Customer Reviews

Survivor's Paradise

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I recently read this book, so remarkable that I was compelled to pass on my enthusiasm to other prospective readers. Attractively written {wonderful word pictures}, painstakingly researched, the author unravels a story that moves through a spiritual journey wherein the reader is transported to other dimensions, visiting both past and present.

The main characters are a young woman who is passionate about ecological issues and a stalwart, practical-minded American Indian who retains deep respect for his heritage. A delicately described love story emerges as the two share a journey that not only opens wondrous spiritual discoveries for these characters, but does the same for the reader who accompanies them.

While the book is enjoyable reading for most, it will be absolutely thrilling to those with spiritual curiosity transcending what one usually reads, to people who are concerned about ecological waste, for those who respect Native American tradition, and to those who appreciate immaculate research and very readable prose.

What more can I say? Just get the book!

Grant W. Johnson Ph.D., retired Clinical Psychologist

I'll just paste here the comment I've already put on our web at clintnmary.com . My reading of the elegant universe was interrupted by the arrival of our friend, Paul Kending's new novel, Survivor's Paradise. This I found a very good read and predict marked success for it, at least among thoughtful readers. This work is quite different from Kending's first novel, Rivers Must Run, although there's a Native American character in each of them. SP has three protagonists. One is a young Sioux who has deserted, at the start of the tale at least, his Indian heritage, become a computer scientist, flies the airplane he built and otherwise joined the white man's world. He has even put up his own web page. (See www.lcloud.com for more of his, and Kending's, story) Another character is a young, white, attractive female journalist who publishes in environmentalists' magazines and is a church youth leader. The third main player in this fascinating tale is a white buffalo calf. Well, a buffalo on the outside at least. On the inside she's a lovely Sioux maiden and a high-ranking shaman. These three take turns telling the story of their travels together--travels which take them all over the globe, into the past and into the future. The white calf is the leader of the group and arranges passage to natural disasters, real and predicted. The basic theme is that Nature and/or the Creator's Control is viable enough to save the Earth in spite of mankind's rather flawed stewardship. Prof. Kending brings to bear some good scientific thinking to support the final conclusion the travelers reach. And, there's even a real-life romance threading through the story.
Surprisingly, I find these two volumes, Elegant Universe and Survivor's Paradise not entirely unrelated. Coming from very different directions they each deal, in a quite authoritative fashion, with the past and the future of our world.

When Leon Cloud rescues Janet MacAlpine from drowning, that near disaster is the beginning of a spiritual journey in which they seek to understand the mystery of the White Buffalo.

Cloud, of Sioux heritage, is the administrator of a computer-related business while MacAlpine is a freelance magazine writer. Portions of the story of their spiritual journey are told by the characters themselves.