When I started writing The Ryo Myths, I had no idea that Captain Eri would become the character I would aspire to be. The Ryo Myths takes place in space. There are aliens, gods with unlimited powers, people with super human strength, and then there is Captain Eri. She’s a ringer, a human with wings, but her wings are damaged, and she can’t fly. Out of all of the characters in The Ryo Myths, Captain Eri is technically the one with the greatest disadvantage. She is the most human of everyone.

Which is why I like her. She can’t rely on magic or godly powers to get herself out of the mess she’s in. On top of that, she’s suffered terribly at the hands of someone she once loved. In other circles she’d be called a victim, but I didn’t want her to be that. I wanted her to be a survivor.

Right now, ‘strong female characters’ are in – the Katniss Everdeen. Don’t get me wrong, I love The Hunger Games, but what people misconstrue from Katniss is that in order to be a ‘strong female’ one has to be constantly kicking physical ass. This is great, and I have no problem reading and watching things about women who are just out there dominating (River Tam, anyone?), but being a strong woman doesn’t mean simply laying waste to the competitors. It means dealing with the emotional baggage.

Captain Eri has moments where she breaks down. Things get messy. She has the opportunity to make some really bad decisions which one wouldn’t blame her for making, but instead of collapsing into hysterics or puffing her chest out and tough guying her way through an emotional battle field, she slows down and allows herself to fail.

And I love that. Captain Eri fails, and from those failures, she succeeds. She’s not perfect. She’s not impervious to tears. She’s not afraid to f*#! people up when they need it. She takes in the wreck that is her life and pulls herself back to her feet. She falls at times, but she never gives up, and I can only hope that when I need that kind of strength in my own life, I can do as well as Captain Eri.

Filion felt safe in his role as a Dream Searcher. He was paid to venture into other’s dreams and exert influence over individuals whom he would never meet in the flesh.

But that was until he received The Summoning. Filion has been called to track down and protect Ryo, the last of the Chozen. She is the only hope of preventing a tide of evil driven by the Afortiori and the prospect of universal slavery if they aren’t stopped.

Time is ticking and Filion has no idea of how to find Ryo let alone how to protect her, yet destinies of planets rest in her hands. Enlisting the help of a rag-tag band of mercenaries, Filion will set out to search the wastes for Ryo. Together they will confront an evil whose power they just might have fatally underestimated.

I was a natural flier, I could take a punch, and I was smarter than most. Within five years I was a full-fledged pilot. On my last assignment, I was Master Pilot Eri Everfar, commanding pilot of a class B Federal war ship, the Seeker, and that’s where I met him, Drakier Lu…

Filion and his new friends have escaped Bok and are stuck in an asteroid field that isn’t supposed to exist. They’ve almost run out of fuel, their water supply is seriously depleted, all of their food has been destroyed, and the girl they’d just risked everything to save, Ryo, is dead.

Captain Eri’s former lover, Drakier Lu, has been promoted to Master Commander of the entire Federal Fleet, and his assignment is to find and capture the Dark Horse. Captain Eri has been identified as a Tiori, and she and her associates have just become the Federation’s most wanted. Things aren’t what they seem though, and the line between good and evil blurs as the players’ true motivations come to light.

Filion and the crew return, traveling the galaxy and dodging the Federation and the Tioris, all the while searching for a rogue planet that may or may not be harboring the one person who can save them all…

When I was on Lamu, I inhaled an Afortiori’s vileness. That blackness will be what allows me to win. I will use their own evil against them. Because of this I am tainted. I am but a degree different from what I fight, but in that degree, hangs the balance between universal slavery and Free Will.

Having fled from Lamu only moments before its destruction, Filion and his friends find themselves hiding in the shadows as the Federation and the Afortiori mobilize against their worst enemy, The Etulosba and its crew. The Etulosba, Ryo, plans for her final battle. She was engineered to fight for Free Will, but to win that war, she will have to become what no Chozen was meant to be – an Afortiori. Caught in Ryo’s wake, Captain Eri is torn between leading her crew and confronting Drakier Lu, her former lover and torturer. Will she be able to overcome what he did to her, or will she fail, thereby becoming what he made her and letting down Ryo, her crew, and ultimately, the universe? Filion and the crew return in the final installment of The Ryo Myths. Join them as they begin a journey that not all of them will survive.

Enjoy an excerpt from The Degrees of Destiny:

Initially, she’d thought the energy transfer had been temporary. Then she’d tortured Teeive instead of killing him, and now she realized the true cost of what she’d done. Some of his energy lived on inside of her. She hadn’t foreseen that. Inhaling Teeive’s energy had been like filling a suitcase with sand. She’d dumped out most of the sand, but grains of it remained, and they were expanding. She could feel the cold, calculating, psychopathic tendrils of Afortiori vile spreading and threatening to overtake her body. It wasn’t a battle she was sure she could win, but it might be what won her the war.

“I held that evil inside of me,” Ryo continued. “It powered me. I became high on its force. Then it left but not all of it. Some of it still lives within me.” She stood and faced Wiq. “I cannot fight this war without it.” She stood and faced Wiq. “I cannot fight this war without it. That blackness will be what allows me to win. I will use their own evil against them. Because of this I am tainted. I am but a degree different from what I fight, but in that degree, hangs the balance between universal slavery and Free Will. You and I, we have fought over Free Will, we have fought for Free Will, but we have never had Free Will. Captain Eri must exercise her Free Will because to me, she is everything that those words mean. If she does that, I can stay on the side of the right. I can fight this blackness and use it to save her. If she denies it though, or if she dies…”

Ryo looked at her hands. They flashed and became translucent. Wiq could see Ryo’s veins. As Wiq watched, a shadow spread through Ryo’s blood, darkening it to black.

“This vileness inside of me is not static. It pushes. It grows. I fight it, but I’m fighting on all fronts. She is my hope. She is my faith. She is what keeps this blackness at bay. She must not fail, or we all die.”

About the Author:

Perrin is the author of The Ryo Myths, a sci-fi/fantasy trilogy that has been heralded to engage both nerds and non-nerds alike. Check out her books on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. When not writing, Perrin enjoys drinking coffee and swimming, although usually not at the same time.

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