The Turtan Trilogy: 3 Full-length Sci-Fi Romance Novels Box Set

by John B. Rosenman

3 Full Length Novels
932 pages of Sci-Fi Adventure and Romance in 1 Box Set for $9.99
***
List Price $17.85

The Turtan Trilogy
Turtan: A New Kind of Hero

The Cen, a cruel alien race, has attacked humanity and only one man can save it. Turtan, an Inspector of the Cross Empire, travels in suspended animation to distant worlds in search of a weapon or device that can defeat the enemy and end the brutal five-thousand-year war. Because he travels in frozen sleep, this elite agent is technically four thousand years old and has outlived many lovers and generations of his children. It is a painful and terrible burden, but duty comes first and always he must move on. His mission is rendered even more difficult by his own leaders who sometimes oppose his selfless quest to save humanity.
In Inspector of the Cross, Book 1, Turtan confronts the deadly, mysterious Godstone on Sircon IV and then travels fifty years to meet Zontena’s giant, game-obsessed birds. Next, he must journey one hundred ninety years to the lethal center of the enemy empire, somewhere no human has gone before
In Kingdom of the Jax, Book 2, Turtan travels across the universe. On Turtan 8 he discovers a strange and unique alien race who name the planet after him, and on Lauren he tries to rescue a human colony imprisoned by vicious Cen.
In Defender of the Flame, Book 3, Turtan returns to a glorious homecoming at the Academy where he graduated four thousand years before. He believes he has finally found a method to deliver the human race from the enemy.
The question is, can his solution work, and will his superiors permit him to use it?

Genres: Suspense, Romance, Paranormal, Fantasy, Action, Science Fiction

Kindle Edition

First published November 3, 2015

About the author

John recently retired as an English professor at Norfolk State University where he designed and taught a course in how to write Science fiction and Fantasy. He is a former Chairman of the Board of the Horror Writers Association and has published approximately 350 stories in places such as Weird Tales, Whitley Strieber's Aliens, Fangoria, Galaxy, The Age of Wonders, and the Hot Blood anthology series. John has published nearly twenty books, including SF action-adventure novels such as Beyond Those Distant Stars and Speaker of the Shakk (Mundania Press), A Senseless Act of Beauty (Crossroad Press), and Alien Dreams (Drollerie Press and Crossroad Press). Shorter books include A Mingling of Souls and Music Man (XoXo Publishing), Here Be Dragons (Eternal Press), The Voice of Many Waters (Blue Leaf Publications), Green in Our Souls (Damnation Books), and Bagonoun’s Wonderful Songbird and Childhood’s Day (Gypsy Shadow Publishing). Recent developments: MuseItUp Publishing published two novels, Dark Wizard and Dax Rigby, War Correspondent; and (due in February) Inspector of the Cross, as well as two stories, More Stately Mansions and The Blue of Her Hair, the Gold of Her Eyes. Visit John at his website, www.johnrosenman.com, at his blog, http://minds-eye.ning.com/profiles/bl.... And at --

http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.ph...
https://twitter.com/Writerman1, http://www.facebook.com/home.php, and http://s631.photobucket.com/albums/uu....
Two of his interviews are at
Working Writers http://workingwritersandbloggers.com/...
MILSCFI.com
http://tinyurl.com/d7f5vfa

Reviews

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

The Starfighter Chronicles is a compilation and re-release of the first 3 books in the Inspector of the Cross series by John B. Rosenman. Released 8th Oct by Crossroads Press, it's 787 pages and available in ebook format. This reformatted edition includes an interactive table of contents and links. I'm very enamored of ebooks with interactive formats - they make everything easier to access.

This is grand old fashioned space opera. There's not a whole lot else to say. The main protagonist is a hero of the old school - rugged, brave, and sometimes foolhardy. He's thousands of years old (most of that time having been spent in cryo-storage in deep space on a quest to find weaponry to fight the enemy bent on the wilful destruction of humankind). The bad guys are bad guys and the good guys are good guys.

