Echoes of Eden Review and Recommendation

This is one of the better graphic novels you've never heard of. My friend Marvin Olasky's writing kept me interested throughout, and the art and production are nice. A fictional story with intrigue and action, but also with much true information about the uncanny connections of world religions that "echo" the story of Eden in the Christian Scriptures. Interesting issues to think about while the story develops, but not too "preachy." Highly recommended for those readers who like some truth with their fiction.

You can purchase it here.

If Silhouette was a Movie (Other Characters)

Macmillan Films is working on a movie deal for Silhouette, so I thought I would find some photos online that would show how I imagine the characters, locations, vehicles, weapons, etc. Is this how you imagined them when you read the book? Leave comments with your thoughts about them if you want. This is my final post in this series--next I will do some posts with pictures for my second novel, Kaleidocide.

Harold Harris, who is a "net jockey" and leader of the squatters who have taken over the Red Tunnel, might look something like this...



A Korean tech named Kim helps Michael with his investigation, and then ends up in a Blade-Runneresque chase through the streets of San Francisco, being pursued by Michael, Paul, and their remote-controlled "falcons." Kim's wife, Angelee, plays a significant role in the sequel (see my next series of posts).



At the "summit" meeting of world leaders that Saul Rabin hosts toward the end of the novel, one of the guests is Stanford Glenn, who is one of the most powerful men in America, which is declining and decentralized, but is still very influential in the world.



Stan Glenn appears in the second book, and so does another guest at the summit meeting. General Zhang Sun is the militaristic ruler of China, and seems to have an animosity toward Michael, from which flows the primary plot of Kaleidocide (and the reason for the title, in fact). So this is a good way to end this series about Silhouette and transition to another one about the sequel.

If Silhouette was a Movie (Locations)

Macmillan Films is working on a movie deal for Silhouette, so I thought I would find some photos online that would show how I imagine the characters, locations, vehicles, weapons, etc. Is this how you imagined them when you read the book? Leave comments with your thoughts about them if you want.

The novel is set in the San Francisco Bay Area in the future, after a devastating earthquake destroyed much of the city, like the quake that did so in 1906. The damage might look something like this...



Former police chief Saul Rabin formed the Bay Area Security Service and rose to power by being the one man who could establish order in the ruined city, with the help of his force of "peacers" who have been given a license to kill. Much of the city was rebuilt, and BASS erected their huge "castle" at the summit of Nob Hill and a network of underground passageways like the "Red Tunnel," which in the novel has been invaded by squatters who are protesting the company's dictatorial policies. Imagine the building below about three times bigger, and you will have some idea of how the castle would loom over the city.



Saul Rabin also converted the ruins of the historic Grace Cathedral on Nob Hill, next to the castle, into a high-tech jail. He repaired the gothic facade and named it the Grace Confinement Center, which seems oxymoronic, but he explained that "it is grace--they could be dead, but they're only locked up."



During the story, Michael Ares and Paul Rabin visit a place called "Chinatown Underground." The Chinese citizens who remained in the city constructed it when they razed and then rebuilt the ruined buildings of the former Chinatown, to accomodate the growing population of refugees from China, because that country had become so much more militaristic in recent years under the leadership of General Zhang Sun.



Finally, the former military base called the Presidio was rebuilt to house an orphanage, the pet project of Saul Rabin's wife Kathryn. Lynn Ares lived at the Presidio after her parents were killed in the earthquake.

If Silhouette was a Movie (Weapons and Vehicles)

Macmillan Films is working on a movie deal for Silhouette, so I thought I would find some photos online that would show how I imagine the characters, locations, vehicles, weapons, etc. Is this how you imagined them when you read the book? Leave comments with your thoughts about them if you want.

Let's take a break this time from the characters and take a look at some of the cool future technology in the novel. If there was a movie, these would all be designed by the filmmakers, but here are some pictures that are similar to how I imagine them...

Michael and the other peacers are armed with futuristic handguns called boas, which have caseless ammunition and can fire either "killer" or "stopper" rounds. (A version of the latter can be found in Masamune Shirow's short story in the Appleseed Databook.)



