What do you think?
Rate this book
For the Ages
“We were learning from the humans,” spoke the representative of an ancient space-faring race.
Archeological sites on the new home planets of Magellan and Bering are connected to those on Earth. Strange ancient tablets of incredible sophistication must be deciphered while keeping them out of the hands of the controllers in the Sol System. Secrets of our long buried past have been deliberately altered or kept from humanity by history’s self-appointed elite manipulators. Trevor Van Leeuwan and crew must race against powerful foes bent on full-spectrum-dominance in order to solve a mystery with implications that could free all mankind.
Available only at michaelsbookcorner (dot) com.
Caution: Anarcho-Capitalist or Voluntaryist themes.
Archeological sites on the new home planets of Magellan and Bering are connected to those on Earth. Strange ancient tablets of incredible sophistication must be deciphered while keeping them out of the hands of the controllers in the Sol System. Secrets of our long buried past have been deliberately altered or kept from humanity by history’s self-appointed elite manipulators. Trevor Van Leeuwan and crew must race against powerful foes bent on full-spectrum-dominance in order to solve a mystery with implications that could free all mankind.
Available only at michaelsbookcorner (dot) com.
Caution: Anarcho-Capitalist or Voluntaryist themes.
ebook
First published August 15, 2020
3 people want to read
About the author
Michael James Scharen
8 books33 followersMichael James Scharen received a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from Montana State University in 1987 and a Master of Art’s degree in Physics from Kent State University in 1989. He worked several years in the fledgling field of ceramic High Temperature Superconductor materials and the development of their application for passive microwave circuit components and subsystems. Mr. Scharen is co-author of six papers in that field including two of which he was first author with J. Robert Schrieffer -- Nobel Prize winning physicist for the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory on superconductivity. He also worked as a manufacturing engineer developing two-way, narrow-band text pagers as well as fiber-optic components. His interests include history, science and technology, astronomy, sociology, archeology, Austrian economics, agorism, voluntaryism, and bookbinding.
Discover or purchase my hard sci-fi adventures here -- Michael's Book Corner.
Don't have cryptocurrency? Look for giveaway offers!
Look for my posts on Instagram -- michaelscharen
Catch up with me on X.com -- @Classic_Sci-Fi
Find me on Threads -- Michael James Scharen
Subscribe on YouTube -- YouTube
Browse Pinterest -- Pinterest
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 15, 2021
What a fun book! I loved the thorough explanations of life on another planet and the intermingling of histories across the cosmos. I should probably leave it at that and not spoil it, but it was a great read!
Read
March 28, 2021For the Ages is officially released and available at https://michaelsbookcorner.com
A free eBook will be available for the first 20 people who put 'For the Ages' on their 'want to read' list. Send proof of your verification (unless goodreads does that for us) to authorScharen@physicist.net.
The video trailer for the book may be found on the Michael James Scharen goodreads.com author's page or here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5V6W...
Excerpt from For the Ages:
Set-up: Alien artifacts of untold age and sophistication have been discovered on Earth and now on the breakaway colony planet of Magellan. Government 'researchers' on Earth have their hands on a few taken from the archeologists who found them (among others already in their possession). Van Leeuwan and friends are watching the shenanigans at the Navel Research Laboratories via a bug planted on the MI-6 man, Sir Richard Marchand.
---------------------------------------
When they entered the laboratory there was a large group of men and women in both suits and uniforms standing around a lab bench. At least two of the men and women in suits sported a House of Representatives lapel pin. A woman in an Air Force uniform and a salad of ribbons on her chest said, “Do it again! That thing -- with the beam!” Farkas and Marchand crowded in trying to see the show. An engineer shined his laser pointer over one of the sockets that would have mated with the joining pallets, had they known about them. From the diagonal socket a beam shot upward into a thick steel plate supported precariously on three laboratory jacks. The plate began to smoke and spark with bits of molten metal popping around the edges of a hole being drilled through it. The drone bug had crawled out from under Sir Richard’s collar, camouflaged, recording and transmitting everything that was happening in the demo. When that was over, another technician struck a tuning fork and pressed the base against another tablet. Nothing happened and he tried it again, sliding it around to remember where the sweet spot was. He found it. The tablet was resting flat on the laboratory bench and slowly everything else on it started to levitate to about ten centimeters above the surface. As the tuning fork lost energy, the items slowly settled back to the table-top.
A well-dressed man in a suit came over to General Farkas and shook her hand effusively, “General Farkas, well done, well done! You appear to be making excellent progress here!” He had bumped the rep aside from Elysian Tactical Arms in the rush. The general, in genuine ‘fake-it-til-you-make-it’ style said, “Why thank you Mr. Aldrich. We have some pretty crack engineers working on this project.” Preston Aldrich was a first cousin to Malcolm Aldrich III – founder of Berkeley Arms. They were vying for development contracts and hoping to incorporate this technology, whatever it turned out to be. General Farkas, of course was working through the defense contractors (and their lobbyists) toward a shot at a big budget increase next year. Aldrich turned to Sir Richard and said, “Hey, didn’t see you there, man. How was Bermuda?” In the background, engineers were using different types of probes for different effects. Lights flashed. Tones played. The floor vibrated. None of them had a clue what they were doing, but it made the Dog and Pony Show impressive. Back on Magellan, Trevor, Justin, Soo Yun, Kimberly, Drs. Pulaski and Wilder along with Bjorn and Felix Mansfield were watching in horror.
