Horrors swarm around the young monk. Some tear into his mind, showing him fractured images of a dark future. Still others stalk him as their prey. They know he is the chosen, but his destiny has yet to be written. Ancient hands conspire to draw him into their service. Lost in the chaos, no path appears before him. Abandoning his friends, he walks blindly into the future; at every step avoiding the doom he knows is waiting. He will risk no one else’s life. But when they find him, he must choose whether to succumb to the darkness, or to let them follow him on the uncertain journey.

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Product Description

For millennia, the Jade Moon and the Ual-leen have fought in the murky underworld of the galaxy. Most people remain unaware of them, but their struggle spares no one—not even the innocent.

Maya and Ihy raise Ianus, a young monk orphaned when he was two, in a Jade Moon monastery far away from the dangerous life in the underworld that killed his parents. Ianus comes to accept his adopted parents as his own flesh and blood.

When he receives a vision of Ihy’s murder, Ianus plunges deep into the underworld. With the help of his friends, he determines to face the people who murdered his birth parents. But Ianus fails to realize the Ual-leen’s real goal—to steal an ancient and powerful relic.

Now Ianus must save his dying father and recover the relic. Will he be able to navigate the underworld successfully, or will he fall victim to the murderer’s plot? In a rush to save Ihy and his friends, Ianus must wrestle with far greater principles: do we have free will or are we slaves to our circumstances? More importantly, is it worth sacrificing life and freedom for order and security?

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3779005 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-22
• Released on: 2005-09-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 306 pages

About the Author
C. E. Dorsett has been a storyteller since his childhood, split between Poplar Bluff, Missouri, and Frederick, Maryland, and has immersed himself in mythology from around the world. While living in Oakland, CA, he awoke from a dream with the idea for this novel. Learn more at CEDorsett.com or ProjectShadow.com!

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Customer Reviews

Wow What an Adventure!!!!
I read Liquid Sky written by C. E. Dorsett and loved it. It felt like I was there experiencing the rapid fire adventure as page after page just flew by. He takes the reader on a wild ride to several unique and vivid planet settings and introduces many new races. C. E. Dorsett starts us out at a right of passage ceremony for the main character Ianus Akeru. He receives a vision of his adopted fathers pending death. Ianus tries to prevent his father's death but politics and power struggles and his families past eventually drags him into the middle of the struggle which moves beyond his immediate problem of saving his father to having to save the galaxy.
The story is told mostly in the third person, close to Ianus point of view. C. E. Dorsett has some very clever uses of points of view including some from the antagonist building more suspense with snippets of what they are up to without showing their whole hand or spoiling the surprises.
[...]
The story really straddles the line between science fiction and fantasy which I found quite enjoyable. C. E. Dorsett covers new and fascinating technologies like the periapts, eidolons, space ships, and jump gates. With all of the new technology introduced I did not getting bogged down or turned off by it. He also juxtapositions a lot of fantasy elements creating a deep and fascinating universe.
In Liquid Sky you get to meet many fascinating new races but no humans which I found refreshing. Because there were no humans I found myself meeting each new race without preconceptions or prejudices. There are also two symbiotic races in the story the Shedu / Sukallin, and the Sen / Ceeri. Even though C. E. Dorsett introduces many new races he leaves you with the feeling that there are many more out there within the Jade Moon setting.
C. E. Dorsett has a good grasp of the language and is a solid writer. He understands grammar and complex sentence structures. In Liquid Sky I found many of his turns of phrase to be quite poetic and lovely.
The point I found most fascinating about Liquid Sky is how C. E. Dorsett did not set up a simple good verses evil story. First he introduces three antagonists in the story Faroh Raanan, Hlachar Cythraul, and Dov Lavan. With the three antagonists C. E. Dorsett shows us three different faces of evil but he made them sympathetic and I found myself agreeing at times with what the antagonist has to say which really made me take a closer look at my own opinions.
I highly recommend this book to all readers finding it to be an adventure and I hope to read more adventures in this setting.