Encyclopedic Guide to the ORU [Paperback]

Justyn Perry (Editor), Lynda Williams (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 26, 2009

Thousands of people around the world enjoy the complex cultures, dramatic plots and well-developed characters of the Okal Rel Saga by Lynda Williams, produced in trade paperback format by Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing. The guide to the Okal Rel universe deepens this pleasure for fans of the series, provides a background for beginners and acts as a reference for potential creative contributors to future anthologies.

The guide covers concepts, characters and places featured either in the saga or any of the additional works of the Okal Rel Legacy Series published under the Absolute XPress imprint of Edge under the direction of Lynda Williams as series editor. It also introduces the reader to the unusually long, diverse and deep creative history of this well-loved series and the thematic ideas about the tensions between idealism and reality which animate it.

Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: Absolute XPress (May 26, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1894817435
• ISBN-13: 978-1894817431
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,016,209 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lynda Williams has been creating the Okal Rel Universe through three degrees and at least as many careers. Now the books of the ten novel saga are rolling out from Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy one a year (Part 7: Healer's Sword forthcoming in Nov 2011). Works by both Lynda and other writers captivated by the story-potential of the ORU, are published by Edge's sister-press called Absolute X-Press. Lynda taught and worked in educational innovation at the University of Northern B.C. for fifteen years, and now works as Learning Management System Analyst for SFU. She holds two masters degrees (M.L.S. and M.Sc. Computation) and a B.A. in Liberal Studies with emphasis in Chemistry and Creative Writing. "All my life," Lynda explains her eclectic education and life experience, "I had questions that no single discipline could answer without help from others."

Fully-realized characters living the drama and humor of culture clash surrounding power, sexual mores and social values are the hallmark of the Okal Rel experience: dramatizing questions about what it means to be human. Enthusiastic readers range from precocious pre-teens to senior citizens, and include thinking people from PhDs to high school dropouts. The gentle, beautiful, vanilla-scented Amel Dem'Vrel, title character of Part 1: The Courtesan Prince, provides a focus for the series as his life plays out the age-old story of the prince raised as a pauper combined with the notion of the prostitute with a heart of gold, despite being male. But Amel's slow recovery from a traumatic youth and rise to power as his people's leader is only the backdrop for the lives and passions of a cast of characters who seize the stage for as long as a book (e.g. Horth Nersal in Part 2: Righteous Anger) or weave their own bright threads through the ten-novel saga (e.g. reluctant rebel Perry D'Aur, the intense and brooding Di Mon, or trickster, warrior, poet Eler Nersal).