Renaissance

Primordium Book Two

Fiction - Science Fiction
298 Pages
Reviewed on 03/16/2016
Buy on Amazon

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Author Biography

I live in Monument, Colorado with my wife Ulla on 10 acres of trees and red sandstone outcroppings at an elevation of 7,400 feet above sea level. We have two sons and six grandchildren.

I was born in 1943 while my father was at Yale University obtaining his Doctorate in Anthropology, hence my upbringing and the basis of the anthropological themes in my writing.

My family subsequently moved to Hawaii where I lived until attending Verde Valley School, Sedona, Arizona, then to college at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, then to the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

After graduate school I joined the Peace Corps and was stationed as an architect in Tunis, Tunisia. Subsequently, I worked as a professional architect in New York, Nigeria, Hawaii and Saudi Arabia.

My series, Primordium explores an idea that mankind's humanity is a mistake derived from stolen DNA planted in an ancient hominid that enabled hominids to evolve as conscious beings, culminating in Homo sapiens, creatures not meant to be, but creatures capable of curiosity and wonder. They look out at a closed universe they were not meant to see nor have the intelligence to comprehend.

When I am not writing, I enjoy hiking Colorado Fourteeners, biking, cooking, remodeling my house, and playing the guitar. I have a tractor for the woods, use a chainsaw regularly and play tennis at a 4.0 USTA level. My favorite song is Hotel California.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Romuald Dzemo for Readers' Favorite

Renaissance is Book Two in the spellbinding Primordium series by William E. Mason, a masterful blend of science and fantasy. Humanity is losing its essence because of the death of A4-Ni, the incomprehensible life form that has nourished it for so many years. Only one man has the key to save humanity, and to do so he has to travel to 7005 AD. Truman Justis embarks on an unpredictable journey to find answers to humankind’s demise, transported by the Shepherd, a spaceship with incredible powers. What he finds will blow his mind and, torn between loyalties, the huge question is whether Truman will live up to his calling to save mankind’s cure or be swallowed up in the fight between ancient powers?

Those who have read Reformation, the prequel to this book, will not be disappointed. Again William E. Mason offers his readers another work of great depth, a heart-pounding sci-fi that will be loved by fans of Star Wars. The book is packed with action and intelligent dialogue, and although it features aliens and creatures that are completely new to readers, the descriptions are vivid and so convincing that readers can feel like they inhabit that abstract universe. Truman is a character that will evoke the finest emotions in readers as they follow his journey in time in the quest for the one thing that could redeem humanity. The author of Primordium Book Two: Renaissance knows how to make the hearts of his readers jolt and then immediately put a smile on their face. This one is intoxicatingly gripping and downright exciting to read.

KIRKUS REVIEW

"In Mason’s sequel to Primordium Book One: Reformation (2015), a scientist travels back and forth through time, caught in a conflict between cosmic entities to control a genetic strain that seeded mankind.

Except for some time-travel seesawing to the 71st century, this story is set in 2005, 20 years after an important incident in northern Kenya. During that event, an organic spaceship called the Shepherd clashed with an amnesiac, damaged version of itself over the possession of Gilomir, a powerful alien genome sequence.

It was stored in ancient primates as an act of desperation, and as a result, it provided the evolutionary spark and intelligence that created the human race. Now the Shepherd has returned to Earth (or, more precisely, another Shepherd, due to time travel) because “players”—ruthless, self-recycling agents of the Zug, the dark side of Gilomir­—are at large there.

One has taken the form of a beautiful woman and the other, a hulking Neanderthal; both are trying to control the genome and ensure that the human race devolves back into primal apes.

Protagonist Truman Justis, meanwhile, is the half-Kenyan son of one of the previous book’s casualties. His remarkable resume as a fighter, geneticist, and Zen disciple makes him the likeliest hero to save humanity, if he’ll embrace his destiny. Along the way, the small cast of characters appears as different versions of themselves in alternate and/or parallel world-lines.

This book has a more action-driven aesthetic than the earlier installment’s science-as-poetry lyricism, although the Gilomir, as a concept, is starting to resemble the Force of Star Wars fame.

Overall, it’s a time-hopping game of capture-the-Gilomir, with the same violent events often re-running from a different point of view. As one character says, “time loops are confusing,” but science-fiction readers who enjoy having their minds stretched like a pack of Silly Bands may enjoy the many deliberate pummelings of déjà vu.

A complicated sci-fi sequel featuring many puzzling time loops."