"That woman, that man.They were from the future, like he was. If the woman was trying to kill him, then it was because she was trying to stop him from impacting the timeline. If the man was trying to save him, then he was trying to ensure that whatever changes Jesus made, stood.
But Jesus had a chance to change the timeline for the better. Warn humanity about the apocalypse it was facing. Give people two thousand years to make sure things turned out differently".
"There was a government conspiracy, and Million Eyes were at the centre of it".
It's not easy to pigeonhole the genre of Million Eyes II: The Unraveller by C.R. Berry (Elsewhen Press) - it's a combination of sci fi, with a time travel element being the strongest, + the government conspiracy thriller sub-genre, with facets of historical fiction.
Million Eyes II was published on 24th September 2021 in a digital format, and will be published as a paperback in November 2021.
Book synopsis:
Time is the Ultimate Saviour
Following an impossible discovery in East London, archaeologist Dr Samantha Lester joins forces with software developer Adam Bryant to investigate the events that led to the disappearance of his best friend, Jennifer, and to bring down the people responsible - Million Eyes.
Before long, Lester and Adam are drawn into a tangled conspiratorial web involving dinosaurs, the Gunpowder Plot, Jesus, the Bermuda Triangle, and a mysterious history-hopping individual called the Unraveller, who is determined to wipe Million Eyes off the temporal map.
But as the secrets of Million Eyes' past are revealed, picking a side in this fight might not be easy.
Million Eyes II can be read as a standalone, but to understand the intricacies of the plotline, I suggest reading the first book in the series (see my review of Million Eyes).
Just like the first book in the series, Million Eyes II addresses some of the most fascinating mysteries of the ancient and modern history - what has caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, who was Jesus, how is Joseph of Arimathea connected to Glastonbury, what is the Bermuda Triangle and many other enigmas.
Million Eyes is an evil corporation, which uses the latest hi-tech to disguise and even hide the facts that it is altering the timeline. When everyday individuals get caught into its net, their quest for truth is perilous indeed. In the first book, Million Eyes' members were after a blogger named Gregory Ferro who has learnt from an anonymous whistleblower that the world's leading technology company is in fact time travellers who chase the book from the future.
This book is not a book as such, but a transcription device that instantly transcribes all conversations which take part in its vicinity. The person who finds the device is forced to travel back in time, and is now stranded in the 11th C (this was one of my favourite plotlines in the second book).
Archaeologist Samantha Lester and her team work on lifting the remains of a previously unknown species of dinosaur out of its primeval bed, when they find something historically and evolutionary impossible. What she sees is totally mind-blowing.
It doesn't take long for the press to get wind that something extraordinary is happening in Tower Hamlets. Lester's team is now right at the centre of the story of the century. For most people the find at the dig, a hoax is the only possible explanation. A hundred questions crowd Sam's head, and one dominates them all: is it all Million Eyes' doing.
Dr Lester reaches to Adam who works at the Looming Tower (Million Eyes' headquarters) and is right at the centre of it all. She doesn't quite appreciate just how powerful Million Eyes is. She wants Adam to identify the whistleblower who has approached Ferro in the first place.
Adam has an agenda of his own, he wants to find out what's happened to his friend Jennifer, and why.
Parallel to Sam and Adam's conundrum we travel back in history, to Nazareth of Jesus and Joseph of Arimathea. We follow Joseph as he flees Palestine and comes to Britain to spread the word of Christ.
As the stories merge together, the plot becomes more chilling and suspensful.
If you've enjoyed What If? series on Disney+ recently, you will love Million Eyes for its mind-boggling improbable assumptions of historical events - which we profess to know - taking on a totally different twist - what if the disappearance of Princes in the Tower and the extinction of the dinosaurs were connected? What if the Gunpowder Plot and the miracles of Jesus are a work of time travellers?
It raises a lot of ethical questions and themes of power, corruption, faith, the role of the individual in history and the dialectical relationship between the individual and the power echelons/forces that govern the movement of the society (here I'm going all Marxist).
C. R. Berry creates an alternative explanation to the historical timeline. His unconventional re-telling of the story of Jesus is engaging, though some devout Christians might find it offensive.
Million Eyes II is a sinister romp through the British (and world) history. The plot is utterly Byzantine, intricate and complex, intriguing and addictive.
C.R. Berry's alternative history is original and mesmerising. The future (present) is chilling and disturbing.
Breathe slowly, entering the parallel world will take you on a nail-biting ride.
This post is part of the blog tour for Million Eyes II.
Many thanks to C.R. Berry, Elsewhen Press and Mark Iles for my e-copy of the book!
Author Bio:
C.R.Berry caught the writing bug at the tender age of four and has never recovered. His earliest stories were filled with witches, monsters, evil headteachers, Disney characters and the occasional Dalek. He realised pretty quickly that his favourite characters were usually the villains. He wonders if that's what led him to become a criminal lawyer. It's certainly why he's taken to writing conspiracy thrillers, where baddies are numerous and everywhere.
After a few years getting a more rounded view of human nature's darker side, he quit lawyering and turned to writing full-time. He now works as a freelance copywriter and novelist and blogs about conspiracy theories, time travel and other otherworldly weirdness.
He was shortlisted in the 2018 Grindstone Literary International Novel Competition and has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Storgy, Dark Tales, Theme of Absence and Suspense Magazine. He was also shortlisted in the Aeon Award Contest, highly commended by Writers' Forum, and won second prize in the inaugural To Hull and Back Humorous Short Story Competition.
He grew up in Farnborough, Hampshire, a town he says has as much character as a broccoli. He's since moved to the "much more interesting and charming" Haslemere in Surrey.
Website and social media links:
C.R.Berry - Author of sci-fi & fantasy conspiracy thrillers: https://crberryauthor.com
http://millioneyes.co.uk
https://gregoryferro.home.blog
https://twitter.com/CRBerry1
https://www.facebook.com/CRBerry1
No comments:
Post a Comment