The Golden Eye

About the Book

On the colonial planet Molii, apelike kaals capture fourteen-year-old Kir Som and his younger brother, Dorel. The settlers have limited resources, and Kir fears he and his brother will be abandoned if they cannot escape their captors.

The kaals take Kir and Dorel deep into Molii's desert. During a rest stop, Kir breaks away and flees toward a steep-sided desert canyon. He tries to leap across, but the bank gives way and he tumbles to the bottom. The kaals decide he is dead and leave him.

Kir regains consciousness under the watchful eye of a large golden-eyed bird and imagines himself falling into its golden eye. The spell breaks only when the bird withdraws to the far side of the canyon. Bruised, battered, and scorched by Molii's white sun, Kir follows the canyon and finds a major water-hole where he gathers plants, animals, and stones for his survival.

During his first night, he dreams he is flying, and when he awakens finds the flyer resting nearby. As an emergent telepath, he senses something ominous about the bird but puts his alarm aside and begins to track his brother, determined to rescue him from the kaals.

In the next days, the golden-eyed flyer stalks Kir while Molii's wilderness wears him down. Strange dreams interrupt his sleep, and he often awakens with the golden-eyed flyer staring at him. He can make little of the bird, its omnipresent golden eye, or the dreams, though they create in him a growing sense of urgency.

Dogged by the flyer, he increases his efforts to find his brother, but heat fatigue, and endless obstacles take their toll.  He begins to falter, and as he weakens, ceases to resist the power of the golden eye. Only then does he discover its secret, and only then does he gain real hope of achieving his goal.

About the Author

Paul lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico and spends the bulk of his time writing. He also enjoys hiking and tutoring at an Albuquerque elementary school. He has never married. He worked as a research microbiologist, computer programmer, and computer consultant before turning to fiction writing. His writing includes many technical papers in space-related biology, six young adult novels, a novel of the Holocaust, an epic fantasy adventure, a chapter book for middle readers, and eleven short stories. Most of his fiction features young people overcoming long odds in difficult situations.