THE PROTECTOR AND THE ANNIHILATION is now on BOOKSPROUT till JUNE. You can request an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) for review!
Summary:
Some 100,000 years have passed since Earthians swept across the galaxy. By the year 9955 ATF after a catastrophe all but annihilates them, humans upon the ocean planet Imion are struggling to become space-worthy again. Two young men attending university vie for the role of Protector of All Worlds. They know that the godly power the Protector wields will save them all, and yet one day they wake up momentarily and realize… 60-year-old Armando Rivera and Ranvir Chandrani once loved each other. Stuck within a mental palace called ‘the Citadel’ within ‘the Boundless,’ an otherworld that reflects the galaxy in eerie dream-like ways, they are now 19 years old again and stripped of their memories. In these young forms, the two subconsciously test if this love between them was something true while attempting to take each other down. Their life has begun anew around them due to a time loop within the Citadel, and it follows their gentle, morose memories perfectly within the years 9955 and 9956, until… Until their families try to kill them. Until the children from the future begin to arrive. Until their son birthed outside the body with their Merged elemental outer cores—Antonio Chandrani-Rivera—insists on killing his identical twin brother Fernando Chandrani-Rivera. Ranvir and Armando very quickly realize that they must solve the mystery of what their true goals once were within the Boundless, figure out how to get out of the Citadel, and grasp why Antonio and his friends are intruding within. After all, upon the true planet Imion within the galaxy in the year 9996, a 20-year-old Antonio’s gone ahead and confronted his once-affectionate friend Alejandro Altaha—the Alejandro who became their generation’s Protector of All Worlds at the cost of Antonio’s worldwide reputation—and this has spiraled into circumstances that leave Antonio on the brink of death. Only for the bright and happy memories of Antonio's teens to flood his mind… Back when he and Alejandro Altaha cared deeply about each other, and yet the understanding they gleaned regarding their ancient selves—the civilian Nasir Hadid versus the Lost Protector Shakir—still colored everything, including their continued 10,000 year rivalry over the simple stakes of saving the world. And then there are the machinations of Antonio's cousin Layla… She laughs over their rivalry, but Antonio knows one thing: she hides secrets like breathing and despite their camaraderie, she is surely worse than Alejandro.
