In the Shadow of Omen (Matthews Chronicles) [Paperback]

Steven Burgauer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 8, 1996 | Series: Matthews Chronicles

The Year 2433: For ten thousand years every gulag had been the same. The same drawn faces. The same haunting vacant stares. The same cold-blooded, unfeeling guards. The same tools for inflicting pain. It was in this godless place called a gulag that the line between humanity and inhumanity blurred, that the basest of animal instincts revealed themselves, that people learned how much agony they could endure before they folded.

Now comes Carina Matthews. Rebellious. Feisty. Intelligent. And her crime? Upsetting the status quo. Oh, the arrogance of it all!

Product Details

• Paperback: 366 pages
• Publisher: Zero-g Press; 1st edition (November 8, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076100775X
• ISBN-13: 978-0761007753
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,694,486 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Marooned in the present, their only hope for the future lay in the past.

But first there was still the small matter of staying alive. The planet they were marooned on was crawling with bird-beasts, immense parrotlike carnivores that stood two meters tall, weighed upwards of fifty klogs, and had a giant scooped beak like a pelican. They normally swallowed their prey whole, though not before crushing them to death in their vise-like jaws.

Then there were the vipers -- writhing snake-like creatures armed with dozens of sucker-bearing tentacles. They sprayed their victims with acid, then ate them while they were still alive.

But it got worse. Much worse . . .

Now, join Andu Nehrengel and his three female clone companions on an intense voyage through time. First stop: the Civil War and the Battle of Shiloh, April 1862, one of the most horrendous land battles of all time. Meet Mark Twain when he is still a riverboat pilot. Journey with him north to Missouri when he joins the Confederacy.

Then it's back to the future and on to Mars!

And when you're done reading this adventure, check out these other fine books by author Steven Burgauer: The Fornax Drive, The Brazen Rule, The Night of the Eleventh Sun, and The Road To War: Duty & Drill, Courage & Capture.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I don't like llama sausage, July 26, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: In the Shadow of Omen (Matthews Chronicles) (Paperback)

If I could have given a zero-star review for this book, I would have. This is dreck on the level of Newt Gingrich's "1945". Mr. Burgauer should hire a good copy editor, at the very least. At the most, he should stick to his business books.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars 1 star for thr llama sausage, June 3, 2001

By 

"kangarex" (Keokuk, IA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Shadow of Omen (Hardcover)

Congratulations Mr. Burgauer, you just got the first one star review I've ever given! Thank you for the excellent recipe for llama sausage given in such exhausting detail mid-book! Thank you for revealing, showing, and writing down the contents of your thesaures at every chance, opportunity, or possibility! Thank you for so clearly illustrating the endless literary uses of the generally underused exclamation point! Thank you for the multitude of sex scenes in which portions of the female anatomy are proved to not only have independant motion, but apparently minds of their own! Think of the endless fun I've been missing by not knowing such little tidbits about my own anatomy!

In all seriousness, the plot might be interesting, but it's not worth the endless dreck.

1 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterfully crafted story!, November 26, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: In the Shadow of Omen (Matthews Chronicles) (Paperback)

A masterfully crafted story based on the universal human conflict between the desire for order and the desire for freedom. Burgauer gives us a heroine whose concern is for the future, and a hero who is keenly aware of his own mortality.
--Loren Logsdon... Editor, Eureka Literary Magazine