Steven Burgauer's IN THE SHADOW OF OMEN is a masterfully crafted story based on the universal human conflict between the desire for order and the desire for freedom. That Apollonian-Dionysian struggle is centered on Mars in 2433, and the stakes are high, especially when an asteroid is sabotaged and directed toward earth with the possibility of doing the same kind of damage as the one that theoretically wiped out the dinosaurs centuries ago. Will the sabotage be discovered in time, and can any action be taken to avert the disaster?
Burgauer's insights into the human condition and his understanding of human behavior result in characters who are as believable as people whom we encounter in our own lives. For example, we meet a character named Inda, who is "self-important to the point of exhaustion." But in Samuel Matthews, Burgauer has the perfect character to educate the readers, to teach us about the origin of words and the significance of the game of chess, as well as lessons of history that we should never forget. In Carina Matthews, Sam's daughter, Burgauer gives us a heroine whose concern is for the future and who believes that she will be the origin of a new race of humans. This strong, beautiful, and bold-thinking woman is sought as a lover by several male characters, but only after her imprisonment in a gulag and an Entebbe-style rescue does she discover her true mate.
In Fornax, Burgauer has created a very human hero. As he is undertaking the dangerous task of trying to re-direct the asteroid, Fornax admits to himself that his idea of being a hero did not involve an early death. Fornax is competent, wise, dependable, and keenly aware of his own mortality. He reminds one of the Gregory Peck character in THE BIG COUNTRY, that extremely rare human being who has achieved the kind of self-knowledge which enables him to master himself and to know what is truly important in life. That Fornax is in the background in much of the novel is a confirmation of his self-knowledge, for his experience in space has taught him the proper humility that every human being should have, especially those who will lead mankind into space. --Loren Logsdon...Editor, Eureka Literary Magazine