Soo Yun finally broke the spell and said, "My God, those idiots are going to kill themselves or somebody else! What the hell do they think this whack-a-mole research is going to yield them?" Trevor spoke up and said, "This, my dear uninitiated friends, is how government dollars are obtained after they have been extorted from society." Drs. Wilder and Pulaski were both frozen to the screen, but nodded in agreement. Anna said, "This is why we wanted to work at Van Leeuwan University in the first place. With the endowment fund backing our research we don’t have to w**re ourselves out to people like that." Felix Mansfield was truly shaken. He had spent all of his life on Magellan and had never seen people behave with such a lack of concern for the consequences. Van Leeuwan asked the group. "Well folks? Is everyone comfortable with what is being done with the artifacts Drs. Wilder and Darbinyan discovered? Will we all sleep better at night knowing that technology so powerful and so misunderstood is in the hands of these people?"
------------------------
For the Ages is not in a series, per se but the previous book -- Sol is Not Lost -- shares the primary main character - Trevor Van Leeuwan. For the Ages is more grand even than chasing pirates around the solar system, but the issues touched ARE more grand. This story could take place before or after Sol is Not Lost. I will let the readers decide.
All five books, thus far, involve the Van Leeuwans. Trevor in the first two and his great-grandfather -- Marcus Aurelius Van Leeuwan in the prequel trilogy beginning with The Gifted.
A free eBook will be available for the first 20 people who put 'For the Ages' on their 'want to read' list. Send proof of your verification (unless goodreads does that for us) to authorScharen@physicist.net.
The video trailer for the book may be found on the Michael James Scharen goodreads.com author's page or here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5V6W...
Excerpt from For the Ages:
Set-up: Alien artifacts of untold age and sophistication have been discovered on Earth and now on the breakaway colony planet of Magellan. Government 'researchers' on Earth have their hands on a few taken from the archeologists who found them (among others already in their possession). Van Leeuwan and friends are watching the shenanigans at the Navel Research Laboratories via a bug planted on the MI-6 man, Sir Richard Marchand.
---------------------------------------
When they entered the laboratory there was a large group of men and women in both suits and uniforms standing around a lab bench. At least two of the men and women in suits sported a House of Representatives lapel pin. A woman in an Air Force uniform and a salad of ribbons on her chest said, “Do it again! That thing -- with the beam!” Farkas and Marchand crowded in trying to see the show. An engineer shined his laser pointer over one of the sockets that would have mated with the joining pallets, had they known about them. From the diagonal socket a beam shot upward into a thick steel plate supported precariously on three laboratory jacks. The plate began to smoke and spark with bits of molten metal popping around the edges of a hole being drilled through it. The drone bug had crawled out from under Sir Richard’s collar, camouflaged, recording and transmitting everything that was happening in the demo. When that was over, another technician struck a tuning fork and pressed the base against another tablet. Nothing happened and he tried it again, sliding it around to remember where the sweet spot was. He found it. The tablet was resting flat on the laboratory bench and slowly everything else on it started to levitate to about ten centimeters above the surface. As the tuning fork lost energy, the items slowly settled back to the table-top.
A well-dressed man in a suit came over to General Farkas and shook her hand effusively, “General Farkas, well done, well done! You appear to be making excellent progress here!” He had bumped the rep aside from Elysian Tactical Arms in the rush. The general, in genuine ‘fake-it-til-you-make-it’ style said, “Why thank you Mr. Aldrich. We have some pretty crack engineers working on this project.” Preston Aldrich was a first cousin to Malcolm Aldrich III – founder of Berkeley Arms. They were vying for development contracts and hoping to incorporate this technology, whatever it turned out to be. General Farkas, of course was working through the defense contractors (and their lobbyists) toward a shot at a big budget increase next year. Aldrich turned to Sir Richard and said, “Hey, didn’t see you there, man. How was Bermuda?” In the background, engineers were using different types of probes for different effects. Lights flashed. Tones played. The floor vibrated. None of them had a clue what they were doing, but it made the Dog and Pony Show impressive. Back on Magellan, Trevor, Justin, Soo Yun, Kimberly, Drs. Pulaski and Wilder along with Bjorn and Felix Mansfield were watching in horror.
