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Dark Triumph
At the crossroads of history a multi-world war festers…
Fifty-two thousand years in Eorthe’s past, experiments with the science of magic and the magic of science resonate with the twenty-first century in such a way that new allies are gained. But at that nexus of history, the entire timeline is at risk of destruction in a temporal black hole. That far future is dark with corruption; a multi-world war foments between the Lunan Empire and Terrans returned from exile on Mars, who with a vengeance mean to take back their home planet and their old bases on Lunah. Meanwhile, back at the Berry Lake research station, the Hidden woman Huldra appears, in search of her lost daughters Mora and Katika. Unexpected companions arrive, including one familiar from a simulated world, and others accidentally from experimentation with the Oculi in Tempore.
Enter a magical child, an emanation of an oversoul whose wise genius is unsurpassed, and the complex of elements grows to include an artificial man from a distant moon, who is in search of the love of his life he abandoned.
Dark Triumph is book two of the third trilogy, book eight in The Stars Hereafter Chronicles, a legend of courage, love, romance, mysticism and enlightenment as the dark past of a reluctant hero enables power but leads to increasingly dangerous crossroads on Eorthe and beyond.
Fifty-two thousand years in Eorthe’s past, experiments with the science of magic and the magic of science resonate with the twenty-first century in such a way that new allies are gained. But at that nexus of history, the entire timeline is at risk of destruction in a temporal black hole. That far future is dark with corruption; a multi-world war foments between the Lunan Empire and Terrans returned from exile on Mars, who with a vengeance mean to take back their home planet and their old bases on Lunah. Meanwhile, back at the Berry Lake research station, the Hidden woman Huldra appears, in search of her lost daughters Mora and Katika. Unexpected companions arrive, including one familiar from a simulated world, and others accidentally from experimentation with the Oculi in Tempore.
Enter a magical child, an emanation of an oversoul whose wise genius is unsurpassed, and the complex of elements grows to include an artificial man from a distant moon, who is in search of the love of his life he abandoned.
Dark Triumph is book two of the third trilogy, book eight in The Stars Hereafter Chronicles, a legend of courage, love, romance, mysticism and enlightenment as the dark past of a reluctant hero enables power but leads to increasingly dangerous crossroads on Eorthe and beyond.
336 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 5, 2025
About the author
Rupert Smithson
12 books5 followersRUPERT SMITHSON is from the distant future of the same planet where The Stars Hereafter Chronicles begin circa 52,000 BCE. He describes himself as an author in the fabulist genre. However, he paraphrases Pablo Picasso when he says that, like all art, fiction is “the lie that tells the truth.”
He credits his most fortunate meeting with the chronicles’ protagonist Sir Rowan Berry Longbow, whose life story they comprise, to the accidental and indirect aid of an ingenious device invented by his physicist friend Fiona Power (which she calls the Oculi in Tempore in Latin, or the Eyes in Time).
With respect to the Oculi, Smithson says: “I am truly grateful that Fiona’s device, hitherto restricted to a kind of temporal telescope with which she viewed the past, by resonance with Prince Masudah’s somewhat similar invention in Sir Rowan’s time, somehow transported me bodily from the dystopia in which I’d grown up back through the millennia to a time and place where Mother Nature had not yet been laid waste. Yet paradisiacal it was not. Even then archetypal Evil oppressed the world, indeed threatened to sunder planet Eorthe and send its moon Lunah into the sun. However, magic in the antique past had not yet been separated from science, which further enhanced the ability to travel time, not only solo, but in the company of Sir Rowan and others. Although these travels tested our mettle to maximum, to participate in the potential manifestation of the Good, the Beautiful and the True remains our mission.”
In order to avoid what he calls the Thought Police, the censors of his native time, he departed from his usual beast-fable genre a little, an example of which is George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm, and wrote Sir Rowan’s tale as a science-fiction fantasy series. Smithson explains that, in his own late twenty-first century, the highly curated education system is such that few censors can actually read with comprehension in the first place, and that he had forged a document for a speech censor, a bribe to pass the affiliated Literati inspection. Literature censors, according to the author, are without exception dismissive of fabulism as unworthy of intelligent investigation, but so far consider it valuable nonetheless as distraction that pacifies the furry fandom.
Smithson insists that it’s the story that’s important, not the storyteller. Nevertheless, he concedes to a few details, especially to credit influences.
Before learning to read, at around age four young Rupert remembers spending much time pretending to read. In the early years following, several writers became important influences: Kenneth Grahame (The Wind in the Willows); Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (Grimm’s Fairy Tales); Lewis Carroll (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; Through the Looking Glass); Ernest Thompson Seton (Wild Animals I Have Known); Andre Norton (The Beast Master); Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan series; John Carter of Mars series; Pellucidar series); H.G. Wells (The Time Machine; The War of the Worlds); and of course J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings trilogy).
