Title: The Guardians: Escape Across Tirgonia
Author: F. Thomas Jones
Publisher: Abbott Press
ISBN: 978-1458211552
Pages: 300
Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy
Reviewer: Anthony Avina

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One of the sad, inescapable truths of humanity is that no matter how hard people try, no matter how much a civilization has evolved, war and violence always find a way of rearing their ugly head. Whether it is because of a need to consolidate power, to control the masses, or a need to prove something to themselves in some misguided journey of self-fulfillment, war and violence find a way of seeping into the collective consciousness every century or so, often at the expense of innocent lives caught in the middle of that conflict, and often without a thought for what started the conflict to begin with.

War is the driving conflict in author F. Thomas Jones’s The Guardians: Escape Across Tirgonia. The epic space opera follows a group of Guardians, otherwise known as humanity, as they attempt to escape from the bloodthirsty Tirgonians after an uneasy alliance between the two worlds is shattered one fateful day. As tension mounts amongst the survivors, the arrival of new survivors leads to new discoveries, and a need to find unique solutions to their problems leads to an uneasy alliance with a Tirgonian defector and their troops as they seek to bulk up their rebellion and face the overwhelming forces of the Tirgonian Empire.

The amount of world-building the author poured into this narrative was astounding. The author didn’t just explore the differences in culture and behavior between the Guardians and the Tirgonians, but allowed the reader to feel the science and technology behind this epic adventure through advanced fighter piloting and technology that scanned for enemy ships, and the movement of ships through space divided between humanity and the Tirgonian Empire as well. The balance the author found in this descriptive and specific sci-fi narrative with relatable, down-to-earth character development as these survivors came together collectively and through their own problems to face this growing threat was almost cinematic in its delivery, such as the Tet-e-Tet that Commander Hops has with the “Three Musketeers” over coffee.

Fans of hardcore science fiction novels, especially space operas and military-focused sci-fi and fantasy novels, will definitely love this narrative. The narrative felt like an ode to stories such as Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and even the more world-building elements of recent hits like The Orville. The cultural evolution of humanity over the centuries and its clash with the Tirgonian Empire are a great introspective look on humanity’s history, and the often one-sided view humans have of a conflict without consideration for the other side or what the people on that side endure at the hands of “their own people,” something explored with the inclusion of the Tirgonian Teka. Action packed and entertaining, this sci-fi epic is one novel fans of the genre will find impossible to put down.