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Stephen L. Padley (Born 1957 - still alive) He is inspired by those who can overcome the odds stacked against them. He is fascinated by the battle between science and religion, creation and evolution, faith, belief and fact. After serving 14 years in the Royal Navy completed two tours in the Gulf and also during the Falklands, Stephen emigrated to Australia in 1991 where he has been working design and technology industries over the last 22 years. Born in Hampshire, England, he now lives in Rockingham, West Australia. Currently working on the sequel to his first book - Abalus.
Reviewed by Alice DiNizo for Readers' Favorite
It is over one hundred and fifty years into the future and the world is in total disarray with infrastructure collapses and diseases everywhere. Abalus, his mother and father live in the small town of Dealton and are visited by the Cardinal of Surrendom. They are not supposed to read anything but Holy Writings so they hide the books they read in the fireplace. The Cardinal visits them to make certain they are following the path laid out for them in the Holy Writings and to collect tithes. The Cardinal's guards kill Abalus' father, molest his mother and throw Abalus into a cart. He is then taken to an underground cell where other children are held but he escapes with older teen Shaun. The two boys run from the Cardinal's guards with a dog, Barkeley. They treat the dog successfully for his wounds from a crossbow. They head for what is left of London after reading the personal log of a scientist, Geoffrey Short, who lived back in 2015. Geoffrey's log tells of experiments back then with bacteria and the Shewanella nanomas. Scientists back then, impatient for results, created a world disaster by accident. A young woman at MIT was busy listening to her MP3 player and thinking of her date that night and did not notice that she tracked nanomas home on her shoes after spilling a beaker of them in the laboratory. The nanomas were transferred out of the US on airlines before people knew what had happened. Now back to the future, with Shaun, Abalus, Barkeley and their growing number of allies, including Ranger Matthew Locke, our protagonist is on an attempt to solve everything. Will they stop the robotic Cardinal, free the imprisoned women and children, and find out why salt water seems to stop the spread of the terrifying and still lethal nanomas?
"Abalus" is a highly well-written story with suspense and action that never stops and will hold readers spell-bound to the very last page. The characters of Abalus, Shaun, their friends and their enemies all help make "Abalus" a first-rate read. The plot's suspense is original and the entire story is composed brilliantly, making it a must-read for everyone everywhere. "Abalus" hopefully will be the first of many subsequent books by the author, as it is one of the best Fantasy/Sci-Fi books to hit the market in recent years.
