Overview: The Flight of the Eternal Emperor is the coming together of: 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 Defence 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 crew mates 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.

A most wondrous mix of technology and magic, much like Now You See Me, what author James Rogers does here in his new book Flight of the Eternal Emperor is lovingly brings forth a stellar, compulsive read from start to finish, and one that combines gripping, well rounded, full-bodied characters whose appearances have you invested in them from virtually the off.

For those who know of his previous works, his quite astounding collections of intriguing, and varied short stories, sure he has covered the genre grounds of horror and supernatural, humor and crime, but for my money, here in this new science-fantasy novel, Rogers has hit a home run.

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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