Stephen L Spanoudis

Ethos: So you think you will rule forever? Remember this: Things Change. - Republic of Dreams Stephen L Spanoudis

There would come a time when she would be considered the most dangerous woman in the world, and that is a part of this story, but all lives, and all stories must begin somewhere. This story, in turn, is part of a larger narrative, for one day she will meet Wisdom, and everything will change. Her story begins in Patra, a Greek shipping port, and one of so many cities that changed dramatically when the seas rose seventy years ago and sparked The Last War. Her parents gave her three of the most valuable gifts any parent can give to a child: a sense of purpose, an appetite for learning, and unwavering self-confidence. When they were found dead after a protest against the owner of the local cement company, her entire world vanished overnight. She was devastated, but where other children would have been thrown into shock and depression, her life would follow a very different arc. She vowed that they would have justice and methodically plotted revenge. "For you," she whispered. Even at age nine, Admete Christidou was not a person to trifle with. The same brilliance and determination that made her an exceptional student also made her a fearless and formidable enemy - a fact that her first victim, the owner of the cement company, would never know. Set in the mid-22nd Century, Ethos tells the story of Admete Christidou, and how, with the help of a reformed alcoholic, a small bird, and Solon Metro - a statistics professor who is much more than he seems, she battles to silence a tyrant and inspire a nation. Her efforts become convolved with the Metro family, and she becomes part of the larger struggle that surrounds them - a surreal conflict between Life and Death that is epic in scale, with consequences that ripple across time, and across the planet. Welcome to the Republic of Dreams, where unseen combatants wage a proxy war in a world that is equal parts science, history, metaphor and mystery. Ethos, book five in the series, unlocks the backstories of its intriguing characters. We learn their unspoken secrets and glimpse the hidden forces that cause their lives to collide in ever more unpredictable ways as the dangers that follow them escalate in scale and fury, until it becomes clear that the battles they are fighting, and the forces arrayed for and against them, transcend reality itself.