PROGENY'S PROMISE

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

This is a really good sci-fi novel...kudos to the author, Kenneth O. Wick. He did a great job joining two major simultaneous problems on Earth into one story. And these are big problems. How about an alien coming down to Earth and telling the POTUS (President of the United States) that the earth is dying and he wants to evacuate several hundred thousand individuals (ten years is the maximum age) to an Earth-like planet. At the same time, the biggest USA oil company and a general in the Air Force want the POTUS to surrender the country over to them. Wouldn’t the POTUS want to blow her brains out? No way, not the first black female President of the United States! Do you see how this story can get addicting? Before I tell you a little bit of the story, I have to say that early on in the novel I was getting confused by all the players in the story. But, by the grace of God, or the author’s ingenuity, there was a list of good guys and bad guys at the book’s end. Luckily, I found that list early on, or this review might have taken on a different face. I also thought that there was too much going on (a very busy story) besides the above mentioned two major problems. Would the nine nuclear capable countries trade bombs so soon after the oil wells hardened? Would any USA general use North Korea (of all countries) to drop nuclear bombs for them? I don’t think so...even if you were trying to overthrow The White House. Anyway, those are my minor kvetches (I had to look hard to find fault) against an otherwise marvelous effort from a excellent storyteller.

The pumping units on the oil fields of ProMax Oil, owned by Colin and Dick Baines, blowup in North Dakota. It seems that the oil in the ground has solidified. Dr. Jessica Mayers (PHD in geophysics), reared by her Uncle Nathan Bishop and the Baines boys after her father was killed in an accident at ProMax, is stunned by what took place. Nathan, the production supervisor, says, “I’ve talked to some other lease operators, they all say the same thing. The oil can’t be pumped. It’s as if something is seizing the pump rods downhole like the oil turned to concrete.” They later find out that it happened all over the world. Meanwhile the reader learns that the oil was solidified on purpose from the first sentient species born after the creation of the universe. They are the Lumiens from the Green Planet circling a star located at the edge of the Great Rift boundary within the Milky Way galaxy. Was this a hostile event? No, according to the Lumien Master Galaxy Steward, Cyrhion. Earth was only four and a half billion years old and dying. Cyrhion knew the reason was that it was the first planet to alter the environmental balance. Cyrhion thought, “Core death is imminent...They are killing their planet.” The Lumien’s Commander Koden was on the Earth’s surface and with his Knights stopped the oil from flowing. Since the only usable oil is whatever’s in the barrels and the oil tankers, the world starts to panic. They know nothing of the aliens at this point. Every country is pointing the finger at each other. What country is making a play for world dominance by controlling the oil supply? Will the nine nations that have nuclear weapons start threatening each other?

In the Oval office, President Elizabeth Hunter asks her Vice President, Joint Chiefs of staff, heads of the NSA and CIA, and some Cabinet Secretaries, “Can someone please explain to me why crude oil can’t be pumped out of the ground?” No one knows. The President says, “Gentlemen, if something doesn’t change soon, anarchy will come marching when the first gas station runs dry.” General Abramson (Air force) was the one person in the room that didn’t say a word. He just stared at the President. President Hunter ask him, “General Abramson, how will this situation affect our Air Force capabilities?” “Ma’am, the Air Force is ready for all emergencies. This grave challenge shall be met and overcome with the might of the Air Force marching ever onward to a glorious victory over evil.” The President and her close advisors have suspected for some time now that he has become involved with some obscure religious sect. When the President asks the General what evil is he talking about, he says, “This is the work of Satan, Madam President. We’re being tested. However, the great Commander of us all shall lead us to victory.” One of the President’s top advisors, Colonel Raymond Tohler, directed a top-secret surveillance operation monitoring an active terrorist faction within the United States Air Force, known as the Dominionists. The majority of Air Force personnel were presumed to be backing the Dominionist leaders. Was General Abramson the leader? If not, who was?

