Flight of the Eagles

 

You can buy Flight of the Eagles on Amazon.

We open up with a Forward, which quite literally must be seen to be believed.

This is a story about a very ordinary boy named Josh Adams and a very strange adventure he had. Some of you may want to ask “Is it a true story?” I can only say that a true story is not one that has happened but one that could happen. If you are the sort of person who finds “real” people, such as Zachary Taylor, more interesting than Robin Hood, you had better stop here and find a “true” history book. (page 7)

I read this several times and still am not altogether certain of what Morris is trying to say here. There are plenty of stories that could happen and yet are not true, as well as plenty of “true” stories that might not be a completely, 100% accurate depiction of what actually happened. And, considering that it says ‘fiction’ on the back cover and it concerns the ending of this world, I wonder how brain damaged a reader would have to be to ask if it is true.

The next two pages have a large map on them and there’s actually an interesting bit where there are numbers running along the top and the left side. If you have the two key numbers and have a ruler, finding where they intersect will lead you to the desired location. Helpfully, this map has the numbers 1-7, along with an X, pre-printed on it.

There’s also the ‘Mangos River’. Yes. He named it after a fruit. And, printed neatly on the map, is the ‘Ghost Marshes’ and the ‘Murk Wood’. And no, I’m not getting any Tolkien vibes here at all. And yes, I have five paragraphs and we haven’t even started the book proper yet.

the next book

  4 Responses to “Flight of the Eagles”

  1. Zachary Taylor though? Does he mean Zachary Taylor the president or Zach Taylor the Power Ranger? I am so confused?

  2. The line about being more interested in real people than fictional ones sounds really condescending to the reader. Is is a BAD thing to be more fascinated by real people? I mean, you can still enjoy fictional characters while finding real ones to be more interesting.

  3. appreciate both fiction and true stories. As the saying goes, real life is stranger than fiction, so why can’t real people sometimes be more interesting than fictional characters?

  4. The first lines can either make or break a book or even an entire series. Not even the first chapter, and the Seven Sleepers series is already broken. Yes, Morris sounds condescending at best here, which when mixed with his telling people to stop reading and find themselves another book that better suits their interests doesn’t strike me as welcoming, to put it lightly.