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A Dark of Endless Days

(Star Trails Tetralogy #2)

Marcha A. Fox (Goodreads Author)

4.85 · Rating details · 20 ratings · 13 reviews

Cyraria is a hostile world with weather extremes beyond imagination. With Opposition, the worst portion of the heat season on the way, Dirck Brightstar and his father, Laren take on the challenge of modifying their primitive shelter to withstand the hostile environment in what is rapidly becoming a dystopian nightmare. Their attempt to build a heat exchanger (air condition ...more

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Paperback, 366 pages

Published August 26th 2012 by Kalliope Rising Press

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Jan 06, 2015 Ceri London rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi, science-fiction, scifi, science-fiction-thriller, speculative-fiction, space-time-travel, technothriller, young-adult

I made time over the holiday season to read the second book in this wonderful series. The family is still torn apart, Creena is on Terra, desperate to return to her family and completely bewildered by the backward humans living on planet Earth (loved all the references to UFOs and aliens), while the rest of her family is surviving life on a hostile planet passing between two suns.

The heat ramps up as does the drama as Dirck is forced to take on Laren Brightstar’s design for an AC system that mig I made time over the holiday season to read the second book in this wonderful series. The family is still torn apart, Creena is on Terra, desperate to return to her family and completely bewildered by the backward humans living on planet Earth (loved all the references to UFOs and aliens), while the rest of her family is surviving life on a hostile planet passing between two suns.

The heat ramps up as does the drama as Dirck is forced to take on Laren Brightstar’s design for an AC system that might keep the family alive during the hot season while Troy (baddie) plots how to manipulate Laren into doing his bidding.

I am in awe of the world author Marcha Fox has created. She has populated our galaxy with human colonies and aliens, enriching the story with intricate detail covering solar systems, seasons, geology, politics, anthropological, fauna, eco-commerce, technological, and spiritual beliefs that are unveiled layer upon layer as the story progresses.

The children are learning so much and (as I mentioned in my review for the first book) the reader learns right along with them. These kids face an epic struggle for survival and I felt their joy with each small success and their despair when everything they’ve worked for begins to fall apart on them. The characterisation is beautifully carried throughout and you witness the children’s emotional growth. Deven is still one to watch! I think leaving Mira was the best thing that could have happened to them. I shudder to think how their lives might have turned out if their biggest trial to face had been boredom and compliance in a system designed to perpetuate the ordinary. Not on Cyraria. Here, Marcha Fox has created something extraordinary.

Take your time reading this book as this is not a fast-paced read although it certainly has its heart-thumping moments. However, the pace encouraged me to slow down, savour the rich detail, and get inside the heads of these children. A thoroughly enjoyable read and I’m very much looking forward to Book 3!

( I received this book free in exchange for an honest review.) ...more

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Feb 10, 2015 Martha Fawcett rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

In THE DARK OF ENDLESS DAYS, Book II of the STAR TRAILS TETRALOGY, the author, Marcha Fox, takes us deeper into the lives of the Brightstar family and their personal expressions of communal love. Torn apart by diabolical political forces, the Brightstars commitment to reuniting the family almost seems hard-wired in their brains. The validity of this commitment is not questioned because this type of allegiance is familiar to most of us. It’s something primal in our souls, a feeling buried so deep In THE DARK OF ENDLESS DAYS, Book II of the STAR TRAILS TETRALOGY, the author, Marcha Fox, takes us deeper into the lives of the Brightstar family and their personal expressions of communal love. Torn apart by diabolical political forces, the Brightstars commitment to reuniting the family almost seems hard-wired in their brains. The validity of this commitment is not questioned because this type of allegiance is familiar to most of us. It’s something primal in our souls, a feeling buried so deeply within us that it is beyond words. Commitment to family gives us comfort, especially as children. It gives us security and keeps fear at bay while subtly suggesting, “As long as we all are together, everything will be okay.”

