The KairosStone
Read the novel
and author's blog
Narration Chapter 1
read by Sylvia Loveridge
composition by Tim Clark
Speaking in Volumes
When a brilliant girl raised in an underwater technological civilization trades places with a young mariner from an ancient seafaring tribe, their destinies become irrevocably intertwined. As empires collide, artificial intelligence awakens, sacred mysteries resurface, and two civilizations discover that neither science nor spirituality alone can save the future. Only by uniting them can humanity evolve.
Evenor and her AI avian are catapulted into uncharted territory. Evenor rises from refugee to revered leader but throughout her turbulent journey she holds onto her secret which can change humanity forever.
Evenor has spent her entire life under the water. Now, the last of her race, she must leave behind the world she knows in order to survive. With limited options she takes refuge with mariners an quest for the new world.
Evenor has spent her entire life inside a perfectly engineered world, where intelligence is measured by data and reality is filtered through technology. Cord has never known anything but the predictable rhythmes of the wind, sea and stars. When fate forces them to exchange lives, each must learn to survive in a world that contradicts everything they beleieve to be true-and discover that the greatest journey is not across worlds, but into a deeper understanding of what it means to be fully alive.
Evenor finds herself uncomfortably trapped in a rudimentary earthbound existence. With only one artifact from her past, a know-it-all robotic bird, she must learn to live a gravity bound existence. But as a scientist with the desire for adventure, she is a trailblazer on an unpredictable trajectory.
Forces of nature cause a great cultural migration where diverse races band together; the resulting mix of traditions and technologies becomes the foundation for an extraordinary new world.
Reviews
This compelling novel delivers hope in dark times and gives an unexpected look at how the AI defines ourselves. - J. Brady
As soon as you open the book, you're in another world.
- J. Campaign
It's Luke Skywalker meets Lara Croft in the Twilight Zone! - B. Ward
Fans of Narnia and Middle Earth will feel the allure of another world not too unlike our own, yet steeped in mystery and intrigue - a fantastic journey that will spark the adventurer's heart.
- S.K. Kaur
This story is an inroad to imagination, where we draw the future towards us and find out what it means to remain human amidst the evolution of hyper-technology.
- R. Stark
And so the story begins ---
to view Chapter One go to blog post
Prologue
Beneath the surface of an ordinary land another world was spinning. The two realms, different as night and day, existed side by side. In one, people lived simply, keeping the customs of their ancestors; in the other, visitors from another galaxy lived at the bottom of the sea in a state of crystalline elegance, where time stood still.
Chapter One
Evenor speaks —
I am not from here, or at least that is what I have been told. My people came from a distant star long ago. Our mission was simple: find water.
We discovered this blue planet; then drove our airships into the ocean floor. Beneath the depths we built a colony to explore the sea, as our planet lacked such accumulations of water. From the shelter of my underwater laboratory, I studied fascinating life forms and never disturbed the natural order.
Living in that peaceable kingdom under the waves was the only life I knew. Our world was a nexus of innovation and invention and there we thrived -- until the arrival of the Yedek.
Obsidian
Daylight never penetrated the walls of the glass pyramid that sat on the ocean floor. The structure appeared deceptively fragile, made from sheets of obsidian that leaned in — like a house of cards of uncertain balance. Lone creatures of the deep slid through beds of high reaching kelp and were mirrored back in the dark glass.
The pyramid’s faceted surface sent reflections splintering off in every direction, making the massive structure nearly invisible. This underworld would appear as an enigma to any onlooker. The colony spanned the ocean floor but was difficult to detect. Long corridors extended like the arms of a giant starfish, half buried in the sand. Linking the many laboratories was a solid state matrix brain. Its purpose; to collect data on the life of the sea.
continued in blog post "Chapter One"
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And so the story begins ---
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Writer's Corner
Inspiration and devotion: Frank Herbert's Dune, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C Clarke
Biography-
Author JM Barrie runs the risk of betraying her “condition.” Only her closest fans know how the story was birthed from a haunting dream. Hypnotherapy helped to untangle her night visions and navigate to the center of the breathless dream. The mild-mannered art conservator had previously spent her career searching the annals of archaeology, seeking some understanding of life’s mysteries. Now it seemed the answers were coming from deep within.
Manhattan’s endless collections had been a proving ground for Barrie's impressionable mind. Ancient art drew the young student into the cathedral-like museums where, in the quiet after hours, she discovered many secrets. Barrie’s intense desire to be near artifacts led her to complete Winterthur’s prestigious program in Art Conservation where she attained a Master’s degree in Science. Her true passion is unraveling stories from displaced artifacts that have survived the ravages of time. Studying historic objects at close range, she has gained fresh insights into lost cultures — earning the moniker, “Mistress of Minutia.” The detailed connections she discovered and the recent archeological finds in Asia minor provide a factual basis for her new work of fiction.
Combining the practices of chemistry, history and preservation, Barrie works in the field of art preservation in historic Charleston, SC. She is also an amateur astronomer who uses ancient Arabic knowledge for reading the stars. Continuing the work of Hypatia’s Mystery School, Barrie writes to alchemize patterns of the past, while working on the construction of an evolutionary celestial astrolabe.
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