WORLDWIDE REVIEWS OF

Azsacra Zarathustra (Russia)

Review (in French) by Eric Tessier, France:


The Tunnel at the end of time. Adam D. Powell, Rick Davis, Azsacra Zarathustra.

La chose est étonnante : voici un roman de science fiction qui raconte l'affrontement entre deux conceptions du monde dont certains des protagonistes principaux sont des anges. Oui, des anges, des vrais avec des ailes – et même si ceux-là sont sexués, cela n'influe en rien sur leur condition. Bien sûr, ils sont du côté du Bien mais, bâtis sur le modèle de l'archange Saint-Michel terrassant le dragon, ce sont des guerriers, qui n'hésitent pas à recourir à la violence quand elle est nécessaire.

Rappelons que l'archange Saint-Michel est le prince des anges, chef de la milice céleste, défenseur de la foi. Le dragon, ici, s'appelle Niall, dit The One, qui cherche à rétablir la domination du Nouvel Ordre Mondial que la Fédération Intergalactique a neutralisé – un Nouvel Ordre Mondial fondé sur la cupidité, la confiscation des richesses au profit de quelques-uns, le contrôle des masses par tous les moyens possibles et dans chacun des aspects de leur vie quotidienne. Un ordre mondial qui ressemble furieusement à notre présent. Je n'en dévoilerai pas plus de l'histoire pour ne pas écorner le plaisir qu'il y a à lire ce livre où les rebondissements abondent.

L'une des réussites de ce roman tient à ce que, de bout en bout, on y croit. C'est un élément important en matière de littérature. La crédibilité est primordiale et n'a rien à voir avec le réalisme. C'est un équilibre délicat qui fait qu'un HP Lovecraft parvient à nous faire dresser les cheveux sur la tête de terreur, alors qu'on nage en plein onirisme. Au contraire de certains romans noirs qui, bien que censés décrire la banalité de tous les jours, ne nous font pas même lever un sourcil et nous semblent artificiels. Cet équilibre est ici présent et ce qui, chez le premier tâcheron venu, apparaîtrait comme farfelu, voire ridicule, fonctionne à merveille. Les anges sont des personnages dont l'existence n'a rien d'extraordinaire dans le monde où ils se meuvent. Pourquoi donc douter d'eux ? D'entrée de jeu, ils sont là, à la fois héroïques, dotés de pouvoirs extra humains (ils volent), et proches de nous (ils ont des sentiments, de l'humour et font l'amour).

Le style est incisif, rapide, prenant. On est happé par l'histoire qui ne vous lâche plus. On notera une très belle introduction (un rêve de Ga, le personnage principal), d'une grande force poétique. Et puis, ce qui ne gâche rien, l'humour est aussi présent tout au long du texte, par petites touches d'une grande finesse. Sans compter les clins d'oeil, comme celui aux Trois mousquetaires d'Alexandre Dumas : Un pour tous, tous pour un.

En résumé, un beau roman de SF et d'aventure très fortement recommandé.

Eric Tessier


(an English translation by Adam Donaldson Powell):

The Tunnel at the End of Time. Adam D. Powell, Rick Davis, AZsacra Zarathustra.

The amazing thing is: this is a science fiction novel that tells the confrontation between two world views of some key players are angels. Yes, angels, real ones with wings - even if these are gendered, this does not affect their condition. Of course they are on the side of good, but built on the model of the archangel St. Michael slaying the dragon, they are warriors, who do not hesitate to resort to violence when it is needed. Recall that the archangel St. Michael is the prince of angels, head of the heavenly host, defender of the faith.

The dragon here is called Niall says The One, which seeks to restore the dominance of the New World Order that the Intergalactic Federation offset - a new world order based on greed, the confiscation of wealth for the benefit of some , control the masses by all possible means and in every aspect of their daily lives. A world order that closely resembles our present. I did not unveil more of the story not to dent the pleasure it is to read this book where surprises abound.

One of the achievements of this novel is that, from beginning to end, they believe. This is important in literature. Credibility is paramount and has nothing to do with realism. It's a delicate balance that makes a HP Lovecraft makes us draw the hair on the heads of terror, then we swam in the very dreamlike. Unlike some thrillers which, although intended to describe the banality of everyday, we do not even raise an eyebrow and we seem artificial. This balance is here and what in the first hack came, would appear far-fetched, even ridiculous, works perfectly. Angels are characters whose existence is nothing extraordinary in the world where they move. Why doubt them? From the outset, they are there, both heroic, with extra powers of humans (they fly), and close to us (they have feelings, humor and make love).