Two generations of Brightstars play off each other in sharp contrast and they approach life’s problems in different ways. The older, or experienced, generation consists of Laren and Sharra. Laren, the patriarch of the family, is the linchpin that holds them all together and he sets the bar high for his children. To me, Laren is the most interesting character in the book. He is the exhausted yet tireless hero-in-chief and the wisest among men. I want to know more about his life and his extraordinary gifts and skills. If Laren has any weakness, it’s for his darling wife, Sharra. From the reader’s prospective, Laren appears to protect her from the harsher realities of their situation and I wonder why. Sharra is mostly the silent martyr in the story; she is ever present, yet reserved or distant and unknowable. I would like to see Sharra’s character developed a bit more. She certainly deserves a breakthrough moment when she feels her strength.

The younger, or untested, generation consists of the teenagers, Creena and Dirk Brightstar. Creena seems the antithesis of her mother. Creena is direct, rebellious, opinionate and highly evolved while Dirk is petty and somewhat of a bully. While Creena’s spaceship lands on our favorite, familiar planet, the rest of the Brightstars are stranded on the toxic planet of Cyraria and doing their best to stay alive.

Dirk, Laren’s older son, takes on a larger role in this book. Abrupt changes in the family dynamics leaves Dirk feeling unprepared when he realizes his commitment to family has put him into a position of caring for his mother and little brother, Deven. When crisis after crisis strike, Dirk struggles to fill his father’s shoes, but Dirk’s optimism shrivels to hopelessness as their technology fails to serve them.

Despite Dirk’s lack of confidence, he is the only family member that questions his father’s motives. If Dirk is the young hero of this story, he must question the assumptions of the previous generation and find better ways of coping with the problems at hand. It’s not that Dirk mistrusts or dislikes his father, if anything Dirk is in complete awe of the great Laren Brightstar. The trial of questioning our assumptions and motives of the past takes great courage and is a crucial test along the hero’s journey. Adulthood usually comes in drips and dabs, yet defining moments arise when the hero realizes the future is upon him and he must act. “Hold onto 16 as long as you can, changes come around real soon, make us women and men.”* (*John Mellencamp). With adulthood come new powers, but the powers are useless until the hero takes responsibility for his actions. When the hero learns to weigh his intentions, it will define the parameters of his integrity and he will own his power. Despite all the hurdles the Brightstars face, the challenge of gaining their power and using it properly will decide all their fates.

This is a story for our times, about what endures when technology fails, the climate turns toxic, and we are out of luck. Despite the injustices suffered, despite the petty differences between Creena and Dirk and the light years separating the Brightstars, their loyalty to family never wavers. They are sustained by the belief that, “No problem is insurmountable as long as long as they are together.” No human animal thrives alone. Our connections are not always obvious, because the spirit of community is deep within our entwined roots.

The irony in the Brightstar family becomes apparent as the family reacts to their immediate struggles. Their definition of family must burgeon to encompass more than genetic similarities. When help is needed, humans make friends and learn the meaning of trust. Some of these friends don’t look like us and have beliefs different from our own, but family is intangible and made of more than genetic material. Family is made of commitment and loyalty to life.

Marcha Fox has a nice writing style and she sneaks little science lessons into her stories. Although her audience is “young adult,” there is nothing childish in her books and they are enjoyable to a wide spectrum of adult readers too. I thoroughly recommend the Star Trail Tetralogy. What a great read for these cold winter nights!

...more

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Jan 30, 2015 Martha Fawcett rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

In THE DARK OF ENDLESS DAYS, Book II of the STAR TRAILS TETRALOGY, the author, Marcha Fox, takes us deeper into the lives of the Brightstar family and their personal expressions of communal love. Torn apart by diabolical political forces, the Brightstars commitment to reuniting the family almost seems hard-wired in their brains. The validity of this commitment is not really questioned because this type of allegiance is familiar to most of us. It’s something primal in our souls, a feeling buried In THE DARK OF ENDLESS DAYS, Book II of the STAR TRAILS TETRALOGY, the author, Marcha Fox, takes us deeper into the lives of the Brightstar family and their personal expressions of communal love. Torn apart by diabolical political forces, the Brightstars commitment to reuniting the family almost seems hard-wired in their brains. The validity of this commitment is not really questioned because this type of allegiance is familiar to most of us. It’s something primal in our souls, a feeling buried so deeply within us that it is beyond words. Commitment to family gives us comfort, especially as children. It gives us security and keeps fear at bay while subtly suggesting, “As long as we all are together, everything will be okay.”