An interesting note about this picture is that the first proposed cover for Kaleidocide (the sequel to Silhouette) had a gun that was not futuristic enough, so I sent this to the designer to suggest what Michael's guns might look like. The designer somehow photoshopped the gun on the cover so it looks like one of these now.

And now for the Firehawk helicopters, co-opted from a U.S. military force on Treasure Island and used to enforce order by the Bay Area Security Service in the early days before the aeros (flying cars) were developed. In my mind they look something like the picture below, and they are featured in a cool action scene in the early parts of the second novel.



The aeros that BASS has developed using their patented Sabon antigravity technology are a significant part of the world I've created in the series, but I didn't want to put these pictures at the top of this post because they are not very impressive. But they're something, so here is what a parked one might look like, and its interior...



And here is (kinda) what they might look like patrolling the streets of San Francisco...



I know that's pretty weak (they're from a Men in Black video game), but this last one is even weaker (that's why it's last:). BASS forces also use small flying robots called Falcons to search for and apprehend perps. I couldn't find anything that was really like what I imagined when I wrote the book, but here are a couple pics from the web that could be mixed together to make a decent design for them...



Finally, here is what one of the "bugs" might look like. Another new application of the Sabon antigravity technology owned exclusively by BASS, a swarm of them are sent into the Red Tunnel to map the squatters' defenses before Michael leads a raid to forcibly evict them.

If Silhouette was a Movie (BASS Leaders -- Saul, Paul, and D)

Macmillan Films is working on a movie deal for Silhouette, so I thought I would find some photos online that would show how I imagine the characters, locations, vehicles, weapons, etc. Is this how you imagined them when you read the book? Leave comments with your thoughts about them if you want.

Saul Rabin is the enigmatic dictator of the post-quake San Francisco Bay Area, who some admire as the savior of the city while others loathe and fear as a fascist tyrant. When I first wrote the book, I didn't imagine Saul as any known person, but after it was published the following occurred to me. What if a horrible earthquake left Dirty Harry as the only one capable of restoring order in the city, and he ended up ruling it, and getting some religion in his old age because of his wife (which may be a good or bad thing)? That is basically the idea behind Saul Rabin, as we can't tell whether he is a good guy or bad guy or both. How appropriate it would be for Clint Eastwood to play Saul, especially after his interesting and polarizing forays into politics! (Mayor of Carmel CA, speech at Republican Convention, etc.)



Saul's son Paul could be played by Clint Eastwood's son Kyle, who is primarily a musician but has also acted in films. Not only do Clint and Kyle look like father and son, obviously, but Kyle looks the part otherwise. Paul is tall and friendly looking, handsome but not as much as Michael or Darien. In these pictures you will also see a dark-skinned lady representing his wife Liria, who is mentioned in the book (and plays a role in its sequel).



Darien Anthony, known to his friends as "D", was the third in command at the Bay Area Security Service prior to his untimely death. He was a former pro athlete with a significant amount of charisma (described as "BASS's smiling face for the media). So NFL player Hank Baskett fits the part...

If Silhouette was a Movie (Michael and Lynn)

Now that I finally finished the full initial draft of Kaleidocide, the sequel to Silhouette, and sent it off to the publisher, I have some time that I can do something fun that I've wanted to do for awhile. Macmillan Films is trying to get a movie deal for Silhouette, so I thought I would find some photos online that would show how I imagine the characters, locations, vehicles, weapons, etc. Is this how you imagined them when you read the book? Leave comments with your thoughts about them if you want.

No better place to start than with Michael Ares, the main character. He is from England, so how about Luke Evans, who looks something the Michael of my imagination...



And then for Michael's wife Lynn, how about Naomi Watts...



Michael and Lynn are both in their thirties, Michael is ex-military (special forces) and Lynn was raised in an orphanage at the Presidio founded by Saul Rabin's late wife Kathryn. The glasses Luke Evans is wearing in the pictures could easily be the net glasses that Michael uses throughout the book, and Naomi Watts is not only beautiful, as Lynn is, but could also embody the domestic and innocent parts of the character's nature.

