Beyond Hope and Despair

Book excerpt: “Beyond Hope and Despair” is the second in the Galanor Saga Series. It picks up exactly where Volume I (“Beyond Good and Evil”) leaves off. It is a novel written in three parts (Books One. Two and Three). Each can be read as a separate work or, as designed, as part of the complete novel. Book One finds Galanor (who is now the commander of an elite mercenary corps known as the Panther Legion) on the field of a recently fought battle. He has lost his will to live and, since the death of beloved Kara, and her entire universe, by his actions, insane with guilt and despair. Azool visits Galanor while he wanders among the dead, and renews his demand (only now with more vigor) for Galanor to join him in his struggle to “free” reality from “order.” Following Galano’s rebuke Azool visits the Legionnaires with sudden madness. This causes them to turn on one another. The most affected by this is Pharon, who, under Azool’s influence (which continues throughout the novel) turns on his lifelong friend. Galanor finds himself swept up in court intrigue and falling in love with the empress, whose husband had commissioned Galanor’s Legion to defend his borders. This put Galanor at direct odds with the empire’s High Lord General, Sargon. Sargon aligns himself with a wizard, who has a personal grudge with Galanor dating back to Atlantis. Together they plot to kidnap the empress and destroy Galanor in the process. After a long series of devastating encounters Galanor, on the verge of death, is sent into the desert to die. He is rescued by a shadowy, mythical figure who begins his road to mental and spiritual recovery, outside the bounds of reality. Book Two finds Pharon and the entire remaining members of the Panther Legion, in prison awaiting death at the hands of Sargon (who has taken control of the empire from the feckless emperor, who grieves over his wife’s absence). Azool has been visiting Pharon, who has now become his agent. Galanor, having left the care of his benefactor, has taken on a new companion (who had been given to him while he was being healed). He is a powerful, sleek dog named Anubis, whose spiritual and physical presence helps Galanor cement some of the soul saving lessons he had learned (though he cannot recall how). Together, they meet a young warrior and priestess who are on a desperate mission to save their city from sure and certain destruction at the hands of a vast, marauding army. Galanor must choose between returning back for his comrades or going forward, in search of the kidnapped empress and helping the young couple and their city. He chooses the latter while conceiving a plan to do the former. After a devastating battle to free the now enslaved city, Galanor is swept into the arms of a goddess who wants him for her own. He also discovers an old and trusted friend along the way. His friend, Enkidu, tells him of a “world beneath the world” that might help his kidnapped love. It is a place where only the dead may enter. He and Anubis do so. Book Three finds the young warrior in search of an old friend and warrior chief whom Galanor and Pharon had rescued during a sea battle. This man and his band of elite stealth warriors, agree to help the young warrior free the Legionnaires before their execution. Galanor and Anubis cross into the land of shadows and emerge in a land not far from where the empress has been imprisoned by the insane wizard. Pharon and the Legionaries are freed and with the aid of the stealth warriors, become the agents of fate. Galanor encounters Azool one last time in a battle of wills. He defeats an old enemy and does battle with the wizard to rescue the woman he loves. As “Beyond Good and Evil” was a novel about the power of love and commitment, “Beyond Hope and Despair,” is a novel about the power of redemption.