But this isn’t enough for him, and Adkins reconfigures the Star Gate device in such a way as to transport the entire lab and all the scientists and technicians working there at the time back to the world of Parallon, six millennia into the past. Since he had already lived into that time span, Adkins’ action causes a parallel world to spin off, one in which the villagers do not know him. Now he allows his psychotic arrogance to inflate, killing the scientists, enslaving the technicians by mind control, and becoming an evil deity. Little does he know, however, that one scientist has survived, and that one with a mind sufficiently intelligent to reconstruct the Star Gate device himself. Nor could the evil Adkins predict that this lone renegade would find romance and devotion among the villagers, strong enough to inspire him to overturn Adkins’ empire.

Flight of the Gryphon is a tremendously exciting, complex tapestry of character, plot, future history, prehistoric life, violence, romance, familial ties, and many other aspects of the common human condition, wrapped in a venue that is immediately and permanently enticing. Truly a book worthy of the Keeper Shelf, Flight of the Gryphon magnetises the reader’s attention throughout. Author Ann Durand has done an outstanding job of combining variant threads into this very involuted weave successfully. This story is an excellent reader for lovers of futuristic, sci fi, fantasy, and general romance. The sensuality is not explicit, but it does contain numerous scenes of extreme violence.

Overall rating:
Sensuality rating: Mildly Sensual, but contains graphic violence

Reviewer: Annie
July 9, 2007