Overview: The Emperor: demented, paranoid, all powerful. The Sorcerer: obsessed with destroying the monster. The Woman: the fly in the ointment?

Verdict: Jeseque Debrone, newly graduated avionics engineer, is eager to make the most of her unexpected post in the Imperial Defense Forces, a position she recognizes as the ideal launching pad for her subversive career.

Ironically, her transmission of classified information to the rebels in the north results in her inclusion in a top-secret mission. But Jeseque doesn’t buy the official line, that she and her crewmates are aboard an interstellar spacecraft, embarking upon a 30-lightyear journey to a sister planet.

She believes that the heavily armed craft is in fact a secret weapons platform, with its sights set on the troublesome tribes in the north. The presence of secretive magicians and their unfathomable technologies only serves to increase her mistrust.

Destlar, the Eternal Emperor and the focus of Jeseque’s hatred, is demented, paranoid and all-powerful. Though he is ignorant of the fact, physical death for him is but a step to omnipotent carnage and chaos.

How does one go about destroying such a monster? One magician believes he has the answer, and the interstellar voyage is the culmination of his centuries-long machinations. Jeseque unwittingly steps in the path of the sorcerer’s hurtling train, and almost derails it.

In what is a thoroughly interesting, magnificently impassioned, and dutifully sculpted debut novel by author James Rogers, Flight of the Eternal Emperor is, at its core, the story of an entity that can live for hundreds, if not millions of years via the embodiment of magic, sure, but as much as that sounds seductive, boredom soon creeps in which leads to the need for forms of distraction to be born and cultivated.

Ergo, this Sci-Fi novel is a durable read from start to finish, and one chock full of fully-fleshed characters and a story line that is both intriguing and addictive to follow along with (even if it is late on a school night).

A blend of magic and technology, and inclusive of such a centralized character as Destlar, the Eternal Emperor and the focus of Jeseque’s hatred, what the author has done has brought forth a fantastical spellbinding account within his novel; and one that encourages you, nay seduces you even, to read as much as you can each time you pick the book up. It’s just that good.

About the Author - A native of County Leitrim, Ireland, James Rogers lives in New York and is a math teacher at the United Nations International School. His short fiction has appeared in a number of literary magazines, including The First Line, The Galway Review and Inscape.

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