SciFi adventure offers a glimmer of hope

By Nancy Tannler

When Ephraim Weisstein first started thinking about his ideas for a novel in 2010, he assumed he would be the writer. After a hundred pages he decided the outcome would be better if a professional took on the task.

That is how the collaboration between his writer friend Mark Schlack and himself brought us this very thought provoking new SciFi novel, Replay Earth.

Weisstein is a native of New York and spent his middle years teaching high school Social Studies in Boston before following his kids to Portland a few years ago.

While teaching he returned to school to study electronic engineering and molecular biology, immunology and genetics.

His studies over the years delved into research on empathy, behavioral economics, neurology and quantum physics – all subjects that help inform Replay Earth, a story about hope in a world being transformed by climate change.

As a sensitive child of the sixties, Weisstein was aware of the injustices of society and made it his civic duty to become involved. His ongoing involvement and concern about people was one of the biggest reasons Weisstein pursued the complex task of co-writing this novel. His imaginative thoughts and ideas and futuristic inventions make this a story where anything is possible.

The story begins on the east coast in 2048 where the effects of climate change has already made a new coastline. (In recent high profile reports by both the U.S. Government and the United Nations, the devastation that climate change could potentially wreak on the planet is already being discussed.) 

A young man and woman are called upon in their own unique way to help the people of Earth realize the axiom that “we are all in the same holey boat.”

Drawing on a higher power which comes from an advanced civilization of the Guardians, these two young empaths, along with the help of other susceptible humans, start a movement that slowly changes the arc of humanity’s race towards a catastrophic end.

Their adventures take them from running for their lives when a tsunami hits a coastal town where they live; to quantum leaps into a parallel universes to save their lives; to using the power of empathy to squelch a gang war. The story takes place over thirty year time frame.

Meanwhile the Guardians, who were able to save some of their life forms from extinction  through empathic unity, are facing their own demons when the lust for power and greed changes a peace they have known for thousands of years.

The author do an excellent job of navigating the reader back and forth through timelines, dimensions, other worldly experiences, romance, power hungry villains to a wild hope that just maybe humans will listen to their deepest voice and become the change we want to see in the world.

Weisstein and Schlack will be reading from Replay Earth at Another Read Through, 3932 N Mississippi Ave., March 28 at 5:30 pm.  Books may be purchased there as well as Amazon – hard copy, soft and Kindle.

SciFi adventure offers a glimmer of hope

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