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Crossroad Reviews
"We have identified the catalyst of human inspiration. You are not supposed to know this. Nor this: Its essence is corrupted.
What then, of our creators?
The most perceptive - and most obsessive - among them have long understood that their influence could be dangerous, a sort of privileged comprehension that the end of the world may well converge upon the inspiration that fires them and the imagination that enables them ..."
So begins "The Chronicles of Ara", an eight-volume fantasy epic written by Joel Eisenberg and Steven Hillard that explores the origins and repercussions of artistic creation.
Ara, the muse who inspires all of artistry and invention, has suffered a classic tragedy. In her grief, she manipulates a return to "dragon-scorched earth," a time before time once chronicled by the mystic S'n Te as "The Pre-Genesis Era".
In "Creation", retired author J.R.R. Tolkien is asked to validate the existence of an alleged "lost" book of his greatest literary influence: "Beowulf". Violent backlash from this event will force an imminent re-evaluation of some of history's most influential literary works and authors, whose words and lives have, apparently, warned us of the muse's grave intention all along ...