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STORIES
Kibi and the Search for Happiness
Much adult science fiction is based on the assumption that the human race will be in charge, or at least high up on the pecking order, when we venture to the stars. Young adults have a somewhat clearer memory that when they graduated elementary school, they were not immediately movers and shakers of the world, but instead found themselves in middle school.
Young adults also remember well the training wheels on their first small bicycles. Will-power alone could not propel them to their destinations.
Nebador is about little steps the smallest of us can make from the playpen to the university, from the gutter to the stars.
As you know, your world is changing very rapidly. During times of change, those who are stuck in old, rigid ways of thinking and feeling often don't do well. Those who can see far and think clearly are best prepared to survive, prosper in some way, and find happiness.
Stories like these help by letting us walk in the shoes of those who have lived through similar times. They become our heroes, giving us strength when we face challenges, and whispering their inspiration to us when we must solve problems.
Someday, many years from now, your stories may also be told, and you will become heroes to younger people who are struggling to understand the universe. They will take comfort in your courage, and learn from the lessons you have already learned.
J. Z. Colby
2010
Greeting from the Deep Learning Notes,
As you must know by now, Nebador is much more than just an entertaining story. The particular Muse who inspired the author was obviously concerned about young adults in the early twenty-first century who are about to inherit a very different world than their parents knew. That world will have many fewer "safety nets," and those who have not sharpened their wits and honed their skills may find themselves struggling.
The Nebador stories contain many wit-sharpening and skill-honing lessons and situations, and the author has provided the questions and comments in this book for any reader who wants to learn as much as possible from the same Muse. Some may be useful to all readers, and others are best tackled by advanced students familiar with psychology, sociology, and politics. All readers and teachers must pick and choose for themselves.
The web site contains other useful resources, such as the author's collection of fallacies and other thinking errors, the many situations in which our minds can't handle reality. The author will respond to any thoughtful question related to the Nebador stories.
J. Z. Colby
Greetings from NEBADOR Book Two: Journey,
In NEBADOR Book One: The Test, we met a young ship's captain, Ilika from Satamia in Nebador. After arriving in a medieval kingdom, he revealed that his final test, as a new captain, was to find and train his own crew. He looked for them in many places, but finally discovered they could only be found among the young and spirited slaves (with one exception) who had lived through more than their share of misfortune and hardship.
To identify his potential crew members, he had to figure out how to test many illiterate slaves and one innkeeper's daughter. The group then had to find a way out of the medieval walled city with political, psychological, and physical dangers on their heels. The "test," therefore, took place on many levels.
The author trusts that those who hate learning and growing quit somewhere in the middle of Book One, just as Kodi quit, and have not bothered to get this book. That leaves more books and more adventures for the rest of us.
Although they walk the same roads, the "journey" in Book Two is different for each of the characters, just as it is different for each reader. But something about a journey, of one kind or another, seems to be necessary for people to make leaps forward in their growth.
Even though we don't yet know much about Ilika's ship, it is obviously no place for children. The young adults who will become Ilika's crew are leaving childhood far behind. The Muse keeps whispering to the author that many young readers will soon be forced by events in the world to do the same, sometimes long before they might like.
J. Z. Colby
Greetings from NEBADOR Book Three: Selection,
In NEBADOR Book One: The Test, Ilika of Satamia in Nebador arrived in a medieval kingdom with the purpose of finding a crew for his ship. He selected ten students, nine spirited young slaves and one innkeeper's daughter. One of the students did not understand that teamwork requires trust, and quickly landed back in slavery. Ilika did not, at first, understand how many of the taboos of that society he was breaking, and he and his remaining students were forced to use dark and dangerous ways to escape the walled city.
In NEBADOR Book Two: Journey, their bodies, hearts, and minds were tested by nature, personal demons, and human relationships. They came to the first mountain pass transformed, hardly recognizing the people they once were.
Although the journey is not yet over, the travelers have been sorely tested. Strengths and weakness have emerged, some not even known, before the journey, to those who own them. Ilika is getting a pretty good idea of who will make good crew members -- and who will not. The students, also, are seeing who will stand at their sides through thick and thin, and who will run away scared.
By the end of Book Two, it is a rare young reader who is not seeing part of themselves in one of the students. They might be relating to the strength growing in Sata as she discovers that the universe can be deadly and friendly at the same time. They might be admiring Boro's down-to-earth wisdom and understanding of all things physical, like chemistry and geology. Or they might be trembling a bit, along with Miko, as he wonders what makes a good leader, and why the skill eludes him. Or they might be walking in Buna's shoes as she struggles to learn math and logic.
