One of the many aspects that I love about Real Estate is the interesting people I have the pleasure of meeting throughout Green Valley, Arizona. Most recently, a listing appointment in Quail Creek turned into a very engaging conversation with a newly published author, Robert Bonville.
Bob has published a historical fiction novel that is a power packed and entertaining spiritual adventure steeped in historical fact: Voyages of Malolo: "The Secret of the Rongo"
According to the author, "the tale is fiction, but it is based on archeological and anthropological evidence and widely accepted theory. “It is an epic adventure that speaks to the will of ancient man to discover, learn and survive in the face of the harshest of conditions. ”
For thousands of years before documented history chronicled the achievements of the great Asian and European seafaring explorers, the world's largest geographical attribute, the Pacific Ocean, was being navigated, explored, and colonized by the intrepid and heroic peoples of the South Seas. For millennia, their migrations eastward and northward from their origins in Asia, allowed them to discover and populate most of the 20,000 islands considered to be one of the last and final frontiers of habitable earth. For reasons of famine, religion, overpopulation, war or just the overwhelming human desire for exploration, these passionate and resourceful people set out on perilous voyages in wooden canoes to find new homes and better lives.
During this period in Polynesian history, countless adventures, myths and legends of tragedy, conquest, cataclysmic natural disasters and exploration were told and retold through oral tradition by the memory keepers down through the generations. In approximately 1000 AD, one such story details the spiritually guided unparalleled epic voyages of a double hulled deep sea sailing canoe and its crew of sixteen courageous loyal men.
Led by a young western Polynesian mariner/warrior who is inspired by his 
discovery of a piece of driftwood, a wooden tablet containing undecipherable but somewhat recognizable hieroglyphic script known to these primitive people as "Rongo." In order to seek out and discover the meaning of the Rongo, the gods directed the creation of a great seagoing canoe appropriately named "Malolo", (the Flying Fish). Built with great care and quality by expert craftsmen and artisans, this beautiful sleek craft was special in every way, built to withstand everything known and unknown that it could ultimately experience once it began its journey. With a crew of skilled, handpicked loyal men they set sail eastward on their momentous quest which takes them completely across the South Pacific to the seemingly endless land mass of South America then northward guided by their myths, legends and visions of those they encounter along the way.
Their heroic adventures including their escape from sacrifice island, their survival of a Tsunami, the revenge of Pele (the fire goddess) and others, describe in historically based detail the wonders, experiences, tragedies, triumphs and discoveries by the men of Malolo during every phase of their voyage including their long and arduous time at sea. For this intrepid crew of ancient mariners the questions remain; will they ever discover the hidden meaning of the wooden tablet according to the will of their gods, will their journey return them once again to their tiny Western Pacific island, and will their epic adventure be worth all their suffering and loss?
Find out for yourself. Click here if you are ready to lose yourself in this historical epic adventure and learn the secret of the Rongo.
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