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Gray Guardians #1
Gray/Guardians
This book is no longer in print and has been revised and renamed, Earth's Ultimate Conflict. Available in eBook and paperback formats.
Welcome to the future of planet earth. The environment is being drastically altered, devastating the planet with increasingly destructive seismic activity and extreme weather. Thousands of people are suffering from a terrible illness called Severe Environmental Allergy Syndrome (SEAS), and doomsday seems in sight. Can our planet be saved? Kathy Porter's thrilling new sci-fi epic, Gray/Guardians pits a dying earth in the middle of two alien races, the Grays and the Guardians. The Grays offer to take scores of humans to their home planet, especially women of child-bearing age, in a safety measure, but can they be trusted? Or are they, as another alien species, the Guardians, insist, planning to exploit humans in their quest to develop a dangerous new hybrid race! It's up the United States' president to make a decision, but time is running out fast!
Fast-paced and full of thrills and chills, Gray/Guardians is a thinking person's science fiction. Provocative and gripping, Porter's book starts with our own encroaching global warming and builds it into a story of the ultimate fight for survival!
Readers will never feel the same about the occasional ringing in their ears again.
Welcome to the future of planet earth. The environment is being drastically altered, devastating the planet with increasingly destructive seismic activity and extreme weather. Thousands of people are suffering from a terrible illness called Severe Environmental Allergy Syndrome (SEAS), and doomsday seems in sight. Can our planet be saved? Kathy Porter's thrilling new sci-fi epic, Gray/Guardians pits a dying earth in the middle of two alien races, the Grays and the Guardians. The Grays offer to take scores of humans to their home planet, especially women of child-bearing age, in a safety measure, but can they be trusted? Or are they, as another alien species, the Guardians, insist, planning to exploit humans in their quest to develop a dangerous new hybrid race! It's up the United States' president to make a decision, but time is running out fast!
Fast-paced and full of thrills and chills, Gray/Guardians is a thinking person's science fiction. Provocative and gripping, Porter's book starts with our own encroaching global warming and builds it into a story of the ultimate fight for survival!
Readers will never feel the same about the occasional ringing in their ears again.
- GenresScience Fiction
368 pages, Paperback
First published January 15, 2007
4 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
Kathy Porter
6 books8 followersKathy Porter was born and raised in Endicott, NY, the birthplace of IBM, just a few miles from where Rod Serling, the creator of one of her favorite TV series, was raised. Kathy became obsessed with science fiction and became an avid reader after reading Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles.
She received plenty of encouragement from her father, a science teacher who sparked her interest and imagination during backyard outings with the family telescope.
As the second-to-eldest of seven children, Kathy shared a room with her two sisters. During long winter nights, Kathy polished her storytelling abilities with her original bedtime stories. To her mother's dismay, Kathy considered her story a success if her sisters lay awake all night haunted by her eerie tale.
After majoring in fashion merchandising and modeling in college, she decided to fulfill her desire to travel to England and Europe, where she stayed and worked for four and a half years in the retail industry at one of London’s tourist hotbeds, Oxford Circus. Her daily exposure to several cultures influenced her writing.
Upon returning to the United States, her work eventually took her to Northern California, where she met her soon-to-be husband. They moved to Southern California, where she sold real estate until the birth of their daughter Odessa. As a stay-at-home mom, she wrote and told bedtime stories to her daughter. When Odessa attended kindergarten, Kathy worked as a kindergarten physical education instructor at the school district.
The decision to become a published author came after a haunting early morning dream that formed the basis of the Gray Guardians series.
The Gray Guardians Series:
Earth’s Ultimate Conflict
Escape From Nuur
The Journey
Reversal of Prey will be released in 2026
Kathy, her husband, daughter, and her family dog live in Southern California.
She received plenty of encouragement from her father, a science teacher who sparked her interest and imagination during backyard outings with the family telescope.
As the second-to-eldest of seven children, Kathy shared a room with her two sisters. During long winter nights, Kathy polished her storytelling abilities with her original bedtime stories. To her mother's dismay, Kathy considered her story a success if her sisters lay awake all night haunted by her eerie tale.
After majoring in fashion merchandising and modeling in college, she decided to fulfill her desire to travel to England and Europe, where she stayed and worked for four and a half years in the retail industry at one of London’s tourist hotbeds, Oxford Circus. Her daily exposure to several cultures influenced her writing.
Upon returning to the United States, her work eventually took her to Northern California, where she met her soon-to-be husband. They moved to Southern California, where she sold real estate until the birth of their daughter Odessa. As a stay-at-home mom, she wrote and told bedtime stories to her daughter. When Odessa attended kindergarten, Kathy worked as a kindergarten physical education instructor at the school district.