The style is incisive, fast taking. One is struck by the story that you let go. Note a very nice introduction (a dream of Ga, the main character), a great poetic force. And that does not spoil anything, the humor is also present throughout the text, with small touches of finesse. Besides the winks, like the Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: One for all and all for one.

In summary, a good SF novel of adventure and highly recommended.

Eric Tessier


Comments by Dr. Santosh Kumar regarding the poetic introduction to «The tunnel at the end of time».
These comments are excerpted from Dr. Santosh Kumar's upcoming book: Adam Donaldson Powell: the Making of a Poet, Cyberwit.net, 2010

Powell’s great interest in spiritual alchemy and extra-sensory world inspired him to write THE TUNNEL AT THE END OF TIME (Feb 2010) in collaboration with Rick Davis, the follow-up novella to “2014: the life and adventures of an incarnated angel”. The foreward, TRANSFORMA UND VREBATIMA is an epic poem, written by Azsacra Zarathustra (Russia) and Adam Donaldson Powell (Norway), primarily in English and Russian.

It explores tensions between the USA and Russia from a post- Apocalyptic perspective. Powell’s individuality is emphasized by the following lines.

Powell is right in pointing out that The End of Times or “The Armageddon” was inevitable. The moral earnestness of Powell and Azsacra is evident in pointing out the diseases of the society. Powell asks the Terrans “What have you done?” Perhaps the most extraordinary lines are the following:

Lost in meditations upon finances
and power, you lost sight of the
greatest wealth you owned.
And you crowded only a few
humanoids onto your hastily-built
arks when the floods and dis-ease
ravaged so mercilessly.
Some called it the work of
the antichrist, but the antichrist
was humanity itself: which
had been too long on the rampage
of greed and apathy and imbalance.
You raped and you raped;
and defiled both humanity and
nature.
(4-5)


This is no childish complaint; it is a balanced analysis, and a very important clue to what is wrong with the Terrans. I suppose it is true to say that the dominant idea of Powell and Azsacra Zarathustra is “Man is a predator out-of-control; / a soul-virus and a threat .”After this line, image after image is evoked by Powell- Azsacra Zarathustra to reveal moments of amazed vision: death of The Fair Eagle of Severe Spirituality, new vision rising from the ashes,as the Phoenix, The Mystery of Creatures waking even God up, Buddha’s ejaculation into His own Skull!, yearning for bringing back the Age of the Guru and the Prophets, the elixir of Nothingness and meaning in the Nothingness, our personal gods like money, power, greed and the threat of missiles and sex, finding new enemies in outer space. What is the solution to this horrible phase of disintegration? Powell and Azsacra Zarathustra have reflected deeply on this question. The answer to unparalleled contemporary brutality is not “divine intervention”. The key lies in the following most powerful poetry by Powell- Azsacra Zarathustra:

Stop waiting for Divine Intervention.
Become the Divine Intervention.
Let it be your zazen.
(32)


In other words, we ourself will have to be an instrument for Divine intervention. The unfailing conviction of Powell- Azsacra Zarathustra is that both Christ and anti-Christ are inside us:

I no longer believe in the messiah ...
or in the antichrist.
I see both in my own reflection
in the mirror of darkness
(ibid)


As the poem moves into the prophetic arena, we find the superpowers deceiving the ignorant earth:

distracting the masses from the real danger:
the sweet-sounding lies that soothe and abet.


No doubt, Transforma and Verbatima is a meditation on an utopia with rich and timeless. treasures. Both Powell and Azsacra with their transcendental vision show their aspiration to move from spiritual barrenness to hope for human salvation, inspired by Dante’s Purgatorio.

"There is no doubt that Powell, Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, John Berryman, Randall Jarrell, and Delmore Schwartz are the most talented American poets of the modern age." -- Dr. Santosh Kumar, Allahabad University, 2010, from his upcoming book entitled: Adam Donaldson Powell: the making of a poet.