Although the journey of life can be challenging, we all get through it, one way or another, whether it is short or long. Other tests and challenges, however, are designed by the mysterious powers of the universe so that we cannot all pass. No matter how much we might want to be on the team, we cannot all make the selection.
J. Z. Colby
Greetings from NEBADOR Book Four: Flight Training,
In NEBADOR Trilogy One, Ilika of Satamia attempted to educate ten youth from a medieval kingdom, hoping to find a crew for his mysterious ship. One student quickly returned to the comfort of slavery, a system he understood. Another jumped before he looked once too often, and left behind the love of his life. She could not bear to be alone, and was soon in the arms of a young man far too smart to do the growing he needed to do. Finally, one was called by love and the gentle animals of the Earth.
After spending months imagining sails and a wooden deck, Ilika's five new crew members departed the kingdom of their birth in a deep-space response ship of the Nebador Transport Service. Their destination: Satamia Star Station.
They will soon learn that the road to the star station is neither short nor easy. Countless lessons must be learned on the ground, in the air, and on water. Often their minds are eager, but their bodies are not ready to follow. Sometimes progress is only possible because of their strong bonds of friendship.
But their biggest challenge comes from an unexpected source, as a calling of the heart fools both the young captain and his inexperienced crew.
Any reader who is sure that going into space will be push-button easy, and that we can take all our human myths and problems with us, has probably left the Nebador stories behind long ago. Books Four and beyond are especially for those youth, and a few young-at-heart, who are not afraid of the hard work -- physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual -- that comes with any grand, life-changing, soul-building adventure.
J. Z. Colby
Greetings from the Deep Learning Notes, 2011,
NEBADOR Trilogy One is behind you. Hopefully, you learned many things, from the electromagnetic spectrum to emergency rope techniques, from need-driven communications to trigonometry, from quantitative logic to the ethics of leadership transfer.
But all that was just the appetizers. The five new crew members of the Manessa Kwi may have taken a very large step outside their culture, but it was still just a step. Now it's time to get serious, time to spread wings and fly.
The Muse, who whispers to the author and wants young adults to sharpen their wits and hone their skills, is quickly being joined by many wise human voices. Although they don't often agree on the details of what is upon our future-horizon, one theme comes through clearly: the excesses and entitlements of the 20th century are not sustainable.
In NEBADOR Book Four and Book Five, the new crew of the little ship learns that they must clean up their own messes. The Nebador Transport Service may watch over them, but no help remaining stuck in childhood will be forthcoming.
As always, the author will respond to any thoughtful question related to the NEBADOR stories.
J. Z. Colby
Greetings from NEBADOR Book Five: Back to the Stars,
This grand, life-changing, soul-building adventure continues as the new crew of the deep-space response ship Manessa Kwi heads for interplanetary space. Will Satamia Star Station await them, just around the corner? Of course not. Those readers looking for quick and easy left the Nebador stories behind, probably several books ago. Those of you about to sink your minds into this book are made of sterner stuff.
Space separates the children from the grown-ups. Your age doesn't matter. If you are nine, and you are aiming your life toward standing on your own two feet and dealing with hard, cold reality, you are leaving childhood behind. One of the critiquers who helped make these stories possible started at age eight.
Interplanetary space is like the twenty feet of air that separates the bird nest, where the little birdies must first spread their wings, from the ground, where cats await their next meal. In interplanetary space, we will grow up or die.
But beware the temptation to gaze at the stars and planets too much. The first step into space starts on the ground, on the good fertile soil of planet Earth. We visited our moon in 1969 and the early 1970s, but have not been back, and have not done much else in space, because our "house" is not yet in order. We knew, in the 1970s, that energy and other resources would soon run short, and we decided, as a whole people and a whole planet, to ignore the warnings and do nothing.
The crew of the Manessa Kwi will see and understand many things as they journey outward from their original home to the stars. If you, young readers, have your eyes open, you will learn much from their journey, perhaps more than many people learn in a lifetime.
J. Z. Colby
2010
2010
2010
2011
2011
2011
Previews
Book One:
The Test
Spring 2010
Book Two:
Journey
Summer 2010
Book Three:
Selection
Fall 2010
Book Four:
Flight Training
Spring 2011
Book Five:
Back to the Stars
Fall 2011
Book Six:
Star Station
Summer 2012
Book Seven:
The Local Universe
2013
Book Eight:
Witness
2014
Copyright © 2009-2012
by J. Z. Colby
unless otherwise attributed