Title: Crimisle – Fifth Book of the Shonak Series
Author: Dennis Patrick Treece
Publisher: Clever Publication
ISBN: 978-1989942161
Genre: Science-Fiction
Pages: 250
Synopsis
Although it can stand alone, in order to fully appreciate the stories in this book, you really should read the previous books in the Shonak Series. These earlier books inform the reader about the Shonakians and their relationship with Earth. They are a very different race of people on an alternate version of our planet who have a very complex relationship with us and have had for many thousands of years. Most of that time, we knew nothing about them, but they knew everything about us. The Shonakians are a simple, placid people but so different from us that a great deal of background is provided in the first book, The Crown of Happenstance. That book introduces Bon of Shonak, who you will read more of in the following two books. There is also Itself, the over the spirit of the “Six Earths,” and Atsa, a proto-Hopi and tribal chief. This is where you learn the details about Shonak and its people, about their monoculture, their boring, sexless lives, their phase-altering technology, their thirst for intellectual and technical conquest, and their love for Earth-watching. The second book in the series, It’s About Time, discovers a new relationship between Earth and Shonak. Itself causes an otherwise inexplicable time shift that propels Earth 3210 years into its future while there is no time-change on Shonak. Because Earth is now an advanced, technological world, Shonak openly introduces themselves. They are willing to share much of their advanced technology with Earth but do not reveal their extensive surveillance operation on Earth with its blatant invasion of most everyone’s privacy.
CRIMISLE. Criminal Island. Formerly Prince Patrick Island in the Canadian Northwest Territories. It’s the world’s 55th largest island at more than six thousand square miles in area. It is an uninhabited polar desert often surrounded by sea ice.
CRIMISLE I. The operation which used CRIMISLE to house the world’s worst prisoners who were arrested and sentenced in special Purge courts. This first iteration of Criminal Island was active use from +2273 UAY to +2531 UAY. It was officially still on the books after that but national prisons were adequate to house the reduced numbers of criminals so there was no need for it. Outstanding features: No guards, no separation of inmates by the length of sentence, level of violence during the crime, or gender. Minors of course did not go to CRIMISLE. If there was time left on their sentence when they turned eighteen, they were eligible, and some magistrates did send them there.
CRIMISLE II. The operation which used CRIMISLE the second time around for incarcerating all the world’s
prisoners with sentences of one year and a day to life. This operation was in conjunction with Purge II which began in +3036 UAY and continues to this day. Outstanding features: Inmates are separated by violent or nonviolent crime and non-life or life sentences and live in climate-controlled huts of up to fifty inmates each.
About the Author
Dennis retired from the Army in 2000, after thirty years, and five wars, if you count The Cold War and the Global War on Terror, to Vietnam, Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and the Peacekeeping mission in the Balkans. He is a retired Army Colonel, a combat wounded veteran, and not at all religious. The first part of his life was entirely conventional. He grew up in a non-religious Navy family, living around the country and around the world, and his father retired in Phoenix, Arizona when he was in the seventh grade. After graduation from Arizona State University Dennis went into the Army via the ROTC program and his first tour was in Vietnam where he was wounded by enemy mortar fire. He served for thirty years, half of which was overseas, and participated in the Gulf War and the peacekeeping operation in the Balkans. He was the US Army’s first “Cyber Cop” and when he retired as a full colonel in 2000 he went to work in the cyber security business. After the tragedy of 9/11 he was hired by a major city Port Authority to run the security program for three airports and the city’s seaports. As he got older things in his life changed. He married an artist with a PsyD and ordination as a minister in the Church of Spiritualism. He became a Reiki Master and studied spiritual things while being “coached” through the contents of what would become the book A Million Monkeys.
He found the whole thing difficult to accept, but finally translated the thoughts from these Spirits and published the book. Dennis accepted his role as Narrator of the story, not the originator, and wrote the book in the second person, since it is essentially a lecture to Humanity by a Spirit describing itself as a “Super Soul of great magnitude”. It should not be seen as religious although it covers religious subjects. And it should not be seen as the enemy of established religion. They are what they are and as creations of Mankind, are understandably flawed however well intentioned. Essentially they get it about 60% right. If you are looking for the answers, that is the actual answers to Genesis and the Meaning of Life, this is the book you need to read. The next book, The Crown of Happenstance, uses elements from the Million Monkeys story and creates the sister planet Shonak, and the character Bon. The third book, soon to be published, is called It’s About Time, and fully examines Bon’s relationship with Earth and also the matter of TIme. What is it, exactly? It has no weight, color, size, sound, feel – but it is real enough, or is it? Read the book to find out.