One of the most appealing facets of these books for me is the fact that they're so comfortable...with a few plot/setting changes, they would be at home as westerns or gritty noir PI novels (on the mean streets of NYC). They're perennial, they're engaging, and they're familiar. There's nothing morally bankrupt or emotionally ambiguous here. I read this three novel compilation during the pandemic lockdown and it was a bright spot in my day, looking forward to some pure escapist fantasy.

The hero is a man of color, which was refreshing. The writing and plotting are well engineered and fast (but not too fast) paced. Having emphasized how traditional the writing and plotting are, I will say that true to form, there's not a lot here to challenge the boys' club feel of a lot of golden and silver-age science fiction. It's not John Norman (Gor novels) by a long shot, but neither is it Octavia Butler.

Overall: Engaging, well written, occasionally stilted dialogue, high space opera. I recommend it for readers looking for alternatives to early Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Larry Niven, and the other boys in the band. Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

[Robert Williscroft · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Turtan Trilogy is a multi-layered work of Science Fiction. Although it is presented as three novels, it really is one long novel divided into three sections – with a possible fourth or even more follow-on pieces yet to come.

From one perspective, The Turtan Trilogy is a Boris Vallejo/Frank Frazetta painting brought to life within the pages of a classic space opera yarn. Turtan is the epitome of a Frazetta or Vallejo hero, a man’s man, a warrior full of derring-do and wild adventure. The women in his life, human or otherwise, are as eye-filling and lethal as anything Vallejo and Frazetta ever imagined. Step aside, Barbarella – you ain’t got nuthin’ on Yaneta (or Kit)! Rosenman doesn’t worry about the niceties of biology or physics as he spins this delightful yarn, and he totally blows away any concept of political correctness. You might not want your pre-teen to read this, but any red-blooded young man or emancipated young woman will love this far-future adventure. And this is not to exclude those of us a bit beyond the young man/woman stage. At approaching three-quarters of a century, I had no trouble becoming one with Turtan, participating in his adventures, understanding his sense of duty, and yearning for his women. This aspect rates 5 stars.

From another perspective, The Turtan Trilogy is a complex study of religious and cultural differences. Rosenman imagines a far future where two dramatically different cultures are waging war over a span of many light years distance and many centuries of time. Turtan’s objective life-span is nearly 4,000 years, although his subjective life is in the mid-forties, with most of his 4,000 years spent in cryonic sleep with a dash of time dilation cast into the equation because of the speed of his starship. He is an “Inspector of the Cross,” representing the Empire of the Cross – what Rosenman imagines the Holy Roman Empire might become as the ruling element in his far-future human race. Opposed to the humans are the Cen, a cruel, logical, bipedal race that is slowly winning this extended war. No one has developed FTL drives, resulting in communications times measured in decades or centuries, with Turtan and other Inspectors popping in and out of the normal time stream as they travel in frozen sleep over interstellar distances between their assignment destinations. The Cen are sufficiently similar to humans biologically, that they can interbreed, and they each are attracted to their sexual opposites in the other race. The Cen have no religious belief, and are not inhibited by the moral and ethical constraints most humans naturally apply to themselves. Despite this imbalance, that will inevitably lead to a Cen victory over Humanity, Turtan continues his quest for a weapon that will level the playing field and allow Humans to overcome. Anyone who has read the Christian religious classic, The Pilgrim’s Progress, cannot help but see the parallel between Turtan and the Pilgrim. I do not know whether or not Rosenman intended this parallel, but while Turtan is significantly more lusty and warrior-like than the Pilgrim, what they accomplish and why is remarkably parallel. Furthermore, Rosenman introduces the Jax, a ubiquitous race of small sentient beings who act as underlings and servants to both Humans and Cen. As the story progresses, the reader becomes aware that the Jax are more than they seem, taking on a role haunting similar to that of the angels that help the Pilgrim from time to time. Even the person of the one-who-controls-everything is addressed in this tale, albeit from a female perspective. This aspect of The Turtan Trilogy rates more than 5 stars, were this possible!

