe of the Nesters, who live near a mysterious City of the Dead, and the tribe of the Sea-Folk, who are at war with a flock of seagulls.

Meanwhile, a terrifying new threat looms. A single Doctor marches in to take control of the Humen Camp at Bankstown. A giant in size, Doctor Saniette aims to become the sole worldwide leader of all Humen forces. He brings with him an army of Queen-Hypers and other newly developed secret weapons.

Ferren and Miriael are helped by Kiet, a fierce young woman from the tribe of Nesters. Ferren is torn between his old feelings for Miriael and his new feelings for Kiet.

Miriael herself is attracted to Asmodai, a beautiful male angel who visits her in secret. Asmodai offers to help Miriael reestablish contact with Heaven. He too shares a dream of cooperation between Heaven and the Residuals. The story builds up to a shocking revelation, a desperate rescue and a final confrontation with 'the white Doctor'.

Asmodai, the twice-fallen angel, now dominates the air with his flying wing of Morphs. When he takes over leadership of the Humen, his aim is to rule both Heaven and Earth.

On the Earth, Ferren has at last united all the remaining tribes of human beings in a Residual Alliance. But Skail (from Ferren and the White Doctor) has become a representative in the Residual assembly, with cunning political ambitions of his own. The unity of the Alliance is under threat almost before it's begun.

Zonda (from Ferren and the Angel) is a representative too, from Ferren's home tribe of the People. She's attracted to Ferren all over again. Naturally she doesn't expect Kiet to stand in her way.

When Ferren and the assembly are forced to flee, they hide with the People. They also take shelter with the Fusselfolk, who inhabit a shifting rolling beach of fur-snails.

Miriael travels to Heaven many times in the attempt to combine Celestial and Residual forces. She visits several Altitudes and speaks to a War Council of the very highest archangels.

When Asmodai's armies invade and conquer a part of the First Altitude, Ferren and his friends secretly ascend into Heaven by an immense tower. They plan to sabotage Asmodai's armies from behind, but get into a fight with Hyper soldiers. They end up playing a decisive role in the greatest battle of the whole Millennial War.

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© 1997 - 2010 Richard Harland.