Posted by Anthony on March 27, 2009
Thanks go out to my friend Dannyboy whom I have known through forum debate for I think 15 years now. Danny also graciously hosted me on a trip to England where he and I tipped back a pint (or two) at the Oxford inns where the Inklings (Lewis, Tolkien, etc) would meet. Here are some pics from that affair. WIthout further ado here is his review:
“Spero” – Book II of the Birthpangs series by AR Horvath.
‘Spero’ (Hope) is one of those Latin words that you sort of know, even if you were lucky enough to attend a school which didn’t obstinately prioritise fluency in dead languages. It is incorporated in quite a few modern English words, most obviously ‘desperate’, or ‘de – sperate’, meaning literally ‘without hope’. Fortunately, although the times that AR Horvath is writing about may indeed be desperate, the quality of the writing itself is far from it.
Spero elaborates on the events described in ‘Fidelis’, but starts and ends in different places. This may sound like an odd way to tell a story (book two of a series traditionally picks up where book one finished, after all), but it proves to be a refreshing and clever way to – almost literally – weave a narrative, with a different thread of the future history that Horvath is constructing being plucked out of the tapestry of the whole and examined. Read the rest of the entry… »
Posted by Anthony on August 29, 2008
Book 2 of my Birth Pangs series is due to be released on October 20th, 2008, in hard cover. The name: Spero. I am very pleased to be able to release the cover image, designed by my friends at SojournerDesign. Check it out.
The Birth Pangs website has had a make over, again with the help of SojournerDesign. Take a look at www.birthpangs.com. It still has a couple of rough edges but it is coming along nicely. Just a note: right now I am offering copies of both Fidelis and Spero available at a discount in celebration of the release of Spero. To get it at the cheaper rate you need to make your purchase or pre-purchase now. That offer expires Sept. 7th, 2008.
I haven’t talked much about what Spero is actually about. Let me say a few words now.
Spero is Latin for “I Hope” though for all I care you can just think of it as ‘hope.’ If you’re astue, you’ll catch that ‘Fidelis’ has something to do with ‘faith.’ Put it together, Faith, Hope, and…. the name of book three will have something to do with Love. 
The Birth Pangs series is set in the United States some time in the not too distant future. A small scale nuclear holocaust has taken place, followed by a devastating pandemic. The United States had been defeated in several humiliating wars, but now all oppressors are gone, basically leaving a state of anarchy. Fidelis charted the course of one character across this landscape. Spero will chart the course of another character. As you may guess, if the first book took ‘faith’ as one of its primary themes, Spero will take ‘hope’ as one of its primary themes.
Some other themes/events/issues besides ‘hope’ in Spero:
- Courage, Compassion, and Loyalty
- Adolescence
- Father/Son/Masculinity
- Sexual Purity
- Good and Evil
- Namehood
- Worldview/Ideology/Politics
- Ruminations on the Nature of Reality and Truth
- Coincidence and Predestination
- and a bunch of other stuff.
I would invite you to read the extended excerpt of Spero, which you may download in PDF by clicking that link.
Finally, spread the word. The Facebook group for it is located here. I have a couple of review copies available for the worthy blogger. Contact me with your pitch and get yourself an advanced copy.
