Rise of the Sky Sailors

Sky Fighters and Houndy Crunchers #5

by Ross Eberle

After four years of many tough battles and several close calls, the Sky Fighters and Sky Fighter Champions have achieved peace at long last! But something's amiss...Right after Gregoroth has a dream one late-January morning, he finds out Rehn is missing, presumed dead! Gregoroth's older brother Mantecado hastily leaves on some business, leaving Gregoroth to find out Rehn's fate.And if this wasn't harrowing enough, two sacred artifacts are stolen by a couple thieves, who call themselves the Anti-Sky Fighters! Who are they? What do they want with a couple of ancient artifacts, anyway? It will be up to the Sky Fighter Champions to join forces once more with each other and their Sky Fighter Bretheren and advance to the next level in the process.And speaking of unsolved mysteries, two of the original Sky Fighter Leaders are also missing in action, and have been for several years running! What has become of them? Can anyone find out if they're okay? How long will the peace truly last...?

349 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 2017

About the author

Important note: All characters, images, details, published, and unpublished works of the Sky Fighters are Copyright © Ross Eberle. All rights reserved as noted by the U.S. Copyright Office. Furthermore, the contents of this novel series are purely fictional. As such, it is not intended to represent or depict any factual event, person, or entity; any and all similarities are nothing more than a coincidence.

Ask the author about his FREE novel chapters!

Ross Eberle is the creator of the Sky Fighters Novella Series! He was born in New Jersey and grew up in Philadelphia before moving down to Florida in the summer of 2003. His grandfather was once a famous Big Band singer. His name was Ray Eberle. If you'd like to know more about him (As well as the author's Mom, grandmoms, aunts, and uncles), you can find all the details on his article at Wikipedia right here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Eberle

The concept of the Sky Fighters first came to Mr. Eberle during a class project where students had to color in a totem pole. Back then, he was only 7 years old. And even though the teachers would not allow him to take part in the class project, seeing one of the animals carved into the totem pole drawing gave him the inspiration to create special alien creatures which resembled foxes. They were multicolored and had square-shaped ears. These were known as Houndy Crunchers.

Soon thereafter, he 'bagged' a bag of Home Girls potato chips as part of a class grab bag simply by selecting a number from 1 to 10. He selected number 5 and won the chips. The chips had an interesting picture of the Home Girls on them. While out shopping with his Mom, this gave Mr. Eberle the idea to bestow superpowers to the Home Girls and make them Humanistic Sky Fighters. The name Sky Fighters did not come to him until years later, however. By the time it did so, their appearance had advanced and included such perks as wire-like tentacles on the sides of their bodies. These are called Wickwires, and can be extended and retracted according to their Willpower.

As you read Mr. Eberle's novellas, you will notice the people who are Sky Fighters have the ability to change their size, essentially making themselves 200 feet or taller or 7 inches or smaller. They also have magical powers, including Elemental Attacks, Teleportation, Invisibility, Summoning, and once they're strong enough, they grow a set of wings and are able to fly! He decided to make the first half of his books novella-length because of the way he has the plot set up. The storyline has eight parts to it with each part depicting the events of a particular year or years. There may even be a ninth installment of the series in the works!

If you've come this far in reading Mr. Eberle's biography, then hats off to you! He hopes you love reading his Novella Series as much as he loves to read in general.

Reviews

[Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!* · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read complete! This is the book that launches the late-stage Sky Fighter power levels that I remember best from the series, and I know there's even more bombastic intensity to come.

As I revisit the series, it becomes clear that the books work best in pairs, with full story arcs stretching across every two books. This one ends in a cliffhanger, with our heroes at their lowest just when they thought they were at their peak. Several mysteries are thrown into the mix at the end too, making me want to jump right into Lucifer's Henchmen.

