The Author

Ian Bar has a bachelor of arts in theater from Cleveland State Uni- versity, where his one-act play, Russian Roulette, was performed as a student production. He received a master of library and information science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and he took master’s level classes in Shakes- peare and the development of West- ern literature at Case Western Reserve University, where his poetry and one-act play were published in a student zine. He has professional experience as a college librarian and an instructor of information literacy standards and English composition.

Ian Bar, whose second book Reptilian Eyes, hit shelves fall 2022. In it, the reader follows the dystopian journey of a complex protagonist, Jimmy, who battles human demons in the form of psychosis and addiction while facing inhuman and intergalactic challenges.

Bar’s work focuses on the individual and societal angst experienced in a postmodern society, where people are overwhelmed by the manufactured distractions and trivialities of the technocratic information age. Reptilian Eyes is the second novel in the Recesses of Heart’s Trilogy that shows how tortured souls, wittingly or unwittingly, seek liberation and transcendence. It also encourages the reader to rediscover their humanity.

In this manuscript, readers will not only find adventure and suspense, but emotional complexities that leave them pondering the themes Bar presents well after the book is closed.

Jimmy gazed into the eyes of Cheryl, Thelonious, and finally, Pythia.

These Reptilians’ eyes, he observed. Stoic by nature. Disciplined by logic. But they telepathically communicate emotional depths that remain unexpressed physically. It is as if all their anger, suffering, joys, and history sweep by like misty memories. They never sneer, grimace, or smile. The allegiance they have for logic and their reverence to sacred text, keep their emotions in check, leaving their passions and sentiments softly gleaming. 

As if reading his mind, Pythia spoke. “We never waste energy telling each other stories about our children or other problems associated with existence. We live silently within our own minds. We know each other’s natures and tribulations without speaking about them. What could words add to that which already afflicts one of us? Does one pick at a scab or sore in the false hope that it will heal by constant agitation?”

“These Reptilian eyes,” Jimmy softly repeated to himself. 

“Come,” Thelonious commanded. “It is time to show you the purpose of your transformation.”