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Raising Liberty
Overview
The Statue of Liberty is not just an American icon, but also a universal symbol of freedom and a beacon of hope for refugees all over the world. Raising Liberty is a novel of historical fiction based on the true events of sculptor Frederic August Bartholdi and the Statue of Liberty’s epic twenty-five-year journey from conception to dedication.
Facing financial struggles, engineering challenges, and the death of key supporters, only Bartholdi’s courage and determination allowed him to finish the project and make his dream of a colossal monument to liberty a reality in New York harbor. Raising Liberty is a faithful portrait of Bartholdi’s persistence in the face of unrelenting obstacles.
Description
Young French sculptor Frederic August Bartholdi first envisioned a giant monument during his travels to Egypt in the 1850s and 1860s. Inspired by the pyramids, the sphinx, and other monumental works, Bartholdi attempted to convince the Egyptians on at least two occasions to finance his colossal dream. Rejected for lack of funds for such a project, Bartholdi returned to France where his friend—historian and admirer of all things American, Edouard Laboulaye—was working on a project to honor the United States as the world’s shining example of a resilient and permanent democracy after the Union victory in the U.S. Civil War. Hitting on the idea of gifting a huge statue to the Americans, the men enlisted hundreds of key politicians, journalists, and artists on both sides of the Atlantic to help them bring the idea to fruition.
Even with all that help, the job was never going to be easy. Facing financial struggles, engineering challenges, and the death of key supporters, only Bartholdi’s courage and determination allowed him to finish the project and make his dream of a colossal monument to liberty a reality in New York harbor. Raising Liberty is a faithful portrait of Bartholdi’s persistence in the face of unrelenting obstacles. “Hudgens has fun fleshing out the historical context in which his statue came to be, as well as some of the famous figures whose paths intersected with the sculptor’s…An edifying novel about the man who built the Statue of Liberty.” Kirkus Reviews
Saturn
Saturn: The Cassini Division is a fast-paced, cutting-edge novel that will keep you turning pages even as it raises larger questions about the nature of what it is to be human, and the implications of our never-ending push to find the next advancement in human knowledge.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joseph W. Hudgens is a graduate of the Honors Program in English at Memphis State University, now known as the University of Memphis. He is retired from United Parcel Service after a thirty-two-year career, which included assignments in Memphis, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and UPS’s Americas Region in Miami, where he had responsibilities throughout Latin America and the Caribbean in both operations and safety. He is fluent in Spanish, also learned during his years at the finest university in more.
Saturn: The Cassini Division (long description):
More than three thousand years in the future, conservative businessman Victor J. Lugo is the owner and CEO of the solar system’s second largest human gene and stem-cell farming company, based in the Saturn rings. Here Lugo creates and grows personalized human body parts to meet the ever-growing demand of the solar system’s population to maintain youth and immortality. Much to his chagrin, Lugo isn’t one of the solar system’s richest one percent yet, but he’s on the verge of his most successful year ever and just about to upgrade his middle-class condo in Saturn’s A Ring for a high-end mansion in the prestigious Cassini Division, when something suddenly goes terribly wrong.
His newest and largest customer, the military, whose contract is going to put him into the elite club of the super rich, suffers a catastrophic loss when three hundred wounded soldiers from their most elite fighting force die in the hospital after a battle, and the evidence for their death points to flawed replacement organs purchased from Lugo’s company, Human Anatomy Replacement Parts, Inc., HARPI.
Saturn: The Cassini Division follows Lugo’s frantic search to discover the source of the soldiers’ demise. Industrial sabotage by his competition is at the top of Lugo’s list of possible sources of the pathogenic bug that is found to have caused the deaths, but Lugo may have brought the trouble on himself with his recent cost-cutting initiatives. New water sources from the Saturn moon Enceladus might have been infected.
Reviews From Readers
“Saturn: The Cassini Division by Joseph W. Hudgens is a sci-fi thriller full of surprises, twists, and turns that will keep you reading to the last page and wanting more.”
“…one of the best sci-fi thrillers I’ve read.”
“[It] immerses readers in a future that truly qualifies as visionary fiction. It’s a compelling mystery that mixes our current hopes and dreams with our fears for the future in a realistic fashion.”
“The only thing that stopped me reading was necessity! This is a wonderful story that I highly recommend to lovers of visionary fiction, science fiction, and action/adventure. Outstanding book!”
Review by Sherri Fulmer
“The world-building was incredibly well-done in Saturn: The Cassini Division by Joseph W. Hudgens.”
“This is a brilliant story, really interesting and entertaining!”
Review by Rabia Tanveer
“…a great read for fans of science fiction, a story with a setting that is very imaginative.”
“Saturn: The Cassini Division by Joseph W. Hudgens is fast-paced and beautifully written.”
Review by Romuald Dzemo
“A conceptually rich science fiction adventure tale that takes elements of thriller and corporate mystery into its complex and rewarding plot-line.”
“…a sophisticated and adult feel to the tale overall.”
“…an intriguing work that shows plenty of sophistication and will be sure to please casual and hard core science fiction readers alike.”
Review by K.C. Finn