Now for a couple of negatives. I write hard science fiction. I make a real effort in my writing to conform to what we know, or to what we can reasonably infer from what we know, even far into the future. From my perspective, interbreeding species from different evolutionary paths are unlikely. Rosenman describes Cen females as much like human females – so much so that a human male can become aroused by, and have sexual relations with a female Cen. It’s a stretch, but I can suspend my disbelief to accept this within the Vallejo/Frezetta story framework. But then he describes how Cen females give birth to very small infants from their brains, through their heads, I can buy this as well, but not in conjunction with their sexual organs located as they are in humans. It just doesn’t make sense. I can accept Rosenman’s concept of cryonic sleep during long transits, and even his introduction of shortening these transits by jumping through black holes, although he simply waves his hands and produces a bit of smoke and several mirrors to accomplish this. My big hang-up is, however, that during the nearly 4,000 year objective life of Turtan, there is virtually no technological advancement. Okay, Rosenman does introduce some advances here and there, but when I think about what we humans have accomplished in just 150 years, I simply cannot accept Rosenman’s stagnant universe. From the time the Wright brothers first flew across the sands of Kitty Hawk until Neil Armstrong stepped on the Moon was only 66 years – and look at what we have accomplished since then! Where will we be in 4,000 years? Even assuming the limits of light-speed, I think technological advancement will be mind-boggling in 100 years, yet alone 4,000. This is an aw-sh…t that trumps ten attaboys – lose a star: 4 stars.

Technically, from one writer to another, Rosenman’s writing is very good. I found a couple of point-of-view glitches that bothered me, but that probably would not be noticed by a general reader, and especially not by the red-blooded young man or woman I mentioned earlier. Occasionally, Rosenman misses inserting a new paragraph when beginning a dialog, but like my previous objection, most readers probably will not notice this. Finally, from time to time Rosenman’s dialog becomes a bit stilted, so that Turtan and some of the other characters seem to be talking from outside their normal personas. This is a bit disconcerting, and I suspect even my red-blooded young man and woman will notice it. In the overall scheme of this swashbuckling tale, however, I do not think this is a deal-killer. Nevertheless, I will dock Rosenman a star for these shortcomings, because he is too good of a writer to let them happen.

That leave us with a five, something more than a five, and two fours. All things considered, therefore, I give The Turtan Trilogy an enthusiastic five stars! If you like science fiction, you will love this one!

[Chanda Shae Curry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sci-fi journey

I haven't read a sci-fi book in a while. This one took the cake. Reminds me of an episode of Star trek.An investigator for the Cross,is going on a quest to find a weapon that will end a war that has been going on for thousands of years.To do that, he had to leave all he loved and wanted behind. All he knows is work and the outcome they are looking for. In this first installment of the series,we meet Turtan, a ghost of a man,who is legendary in his own rite. He has traveled in suspended animation,to different parts of the galaxy more times then any other human. We are also introduced to the Cen. The writer goes into much detail describing this gruesome race of beings.They are if a fight of power with the Cross. Looking for the same weapon.One will use it to defeat the other and end this war finally.We meet all kinds of other non-human races also,living in beautiful lands.The imagination you need to describe these world's is above the top. To imagine traveling 300 years in suspended animation,frozen in time,never really aging,never knowing what has happened or what is in store for you when you wake up,is mindblowing. Faster then light travel would be impressive to get for either side,but first let's play a game.That was my favorite part,when they were both called to the same planet as part of a horrid,till death duel to receive the prize. To always be at the ready,to depend on reflexes that are suspended for years on end,would be difficult to do.Are you more honed in,or lakadaisial in reaction time. A start to an incredible journey,that ends on a massive cliffhanger. Very good book.If you are a Sci-fi fanatic,this book is for you.