REVIEW BY DR. ISAGANI R. CRUZ, THE PHILIPPINES:

The Tunnel at the End of Time is a masterful symphony of languages, religions, cultures, and literary techniques, all journeying to one inevitable destination: the individual wrestling with self. Covering our most human to our most divine urges and activities, the poetic, science fictional, experimental, even cinematic book leads us through words to what is beyond or behind words: the inscrutable mystery of our own being or, more precisely since the book revels in Emptiness, our non-being. In the process of stripping away the several skins that we use to protect our inner selves and to keep us from exercising our freedom to live a full life, the book also comments on writing itself, turning itself inside out, so to speak, so that we are forced as readers to become the writers themselves, merging our selves with theirs without meaning to and without remembering the meaning that we wanted to find, finding ourselves apparently in the future but actually in the present, or even more precisely, in the past, as time stops for us. In the end, the future humans, aliens, and angels turn out to be really us today, as we find ourselves aliens within ourselves, alienated not from the world as lesser writers would have put it, but from ourselves, as only the truly alive realize, perhaps as only angels really know. For those less inclined towards philosophy, the book offers gripping suspense, continuous action, and provocative scenes; the narrative scaffolding, however, is there only to lead readers to deeper levels of reading. I recommend this book to everyone honest enough to admit that we do not know ourselves or that we are not just nothing, but perhaps even Nothingness itself. Have fun, but be warned!

- Isagani R. Cruz, Professor Emeritus, De La Salle University, Manila



VADIM FILATOV'S RUSSIAN REVIEW OF "THE TUNNEL AT THE END OF TIME", reprinted from his blog

Rick Davis (USA)

Adam Donaldson Powell (Norway

Comments by Adam Donaldson Powell

P R E S S E M E L D I N G

The Tunnel At The End of Time – en ny spenningsroman, medforfattet av en nordmann, en russer og en amerikaner

Forfattere: Adam Donaldson Powell og Rick Davis Innbinding: Paperback (pp: 239) ISBN: 978-81-8253-160-4 Lagerstatus: På lager (Sendes ut innen 1 til 2 dager) Utgiver: Cyberwit.net, Allahabad, India Pub. Dato: 2010 Tilstand: Ny Pris: US$18 (NOK 114,-)

Beskrivelse: tunnelen ved tidens ende -- en ekstrem science fiction-roman som skildrer livet på jorden noen år etter 2012, og siste kampen mellom Den Nye Verdensordenen og de guddommelige Intervensjonistene. Denne spennende roman er medforfattet av Adam Donaldson Powell (Norge) og Rick Davis (USA), med en poetisk introduksjon skrevet av Adam Donaldson Powell og Azsacra Zarathustra (Russland). Historien er en oppfølger til Powells novella "2014: liv og eventyr til en inkarnert engel".

Forfatternes intensjoner er mange og diverse, men først og fremst: 1) å understreke at en eventuell Armageddon i 2012 vil være "menneske-skapt", 2) å vise at negative og mørke krefter kan overvinnes, uansett hvor store de er, 3) for å hjelpe fungere som en "wake up call" for de som vil velge å ignorere informasjon som vrimler om eksistensen av en ny verdensorden hvis agendaer kan kjøre i motsetning til mange av de verdiene vi elsker i dag, og 4) å tjene som en oppmuntring til alle til å slutte å leve i uvitenhet og frykt, og kunne begynne å bruke sine tanker, ord og handlinger aktivt i sin "skaper / kreative" kapasitet for å delta personlig i prosessen med å lage en bedre verden ... heller det enn å svelge den "bitre pillen" som blir matet til oss av politikere, bedrifter, media og navngitte individer hvis ambisjoner og agenda er preget av makt og grådighet.

Denne meldingen finnes i mange former i dag: YouTube-videoer, truther nettsteder, bøker osv. men humanoider er resistente mot "å bli fortalt" for mye "sannhet", og vil heller finne ut av det på egen hånd ... og i små porsjoner om gangen. Det er alt for enkelt for mange å se bort fra all informasjon som er ubehagelig eller for "fantastisk" og betegne det som "bare konspirasjonsteori-basert". Sannheten er at det er elementer av "sannhet" i alle perspektiver og argumenter - selv i såkalte "konspirasjonsteorier". Det er opp til den enkelte å bestemme hvilke elementer han / hun anser for å være korrekte og viktige nok til å reagere på. Ved å ta disse "konspirasjonsteori" scenarier til sine absolutte grenser kan det bidra til å skape en rolig surrealistisk miljø der sinnet kan igjen "spille ... og skape" for å danne et nytt sett med sannheter og verdier uten frykt for at forandring er umulig - selv om det aller verste eventuelt skal skje. Derfor synes jeg at ekstreme science fiction-sjangeren er godt egnet for å kombinere informasjon, underholdning og for å inspirere leserens interesse for å utforske mer av informasjonen som er vevd inn i historien og innledningen ...

- Adam Donaldson Powell, 2010

Boka kan bestilles direkte fra forlaget: Cyberwit.net, eller Taj Mahal Review, fra Amazon.com ... eller kan man bestille boka på bokhanden i byen du bor i.