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NewswireTODAY - /newswire/ -
London, United Kingdom, 2008/09/19 - The eminent Australian psychologist, John Maze (1923-2008), devoted his last years to a work of fiction, the Cassandra Peel series: a mixture of reverie and mythical images to build a fantasy story.
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John Robert Maze was known mainly as a respected professor of the department of psychology at the University of Sydney. At the age of 80, he turned from academic writing to fiction, producing the series Cassandra Peel.
The series comprises of 4 books all written in the last four years of Maze’s life. Now, these represent an interesting and highly emotional legacy the eminent professor – who passed away on 1st June 2008 – has left, giving a glimpse to the artistic side of a very respected personality in the academic Australian community. Maze successfully combines exciting and complex storylines with intelligent characters in the last chapter of the series: Cassandra Peel and the Whispers from Underground. The psychological insight, combined with a vivid imagination, creates a fantasy series that is striking, moving and captivating. Events unfold in an unexpected and explosive mixture of technological expertise, romantic trysts and betrayal going back to the beginning of time.
Apollo, Athena, Ares and other mythological deities join Cassandra in a series of adventures where time looks suspended; past, present and future seem to mingle in a representation of our present time and our current issues.
From the eulogy, his wife Rachel, gave at his funeral: “Unprepared to compromise on the biological foundations of our human nature, John exposed, like Virginia Woolf and Dostoevsky, the falseness of moralism, the brutality underlying patriotism, the possessiveness of romantic love, the conformism, propaganda and censorship of respectability, the narcissism of sentimental or fashionable views of the world and the base self interest of their underlying motives. In his intellectual work, his teaching, his creative writing and in his personal relationships, John fought to the end with grace and courage to give us a framework of human relatedness that [...], he had arrived at out of his own understanding.”
In the last chapter of the series, Cassandra Peel (cassandra-peel.com) and the Whispers from the Underground, Cassandra, Parvati, Pran and Giorgio must solve a new set of problems and escape from the plots of the Olympian deities of Greek Cyberspace. They must decide who they can trust when Cassandra disappears from a drama rehearsal with a handsome stranger, Orville, who seems to understand a bit too much about Greek Mythology. Could Orville really be Orpheus, and where have Orville and Cassandra gone? Who stands to gain from their downfall? How do these events tie in with Sarah Beecham, a teacher at Persephone Hall, being accused of teaching subversive poetry? And what is the role of Ares- Greek God of War, why is he lurking behind the scenes and what does he have to gain if he is orchestrating the chaos?
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