Description: Earth is a prison and you’re living in it. It’s called The Construct and its keepers carefully manage the rise and fall of humanity in order to extract soul energy to fuel the galactic expansion of an alien race ... but we’ll get to that!

Verdict: When an enigmatic magic known as the Astrig Ka’a turns D’avry’s life upside down, he finds himself in a struggle to save humanity, not only in his own time and place but throughout Earth’s untold histories as well - histories replete with mechanized armor, steampunk airships, wolf-borne goblins, and creatures crafted from the very void between worlds.

Now D’avry’s dreams have become a playground for this world-bending chaos. When he saves the girl of his dreams, in one of his dreams, he inadvertently brings her back and must figure out what the Astrig Ka’a is trying to tell him and why the keepers of the Construct want so badly to kill a crippled girl from the future.

The answer to these questions may be the only hope that humanity has, not just to escape its prison, but to survive as a species.

My dear friends, simply put, if you are looking for a fresh new take on an already deeply purged genre (whether it be on TV or on paper), Eric Lard’s rather wondrous Dawn of the Construct: Book 1 of the Soul Machine Saga is a fantasy/sci-fi amalgamation that not only features reluctant heroes, dreams within dreams, monstrous bad guys, magic upon magic, and fully fleshed out and colorful characters of all sorts, but comes complete with a setting that features deep dives into three different timelines!

A beast to have put together, one assumes, Lard has tamed it, controlled it and now unleashed it unto the awaiting public, and boy, it is a might fine, side-winding, twisting and turning, magical treat worth waiting for, of that you have my word.

Running at just under 300 pages, once you get into it, there is simply no stopping as Lard cleverly constructs each closing chapter with a pinch of curiosity for what is to come and thus you just have no option but to keep reading!

Complete with a well-paced story line, and one, even given its three dimensions, that doesn’t come off the rails or lose you at any juncture, this is very much a high stakes story complete with pulsatingly-induced, accelerated moments of action, and thus Dawn of the Construct: Book 1 not only promises to be an action-packed saga, but here in its opening works, delivers upon it in spades.

About the Author - Eric’s base camp is at the foot of the oft-smoldering Sierra Nevada in NorCal where he surfs, snowboards, and mountain bikes with his wife and three adult sons. You can check out excerpts, upcoming projects, and short stories on his author page.

Official Book Purchase Link