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The Last Legacy: a 4-book drama of two worlds connected by one need: survival. The two worlds: mid-21st Century Earth and a planet in the Pleiades star system, date unknown. The Earth story spans all four books. The Phrynis stories have closure at the end of each. Since The Hesta is book three of the series, these synopses try to bring the Hesta plot up to date without giving too much away of the earlier ones.
Book I: The Atheling.
2047 AD. Two worlds far apart in space and time: a dying Earth and idyllic Phrynis in the Pleiades system. Through the Hesikastor, elderly leader of a European sect, come visions of Phrynis and clips from its past. The question arises: why are the visions coming and to this particular man. As curiosity increases, the alien tales unfold, until a race is on to find that world - a promised land for Earth survivors - and the means to reach it. Pitar Ellisen, Western leader, pits himself against space magnate Manfred Hengst. Ellisen wants arms from Hengst, and offers up Phrynis star charts for them.
On Phrynis, as heir to the Gnangar throne, Prince Torc goes on a token retreat to the holy city of Rm. Because of his sexual indulgences on the way, he arrives late and to get another slot has to extend his stay. As a result he evolves into an idealist unfit for the situation to which he returns. The ensuing struggle between him and his younger brother mirrors the struggles within Ellisen as he wrestles with his own conscience and the fate of war-torn Earth.
Book II: The Orborgon
On Earth, Ellisen, now World President, foolishly goes up Spaceside to carry on his dealing and flies into Hengst's web. Hengst now has all the cards and sets about getting the star charts every way he can.
On Phrynis, after Torc's death, his brother Gar has seized the throne and become Emperor, wreaking havoc across the Known World, bringing death and betrayal in the highest places. A millennium later, at the peak of this dark age, a woman is born in the Fend, a remote northwestern settlement. This scorder (healer), weaver, and scribe, harbors a secret which will bring her summary execution if discovered. At the beginning of this book it is the winter that her grandchild is born, and her secret is out. Pursued by Fendmen, she flees over the snowy wastes with the child, meets up with merchant lord Brocan of the Gurdn clan - and destiny.
Book III: The Hesta
On Earth, the struggle is on to keep the Phrynis star charts from Hengst. Hengst, up in his orbiting satellite, STI, (Space Tektonics, Inc.) continues his pressure on the Hesikastor for the charts. (He has a fleet of star ships ready to leave with would-be survivors of his choosing and nowhere to go.) Shira, the Hesikastor's granddaughter, also receiving the visions of Phrynis history through him, flees with friends including Ellisen's wife to the Bourg, the Hesikastor's secret underground enclave. Hengst wants hostages for leverage. Hengst increases pressure on the Hesikastor until, fearing for the old man's life, a young physicist, head of Hengst's top research team on STI, plots to rescue the Hesikastor and get him down to safety in the the Bourg.
On Phrynis, Hesta, Annhilde's granddaughter, the dormant baby in The Orborgon, is now ten years old. While not accepted as a Gurdn, she is harbored in the safety of remote faa-aron-Ramoni, unhappy and ignorant of her true heritage - until disaster strikes and she is forced out literally into new and perilous places. As she tries to regain her freedom she has to cope with startling revelations and strange new powers stirring within her.
Genre: Science Fiction
Book I: The Atheling.
2047 AD. Two worlds far apart in space and time: a dying Earth and idyllic Phrynis in the Pleiades system. Through the Hesikastor, elderly leader of a European sect, come visions of Phrynis and clips from its past. The question arises: why are the visions coming and to this particular man. As curiosity increases, the alien tales unfold, until a race is on to find that world - a promised land for Earth survivors - and the means to reach it. Pitar Ellisen, Western leader, pits himself against space magnate Manfred Hengst. Ellisen wants arms from Hengst, and offers up Phrynis star charts for them.
On Phrynis, as heir to the Gnangar throne, Prince Torc goes on a token retreat to the holy city of Rm. Because of his sexual indulgences on the way, he arrives late and to get another slot has to extend his stay. As a result he evolves into an idealist unfit for the situation to which he returns. The ensuing struggle between him and his younger brother mirrors the struggles within Ellisen as he wrestles with his own conscience and the fate of war-torn Earth.
Book II: The Orborgon
On Earth, Ellisen, now World President, foolishly goes up Spaceside to carry on his dealing and flies into Hengst's web. Hengst now has all the cards and sets about getting the star charts every way he can.
On Phrynis, after Torc's death, his brother Gar has seized the throne and become Emperor, wreaking havoc across the Known World, bringing death and betrayal in the highest places. A millennium later, at the peak of this dark age, a woman is born in the Fend, a remote northwestern settlement. This scorder (healer), weaver, and scribe, harbors a secret which will bring her summary execution if discovered. At the beginning of this book it is the winter that her grandchild is born, and her secret is out. Pursued by Fendmen, she flees over the snowy wastes with the child, meets up with merchant lord Brocan of the Gurdn clan - and destiny.
Book III: The Hesta
On Earth, the struggle is on to keep the Phrynis star charts from Hengst. Hengst, up in his orbiting satellite, STI, (Space Tektonics, Inc.) continues his pressure on the Hesikastor for the charts. (He has a fleet of star ships ready to leave with would-be survivors of his choosing and nowhere to go.) Shira, the Hesikastor's granddaughter, also receiving the visions of Phrynis history through him, flees with friends including Ellisen's wife to the Bourg, the Hesikastor's secret underground enclave. Hengst wants hostages for leverage. Hengst increases pressure on the Hesikastor until, fearing for the old man's life, a young physicist, head of Hengst's top research team on STI, plots to rescue the Hesikastor and get him down to safety in the the Bourg.
On Phrynis, Hesta, Annhilde's granddaughter, the dormant baby in The Orborgon, is now ten years old. While not accepted as a Gurdn, she is harbored in the safety of remote faa-aron-Ramoni, unhappy and ignorant of her true heritage - until disaster strikes and she is forced out literally into new and perilous places. As she tries to regain her freedom she has to cope with startling revelations and strange new powers stirring within her.
Genre: Science Fiction
Used availability for Grace Chetwin's The Hesta