Soo Yun finally broke the spell and said, "My God, those idiots are going to kill themselves or somebody else! What the hell do they think this whack-a-mole research is going to yield them?" Trevor spoke up and said, "This, my dear uninitiated friends, is how government dollars are obtained after they have been extorted from society." Drs. Wilder and Pulaski were both frozen to the screen, but nodded in agreement. Anna said, "This is why we wanted to work at Van Leeuwan University in the first place. With the endowment fund backing our research we don’t have to w**re ourselves out to people like that." Felix Mansfield was truly shaken. He had spent all of his life on Magellan and had never seen people behave with such a lack of concern for the consequences. Van Leeuwan asked the group. "Well folks? Is everyone comfortable with what is being done with the artifacts Drs. Wilder and Darbinyan discovered? Will we all sleep better at night knowing that technology so powerful and so misunderstood is in the hands of these people?"
------------------------
For the Ages is not in a series, per se but the previous book -- Sol is Not Lost -- shares the primary main character - Trevor Van Leeuwan. For the Ages is more grand even than chasing pirates around the solar system, but the issues touched ARE more grand. This story could take place before or after Sol is Not Lost. I will let the readers decide.
All five books, thus far, involve the Van Leeuwans. Trevor in the first two and his great-grandfather -- Marcus Aurelius Van Leeuwan in the prequel trilogy beginning with The Gifted.
July 2, 2021
It's usually said one of the rules of storytelling is "show, don't tell" - that is, showing the reader what's going on through action instead of description - which in storytelling it's exposition. Long, descriptive, exposition blocks of text tend to be avoided since they get the reader tired and maybe overwhelmed.
Despite that, this is a good story, with good and detailed worldbuilding - but the way it's written turns it into a rewarding exercise in patience. (Too) Long paragraphs, one after another; a lot of descriptive exposition mixed in with science and history trivia, only broken by "as you know" dialogues which, the way the book is formatted, makes it blend with the blocks of text.
In turn, this makes the story suffer from slow pacing - maybe a way of saying the story could be covered in a smaller book, and be more entertaining. The sushi roll principle applies here: It's more enjoyable since it's concentrated in a small size - instead of being tedious since it's too large.
And therein lies it's brilliance: This story would be better as a movie since it's visuals would replace the ton of descriptions. When visualizing it's characters, their dialogues, I could see it being similar to Contact - science fiction with a heavy emphasis on science, placing questions about life and it's relationship with the rest of the universe; and yet, not falling into an existential crisis. This, I'm really thankful for.
Previously I mentioned it was a rewarding exercise in patience - it takes a while to gain momentum but after a few chapters it gets entertaining and engaging. The only thing I really don't forgive about the story (setting aside the narration issues mentioned earlier) is it's anchoring in current times, which break the immersion on the far future it's set in. I mean lines like this: "They were more afraid of social media than death."
*A review copy was provided by the author.
Despite that, this is a good story, with good and detailed worldbuilding - but the way it's written turns it into a rewarding exercise in patience. (Too) Long paragraphs, one after another; a lot of descriptive exposition mixed in with science and history trivia, only broken by "as you know" dialogues which, the way the book is formatted, makes it blend with the blocks of text.
In turn, this makes the story suffer from slow pacing - maybe a way of saying the story could be covered in a smaller book, and be more entertaining. The sushi roll principle applies here: It's more enjoyable since it's concentrated in a small size - instead of being tedious since it's too large.
And therein lies it's brilliance: This story would be better as a movie since it's visuals would replace the ton of descriptions. When visualizing it's characters, their dialogues, I could see it being similar to Contact - science fiction with a heavy emphasis on science, placing questions about life and it's relationship with the rest of the universe; and yet, not falling into an existential crisis. This, I'm really thankful for.
Previously I mentioned it was a rewarding exercise in patience - it takes a while to gain momentum but after a few chapters it gets entertaining and engaging. The only thing I really don't forgive about the story (setting aside the narration issues mentioned earlier) is it's anchoring in current times, which break the immersion on the far future it's set in. I mean lines like this: "They were more afraid of social media than death."
*A review copy was provided by the author.
July 2, 2021
The first book of this series (Sol is not Lost) was excellent, and ‘For the Ages’ continues the story in the same vein. It is well plotted, with interesting and well-drawn characters as well as cleverly realised worlds in which the events play out.
Without wanting to spoil the story, the results of the extra-terrestrial excavations are both unpredictable and well done.
The series harks back to an earlier incarnation of science-fiction, with a gritty tone and a nod towards conspiracy theories which are worked into the tale very creatively.
Without wanting to spoil the story, the results of the extra-terrestrial excavations are both unpredictable and well done.
The series harks back to an earlier incarnation of science-fiction, with a gritty tone and a nod towards conspiracy theories which are worked into the tale very creatively.
July 5, 2021
Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Especially that the author didn’t spoon feed all the details of his vision of the future.
September 21, 2021
Fiction written by a scientist. At times it shows.
A good story involving new planets containing links to planet earth. A story with heroes who race against time to solve a mystery that involves the future of planet earth.
Reads like an episode of Dr Who.
A good story involving new planets containing links to planet earth. A story with heroes who race against time to solve a mystery that involves the future of planet earth.
Reads like an episode of Dr Who.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews