New Indie Book Release: Crystal Ships (Richard Sharp)

New Indie Book Release:
Crystal Ships - Richard Sharp
Historical Fiction (364 Pages - November 22, 2013)

Crystal Ships is a sweeping saga of American idealism and disillusionment following the lives of seven individuals as they struggle to find their place amidst the tumultuous 1960s and 70s. It is deeply immersed in the political and military context, social turmoil and popular culture of the era.

The Release is scheduled for November 22 to honor the 50th remembrance of the JFK assassination (a major event in the novel).

About the Book

Click to Read an Excerpt

A sweeping saga of American idealism and disillusionment, Richard Sharp’s exquisite Crystal Ships traces the lives of seven friends through two decades of violence, hope, and cultural change. Sharp spins an epic tale that starts back in the heady days of the Kennedy administration, when Camelot appeared as a shining beacon of hope for all Americans. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy shatters that optimism.

As the years tick on, riots, more assassinations, drugs, gender conflicts, and the Vietnam War escalations come crashing into the country’s consciousness.The killings of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy in 1968, accompanied by personal tragedies, become a pivotal point in the protagonists lives.

Seven very different individuals live out their lives against the backdrop of these monumental events, unwittingly encapsulating the spirit of the time. The cast of male and female characters includes three men—a youthful striver from Boston’s Irish working class inspired by JFK, a Harvard-educated would-be poet of the drug culture, and a dedicated Vietnam War volunteer. Their four female counterparts are a rebellious and defiant dancer seeking to overcome sexual abuse, her repressed friend bound to pre-feminist conventions, a conflicted housewife-career woman, and a South African exchange student seeking the American dream. Their fallibility is sometimes humorous sometimes tragic. Each individual carries the burden of the times. Each seeks reconciliation with the traumas of that difficult era and new aspirations to carry them forward.

Crystal Ships may be seen as companion piece to Sharp’s prize-winning novel, The Duke Don’t Dance (See Book Feature on Indie Author News). That was an impressionistic portrait of the generation that lived through the Cold War period, told in a style one reviewer described as "Evelyn Waugh with a claw hammer." Crystal Ships is a dissection of the time period itself, ultimately standing as a novel for an era that is breathtaking in scope.

Link to the eBook Crystal Ships on Amazon 

About the Author

Author Richard Sharp

Richard Sharp earned a BA from Harvard as well as a Masters Degree from Princeton, launching a career as an international development consultant before recently retiring.His work throughout the US and in over four dozen countries provides authentic settings for his fictional work.

He is the author of Jacob’s Cellar, Time is the Oven, The Duke Don’t Dance, and his most recent novel, Crystal Ships. His publications have garnered him multiple accolades, including a Kirkus Star and place on the Kirkus Best Self-Published Book list (2013), the an Independent Publishers gold medal for Best Adult Fiction E-Book (2014), a finalist finish in the ForeWord Clarion Firsts (2012) and Reader’s Favorite (2012) categories, and even a Deane Ritch Lomax Poetry Award for an extract from Crystal Ships. Sharp is married with two adult children and lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Connect with Richard Sharp via the Author's Website
and Twitter: @Richard_G_Sharp