The decision to become a published author came after a haunting early morning dream that formed the basis of the Gray Guardians series.
The Gray Guardians Series:
Earth’s Ultimate Conflict
Escape From Nuur
The Journey
Reversal of Prey will be released in 2026
Kathy, her husband, daughter, and her family dog live in Southern California.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 20, 2016
This is a book that has characters that you can root for. This was an excellent book, I couldn't put it down because I couldn't wait to see what happened next. I look forward to reading the next book, Escape From Nuur. I would highly recommend this book to any one who want's an excellent read.
May 23, 2017
( Format : Audiobook )
"Humans make us laugh."
Undoubtedly, the best part of Earth's Ultimate Conflict was the production, the continuous sound track which accompanied the narration. Mostly providing a quiet background of appropriate soundscape or gentle music, it gave a greater depth to the overall picture being woven. This did occasionally become irritating but was mostly unobtrusive. The exception was when the aliens were 'speaking': a clever echo device certainly made them sound other worldly but at the expense of making it difficult to determine what was being said.
This felt far more like a book produced for radio listening rather than a continuous story. As it progressed, it seemed to be divided into largish bite sized pieces, each of which had to contain a new twist or excitement and end with a hook to carry through to the next part - very reminiscent of old mid twentieth century radio serials like, Dick Barton, Special Agent, so, for this listener, there was a definite loss of continuity in the need to pack something special, new or thrilling into rack individual part. The gaps between the chapters, too, were sometimes disconcertingly long.
What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)
It came about one and a half hours too late. There is a point where lots of uplifting music is played and patriotic speeches are given which seemed to herald the ending of the book. And it felt right - still unresolved in part but nevertheless quite satisfying as well as leaving the potential for a continuation book should the reader want to know more. But, after a long pause, the story started up again but really added little to the book in terms of completion.
This is the first narration by Peter Jude Ricciardi that I have heard and I will now be looking out for further books by him.. His reading voice is warm, mellow, well modulated, clear and his range of individual character voices is distinctive and wide ranging. He particularly impressed me with the naturalism of the conversations. His performance was strong enough to easily hold it's own against the background distractions. Excellent.
The story is unusual, not the standard alien invasion at all. As Earth's ecosystem seems to be slowly tearing itself apart with natural disasters increasing and a strange new plague, one of allergic reaction to the environment, sweeping across the world, swarms of alien craft are increasingly seen in the skies and contact is made with the U.S.President (Barbara) Unger. The listener is led into the growing awareness of the universal problem by following the interconnected lives of several couples. This is extremely well done, the characters given a reality which calls for great empathy and really draws us into the ongoing story.
Nice to see the appearance of Men in Black, too. But, given the world wide nature of the problems, the reader could be forgiven in thinking that nowhere else exists outside of America.and, in the latter part, there is more Ra Ra for our wonderful culture talk than actioñ.
I was gifted my copy of Earth's Ultimate Conflict by the rights holder via Audiobook Boom. My thanks for that. It was a very easy and enjoyable listen with some nicely innovative ideas, a superb narrator and overall production. But somewhere in the journey it lost it's way, failing to live up to the brilliant promise of the earlier chapters. Worth a listen, if only for the original soundtrack and Mr.Ricciardi's conversations. But do it in bite sized pieces, a chapter a day, not in one continuous sitting.
"Humans make us laugh."
Undoubtedly, the best part of Earth's Ultimate Conflict was the production, the continuous sound track which accompanied the narration. Mostly providing a quiet background of appropriate soundscape or gentle music, it gave a greater depth to the overall picture being woven. This did occasionally become irritating but was mostly unobtrusive. The exception was when the aliens were 'speaking': a clever echo device certainly made them sound other worldly but at the expense of making it difficult to determine what was being said.
This felt far more like a book produced for radio listening rather than a continuous story. As it progressed, it seemed to be divided into largish bite sized pieces, each of which had to contain a new twist or excitement and end with a hook to carry through to the next part - very reminiscent of old mid twentieth century radio serials like, Dick Barton, Special Agent, so, for this listener, there was a definite loss of continuity in the need to pack something special, new or thrilling into rack individual part. The gaps between the chapters, too, were sometimes disconcertingly long.
What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)
It came about one and a half hours too late. There is a point where lots of uplifting music is played and patriotic speeches are given which seemed to herald the ending of the book. And it felt right - still unresolved in part but nevertheless quite satisfying as well as leaving the potential for a continuation book should the reader want to know more. But, after a long pause, the story started up again but really added little to the book in terms of completion.
