Raivan — Lyle Drew

After 470 years, widowed with three grown children, Raivan felt an unexplainable need to make more of her life than she’d experienced so far, something to test her resolve to live. Once granted, she quickly honed the skills necessary to live the adventure of her choosing, in an unknown world filled with all the dangers and experiences required to make her life challenging, yet rewarding. Early on, she and a cave-wolf she named Kunda became inseparable after saving each other from the deadly plans of primitive ape-men. Years later, they ventured into a peaceful valley where a farmer and his family befriended them. The goal of her adventure became evident when an alien race invaded, abducting the farmer’s wife and many women in the nearby village; Raivan vowed to return her to him or die trying. The adventure wasn’t real, merely a test to determine her worth as a member of the growing Atlanticus crew, while safely within the crystal that had been her home for nearly 150,000 years.The ancient Olympians continued their search for the one true God, visiting planets inhabited by simians and humans while attempting to avoid any occupied by reptilians. Sadly, a reptilian species intercepted them while patrolling the outer limits of their star system. The Olympians won the battle, but at the cost of two of their own pilots, Raivan and Samuel. The Atlanticus was old and in need of repairs so they suspended their initial quest in lieu of locating a habitable planet to call home. Atlantia was that planet, but life became too predictable, even boring, at least for Zeus. He decided to decline another cloning at the end of his life… until he completed his quest to meet the one true God. Atonement wasn’t required for their lives since they’d lived them honorably, according to a plan, but they needed to complete another quest… save Terra from an evil greater than they’d ever faced.Randall Devens began a new adventure when he recalled the ancient data crystals given to him by Zeus. With the help of Artemis and her daughter Silena, he and his family searched for them, learning that someone had always been wherever they looked, before them. He chose to believe that they were witnessing nothing more than random acts of vandalism, at least until he experienced a disconcerting dream that revealed the identity of an evil woman who possessed powers similar to those of the ancient gods, yet she lived during the dawn of the War of the End.A twist of fate introduced Justine Dunn to Lawrence Steele, the graduate student who possessed the information from Randall’s crystals. After stealing his information, she reversed the limited lifespan imposed by the ancient gods. Once civilization was in decline, mostly due to her efforts, Justine appointed herself as the absolute ruler of the world, decreeing that she was a goddess; she did possess powers and outlived everyone who knew her. For two hundred years, she led her willing subjects, believing they were the only survivors. She met Randall and Artemis by accident, believing they were the precursor to an alien menace, determined to lay claim to her planet, Earth.As always, death is nearby, as are new friends among the Terran, Krylonean, the Olympian survivors, and the ancient gods of Atlantis, as they battle the false-goddess Justine and her troops for the possession of Earth and the right to live. A surprise ending, monumental and inspiring, awaits the reader.