[Ian Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story struck a note with early on because the emphasis on the background is scientifically plausible as opposed to resorting to "magic". Thus Turtan is an Inspector of the Cross, sent out into space to solve problems, and we start with him roughly 4,000 years after his birth. This is achieved through relativistic time dilation and a suspension of activity while travelling. Then net result of this is, wherever he goes, while there is a war going on between the Cross and the Cen, the former being Christians, the latter aliens, he has no idea what has happened in the last few hundred years. Equally, he cannot have a wife remaining at home, and the book explores the consequences of these two constraints on Turtan. Additionally, Rosenman has the knack of suddenly swinging the story in a new direction that makes a lot of sense when seen, but is quite unexpected until then.. There is a flaw. To become unexpected, the situations tend to become increasingly bizarre, and hence getting out of them starts to test the credibility. Worse, by the time we get to Book 2, Turtan has to negotiate situations that in Book 1 seemed bizarre, if not immediately important, but as the sequence proceeds, they become really deep holes. Think of this as great entertainment, and be entertained. Be too critical, and it will pale. Three books for the price of one is certainly value for money of you like this sort of story.

[Sdan12 · Rating 5 out of 5]

A space traveller fights for his homeland
The worlds visited by space traveller, Turtan, in this book are many and varied. They are each very credible – especially the nature of the ultimate enemy, a race called the Cenknife. These aliens may look vaguely human but they have managed to eradicate every emotion that weakens humans; they are like a race of machines and their only aim is to eradicate the Empire of the Cross, which has obviously developed from Earth, although it is now year 8,000 +. Whilst Turtan searches for a way for the Empire of the Cross to annihilate this threat, he is consigned to travel the universe alone. I liked the aliens that he meets, especially the Zontena – a species evolved from birds. Unfortunately, their culture is now so decadent that the inhabitants can scarcely defend themselves as they are only interested in gaming and cosmetic surgery! (Is this John B. Rosenman’s warning to us?)

[Martha Love · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Turtan Trilogy, MuseItUp Publishing – This far-future bundle collects the first three novels in Rosenman’s Inspector of the Cross science-fiction adventure series. I find the hero, Turtan really interesting because he’s traveled on missions in suspended animation for four thousand years while fighting the aliens who have almost destroyed humanity. It’s a gripping story with mind-stretching concepts. Imagine meeting your great grandson when he’s an old, old man or going down a black hole in a ship with a member of the enemy at your side. Each novel ends with a cliffhanger that made me keep turning the pages.

Martha Love, author of What's Behind Your Belly Button? A Psychological Perspective of the Intelligence of Human Nature and Gut Instinct

[Valery · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Turtan Trilogy by John B. Rosenman is a set of three full length science-fiction/romance novels. This creative set is a great example of writing compelling and interesting characters and strange aliens, along with some romance and seduction. Turtan the main character is strongly written, and is the Inspector of the Cross Empire, who travels through time and space to find the perfect weapon to defeat the Cen, who are a cruel alien race. Turtan travels through suspended animation of approximately 4,000 years, which means his life passes him by during many stages, and he loses much family along the way. He says there is some recompense for that, but his character does bear a bit of sadness as a burden. Well written, with plenty of action and sexual situations that were believable. A must read for science fiction fans.

[LyndaVee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The eponymous hero of the Turtan trilogy is an Inspector of the Cross Empire. He is on a lifelong quest to find a weapon that will finally defeat the Cen, a cruel alien race. He has a terrible lonely life as he does his duty by his Empire. By being able to put himself into suspended animation, he is able to travel the universe alone. Because he has been in a frozen sleep many years have passed between each visit to an alien planet and he is technically four thousand years old. Every time he puts himself into his sleep he knows that he is saying goodbye to everyone he loves and that he is unlikely ever to see them again. In one poignant encounter he meets a decrepit man who turns out to be his son. This is a gripping saga with wonderful, imaginative descriptions of alien planets and their inhabitants.