Verdura

If rocks could speak, what would they say? If a bird is killed, how can he live? What can four kids do against an army? How can a slave possibly help?

Kentucky, 1836. Joshua and Marie were only going to tour Mammoth Cave. Amanda and Steven were only going for a picnic. Only the way out didn’t lead out. It led in. In to another world where they were desperately needed to save the lives of dozens of women and children. But it wasn’t what they thought. It wasn’t against an army. The army only wanted them to fight…  something else. Something worse. Something worse than their worst nightmares. Will they defeat it? Can it even be defeated? Will the rocks cry out to help them? And where is that glowing bird, the one they saw killed, the one who lit up the sky not long after? The only one who can get them back home. Will he come?

Join Joshua, Marie, Amanda and Steven in their first Verduran adventure. Or maybe their last adventure. Anywhere.

Here’s what readers are saying:

Daring adventures. Unexpected plots. Thrilling descriptions. With all of those things, I think this book is every bit equal to Narnia (possibly even better). The Kingdom of Light wraps up this series like sprinkles on a cupcake. Makenna K., age 10

“I’m not a huge fan of sci-fi or fantasy, but Gordon Saunders is quickly bringing me around in his latest novel, A Light Through the Cave. I loved the concept right from the start, especially the world Saunders created…the one in which his characters become trapped. But I also loved the historical element, the contrast between the opening setting and where the story ends up, and the adventure elements that kept me turning the pages long after I should have been asleep. Highly recommend!” (An educator)

“I would classify this as belonging to the Historical Fantasy genre, because of the setting, but it’s so much more than that because it’s also a parable and a metaphor for a much older tale….

“It’s also a statement. One that we all know well, especially in today’s time. The way Mr. Saunders presents this ethical dilemma, through the use of reversal of roles is simply brilliant….

“…it’s an original story… and it follows the theme of fantasy to the letter, changing the original tale to something we can chew on today, and casting it into a light we can understand in a different way, but a familiar one.” Don N.

Click here to go to its page for more information and some excerpts.

When your friend becomes your enemy, how can you make him a friend again? How can you get into a fortress that has never been taken? When things are not what they seem, how can you discover what they really are?

Kentucky. Now it’s 1838. Steven and Amanda have not been able to get back into Verdura for two years, no matter what they’ve done. They don’t know if promises made there have come true or if something terrible has happened.

But things have changed in Kentucky. Amanda’s grown older and her father wants her to marry a young man who’s a cruel bully. Daddy thinks she’ll change him. Huh! She wants nothing to do with him. But her father’s insistent. Plus, Amanda has no idea what’s happened to Joshua and Marie. Letters from them stopped coming some time ago.

And then there’s that peculiar ‘amusement’ someone is putting on in downtown Glasgow, a weird phenomenon hyped by a creepy mustachioed tinker who doesn’t have any pots or pans to sell.

Join Joshua, Marie, Amanda and Steven in their second Verduran adventure. Yeah. This one could also be fatal. Or worse.

Click here to go to its page for more information and some excerpts.

He grasped what was not his to take and it cost him everything. His life became totally other than he could have imagined. And every time he got something he wanted, he lost it again. But when he got what he thought he had wanted, he wished for it no longer – because by then he had found his real heart’s desire.

Dalat was secure in his position as Prince Regent. But he didn’t think about it much, because it was too far in the future. What he thought about was the game. What he thought about was beating his opponents. And not simply by winning, but by crushing his opponents, by humiliating them completely.

But then disaster struck. The entire empire of which his father was ruler, collapsed. Enemies took every city. The few survivors fled to Denispri. And then worse. Judgement came. The kingdom was proclaimed ended by something or other that seemed to be a sort of Lord, even though it was only a bird. His father was struck dumb and deaf, motionless, empty, but not dead.

Well, someone had to take charge. There were councilors. There was an order of succession. They would have done it. But he, Dalat, was supposed to be in charge after his father. And he would be king, no matter who stood between him and the crown. No matter that he knew nothing about being king. No matter that no greater crisis had ever faced Denispri.

So he grasped the crown and put it on himself. But things didn’t go the way he’d planned. The crown took him to another world. It took him to another life. It took him to a multitude of other lives, each one more difficult than the last.

Yet in each life he learned something that would help him become the person he needed to be. So when the time came again, the time to be king . . .

Click here to go to its page for more information and some excerpts.

Do not stop. Do not go aside the way. Do not pick up anything along the way.” But could Verdura’s new residents obey these commands?

From North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; from the 14^th and 3^rd centuries B.C., from the 10^th, 16^th, 18^th and 19^th centuries A.D.; spouses, enemies, friends, strangers – twelve of them are rescued from certain death on earth to become the first families of Verdura.

Joshua and Marie Duncan are sent ahead, by Ispri himself, to find each couple as they enter Verdura, and to lead them to the place from which the peoples of Verdura will begin their lives together.

But people have their own ideas. They have their individual needs. Sometimes they work together. Sometimes they work against one another.

And above all, they don’t like to be told what to do. They want to be in charge,  to make sure they get whatever they think it’s their right to get.

And they mess up.

Because sometimes commands are for a reason. Sometimes there are enemies. Sometimes people need to listen to the rightful ruler. And if they don’t, sometimes they can’t undo the consequences. They lack the power, the knowledge, the means, to change back the evil.

And then someone else has to do it. But can the evil be undone? Who will undo it? And at what cost?

Will Verdura end before it begins?

Click here to go to its page for more information and some excerpts.

Maybe the world wasn’t ending but it sure seemed like it. Maybe someone was telling the truth, but it sure didn’t seem like it. Besides which, nothing was what it should be. Water wasn’t wet. Holes weren’t for falling into but for floating into. Light came from below, not above. They were kids. Too much was being asked of them. How would they even survive?

They hadn’t gotten back to Verdura, though nearly a dozen years had passed. They supposed they never would. But life had moved on for Joshua, Marie, Amanda and Steven. For one thing, they were all married with kids; kids almost as old as they had been the first time they were in Verdura. They had lives, though, truth to tell, lives not as exciting as their times in Verdura had been. Sometimes they struggled to find meaning in the mundane after the momentous events in which they had participated.

Things had moved on in Verdura, as well. Centuries, in fact. It had become dark. Almost all the time. And but a few of the friends they had known as children remained––even though their lives should have been as long as that of their sun. The few remaining people were at odds. Tyranny had overcome most of them, madness––so it was said––the rest. Enemies had multiplied and triumphed.

And once again, it was the children who were sent to help. Or maybe they were sent mostly to watch. Because, as always, Ispri had everything well in hand. Or did he? The world was breaking up, dissolving before their eyes. There seemed no way to overcome the enemies. There were new enemies they’d never seen, and many of the people were enemies.

So how could they explain this buoyancy they felt? This optimism? This expectation? And how did this new person, this little empress of China, so she seemed to think of herself, and her pet dragon, fit into all this?

Besides, of course, they’d eventually have to go back to earth. How was that going to work out? Would they get back before Verdura collapsed completely and them with it? This really was their last adventure.

Click here to go to its page for more information and some excerpts.