Title: Pandora’s Box: Stay In or Expand
Author: Alan Davis
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 978-1-5320-8626-7
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 238
Reviewed by: Allison Walker
Pacific Book Review
A young celestial messenger named Siena sees a couple so pure in their love for each other she cannot resist asking her mentor more about the man and woman. Their names are Sirius and Penti, her mentor Nazilla tells her. And if you want to hear their love story, you’ll have to ask Penti yourself. Thus begins Siena’s journey with kindhearted and lighthearted Penti, and the telling of a love story of the truest hearts imaginable. As celestial beings, Penti and Sirius train for lifecycles as instructors of others, or for reincarnation. They train for life in the physical realm, toward spiritual growth and development, and to resist the influence of the dark ones so they may remain vessels for goodness and light. Every pain and sadness they endure, both separately and together, brings them closer together, and closer to their Lord and His Lady.
Penti and Sirius’ love story, author Alan Davis explains in his forward, is his own. Pandora’s Box: Stay In or Expand is a love letter to his wife, whom he calls “A Very Interesting Woman” and “a Lady of the Highest Caliber.” Davis wrote the novel to express his love for her, so that she could see herself through his eyes, and see the respect and regard he holds for her there. Davis, in expressing himself through Sirius, owns that he was not always the easiest person to love. He endured years of spiritual journey as he sought to discover his purpose in the Universe. Penti holds strong through it all and never wavers in her regard for him.
Pandora’s Box: Stay In or Expand is surprising, a combination of different mythos and religion, and a wholly unique universe and experience. Gaia of the Earth trains students in Anatomy, while the Winged Being Gabriel fortifies their minds against the dark ones. The structure is complex without being overwhelming, and brings out the best of many different mythologies. Each new instructor is a surprise from a new fable, yet Davis brings them all together for the same purpose.
Fans of fantasy and readers of all ages can enjoy Pandora’s Box: Stay In or Expand. Readers won’t find a purer and more wholesome story. Pandora’s Box is a book I would trust my children to read by themselves. Every struggle the characters endure teaches a lesson, and each lesson is a journey toward spiritual enlightenment. It’s a journey with noble purpose and happy endings.
