[Jim C. – Long review; I got carried away a little bit. This is a very good book and if you’ve read the first one, then you should continue on with this one. It’s very interesting!]
This is becoming a very interesting story. Of course I was initially drawn to it because the main character or at least one of the main characters was an old 75 year old man from Earth! That’s me! But there all similarities end, for sure! “Flip” Kinnely used to be a janitor in a big company that did secret squirrel work for the Department of Defense on Earth. He was living out his days doing menial tasks and just getting old, older as we all are. Then something happened at the warehouse he worked in; something that soon changed his entire life. Wow!
He me a young lady by the name of Sorsha who desperately needed his help. Her starship had crashed on Earth and she needed him to help get it back. Well, they eventually did even though it wasn’t easy for a 75 year old guy. But what Sorsha was looking for was an ancient artifact her people had possessed a long, long time ago and lost. Now they desperately need it. They found one in a nearby museum, but by that time, the federal authorities were after them.
Well, not actually Feds, but some experts in security that was hired by the secret squirrel company that Flip had worked for. Those guys had orders to get her back at any expense and that including eliminating the old man that had helped her. But, before these guys found the both of them, they had gotten into the museum and found the item Sorsha needed. It was a sarcophagus which needed a power source to work. Sorsha knew that with this device, the people of her home planet might be able to survive a devastating pandemic that was afflicting them. With Flip’s help, she was able to find the battery near where the sarcophagus was being store. Meanwhile, Flip had been badly wounded by the guys trying to capture them both.
At the last minute, Sorsha decided to drop Flip into the sarcophagus and fire it up. Well, the effect it had on Flip was very pronounced. He stirred from this stone coffin feeling much, much better than he had in thirty or forty years. He was able to jump from the sarcophagus and help Sorsha and himself to flee from the museum. They got back to her ship and then went back to the museum and picked up the ancient sarcophagus. But, sadly, the battery Sorsha had used on it this one time, died because it was so old. In order to get it to work again, she needed to find another battery or even another working sarcophagus.
For Flip, his change was extraordinary. He once was an elder gentleman of 75, but not looked and felt like he was 25 again, about the same age as Sorsha. He asked if she knew it would do this to him and if she did, why did she do it. She said there wasn’t any other way to save his life. The sarcophagus was a very powerful medical machine that could and did cure many ailments for her people but they had forgotten how to build them or even how to use one. The pandemic affecting her people had made them less able to understand advanced technology and further, they were losing their will to even learn new things. She needed to get a working sarcophagus back to her home planet. She asked Flip if he would like to join her.
Now Flip had to think just a few minutes about this. If he stayed, he’d eventually be caught and tried for his crime of helping her escape. Doesn’t matter the exact laws that were broken, they’d make something up in order to keep him confined for the remainder of his natural or unnatural life. He was going to be examined by every scientist the government had to find out had he had become young again. So, stay and go to prison or flee and go with a very beautiful young woman, whose only difference from a human was her skin color of blue. Flip made the same choice and went into space. He went a long, long ways into space.
Sorsha had been provided information as to the whereabouts of various lost Kultarin artifacts by a group known as the Collectors. They seemed to be willing to help her but not get involved themselves. Their first tip had lead her to Earth so it seemed they knew what they were talking about. Now, after she had explained to these Collectors what had happened on Earth, they sent them to another place only to find out it had been looted and was also the lair of a dangerous monster. Not only that, but another group of aliens called the Mahshi, wanted any tech associated with the Kultarin civilization. They were a private society and would stop at nothing to get what they wanted.
Sorsha and Flip ran into them while at their first stop after leaving Earth. They managed to escape, barely but now needed to contact the Collectors for a new lead on where to go. There was rumors of a Kultarin AI still operating some where and it could give them all the information they needed to either solve the pandemic or lead to more sarcophagus. So, they got a short, encrypted message to go to the *Hostel* and someone would contact them.
Well, the *Hostel* turns out to be a very interesting place. It’s ran by someone who calls himself the “Concierge”. He knows a lot about what Sorsha and Flip are about, but he’s willing to help them if they help him. Seems like one of the domes on the planet they are on has something not right going on inside. The Concierge wants Flip and Sorsha to find out who’s behind this vacant dome activity and stop it if they can. Once they do so, he’s willing to assist them in all their future efforts even though he doesn’t exactly know what that is.
Flip volunteers to go to the dome with two security personnel even though he doesn’t want to do so. Nether he nor Sorsha have the resources to continue on much longer without some kind of help. And as long as the Mahshi don’t show up, they might be able to get some help.
Turns out, this is going to be a very trying times for both Flip and Sorsha. They can’t trust any one and even the Collectors are coming into question as whether they are a help or a danger. This book has a very interesting story and it’s not over with this book. The next book, “Lost Civilization”, is now available on Amazon and I’m certainly adding it to my lengthy reading list. One last thing, I’m not sure what the title of this book has to do with the book. I don’t recall anything named “Nomads Gate” while reading the book so that’s kind of a puzzle. Maybe you can figure it out and drop me a comment?
==[Note: As of 12/03/2023, this will not be published on Amazon since I have been banned from posting reviews for some unknown reason. Once the ban is lifted, assuming it does get lifted, I’ll go back and post this to Amazon.]==