Book Spotlight: Ghosts of the Void by Tim Burns

Ghosts of the Void
by Tim Burns
Sci-fi
Available from: amazon | smashwords

Summary: 

When the solar system passes through a vast cloud of dark matter, strange things start to happen. Electronics go haywire, unbreakable materials suddenly break, and enigmatic, ghostly creatures are sighted. To the inhabitants of Earth this is bad enough, but on Mars, where properly-functioning technology means the difference between life and death, this spells disaster on an unimaginable scale.

Jared Miller, a psionically talented problem solver, barely survives his journey to the Red Planet on his mission to discover just what these mysterious ghosts of the void are and what they want. There, he meets Bo Greene, a prospector who scours the barren wasteland in his six-legged walker in search of mroom, the only life native to Mars. Along with Bo's ex-wife Anissa, Anna the witch and several others, Jared and Bo find themselves transported to the distant future where Mars is green and vibrant but the inhabitants are under the domination of alien overlords and their sadistic psionic henchmen.

Survival becomes their primary goal as they seek to save two worlds, but in the end they face the terrible dilemma of having to choose which to save and which to condemn to non-existence.

Quotes from “Ghosts of the Void”

“And for goodness sake enjoy yourself. No matter how many times you live, life is much more worth living if you can have fun doing it.” (Chapter 1)

Everything about the apparition gave the appearance of being something somehow drawn on the underlying fabric of reality by a seriously warped mind with very little sense of what a human being even was. Despite his firm belief in the non-existence of anything he considered made-up, in that moment the terrified prospector seriously considered considering himself a believer. (Chapter 1)

As it was, the lack of enough of the proper tools held them back more than anything else. In many cases, though, a laser cutter could substitute for a lot of more sophisticated equipment, especially when wielded by people whose lives were on the line and who didn't care how much damage they caused to non-critical components or structures. (Chapter 6)

Anna knew then and there that she would never again need to burn the pink candle to attract the lover with whom to share her life. She kissed him, fully and deeply, thanking the Goddess that her search was over. (Chapter 7)

“Then you don't find it disturbing that I, well...” Anna waved her hand broadly, taking in the room and everything in it.

“Not in the least, my dear. You obviously come from a family tradition of some antiquity. Embrace your heritage and live your life to the fullest in the sure knowledge that your gods and ancestors are well pleased with how you use their gifts.” (Chapter 7)

“I can't believe I said that. Are witches for real?”

So it's like that, is it? Anna didn't even try to keep the condescension out of her voice as she said, “We are more real than anyone else because we don't hide behind layers of lies and illusions about the nature of reality. We see things as they are and don't try to sugar-coat human motivations and desires. Only a strong spirit can handle the truth, though.” … But as she had just told Michelle, witches are the ultimate realists. They recognize things for what they are instead of what they want them to be, so she knew that a lot of her audience would foolishly let their own prejudices and misconceptions blind them to anything she might have to say simply because it came from a source that threatened their narrow-minded views that had been foisted on them by hierarchies more interested in preventing their followers from thinking for themselves than in fostering any true spiritual growth. (Chapter 8)

“Oh, my precious baby. These others tormented you so much that you threatened to use violence?”

“I know I shouldn’t have, Mom. I remember the Rede and all; I don’t want anything bad coming back to me. But them saying that about you… it just made me so mad.”

“So what happened next?” Anna honestly didn’t know what she would rather hear: that her son had given in to his righteous anger at such a young age and in such a relatively harmless setting and actually caused a small amount of harm to someone so that he would always remember how it had hurt him even more and never again succumb to the temptation, or that he hadn’t. The lessons which truly bring growth and maturity to a soul are seldom without their cost. (Chapter 9)