Another reader asked why my heroes and heroines always hit bottom before they succeed. Like us, they’re not gifted with superhuman powers. They must confront their limitations and grow and adapt to succeed. In the steadfast pursuit of their mission, their limited human capacities (like all of us) eventually confronts the overwhelming power of their enemy. After defeat, it’s their spirit that rises from failure and continues the fight.
I had some guidance on this from a man named de Merlner that I want to share with you/
The Phoenix (Resurrection and Hope)
From The Diary of Neuchar de Merlner,
Nova Conta, Section 3, Spiritus (Spirit)
It is beyond our fathoming how, beset by the most overwhelming of events, that the human spirit rises from despair to greatness: the selfless martyr who gives their life for others but is sent to the stake, or to the cross, while still blessing us; or the parent who survives the death of their child.
It is why the phoenix is immortal.
And it is why the stories of resurrection are targeted for our hearts, not our heads.
It is because we have all seen this that we know it to be true: that the human spirit can rise again after destruction. This spirit is not some disembodied ghost or mystical entity that touches us. No, it is us, as truly as our hands and our hearts. It is this spirit that animates us: the anima of Latin philosophy; the breath of life or psyche of the Greeks; before science and psychology obscured our view of the universal. And if we allow adversity to conquer us, if we cannot rise from the ashes of spiritual destruction, there is nothing left.
Absent our spirit, we are an empty husk. With it we are lions, and whales, and . . . human beings: not mere biological entities or notations on a phylogenetic tree or collections of psychological descriptions; not mere economic automatons who recreate and breed to optimize evolutionary advantage.
With our human spirit, we are giants that roam the galaxy; that see God in heaven, and a future beyond the stars.
(Nova Conta, Section 3, Spiritus)
© 2026 Benjamin R. Strong, Jr.
Ray
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! News !
Zephyr’s Flight audiobook is live on Amazon for preorder. We’ll have an Amazon preorder and a sample reading available in a few weeks with release on February 24, 2026.
Audiobooks of the next two books in The Dragons’ War series will be released soon. I’ll keep you up to date.
And if you can’t wait for our new releases, here are some interesting reads for you.
Science Fiction/Fantasy/LitPRG
… and of course, our books in the Dragon’s War series.
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