Two generations of Brightstars play off each other in sharp contrast and they approach life’s problems in different ways. The older, or experienced, generation consists of Laren and Sharra. Laren, the patriarch of the family, is the linchpin that holds them all together and he sets the bar high for his children. To me, Laren is the most interesting character in the book. He is the exhausted yet tireless hero-in-chief and the wisest among men. I want to know more about his life and his extraordinary gifts and skills. If Laren has any weakness, it’s for his darling wife, Sharra. From the reader’s prospective, Laren appears to protect her from the harsh realities of their situation and I wonder why. Sharra is mostly the silent martyr in the story; she is ever present, yet reserved or distant and unknowable. I would like to see Sharra’s character developed a bit more. She certainly deserves a breakthrough moment where she feels her strength.

The younger, or untested, generation consists of the teenagers, Creena and Dirk Brightstar. Creena seems the antithesis of her mother. Creena is direct, rebellious, opinionate and highly evolved while Dirk is petty and somewhat of a bully. While Creena’s spaceship lands on our favorite, familiar planet, the rest of the Brightstars are stranded on the toxic planet of Cyraria and doing their best to stay alive.

Dirk, Laren’s older son, takes on a larger role in this book. Abrupt changes in the family dynamics leaves Dirk feeling unprepared when he realizes his commitment to family has put him into a position of caring for his mother and little brother. When crisis after crisis strike, Dirk struggles to fill his father’s shoes, but Dirk’s optimism shrivels to hopelessness as their technology fails to serve them.

Despite Dirk’s lack of confidence, he is the only family member that questions his father’s motives. If Dirk is the young hero of this story, he must question the assumptions of the previous generation and find better ways of coping with the problems at hand. It’s not that Dirk mistrusts or dislikes his father, if anything Dirk is in complete awe of the great Laren Brightstar. The trial of questioning our assumptions and motives of the past takes great courage and is a crucial test along the hero’s journey. Adulthood usually comes in drips and dabs, yet defining moments arise when the hero realizes the future is upon him and he must act. “Hold onto 16 as long as you can, changes come around real soon, make us women and men.”* (*John Mellencamp). With adulthood come new powers, but the powers are useless until the hero takes responsibility for his actions. When the hero learns to weigh his intentions, it will define the parameters of his integrity and he will own his power. Despite all the hurdles the Brightstars face, the challenge of gaining their power and using it properly will decide all their fates.

This is a story for our times, about what endures when technology fails, the climate turns toxic, and we are out of luck. Despite the injustices suffered, despite the petty differences between Creena and Dirk and the light years separating the Brightstars, their loyalty to family never wavers. They are sustained by the belief that, “No problem is insurmountable as long as long as they are together.” No human animal thrives alone. Our connections are not always obvious, because the spirit of community is deep within our entwined roots.

The irony in the Brightstar family becomes apparent as the family reacts to their immediate struggles. Their definition of family must burgeon to encompass more than genetic similarities. When help is needed, humans make friends and learn the meaning of trust. Some of these friends don’t look like us and have beliefs different from our own, but family is intangible and made of more than genetic material. Family is made of commitment and loyalty to life.

Marcha Fox has a nice writing style and she sneaks little science lessons into her stories. Although her audience is “young adult,” there is nothing childish in her books and they are enjoyable to a wide spectrum of adult readers too. I thoroughly recommend the Star Trail Tetralogy. What a great read for these cold winter nights!

...more

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Sep 22, 2016 R.E. Weber rated it it was amazing

Following directly on from book one, this second novel in the Star Trails series continues the adventures of the Brightstar family as they fight against the odds to become united once more. With the necessary ‘world building’ out of the way in book one, the second is free to plunge headlong into the adventure, pitting the family members against a variety of dangers, some human, some alien and some just nature itself. The story flows at a good pace and is well written with descriptions that are r ...more

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Jul 19, 2014 Elle Klass rated it it was amazing

A Dark of Endless Days by Marcha Fox is volune two in the Star Trails Tetralogy. This segment picks up exactly where volume one stopped. The Brightstar family is living on Cyraria-a hot dismal planet with two suns. The blazing heat and high opps creeping up on them they build a cooling system for their ballome and consider heading for cooler ground. Merapa always one step above the law isn’t so fallible and Creena gets stuck on Earth. Her opinions about earth and the descriptions of Earthlings a ...more