“An large object appeared, hovering twenty feet above the White House South Lawn.” The secret service tried to get the President into the war room bunker. She refused and stepped outside to greet the aliens. In her mind a distant thought creeped in, I am here in peace, for Earth. “A tall, slender being stepped through the hatch, and descended the steps to the White House lawn.” “President Hunter, my name is Cyrhion,” he said in perfect English. “I am the Lumien Master Steward of this galaxy.” He asked her if they could talk over important matters in her Oval office. In the Oval office, surrounded by her National Security team, she was speechless. Her Secretary of Energy, Maxwell Vetters, asked the alien, “Why are you here? What do you mean by steward of this galaxy?” “Mature galaxies, which have nurtured the growth of many life forms, are protected by Lumiens. The embryonic and infant galaxies, after evolving, are given a Lumien steward at what we call first life spark.” Secretary Vetter, trying to grasp the inconceivable enormity of the concept, tried to form words. "I am here because Earth is dying,” Cyrhion said. After a long pause, the room erupted in a chorus of incoherent voices. The President held up her hand. “What do you mean, dying?” she said. Can this man write, or what. This review seems real long, doesn’t it? Well, believe it or not, I’m only up to page 43 of a 407 page novel. I told you in the first paragraph that this was a very busy story...I wasn’t kidding!

I’ll finish my short review (Haha) with Cyrhion’s response to the President’s question on page 43. “Earth’s temperatures are soaring out of control. Her bio systems are shutting down and soon will be unable to evolve in time to correct the imbalances. She will continue the struggle for survival, but when her interior temperatures exceed the critical stage, our data forecasts thirty-five to fifty years from now, the planet will begin expanding at an accelerated rate. The crust and mantle will develop fracture openings along all existing fault structures, and the interior magma will erupt through these fractures, shrinking her atmosphere to a mere veil. Her interior heat will escape to space, the core will freeze and Earth will die.” Wow! Numbing silence passed through the Oval office, except from the suspected mutinous leader of the Dominionist, General Abramson. He said, “What a load of malarkey, God created this planet and all the heavens around us. This planet is a gift to all mankind, to do with as we please, and if there is any need for planet saving to be done, the Lord Almighty shall come forth and replenish his Earth, with goodness and bounty for all his children.” “Hallelujah,” Jeb Henley, the Director of the CIA, said. Is the Director the mole in the White House for the Dominionist? Cyrhion said, “Your God did not create this planet, General, and cannot save it...only I can.”

So my 44 page review comes to an end. I will leave you with the following questions in order to whet your appetite further (if needed). Do the world powers start nuking each other as the oil dries up? Are the Baines brother’s making a play for world dominance? Do the Dominionist mutineers have a thermonuclear bomb? Are they targeting a USA city? Can the Lumiens save the Earth? Or will the nine nuclear capable nations blow up Earth? This is an exciting novel that has to be read to appreciate the creative genius of Kenneth O. Wick. By the way, I thank the author for not getting too technical, that's a beef I have with some authors. The sequel to this novel, Progeny’s Journey, is due out in the fall of 2017.

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: The author wrote such an original novel that it’s hard to compare his work with the work of another writer. The rationale is that most sci-fi invasion novels of Earth are for hostile takeovers. In Progeny’s Promise, the aliens were here to help us save Earth. But I can think of only one story were the invasion is peaceful. It’s the 1951 black and white movie, The Day the Earth Stood Still starring Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal and Sam Jaffe. The film was adapted from Harry Bates’ 1940 short story, Farewell to the Master. Do you remember Michael Rennie as Klaatu and his eight foot tall robot, Gort? Do you remember how it ended?

Klaatu emerges from the saucer and addresses Barnhardt’s assembled scientists, informing them that he represents an interplanetary organization that created a police force of invincible robots like Gort to “patrol the planets in spaceships like this one, and preserve the peace” by automatically annihilating aggressors. In matters of aggression, we have given them absolute power over us. This power cannot be revoked. Klaatu concludes with, “It is no concern of ours how you run your planet, but if you threaten to extend your violence, this Earth of yours will be reduced to a burned-out cinder. Your choice is simple: join us, and live in peace, or pursue your present course and face obliteration.” Klaatu and Gort depart in the spaceship (this synopsis was courtesy of Wikipedia).