This one, book 5, is also the longest to date, and IIRC the remaining books maintain a comparable length. This was tough at first because the early chapters stretched a bit too long, particularly Gregoroth's journey through the office-building realm of his recent dreams. It's challenging to follow threads from start to finish, with multiple side events that have unclear significance for the future. I only know what to zero in on from my memory of the books to follow: most notably, the anti-Sky Fighter 'Next Step' political party. For now, I regret the need to dock a star from my rating because of the early slow pacing.

There's a noticeable shift in the writing style between the last book and this one, aside from just the length. I wouldn't be surprised to learn there was a gap of years in between writing them, despite that the publishing dates put the largest gap between books 2 and 3. In any case, I know the series has been a long-term project for the author.

My original review, written when I whipped through the series the first time and didn't fully appreciate what it was trying to accomplish, is below.

Ongoing series gasping count:
Book 1: 22 gasps
Book 2: 16 gasps
Book 3: 21 gasps
Book 4: 57 gasps
Book 5: 97 gasps; exponential growth!
Total gasps to date: 213

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I am finding it hard to keep track of what book in this series any particular event happens in, this far into the series. But reassuringly, if you read enough of them you will find that almost all plot threads get picked up again, eventually, but when it might not be until three to four books later it gives a feeling of randomness. Still, it's good to know that there has been a plan for the series and it is being carried to fruition.

As they often do, the Sky Fighters make up some new rules for themselves, reassigning names to various power levels, adding new effects to attacks, new artifacts and weapons, new tribal affiliations and what not. It's hard to keep track of casually, but it has little impact in the grand scheme so I just go with the flow. The title, "Rise of the Sky Sailors" is perhaps overdramatic, because all it means is that the Sky Fighter leaders decide, "Hey, we're going to be called Sky Sailors now".

"Congratulations to each and every one of you! For we are the New-Age Congressional Corporation of the Sky Sailors!" he shouted in declaration.

There's not much I want to add except the running tally of names for the main characters. So far the narrator has been called:
-Ross Eberle
-Muggins
-Hippie-Muggins
-Brian
-Hippie-Matt
-Storm
-Rehn
In this book's first chapter, Rehn and his girlfriend Michelle are exploring the old house that has been gifted to them, and they engage in some lovey-dovey:

"Oh, Henry! she exclaimed in delight again.

I entertained the idea that this was just a cutesy name, like the candy bar, because he then exclaims, "Oh, Shelly" back at Michelle, but before long he is regularly being called Henry. But Michelle is not regularly called Shelly. She becomes Holly instead, half-way through a paragraph that stars by calling her Michelle. Later their names are fleshed out to Henry and Holly Crawford. The reader is rarely notified of the name change or reasons at the time; they just show up and you figure out from context who they are and wonder why they need yet another name. At this point, though, if a new book came along without adding a name to the roster, I might be disappointed; it's become one of the series' odd charms.

I do want to add, in the first chapter, in addition to Rehn and Michelle getting a little hot and heavy, there's some new information offered about Sky Fighters and how they don't like to be pushed onto their backs because it exposes their genitals (not visually, thank goodness because who knows what the advanced Sky Fighter forms that have wings and side tentacles have for junk, just exposing a weak point, something like that?). Between this and the Sky Fighters' infrequently-mentioned cannibalism, I can say that this series never lacks for surprises.

[Laurie Eberle · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my humble option, this fifth part of the Sky Fighters series rivals part one. I think I say this because, to me, four distinct parts are pleasing in different ways. The first is actually heart-warming. The second, to me, is almost comical. The third speaks of mistrust in a moment of peril. And the fourth is action-packed. So, I say, read Rise of the Sky Sailors for a thought-provoking, emotional roller coaster ride!

[Ross Eberle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thorough reading and re-editing of this novel will be provided at some time, either near the end of this year, or towards the start of next year.

News regarding the publication of the 8th and final novel of this original series will be kindly provided before the re-editing of Sky Fighters Part V: Rise of the Sky Sailors is complete.