The works of John Wyndham (The Chrysalids; The Kraken Wakes; The Day of the Triffids) had also been life-changing experiences in the way books can be to children. And thanks to a friend whose grandmother was a librarian, a vast quantity of science fiction had been secretly illumined by mini lantern late into the night, beginning with the works of authors Ray Bradbury (The Martian Chronicles) and Isaac Asimov (Foundation series). The dear lady had given the two boys many dozens of classic and contemporary titles that would have otherwise been recycled. Sleep was lost, but minds were expanded.
Gratitude is great, Smithson adds, for not suffering from writer’s block, and moreover for having overcome reader’s block.
He credits his most fortunate meeting with the chronicles’ protagonist Sir Rowan Berry Longbow, whose life story they comprise, to the accidental and indirect aid of an ingenious device invented by his physicist friend Fiona Power (which she calls the Oculi in Tempore in Latin, or the Eyes in Time).
With respect to the Oculi, Smithson says: “I am truly grateful that Fiona’s device, hitherto restricted to a kind of temporal telescope with which she viewed the past, by resonance with Prince Masudah’s somewhat similar invention in Sir Rowan’s time, somehow transported me bodily from the dystopia in which I’d grown up back through the millennia to a time and place where Mother Nature had not yet been laid waste. Yet paradisiacal it was not. Even then archetypal Evil oppressed the world, indeed threatened to sunder planet Eorthe and send its moon Lunah into the sun. However, magic in the antique past had not yet been separated from science, which further enhanced the ability to travel time, not only solo, but in the company of Sir Rowan and others. Although these travels tested our mettle to maximum, to participate in the potential manifestation of the Good, the Beautiful and the True remains our mission.”
In order to avoid what he calls the Thought Police, the censors of his native time, he departed from his usual beast-fable genre a little, an example of which is George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm, and wrote Sir Rowan’s tale as a science-fiction fantasy series. Smithson explains that, in his own late twenty-first century, the highly curated education system is such that few censors can actually read with comprehension in the first place, and that he had forged a document for a speech censor, a bribe to pass the affiliated Literati inspection. Literature censors, according to the author, are without exception dismissive of fabulism as unworthy of intelligent investigation, but so far consider it valuable nonetheless as distraction that pacifies the furry fandom.
Smithson insists that it’s the story that’s important, not the storyteller. Nevertheless, he concedes to a few details, especially to credit influences.
Before learning to read, at around age four young Rupert remembers spending much time pretending to read. In the early years following, several writers became important influences: Kenneth Grahame (The Wind in the Willows); Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (Grimm’s Fairy Tales); Lewis Carroll (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; Through the Looking Glass); Ernest Thompson Seton (Wild Animals I Have Known); Andre Norton (The Beast Master); Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan series; John Carter of Mars series; Pellucidar series); H.G. Wells (The Time Machine; The War of the Worlds); and of course J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings trilogy).
The works of John Wyndham (The Chrysalids; The Kraken Wakes; The Day of the Triffids) had also been life-changing experiences in the way books can be to children. And thanks to a friend whose grandmother was a librarian, a vast quantity of science fiction had been secretly illumined by mini lantern late into the night, beginning with the works of authors Ray Bradbury (The Martian Chronicles) and Isaac Asimov (Foundation series). The dear lady had given the two boys many dozens of classic and contemporary titles that would have otherwise been recycled. Sleep was lost, but minds were expanded.
Gratitude is great, Smithson adds, for not suffering from writer’s block, and moreover for having overcome reader’s block.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 18, 2025
This is such a great book. The series just keeps getting better and better as the story continues to unfold. The experiments at Berry Lake continue to be a topic of great interests, in fact I find pretty much all the topics the author explores to be interesting. Everything from building pyramids, medicinal berries, timeline jumping and star travel make for an excellent read that's hard to put down.
I never want to put spoilers in my review but I was also deeply relieved by one of the reunions. After reading the series for so long there are some very satisfying moments where what happens is exactly what you want to happen. Sister Sirun's situation is also something of great tension where is seems that Rowan may keep repeating past mistakes but thankfully there is a lot of growth seen in some characters.
There's still a big secret that Rowan's holding onto which threatens to pull apart his relationship if it comes out in the wrong way. I'm curious to see how that gets resolved. Also the time traveler from the future is a clever touch. The place he hails from sounds quite bleak and not so unlike our near future if we're not careful.
I look forward to the final book which I've started already. It seems like there is a lot to still wrap up, but it is a long book so I can't wait to see how Rupert pulls it all together.
I never want to put spoilers in my review but I was also deeply relieved by one of the reunions. After reading the series for so long there are some very satisfying moments where what happens is exactly what you want to happen. Sister Sirun's situation is also something of great tension where is seems that Rowan may keep repeating past mistakes but thankfully there is a lot of growth seen in some characters.
There's still a big secret that Rowan's holding onto which threatens to pull apart his relationship if it comes out in the wrong way. I'm curious to see how that gets resolved. Also the time traveler from the future is a clever touch. The place he hails from sounds quite bleak and not so unlike our near future if we're not careful.
I look forward to the final book which I've started already. It seems like there is a lot to still wrap up, but it is a long book so I can't wait to see how Rupert pulls it all together.
Displaying 1 of 1 review