The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy [Paperback]

Sandy Nathan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2011

Tomorrow morning at 7:35 AM, a nuclear holocaust will destroy the planet. Two people carry the keys to survival: Jeremy Edgarton, a 16 year old, tech genius and revolutionary; and Eliana, the angelic, off-world traveler sent to Earth on a mission to prevent her planet's death.

Welcome to a future world only heartbeats from our own.

By the late 22nd century, the Great Recession of the early 2000s has lead to a worldwide police state. A ruined United States barely functions. Government control masks chaos, dissenters are sent to camps, and technology is outlawed. War rages while the authorities proclaim the Great Peace.

It's New York City on the eve of nuclear Armageddon.

Join Eliana & Jeremy as they begin a question to save two doomed planets . . . and find each other.

TESTIMONIALS:

Another Sandy Nathan classic! Aldous Huxley meets Orson Scott Card in this sci-fi thriller with political undertones. If Nathan had written a 300-page non-fiction polemic on nuclear non-proliferation, rising sea levels, and government/media censorship, I might have learned as much, but it wouldn't have been the page-turner that is The Angel.
Nathan Fisher, MBA Stanford Graduate School of Business

Sandy Nathan is a talented writer with a gift for creating multi-layered characters and putting them in do-or-die situations. In The Angel & The Brown-Eyed Boy, Ms. Nathan introduces us to a dark Earth of the future where humans have surrendered all freedoms to total government control in order to live in peace. Now a secret from the past threatens to annihilate all life on the planet. Survival--of a sort--can come only from an extraterrestrial "angel" and the boy she has loves. But only if they can act in time. Captivating from the first page onward, this entertaining tale will draw readers in and keep them riveted. Highly recommended.
L.C. Evans, author of Talented Horsewoman

A good book elicits an emotional response while being read; Nathan's book haunts the reader long after the final page is turned.  In Angel & the Brown-Eyed Boy two dying worlds fight for survival, their futures dependent on a revolutionary and an angelic otherworldly dancer.  Nathan shows us a future Earth whose indifferent citizens and uneducated politicians have allowed their fears to rule them believing everything they are told even in the face of the reality around them.  It is a world not that many heartbeats away from our own, making the premise chilling.  Is there hope?  Yes, Jeremy and Eliana are the key.  But to what end?  Future volumes of the tale will tell.
Todd A. Fonseca, award-winning author of The Time CavernAWARDS--THE ANGEL WON FOUR NATIONAL AWARDS:

2011 IPPY (Independent Press) Awards, Gold Medal Winner in Visionary Fiction. More than 3,900 books were entered in this contest.

2011 Indie Excellence Awards, Winner (1st place) of the Visionary Fiction Category.

Best Books of 2011, USA Book News

• Winner: Fiction, New Age 
• Finalist: Fiction: Fantasy/Sci-Fi

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is Book 1 of the Tales from Earth's End Saga We recommend that you read the books in order to fully understand the story.
Book 2 is Lady Grace
Book 3 is Sam & Emily
Thank you, Vilasa Press

5 Stars! Blends the paranormal, science fiction, and Armageddon styles for a riveting read.  Midwest Book Review

5 Stars Out of 5 Stars: Blends the paranormal, science fiction, and Armageddon styles well for a riveting read.  Midwest Book Review

The entire Tales from Earth's End Saga is available on Amazon in print & Kindle format:
Lady Grace: A Thrilling Adventure Wrapped in the Embrace of Epic Love, Book 2
Sam & Emily: A Love Story from the Underground, Book 3
Vilasa Press

From the Author

About THE ANGEL & THE BROWN-EYED BOY and TALES FROM EARTH'S END

Authors are often asked where they find inspiration for their stories. For Sandy Nathan, The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy was born out of tragedy and a beauty that was otherworldly:

I had a dream a few years ago. I dreamed of a golden creature of love and life. As the dream progressed, that angelic creature was superimposed upon me. And then she became me. Joy coursed through me. I was totally good, totally alive. Golden light poured from me. I was the Angel.

The experience carried forward into my day, slowly dissipating until I was my ordinary self. I realized I'd been given a gift. I'd been granted a glimpse of the Angel's reality.

In the days that followed, the rest of The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy flowed out, as the characters revealed themselves to me: Jeremy Edgarton, son of a great musician and an infamous beauty, heir to one of the great fortunes of his world. A genius? An outcast? A revolutionary? Then came Jeremy's friends and the dangerous milieu in which they lived, a tortured United States on the verge of disaster.

Was that dream all that prompted the book series, Tales from Earth's End? No. When I write, I experience a repeated and some- times violent cracking of everyday reality. The mundane world shatters so that a truer, larger voice can speak. What causes this rupture? Pain, mostly.

A few months before I had the dream, my brother died unexpectedly and tragically. My grief wrote The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy. As I remembered our life together, I wanted to give my brother a tribute that captured his essence. My unconscious did the rest.

That was how the Tales from Earth's End series was born. The tales are stories of human beings pushed to their extremity, literally to the end of the earth. They come from my depths being jostled and torn, wounded. Writing was the cure.

But now I invite you to join me and meet The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy.

PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CALIFORNIA  - The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy is Sandy Nathan's new science fiction/fantasy novel. Of the special genre of books and films that include 1984, A Brave New World, Brazil, and The Prisoner Series, The Angel takes the reader to a dark future world that's not so different from our own. In the late 22nd century, people are continually watched, disappearing off the streets and from their homes. A shadowy but all-powerful government calls the shots; war rages while the authorities proclaim the Great Peace. 

