ED MONROE
Writer
Artist
Illustrator
Ed Monroe Artist & Writer
Berkeley, CA
edmonroe
When their ship crash lands in the Stone Age, the true colors of so-called advanced beings are exposed.
The novel Terra, published in Spring of 2009, was initiated in a dream that Monroe experienced in 1975. When he awakened, he instinctively knew that he had a plot to a story he needed to tell.
Work on the book didn’t commence for several years but it also would not leave Monroe alone. He worked on it through many years of development and wrote detailed biographies of the novel's central characters.
In October of 1998, Monroe began “to hammer through” the first draft of the complete novel which he shared with friends and colleagues. Finally, after an intense final editing process, the novel was given birth last year and has already sold out its first printing.
Terra is part of a longer narration, and Monroe is now at work on the novel’s sequel, which will move the second generation of the main characters forward through more adventures and landscapes.
Terra is uniquely illustrated in the tradition of great adventure story writers with pen-and-ink detailed drawings by the author.
Synopsis of Terra
Terra teaching the next generation to develop their psychic abilities.
Terra tells the story of a crew of space-age human psychics whose spaceship crash-lands on Earth sometime in the planet’s Stone Age. The crew members of the Conditional Principle must forego their advanced technologies as part of the galactic code, and adapt to the prehistoric conditions of the indigenous and warring tribes who have yet to discover metallurgy and other cultural advancements.
The Bison Hunt
One of the central characters--and the individual for whom the book is named--is Terra Treadior. She is a beautiful telepathic stealth-pilot, capable of penetrating the thoughts of mind-reading enemy gunners even as she keeps her own thoughts insulated. Terra saves and heals Dax JonRad, an officer who has been seriously injured in the crash. The novel explores how its namesake character finds her own ability to lead in the face of numerous tests, changes in her responsibilities, and rebellion by some crew members. She also must learn the crafts of the primitive natives in order to survive in the wilderness and teach her fellow crew-members how to survive as well. However, on a deeper level, Terra must navigate her feelings for two very different men.Joran Volargo is the ship’s Communications Officer and senior among the survivors. He is chosen as the crew’s new captain while they are on earth but the consensus of fellow crew members irritates Ram Delatron--a warrior-class telekinetic who can guide missiles to enemy targets using the force of his mind. When Ram fails to gain command--a post he felt he deserved--he takes off on his own, intent on conquest, and on transforming earth and its inhabitants in his own image.
"There's what's left of the fleet."
The remaining crew members strike out on their own after abandoning their irrreparable ship and its now-taboo weaponry and tools. Terra tells of their journey as they explore earth, its people, plants and animals. Their desire is to live peacefully, but along the way, they must confront numerous challenges that come mostly as a result of the native people whose ethical standards leave much to be desired by the highly-evolved crew. As the galactic humans draw more deeply into primal rites and the cultures of the primitives, they must cope with their new lives on the ancient landscape of western Europe between the two major ice ages.
Terrra watched as the little stretch of shore with the embankment shrank in the wake of the boat.Research and History
The HillEd Monroe's meticulous research about life on earth during the Mesolithic Age is brought to life in vivid encounters between those who practice ancient ways and space travelers who have advanced psychic and technological knowledge, yet have to learn how to survive in Ice Age Europe.The novel is set in an area of Europe now mapped as Austria, France and the Alps, and includes river voyages and excursions to the furthest points of Western Europe.
Although earth's residents are primitive relative to the galactic sojourners, they do have knowledge of plants, animals, and each other. They live in tribes that trace their kinship to particular totem animals. Monroe spent years researching the Stone Age, and has brought to life the ancient people and the tools, clothing, skills, spirituality, and knowledge traditions in Terra.
One important element of the novel deals with psychic and telepathic powers of inviduals, both in the crew of the Conditional Principle as well as among the shamans, seers, and priestesses of the earth tribes. Monroe has spent many years researching psychic phenomenon and wanted to bring this experience to a science fiction genre.
Ram meets the Gray Wolf Clan
Ed Monroe Artist & Writer
Berkeley, CA
edmonroe
