Praised by reviewers, Lantern Road* is a far-future adventure of a doomed love between a human and a gorgeous alien princess. In a galaxy where humans are hated and hunted like prey during the Inversion of Man*, their affair causes scandal that only ritual suicide can fix. While Lady Ramy is forced to take her life (but wait - you don't know the whole story until the end), Jory the Velvet Thief & Failure escapes to the stars - and an amazing adventure.*The title Lantern Road refers to the imperial highway circling Oba's great island in eternal night. Based on feudal Japan's famed Tokaido Road, in this novel - full of foot traffic with swinging, hurrying lanterns of all colors - it evokes the galaxies above. **The Inversion is a 2000 year dark age in humankind's long, checkered history documented by the series.Two passionate lovers, best friends since childhood - a human slave, Jory, and his alien mistress, the beautiful young princess Ramy of Oba - are discovered in a forbidden tryst. They face death together by the classic twin short-swords, inscribed with nursery rhymes doubling as suicide poems, which are routinely gifted to lovers in this dark, faraway world run by a samurai-like warrior cult. What will become of the doomed lovers? Will their Lantern Road be one of death, or will they find their way to the stars? In a terrifying, achingly far-distant future lies an alien realm that resembles feudal Japan. Old Earth is long forgotten or may never have existed. Humans are despised underpeople of the galaxy, hunted as prey, hated everywhere, cruelly enslaved on worlds like Oba.Alas, Lady Ramy and her wasp-sister Ramy-baba cannot escape their self-execution by the twin short rabbit-swords of the ancient poetic fame. But Jory O'Call, her human lover - condemned as well by his own people - escapes to the stars. There, he encounters wonders beyond imagination. But the greatest wonder of all is a secret we encounter at the very end of the story. It is a new life, a new Lantern Road, in which the lanterns are the ocean of stars through which Jory navigates starships - but sometimes fate comes full circle. There is even more to wonder at, but we leave that to your reading pleasure and amazement.Tim Pratt, Locus Online: "...a richly-realized far-future world in which strange wonders are revealed as considerable suspense builds. The characters are interesting, and the plot moves well, but the real star here is the universe in which the events take place, especially the inhabited moon, Shur, with its complex star faring alien culture, reminiscent of Imperial Japan, but with strange complications--including multi-use fungi gardens and a third gender. Argo's handling of detail is remarkable, creating a sense of a whole universe without bombarding the reader with unnecessary information." (full review with the book).John K. Muir, author/media critic, SciFi Channel, Cinescape; "I had the pleasure of reading Lantern Road...and found it to be a very atmospheric reading experience. I was floored by many of the descriptive passages and conceits... John Argo's Lantern Road is a sensuous and elaborate glimpse into a distant future--evoked, interestingly, by way of our storied past. Earth is a barely-remembered legend, man is a slave, and a unique species of alien (which includes an insect-like third sex...) dominates a faraway planet. But the story is accessible and immediate (rather than farfetched) because the writer, in lyrical, descriptive passages, has forged a civilization that evokes memories of the ancient Orient, with all of its imperial plotting and conspiracies. Our hero, Jory O'Call, is a slave, sold into a royal alien family by his poor parents..." (full review with the book).
About the Author: John Argo has created a vast, sprawling SF universe of imaginative novels and stories called Empire of Time (EOT. Everything is at stake, and time traveling agents are at work up and down stream (time), observing and tweaking carefully to save the future--the fate of humankind and the universe is at stake, in the grand scheme that must never be forgotten. In the minor key, each novel offers gripping action with compelling characters, often spiced up with an urgent romantic subplot. This is a future history in the grand tradition of Cordwainer Smith (Norstrilia), Isaac Asimov (Foundation), Frank Herbert (Dune), and other masters of the form. Fifty years in process, and still in the making, this mind boggling panorama of infinite universes and time without end already includes over a dozen novels that serve as pinholes to peer into realms beyond comprehension. John Argo, from his home base in San Diego, continues to spin pieces of a vast mosaic that will soon coalesce into an astonishing entirety with a subseries titled Jornade: Chronicles of Metrado. Time traveling monks, military priestesses, female popes of the 38th Century--the innovations are boundless. Metrado journeys back in time to report to the Triune Holy Office uptime about such adepts as Nostradamus, Leonardo da Vinci, Homer, and others who work for HM Sacred Service. Stay tuned. John Argo in 1996 became the first author/publisher to publish entire (full length novel) proprietary (not public domain) digital books on line for download. These included the texts of This Shoal of Space and Pioneers (SF) and Neon Blue (suspense), innovatively released in weekly serial chapters to readers around the world, who sent thanks and kudos. More info at the Museum pages of Clocktower Books.