Interestingly, the two actors also have the same color eyes as the characters in the book.

Silhouette Prequel Online!

Macmillan has published a prequel to Silhouette online at their web site! It's called "Unmasked" and tells the story of a Michael Ares adventure that takes place a couple years before the events depicted in the novel. It contains the same kinds of exciting action, future tech, interesting characters, and moral conundrums that you'll find in Silhouette. To read the story, click here. For a sample of the novel itself, visit its Amazon.com page here and click on the book cover "To Look Inside."

Here's an excerpt from the middle of the prequel story:

After making a few turns, including a wrong one that ended in a blank wall, and some winding steps downward, I found the camera that was watching the squatters’ hidden tunnel entrance. While Aaron had it temporarily looped, I located it on the wall near another dead end. It was a clear strip stuck to the concrete, about the size of a Band-Aid or a stick of gum, and the tech informed me that it was equipped with night vision as well, and a proximity alert. While its owner couldn’t see me, I explored the floor near the dead end and discovered the tunnel entrance, its outlines hidden by tiny holo projectors near the corners that looked similar to the camera on the wall, but were even smaller. It would be interesting to find out how they opened it from this side (probably by remote), but that wasn’t the reason I was here right now.

I crouched on top of the tunnel entrance, turned my head slightly away from the camera, and told Aaron to release the loop. Then I stood and moved slowly past it, like a squatter emerging from the tunnel. I could almost hear the proximity alert beeping in the killer’s ear—assuming Reyes was correct in her theory, and this wasn’t just a wild goose chase.

Then I crouched near the end of my little hallway, so I was able to make use of either corner, depending on which way the perp came. I moused the arm of my glasses to arrange the camera feeds, so I could tell which entrance he used. Then I told Aaron to watch the perp, and waited.

The masked man didn’t move from his seat in the Plaza, which I expected, because if he was the killer, he would be waiting until someone emerged from the fountain. He would be watching the same camera feeds I had in my glasses, to see which doorway I exited. But he continued to not move for such a long time that I started to think this was a wild goose chase.

Then he stood up and moved toward the fountain.

“Bingo,” I said to Aaron, and without explanation told him to unplug and give me some privacy. He did, after telling me which entrance the perp was using, and from which direction he would approach my position. I maximized that camera view at that entrance and watched as the man pulled a handgun while entering the fountain. It looked similar to the two boas I wore on my belt, which were the weapon of choice for many peacers, but I couldn’t tell for sure.

Still crouching, I leaned on the corner to the side he would be approaching and placed one of my boas on the floor so that the sight pointed in that direction. Then I accessed the sight wirelessly in my glasses so I could stay behind the corner, but see around it. I switched the other boa from killer rounds to stoppers, and held it ready to fire around the corner.

The gunsight’s view was looking down a long corridor that eventually reached another dead end (this was the “basement” of the fountain), but there was an opening in the right side, with steps leading up. I could see the far end of the bottom two steps, and knew this was an ideal setup because the perp would have to step off them when he entered my line of fire, the laws of physics guaranteeing that he would be at least slightly off balance when I fired on him. My idea was to knock him down and perhaps disarm him with a few stopper rounds (they were very good at that), then question him, and if he was a peacer, try to untangle the ethical knots that would present. If he was some other kind of criminal, it would be very simple—arrest him and lock him up in the cathedral that was also on top of Nob Hill, which Saul Rabin had turned into a high-tech jail after the quake. And if the masked man resisted arrest, I would shoot him with the killer rounds in the other boa. (That was the legal kind of murder in our new world order.)

Any notion of simple went out the window when I saw a proximity alert flashing in one of the tiny windows from the other perimeter cameras, and soon realized that a couple of lovers had been strolling by and decided to walk into the fountain. They were heading in our direction and could easily overtake the perp, which would complicate things considerably, so now I knew for sure that I needed to take him down as soon as he arrived, and before the couple could be caught in the fray...

To read the whole story, click here.