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Oct 29, 2015 Simon Okill rated it it was amazing

Shelves: action, fantasy, scifi

A Dark of Endless Days by Marcha Fox is book 2 of Star Trails Tetralogy and the story just gets better. Gotta so love that title. Goosebumps! The author excels at delving deeper into her characters and their almost insurmountable problems that binds them together even though separated by the vastness of space.
With father and son on their chosen planet now in a heatwave to end all heatwaves that will suck every drop of fluid from them and if they survive that there are those sinister forces at wo ...more

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Dec 18, 2014 Rhoda D'Ettore rated it really liked it

Having read Marcha Fox's first book in this series, I knew what I was in for-- a great story, relationship conflicts, an imaginative new world, and some interesting technology to go along with it. I had taken some time between the two books, but was not confused when I continued the adventure with this story. In some other series, I feel like the author rushes the first chapter and squeezes all the characters in, not giving the reader a chance to reconnect with the characters. This was not the c ...more

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Jul 18, 2014 Donna McGarry rated it it was amazing

The estimable sci-fi writer, Marcha Fox does it again. In this fast-paced sequel to Beyond The Hidden Sky, the Brightstar family continues to battle evil forces. His beloved father languishing in a fetid prison, it is up to young Dirck to embark on a hero's journey. Equipment malfunctions, duplicitous entities and High Opp's torturous heat conspire to foil Dirck in his efforts to rescue his father and reunite the family. Written in a technically proficient yet engaging style this book is sure to ...more

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May 28, 2014 Judith-Victoria Douglas rated it it was amazing

A true Sci-fi in the vein of old science fiction literature, this story could end up as another classic. Its original, with all the components, technology, other world and races, and a contact with Earth. It also has tension and conflict, though mostly emotional and interpersonal, not ray guns. The characters are wonderful and real, and the only thing that disappointed me was that it was another "to be continued" story. If you are willing to follow a series then you will not be disappointed with ...more

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Jan 07, 2015 Chris Birdy rated it it was amazing

In this book the Brighstar's saga continues as Creena continues her efforts to be reunited with her family while they suffer on Cyraria with extreme heat and a hostile environment. Creena's brother Dirck and their father attempt to make a heat exchanger to help the family survive the brutal atmosphere until the father Laren is arrested and held as a political prisoner. Drick tries his best for the family as they seem to be flung further apart. This series is addictive. One is not enough. ...more

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Nov 25, 2017 Katy rated it it was amazing

4.5 for this second installment in the Star Trails Tetralogy. It took me a little while to get into this one, mainly because it was more difficult to connect with Dirck than I had with Creena in book 1, but the suspense grows tighter and tighter as the story progresses, leaving the entire Brightstar family in dire peril! The ending will definitely make you want to dive into book 3 to find out what happens to them! Recommended for science fiction fans of all ages.

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Dec 27, 2016 P.S. Winn rated it really liked it

This book was really well written and well thought out. The Brightstar family feels genuine and like a family you would love to know. As you follow their exploits you become involved and want to continue on with the story. This book and the others in the series are an interesting read and take you on a wonderful adventure. Great job!

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Shelves: 2015-read

Just getting warmed up! I love these books!

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About Marcha A. Fox

Marcha A. Fox

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The first book in the Star Trails Tetralogy, "Beyond the Hidden Sky", is free on most online sales channels which you can find here: https://books2read.com/u/bOr8j0

Join Preferred Readers to receive notice of giveaways, special deals, events and public appearances! http://eepurl.com/bn0N7v

Marcha Fox was born in Peekskill, New York and has lived in California, Utah and Texas in the course of raising ...more

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Quotes from A Dark of Endless...

“Loneliness struck again, its force doubled by how much she wished it was her family there instead. Then oddly enough, she met the boy's stare and that feeling came again, that this was her family.” — 1 likes

“Red, orange and green geometric designs painted its body as well as the flimsy collar around its neck. The creature flicked its tail and blinked its deep-set eyes, apparently oblivious to their presence.
"That's a yraglian lizards," Deven whispered. "We need to stay back. They smell really bad if you upset them. I mean, really, really bad."
Dirck nodded, unsurprised that the first native creature he encountered on Cyraria represented it so well.” — 0 likes

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