Seventy

Alien ships ravaged the solar system. The newly-terraformed Dauphin represents humanity’s only hope for continued survival. But the terraforming? Not finished yet. Dr. Jeff Koenig and his team of scientist have that under control, though. Seventy days? More than enough time to add the finishing touches to humanity’s newest home. Until disaster strikes, that is, igniting a race against the clock that sends them scrambling for backup—and their lives. A space exploration story about the true spirit of humanity, and what it takes to survive against the odds.

Alicia Ostriker seizes the opportunity to take us where too few poets have been able to take us: into a domain of what our fabulists like to call the “golden years.” as we live longer, we become inevitably curious about the actual texture of these late years, curious about what happens in the soul. Out of that curiosity is a new kind of poetry born, an elderstile that has passion and irony, wisdom, folly, clarity and tenderness. In her keen engagement with the self and the world, Ostriker offers us a voice and a perspective that explore the territory of seventy and beyond.

In the spring of 1928, a Syrian farmer was plowing on the Mediterranean coast near a bay called Minet el-Beida. His plow ran into a stone just beneath the surface. When he examined the obstruction, he found a large man-made flagstone that led into a tomb, in which he found some valuable objects that he sold to a dealer. Little did he know what he had discovered. In April of 1929, C. F. A. Schaeffer began excavation of the tombs, but a month later he moved to the nearby tell of Ras Shamra. On the afternoon of May 14, the first inscribed clay tablet came to light—thus the beginnings of the study of Ugarit and the Ugaritic language. Seventy-five years have passed, and the impact of this extraordinary discovery is still being felt. Its impact on biblical studies perhaps has no equal. In February 2005, some of the preeminent Ugaritologists of the present generation gathered at the Midwest Regional meetings of the American Oriental Society to commemorate these 75 years by reading the papers that are now published in this volume. The first five essays deal with the Ugaritic texts, while the last three deal with archaeological or historical issues.

Merisela, a young woman from a small village in the Yucatan Peninsula, is finding life intolerable in her stepfather’s home. When the danger continues to escalate, she’s finally forced to flee. Soon she finds herself alone and afraid in a country that’s completely unfamiliar to her. Meanwhile in Toronto, Michael, the son of a struggling single mother, feels lost and directionless. Then something terrible happens that threatens to derail him for life. Both Merisela and Michael believed in God as children. But now, they wonder if God is still there. And if so, why does He let bad things happen to good people? As Mike and Merisela battle daunting odds to find their places in the world, their paths cross, and eventually their separate quests for answers lead them to the same Person. A vibrant, emotionally engaging, contemporary Christian romance, Seventy Times Seven is a book about forgiveness, courage, survival and love—the love between a man and a woman, the love of family, and the faithful love of God, the source of all love, for His children.