From the Author: About Phantom Squadron
I'll be honest with you. I didn't think in the beginning that Phantom Squadron would balloon to what it's become.
The origins of Phantom Squadron come from one of the darkest periods of recent American history, the 9/11 attacks. As more and more news started coming out about the attacks, about who was responsible and our response, it began to mix in my mind with some of the oddest things. One of these was a favorite anime series of mine, The Slayers. Picturing a group of fantasy characters working for the U.S. government as soldiers was the basic idea of the story ... it evolved from there initially into a 92-page screenplay for a film which, if you're familiar with the books' storyline, chronicled the Jerzaan mission and Cole Sharpe's integration into the team.
Two of the characters, the Guardsman and Ariel, had been cooking in my mind since I was a teenager. Of the two, Ariel is the oldest, stemming from a superhero idea I'd had for a girl hero whose power was growing into a dragon. The Guardsman came from a knight character created for a school art project. The other characters, though ... Cyrus and Kitty kind of generated themselves out of the ether when I decided the team needed four members.
There's some things you probably notice about the series that tend to defy what you expect from fantasy series. The knight/dragon relationship is turned completely around. Actual world mythologies and religious traditions are integrated into one massive, cohesive supernatural world. Initially there is great attention paid to military strategies and protocols. In the later books, what you read is a writer trying to cope with what his country has become, and making his own commentary on society.
Above all, though, there's three ideals that have a great amount of power in the Phantom Squadron world:
Honor: among friends and adversaries alike, there should always be a sense of honor. Loyalty, kindness, and mercy are the highlights of this ideal, which are demonstrated by the heroes, which along with the flaws and the qualities of their personalities makes them a lot like the reader.
Family: in the later books particularly, family is of great importance. The bonds between parents and daughters, between grandparents and grandchildren, no matter the severity of their tests, remain strong. No bond in this world is quite the same as this one.
Love: the one thing in this world that has the power to even transcend death. Love between family is one way of showing this. Love between partners, between souls destined to be together, is the other.
Look between the lines of the series, and you'll see these three ideals demonstrated on a regular basis. I hope that on some level these ideals are important to you, the reader, as important as they are to me.
Enjoy the books, and the site.
-----Don A. Martinez, September 2012
The origins of Phantom Squadron come from one of the darkest periods of recent American history, the 9/11 attacks. As more and more news started coming out about the attacks, about who was responsible and our response, it began to mix in my mind with some of the oddest things. One of these was a favorite anime series of mine, The Slayers. Picturing a group of fantasy characters working for the U.S. government as soldiers was the basic idea of the story ... it evolved from there initially into a 92-page screenplay for a film which, if you're familiar with the books' storyline, chronicled the Jerzaan mission and Cole Sharpe's integration into the team.
Two of the characters, the Guardsman and Ariel, had been cooking in my mind since I was a teenager. Of the two, Ariel is the oldest, stemming from a superhero idea I'd had for a girl hero whose power was growing into a dragon. The Guardsman came from a knight character created for a school art project. The other characters, though ... Cyrus and Kitty kind of generated themselves out of the ether when I decided the team needed four members.
There's some things you probably notice about the series that tend to defy what you expect from fantasy series. The knight/dragon relationship is turned completely around. Actual world mythologies and religious traditions are integrated into one massive, cohesive supernatural world. Initially there is great attention paid to military strategies and protocols. In the later books, what you read is a writer trying to cope with what his country has become, and making his own commentary on society.
Above all, though, there's three ideals that have a great amount of power in the Phantom Squadron world:
Honor: among friends and adversaries alike, there should always be a sense of honor. Loyalty, kindness, and mercy are the highlights of this ideal, which are demonstrated by the heroes, which along with the flaws and the qualities of their personalities makes them a lot like the reader.
Family: in the later books particularly, family is of great importance. The bonds between parents and daughters, between grandparents and grandchildren, no matter the severity of their tests, remain strong. No bond in this world is quite the same as this one.
Love: the one thing in this world that has the power to even transcend death. Love between family is one way of showing this. Love between partners, between souls destined to be together, is the other.
Look between the lines of the series, and you'll see these three ideals demonstrated on a regular basis. I hope that on some level these ideals are important to you, the reader, as important as they are to me.
Enjoy the books, and the site.
-----Don A. Martinez, September 2012