All is not bad in this fictional realm, for the angelic extraterrestrial, Eliana, appears on the streets on New York City on a mission to save her planet.  As radiant and pure as the world around her is tarnished, Eliana must find the Golden Boy. He turns out to be Jeremy Edgarton, a tech genius in a world where technology is outlawed, a revolutionary, and the FBIs most wanted. They find themselves caught up in an explosive adventure when Jeremy decodes new transmissions and discovers that a nuclear holocaust will take place the next morning.

The themes of The Angel read like pure sci-fi, but author Sandy Nathan explains, "I'm a former economist. While the love story between Jeremy and Eliana enchants, the back-story--the hideous world around them--is the product of my economist's mind interacting with current events. We're in the worst economic melt-down since the 1930's, with no end in sight. Some seemingly far-fetched events in The Angel are based upon history. Germany's economic distress during the Great Depression allowed the rise of Adolf Hitler. In the book, a similar totalitarian state arises when we fail to recover from the Great Recession of the early 2000's. Our recession. The Angel's world is just a heartbeat from our own. I want to challenge my readers to discover solutions so that the fictitious situations in The Angel don't become real."

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 308 pages
• Publisher: Vilasa Press (January 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976280906
• ISBN-13: 978-0976280903
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,249,565 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"I write books that touch the heart--and the mind and soul. While my books have thrills to spare, they're about making the world a better place. I've won many national awards in visionary fiction. My vision is unusual--my stories don't always have happy endings and sometimes they're plain old scary. And rough.

"You won't get a story you can predict from me. Except for quality. My books are very highly rated by readers. I've won 24 national awards, including the Benjamin Franklin Award (finalist) and Gold, Silver & Bronze Medals in the IPPY (Independent Press) Awards. These are two of the most prestigious, oldest and largest competitions for independent presses. I've also won two Silver Nautilus Awards. The Nautilus competition is for books that positively impact the planet. I've also won a large handful of other awards." Do awards mean anything in the quality of writing? Check out my books and see.

Born in San Francisco, Sandy Nathan grew up in Silicon Valley's competitive corporate culture. A full time writer since 1995, Sandy Nathan holds master's degrees in economics and counseling. She has been an economist, negotiation coach, and businesswoman. The visionary part of her writing flows from her meditation practice and spiritual experience. A lifelong horsewoman, Sandy is a wife and mother of three grown children. She lives on their California horse ranch.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A World Not that many Heartbeats from our Own... January 2, 2011

By Todd A. Fonseca VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

A good book elicits an emotional response while being read; Nathan's book haunts the reader long after the final page is turned. In Angel & the Brown-Eyed Boy two dying worlds fight for survival, their futures dependent on a revolutionary and an angelic otherworldly dancer. Nathan shows us a future Earth whose indifferent citizens and uneducated politicians have allowed their fears to rule them believing everything they are told even in the face of the reality around them. It is world not that many heartbeats away from our own, making the premise chilling.

Hope lies in the few who stand and fight for their beliefs, but they must do so in secrecy. Clandestine operatives in the government are ever watchful of the citizenry, quashing dissension immediately; people literally disappear in the middle of the night never to be heard from again.

Angel explores a number of themes crossing political and cultural boundaries. Should one put their faith solely in their leadership? What about following orders--are there lines that should never be crossed even in support of one's country? When does one stop trying to change the system from within and instead become a revolutionary? And what of family--what does one do when one's own family members believe in something diametrically opposed to one's own beliefs? How far does a person go to save themselves, their friends, their family, and their world?

This future world is dark and disturbing a pre apocalyptic malaise covering the Earth similar to the movie Children of Men. Is there hope? Yes, Jeremy and Eliana are the key. But to what end? Future volumes of the tale will tell.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The power of love in a disturbing future universe February 3, 2011

By Marcia Gordon Martin

Format:Paperback

This excellent science fiction/fantasy novel left me wanting more. I hope the author continues the story of Jeremy and Eliana in future volumes.

The beginning of this story shows us a bleak and frightening society, but the twists and turns of the plot deftly carry us into a world where people still have hope and fight for their beliefs. But there is much danger, from the ruthless and powerful government and from the citizens who will not dissent out of fear or from long conditioning to obey.

Revolutionaries can save the world, but first they must understand and embrace the pure innocence and goodness they find in Eliana and the world she comes from. If they fail to do so, two worlds may die.

Angel reminds me of the group of special books and films that include 1984, A Brave New World, Brazil and The Prisoner Series. We come away from reading Angel with determination to fight for our individuality, creativity and goodness and to be ever watchful of authority.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Dystopian and apocalyptic world May 5, 2011

By Wulfstan TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

This is a wonderful book- and I use that word in the older sense of eliciting a sense of wonder. Set in a dystopian USA some time in the future (saying more would spoil it), a grubby little angel named Eliana (great name!) , wearing a pair of ballet slippers visits the Earth and the USA just before the Big Event. How will the World end- or will it? The dystopian world is science fictional (I was reminded a bit of the Matrix) but all too possible.

Who is this enigmatic avatar of love? Alien? Angel? Lost Russian ballerina?

Several of the characters were very well done, you can believe in them.

Warning: contains some rather graphic and disturbing torture scenes!

I rcvd a copy for review.