BEYOND CLOUD NINE

The author sent me a copy of his novel to review:

Greg Spry’s maiden attempt at a space opera went better than I expected. I thought the first 75-100 pages were a tad slow, but as the story developed, those pages were needed to somewhat blossom the characters. Too often authors have the urge to jump into the action without augmenting the dramatis personae of the novel. This results in zero empathy for anyone in the novel. I’m not saying that the author didn’t jump right into the action, but somehow he did it while still maturing the main characters, if that makes any sense to you. Good job, Greg! I also liked the fact that the space jargon did not put the reader to sleep. The reader is given enough understanding of the technology of the year 2247 without blowing out the circuits of his/her brain. Does he need to improve his prose? Of course. But this being his debut novel leaves the author plenty of time to improve on his descriptive writing, which was a little weak in this novel. Another minor problem with the novel was the racial discrimination that our heroine, Brooke Davis, was supposed to have experienced in school because she was half Japanese and half Caucasian. I’m sure that 231 years from now all discrimination problems would be solved by interracial marriage. By then, I think the average human being will be tan in color with a hint of Asian eyes. Say goodbye to discrimination except for the aliens that eventually appear in this novel (Area 51 look-a-likes). Okay, what’s this novel about?

It’s the year 2247 and we meet our heroine, Brooke Davis, a U.N. aerospace defense pilot. She is assigned to the Jovian system and lives on one of Jupiter’s moons, Callisto. It’s a world of robots (bots) that do numerous chores for the human race, including flipping pancakes. Lt. Brooke, while on a U.N. spacecraft carrier, gets a call to action. Someone (most likely the pesky Separatists) are attacking a water distillation plant on the moon Europa. The Separatist have grievances with the U.N. government and are causing trouble throughout the universe. Do they want to secede from the U.N.? Because they are not included in the U.N.’s advanced communications system among many other reasons? Anyway, Lt. Davis and another pilot take off from the carrier in their Starthroat jets to help the people of Europa. When Lt. Davis and her partner land on the moon, she is stunned, because parked by the water plant are two U.N. Starthroats and one Separatist Tri-fighter. What’s going on? When she gains entrance into the plant, she finds all 214 workers are killed. She gets into a gun battle with the three intruders and remembers two of them as U.N. turncoats, who have been missing for some time. The third is tall and unfamiliar. Is he an alien? The three have set a bomb to go off and Lt. Davis barely escapes before it blows. The result...50,000 dead on Europa. The Chinese Separatist claim responsibility, but who was that tall (man?) dressed in white?

Meanwhile in Chicago, an explosion goes off at the Revitalization Center and kills mostly children in an assassination attempt on the U.N. Secretary-General Danuwa Ajunwa, who was giving a speech. Lt. Davis’s twin sister, Marie, was covering the event as a local reporter. Her report on the assassination attempt is met with merit in the local area. She wants to be assigned to the Advanced Propulsion Research Center where the FTL (faster than light) experiments are going on. Simultaneously, Lt. Davis (temporarily relieved of active duty) is sent home by General Douglas after her conflict on Europa. Lt. Davis, who hasn’t seen her sister in six years, visits her twin sister and her daughter, Maya, in Chicago. Marie gets her way and acquires the assignment to the Dryden Propulsion Center for The FTL conference (and she has a ticket for Lt. Davis). Marie interviews Prof. Kevin Sommerfield, the main man in the project, but he seems to be infatuated with her sister in the background. The U.N. Security Council President, Ed Collins, notices Lt. Davis in the background and decides to interview her. She tells him that she wants to fly the maiden voyage of the FTL ship. She is accepted into the program. Marie gets a bigger job for The Tribune. Things are looking good for the twins. While Lt. Davis was in training, a four-star general suspends training and says, “It is with great regret that I announce the U.N.’s decision to suspend this candidacy program indefinitely.” “This may be hard to believe,” the general said, “but a more pressing matter has come up, one that requires every able pilot to return to active duty.” What happened now?

Brooke Davis, now a captain, heads to Saturn. The moon Titan is under attack. The attack was on the colony’s hydrocarbon refinery. What’s going on? Captain Davis finds some surviving children and asks what happened, “Tall, skinny creatures in white space suits...They fired these powerful beams that dissolved people. The adults got us into suits. They told us to hide and tried to fight, but none of them survived.” After many ensuing inexplicable events happen, Captain Davis is confused as to what is occurring. She asks Ed Collins of the U.N., “In the Artemis reactor hold, I met a supposed exobeing who looked more or less human. He - I think it was a he - spoke to me in English. He was with two Defense pilots who I served with before they transferred out to Base HOPE, and when I confronted them, they tried to kill me.” “Sir, how can our people be working with the same extrasolar invaders who are attacking us? And why did the U.N. blow up the water plant and frame the separatists for the death of fifty thousand people?” Wow, what a question. What is going on...is the U.N. working with the aliens? Is Captain Davis correct? The second half of this avant-garde novel is exceptional. The last 200 pages are hard to foresee. Super exciting ending. Other than the flaws that I mentioned in the first paragraph, this was a excellent maiden novel by Greg Spry. Do I recommend this novel? Does Dolly Parton sleep on her back?

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment: Space operas are defined by being played-out mainly in outer space. So what are my favorites? I’m glad you asked. I checked out best-sci-fi-books.com for their favorite space operas and I picked out a few favorites of mine:

Dune (1965) by Frank Herbert, “Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Muad ‘ Dib.”

Ender’s Game (1985) by Orson Scott Card, “Criticized for its violence (and possibly popular because of it), Ender’s Game show children on a military space station, training for the war against the evil alien Buggers.”

Rendezvous with Rama (1973) by Arthur C. Clarke, “An uncontested sci-fi-classic, Rendezvous with Rama is also one of Clarke’s best novels, winning the Campbell, Hugo, Jupiter and Nebula Awards.”

Wow, I read all three...As Tony the Tiger would say, “They’re Gr-eatt!”