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"Very complex science fiction thriller"

The Exile Prince heads to Conrad's World with a filled hold and special passengers. A few hours before landing, three combat fighters attack the vessel. His father sends five year old Cale Alexandros accompanied by his nanny Sidonie in the Kestrel to the nearby planet with instructions to get to the only civilized spot Morningstar. However, the duo crash on Conrad's World. Nomads find them and rape Sidonie and leave her to die. They turn Cale into a slave.

A decade passes when Blackburn the trader enables Cale to escape with him to Morningstar where he meets Sidonie, who survived her desert ordeal. She takes him home to his wealthy family. However, Cale believes that Morningstar is built on top of an alien culture and has found an ancient tome with weird metallic pages containing strange writings that he found in the desert. His family and Sidonie want him to stay home and cannot understand why Cale is obsessed with locating and entering the alien gate that his reference mentions unaware that friends are enemies planning to use him.

THE ROSETTA CODEX is a very complex science fiction thriller from start to finish. Readers will enjoy journeying with Cale whose captivity along with the book he found shape his existence though that upsets his family. The story line is action-packed and the support cast is established to enhance the plot. However, this fine alien planet thriller belongs to Cale, whose enslavement has made him so different from his family that they cannot comprehend his need to return to the place of horrors and believe he is a fool to want to ship out again. Richard Paul Russo provides a strong character- driven outer space adventure.

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted November 15, 2005

Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted January 25, 2007

Cale Alexandros was five years old when his family's starship was attacked en route to Morningstar, the lone outpost of civilization on a savage planet. Cale escaped, only to be picked from the wreckage by nomads. He endured life as a slave until a sympathetic trader freed him, but Cale never forgot what happened in the desert wastes-in a strange, ancient temple, when he found a book with strange metal pages and cryptic writings. When he finally reaches Morningstar, he realizes the true importance of his discovery. The book is a key to understanding alien languages. But it also holds a secret that some people will do anything to control.