This is the first narration by Peter Jude Ricciardi that I have heard and I will now be looking out for further books by him.. His reading voice is warm, mellow, well modulated, clear and his range of individual character voices is distinctive and wide ranging. He particularly impressed me with the naturalism of the conversations. His performance was strong enough to easily hold it's own against the background distractions. Excellent.
The story is unusual, not the standard alien invasion at all. As Earth's ecosystem seems to be slowly tearing itself apart with natural disasters increasing and a strange new plague, one of allergic reaction to the environment, sweeping across the world, swarms of alien craft are increasingly seen in the skies and contact is made with the U.S.President (Barbara) Unger. The listener is led into the growing awareness of the universal problem by following the interconnected lives of several couples. This is extremely well done, the characters given a reality which calls for great empathy and really draws us into the ongoing story.
Nice to see the appearance of Men in Black, too. But, given the world wide nature of the problems, the reader could be forgiven in thinking that nowhere else exists outside of America.and, in the latter part, there is more Ra Ra for our wonderful culture talk than actioñ.
I was gifted my copy of Earth's Ultimate Conflict by the rights holder via Audiobook Boom. My thanks for that. It was a very easy and enjoyable listen with some nicely innovative ideas, a superb narrator and overall production. But somewhere in the journey it lost it's way, failing to live up to the brilliant promise of the earlier chapters. Worth a listen, if only for the original soundtrack and Mr.Ricciardi's conversations. But do it in bite sized pieces, a chapter a day, not in one continuous sitting.
August 8, 2017
Audible:I tried,I really did.The sound effects just never stopped hurting my ears.I believe a good story might have been in there but I gave up.I was provided this book for an honest review by the author, narrator or publisher.
September 19, 2017
Not your typical time-travel story. I wasn't expecting some of the things that happened in this book. It as creative, entertaining, interesting and very enjoyable. Unusual and bit different from the other time-travel stories I have listened to.
It doesn't take long for the story to pull you in. It's constantly moving forward at a good pace. Your never quite sure what is going to happen next. Several of the twists the story took were completely unexpected. Interesting cast of characters with a great story.
Time travel comes with it's rules, and consequences. Some of which you could never be prepared for. Be careful of the causality loop.
Kevin Clay did a great job with the narration. Nice voice easy to listen to for long periods of time. Clearly spoken with a smooth even pace throughout the story. His characters voices are good. Even his female voices were good. There were a few times that he could have put a little more emotion in some of the narration. Then at other times you could feel the emotions of the characters. He has a voice that would be great for narrating documentaries.(Maybe he already does and I just know it). I would definitely listen to other books he narrates. Overall very enjoyable.
I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator or publisher.
It doesn't take long for the story to pull you in. It's constantly moving forward at a good pace. Your never quite sure what is going to happen next. Several of the twists the story took were completely unexpected. Interesting cast of characters with a great story.
Time travel comes with it's rules, and consequences. Some of which you could never be prepared for. Be careful of the causality loop.
Kevin Clay did a great job with the narration. Nice voice easy to listen to for long periods of time. Clearly spoken with a smooth even pace throughout the story. His characters voices are good. Even his female voices were good. There were a few times that he could have put a little more emotion in some of the narration. Then at other times you could feel the emotions of the characters. He has a voice that would be great for narrating documentaries.(Maybe he already does and I just know it). I would definitely listen to other books he narrates. Overall very enjoyable.
I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator or publisher.
June 29, 2013
An amazing revision I read on 06/29/2013 published with Bookbaby.
I love the changes this author has made to her story. It is well written and is now a great addition to my sci-fi collection on my Kindle.
I read this book several years ago and back then I had found too many issues in the book to read it past the halfway mark.
The revision is fabulous! I am glad I checked back to see if changes were made.
I love the changes this author has made to her story. It is well written and is now a great addition to my sci-fi collection on my Kindle.
I read this book several years ago and back then I had found too many issues in the book to read it past the halfway mark.
The revision is fabulous! I am glad I checked back to see if changes were made.
August 1, 2011
I really like this book. It goes into a lot of detail about why aliens are here and what they are doing to abductees and what they have planned for us. This is a non-fiction book so dont worry. I do own this book.
September 25, 2010
It was a good story but the typos made it hard to get through.
February 5, 2011
I am currently reading this book. It is very intriguing and thought-provoking. I talked with the author, Kathy Porter. She is a gracious lady.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews