As the Big Bang was forged out of the mists of the time-space continuum, a radiant new dawn emerges on the horizon of the science fiction world. Deborah Pratt’s “The Vision Quest: The Age of Light” is a fitting title for an exemplary work, a mind-bending creative explosion from a gifted writer who, with seeming effortless ease, fuses the power chords of classic futurist canon with narrative, romance and emotion reminiscent of Tolkien and Frank Herbert’s “Dune.” Add to this her uncanny knack for grasping the conflicting inner turmoil of a teenage boy hero, Cole Lazerman (a.k.a Lazer), who’s raging hormones fuel his white hot desire for revenge against the murderous Black Guard bio-droids … as well as his intoxicating love and lust for Elana Blue, the almost too-perfect woman of his dreams. 

Within this wholly fantastical Earth of the “near future” populated with genetically-mixed animal, insect and marine-life “splicers’ — SFX ingredients that would make Hollywood moguls in search of a blockbuster drool — Pratt then injects her page-turner with delicious chunks of scientific techno-babble to satisfy the pickiest palate of the “geek chic” crowd. 
Example: “Needing an amino strand that couldn’t be destroyed, Covax borrowed viral strands diluted from the original I. L. virus. They produced RNA and thrived in high temperatures. The machinery acted liked incubators …and from it the biodroids were created — machines with a biological brain.” 

But don’t be fooled. The author, a former sit-com actor and award-winning TV writer (“Quantum Leap”) is fully aware of what titillates a universal audience. Thus we are introduced to the Universal God (not unlike “the force”), the mysterious all-powerful Masta Poe (more beguiling than Yoda) and the Harvard of cool tech-meets-Zen schools, Tosadae University … an eye-candy playground that would give Hermoine Granger and Harry Potter a run for their magic. 

The good and bad news? It’s Book One of a trilogy. The Byzantine machinations of good and evil forces are thrillingly set into motion. Smaller heart-pounding skirmishes evolve to battles that lead to the inevitable war just as Lazer begins to know he is blessed with a special power that may or may not be the key to out-witting and out-evolving the now-sentient biodroid mastermind Five, a delectably complex and sinister Cyborg with the ability to alter his atomic particles back and forth like liquid to create horrific human features on his “face.” 

Save your first-printed edition. It will no doubt have value as a collectible in the future land of Atlantia … along with the four otherworldly gnorbs that hold the key to saving humanity and our mutant offspring.