Stephanie Richards

Lightning Strikes Stephanie Richards

This book tells of unguessed worlds somewhere in the universe and offers extraordinary scenes of heaven, hell, and prebirth. A US spaceship, manned by a captain and twelve crew members of various backgrounds, nationalities, and gender, sets off on a mission to Mars. Unfortunately, long before it gets there, a sudden, violent, unidentified energy propels it off course to an uncharted location in the vacuum of the cosmos. This unexpected diversion is accompanied by pain, giddiness, and other physical sufferings for the travelers, testing their courage, perseverance, and endurance more than a little. At last, with severe jolting, the ship stops literally in the middle of nowhere, and it stays there. Cut off from Earth and locked up within its space vehicle, the crew is surrounded on every side by saving colors of all shades and shapes. Then, quite lost in time and space, the captives witness three levels of being. One, soon dubbed the Dead People's Planet by the voyagers, shows hell itself, a place for punishing sinners and tyrants. Then comes heaven, reserved for good people, who are sustained by spiritual joy. Lastly, the astronauts see a world of prebirth, which is another scenario altogether. In just over ninety pages, the author shows familiarity with diverse worlds, some of which have been heard of but not experienced and some of which turn out unpredictably eventful and extremely exciting. At the same time, the spotlight falls on good, bad, reward, punishment, justice, God's mercy, and fate. The last crew eventually gets back to Earth after twenty years. But a suspicious court of interrogation inquiries why it thinks it has been away for only one year! The Deadly People's Planet is an unusual book that would make an intriguing film.